Lurranus Stories: The Boy’s of ‘68 (Part 2)

 

 

 

(Link to Part 1: https://www.abctales.com/story/trans4mer/lurranus-stories-boys-%E2%80%9868)

 

Jack took several deep breaths, leaning on his knees and still winded from his fall some moments ago, as he watched several silhouettes running away from the narrow alleyway between the two gravel apartment buildings. Most of the men who had assaulted him and Ryan now lay, motionless, on the gravel below him, but he now realised several had caught on to what was going to happen to them, and had fled before they would be struck down by hurtling chemicals vials.

He then looked up at the figure who had, mere moments ago, saved him and Ryan from near certain death at the deaths of several thugs lead by a man named Haig, and satisfied his legs were now capable of supporting his body, rose up to face him.

The figure, who had introduced himself as Craig Donnely, was a skinny individual who seemed to be in his early twenties. Maybe he went to a university nearby, as he was of that age and had an almost Mark Zuckerberg vibe about him. He wore a blue hoodie it seemed he hadn’t changed out of for quite some time, and possessed unruly brown hair. His unkempt clothes and hair were a sharp contrast to Jack’s expensive, branded clothes, and combed black hair, and for a moment Jack swore he saw Craig’s lip curl up in disapproval over the time Jack had spent perfecting his physique. In fact he appeared to be eying both brothers up, as they were in turn observing him, and he looked perplexed at the large number of tattoos on Ryan’s arm.

With all three now standing up and level with each other, except for Ryan, a mix between a giraffe and a bodybuilder who was a foot taller than both of the others, silence ensued for a few more moments. Eyes darted from person to person, and gradually these movements stalled, as each boy seem to come to some sort of conclusion as to what they initial impression would be. It had been at least twenty seconds since Craig’s initial introduction, when Ryan finally spoke.

“I’m Ryan McAllister. Nice to meet you too.” He extended his hand. Craig took it, with a strong grip that surprised Ryan. “And,” Ryan said, pointing to his side, “this is my brother Jack.”

“I can introduce myself, you know.” Jack mumbled, as he reached out and shook his saviours hand. He tried to smile, but it looked like little more than a thoughtless, irrelevant lip movement.

Craig once again eyed the two up, then gazed momentarily at the still thugs and spoke quietly. “Let’s get inside.” He stated robotically, turning around to face the open window behind him which, moments ago, he had emerged dramatically out of. Craig climbed carefully in, and after giving his brother a look, Jack followed him inside. Ryan, scanning both sides of the narrow alleyway to ensure there were no sinister figures, hurriedly rushed to grab the two’s rucksacks, cradled lovingly in the arms of two unconscious thugs and passed them through the window into the arms of his brother. He looked one last time at the figures, afraid his movements might have somehow awaken them, then hopped into the room and closed the window behind him.

Looking around, the three were in a very small room. From where they stood, just by the window, there was a wooden door in the far left of the room and a bed to the far right, with a black rucksack on top, which was presumably Craig’s. There was an open clothes cupboard to their immediate left, a desk with a chair and a Microsoft computer to the right, and various clothes, books and wires cluttered over the rooms wooden floor.

Ryan looked around and said “You don’t get a lot of visitors, do you.”

Craig sat down, opened up a web browser, and, not bothering to turn around, told Ryan bluntly “Would you like me to show you to the door.”

Jack looked at his brother and shook his head disapprovingly. This look clearly indicated he thought his brother needed to change his tone.

“I just wanted to say thank you. For you saving us.” Ryan stated. Craig turned around, gave a curt nod and said “You’re welcome.”, before turning back around. The two brothers then stood in silence for a minute, unsure what to do.

“So, uh, do you go to a university near here, or something?”

Craig turned around again, and cocked his head, unamused and replied “Yeah.” as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

He turned around again, flicking through a website seemed to have some relation to chemistry.

“Is that chemistry? Is that what you study?”

Craig didn’t bother looking around. “No, it’s a porn website.” He muttered sarcastically, but to Ryan his tone sounded condescending and unpleasant.

“There’s no need to be a prick mate.” Ryan stated aggressively. He understood Craig didn’t owe them anything, in fact it was them who owned him, and he had no need to engage in polite conversation, but Ryan felt his attitude was completely uncalled for. “I’m just trying to make polite conversation. If you want us to leave, just bloody say so.”

Craig didn’t bother looking at them, merely twirling his finger in the direction of the door. “Bon voyage. Have a fun night. Be sure to follow the gravel brick road.” He whispered.

