Solar Sky

Chapter 1

It was the conversation I overheard in the gardens that first tipped me off to my impending capture.

I tossed the fresh carrots and celery I'd selected from the garden onto the shopkeeper's counter, and turned to glance over my shoulder at a pair of young women muttering to one another over the potato patch.

"What do you mean you saw them?" One of them asked, giving the other a doubtful stare.

"I mean I saw them on the lower floors, guns and everything." She waved an earthy potato around, gesturing. "I was just leaving my shift on the maintenance scaffolding and I could see them from the railings."

"Why on Earth would they be here?" Her partner worried. "I thought the Crawlers had their own police."

"Looks like, two ration cards, Billy," the shopkeeper said, already handing over my vegetables wrapped in a bag. He knew me by name, or, at least the name I'd given him.

"Uh," I mumbled, turning my head back to my purchase and digging my hands into my pockets for payment, but keeping my ears trained on the conversation behind me. "Right, just a sec."

"You've got me," the woman replied. "There must've been more than 20 of them, though, all armed to the teeth. I betcha they're out looking for someone."

"Here you go," I said numbly, placing two cards into the shopkeeper's outstretched hand.

"Ugh, this trip cannot be over too quickly. I don't want to be anywhere near those EAL troops, and it makes my skin crawl that they can just barge in here whenever they feel like it. I can't believe some people make their homes in a place like this."

"Billy?" Valery called, already stepping away from the counter. "You coming?"

I grabbed my veggies and turned, following her. Valery, my only friend. Her rounded eyes and cheekbones pinched together as she considered my hesitation. I'd forgotten she was here with me. "Coming."

My mind was spinning. Could it be true? If the EAL was here, storming through the lower levels of the Crawler with armed troops, that meant they'd found me. They could be here for someone else, but if they were here for me then I have to act now.

"Another successful shopping trip!" Valery exclaimed, punching an arm into the air dramatically. She rapped the knuckles on her left hand to her chin, which was rounded and curved out slightly. It was one of her many strange gestures that seemed to be habit, gestures I'd accepted as normal by now. Her brown eyes peered sideways at me, a prodding stare meant to encourage conversation. "Now you have everything to make your stew, right?"

I needed to get back to my apartment on the 15th floor. I needed to burn everything, grab my gear, and get out of here as fast as I could. They would find my apartment eventually, so I had to make sure there was nothing they could use to track me. I'd lived here for nearly a year now, and there was bound to be too many loose ends to tie up neatly. The fire I would set should consume everything and end up being my best shot to eliminate every trace of evidence of my residence here.

Had it really been nearly a year now? Damn. Even the shopkeeper knew me as a regular customer. I should never've stayed in one place this long. I grew too many roots here.

There were great green stalks of celery framing the garden path around us. I could see the exit, could imagine myself sprinting towards its crusty steel door handles, but I momentarily felt faint. How long did I have before they found me?

"Hello?" Valery chirped, eyeing me with a cocked brow, the bushy hair there bristling. Her naturally round features seemed to stick out and point accusingly at me. "Are you feeling alright?"