Chapter One
There was a sound, a stair creaking as something walked over it. Queenie’s entire body went tense as she strained to hear the next sound. Her eyes darted around the small, dimly lit room looking for anything to defend herself with. The only source of light came from the sun outside the intact window. When they first found the room she thought it had been a miracle. Apparently not. She slowly rose from her crouched position, nearly crippling panic flushed through her body. Her chest felt tight as she stifled her breathing and became as silent as possible. This was all her fault. After all it was her decision to pick the only room in the building that didn’t have holes in the walls. Great for the cold nights, terrible for escape. She couldn’t believe she already failed and they had actually tracked her down. Queenie knew they were going to take her back. She didn’t want to go back, she wouldn’t. Her body made the choice; her brain was too busy freaking out. Mustering all her courage, she positioned herself just on the other side of the door. She was going to do her best to fight. They weren’t going to take her alive.
The footsteps were soft, but they were practically outside the door now. She and her team had set up some basic booby-traps to alert them of any unwanted guests. She waited to hear the tin can trap go off, she would use that as her signal to make her first move. She waited, but it never went off. She saw the knob move way too late, awesome. The door flew open and hit her square in the face, sending her flying back into the wall.
“What the - Queenie? Are you… what are you doing on the floor?” exclaimed a young boy with mousy brown hair and pale grey eyes.
“Rook! What the hell, you scared the – Why didn’t you, I thought they… oh gods never mind.” Queenie was holding her nose, it didn’t feel broken but it was bleeding profusely. There was an already dulling pain centered at the back of her head and a head shaped dent in the dilapidated drywall.
“Well I was on my way back to the usual meet up spot, and I got a little sidetracked…” Rook trailed off. A sudden movement behind him made Queenie jump. From behind the boy emerged a small black dog whose tail seemed to be fully motorized. “I found him on my route, he’s a scavenger just like us. I thought maybe we could take care of him. I’ve named him Snuffles.”
Rook looked more hopeful now that Queenie had calmed down and stopped the bleeding. She was now just gently massaging the back of her head.
“We barely find enough to take care of ourselves, Rook you know we can’t…” she hesitated and looked into the scruffy mutt’s eyes. Why did she look at the eyes? “Oh well, maybe just for a little.” She murmured.
Rook’s face cracked into his wide toothy grin. When he smiled he really looked like a miniature version of his brother, Bishop. He beamed down at Queenie, scooped up his new friend, and broke into an awkward sort of jig in celebration.
“Alright, alright I get it you’re happy.” Queenie grunted as she clambered to get back to her feet. A twinge of pain ran through her knees. The injury she had sustained in the escape had healed but her knees still gave resistance from time to time. “Help me get these packed up, will you?” she motioned to the corner of the room where there was a small pile of four backpacks. “We’re going to go out to pick up Bishop and Knight.”
Rook wavered at the door for a moment looking down at Snuffles. “We aren’t leaving again are we? We’ve only been here a few weeks and I really like it here…” Queenie looked back and could see Rook’s bottom lip quivering. “Plus, there’s still loads of stuff we haven’t gotten to yet!” he pleaded, gripping the bottom of his shirt. His lower lip was pushed out, Queenie knew he was trying not to cry and doing all he could to sway the situation.
If she was being honest with herself Queenie didn’t really want to leave here either. Rook was right: there was still enough in this city to sustain them for at least a couple months longer. Plus, this was the only city they had come across so far with at least one nice Old Earther on it.
Queenie also knew that out of everyone in the group Rook hated all the traveling the most. It made her feel terrible when she knew it was time to move again but she had already been putting it off for at least a week now. On top of that, they were pretty much out of rations. They were going to have to sell almost everything they had just to get enough water to make it to their next destination.
Queenie was trying to make the group’s movements as sporadic as possible. It had been four months since they had escaped to Old Earth. Queenie was trying her best to get the hang of this whole living as an outlaw thing, but she had no idea what she was doing most of the time. The only reason they had made it this far was because she had been so focused on taking care of everyone she never had time to actually freak out.
