Ley City Runners - part I

Another losing competition entry. This one was more prestigious so I'm not really surprised I didn't even make it on to the short-list (still, a speical mention would have been nice). I guess when it comes to the Commonwealth, my writing isn't at the top of the food chain. I've split it into three parts because it's quite long for one of my usual posts.

Ley City Runners

Loud stall owners yelled above the clamour of the mid-afternoon shoppers, desperate for a sale before the day drew to a close. Astra and her son dodged between the shoppers and late commuters, passing a sea of disgruntled and grim faces while they focused on minding their own business. Rigel, the boy struggling to keep up with his mother, winced when he glimpsed a dirty young android mechanic being beaten by his employer. Rigel was dragged onwards by his mother as she marched over to the trading end of the market.

Her careful brown eyes scouted out the target and with a nudge to her son, Rigel stumbled and slipped over right in front of a man whose neatly trimmed facial hair gave away his true social standing.

The moustached man paused to help a sniffling Rigel back to his feet, earning Astra’s false gratitude. She leaned in and dusted the street grime off Rigel’s front, getting close to the man.

“Cheers,” she said, avoiding eye contact and pretending to be more interested in Rigel than the man’s trench coat pockets. He straightened up, suspecting nothing after seeing Rigel was all right, smiling with the afterglow that came from doing a good deed. Astra turned her back on the man, taking up Rigel’s arm in one hand while her other tucked something inside her khaki jacket. Fast-moving citizens shoved and tripped over Rigel in their rush to get their business done.

The two of them hadn’t gone ten paces into the swarm of strangers when they heard an angry voice,

“That woman stole my wallet!” Then, clear above the confused hubbub of the market: “Police!”

“Shit,” Astra muttered, zipping up her jacket. She swept Rigel off his feet, bundling him in her arms and broke off into a run. She ducked under arms, leapt over bags and swivelled around stalls.

It hadn’t been ideal, snatching the man’s wallet. But with her month’s unpaid rent looming over her head and the food tax, there wasn’t much else Astra could do. She’d lost her job a fortnight ago and they’d been living off the little savings she had scraped together. There was no-one to watch Rigel since the child-minder refused to work for empty promises, making it impossible for Astra to look for another job. A casual mugging seemed to Astra their best option for survival.

Getting caught hadn’t been factored in as part of the plan.

Owing to a risky fondness for skating in her youth, Astra was relatively spry; having a child had slowed her down a little and she was panting by the time she reached a dead end. The brick wall in front of her was more than just an obstacle to freedom: it was a glimpse of what she had to look forward to if she was caught. Entrapment, suppression and dullness.

Astra looked back along the alleyway at the people still furiously shopping and saw a couple of black police helmets bobbing in her direction. In a moment they would break clear of the throng and have a direct view of their culprit.

Looking at her surroundings, Astra calculated what she could do to get out of the situation. No sooner had she spotted the black drainage pipe running along the side of the wall than she had formed a way to use it. She flipped Rigel from her arms so he was clinging on to her back and warned him not to let go. With those words she darted forwards and sprang against the wall, her hands catching the pipe.

“There she goes!” one of the officers yelled as Astra clambered up the pipe. The soles of her plastic trainers gripped the bricks when she pressed her feet higher up the wall, aiding her unconventional escape route. If not for her son clinging on for dear life behind her, Astra would have been worried about falling. The knowledge that she had Rigel to protect spurred her on so she didn’t even slip whilst she scaled the side of the building.

Glancing up, Astra saw the building had a flat roof and knew if she made it there it was a few leaps to her own apartment building. The exponential growth of population in the last couple of decades had seen the development of apartment buildings in close proximity to one another at the bottom of the city – good news for a young woman on the run.

A loud echoic explosion went off near Astra’s head and she froze. Rigel cried, his tiny nails digging into his mother’s shoulders although he tried to control his fear.

“Mummy!” he wailed. His voice sounded warbled to Astra and she realised the noise had temporarily deafened her. Chancing a look down, Astra saw the police had taken out their laser guns and had them aimed on her. Without wasting a single moment being scared, Astra continued her climb, altering her destination to a closer location: an open window four feet away from where she was. She would have to stretch and lean away from the stability of the pole but she liked her chances of getting to the window more than being burned by a laser gun.

The window was further away from the pole than Astra had anticipated and her outstretched hand didn’t quite reach it. She wanted to take Rigel off her back and somehow throw him inside; however, she hadn’t the strength or the time to manage such an task.

Two shots were fired around Astra and Rigel; she decided there wasn’t time for anything fancy and made a wild dive for it. Her knees slammed against the wall. Having caught the ledge of the window, Astra ignored the sharp throbbing as she heaved herself up.

“Climb through,” she huffed to Rigel, who didn’t need to be asked twice. Dangling freely from the window ledge made Astra the perfect target for the officers who were still in possession of laser guns.

Rigel toppled down into the room inside with a thud, recovering from the shock in time to witness searing pain drive through his mother’s eyes. Groaning and grunting, Astra gritted her teeth and pulled her body inside the room, tumbling into a ball on the tiled floor.

“Are you hurt Mummy?” Rigel asked anxiously. Astra couldn’t bring herself to answer. Her left leg began to seize up, the calf muscle stiffening around the bone and smothering it. The cheap material of her dark trousers had been blasted away by the laser and Rigel could see the skin turning a horrible black colour. His face crumpled yet he held back his tears, opting instead to lie beside his mum and hold her. There wasn’t much time for him to comfort Astra; a teenager who lived in the apartment walked in on the two of them.

“Linden! There’re squatters in the bathroom!” she squealed and ran out. A man’s voice called out something incomprehensible and then Linden appeared in the bathroom doorway. He was a slim young man whose face was decorated by acne; not much of a threat.

“You can’t be in here,” he said, not sounding convinced himself. Rigel stared up at him helplessly without saying a word.

“’S all right. We were just leaving,” Astra grunted. She propped herself up on her elbows and using mostly upper body strength, rose on to her feet. She stood firm despite her shaky balance. Taking a couple of deep breaths she grabbed hold of Rigel’s hand and led him out of the bathroom, barging past Linden. She saw the teenager in the hallway and barked for directions to the roof.

“Stairs is just through- Shit, what happened to your leg?”

Astra glared at her until she gave her the information she wanted. “S-Stairs are through that door but you should probably get the lift. It’s out there on the right.”

Astra hobbled out of the apartment in the direction of the lift, Rigel by her side. If she exhaled every time she put pressure on her left leg then the pain became a bearable dull ache as opposed to an excruciating battle of agony. They found the lift easily enough and bundled inside before anyone else could get in. The rank steel vessel whizzed them up to the top floor and they stepped out on to the roof.