First Battle Pt. 2

The surface made an odd crunchy sound when my feet made contact with it. Unlike the steel floors of the elevator or the smooth crystals of Milona, there was no reverberation on the surface floor. It was flat and sounded cold. If anyone were to step on this terrain, they would no doubt question what lies ahead.

Making contact with the steel floor was refreshing in this regard. One thing neither of us could’ve expected is that once my entire body left the surface, the fire that encompassed my entire being, suddenly disappeared as if it were never there to begin with. Granted, I wasn’t naked. For some reason, during the beginning of the conversion, people thought it would be worth investing in fire-proof clothing. It doesn’t really make sense but the thinking at the time was that the world was extremely unpredictable and since people would inevitably go up in flames, it’d be best if we could recover them fully clothed. At least they haven’t lost their sense of dignity. No matter what era of time we’re in, some parts of human nature never change…

“...”

Rocco had absolutely nothing to say about any of this. Any normal person would be freaked out. Hell, I was freaked out as well. Maybe it’s because I was knocked out or somehow the painkillers are dulling my brain power but my mind is oddly calm about all of this.

Gotta think, what’s the most optimal thing to do right now? No, no, first I need to reassess what has happened so far. We spent four hours in the elevator and that was fine. My suit was on before we even entered. This is all normal. Then the surface-dweller was going berserk. Why the hell was it going berserk? I got picked up, my uniform tore and my leg damn near came off when I hit the ground after Rocco shot it. We talked and then I headed outside, I was panicking about being on fire and then Rocco tried extinguishing the flames which knocked me out for a couple of seconds. Now, my mind is oddly composed about all of this. Ah shit, why is that still in my brain? No matter how objective I tried to be with my thoughts there was one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about.

“Sir, I heard some roller coasters would have these giant circles that would make you hang upside down for a couple of seconds. Is that true?”

Rocco started to relax a bit. “Yeah, they were called loops. You’d spin around in one-”

“I have to build a roller coaster with a loop as well. That sounds too good to be true!”

“... Bane, your leg…”

My leg began to pull my gaze towards it and behold, it came clean off. Why am I still so calm?

“We must travel to the rendezvous point and meet with the Ylvonian crew. Their doctors may not be able to reattach my leg but there is a good chance I may die from these injuries. A four-hour trip back down to Milona won’t do it.”

Rocco sighed, “Yeah, I agree. If you light on fire again though, I don’t know if I’ll be able to carry you through the surface.”

Shit, he was right. If we’re going to travel on the surface at any capacity, I need to have some form of mobility in the off-chance we encounter another hostile surface-dweller…

No, even if I’m mobile, any surface-dweller could easily catch up. What good would moving be if I can’t fight?! Is there really no path to victory here? Think, think, think!

Everything in the elevator is surface-proof, that much is certain. Maybe if we could take some sheets and tie them- Ah no, that wouldn’t do any good. What about the bunk bed railings? Those are metal, they could possibly… No, even with my leg bandaged, if I made any wrong subtle movements, the railing could pierce my body even further, and if I’m in battle, the odds of that happening increase tenfold. Nothing here actually seems useful!

Wait, our equipment… Yeah, our equipment! “Sir, can you…”

He didn’t even bother responding, Rocco seemed willing to trust whatever I had in store. This is an insane idea, but if it works, it’ll be extraordinary.

…

“You, sure about this, kiddo? It doesn’t even look practical.”

That was true. Walking felt difficult but it was manageable, now. “You have my leg in your bag, right?”

Rocco nodded. Maybe, it was a shot in the dark but if anyone could reattach my legs, it would be a doctor from Ylvona. With our strategy in place, we left the elevator and the still surface-dweller behind. We began a march to destiny.

