Story of Kings

Phase 3

But suddenly there was urgency to his movements; he was no longer a stray cat, but a tiger with a motive. Ken skipped from building to building till he was beside what were the remains of an estate of apartment buildings. At the end of the estate there were some fences that had contorted and moulded into very weird yet intricately fascinating shapes.

Beyond these fences was precisely what Ken was looking for.

The skeleton of what must have been a very magnificent spherically shaped religious building still slightly glistened in the light of the artificial stars. But it was the clock tower that was attached to the religious building, standing graciously above all the other buildings in the South wing that had Ken immediately moving.

Where Ken was it would have been time consuming to go round the building so he decided to hop through an empty window and just pass through the apartment buildings themselves. As Ken skipped through the second row of apartments there was a low sounding growl. Like the sky was trying to regurgitate something, Ken stood dead still hoping that it was the random collapse of a building. His hopes were crushed as the growling noise just got louder and deeper, so deep that the fragile structure of the newer, less sturdy apartment buildings that were built in a rush to keep up with the unexpected increase in population during the second era of mankind's venture into space known as the "Star Rush", began to shake in a way that Ken didn't find amusing.

Then a shadow flew overhead, like a sweeping spirit across the land. Ken peeked outside and quietly gasped as he laid his eyes on the source of the loud rumbling.

The TRAPSS that looked nothing more than a faint little bird in the sky had flown down and become a menacing dragon whose every motion shook the ground beneath it.

The excess energy from the propulsion systems continuously beat the ground up as the ship sharply flew very low narrowly avoiding numerous collisions with various buildings and objects. Ken pressed himself against the wall, stiff as a statue wondering what the hell was going on. The ship stopped its very peculiar flight path and slowly began to rise and fly towards the centre of the Museum. As it began to rise Ken heard the dim hum of a drone, it began to get louder and louder. As it got louder more hums joined it till it sounded like a swarm of electronic bees.

Ken sat there absolutely shitting himself, "have they pin pointed his location? Why the hell would they need to gather so many drones in one place?"

Ken crept to the other side of the apartment so he can see exactly what was going on.

He peeked out of a half melted window and saw that the drones were converging on the TRAPSS.

"Oh my God" he whispered, and literally turned tail and ran towards to the clock tower.

As he was sprinting, his mother's nostalgic voice returned to his head.

"Because the survival rate of the TRAPSS is practically 0 (she said with a lot of pride) and scanning through all levels of the electromagnetic spectrum is VERY energy consuming, the R&D department never really found a need to hassle themselves trying to find a long lasting energy source for the drones, so they only have a 10-15 minute battery life before having to redock and charge." As Ken ran, he glanced back and his sight confirmed it, the drones were slowly slotting themselves back into the sides of the ship. Ken had decided that the charge time would take around the same time as the battery life so he had at least a 10 minute window where he didn't have to worry about being unexpectedly being drilled full of holes.

In a few seconds he'd reached the foot of the clock tower.

He crept in on the off chance that a troop had wandered there for a random toilet break or something. The remnants within was coated with a thick blanket of dust and cobwebs making it look like it was covered by a glistening blanket of thick silver velvet.

Ken crouched and surveyed the ground. Any recent activity would have disrupted the stillness and left marks in dust this thick.

Ken was content that there was no ambush and sprinted towards stairs he had spotted earlier on the left wall. He reached the top of the stairs panting and sweating.

Ken had been running on fumes and adrenaline since he saw his best friend's chest carved open, maybe it was the relief of not worrying about the drones, but being able to catch his breath and think about everything that happened he felt a lump in his throat, his eyes watered and the strength in his legs evaporated. Before he knew it he found one knee on the floor and his hand clutching his chest. His eyes were watering but no tears were coming out, his mouth was wide open but no sound coming out. He looked up and began to drag himself towards a small door that led to a small ladder leading to the very top of the clock tower normally used by maintenance crews for the roof.

Ken emerged onto the roof and gasped at the magnificent view of the Museum; he quickly refocused himself and began to scan for what he was looking for.

There it was, all the way at the end of the North Wing was the waste disposal depot, Ken pulled out a little map and marked nearby landmarks to help him on his way to the depot.

Ken scurried down the maintenance ladder and came on the landing.

He crossed the landing and walked towards the flight of stairs. When he got to the top and looked down, a metallic figure with a well-polished assault rifle was literally within an arm's reach of Ken, he looked into the barrel ..... "fuck" and just saw a flash.