GHOST CITY

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Snow kicked up in an abandoned city. The wind howled through the streets, and muffled sounds came from beneath the sidewalk. There was a rustle and a metallic thud from below, after which the noise ceased. The pause lasted for barely a minute before an explosion blew the subway grates from the pavement, sending chips of concrete and snow flying.

Through the smoking hole in the ground, a white figure crawled out from below. Clad from head to toe in a misshapen white protective suit, Remy blended into the snow. The only part of him visible was the dark visor of his helmet. He crawled onto the snow-covered sidewalk and yelled into the subway below.

"You good, Will?"

A white-gloved hand reached out from below, and Remy dragged Will onto the sidewalk.

"I'm alright," Will gasped.

Rebecca came next. Remy reached out towards her, but she smacked his hand aside. "I can climb on my own, thanks, and you could have warned me that you were going to use an explosive."

"Nah, no," said Remy, "this was more fun, princess."

Rebecca punched him on the shoulder. "Don't call me princess. Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?"

Remy shrugged. "Would be weird if they did, since they are dead."

Rebecca went still for a moment before punching him again.

"Ow! Why?!"

"You made me feel bad about making you feel bad."

Will got up and approached the subway grate. "Careful. You'll mess up the suit."

He reached down and pulled the rope they had climbed up with and hauled Scout from the subway. The little bot was tied to the end and yipped excitedly to finally be out. He had been put on standby to save power and now he had the chance to stretch his legs.

"Leave the rope,” said Remy. "It will save us time."

Will nodded. He had another cord of rope in his pocket, so there was no harm in leaving one in the subway. He dusted off his suit as he stood.

"Everything is set." Will turned to the other two. "Ready?"

Remy gave a thumbs-up, but Rebecca had her hands raised to her helmet as though she was bracing for something. She gave a loud sneeze which left Will's ears ringing.

"Do you smell that?" She sniffed. "It has been bugging me since we stepped out of the subway."

"No," said Remy.

Will raised his head. The snow swirled around him. There was a hint of something in the air, but he couldn't recognize it. "I'm not sure."

"It smells like your bike fuel, only... rotting," said Rebecca.

"I heard there is a famous garbage dump over here," said Remy. "Most of the tower waste is just dumped in the outer exclusion zone. It's a lot cheaper than processing it."

"They dump ethrazene too?" asked Rebecca.

"It looks like it, doesn't it," said Will. "Come on, let's get moving."

Together they set off, stepping off the sidewalk into the main road before them. The snow pelted their visors, and Will had to lean against the wind as he stepped forward. Despite the severe conditions, the suits were doing a remarkable job of protecting them from the cold and radiation.

A shimmer surrounded the suits, and that ever-present pulse of psion radiation was kept at bay. The thick insulation and internal heater maintained their body temperature at optimal levels.

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Will brought his hand forward to shade his face, but the snow was relentless. Scout was having a hard time navigating the snow with his squat legs.

The little bot whined as it was battered by the snow. There was a crackle over the helmet speakers, and Remy spoke. "We need to get Scout out of the snow. He might have a low-end chip, but there is still the possibility of corrosion."

"Yeah," said Will slowly. "Let's get out of the main road for now."

He escorted the group through an intersection, and they made their way through a smaller lane lined with crumbling skyscrapers. Cars piled up on the road, and the trio was forced onto the sidewalk.

Crumpled fenders smashed into each other, and a few cars were upturned. Doors were ripped out in jagged chunks, and elsewhere puncture marks were seen, as if something had taken a bite out of the vehicle.

"What happened here?" asked Rebecca.

Will glanced at the pileup and said shortly, "Spiders."

"Spiders?"

"The initial attack came from the other side of the gate," said Will. "The Hive drove the subspace creatures forward to soften up the defenses. The swarm got loose in the city."

