Steam Punk

"Hurry up Rad!" Mickey screamed into the air as she bypassed her brother, literally leaving him in her smoke.

The gliders small engine was spitting out exhaust as she raced through the polluted-gray clouds. Her tattered leather bomber nearly torn off her body at the speed she was going. She pulled the lever to change direction, barely passing one of the governments sky-piercers. Her brothers old glider was screeching as he grew closer, she turned her back just in time to see him have a head on collision with the piercer.

  

"That idiot..." Cranking the engine she slowed it down, Mickey flipped it around and went to find her brother under the permanent smoke blanket.

  

  

  

After the second industrial revolution, her world had banded together to be the most advanced technologically in the galaxy. The result was full world pollution, the sky's are impossible to see above the blanket of black smoke produced by the mega-factories. The water was a dark grayish-blue that was often filtered to get the industrial fuels. It was a dead world, kept going by the factories.

Even though the world was practically dead, people didn't stop working. Machinery was built that used the exhausts of the factories as fuel. Hell, the gliders ran on the pollution in the air! Another advancement were the sky-piercers, giants compared to the scrapers of old. The piercers did just as their name suggested, the pierced the dark atmosphere. They shot out of the smoke blanket and looked like little metal flowers in a garden of thick, black fog.

  

Mickey had to make sure her brother was fine, it was illegal for anyone not working in the government to be above the blanket. She looked at the small balcony where her brother face planted but didn't see anything, I swear if that idiot got himself killed I'll never hear the end of it. She stepped off the glider and pulled the darkly tinted goggles above her eyes. She searched the ground for the metal door that dropped to the floor below them.

  

When her eyes landed on it, she tightened the thick gloves before grasping the metal latch. The thing was still hot even through her gloves but she ignored it as she wretched the blasted thing up. The ugly little ladder sunk into the smoke and Mickey frowned again. If Rad wasn't dead, she was going to kill him. Pulling the goggles over her eyes and the gas mask around her neck up to cover her nose and mouth she sighed once more.

  

Peering back at her glider longingly she gripped the top of the ladder and dropped down into the pit. Her hands gripping the warm metal as she slid through the smoke. It was just the thick smog for a few minutes until her feet hit the metal floor. It was still thick but not nearly as bad as above. Peering up she estimated the blanket to be quite a few feet thick, maybe even half a mile.

  

Mickey pulled out the small flute and after taking the mask off played a short ten second song. She listened as it slowly dissolved into the smoke. When there wasn't a reply she changed it very slightly making each note a little longer. When again, she was met with silence, Mickey started to get worried. It didn't matter if the only thing not broken was their mouth, if they were okay they would replay the song, that was just the deal made in the family.

  

The police sky-piercer was cone shaped and as she walked around the larger building she found nothing. She must have circled it three times before she finally excepted that her brother was found by one of the steam-officers. Steam officers, Mickey shivered at the thought of the nonliving men created by the factory officials to patrol areas normal men wouldn't or couldn't. They were empty suits in all black with guns strapped to their belts.