Brink

Chapter 11: Stroll in the Park

Chapter 11

Nick

14-12-2019

30 minutes after Chapter 8

The music was nice. Even though the drums took the tempo of the song higher and higher, Nick found that it was only soothing. He strolled over the road which surrounded the inner park in the shape of a circle. It was called the Inner Cir.  He had already crossed the Outer Cir, which was a large street surrounding the park as a whole. After crossing the Outer Cir, he had found the barrier on the bridge. The vegetation on both sides of the road was thick, but the leafs had died off in the harshness of winter. It still revealed little of what rested behind the bushes and hedges.

A low fence ran across the sidewalk. The frost had coloured the steel bars and spikes white and grey, and it glistened like silver in the sunlight. Sunlight? Nick stopped and looked up. The clouds were tearing open, revealing long stretches of blue. The sun was breaking through as well, shining brightly on a city of darkness and death, as if it were trying to be ironic. Nick looked back in the direction into which he would head, and started walking again.

After a few minutes of calmly strolling around and taking in the environment, Nick came to a large gate. There were two smaller gates on the sides of the gate, for people. The large gate would have been used for vehicles. All of the gates had been violently opened. Large padlocks still lay broken on the ground. They had lain there for a whole year, untouched. Somewhere, Nick found value in that. He left them untouched as well, and continued to pass through the gate. This part of the park was named the Hidden City. It was a field with a lake, which was surrounded by the Inner Cir. Therefore it was formed in a circle.

There was a long path which ran straight into the distance. At the end of it, there were thick bushes and shrubs, and smaller pathways that led behind them. If Nick's memory was correct, there was a fountain there. His mother took him here when he was a child. He had been here when he was 12, once, and no more after that. His mother... Nick cleared the image of her face from his mind.

Nick stood on the path and stared off into the distance. The grass was white from the frost. He grabbed the radio from his belt.

'Rory? You there?'

After 10 seconds, there was still no response.

'Rory, mate? I need you, where's the package?'

Still no response.

'I'm in the park, mate. I need to move on before nightfall.'

There was no response. Nick heard the static of the line, so there was a connection. There was a link. Rory must have been absent, or maybe he had muted Nick for no apparent reason. Maybe there was something more at play. It didn't quite matter, because Nick's plan would not be changed. He needed the food and other supplies in the package. Nick walked over the path with slow steps. When he reached the end of it, he took one of the paths which led behind the hedges to see if he his memory was still correct. It was. Behind the hedges rested a frozen fountain. The water had gone black with dirt.

Nick decided to wait as long as it took. He took his raincoat from his backpack and laid it out onto the grass. He dropped his crossbow, took a seat on the coat and grabbed his backpack. He also took out the iPod out of his pocket. He checked the battery level of the device. The white characters in the top right corner of the screen read 42%. Good. Only if the battery were below 20%, would Nick find it necessary to charge it. So for now, it was more than sufficient. Nick took the radio off his belt. One last try then.