[Danny]

aww, c'mon guys! do i not deserve replies?

must have lost some of this, too...

here's two chapters, but mo more until i get replies!

CHAPTER 3

I was woken some time later by a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey… Wake up!”

I sat up, to see the mud that had been asleep leaning over me. An unfamiliar mud lay in the rags, watching me.

“What…?”

“Have some food. You must be hungry; you haven’t eaten since you came here, two days ago.”

I looked at the bowl before me. It was unclear what it was. It was mostly brown, with lumps of black and green in it. It had no smell. I looked up at the mud standing over me.

The mud lying in the rags laughed. “He’s mad, Vint. He doesn’t understand a word you’re saying! He doesn’t even know he has to eat!”

“Shut up!” The one referred to as Vint turned back to me. “Ignore him. Eat.”

I stared into the bowl for a few seconds more, and then picked something amorphous out of the bowl. I realised I was indeed hungry, and crammed it into my mouth, greedily. As I reached into the bowl for more, Vint turned to his companion and smiled.

“You see?”

The other mudokon didn’t seem impressed. “So he can eat. Great. Another mouth to feed!”

Vint turned back to me. “Ignore Yan, he’s a bit of a cynic. Don’t worry, he’s secretly as nice a guy as anyone.”

“Ooh, glad I have your approval.”

There was a silence. I decided to try and speak, but my mouth was dry. “Who… Where… Where’s the other?”

Vint looked confused for just a brief second. “You mean Ulp? It’s his shift hunting for food.” He must have seen something in my expression that I hadn’t intended to show, because he put on a concerned expression. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Ulp’ll grumble, but he won’t slit your throat or anything.”

I wanted to know why they were helping me, but at that moment, as I crammed the tasteless food into my mouth, it just didn’t seem important.

CHAPTER 4

I spent a couple of weeks with Vint and the others. As a group of four, our shifts were slightly different to everyone else’s. At any one time, one of us was asleep, one on guard, and two searching for food. This system worked quite well, and we had quite a bit more food than some of the other groups [although still less than I had been used to, even as a slave]. As a result of this, we often had to defend our footstock from other drifters. Ulp apparently sulked for about a day when he discovered that Vint and Yan wanted to let me stay, but eventually he grudgingly conceded that they were better off with more members.

It was Ulp that I was usually drawn to search with, for food. I think this may have been Vint trying to bring us closer. It sort of worked, I developed a respect for his skill, and he agreed to teach me some of the best places to find food. Most of them were obvious, like domestic bins and out behind fast-food joints. However, on my own I would never have thought of going to the duk ponds to steal their bread. It even surprised me that there were any duk ponds, as Cyrcit was mainly a Glukkon city: most of the buildings were industrial, and the housing was very functional [on the outside, that is; I know from experience that no expense is spared on interior decoration among Cyrcit’s Upper Classes]. I became quite adept at finding food, and usually had no trouble sleeping, especially after the semiconscious wanderings of the previous few days.

Except for one night, near the end of my second week. I was meant to be sleeping, while Yan kept watch, but for some reason I was unable to drift off. I found myself thinking, which was something I’d tried to avoid. I began wondering why I’d killed Zell, in the end. I had thought this several times previously, but I had always suppressed it. This time I let the thought grow, to see if I could come to a conclusion. I thought about the situation of that night, and I remembered my dream. I tried to run through my thought processes. But, just like every time, before or since, I was unable to come to a conclusion. I returned to reality, to find Yan looking at me.

“Can’t sleep?”

I shook my head, and he came to sit beside me.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of time to sleep. It’s not like there’s much to do when we’re awake. We all have sleepless nights, just don’t worry about it.”

We sat together in silence for a while, thinking our own thoughts. After a few minutes, Yan turned to me again.

“What happened?”

I looked at him, uncomprehendingly. “What?”

“Most of the ones who arrive in a daze, like you, have had some kind of trauma.”

I wondered if I should lie, but I couldn’t be bothered to think of anything. “I killed him.”

Yan didn’t seem to be as bothered as I thought he would be. “Your Master?”

I nodded. “Zell.”

That surprised him a little. “That Doctor? That was all over the news. It was pretty gruesome. That was you?”

I nodded.

“Fair play to you, then! Did you not hear about the execution?” I shook my head. “They got some poor drifter to use as a scapegoat. It was a big event. Maybe you were asleep, I can’t remember.”

My mouth was dry. “Zell deserved a proper investigation.”

Yan looked at me as if I was mad. Which I quite possibly was. “What are you on about?”

“I liked him.”

He looked at me in disbelief. “You liked him? But you were his slave!”

“He wasn’t so bad. I’ve had worse.”

“Why did you kill him, then?”

I didn’t reply, but I sat, staring into space. Suddenly, something became clear to me. I can’t remember what it was, but I had a kind of revelation. I stood up, fast.

“I have to get out of here.”

Yan, surprised by my sudden rising, was slightly worried. “Out of Cyrcit? Why?”

“I just… I need to go.”

“You shouldn’t leave us like this. We’re a team!”

I turned and looked down at him. “We should all go.”

“What, me and Vint and Ulp? Why? We’re fine here.”

My voice got louder. “You’re not happy, are you? Are you happy with this life? Find food, eat, sleep… Is that all you want?”

Yan looked around. I was attracting a lot of attention, which is something you don’t do in those alleys if you want to survive. “Keep your voice down!”

“How long until the others get back?”

Yan looked at the sky. “About twenty minutes.”

“We leave then.”

“Hey, we can’t just go!”

“Why not?” I crouched beside him. “I need to go. I can’t stay here any more; everything reminds me of what I’ve done. You have nothing here; what do you have to lose by coming with me? Do you have any friends except for Vint and Ulp?”

“Well, no…”

“Well then, let’s go.”

“Where?”

I hadn’t thought about that. “The Docks. We could stow away on a ship or something.”

Yan laughed. “You think that hasn’t been tried before? Loads of people have tried to get away on the ships, and only about one in twenty make it even out of the Dock.”

“Well, we will. I know it somehow.”

Yan said nothing for a while. I got tired of waiting for a reply from him, so I lay down beside him and closed my eyes.