Night had finally set over the ruins of the city. The few remaining inhabitants of this once moderately sized city, complete with neighborhoods and sky scrapers, with hospitals and universities, supermarkets and farmer’s markets, were numb and wandered through the vacant offices. The desolation of the city was sudden. Warnings and evacuations had been planned long in advance of the growing tide of unrest. The riots, the street wars, and the collapse would all be long remembered in part, somehow. Darkness reached out with a quick embrace for the city. No electricity remained. Not a drop of running water or fuel sat in a line or tank. The city sat depleted, vacant, hollow, and almost quiet.
Survivors remained, if they could be called that. Sitting, waiting, and hoping that the past years were a terrible nightmare, a psychotic delusion, or a divine test. Stubborn and foolish described the ones who remained behind, left in the dark, old world. A world that was once immeasurable in greatness, in freedom, and in excess was now a husk, a discarded browning cocoon of the new era it begat. From this bright neon world, one of industry and steel, of pleasure and hedonism, came a new one, thriving around the fringes of the old. An age of freedom, tyranny, oppression, merit, power, and hope consumed the globe. The world had changed, throwing off the old beliefs and welcoming the new ones. Magic is what it had been called. A fantasy of ancient people had become real.
Fredrick watched the last of the red sunlight fade around the city before turning his back on the quarantine. Turning towards his sister, he said, “Julie, how goes it? Do you have enough light?”
Still focused on her task, she replied absently, “Yeah Freddie. I think this batch should get us through the next couple of days.”
Fred collapsed next to a rock, resting his head on the cool, grey surface. He rubbed his closed eyes gently before speaking again, “Do you think that I’ll find any work in the next couple of days? I don’t know of any major settlements between here and Alexandria. Over in Goose Harbor, there’s a pharma factory, so we should probably avoid them. That stuff contraband in corporate territory.”
“Freddie,” she interrupted, “Shut the hell up. This takes more focus then you’d expect.”
Fredrick smiled, closing his eyes again. “Yes my sister. I’ll do my best to stay out of your way. I wouldn’t want you screwing up and getting me killed.”
Julie gritted her teeth slightly, biting back a response as her eyes narrowed onto the small pot ahead of her. She quickly and blindly grabbed the ingredients for the grimy brew. Slowly adding the sand and ground corn, she stuck out her tongue, deep in concentration. The invisible fire heating the small iron pot, as an enchanted wooden spoon rounded the edges at a constant slow pace.
After hours hunched over the metal vessel, she finally took a deep breath into her lungs and let out a long, slow, and steady sigh. “Freddie, wake up! It’s ready,” she exclaimed, looking around the surrounding blackness for her older brother. The waning moon overhead revealed his silhouette at the top of the pile of stones that used to be some large nondescript building.
The quiet, low tone of his voice rode down the mess of rocks, “Well done Julie… I can’t wait to try it out tomorrow.”
Her dark eyebrows furrowed with his unusual words. “Freddie, everything okay up there?”
The faint reply came back, “Yeah. Come on up. There’s something I want you to see.”
Although her legs were still stiff from toiling in front of the small pot, she gained her balance quickly. The moonlight was bright enough to illuminate a safe path among the twisted metal, shattered glass, and crumbling brick. “On my way,” she replied. Taking several minutes to wander her way to the top, making sure of her footing before continuing on, the brunette finally arrived next to her both, who sat motionless, staring towards the horizon. She lowered herself down, sitting a few feet away from Fred and stretching her legs down the rubble below. The chilling breeze rode across them as a small echo of something distant floated on the wind.
“Do you remember?” asked Fredrick, breaking the stillness after several minutes of hanging silence. “Do you remember the old world?” He hesitated, taking a small breath. “I mean, I’m sure you remember. It’s only been twelve years since… but we’ve been like this,” motioning the area around them, “for so long now. It’s just that, when all this happened it was so… fake. Then it was unreal, surreal. But now it’s normal.”
She closed her eye, forming her words before she spoke, “Do you remember what you said when it came here?” She paused, searching his eyes for recognition, before continuing, “You said, wouldn’t it be awesome if it were true. If the power was real. I distinctly remember what you said after that. You had paused, like you always do as your mind works in overdrive. Setting your jaw firm, you said, ‘This thing, whatever it is, is a terrible, awesome power that will both destroy us and create us.’”
A few more moments passed as the night’s chill descended closed to the pair. Fredrick turned and smiled, “Well, I was right, wasn’t I? I don’t know. I’m just kind of missing all that was. The potential, the carelessness. Just wondering how we’d get that back, if it still exists in this day and age.”
“You know, we can settle down somewhere. There are plenty of cities that would take refugees. We could find some place far away from white or green territory, and corporate. We don’t have to be on the constant move, scrounging up food, constantly making fuel, or…”
Noticing her hesitation, he asked, “Or what?”
