Fire Starter

Chapter 3: Lighter fluid.

       "Just a few more blocks.." I said to myself. The city stretching out behind me like an old ghost town. I looked up at the sky. It was pitch black and cold like mid-winter. Street lights were a thing of the past and I was navigating by moonlight. "good thing its almost a full moon" I said, adjusting my makeshift walking stick. The metal fence post I was using to keep myself upright was killing my hands but that still wasn't as bad as the two-hour walk that was supposed to be one hour. I could barely move my left leg without the pain making me almost double over. I was moving slow and it was late. I would have already been home if I hadn't gotten trapped in a building when the patrols flew over. Stuck huddled in what was left of an old house is not how I wanted to spend my night. "So much for I'll be home before dark" I mocked at my naive sentiment from the morning.

       My plan might have saved me getting sent to containment but the pain in my leg was beginning to make me feel dizzy. I hadn't removed the metal shard from my leg yet and I'd discovered it was too deep to remove without bleeding to death. I'd learned this from removing the one in my shoulder, which had bled through my shirt in seconds even though it wasn't that bad. Now I'd probably have to cut the shirt to get it off. I'd also left a bit of a trail. Back where the patrol was they would be able to track me to about halfway through the lower part of the downtown area and that's where I'd realized I was even leaving a trail. Most of that area was broken houses and old stores left standing from the riots but I still didn't like the fact that they would know I went through there. I was able to stop the bleeding in my leg enough so I wouldn't get tracked here but they would still be able to tell which direction I was heading. "I should have gone a different way" I thought allowed, but thinking about the pain in my leg and how long I still had to walk I kept moving. The worst part was the thought that I wouldn't be able to get home. Freezing weather I could handle. Blood and pain I'd been dealing with my whole life but not being able to see them again.. that thought killed me.  I would make it even if I passed out in the doorway. I kept going. They were worried and I'd been able to scavenge before I blew up the tank on the way here, but I didn't have much to show off. My backpack had burned quite a bit so I was afraid to put much more in it and it was slung over my good shoulder with it's remaining strap. As I started to move faster feeling sick from my thoughts and the pain I began hearing this high pitched whine. I looked around. Maybe I was losing it or maybe the blood I had lost was making me lose it. Maybe I was having auditory hallucinations. I was thinking about everything from attack dogs to airship engines. I started to panic. Moving faster I passed through the open gate to the steelyard, my movements became jagged as I looked around and I lost my grip on the metal pipe. I fell hitting the ground on my already injured leg.

       "Aaaaggghhh" I screamed feeling the sharp metal dig farther into my leg. I heard the pipe knock off some things and realized it had gone down the ditch beside the fence. No way I was getting it back like this. I rolled onto my back looking up at the half-hidden stars. I was at the opening of the steelyard. Sheet metal and things, too rusted to be useful, laying around and old furniture legs and parts of couches lining the path through the middle of it all. The riots had left this place alone and it had mostly been used for shelter. I could stay here, I thought.  "No. All I have to do is get through this place and I'm home free" I said trying to inspire moment in my leg. The patrols could still find me out here. At that moment I heard the whistling sound again. This time it didn't sound like an airship. There was a part of a couch to my left and once I listened for a few seconds I realized it was coming from there. My curiosity numbing the pain in my leg, I braced myself and crawled over to it. Putting my hand on the arm of the chair I was going to pull myself up until I noticed a hole dug out beside the couch. It was covered in bits of couch fluff and fabric making it hard to tell how deep the hole was and had little black patches that I couldn't make out in the dimmer light. I grabbed a match from my jeans pocket with my good arm and lit it. The glow from it wasn't much but after only following paths by light of the moon it was almost like midday in intensity.