As the hours rolled by with little sound more than the lapping sea, a tension slowly rose from the sullen depths. It began demanding urgency, a feeling deep down that got the adrenalin slowly flowing through Gale's veins.
He knew he'd be awakening soon no doubt, he'd forgotten the sheer scale of the Inner City, yet he needed to see it. He needed to know. He gripped onto his will in the City with all his strength, even as the real world tried to tug him awake. He had begun his approach to the Inner City's edge. Whilst walking to its very core, he realised it would take days that he didn't have and with his flight suit it could be slightly less, it could take moments another way.
He reached down to his waist, separating a single crystal from his armour. At his touch, like most objects in the City it glowed, then it started to pulse. He began to run, faster and faster. His soles already glowing his heels followed soon after. He braced himself, lowering to a crouch step after step. He peered slowly up the cliff judging its height; it rose from the water in a sheer marble wall interwoven with shining crystal like veins across its surface and scattered with cracks and missing pieces. He drove his legs down. The water's surface splashed and rippled. His arch through the air was perfect.
His feet landing on solid ground once more, and already he was gone. His legs pumped effortlessly as he ran through the City's perimeter. Gale ascended a ramp to a long raised viaduct, its surface long cracked like glass, his every step erasing parts of the web that covered it.
He could hear it whoosh behind him, the growl of air being cut in twain, once more he jumped. The ShardShip came beneath him, between him and the ground, he felt the real world tug harder as he crashed onto its roof. He struggled to his feet against the wind, the hull beneath him faded into veined blue stone. trails of dust and rust drifted into the harsh wind. Its triangular hull was carved like an ice sculpture. Its body was flawless and seamless, adorned with metals and stones of the City's proper. A vehicle born from the city itself.
Gale held the glowing crystal out in a clenched fist, he pointed towards where he wanted to be, every movement of his arm the ShardShip followed, taking him ever deeper into the City's heart.
Spires whipped by with reckless abandon as the ShardShip weaved between the causeways, pillars and towers kicking up dust as it went. Its flight through the city was well-rehearsed, with little to no opposition as it maneuvered around the abandoned boulevards and skyways to its destination.
The real world continued to tug, it continued to distract him. Gale desperately gripped onto the City's call; its spirit and will, desperately, his body trying to wake him, his concentration slipping again and again.
Then one last time…
The ShardShip kicked up chunks of metal and stone as it skidded across the floor, the materials of its essence screamed as it skipped against the City's floor. It landed hard the next time, throwing its rider from its hull as it cracked even more. The ground was gouged by its nose. With a screech it came to a halt just in front of where its rider landed. Gale groaned as he lifted himself up, his body struggled like he was in the real world. The craft rested afore him like an obedient pet. His steps undid the damage it caused albeit briefly, his hand gently rested on the crafts damaged nose.
"Thank you my friend." He spoke gravelly to it, its cracks healing beneath his fingers. He smiled at it as its lights went out, putting the vessel into dormancy. As his palm still rested upon it, his other raised up, pulling the discarded control crystal from the ground into his grasp.
"Just like a Jedi." He muttered with a smile, placing the crystal onto his waist. He recognised where he was in an instant. "Damn, I've good aim. Even when crashing…"
The tower was larger than any other. Its base was akin to roots, spreading up from the open square in which it rested to form rounded ridges that ran its whole length. Towers rose from it like turrets upon a parapet, each one high and thin, almost spindly. Some had fractured off and broken, their debris nowhere in sight. The elegant designs and motifs across its surface had been withered and worn with time, broken in places yet largely whole. Large trapezoid overhangs rose out of its surface, in between the large ridges that ran up its length. Gale began to levitate gently from its base and fly gradually upwards. Past the overhangs, past even more turrets up to a large rim that extended far from its surface. While it looked like the City's King's hall it was far from it, the City of dreams never saw any one person a ruler, it surpassed the rule of man. Rather this tower was special in a way that many people had never truly realised. Only one thing truly gave away this massive tower's true purpose and, only here, high above any other spire could one truly see it
The face upon it was intricate and engineered to a truest perfection, its face was a pearl white and unfathomably flat. Covered with rings and loops of sapphires and emeralds, intricate lines that scattered its surface like a map, in fact most people believed it to be so… Yet ancient runes ran its perimeter, each the size of Gale himself cast as one solid piece akin to shining opals. Large beams extend from off centre. The head of each arm was the scale of the ShardShip that brought him to it. It was no map, it was a massive clock.
Gale could remember the day it began to tick, the day humanity abandoned its home. The day the end times began. It was not just a measure of time...
Gale had long hoped that he'd never see past midnight upon it, and seeing another in his city he'd hoped it would've gone back, but as the minute hand moved once more with a ring of a massive bell his fear and drive were both reignited.
"Five to Midnight…" He whispered, his eyes beginning to close.
"What is it?" He thought he heard someone say as he faded from that world.
His last moments in the city he couldn't tell if it was real or his imagination...
...and he couldn't tell which he would have preferred.