She sighed, turning back to the dim darkness that filled the night air, “You wouldn’t have to fight anymore.”
He chuckled, “We’re mercenaries Julie. What would you expect us to do? Farm? Forge? I don’t think either of us could stand that for very long. You’ve got a knack for fuel. I’m not bad at using it. This is the only way we’ll make a difference.”
Annoyed, she replied, “A difference? Right, your pipe dream of making a stable, new world. In the world of magic, only fuel and skill grant control. Fear becomes currency and freedom is a vulnerability. Get over it Freddie. We’re sitting on a testament of your new world.” She patted the ground beneath them, “Destruction and ruins are what’s left. Not hope or progress.”
Leaning back over the sharp terrain, he replied, “You’re probably right. But what’s the alternative? Death? Suffering? Fear? I’d rather have my stupid hope and work towards an impossible goal than languish in this new world.” Several more moments passed before he continued, “Listen to me, idealistic nonsense as always. Let’s get into some shelter before we freeze to death.”
Julie smiled and nodded in agreement, “Alright. You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to try out the new stock. I think it’s much better than last time.”
As she had already stated down the hill, he muttered under his breath, “That’s not very hard…”
Dawn’s light flooded the campsite of the duo. The walls of the makeshift shelter crumbled as the two emerged. Fredrick paused, closing his eyes to focus, and assembled their belongings into the two large duffle bags.
Julie glared at him, “You’re wasting power, cut it out. You probably didn’t even pack my bag right.”
Fred feigned an expression of shock, “What! How could you accuse me of packing wrong? I would never intentionally mess with your stuff Julie.” He chuckled as he grabbed the larger bag and slung it across his back.
Sighing, she grabbed hers as well. “We should find some place away from the quarantine to try out the new fuel. Not quite top pharma, but I think it’ll be more than enough for normal usage. I’ve still got some combat blend too, just in case.”
“I don’t think we’ll need the combat one until Alexandria, but I hope we don’t clash with the corporation. They definitely have more resources to spare than we do.” Scanning the horizon, he sighed. “To the southeast. We have to do seven miles today, otherwise we’ll be low on water before we reach the next major settlement. We won’t be able to cross the river for a little while, so we should be good to try out the fuel soon.”
Julie nodded and they started their careful trek out of the suburban debris. The collapsed buildings quickly faded into the background. The ragged asphalt road helped their progress, compared to the debris fields that they had been camping in. The morning rose and gave way to a midday sun, with the chill of the night still clinging on in the early autumn weather.
They finally came to the mucky, brown river that needed to be crossed. No ferry remained in this region and most of the bridges were collapsed or too near it to risk life and limb on a crossing. Pausing for a few moments to consider their options, they decided that they would have to go ahead with burning some of their older fuel to get across.
Julie fished out the small blue vial from a padded satchel and passed it gently to her brother. After sucking in a deep breath, he shot the vials back, cringing on the sour aftertaste. He sat down at the riverbank, with his rucksack landing with a heavy thud. The potion ripped through his arteries, causing a dull burning pain throughout his body. When the burning subsided, he took stock of the distance they needed to cross. Fredrick turned back towards his sister and nodded.
“Freeze? Skate? Skimmer?” she asked, feeling for the plan and how wet she’d probably get.
Smiling, he replied, “We’re going to jump. I’ve wanted to see if it’s doable.”
She sighed, “Great. So I’m going to get very wet.”
“Aww, don’t you have any faith in me? It’ll be fine.” Picking his bag up, he looked around the region to determine the best approach. Finally deciding that the way they came was best, he walked up the road about fifty meters. After taking a deep series of breaths, he began bounding down the road towards the river and his sister.
His feet pounded across the ground. The black terrain began buckling and cracking into large shards as the blue fuel burned in his muscles. The beginning soft footfalls were dwarfed with the growing thunder that accompanied each stride between steps. Julie clutched the heavy brown sack closer to her back, tensing at the coming impact from her brother.
As the distance closed rapidly, the crooked zig-zag pattern of each movement became evident. Leaping directly in front of her, he smiled briefly before locking his brown eyes back into a determine stare. The next rebound took him behind her, where he reached out and snagged the large woven rope that bisected the pack. The combined weight of the woman and pack did little to his balance as the elixir shocked his muscles, arching pain down his entire spine. His stare contorted as his next landing, complete with the extra load, slipped in the loose stones, but determine quickly set back in as he pivoted and launched the pair into the air over the trickling river. The murky fluid came to meet them quickly as they plummeted back to the earth.
