Ley City Runners - part II

Hovercrafts raced past, the reflective surfaces shimmering from the light of the orange sun. The air was muggy, despite hydrogen gas being the only fuel and Astra found herself marvelling at the inconsistency. They were near the top of the city now so she expected the quality of the view to have improved greatly. Aside from being able to see the bottom of Ley City in all its grungy brown glory, being on the roof offered Astra no comfort. She looked up and was inspired in part by the glimmering glass decorating the exterior of the buildings at the top of Ley City. The wealth divide was ever-present.

“Hold it! You’ve got nowhere else to go, lady.” Astra spun around; building security stood at the door leading from the stairs, an electric dagger in one hand, holographone in the other. A flickering miniature of the police officers downstairs projected from it, ordering the quivering gentleman to detain the suspect. The security guard advanced on Astra, causing her to back away. They moved in a cautious dance of intimidation until the backs of Astra’s legs touched the low wall surrounding the roof. Trapped.

“There’s nowhere else to go,” the guard repeated. Into the holographone he declared, “I’ve got her.”

“Like hell you have,” Astra jeered. She grabbed Rigel around his middle, leaned back and flipped over the wall.

The pair of them sailed through the air weightlessly, their descent announced by the wind whistling past their ears, causing their eyes to leak. Rigel opened his mouth for a scream that wasn’t released. Before he could work up the vocals for a note to describe the terror in his heart, Astra’s back collided on the roof of a passing hovercraft. Astra threw one arm out, hoping to catch on to a bumper or wing mirror but it was not to be. She and Rigel slid off the top with disappointing ease and continued their long drop to the ground. They plunged again into the air briefly, until they were caught in the cradle of a recycling craft.

Nestled amongst the used cardboard and plastic bottle rejects from domestic sites, Astra and Rigel lay perfectly still. Astra’s heart rate slowed from a violent vibration to a calmed, rhythmic beat while the craft flew on, the driver unaware of his new passengers. Astra craned her neck to look down at her son.

“You okay Baby?” she asked softly, stroking his soft brown curls.

“Ah-huh,” Rigel mumbled. Blood was dripping from his bottom lip where he had bitten it during the impact.

“You hurt?”

Rigel shook his head then thought better of it.

“My everything hurts,” he whined. Groaning with exertion Astra sat up.

“Mine too.” She looked around at the hovercrafts travelling adjacent to them and noted they were already a good few miles away from the rooftop she had jumped from. “At least we got away.”

BEE-DOO BEE-DOO BEE-DOO.
Shit. No – it couldn’t be. Astra strained her vision to stretch over the side of the recycling craft and she saw off in the distance, gaining every second, the distinct red and blue lights of a police cruiser. The law was catching up to them and Astra was running out of options. They wouldn’t stop chasing until she was caught and punished: a year or two in an isolated cell. Depending on how wealthy the man she’d robbed was, Astra could even get the electronic implant penalty. Nobody wanted the EIP: it marked the permanent loss of free will.

A tiny hand clutched at the front of Astra’s jacket and she was reminded of why she’d been reduced to theft in the first place. It was all for Rigel. Astra made her decision.

She looked ahead. The recycling craft was going towards the south side of the city. Astra knew the top area well thanks to her skating history; she commuted there every day for an entire summer to use the vast skate park. It was there she had befriended Hesperus Lupe.

For one idyllic summer, Astra and Hesperus had been inseparable. Her fearsome attitude had kept the brats away from wimpy Hesperus and he was ever grateful for it. They parted ways when the school term rolled around, promising to stay in touch. They never did.

It had been over a decade since Astra had seen Hesperus yet she could remember exactly where he lived. The top floor of the Dyan building was now her destination.

“Citizen 50896 get out of the craft and surrender to justice,” a monotonic voice vibrated through the air. The police cruiser had caught up and they had Astra’s citizen number. There really was no escaping now.

“Come on Rigel; this is our stop,” Astra said, trying to sound calm. She picked him up and waded through the recycled rejects to get to the side of the craft. Her stomach swooned when she made the mistake of looking over the edge: it was a long way to fall. The grungy ground at the bottom was scarcely more than a grey suggestive blur.

“Citizen 50896, do not attempt to escape.” The police drone was ignored; Astra put a foot on the side and flung herself into the air. Timing was everything this time and she and Rigel landed squarely on top of a privately owned hovercraft. Keeping her balance, Astra trudged over to the left side and did the same thing again and again until she was inches away from the side of the building.

“Where we going Mummy?” asked Rigel timidly, watching the buildings fly past his face whilst the craft cut through the air.

“Somewhere safe,” was the reply. Astra moved him on to her back again and he clung to her desperately, fearful of what she was about to do.

She sprang. She missed.

Flailing her limbs, Astra forced her body to grab at anything; her nails ripped off and the skin was quick to follow. Sliding down the building, Astra cried when she caught her hand in an indented brick which stopped her from falling to certain death. There was a fire escape route around the corner; she swung herself over and landed heavily on the metal staircase.

As much as Astra wanted to take a rest, she had to keep moving or else surrender. She raced up the stairs, pushing Rigel up when he began to slip from behind her. She was panting heavily now, the stiff pain in her leg not subsiding for a moment and still Astra put everything she had into her movements. By the time she reached the top of the building, her throat was dry and her lungs were screaming at her to take a break. She ignored the advice; the sirens remained audible. There was an empty glass elevator at the other end of the flat roof which Astra stampeded towards.

It was a bizarre feeling to be able to simply walk into the elevator and press the button to close the doors around them. Upbeat instrumentals began playing quietly when Astra put Rigel down to stand and scanned the floors. It was a public lift, built to send the user either down to the lowest floor of the bottom or the highest level of the top. It was to the top Astra needed to go; Rigel hugged his mother’s leg while his stomach lurched from the sudden upwards movement. It was his first time travelling this way.

The transparent container swam through the air as if pulled by wires, moving in a graceful arc towards the highest public level on the south side: Sen Eugena Park. The music comforted Rigel at least and gave him a sense of things being normal. It was all the boy had to cling to for the moment and he grabbed at it using both hands. He nearly cried when the doors to the elevator opened and Astra led him outside.

Sunlight was much more obvious at this height, casting a dull orange haze on the scene below. Having been there before, Astra wasn’t impressed by Sen Eugena Park. Rigel on the other hand hadn’t seen a park this vast. It was framed by glittering buildings, some retail some privately owned. Public walkways of flashy silver and glass danced around the park, weaving in and out the playground, occupied football pitch, baseball field, skate area and synthetic grassy banks. Rich, clean families were happily basking in the late afternoon ambiance, completely content.

Astra saw the delight in Rigel’s eyes and wished she could let him spend ten minutes in the playground. Ten simple minutes of being an ordinary little boy whose mother wasn’t about to be torn apart by the law enforcement’s technologically advanced best friends: the cyberdogs.