Rebecca stared at the broken buildings and frozen-over rebar and steel beams. Wind and snow had battered them for half a century, eroding them little by little. The walls were blackened like they had been torched, and the bricks looked like they were baked in fire. The odd thing was that only the walls facing east had been burnt. The rest facing away were pristine by comparison.

Rebecca looked back and forth between the walls, unable to make sense of it.

"I'll give you a hint," said Will. "Most of the nukes went off over there," he pointed towards the east.

Rebecca looked back at the building and found an unmarred part of the torched building wall. There was a white shadow of a woman cowering over a child while a giant spider loomed over her. She gasped as the realization hit her.

Bathed in nuclear light, everything burned. Only the shadows remained to tell the story.

"I used to play over there," Will pointed at a shop near the street corner. "Got ice creams from a nice old lady. She used to tell the craziest stories from beyond the gates."

"She sounds nice," said Rebecca.

"Oh, she was," said Will. "And on the weekends, we used to go to the Grand Central Mall. Play laser tag and mech fighters. It looks like it's all still here."

There was a large complex to the right. They walked along its side and came to the mall's main entrance. A giant sculpture of an egg, made of ribbons of arching steel, greeted them at the entrance. The ribbons curved and twisted into an ovoid shape and formed a porous seven-foot-tall egg.

"I'm surprised that it lasted this long," said Rebecca.

Will gazed at the sculpture. "It was a pre-war fad when the tower started construction. They used to weave subspace folds into everything. Make everything last a thousand years, just like the tower."

Rebecca approached the egg. It was sitting on a bed of metal flowers, and at the bottom was a plaque. On it were the words: "To a better tomorrow and a brighter future."

The trio looked at the sign solemnly. Rebecca bent down to touch the flowers. "It must have been quite some place before the war. I wish I could have seen it."

Will nodded, unable to find the words. Rebecca looked back up at the two boys. "Are you finally going to tell me why you are here? What are you guys looking for?"

Will exchanged a glance with Remy, who shrugged. "I guess this is as good a place as any."

He stepped to the side and popped the hood of a nearby car. He ripped apart a few internals and brought out a ruby-red crystal. "We are looking for this."

"Etherite?"

"That's right," he said. "There's got to be tons of free crystals here. It doesn't matter if it is irradiated. With a bit of cleanup, this entire region could become our cash cow."

"Our real bet is that the embargo would keep the price up," said Will.

Rebecca looked between the two boys. "Come on, guys, these are just junk. Not to mention the amount of work involved. You would have to go through hundreds of these low-end crystals to make any money at all. The work is not worth the time or effort."

"You are right," said Remy as he palmed the red crystal. "These low-end crystals are secondary. What we are really after are the mech shops."

There was a pause while Rebecca considered his statement. A few seconds later, it finally dawned on her. "I heard that before the war, we had etherite coming in from everywhere. It was a golden age for external chip etherite integration."

"Yeah, back then we used to dive a lot deeper into the gates. The crystal quality was something else. If we managed to get our hands on one of those..."

"It will be worth your while," Rebecca nodded.

"With any luck, the etherite shortage is going to be a push for external chip types," said Remy. "It is a stopgap measure most companies hate, but in the interim, we can make bank."

"Right," Rebecca turned towards Will. "So, what's next?"

Will was looking into the distance. "We keep moving. Come on."

He led the group up the street, the familiar places of his childhood coming back to him. They flashed before his eyes with every step. He trudged through the snow, going back to the earliest memories he ever had.

The first time he had ever held a spanner. The first time he played hide and seek in the shop. The time he played with fist-sized ball bearings from an exo-arm. He rounded the street to the first shop on the left, his heart pounding in his chest.

Best Mechs in Belgrave!

Will was greeted by the same sign behind the shop window. It was still here, waiting for him. He stopped and just stared.

Remy and Rebecca came around the bend and saw the shop. Both of them looked up at the partially erect store sign with only one name left on it: Dunn.

"Is that," Rebecca whispered.

"Yes," said Will as he stepped towards the front door. "This is my family shop."