Life on Mars

Chapter Seventeen

The transporter circumnavigated area SO63 and hissed to a halt at the upper North East limits of the maintained city. The reassuring landscape view from the windows disappeared as soon as the door had slid open and the cool air rushed in. As the professor and the doctor stepped outside onto the pavement, the transport unit set off back towards the security of Heathen. 

Once it was out of sight, the silence was eerie. They stood looking around nervously for a moment and then at each other before the professor headed off up the hill.

"Let's go," he said as the doctor turned after him.

The atmosphere was cooler and quite misty, fog continued to thicken as they walked further North. Because the Heathen atmosphere was manipulated, the smog and cloud would accumulate here quite naturally on its habitational borders. Manhattan Chase was a few miles further South and no longer serviced by Mother or any of her automated systems, they'd be forced to walk from here. 

The air became moist and cold as they made their way along deserted weed-ridden pavements on foot. Sunlight filtered into light greys and blues as it struggled to burst through the heavy cloud cover. The buildings left standing were deserted and nature was winning the battle for dominance. Huge trees had taken root and ripped into the fabric of many of the structures. Some had utilised the glass-like greenhouses before punching their way through the windows and reaching for the sky above. Vegetation of various kinds competed for light amongst the shade of concrete towers.

Large areas of pavement were now a mixture of green moss and cracked grey concrete. The patchy fog shifted thick in places and clearing in others, occasionally tricking the eye forming figures, faces or creatures that would disappear as quickly as they formed. The professor clearly knew where he was going, darting this way and that with the doctor close behind. They pulled their coats tighter and marched deeper into the urban wilderness. The doctor noticed occasional rebel lightning symbols sprayed or scratched on walls as well as occasional derogatory text pertaining to the major. He felt nervous and uneasy like a soldier trapped behind enemy lines. Turning a corner, the silence was broken by the cry of a child. The doc instinctively felt the hairs on his neck rise in response. The professor threw a hand out across the doctor's chest to stop him.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered

"Help me, please, someone help me," cried the pained child's voice again.

"This way," cried the professor and set off into a side road that would once have been relatively wide but was now just a series of moss-covered pathways between trees and bushes.

"Someone, please help me, I hurt. I hurt so bad," cried the voice again.

Following the sound, they delved deeper, pushing damp branches out of their faces as they went. Up ahead, a large tree was protruding between the pavement and an abandoned office block. Its trunk powerful enough to have lifted part of the pavement like an old carpet. From the other side, they saw movement, a flash of yellow. Slowly the pair circled the tree as widely as they could to reveal the source of the sound. The boy looked around 14 years old and was partly dressed in a yellow open neck suit with no shoes. A large metal spike was protruding from his chest and penetrated into the tree, holding him in place. There was no blood, but where he could move his arms and head, the tree had worn away, exposing the white wood below the bark. At the points of contact, his clothes were torn and shredded. On the floor lay a single shoe with the foot still inside protruding from the severed leg were wires and metal twine of various colours. The boy could have been there for some time, maybe a year or more.

"Drone," said the professor with a sigh of relief. "Come on."

The doc stayed still, staring at the drone who attempted to hold out a hand to him, pleading.