She could feel herself getting more and more paranoid the longer they were out here. There was no way Live Tech wouldn’t want them reclaimed, especially after the exit Queenie’s crew made. It must have been a great embarrassment for them when the news broke out on Aether. She was sure that the Bots, Live Tech’s hound dogs, were closing in on them. There didn’t seem to be any bounty hunters hired as of yet but Queenie knew they only had another month without that added danger, and that was if they were lucky.
“Look, I know it sucks but we will find a place where Live Tech can’t get to us, and when we do we will never move again.” Queenie opened her arms and Rook ran into them mushing little Snuffles between them.
“Promise Queenie?” Rook managed through a pathetic pout.
“Of course I do! Can’t stop now though, can we? Just think about what King would say if we were caught.”
This seemed to reassure Rook as he wiped his eyes on his sleeve and quickly started packing up the bags with the very few items they had in their possession. They put on their dust goggles and after a few minutes of fumbling trying to get Snuffles into the pack that Rook was carrying they were ready to set out to meet up with Bishop and Knight.
There was one cloud in the sky as they emerged from the small, dilapidated building they were holed up in on the outskirts of this Old Earth city. Old Earth cities always made Queenie wish she had gotten to see what this planet looked like before. This particular city definitely wasn’t the biggest they had ever traveled to, but it was the certainly the strangest. None of the streets seemed to be planned out at all. It was almost as if animals were put in charge of designing the road ways. Queenie was really going to miss the way this city made her feel. The only thing bad about this place was that the dust storms were worse here than almost anywhere they had been. If they played their cards right Queenie was sure they could circle back and stay here again, but she couldn’t tell Rook yet. He would never stop talking about going back.
The sweltering heat came off the sun in waves and made Queenie more grateful than ever for the scarf she had dug up last week. It protected most of her face from getting burnt. But after only a few miles of looking at little Rook with nothing protecting him from the elements Queenie had them stop long enough to wrap the scarf around his face. He put up a halfhearted fight but she could tell he was relieved when he finally had it on.
They had some loosely established routes around this city since they got here a few weeks ago. It was a very simple issue of determining which ones Knight and Bishop had chosen to search today. Usually they could track foot prints but the winds were ripping through the sky today and had blown away any clues as to where the other members of her team might be.
They had been traveling through each route carefully checking usual dig sites and clearing a sector before moving on. It had been three hours and Queenie was starting to get worried.
“Snuffles stop it!” cried Rook from a few paces behind her. “He’s trying to get out of the pack!”
“Well, maybe he needs to pee or… you know… whatever. Hold on, I’ll think of something.”
Queenie looked around quickly and happened to spot an old, ragged looking bandana poking out of a nearby trash bin. She grabbed it and fastened it hastily around Snuffle’s neck. Then, reaching into her pack, she pulled out a piece of rope and secured it to the knot in the bandana.
“There, that should do for now.” Queenie said giving herself a few seconds to admire her handy work. She thought he looked pretty good for a scavenger’s pet.
“Do you reckon we should get Snuffles a pair of dust goggles?” Rook pondered out loud.
Queenie opened her mouth to answer but something in her peripheral made her freeze. She lunged and grabbed a startled Rook and threw him behind her. She dug her hand into her pocket and retrieved the knife that she kept there. She was ready to jump and attack whatever mutated rat or vagrant emerged from the darkness that lay beyond the gaping hole before them. A flood of relief rushed through her body when she heard the voice that was attached to the mystery assailant.
“Queenie… Rook is that you? Weren’t we supposed to meet up at dusk?” It was Knight. Her brilliant purple eyes caught the light first. As she stepped out onto the roadside Queenie and Rook almost had to shield their eyes as the sun hit her white blond hair. Geez she was stupid pretty. The only mark on her porcelain skin was a long scar that stretched from her cheekbone to the corner of her mouth.
Knight was hefting her scavenging pack up the small incline that separated them. From what Queenie could see, she had a fairly successful day.
“Had to change the plan on the fly this one came home with that.” Queenie said flatly motioning first to Rook and then to Snuffles. Rook scoffed and covered Snuffles ears, shaking his head disapprovingly, all the while failing to hold back his little toothy smile.
