The Underside

“David? David, are you listening?” The Chancellor of Arcadia tilted his head at the young boy, tie coming loose in the process.

Eyes still glued to the crowd lining the streets below, stretching their arms toward the motorcade and crying out words of praise, David answered, “Sorry father, it’s just all those people watching us -I’ll never get used to it.”

Chuckling, the chancellor leaned forward. Outside, the metallic skyscrapers awash in golden light, the marble streets swirling with eddies of his followers. “Don’t worry, you will. Mother Jude has been preparing the Sect of Autumnia for your arrival for well over a week now. You’ll be a superb leader.”

Anxiety bubbled in the boy as they approached the sky docks. “How do you know?”

“Well,” said the older man, shifting in his seat to better see the transport before continuing, “you’re my son. The culmination of centuries of blessed marriages between those with only the best genes.”

David breathed heavily before finally fiddling with the locket in his pocket, running his hand over the rusty heart shape. Taking notice of his son’s movement the chancellor rolled his eyes and sighed while the vehicle rolled to a halt. “I thought I told you to throw that nasty thing away. It’s tainted with heresy.”

Ignoring his father’s question, young boy turned to face what seemed to be a reflection of himself, only older. His father’s eyes were a somewhat dull brown, lacking the luster he had seen in his mother’s pictures. “What if the people don’t like me?” David asked, worry in his eyes.

“Don’t worry, the people love us.”

“Why though?”

“Don’t ask such a question.” The Chancellor gave a somewhat plastic smile before reiterating what the high priest had already told him, “The lord has blessed us. Who are we to question his judgment?”

Before a response was possible the door was pulled open and the young boy was ushered out onto the metallic surface the dock. He had been here only twice before to see his father’s return from the other cities, yet he never got used to the darkness that shrouded the world beneath their heavenly island. Such a far drop he wondered, peering over the edge as the crowd continued to cheer from the city streets nearly half a mile away.

A hand grasping his shoulder spun him back around, his father giving a wave and a smile as an older man took pictures of them, the sun bouncing off of the cities blinding the boy as their beautiful city watched over them. Perfect in every way.

David sweat a small amount as a manservant helped him into the transport and they pulled away from everything he had ever known. The leather beneath him was rather uncomfortable despite the air conditioning helping to cool his nerves.

“Would you like a beverage Sir?” Spoke the young woman who sat across from him. She was utterly beautiful, as all of his people were. Stories of how the uglies, cripples and homosexuals and all other criminals were rooted out and purged by their great God were common knowledge amongst the children of the sky cities, yet as they grew everyone knew this to be simply untrue. Such people never existed and were simply to scare younglings into obedience. A strong tactic.

“Oh yes ple- What is that?!” David pushed his back into his seat and clasped his hands over his mouth as the woman looked around confused, the bottle of wine she had pulled from the transport fridge nearly slipping from her hands. “Alcohol has been outlawed by High Priest for a century!”

Giggling, the woman spoke back quickly with what felt like a preregistered response. “Oh Chancellor, alcohol is only illegal for the commoners. Surely such prestigious individuals as you are permitted by the Lord to have such things.”

Red hot in the face, the boy moved with discomfort. “Th-that seems like hypocrisy.”

Looking into his eyes almost seductively she poured the maroon liquid into a glass before handing it to him. “If the Lord had not wanted the echelons of our society to drink, then perhaps he would not have given us the luxury.”

David rose the glass to his lips before hearing frantic and muffled talking in the cockpit. “What’s going on up there?”

Turning slightly the servant furrowed her brow and banged against the glass separating them, though before anything could be done a large explosion rocked the air outside of the transport.

Outside the window one of the guardians flying alongside of them tumbled toward the earth in a horrifying twister of smoke and fire. Grasping the emergency handle above his seat, the next explosion decimated the front of the vehicle, the sound of ringing overtaking the new Chancellor’s ears as dark creeped over his vision, plummeting him into sleep.

“Hey, this one had some fresh bread!” The voice sounded dull and far away, before speaking again, the sound of shifting rubble somewhere around where he lay.

A girl’s voice came next, high pitched and obnoxious, “No fair! I want some!”

“Finders keepers!” retorted the boy, sounding to be the same age as the girl he was with.

David was starting to wonder if he was even awake until the sound of a loud and bark caused him to open his eyes in terror. “AHHH!” He shouted, sitting up as the dog and three children in front of him stood, staring with wide eyes. The dog pounced on the injured boy, licking his face in a flurry of slobber.

“Down boy! Down!” Called the little girl, who couldn’t be anymore the eight years old, pulling the dog away.

