Dockingboys

Chapter Two

Docks like the West and the South Docks usually needed four things: the cargoyard, shipyard, trainyard, and the truckyard. Cargoyards were used to store cargo and empty containers of all shapes and sizes for the meantime and mostly consisted of a series of large warehouses capable of storing many containers. Cargo such as food supplies and natural resources like gold and silver would be stored in the cargoyard until someone, usually a government official, would come to pick them up.

The shipyard was basically a port that allowed ships to stay for a few days, in which their crew would go into the city for some fun and then return for another voyage. Public transportation such as ferries were also kept in shipyards to park, and fisherman ships and traderships that belonged to one rightful owner were also found here.

Of course, you couldn't do without the trainyard. Trains and ships were the main transportation these days, and they were vital to the arrival and delivery of various types of cargo. The trainyard consisted of multiple tracks that led to the West Dock Station, which was the main station situated next to the West Docks and is used to carry cargo to the West Docks by train. Some trains rested at the trainyard for some time before taking off to some other station or city to deliver cargo. Now, trains didn't stay at the West Dock trainyard, but actually stayed in Oakton's central trainyard, called the Crisscross, named after the complicated and amazing arrangement of tracks it beholds. In contrast, truckyards just consisted of a series of warehouses and parking spaces that allowed inbound and outbound trucks a place to rest and for the dockingboys to load up the cargo. Dockingboys had the job of loading the ships and trucks up with cargo that was supposed to be headed for the South Docks or even the North Docks. This allowed yard management to be very smooth, as trucks, ships, trains, and cargo were all organized in a neat fashion, in both the West Docks and the South Docks. All docks had a team of fifteen to twenty dockingboys to work, and if there weren't enough, they could always employ new ones.

Declan walked over to the truckyard and passed by Rake Mooring, one of the younger dockingboys. At thirteen, he was a kind kid, originally from the South Docks but having gotten traded to the West Docks a few months ago, Declan and a lot of other boys regarded him as a rookie.

Have a look at Declan. He had curly black hair with streaks and specks of red, and his eyes were a most unusual red as well. He wasn't muscular, but he wasn't skinny, either. His considerably tall frame usually led people to respect him. At sixteen, he was one of the oldest boys on the team, and one of the most skilled. Declan used to be a part of one of the steeplejack gangs in the city, but he was traded to the docks when he was twelve. This allowed him to be extremely agile and adept at climbing as well.

You'd wonder how such a skilled and quite charming boy would end up in the toil of the docks. Declan's future might've actually been in engineering and designing trains and cranes, but when his father left his mother, everything fell apart.

Rake nodded hello at Declan as they passed each other, and Declan gave a slight, barely comprehensible nod back. The truckyard was huge, as all Declan could see was the lines and lines of trucks. There were long haul trucks, cargo trucks, flatbeds, and tow trucks. Declan headed for the lot, and found a little less than fifteen trucks available.

This was typical, really. Truckyards usually included at most twenty trucks for the dockingboys to use, mostly for the easier transportation of cargo and oil. The rest that were found in the truckyard usually belonged to travelers or companies that specialized in transporting cargo. Of course, the dockingboy trucks were always kept empty when they were in the truckyard so that they are ready for the next driver.

Declan found a rather large flatbed and started the engine. It roared to life, and Declan started backing out of the truckyard and onto the road. The cargoyard wasn't actually that far, as one could walk there from the Hall in five minutes, but even a Minor container was the length of two men lying down, so trucks were needed to transport them. His next stop would be the cargoyard, where he would find some spare oil cans for the ships in the shipyard, which was why he was driving the truck in the first place. He drove down the docks, passing by other dockingboys and trucks as he roared down the road. Then, at the cargoyard, he turned left and pulled into the cargoyard.