“Go! I’ll meet you back at the hideout once I lose them!”
“Won’t have to tell me twice! Good luck, Adam!”
The disheveled young girl paused only to take the bulging sack from his arms, then split off down a narrow alley branching from the crowded street. Adam didn’t wait around to watch her disappear–he continued his flight, dodging one street vendor after another, and tried his best to remain both elusive and seen the entire way.
Behind him, probably around forty feet away and separated by the crowd and numerous vendors’ stalls clogging the flow of traffic, the shouts of several angry grown men could be heard with perfect clarity. The street wasn’t so choked with bodies that it should’ve been hard for them to follow after him, but from the sounds of agitation and complaint they were raising from the market’s shoppers, they barreled through anything that got in their way regardless.
“Thief!! Someone stop that boy!” one of the men cried out.
Adam barely restrained a laugh. Like anyone was going to help that fat old merchant! They had chosen his stall for the day’s mark specifically because, with the extortionate prices he set for somewhat-fresh produce, no one would lift a finger to stop the old miser from being robbed. And even if someone did, they’d never catch Adam. He knew these streets better than anyone.
He continued to lead the merchant’s hired thugs on a merry chase through the Dust Quarter, staying just far enough ahead of them that there was no chance he’d be caught, but close enough that they wouldn’t be willing to give up the pursuit. It was almost a game to Adam–seeing how far he could lead them on. These particular thugs didn’t seem to be the brightest. Most would have seen the writing on the wall and given up already.
Once he judged that the chase had gone on for long enough, Adam twisted around to get a good look at the thugs, sixty feet back.
“This was fun!” he yelled. “We should do it again sometime!”
“Stop right there, vagrant!” the thug in the lead yelled back. The two others might have yelled something as well, but it was lost somewhere in their labored panting.
Adam chuckled, but he didn’t bother answering the burly man, and neither did he listen. Without wasting another moment, he shot down a side street and started making a winding path through the Dust’s simistone and steel jungle to finally lose his tail. These chases were fun and all, but there was food waiting for him back at the hideout now, and he’d have to hurry in order to get there before it was all gone.
Three streets over, he lifted a ratty old cloth from an untended stall and took a left before doubling back the way he’d come just a block down. He wrapped the cloth around his upper body and then over his head to make a suitable disguise, and then dropped his pace down to an inconspicuous stroll. Suddenly, he wasn’t a thief on the run.
People would probably still recognize him as a thief anyway, but there was a big difference between looking like one and actively fleeing from a mark. There were plenty of thieves in the Dust, and with this, Adam was now entirely unremarkable.
He strolled down the street calmly and confidently, navigating between peoples and shops with nary a glance. He did stop to check out one particular stall with outdated duelist weapons on display, but it was only for a moment. The entire time, Adam kept his ear out for the trio of thugs, and he couldn’t help but crack a grin when he heard them run past in the opposite direction, one street over. He was in the clear.
Time to head home.
He and some of the other street kids had set up their hideout in an abandoned part of the undercity accessible through a certain stretch of the sewer, and Adam knew there was an access hatch around half a mile away from his position. He started making his way toward it as he took in the city around him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The Dust Quarter of Evermore was a difficult and dirty place, with very little oversight from the upper-layers that allowed crime and exploitation to thrive. The powers that be in the city’s government weren’t necessarily to blame for the condition of things. Adam was old enough to know that, in a supercity pushing a population of thirty million people, some things inevitably fell through the cracks. Down here amongst the poorest of the poor, everyone had to look out for themselves, as he had been doing ever since he turned nine and the orphanage shut down three years ago.
Adam craned his head back and looked up, his gaze ascending the city’s titanic towers, to where he could just barely make out the upper city’s skycraft flitting about on their daily business amongst the clouds.
Yeah, some things just fall through the cracks. Who would care for a collection of nameless street kids when they can’t even see us through the haze of the atmosphere?
He shook his head to rid it of those pointless thoughts and just continued on his way.
The sewer access hatch was within sight, practically close enough for Adam to reach out and touch it, when suddenly a large, firm hand latched onto his left shoulder and held him still. Immediately, Adam tried to dive away–he even unwrapped the ratty cloth from his frame to get out from under the hold however much he could, but another hand reached out and took hold of his hair too.
“Oh ho ho, not a chance, rat!” came the gravelly voice of the thug from before.
Adam was roughly twisted around to face the man, and he felt some of his hair get pulled out in the maneuver, nearly eliciting a cry from his mouth before he shoved down the sensation.
“Let me go!”
“Tell me where you hid the produce,” the man spat back
Adam stared defiantly up at the burly thug, past his soiled and sweaty shirt and even more soiled beard, directly into the man’s gleefully sadistic eyes. When their eyes met, the man wrenched on his hair again, and this time, he wasn’t able to hold back his instinctual cry of pain.
The stretch of street they were on was practically abandoned, the only sounds nearby were of the skycraft up above. Adam couldn’t expect any help to come his way. All this for a single sack of apples…He knew they were rare these days–practically unseen in the Dust–but no amount of produce lost could warrant this man’s behavior.
“I don’t see them on you,” the thug continued with a touch of annoyance entering his voice, “so the other one must have them. No matter, I know a number of people that will pay well for a boy your age.”
The man gave Adam a twisted smile that sent a shiver down his spine unbidden, and despite the day’s heat.
“You’ll be making up for what you stole today, one way or another…”
“Bastard!” Adam spat in his face. “You don’t even care about the apples, do you?”
The thug laughed with genuine humor. “Guilty as charged!”
He started pulling him down the street, away from the access hatch, and Adam knew that if he had any hope of getting away, the time to act was now. Without any warning, he swung his knee up into the thug’s crotch as hard as he could and immediately made him double over–but the grip on Adam’s hair didn’t slacken at all. He followed up with a headbutt to the thug’s nose made possible now that he was bent over, and only then did Adam get the reaction he was going for.
The man’s nose gave way to Adam’s skull, and sent the man stumbling backward with a cry. But before Adam could turn and run off, the thug lunged forward and got another hold on him by the shirt–his momentum carrying the two of them down to the ground, with Adam on the bottom.
Damn it!
“You little shit!” the thug screamed into his face and caused a small spray of blood to fall onto Adam’s chest. “Look what you did to my nose!”
The thug pulled back and lifted his meaty fist as the wind picked up, and Adam prepared for the beating to come. He should have kept running after losing his tail. He shouldn’t have stopped to check out that stall. It was colossally stupid, and this was the price he was paying for it.
The fist came shooting down and suddenly, a resonant humm filled the air. Before the thug could finish his blow, something knocked him over and away from Adam like a leaf in the wind. He looked up to see a large, streamlined skycraft descend to the Dust’s street, and just barely made out the monogrammed “E” on its hull through the clouds it had raised.
The same one belonging to the ruling clan of Evermore, the family that gave the supercity its very name.
----------------------------------------
Lucas awoke from the dream with a start, and entirely all at once. He looked around, and for a terrifying moment, he didn’t recognize where he was. The place was dark, cold, and entirely made of stone on all sides. It was only when he processed the bedroll beneath him that he recalled something of his surroundings.
“You’re finally up,” a young man’s voice greeted him from the side. “Ready to move on to the next level?”
[Hunter - level 103]
Lucas met Harry’s eyes in the dim light, then rubbed the clinging remnants of sleep from his face before giving him a nod. He’d definitely had enough sleep for now, so it was time to get back to work.
Yeah, let me just pack up real quick,” he yawned.
“Well, hurry up, [Sentinel],” Harry said impatiently. “We’ve got an entire Dungeon to conquer.”