Any kid my age would expect an expedition on the surface to be full of amazing moments. Dweller-slaying, resource gathering, teambuilding, and whatever else they taught us in high school. The truth couldn’t be further from that. Aside from the crunchy ground that seemed to have a similar appearance to sand, there wasn’t much else out here. My body remained in flames for every second, but I felt no pain and neither did my body. The surface was composed of barren land without much variance in… really anything. As far as my eye could see, there were no significant inclines of any sort. It seemed like this empty surface could go on forever.

“What the hell do you guys even explore? There’s nothing here.”

Rocco grunted and rolled his eyes. “Damn right, there ain’t nothing here, kid. I can’t imagine they tell you this one in Milona High, but us Scavengers here, gotta travel to another elevator three miles in either cardinal direction and that elevator takes us back underground and then to a more refined area. As refined as the surface could get at least…”

Was Milona really that ghetto? Even our surface is worse than other areas. I wonder what business Ylvona has with exploring the surface. Sure, the surface-recovery program is there, but when your people live under the ocean, I can’t imagine they have a heavy stake in it. Damn, my curiosity about the world kicking in now makes me feel all the worse for the times I skipped out on classes. They certainly taught us all about Ylvona and the other cities like Wanston and Flinholf but I was too busy goofing around to take any of it in. Being the son of the world’s most respected Scavenger Lord has its perks, but the world allowing you to be stupid definitely wasn’t one of them.

Part of me wishes something exciting would happen on our walk to the rendezvous point and aside from some standout surface-dweller sightings in the far distance, nothing of note seemed to happen.

I figured one of the better things to do while we walked was to experiment with my body. It’s only out on the surface that I’m completely engulfed in fire after all. The first thing to experiment with was touch. I made my hands touch all sorts of different body parts and it seemed that no matter where my fingers went, I wouldn’t feel the heat at all. What about superpowers? My father was a big fan of those cringey superheroes. Surely, some of them had to have fire powers as well, right? How does one even go about testing this though? What would the superpowers even look like? The spider dude swings with webs and I doubt I can swing with fire, let alone in a place like this.

I began to throw my arms out in all sorts of crazy poses and directions in hopes that something, anything would happen.

“What the hell are ya’ doin’, kid?” Rocco looked at me as if I were crazy.

“Sir, with all due respect, I am literally on fire. There has got to be more to this than me not dying to heat. You know how boring that would be?”

Rocco let out the biggest sigh of the day, “Sometimes the realest answer happens to be the most boring one, kiddo.”

What a Debbie-downer… “You’re telling me that you don’t think it’s absolutely insane that I’m on fire right now, and I’m not hurt at all?!”

“Yeah, kiddo, of course this is insane and I don’t understand any of it but that’s why we’re headed to these folk, right? If anyone in the entire world could figure out what the hell is going on with you, it’s those disgusting Ylvonians.”

“...”

“...”

“Sir, you don’t happen to be racist perchance?"

“...Kid, you might be damn stupid…”

…

Damn it all, I really don’t have powers?! That’s so lame… Anyhow, we should be approaching the rendezvous point any second now. In fact, where the hell are the others? We should have seen them by now. Rocco should have noticed this ages ago.

“Sir, what’s-”

A giant blast overwhelms me and I nearly lose consciousness again but my feet manage to move quickly enough to avoid the cloud of the extinguishers.

“Both of you, freeze! Take one more step and we have six trained snipers locked onto your heads!”

That was the voice of some old hag. What the hell is she talking about? There’s no way any sniper is here, let alone six! We’d have seen some signs of people somewhere. Screw that, I’m moving forward.

“Kiddo, stop! She’s right. They got the snipers on our heads. Don’t move. I can tell she ain’t lying,” Rocco was adamant in the way he shouted.

Although, I still didn’t believe that, listening to Rocco is probably the best thing for us, right now. Have to keep in mind that my entire body is on fire, which explains why they tried to extinguish me, and even after we get settled, I’m gonna have some explaining to do. If Rocco and I start acting apart, things can only get worse for both of us…