“Thank you for your hospitality, mate.” Ryan hissed sarcastically, walking towards the door, whilst his brother, a mute expression on his face, looked about as confused as a sheep who had suddenly woken up on Mars. He was perplexed at how hostile everything had just become, and was somewhat startled to see his brother verging on losing his composure, for the first time in years. And then there was something else, too.

As Craig relaxed, relieved his room would soon be tranquil again, he was startled at the unexpected arrival of a question, as Jack asked “How’d you get that?”

Craig tried stalling for time, hoping if he kept up his ignorant attitude Jack would lose interest in his query, but he gave up, looking away from his computer to see Jack pointing at something on his bed.

He turned around, seeing the vials of the VTR4 chemical he had used only moments before, which he had thrown at the various assailants outside his window, in order to save Jack and Ryan’s life. He looked curiously at Jack for asking about them, and for a moment even seemed to smile.

“An Empirius weapon’s truck dropped a few. I’ve always been interested in that kind of thing, so I grabbed them of the street, and took them here. To study.” He spoke slowly, with his eyes darting rapidly around the room, seeming to observe anything but the two people in front of him, although he seemed impossibly peaceful as he spoke, and Jack was glad that the individual before him was expressing a positive attitude towards the question. In a pair of days thus far categorised by violence, and emotional distress, bar their brief peaceful meal ten minutes prior, any semblance of positive emotion was welcome. 

Ryan, however, looked more concerned them anything else. “Empirius? The weapons manufacturer?”

“They also made some VR stuff.” Jack added.

Ryan glanced sideways at his brother with a that-didn’t-really-help-me-but-thanks-anyway look. “But what are they doing here?”

Craig look at Ryan uneasily, but finally spoke. “What are you doing here?”

“What? How does that bloody help... We’re here because someone broke into our house, and started a fire in our street. We lost our parents, we...”

“Yeah right, the first bit. Someone broke into your house. Why?” Craig paused, as if for dramatic effect. Ryan didn’t much care for the delay. “Because the government only now announced we’re out of resources, a fact they’ve been hiding for the last few years, to stop a public outcry. And now, everyone knows what they done... They’re angry, scared and, humans being the idiots there are, they will inevitably turn to violence. Not that it’ll help, of course, but that’s what they’ll do, because, you know, God forbid they take a moment and just think of a rational course of action.”

“So what, they’re going to start rioting?” Jack asked, suddenly looking nervous.

Craig nodded grimly. “Empirius basically specialises in anti-riot gear, and there’s about three hundred angry piss-heads slowly moving through peaceful neighbourhoods to get to the city, where, funnily another, all their favourite government wankers are gathering to think of an ineffective way to waste everyone’s money.” He gave Jack a haunting look. “So why else do you think they’re here?”

“Oh, shit...” Ryan muttered, thinking back to the circumstances that lead to him leaving his home. “We gotta get out of this city.”

“You could go to the Edinburgh light museum, or whatever.” Craig began in a dry tone. “I hear they have a ladder that leads all the way down to Australia. You could try that.” Craig tilted his head and smiled darkly. “The gravity would probably get pretty weird, though.”

“Ha bloody ha.” Ryan growled aggressively. “Have you ever thought about running a talk show?” Ryan walked slightly towards Craig. “The Specy Wee Shit Show. I think you’d be great.”

Craig gasped theatrically as Ryan stepped forward, trying to assert physical dominance in stereotypical male fashion. For a moment Craig mockingly assumed a similar stance, but quickly dropped it and laughed. “Huh. And you’d be my Channel 4 competition, using all three of your brain cells, struggling to remember what a “question” is.”

“You’re not bloody helping!” Jack suddenly cried out, shocking the other two. “Either of you! So, if we’re all done with our primary school insults, then shall we return to the moderately pressing matter of what the hell we’re actually going to do.”

Craig spoke slowly, looking at the floor beneath him. He seemed vaguely disappointed in himself. “I’ve emailed someone, just seconds ago. There’s a boat, leaving in two hours, and for the right amount of money, it’ll get me out of the city before we’re fenced in and everything goes boom. I’m just waiting for them to get back.”

“And what about us?” Jack asked.

Craig avoided looking at Ryan, but did gaze sympathetically at Jack.

“I don’t know.” He answered after several moments of thoughtful silence.

“Can’t we come with you?” Ryan asked, looking at Craig with a deadly serious glare in his eyes.

“Your brother can come with me, you can go haggle with... Derek Higgins and... old Piers Morgan but... Jack can’t get on the boat, if that’s what you’re asking. My tickets only for one.”

