2 - The Sewer Dweller
The monstrous man writhed on the cold, hard, wet ground. “Water…. water” he croaked, even though there was nobody to hear. Twenty feet away, the drain water flowed like a river. The drain itself was only some four feet deep, and so the water overflowed. It was pitch-black water, and smelled like the world’s garbage dump. The underworld slums were the worst place
to be in, and the only thing that Miz Rable appreciated about it was the darkness. He was not a man who loved the sun, not since it had burnt his exposed flesh.
He remembered the day he had lost his skin. The nuclear blast had been only some hundred kilometers away from his dwelling, and the radiation had melted his skin clean off, exposing his flesh to the sun. It had caused him immense pain and he had screamed his lungs out. Then he had come to fear the sun, and lived like an animal in the dark places of the surface. His mind had been broken by the pain, leading him to become a vicious, insane psychopath. Anyone who was unlucky enough to pass unguarded by his hideout was a dead man. Miz was driven by a strange logic, that if he did not have skin, no one else should have it either. He then flayed alive his unfortunate victims, oblivious to their cries for mercy. This had earned him the name Skinless Skinner, which was what the other refugees in the World-Under called him, now that they could talk to him without fear.
This madness had finally been dispelled when the second round of nuke blasts destroyed his shadowy dwelling, again. A cold rage against the Others rose in his heart, and as he fled underground, he resolved to do anything in his power to help overthrow them.
Now he inched towards the sewer, dragging himself forward with his hands. The water looked enticing….
Unbidden, his thoughts went to his daughter, his only motivation in life. He hoped that he would be able to find her, here in the World-Under, where he had left her all those years ago, when she had only been an infant. Her face was still crystal clear in his mind, though now she would be a woman grown, and he would not be able to recognize her, nor she him. His cursed brother was the reason why he had to abandon her.
Di Ablough had gone to the World-Under when he was only a young teenager, and had somehow got it into his head that his brother Miz was not to be trusted. This was years before Miz had lost his skin and gone insane, when he had been a perfectly stable, although still radiation affected, surface dweller. After his wife died while birthing his daughter, Skinner had been lonely for over a year, caring for his daughter, when Di reappeared. He had greeted Miz like an old friend that day, and Skinner, wanting to reestablish ties with his kid brother had responded in kind.
In the sweltering afternoon sun, they started talking, but Di seemed strangely disconcerted, as if his mind was on some other matter. He had been working with a vigilante group, he said. The World-Under had treated him very well.
“So working against the Others, huh? Quite a noble task. Are you happy?” Miz had enquired. Di had nodded, although there was a glint of uncertainty in his eyes. Finally, at night, when Di had been dead drunk, he let his purpose slip. “…. so they told me ‘these surface dwellers pose a threat to us. We know you have a brother out there. Go find out what he’s doing, and what the other surface roaches are up to.’”
Miz couldn’t control his anger, and slapped Di’s face hard, so hard that the scoundrel flew back, and dropped the beer he had been holding. “You come to me after all these years, feigning friendship and happiness,” Miz had thundered, “and now you tell me you are a spy. Get out! Out, now! And if you return, well, I don’t need to tell you what happens.”
“Don’t tell me what to do, you big oaf. I am my own master.” Di’s speech was slurred. Miz did not deign to reply. Instead, he just threw Di a venomous look.
