Requiem Read Free Page B

interests... to keep things in check, if need be.
We aren't violent, but that doesn't mean we can't try to stop
violence before it happens.'
    Seline kicked
the rock further down the road.
    'You ask a lot
of questions,' he said. 'You almost seem more alien to this place
than I do. Whatever you're looking for must be important to bring
you all the way out here.'
    Seline thought
for a moment. 'It's hard to say what's important when there's
nothing to compare it to. I'd almost forgotten this place existed.'
She kicked the rock again. It tumbled into the sand at the edge of
the road.
    'So what made
you remember?' he asked.
    'An exonet
message. It's a long story. I couldn't explain it even if I wanted
to. Nothing personal.'
    'Then perhaps a
shorter, less complicated story?'
    'Like
what?'
    'Like your
name?'
    'It's Seline.
And yours?'
    'Sear.'
    He didn't add
anything further and Seline didn't ask for more. She felt
embarrassed to be caught asking an alien about her own home and was
reluctant to pry at the memories she had buried away. She would
have to be careful. Like a bare foot trying to avoid the pieces of
glass in the sand. She knew they were there but she wasn't sure
where. Best just to not say anything for now she thought. They both
decided to let silence fill the space between them and the
city.
     
    They had been
walking for hours. The city finally felt like it was getting
closer. Already she could see deep horizontal cuts running across
the most stunted structures as if the entire city were laden with
the weight of the skyline. The sun was beginning to set.
     
    They now walked
side by side. The light from the torch attached to Seline's arm was
barely enough to illuminate the ground ahead of them.
    'There's a
building just up ahead. We can rest there for the night.'
    'How do you
know that? I can't see a thing.'
    Sear didn't
answer. He led the way as they walked off the road and up a flight
of stairs. Seline followed. Her feet slotted into grooves that had
inexplicably been carved into every step. They reached the first
floor. The strong smell of charcoal and ammonia. Sear pulled a
lighter from his pocket and put it to a small shred of paper which
he had torn from the wall. He threw it into an old metal barrel
which crackled to life, lighting the surrounding darkness in a soft
halloween glow.
    'That's one
good thing about new-gen materials,' he said, 'they burn well.' He
found some wooden boards stacked in the corner and threw them into
the barrel. Seline turned her torch off and dug inside her bag for
food. All she could find were the two packs of pre-fab meals that
she had taken from the apartment fridge. She offered one to Sear
who, to her surprise, accepted.
    She tossed over
one of the small cubes wrapped in noisy, purple coloured plastic,
adorned with the wide mouthed grin of a cartoon hippo. Sear looked
at the wrapper, looked as if he might say something but stopped
himself. Seline tossed the wrapper into the barrel and swallowed
the first tasteless bite and looked around at the remnants of the
dishevelled room. Half of one of the walls was missing. Scrap
sheets of discoloured wallpaper hung from the walls, exposing
crumbling brick and mortar. Contorted lines of rebar were caught in
the silhouettes cast from the flaming barrel. Embers occasionally
flicked into the air over its curled metal lips with no trace of
ceiling or roof to stop the smoke from escaping into the night
sky.
    'Are you sure
this place is safe?'
    'Safer than
most. At least for tonight.' His voice still scratched at the back
of her throat.
    Another peak of
curiosity surfaced within her. 'Do people still live here? In the
city I mean.'
    'Sometimes the
occasional scavenger comes through but apart from that person
following us from the platform, we're probably the only ones here.
At least in this area.'
    Seline found
his manner difficult to judge. But she wasn't overly surprised
given her only points of reference for behaviour had been the
handful of