Skye City: The Darkness of Emmilyn

Breaking Out

'Guys, we have something for you,' the captain yells. 'We'll pass it through the door. Get ready.'

A large wooden handle pokes through the gap in the airship door which Nelson grabs and it gets followed by a sheet of metal with teeth. Looks like a frigging saw. Nelson pulls the wobbly metal saw all the way out the doorway, revealing another handle which I just stare at. No idea who is going to help Nelson with that thing.

'You two reckon you can saw through those branches?' the captain says.

'Yeah sure.' Nelson says on my behalf. Thanks boyfriend.

Nelson swats through the leaves, ducks under one of the large branches and rests the saw across the part beside where it meets the trunk. The branch sits at an angle with its broken edge pressing against the door and must be eighteen inches thick. This is going to be so fucking exhausting. The branch sits above the ground and is supported by smaller branches.

'Before we start, we need to be careful. When these branches are cut, we'll need to be ready to move. They could easily crush us. Plus, it's possible the trunk could suddenly roll so keep your eyes open.'

I grab the saw handle with no clue if my skinny arms are even capable of cutting through such a huge branch. This thing is as thick as a medium-sized tree. Nelson and I pull back and forth, back and forth and sawdust fills the air, making me cough and my nose run. Lovely. The process goes on forever with me constantly stopping to rub my aching shoulder and seek out breathable air. Eventually, when we are three quarters of the way through, the branch starts to bend and creak.

'Let's leave this one for now and saw through the other one for a while,' Nelson says and we switch to the other branch. This one is maybe twelve inches thick and stretches across the doorway and the smaller branches coming from it press against the door. Nelson squeezes into the smallish gap between the airship and the branch and he hardly has room to manoeuvre this time. We saw until we are two thirds of the way through the branch and it bends a little, then the tree moves a couple of inches.

'Best get out the way before I get crushed,' Nelson says and he climbs under the creaking branch, swatting leaves as it creaks louder.

'Shit, Nelson—'

CRASH! Nelson leaps forwards, snatching me in his arms as the smaller branches thrash wildly and the larger branch rolls towards us, settling at our feet. I spin my head to check the other, broader branch which is thankfully holding tight, despite being partially severed. 'We're fine,' Nelson yells and we quickly climb over the main trunk, stepping away to a safe distance.

'Try giving the door another push,' Nelson yells and the large branch bends and cracks. 'Push harder!'

'Okay, step back,' the captain yells like we had not thought of that. 'We'll try a little extra muscle again.'

The branch bends down and cracks and the door tilts forwards, lower and lower, revealing the tail of the robo-scorpion and the heads of many men. CRASH! The branch finally snaps and the door flies down until its end meets the tree trunk with a clank. The men clap and cheer, but I am not sure this is cause for celebration. They are going to feel disappointed as hell when they say discover what is out here.

The captain and his crew and a few passengers, including Nelson's friends, climb over the entrance door which lies two thirds of the way open and drop from the toppled trunk.

'What now?' Anguson says.

'Well, we're gonna need to shift that tree first of all. That's gonna be one hell of a job. If we cut it up, Bronson should be able to shift the pieces for us. Might take a few days, but a clear entrance will make life far easier,' the captain says.

'Then what?' Samaire says.

'Explore the area, gather anything useful we find, seek out signs of civilisation,' the captain says.

'Is that necessary?' Anguson says.

'Is what necessary?' the captain says.

'Seeking out civilisation? Call me crazy, but I'm thinking we might have everything we need here. Our plan was to hide until the war ended. Well we're hidden now. We have shelter. We have supplies and we have a forest which can provide anything else we need. We could survive years out here,' Anguson says.

'Well, let's just call that plan B. I'd rather get a better picture of our situation before we make any rash decisions, but you make some valid points,' the captain says.