Fredrick inhaled sharply, closing his eyes as the wet terrain drew close. The air around him began to wave and ripple, like hazy pavement in a blistering summer heat. Julie gasped and cringed, bracing for the cool water that was so close. Their descent slowed rapidly as Fredrick’s boots hover mere inches above the surface. The water sunk, slowing their fall like a heavy weight in sheet of fabric. The river rebounded as his toes plunged into the surface, flooding the area that it had recently vacated. The water gushed up beneath them, sending them back into the air under a geyser of chill water.
Back into the air, Fredrick could feel the strength of his magic powered muscles collapsing. The momentary distraction disrupted the boost he was generating from the watery rebound. The opposite shoreline approach, but without the necessary boost, he guessed briefly, the landing would be in the river’s edge, rather than past it. Yanking the buckle of his strap, releasing the duffel bag from his bag, he flung it with his sister to the grassy levee that rested feet beyond his anticipated landing zone. Using the last of his energy on that feat, Fredrick fell backwards into the calm, cool flow of the river.
Recovering from her sudden jolt, Julie shot up, dropping her bag behind her. “Freddie!” she called out, as she approached the water’s edge.
His head burst through rippling ring left behind from the comical splash. He pushed back his hair as he oriented himself back to the destination shore. After finding his sister, he waved and yelled “Hey!” The current’s grip pushed him farther downstream of his desired location. Plunging back into the flow, Fredrick briefly swam to shore, as the bed of the river quickly met his knees. Pulling himself up in the muddy, rock-laden bed, he gave a grin.
“Freddie,” she said coolly, answering her brother’s smile with a glare, “what the hell was that? God, you used up all that fuel to get airborne when I told you,” repeating the last words with a harsh bite, “that we could just skip across. Now you’re all wet, and I’m scraped up from the weak toss just now.” Turning back to the bags, she exclaimed, “And I bet my stuff it all torn to shreds.”
Fredrick just gritted his teeth and answered the dressing down with smile. He picked up his duffel bag and gave is several solid shakes, putting his ear closer to it by cocking his head. “Mine sounds fine, and it took a harder fall than yours. Let’s get a move on. We’re getting close to breakfast time and you know how hungry I get afterwards.”
She sighed, smiled, and rolled her eyes as she walked back up the steep hill and grabbed her bag. The next hour was slow going, with Fredrick constantly complaining about being wet. She admitted to herself that it was a stunt that she’d never be able to pull off. She had a much greater control and dexterity with everyday magic, as it was called despite it still not being very commonplace these days, than her brother ever would. He had little patience for waiting and precise practice, which is what it took. Common magic was simple, basic manipulations and used only normal food energy, making it pretty easy come across and hard to stop. Cooks used it to stir pots and stoke fires. Laborers boosted their hammer swings. Professions that always seemed to need a little extra finally got it, but others like doctors, marketing experts, and politicians saw no benefit during the growing discovery of aptitude.
She sighed a little too loudly, trying to shake the memories of the beginning of this age. The darkness the eclipsed the several of the past twelve years was immense. It depended on when the age began, was it the realization of the potential of this new form of power, of war? The announcement of a new age of discovery? Or was it, as both Julie and Fredrick felt, that when the first large attack came on that foreign soil? Fredrick paralleled it once to the dawn of the nuclear age, did the atomic age start when the atom was first split, during the discovery of those forces that would shape the next several generations, or was it when the orange blooms erupted over that enemy cities? Philosophically, it was the former, but the world wasn’t awed until the destructive power was unleashed.
Magic was imagined somewhere, deep in some underground bunker by some zealous scientists. Too many assumptions, suppositions, and conspiracies surround the beginnings of magic, but someone thought it would make a superior weapon, a tool in the development of a new age, one where they would control and dominate the globe. A new age came crashing down on the world as magic sprouted up through cities scattering the world, like terrors from Pandora’s box. Until one pharmaceutical company broke the gates of hell by developing fuel. Common magic used the innate energy in a person to work the power, while fuel provided a torrent of energy, allowing the rapid, flashy, and often violent acts of magic that turned once teeming cities into crumbling heaps of rubble and decay.
Freddie, thought Julie, possessed the ability to harness that flashy high energy power more than she ever would, but, as Julie was a little smug when admitting it, she could make their own fuel and not have to rely on pharma from the corporate zones to make a living in a magical world.
Fredrick lowered himself to the ground with a slow thud, still muttering gripes about the lack of dryness. “Well,” he started “what shall we have for breakfast? Toast? Biscuits? Really hard sausage? Well, you decide. I’ve got the stuff in the blue towels, but I’m going to go change. That river really didn’t smell very great.”
Julie chuckled again and rummaged through the bag and pulled out the stale biscuits as Fredrick disappeared behind a tree over the hill to change. After assembling a small pile of leaves and dried grass, Julie snapped her fingers to generate a small spark to set off a flame. The fire quickly consumed the kindling as smaller sticks were added. She moved a bread-box sized container with four legs over the burning pile and waited for few seconds for it to warm before inserting the biscuits into it.
