Chương 39: [A Specific Kind of Compliment]

Rika's head was already moving in every direction before they'd made it ten steps past the barricade.

"What're those?" She pointed at a row of cars parked along the street.

"Cars," Parmo said.

"They're like a carriage but don't need horses, an engine does the work instead."

"Engine?"

"Inside the car. They run on fuel and can go way faster than a horse. How far away is the capital of the empire?"

"A few weeks away by horse, takes a lot longer on foot."

"Well a car, with roads from here to the capital, could make that in a day." Rika's eyes shot open even wider.

"Woah, that's amazing!"

"Right? You see that circle thing there?" Parmo leaned into the front right window.

"That's the steering wheel. You use that to turn and there's pedals, like levers you push with your feet, they make it go faster or stop." Rika stared at the car.

"Can we make it go?"

"Not without fuel. And the roads aren't exactly clear." She pressed her face against the window of the parked hatchback. Torren leaned down beside her with curiosity, the car shifting slightly in their combined shadow. Shai was looking at the street itself.

"You built all of this?"

"Not us personally," Leo said.

"But yeah. Roads like this cover most of our world. Thousands of miles of them." She looked up the street, then back.

"Are these all homes then? When I was scouting I saw some of these but the way they're all connected together was confusing."

"Most of them yeah," Sam said, pointing to one of the edges of the street.

"Some, like that one, are shops. You find them in residential areas so the locals have somewhere to buy what they need without going to one of the bigger supermarkets." Torren looked along the row of houses.

"I imagine your town has many streets like this."

"Before this part was pulled here it did," Leo said.

"This street cuts off about a third of the way to where it was before. What you're about to see is only a small part of the whole." He paused.

"The town we came from had just short of a hundred thousand people." Torren absorbed that.

"Our cities," Sam added, "hold millions." The group reached the end of Murry Street and turned left. The further they'd walked the more people had appeared. Word had clearly got around — a few stood in doorways, others found reasons to be near windows. Everyone was trying not to be obvious. Most of them failed. A small group of older women stood together further up the street, one of them already watching the group heading toward them. Luka nudged Leo and nodded toward her.

Leo grinned and the others noticed too — they'd talked about her the night before, the woman who'd asked about cat ears and wandered off grumbling to herself. She caught the nod and decided that was good enough, breaking away from her friends and walking over. She stopped in front of them and looked the three up and down.

"So," she said.

"This is them then?"

"This is them," Leo said.

"Shai, Rika and Torren." She looked at each of them in turn then nodded once.

"I'm Agnes. Nice to see young Mike wasn't taking the piss last night." She looked up at Torren. Then looked again.

"Jesus, you're a big lad aren't you." Torren laughed.

"Yes, I get told that quite often."

"I bet you do." She gave him a look that made Phil suddenly find something very interesting on the other side of the street. Luka had his fist against his mouth. Sam was looking at the sky. Torren took it completely in stride.

"Anyway," Leo said.

"We've got a lot to show them Aggie, we'd better get going." She nodded and turned around without saying goodbye, walking straight back to her friends. The group set off again and a few seconds later laughter drifted up the street from behind them. Torren turned and raised a hand. The old women dissolved into giggles. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Man," Parmo said.

"Torren's a gilf magnet. Who'd have thought it?" Rika's head turned.

"What's a gilf magnet?" Parmo went very still. He looked at the others for help and found nothing.

"Nope," Leo said.

"You said it. That one's on you." Rika fell into step beside Parmo, head tilted.

"So what's a gilf?" Parmo opened his mouth. Closed it. Tried again.

"It's a, erm." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's kind of a..." Shai had stopped looking at the buildings and was now looking at Parmo with the same expression as Rika. Torren walked along beside them, smiling pleasantly at everything, clearly listening.

"It's a compliment," Parmo tried.

"Sort of. In a way."

"What kind of compliment," Rika said.

"A very specific one." Sam let him suffer for another few seconds then spoke up.

"A magnet is a metal object that pulls things toward itself. If you want to know more about magnets we can get into that later." He paused.

"You looked like you were struggling with that bit so I thought I'd help." Parmo visibly relaxed.

"I'll leave the gilf part to you though," Sam said, and turned away grinning. Parmo stared at the back of his head with complete betrayal. The others were already grinning. He looked at each of them and found nothing useful.

"Right," he said. He took a breath.

"Ok so I was joking about the gilf thing, I want to be very clear that I do not and will not ever find Aggie attractive." He paused.

"It stands for grandma I'd like to—" he mimicked humping the air. The lads lost it completely. Shai turned away, shoulders shaking, trying to hold it in and failing. Torren didn't try at all, a full belly laugh rolling out of him that turned a few heads further up the street. Rika stared at Parmo for a second. Then it clicked.