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The night had long fallen into daylight when he woke. Another day of horrible daylight, and sounds of rain lashing at the windows on another wet morning. The sound was surprisingly soothing. Gale swung his legs out of bed with more energy than the nights before.
His hand immediately fell to the glass of liquor on his nightstand, and without even opening his eyes, downed it and lit a fresh cigarette. Gale brought himself to his feet, swaying for a moment before making his way to his kitchen.
"Goddamn booze." He muttered as he stumbled around his flat, he dragged himself along the wall before practically falling through the door to his kitchen. Like everywhere else it was cluttered with items. Many of his visitors often asked why Gale needed a second oven pushed up against a radiator. The man's flat was if anything over equipped, like two people had lived there, and brought everything with them. He swung a cupboard open without care, and he pawed about it for his breakfast.
"Goddamn pancakes." He muttered once more as he found it, with a pained sigh he leaned against the spare oven before tucking in, his eyes locked onto another picture pinned to the wall. It took him a second to realise he hadn't put it there. Gale examined it carefully then felt the need for more alcohol very quickly. His miserable eyes had locked onto the happiness of someone that had long left. He quickly found a near empty bottle of whiskey. Gale desperately drank the memory of that day away. He took another fleeting look at it, His son's idiotic smile drove him from mournful to irate.
Gale blinked and he found himself rummaging about his drawers, pulling out a marker pen and hasilty colouring in his son's face. Smiling at the sight when it was done before he heard more pounding on his front door.
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"Goddamn visitors." Gale practically shouted, hurling the now empty bottle against the floor, his frown made its way to his face once more. He stomped his way to the door, practically ripping the chain off as he swung it open.
"Hello Gale how are you today." She said with a smile despite the man's clear irritation, Gale only grunted in response, waving his carer inside. The woman took a lasting glance at the damaged chain lock. "Feeling pretty spry today are we?"
"Happiness won't be welcome in this flat today, Cory." He responded as he stubbed his cigarette out in an ashtray. He swung his arm around to scoop up another half empty bottle of whisky from a shelf.
"No problem there, Gale. You're drinking already?" Cory responded with her ever present smile. Gale just grunted as he made his way into his radio room she scooped up the full ashtray and emptied it into his kitchen bin. He heard her gasp loudly at the smashed glass, and after a few minutes of general clean-up she entered the room as well. She made no attempt to ask about the coloured in picture or the broken bottle, she just gazed in wonder around the room.
It always amazed her its contents, she was the only person, aside its owner, to enter it. A privilege bought on by many months just listening to his rambles. Those days however, were now few and far between. She ran her eyes around the shelves, each filled with momentos and pictures each with a happy story. Each with a sad story.
Family heirlooms from ancestors long gone took their place alongside treasures from a fulfilled life, but now each one was covered in thick dust. Many old yet valuable books ran the entire way around the room, waiting to know if they'd ever be read again. Rusted medals and badges hung off an old wonky corkboard. A huge shell casing, often repurposed as a doorstop, stood just in a corner.
She saw Gale at his desk, his radio scanner had been turned on, filling the room with endless static as it scrolled through frequencies endlessly. Gale's focus though was on a large leather bound book. He wrote in it with elegant almost gothic, flowing writing, logging another day in the city of his mind.
"How was it last night?" Cory asked as she sat down on a chair beside him. She furtively brought a notepad from her pocket. Her attempts at stealth were immediately dashed as Gale raised one eyebrow, and glanced her way.
"Same as ever." Gale responded as he placed another cigarette in his mouth, lighting it with an age old zippo that never left its spot on his desk. This room was his throne room of his own kingdom, it kept his greatest treasures.
"I see." Cory responded. "So another day wandering the streets of a long dead city?"
"It's still alive, slightly, the City is not dead yet. I crashed a ShardShip last night. Good thing there's no such thing as insurance." He stated coolly with a hint of humour, he got a chuckle from Cory. Gale ignored her, he still took notes, gently wiping ash from his page. "Other night was different though."
"How so?" She responded eagerly. He looked at her again for a brief moment, his cold grey eyes practically dove straight into hers, she felt like he was analysing her more than she was him. The tables had been turned, but she always felt that with Gale.
"Who do you think it was?" Her head cocked, it was a development indeed.
"Not sure. The City can touch anyone, so could be my neighbour or a lass in a mud hut." He spoke deep in concentration.
"A Lass?"
"Lady, woman, girl, lass, homo sapien of the female variety." He said completely deadpan, still writing. Cory just rolled her eyes. "At least I think she was. She rode a flight board, fairly modern compared to a Shardship, last I rode one I hit a wall at the speed of sound… And that was before I fell off it."
"I see." Cory said once again with a faint smirk, she took down a few notes, flicking back through the pages she scanned one other note in particular.
"Was it Tala?" She asked. Gale froze at the name. His pen stopped mid sentence. Cory could see that small jewel of water in his eyes.
" How's your Mum?"
He didn't look at her, instead at a photograph sitting above his transmitter. Two people, one dressed in an army mess uniform, another in a long white dress that slightly bulged around her midsection. His wedding day, shortly before Alban arrived… Shortly before his boy came into the world.