Moments later Fredrick rejoined her wearing his dark jeans and corduroy jacket over the simple blue shirt. “So, biscuits then?” He asked. Julie just nodded her head in response. “So, when do you want to try out the fuel?”
“Well, it’d probably be best sooner rather than later. We can’t get caught without any fuel and the river crossing puts us down to four vials of usable stuff. We’ve got about forty mils of the weak stuff from before. You’d need about half of it to make one vial of power. I don’t think you should use it. I’m concerned of overdosing.”
Fredrick smiled again, “I think the OD effect is only seen in fuel usage. Besides, ODing fuel won’t kill me, you know, just get me sick for a few days, like that first batch you made, remember?”
Julie nodded weakly, “I’d rather not think about that. You scared me to death, making me think that I’d made it wrong and killed you. Instead you just turned out to be a moron.” She returned his smile and opened the small oven, pulling out the warmed biscuits. “Here, let’s dry out your clothes quickly. We need to be ready to go in a moment’s notice, so I’d rather not have to air dry these things.”
She placed the bundle into the oven and left the door crack as she turned, nibbling on the biscuit, to pull out the test batch of fuel. After fishing the vials deep from within her bag, she passed on of the green liquid filled tubes to Fredrick. “Alright,” she said, “whenever you’re ready, take a swig of this. I can’t promise anything, but this time I’m sure I added everything.”
Fredrick’s smile weakened slightly as he took the vial from his sister. “Here’s to it, cheers!” He slammed back the siltly fuel, which tasted less sour than the pharma blue fuel but possessed a cringe-worthy bitter taste that seemed to go all the way to his stomach. He shivered slightly as the compound began flooding his bloodstream. “Holy hell, Jul, what did you put into this stuff. The taste is still crap but this has one major kick. I can actually feel this flooding my arteries. Normally the pharma stuff is cool on the muscle at first, but this, fiery…”
Julie smiled in return, “I hope the potency is what we expected, but we won’t know until you try it out. I have the poison ready, if you need it.” The poison was developed in response to magic fuel. The substance was a byproduct of the fuel product and completely deactivated and drained a person of fuel. Overdose sickness seemed to be a more severe reaction than poison, but both were very unpleasant for the magician that consumed anything other than real fuel. No one knows if fuel or its antidote can kill, but it’s certainly true that magic is lethal.
Fredrick sat, almost meditating, in front of the dying fire, waiting for the effects of the test fuel to kick in. After several minutes waiting, he looked back to his sister and shrugged. Her shoulder’s fell and disappointment crept up over her face. “Nothing?” pleaded Julie.
“I mean, I can’t tell any difference. I guess I won’t know until I actually try it.” He deeply inhaled before standing up, patting his hands onto his pant legs. Taking another deep sigh, he assumed a generic martial arts stance. Thrusting on hand forward with a ‘cha’ yell and focusing on emitting a beam of light produced no effect. Disappointed, he turned back to his sister, who was still sitting near the fire, and shrugged.
She returned the sigh, standing and shaking her head. “I don’t know why it didn’t do anything. I can understand it being more or less effective than that last batch. I did add a bit more ash this time, but…”
“Ash!” exclaimed Fredrick. “What else is in this stuff?”
“Well,” replied Julie coyly, “you’ve never asked before and you really don’t want to start wondering now. It’s honestly what’s part of the stuff that pharma makes. That’s what suprises me so much, I mean, this is supposed to mimic their high end fuel and it’s apparently doing nothing.”
“It doesn’t taste like anything they make, not nearly sour enough,” replied Fredrick. The both stood vacantly for a short while before Fredrick shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to add that with the weak stuff and try again. How’re our supplies?”
“Hm, I think I can try another batch soon, but I need to get some more salts soon, and vegetables. I work better with a complete meal, none of this dried meats and stale breads. So, are we still doing seven today?”
“Unfortunately,” answered Fredrick, kicking a small clump of dirt at his feet, “I think we need to. Our supply of clean water may be the limiting factor in all of this. I’m going to need fuel though, if we get a job. I’m sure there’s some homestead around here that we can help out with magic or something to get some fresh foods.”
No vacant houses remained intact in their stretch throughout the day, with only one building left intact enough to have been considered as a shelter. Slightly disappointed with the stacking failures of the day, the siblings created a mud house, where soil, mud, and grass is clumped together by magical force and help up by a magic pillar that would collapse the hut when it became unoccupied. It had been a fairly simple technique for the pair to learn together, with Fredrick providing much of the over support of the structure, focusing on keeping the walls upright and off of the inhabitants, while Julie put her energies into the actual assembly of the walls and making sure that over the night, the building does chip away or leak.
A failed attempt.
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