"Brandon!" She covered her mouth.

"Oh gods..." Parmo was going red from the ears down.

"Man," Phil said, wiping his eyes.

"Torren, you've been here five minutes and you've already got yourself a fan club." Torren laughed even harder. They reached the crossroads and stopped.

"That's ours up there," Leo said, nodding up at the windows above the corner building.

"Top floor. Where we're staying for now anyway. Our actual homes are still back on Earth." A brief pause settled over the five of them. Before it could fully take hold Rika spoke.

"Will you ever get back?"

"That's the plan," Phil said.

"Just haven't figured out how yet." Torren looked up at the flat then back at the boys.

"Then until you do, I hope it feels like home." He said it simply, no ceremony to it, and moved on.

"Can we see inside?" The moment lifted.

"Maybe later," Parmo said.

"Loads to show you first." Rika pointed at him.

"That's a yes. I'm holding you to that Brandon." Parmo closed his eyes.

"Pub's over there," Sam said, nodding to the right.

"Headed there after the town centre. Someone's usually in making food through the day, free for anyone who needs it." Rika turned toward the pub instinctively.

"Town centre first," Parmo said. She turned back.

"Ahead of us is the civic centre," Leo continued.

"War memorial's just outside. Town centre's through there." He looked at the three of them.

"Happy to just follow us?" Torren smiled.

"Lead the way." They came out onto the open stretch in front of the civic centre and the space opened up around them. More people here than anywhere else they'd walked through, moving between buildings, sitting on the steps, talking in small groups. The stares followed the eight of them but nobody made anything of it. A lad around the same age as the boys broke away from a group nearby and wandered over.

"Hey, you lot just back from the meeting?"

"For now," Luka said.

"Doing a bit of sightseeing. Meeting seemed to be going well when we left." The lad looked at the three of them with open curiosity.

"Nice to meet you all." He looked at Shai, Rika and Torren in turn, nodded, seemed satisfied.

"Won't hold you up. Just wanted to make sure things were going well. See ya later." And wandered back. Shai watched him go.

"Do you know him?"

"Nope," Leo said.

"Just someone from town."

"He just came over."

"Most people round here are like that. You'd have a harder time of it in a big city I think. London especially." He paused.

"The north's more communal, especially in towns like this."

"How would you know," Phil said.

"You never leave town."

"I just left town, I was stood in a field further away from home than anyone other than the people here have ever been. Neil Armstrong, eat your heart out." Leo said.

"I'd say that counts as well travelled at this point." Phil considered that.

"That's a terrible argument."

"Yup. Moving on." Leo grinned. Shai smiled and said nothing. They crossed toward the war memorial. The boys slowed naturally as they approached, giving the three space to take it in. A tall central pillar, smaller ones flanking it, the surrounding walls lined with metal plates running from one end to the other. Names. Hundreds of them, covering every surface.

"About a hundred years ago," Leo said quietly, "our world had the biggest war it had ever seen. It lasted years. Millions of people died." He paused.

"Those are the names of the people from this town who didn't come home. So we don't forget." Shai looked at the walls. She'd fought things in the Wilds that most people in the empire would never see. She knew what it was to lose people. But millions was a number she couldn't get a hold of, no matter how she tried. And this was one town's worth of names from that. Torren stood very still beside her, reading names he couldn't understand in a language that wasn't his. He understood them anyway. Rika said nothing.

None of them moved toward it. Not because they didn't want to, but because it didn't feel like their place without being invited. Leo looked at the three of them.

"Do you want to go closer?" They stepped closer. The three of them moved along the wall slowly, taking in the names without speaking. A few townspeople nearby had stopped what they were doing, watching the three pay their respects to people they hadn't known existed minutes earlier. After a few minutes Luka stepped back.

"Right," he said quietly.

"That's enough of that." He looked at the others and his face shifted, something clicking behind his eyes.

"You reckon if we find some batteries we can get a Game Boy working?" The lads stared at him.

"No fucking way, how did we not think of that? You fucking legend." Phil grinned.

"If this works," Parmo said, already walking, "I can stop feeling like I'm going cold turkey with no League." He paused.

"Do you know what it's like? Nothing. No ranked, no nothing. I'm going insane."

"We know," the other four said, more or less at the same time.

"There's a game shop just through here," Sam said.

"Might still have stock."

"Move," Parmo said. Shai looked at Leo.

"What's League?"

"A game. He's addicted to it."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Only to his mental health." Parmo was already at the entrance to the town centre.

"Are you lot coming or what?"