The War Apiary

Chapter 18 Long Night

The noise of the neighbourhood sleeping comforted little Amelia. She hugged the doll that her mother had given her on her eighth birthday which had only been a couple of days before. She had named the doll Rosy after the famous Rosy Meed. The doll had white soft Crochet wool as her body and strands of yellow yarn for her hair. Amelia loved little Rosy. To little Amelia, Rosy was the best thing she had ever been given as a gift.

She hated it when her parents left her alone with her aunt for the evenings like they had done so that night, they would never bring her with them to the Opera House. It was there once a year date away that they would save up for bit by bit all year.

She rolled over on her mouldy hay mattress clutching Rosy. The orange streetlights high above from the second and top tier shinned through the loose slats on the attic roof.
I wonder what it would be like to be an actress up there, She wondered. Her 8-year-old mind dreaming, they would go to many glamorous parties in the governor's backyard with almond cakes, yes, lots of those, she imagined. And every day she would wear a different dress made from old antique materials from when the Ancestors ruled the world in the age of glass and plastic.

The noise of a cat hissing and a dog barking made Amelia wake back to reality. She shivered. It was cold up in her attic room. The wind would somehow make its way into her small peaceful space. That didn't bother her much though, she was more concerned about her aunt. Her stays always gave her the creeps, with the way she walked, dressed, and talked. Knowing that she was sleeping in the room just below her annoyed Amelia, for the aunt could tell when she got out of bed in the night to look out the small attic window at the top tiers.
A loud noise sounded somewhere far above.

They're setting off the fireworks now, she thought smiling. She loved fireworks with all the different colours that they produced, filling the sky with bright glitter. She was too deep in her little dream that she didn't notice that the ground had shaken ever so softly.

Almond cakes parties with fancy dresses as well as a firework display once a week, Amelia thought. She hadn't had almond cakes in ages. With the die-off of bees, it made it hard for the bakeries to get their hands on almonds. She didn't eat them often anyway even when there were bees; it would be a special treat that her father bought her on his way back from working in the cabbage farms that lay northeast of the city.

The sound of a door closing in the room below her made her dream disappear like a ghost in the night.

"Amelia? Amelia quickly gets dressed!" Shouted her aunt as she hurried up the stairway to the attic. It was only now that Amelia realized that something was amiss. The glow of the streetlights from above that came through the gaps in the tiles of the roof seemed to glow more of a red colour than the normal orange streetlight colour.

The door flew open and the aunt rushed in like a winter wind. "Quick, grab what you can, we must go over to my place and see what my husband thinks we must do."
Amelia quickly got out of bed and dressed while her aunt stuffed as much of Amelia's clothing into old wheat sackcloth.

"What's happening? Why are we leaving?" Amelia asked frightened, this never happened when her aunt came to look after her.

"There's been an accident on..." The aunt paused but continued to gather up Amelia's things.

"An accident where?" Amelia asked as she grabbed Rosy off her bed.

"There's no time to explain." The aunt said finally grabbing Amelia's hand and the sack of clothes and pulled them both down the small stairs to street level.
The kitchen was dark and cold as the fire had stopped burning hours ago. Her parents hadn't returned yet...

"Where's Mamma and Daddy?" She asked worriedly.
The aunt didn't reply, they had to keep moving if she told her the truth it would surely slow them down.

They were now in the street and hurrying up it. Other people were beginning to come out onto the streets too. Some had their heads out of their windows looking up at the brought top tiers in fear.

"Amelia, whatever you do, don't look up." The aunt said firmly as they hurried along.
Amelia listened to her Aunt and did as she was told and did not look up. What could be so bad up there anyway, she wondered but hearing the firm voice of her aunt in the back of her head kept her from peeking.

They walked up and down streets until they arrived at Amelia's uncle's place.

"Jared!" The Aunt called as they entered through the front door. "Jared where are you!" She shrilled. The uncle appeared looking worried and stressed. He embraced his wife and kissed her.

"You're alright." He said before picking up Amelia and giving her a tight hug as well.
While Amelia's had her back to her aunt and had her head on her uncle's shoulder the couple was silently conversing.

"Have you told her?" He mouthed to her.

She shook her head.

He slowly let her go.

"We must go." He said to them both.

"When do Mamma and Daddy come back?" Amelia asked worriedly. "How will they know I have gone with you?" She continued, now beginning to cry."We didn't leave them a note,"

The aunt knelt down beside her. "We are going to see them outside of the city in a minute, but first we must go." She said. It seemed to comfort Amelia and she quieted down and followed her uncle and aunt.

The uncle had already a bag packed with items and they left the house and started to head towards the main gates. People rushed back and forth, some were screaming others were laughing and shouting that the end was now upon all and everyone and they should all rejoice.

Amelia was frightened. She had never seen her city in a state of terror before. She watched as a known bakery that she liked and at one point thought of even running it when she grew up now was being plundered and the front glass windows were broken into.

"Look away, child." Her aunt said but that was hard when something you have known for the most of your life being torn away like an unwanted bread crust for the rodents to fight over. She clutched Rosy to her chest.

Fires were now popping up all over the place with whole buildings going up in flames and the air was now thick with fumes and smoke making it hard to see and breathe.
Someone bumped into her in the thick smoke making her lose her grasp of her auntie's hand.

"Aunty!" She shouted.

A deep thud sounded close by followed by a pop made from high pressure quickly escaping from a casket which was then followed by a scream from a woman.

A gust of wind blew enough smoke away for Amelia's eyes for her to identify her aunt kneeling by a body that was crumpled on the ground. A large blackish orange blob seemed to sit where the person's head should have been. "Uncle?" She whispered before shouting it again. "Uncle!"

Her Aunt was wailing and clutching at her dead husband's hand which had been full of life only moments before and was happily holding hers, but now, now it was dead as a deathly cough one might catch in winter.
Amelia now looked up. Instead of finding what she thought she was going to see which was the two tiers, was instead a large molten mess of metalwork which was now dripping off the sides of the second tier and dripping down onto ground level sparking fires all about the base of the city. One of the molten droplets had hit her uncle while they were running down the street. The high temperature of the metal on his head had killed him instantly and his brain had boiled, inturn rupturing his skull to allow the high pressure of hot steam to escape.

At this point, Amelia knew she wasn't going to see her parents outside of the city walls. They were on the top tear and that wasn't there anymore meaning they had surely perished. She sat down on the cold cobbled street clutching her doll even tighter and started to cry and sob quietly.

"Mamma! Daddy! Please don't leave me!" People rushed all about but no one seemed to notice her except for a teenager at one end of the street. He had paused to catch his breath and was staring at her. She didn't notice him.

The once beautiful city to hold the rich up from the great floods of the second QC era was now at its end and so were its many residents.