Ryan chuckled lowly, and looked up to the ceiling. Jack continued trying to control the situation in the room. “Well, can’t we pay to get on?” Craig remained silent. “Can we?”

Craig looked uneasy as he spoke. “Yeah, you... um, you could, but it’s not cheap.”

“Well, how much is it?” Ryan asked impatiently.

“For me, it was two hundred and fifty pounds.”

“Two hundred and fifty... Jesus.” Ryan breathed, whistling gently to himself.

“Well, it could be worse.” Jack said, with a tone of forced optimism.

Craig looked at them, and the expression on his face sunk into a frown. If it wasn’t already one. “Course, that was just for me. People are desperate to get out of here, so they’ve probably raised the...”

Craig was interrupted by a sudden ping, and swivelled around in his chair to face his computer, reading the message onscreen.

 

From: arnold

To: person345

 

Re. Empirius

 

The location of the boat is disclosed below. Present your money at the time, and you will be allowed on board.

 

“Person three-four-five?” Jack asked.

“It’s an anonymous email.” Craig muttered dismissively.

“Arnold?” Jack uttered to himself.

“What do I bloody know?” Craig replied.

Ryan stared at Craig. “Can you ask for tickets for us?” He demanded, in a assertive manner that implied he wasn’t taking no as an answer.

“I can try,” Craig mumbled softly, “but you’ll need to pay. I don’t have the money.”

Ryan was sure that Craig was probably lying in regards to his funds, but felt his pocket for the reassuring presence of his bag of money. However, he only had so much, and paying for the boat would eat up a sizeable chunk of that. Regardless, with nowhere better to go, he might as well go with Craig, and then sneak on the boat, or hide in the dockyard, which would likely be away from the impending chaos. It was an improvement of his current underwhelming plan, which consisted simply of walking, and would inevitably led them straight into Empirius or more undesirables like Haig. This was the best option.

“We have the money. Ask them if they have room for two more.” He demanded. Craig obliged, writing out another email in under a minute, and slamming down on the enter key to send it. He then swirled round, pushed through the two brothers, and grabbed the bag on his bed, before beginning to ungracefully shove various clothes and technical components from the floor into the rucksack. Craig suddenly finished packing, and dragged the bag over to his desk. At that moment, the computer pinged again.

“You’re good. They’ll let you on, if you have five hundred and fifty pounds.”

Jack looked stunned, and faced his brother worriedly. Ryan ignored Jack’s confusion and, with a calm expression, said “Tell them we have the money.” Craig nodded, and fired off one final reply. He hit send, and buried the laptop into his bag without waiting for a reply, whilst Jack stared at his brother, a mixture of confusion and anger playing out on the canvas of his face.

He glared out his brother. “That’s half of our money. We can’t do that.”

Ryan tried to look calm to reassure his brother, but the shaking hand he put on his brothers shoulder and blatant avoidance of eye contact betrayed his lack of confidence. “It’s gonna be fine.” He whispered, whilst Craig hurried over to his cupboard to look for something. “We’re not giving anyone this money. But we need to get of the streets. So we’ll sneak onboard or just hide at the port if we have to. It’s better than being on the streets. Okay?”

Jack didn’t look overly impressed, but sighed in resignation. “Okay.” He replied timidly.

Ryan tried to smile at him, and surprised Jack by pulling him in from a hug. It was a rare move on his brothers part, but the loss of their parents only the day before had brought them closer together, and Jack welcomed the sign of affection, sinking into his brothers embrace. It was comforting to know they still had each other.

Suddenly, a huge beam of light shot into the privacy of Craig’s apartment, and the two brothers shot apart. The beam was obviously pointed down towards the apartment, not up, with the lights mainly dancing on the floor, indicting they were coming from an airborne vehicle, and Craig, having emerging from his cupboard wearing a bright blue jacket, moved closer to inspect its source. He looked for a moment, then turned to face the brothers.

“It’s Empirius.” He sighed. “Somethings going to go down any second now. We should go.” He pulled his rucksack over his shoulders. For a moment he looked like he would buckle under its moderate weight, as he knelt down, and braced for a few moments, but he quickly stood back up. Then Ryan and Jack also grabbed their bags, and the three headed for the door. The brothers went first, while Craig took up the rear.

For a brief moment, Craig looked back at the room. Then he promptly turned around, and locked the door behind him, pocketing the key. He nodded curtly at the brothers, and the trio set off.

 

To be continued...