The Collector of Remarkable Stories Read Free Page A

The Gravitonius was almost part of the city itself and was Limbuss’ pride and joy, the first ever clockwork trolleybus. It had signified change; and was the celebration of the arrival of a brand new ruler – The Great Torquere. He’d promised change in a city that had fallen asleep standing on its feet; he pledged to invigorate the city and its people and commissioned the building of the great trolleybus as a symbol of this promise. But like so many people before him he was unable to break through the inertia that had gripped the city. The changes never came and The Great Torquere turned sour – very sour. And as time went on he lost himself, commissioning the Dog Beasts to guard the city and make sure it was run smoothly by fear. It was his way of punishing the inhabitants of Limbuss for their apathy and indolence.
    The trolleybus, however, had remained his pride and joy; a symbol of the hopes he once harboured. The Great Torquere would want to know who was responsible for the demise of this great machine and he would be merciless in his revenge.
    Auguste studied the young woman’s face and struggled to put an age on her. She could be anywhere between fourteen and twenty. He’d never been good at judging people’s ages and girls were by far the worst with their eye makeup, face powders and lip colours. They always looked older than they really were.
    "We have to move her," he announced, satisfied that she wasn’t dead. "It’s cold out here. She’ll catch her death dressed like this. And if the Dog Beasts are nearby we have to be quick."
    The arrival of a stranger in the city would have been enough of a threat to their safety, what with the Dog Beasts being programmed to track down any newcomers to the City of Limbuss – and anyone found to be associating with them. And it didn’t even matter how far away they were for in spite of being entirely fashioned from metal scraps, they had an incredible sense of smell. Like the Eastern American mole, the dog beasts used stereoscopic-smell-sensors to determine if someone on the other side of his city was happy, angry, sad or afraid. So tracking down the smell of fresh blood, the tinny sweet smell of life, was a cinch for these devil dogs.
    Add to that the sound of the Gravitonius lying on the side of the road gasping for breath then they were in serious trouble. The engine’s great valves were still opening and closing, like the gills of a great monster fish in its final death throws. The result was a deafening cacophony of clanking metal and hissing steam; a noise that would attract attention to even the deafest and dumbest Dog Beast.
    One or the other would have been enough to send the Dog Beasts into a frenzy, but both? Well, it didn’t bear thinking about. It was for that very reason that nobody stuck around. Very quickly Auguste found himself alone in the middle of the road, staring down at this strange looking child/woman. It confirmed what he already suspected; that he was very much on his own with this one. The sooner he got the whole sorry thing sorted out, the better. It had already cost him seventy-two years of his life.
     
    As Margie slowly came to, she found herself in a small dimly lit room. A surge of adrenalin kicked through her body. Panic. She tried to sit up. Pain ripped through her chest, neck, back and stomach.
    "Shhh". A man’s voice soothed. "It’s okay, you’re safe."
    A million things raced through Margie’s head: had she been kidnapped? Was she safe? Could she trust this man? How did she get here? Why was she in so much pain? Why didn't she recognise anything? And more to the point, who was she?
    Auguste read her mind. "You’ve been in an accident. You’re okay."
    It took a few moments for Margie’s eyes to adjust to the dim light and when they did she could see that she was in what appeared to be a small room with a rug in the centre. In one corner was a mattress on which she found herself, filthy and stinking from her bloody and