Engineer's Empire 2.0

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Outside Beadle Lumen looked up at the clock and sniffed, like a rat tasting the air. He consulted his pocket watch, then his dark beady eyes drifted up to the massive clock.

"It's two minutes slow. Hop up there and adjust it, then get on to your evening workload," Lumen said with all the enthusiasm of paint drying. Tyler's mouth dropped open.

"He just got the Central Clock working!" Tyler exclaimed. Lumen rounded the hook of his cane against the side of Tyler's head, sending him tumbling sideways.

"And that's the extent of back talk I'll be hearing about it," Lumen said, jotting something down on his ledger and walking off. Tyler balled his fists after Lumen turned. Slade put a hand on Tyler's shoulder.

"It'd only get worse," Slade warned. Tyler shrugged Slade's hand away, pushing himself back to his feet.

"Oh, I know," Tyler said, turning away and kicking up dirt. He turned back to Slade.

"One day, I'd like to take that cane to his skull. See how he likes it," Tyler said, his face turning red. Slade nodded, not sure what to say.

"I know. Look, go back to the bunk house and get Jeffrey. I'll meet you by the work yard," Slade said. Tyler grunted and walked away. As Tyler left, Slade looked over to see three rather sinister looking characters in black long coats and matching top hats. Their skin had a pallor that suggested that they seldom saw daylight. When they noticed Slade looking, they turned a nearby corner and vanished. Curious, Slade walked to the edge of the alley they had disappeared into, but saw nothing.

Shaking his head, Slade crawled back into the clock. After adjusting the gears to two minutes ahead, he stared at it. Lumen would never thank him, and no one in Brickton would ever know it was him, but Slade took a brief moment to pride himself on a job well done. Sometimes that was all he had.

His mind began to wander through familiar thoughts of sharing moments like these with family, a family he did not have. It was the same odd dream he would have on so many nights, spending time with a loving family he had never known. He would see such families, of the 'not his' variety, walking along together here in the city of Brickton or in his nearby village of White Pine. Sometimes they were quiet, sometimes they were laughing, sometimes they were bickering. But at least they were together.

He shook these thoughts away. Dwelling on parents and grandparents he had never met seemed so silly. Slade puffed out his cheeks and released the air. He imagined everyone had a dream of this sort. A dream that worried at their heart so fiercely, but was likely something that would forever be out of reach.

Wiping a fleck of dust from his eye, he looked out over the Wastes, the endless, desolate graveyard of ruined buildings and scrap metal. Its darkness seemed to stretch on forever. As he climbed down, he saw a man in a light gray long coat and matching top hat. He held out his own pocket watch and stared up at the clock.

"It's running again I see," the man said.

"Ya. Thank the Architect," Slade replied. The man turned toward Slade.

"You work on this clock?" he asked. Slade scratched his head.

"Ya," Slade answered.

"Hmmm...you wouldn't happen to have seen anything strange inside it, eh?" the man asked. Slade scratched the back of his head with his wrench.

"Besides rats?" Slade asked.

The man wiggled his mustache in thought.

"Er, no. That's not quite what I was thinking," the man said, sounding defeated.

"Sorry I couldn't help," Slade said.

"It's alright my lad. There's very few people who can," the other man said in an absent minded sort of way. Slade tilted his head. The man looked back at him.

"I'm sorry. I've let my mind wander again," the man said, chuckling.

"You're a builder are you?" he asked after a moment. Slade looked back up at the clock.

"Sometimes. When I get a chance."

"Where did you learn?" the man asked.

"Just reading books," Slade said.

"That's extraordinary," the man replied.

"Do you build?" Slade asked.

"A bit," the man replied.

"Are you an Engineer?" Slade asked.

"Oh skies and clouds no," the man laughed.

"Why not?" Slade asked.

"I build different types of machines than they're used to," the man said.

"Would you tell me about them?" Slade asked.

"Have you ever wondered about how you could combine things? Like, if you could lock the light of the sun into a pen? Or a carriage that was carried by the wind? Could a ruby power a locomotive? Could a locomotive become more than a train?" the man began. Slade scratched his head. It sounded like the stranger was speaking complete nonsense.

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Slade replied.

The man paused, as though he were deciding what to say next. When he looked back at Slade with his finger raised and mouth open, he went pale. He backed away. Slade turned to see another group of sinister men in battered black top hats and long coats approaching. Slade turned to speak to the man in gray, but he was nowhere to be seen.

The men in black shoved past Slade as they walked by, knocking him to the ground. Slade thought to say something, but a glare from a scarred eye under the hat made him decide otherwise. There was an old man standing in the middle of the group. Although slight of build and not as tall as the others, there was something about him that seemed much scarier than the other dangerous looking individuals. He noticed a marking on the inside of the old man's wrist. It looked like a tiny, bony hand had been dipped in ink and placed there.

These eerie newcomers, like the man in gray, were now staring at the clock. They looked over at Slade for a moment. Slade's blood froze. A few bronzers, Brickton's city guards, rounded the corner and the group continued on into the city. Slade looked for the man in gray, feeling as though he had missed some important opportunity, but he was nowhere to be found. Slade stared up at the clock for a long moment.

"I hope this is my year..." he said to no one in particular.