Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

11: The Blues and The Banes

Stacy was waiting outside for me, and it really wasn't clear how long he had been out there. He had a video machine in his hands though, and he let me watch it as we walked.

"There's a new movement on the streets that everyone's talking about- call it a church or a political party, it's fairly clear the CFA wants nothing less than revolution." The first anchor was saying.

"Said to be led by an angel, the origins of the CFA seem to based in the past. Specifically, the last revolutionary group to garner major attention. 'The Rest' as it may have been jokingly called, sought for a violent upheaval of The Few, and was led by the past noted fugitive Blake Last. Luckily, Alexander Scott stopped them before they got anything done. Which begs the question: is that the fate the CFA is bound for?"

"Well, revolutionaries over the past two hundred plus years Hell has been in operation have never been successful. The only noted case being of Alexander Scott the first, of whom our current leader is suspected to be descended from, who usurped Naomi Sato one-hundred and seventy-one years ago."

"Yes, they do look similar, don't they?"

Stacy took his machine back from my hands. "We're here."

I looked up, expecting something. I wasn't really sure what. Most buildings in Hell looked the same, and this was absolutely no different. It was off white, square, and perfectly planned. Stacy took me to a side ally, however, and we came to a room that smelled like rot.

One of the wooden doors in the back opened at the step of Stacy to reveal a chemically clean room with checkered tiles and an affinity for gold. A sign on the wall read:

THE BLUES AND THE BANES

5/5/1/1

"YESTERDAY CAME TODAY."

I recognized the date as being the start of the cycle, May 5th, and the text below was a definite reference to the first reset.

"The elevator's already here." Stacy said. Sometimes I forgot how slow of a reader I was.

By the length of the ride up, I figured we must have arrived on the top floor. And though it was quite dark when we stepped out of the elevator, I could see the city lights at the far end of the room. Before that, however, was everything else.

I would say The Blues and The Banes was poorly planned. I'm no expert, though. But it just seemed to be a lot of everything. The lighting was dim and hazy, and through the very long room there were three distinct sections- a stage, where a woman was singing, an area of couches and coffee tables, and at the far corner, a set up of table booths.

Despite it being a private club, there were a lot of people. Most every chair was full, and the only place there really was room was in the couch section. But Stacy walked straight over to the booth area, and immediately someone stood up and offered her booth to us. A server ran to our side before we had fully sat down, and I had a feeling we had upmost priority.

"It's nice here." I said. It wasn't really that nice. I was just trying to be polite to Stacy. I guess I did like the view though, staring down at the city from above. This wasn't the highest building in the city, but it was close.

"It's the only private restaurant in Hell actually, otherwise I would have stopped coming here a long time ago."

"What's a 'Blues and Banes' though?"

"Erm. I believe 'Blues' was the name most of the followers of the first Alexander Scott's revolution. Banes are... I don't know. Something about the angels? You can't expect me to know everything about everyone, you know."