“Nice catch, how do you wanna cook him little man?” Knight dared jokingly. Something about this must have struck a chord with Rook because he stopped smiling immediately.
“He’s not for eating! He’s for company!” he said seriously. Queenie and Knight laughed but Rook still looked worried and held on to Snuffles quite tightly as they set off to try and catch up with Bishop. Knight said she last saw him a couple miles down the road they were currently on but there wasn’t much shade and they were getting exhausted. They found one of the buildings they had been working on for a while and decided to stop inside to get out of the heat.
Once inside Knight and Queenie took the opportunity to evenly distribute the packs. They also decided to have their afternoon portions of water. They had found a nice dust dune in the center of the first floor and laid back on it while they drank. Looking up they could see straight to the ceiling where there used to be a skylight. Now there was just a gaping hole that let sunlight in generously. The building was one of the more dangerously dilapidated they had searched. Queenie had no idea what it had been used for when it was new, but there were books littering practically every surface. Queenie could also see tiered floors with railings and wooden shelving structures that had all but fallen apart.
They had only been sitting for a few minutes but Bishop was still missing so they couldn’t really rest yet. None of them seemed too keen on moving though, and while they were sluggishly getting to their feet they heard it. It sounded extremely far away at first but, they all froze recognizing it immediately. It was Bishop and he was screaming.
They started to run out of the building but all at once stopped and realized that the sound was coming from above them. They looked up almost too late and saw Bishop’s shape roaring into clear view. He had tucked his long, lanky arms into a surprisingly perfect cannon ball. His long hair streaming behind his head made him look like a human comet.
“Get out of the waaaaay!” he yelled. Queenie grabbed Rook and dove with him out of the way shielding him from the impending dust bomb. Knight lunged for the opposite corner but slipped and was just barely able to scamper to a safe distance. Just then Bishop collided with the mound of dust disappearing from sight and sending dust shooting in all different directions around the room.
“Idiot!” screamed knight, she usually didn’t have any patience for Bishop’s hijinks but it was especially bad when they put her off balance. Bishop emerged from the pile moments later completely coated in dust but otherwise fine. His signature smile broke out across his face after he finished spitting out a decent amount of dust that had made its way into his mouth.
“Wooo, that was awesome wasn’t it?” he exclaimed, his pale grey eyes bright but just visible through all the dust. He slid down the hill to meet them wiping off the majority of dust from his face. They were waiting at the bottom all wearing unique expressions. Knight looked like she was ready to strangle him. Queenie was honestly only mildly annoyed, he had done way stupider stuff. Rook looked up at him like he was super hero. Rook idolized his brother, even when he really shouldn’t. After a moment of reading the room Queenie could see Bishop realize she was waiting for her apology. They had an unspoken agreement, that he had to at least pretend to feel sorry after giving her a heart attack.
“Er… Sorry Queenie, it just looked like so much fun you know?” he stammered, obviously doing his best to look sincere. Queenie just rolled her eyes and nodded, already moving back toward the packs, which were now lightly coated in dust. Knight, however, was still glaring at him and Queenie assumed the sun would set before she let it go.
“Look what I found Bishop!” Rook said smugly “He’s named snuffles and he’s for company not eating!” Rook had jumped in between Bishop and Knight completely and unwittingly defusing the situation. Rook had pulled his brother into a kneel and was showing him snuffles bandana collar. Bishop chuckled and tousled the fur on Snuffles’s head and then the hair on Rook’s.
She hated to but it was really about time they got on the road again so Queenie cleared her throat and held up the packs that Bishop was to take. After handing them off and making sure everyone was situated, she gave Bishop his afternoon portion of water. He frowned after finishing it.
“Is that all? If feels like less than yesterday.” He said, through an exaggeratedly hoarse voice.
“That’s because it is less than yesterday.” Queenie said flatly. “We’re almost out. We have to hit up the market before we leave. We’re moving again.”
The news of moving was completely overshadowed by the fact that they got to go to the market today. It was everyone’s favorite thing to do since they got here. While most Old Earth cities still had somewhat established communities almost none of them were rich enough to support trade. The discovery of a market here made it even harder to leave this particular Old Earth city.