Skye City: The Darkness of Emmilyn

Refuge from the Crazies

We remain uncomfortably close to the broken edge of the sprawling rooftop and I check for signs of instability, but the break seems surprisingly clean. Cracks do not extend more than a few feet inwards, and while a section of concrete closest to the shard tilts, the other cracked sections seem fairly level. The apartment building could almost have been carved by a knife.

A group of bottom-levellers are standing before our weary gang, mostly older males, clad in padded coats and woolly hats and gloves. Their outfits are greys and browns and dirty, but they are certainly better equipped for the harshest winter nights than we are. If we remain trapped outdoors, we must hope the weather remains mild until we can layer up our clothes.

The lad who beckoned us to safety speaks: 'Not a good idea to be roaming the streets now, between the soldiers and the crazies...'

'The crazies?' Bex says.

'That's what we call them. If they get a hold of you, they beat you, bite you, leave you squirming in the road. There's no point in fighting back because they can take a hell of a beating and keep coming. Sometimes they snap out of it, act all confused. I've even seen one apologise, run home crying. If they carry on like this, the soldiers will probably gun them all down.'

'Where did they come from?' I say, baffled by the sudden outbreak of mass insanity (which Rupert actually predicted) because I have never heard of such a thing. Well unless you consider Samarian gatherings mass insanity.

'Around here. They were just ordinary residents. About three weeks ago, I saw my first crazy and thought it was a one-off, but since then I've seen about one new crazy a day, sometimes a few. I've no idea what's driving them to be this way, but the scary thing is the way their numbers are growing, we dunno who'll be next. It could be any one of us. As you can imagine, we've been reluctant to go down these past few days. This whole thing's a nightmare.'

'You've been stuck up here the wh-whole time? Were you up here when this thing fell?' Oscar points to the Skye Elevator shaft which is just a beastly shadow obscuring the night sky.

'Yeah, the shard struck the building at night – it was glowing orange so we feared fire, but then the rain fell, turned to steam and hissed. The impact wiped out a few huts, killed four of our friends, and many more in the building below. The screams from those trapped inside lasted for days. No ambulances came, no rescue droids, nothing. We were all in a state of shock. We still are,' the lad says.

I picture the explosion of Orbital City, the ensuing shooting stars, and the Skye Elevator fragmenting and showering Medio. The shard has been catapulted maybe ten or twelve miles across the hubs of the city. It seems to have speared the ground and then fell against the apartment building, slicing through masonry until eventually it stopped and the sheared section simply collapsed.

I would have expected something so immense to explode on impact, but I keep hearing how robust and lightweight those construction materials are, and this proves the point. It seems surreal to be seeking refuge on such an unstable roof, and I wonder what might trigger further collapse. Strong winds? Nearby explosions?

The key question is where lies the greater risk, in or above the warzone? My guess is the risk above the warzone will increase faster than the risk down below, meaning this is a very temporary solution.

'We saw the fire burning in the sky and were scared to leave, but just as scared to stay. We thought more of the building might collapse, but from what we can tell, it's pretty steady, and we have food, water, shelter. Down below, there's gunfire, bombs and crazies.'

'I can't believe you've been trapped here after something so horrible happened to your friends. You must be desperate to leave.' I fix the lad's small squinted eyes, noticing faint bruising around one. 'Everybody's facing their own nightmare now. I... I... This is really your best option?'