They both were smiling. Never ending joy and happiness on their faces. The two of them looked like a perfect match and they both wore rings made of crystal. Gale's emotions faded from his face.
"When did all that change?" He asked himself. His voice was soft. He could remember the day they departed, but he would never know the day when the happiness faded away.
The love had never left though...
His hand reached for the empty finger, like he was reaching for her. Cory shuffled in her seat. She knew what would come next. It was by the books with Gale, first came the sadness then came the...
"I shouldn't have asked sor-"
"Don't." He spat very firmly, every syllable came out hard. A very sudden change from moments before. His eyebrows descended, his teeth began to grind. "I do not want sympathy."
...Then came the anger
They were both silent for a moment. Gale finished taking his notes, laying the pen in the spine before slamming the massive book shut. He turned around on his chair, glaring at the woman.
"It was another." He finally said, Cory nodded slowly, writing it down in her notebook. Gale huffed in frustration. "You think it's just in my head don't you? Like every sodding person I've ever told. 'Oh don't listen to Sergeant Mayfair he's nuts.' You're just like them aren't you?"
"I think you are a man cursed with a vivid imagination. A genius maybe, someone who can give reason to something as meaningless as dreams. You give it a form." She responded after a moment. She paused. "But I think we just turned a corner, finally. You dreamt of the city during the war?"
"I didn't go mad because of it. I bloody loved it." Gale's response was a shock to Cory. The way he said it as well, it might've been true but he had really meant to shake her.
"Gale that's not true now is it." Cory finally interjected. She never dared interrupt him before, and she could see how well it had gone down. "I think you are a man with a lot of potential for greatness."
"How old are you Cory?" He asked sharply, he felt like her compliments were attacking him.
"Twenty two." She said patiently. "Same as I was when you last asked me."
"Then why don't you remember it? Why can't you remember the City?" He asked aggressively, he gesticulated with his hand firmly. "Towers miles high, glistening in an eternal dawn, its edges wrapped in a thick fog and the space between each spire bridged and wound with thousands of crystal causeways. Why can't you remember the sight of every man, woman, and child's dreams reaching high into the sky?"
"You have always described the City as being covered in decay and ruin?" She asked, looking away briefly. She avoided his question very well. The man scoffed, he turned to his notebook, sealing it with a hefty padlock.
"That was after you abandoned it."
"Me?"
"Everyone!" The man bellowed, Cory leaned back in shock. "When you started living the sedentary lifestyle. Bound by Walls and windows working for today rather than tomorrow! You achieve absolutely nothing and filling your life with meaningless crap you all destroyed your potential, to live in the now rather than work for the future! You destroyed every person's ability to aspire to pure greatness and go above and beyond what we thought possible. That is why you left the city, you all took the easy route!
"In my day we landed on the bloody moon, what have you achieved? I'll tell you, absolutely nothing! Big bloody woop! Top marks, here's your bloody knighthood!"
Cory remained calm even as her patient got more and more irate. She made a note in her book before closing it. She glanced to her right, seeing an unopened bottle of medication on the desk, exactly where she left it last time. She let out a sigh.
"I'm not going to prescribe you anything more than you have, I would suggest you ease up off the drink and cut back on the cigarettes, you're ruining yourself." She spoke softly. "But I say that all the time." she said too quietly for him to hear.
"Tala already did that." He whispered more or less to himself. Cory added one last note onto her pad.
"Maybe you shouldn't obsess yourself over this, Gale. Since it happened you've buried yourself in this City of yours, when did you last go outside?" She said warmly, only earning a snort from him.
"What's there outside that could possibly interest me?" He spoke bluntly. Pointing his thumb at the heavy shutters over the windows.
"I feel you're avoiding the subject." Cory responded. "I think next time I am here we should get you outside for a bit."
"Only place of worth is the City." The man grunted.
"If it's dying you should let it. Dream about Tala, she made you happy."
" I'm not…"
"It's my duty as the last denizen of the City to ensure Humanity's return to the City, it's the only way we can all be saved." He spoke his mission like he had so many times.
"You are definitely obsessed." She didn't mean for him to take her words like he did, nor did she mean to say it how it came out. He pointed to the door, his other hand continued to work his craft on the radio's controls.
"Your time is up, your next patient awaits you. Take care Ma'am." Gale said very calmly without even turning to face her. Cory nodded and stood up, she rested a hand on his shoulder before she left as he readied his microphone.
"I'm only here to help you, Mr Mayfair." She spoke warmly, he didn't respond as she turned away, closing the door to the radio room as she went.
Her words still echoed in Gale's mind. Words that were cast by people who dared not want to remember. He could tell that about Corona as soon as he met her. Even if she didn't want to say he was right, he believed she knew he was. He never doubted his mission.
Why else would she try and help him love this world when everyone else wants him to admit he's mad?
Gale glanced at the door, letting out a deep breath he flicked his transmitter on, running through the well-rehearsed routine of radio checks. He engaged his microphone, his headphones donned and activated. Without another moment of hesitation he began broadcasting in earnest. With a deep breath he began to speak.
"Do you remember it? There was a time we all did…"
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