The other boy quickly ran to help her as the final child -a boy with sandy hair who looked about the same age as the new Chancellor came over and pulled David to his feet without a word. Quickly he pulled the satchel on his back off and withdrew some gauze, wrapping the injured boy’s arm tightly, cause him to fall backwards in pain.

“What are you doing? That hurt!” David shouted at the trio looked at him.

Pointing at his arm without speaking, he realized the boy was trying to bandage a very severe burn. It wrapped its way around the arm and up to the shoulder. Much of his clothes were burnt, torn and stained with blood and dirt.

David bit his lip and stepped up to the sandy haired boy, letting him bandage his arm. “A-are we on the surface?” He asked, to no response. “Hello?”

A sad expression took over the boy’s face as the girl stepped out from behind him, the other child still calming the dog who David could now see was missing an eye and was relatively small compared to the German Shepherds who guarded their manor in Arcadia.

“He’s mute so he can’t really talk to you.” Her voice was still high pitched but confident for her age, a trait not common where he’s from.

“That’s impossible. Cripples don’t exist, everyone knows that.” David said it matter-of-factly as he looked around. It was bright here, strangely so. Everything he had ever read told him the surface was covered in darkness and the lord raised the islands in the sky to save humanity. “Well, at least I thought everyone did.”

Rolling her eyes, the girl shrugged before continuing to rummage around for something in the wreckage of his crash. “Well in that case there’s plenty of impossible around here.”

The other boy chimed in from the back, “we should probably get home soon. Big sister will start to worry.”

“Big sister?” David nodded at the boy who finished bandaging his arm before looking into the distant sky, heart racing and eye’s suddenly widening in awe. Against the sunset his city in the clouds towered over the land, engulfing the world beneath it in darkness. On top a glorious city showered in a golden glow hid an entire world beneath it.

“I’m Evie by the way, and that there’s my twin Jack. Oh, and the mute one is Sam.” Evie grabbed his hand and shook it, a strange gesture. “Sis says to do that when you meet someone. Manners.”

Suddenly the idea of cripples and twins, of the surface being bright and a world existing beneath the clouds he called home made him dizzy. “Well, where is this ‘big sister’? Could she help me get home?”

“Oh yea! She can do anything!” Shouted Jack excitedly, grabbing David’s good hand and starting to pull him.

As they walked David felt a new and uncomfortable sense of curiosity in this new land. Something about being so far from the heavens made him feel closer to God than he ever had living amongst royalty and the high priest who lived far above here. Lush green grounds spread over the world in front of him, clouds far above shading them from the sun’s might but turning them a gorgeous pink hue as they drifted across the sky.

After nearly an hour they stumbled into a quite little town, houses of wood lining the streets and people in dirty garbs hard at work as they carried things from one place to another. A man banged on a piece of steel in some sort of metalworking place nearby smiled and waved at Evie and another boy ran over to talk to Jack about something called a “game”.

Sam led them into a building somewhat secluded but larger than the rest of the town on its far side. “Now where have you three been all day!” A voice rang down the hall of the decaying building, the sound of little footsteps running around upstairs and a smell of something wonderful permeating the air. A woman stepped around the corner and shook her head the trio, a smile on her smile her face showed that she was agitated, but more relieved than anything else. “I told you not to go chasing after that transport! What if the soldiers caught you?!”

“There are no soldiers on the surface” David almost immediately regretted speaking out. The woman tilted her head and squinted at him. She looked to be only a few years older than him and Sam. Around twenty maybe, with dark brown hair and lighter hazel eyes, warm and kind. Her right arm was missing, a robotic one in its place.

Laughing, Big Sister closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You haven’t been out very much have you.”

“He was in that big fight early! The one with the rebels and the guardians!” Evie seemed very excited, Sam calming her down before grabbing David’s arm and showing it to Sister.

Taking a darker tone, her eyes filled with a slight sadness as she gave a weak smile and responded with a softer voice, “I see. Well, for now you can spend the night. I’m sure you’re all tired.”

David sat quietly on the large windowsill in Sam’s room. The mute boy had volunteered to sleep on the floor so that David had a bed for the night, despite it still being much rougher than what the young Chancellor was used to. He turned his mother’s heart shaped locket over and over again in his hand while looking at his city, dark and far away from where he sat. He jumped as Sam tapped him on the shoulder.

“I thought you went to sleep hours ago.” Said the boy.

Shaking his head, Sam sat beside him on the sill, pulling out a pen and pad of paper. He wrote on it in scraggly handwriting. ‘I can’t sleep.’

“Oh. Me too.” David looked back at the city in the clouds.

Sam smiled and put a hand on his shoulder and writing another note, putting his pad down and walking off towards the bathroom.

David took a minute before peeking at the pad in curiosity. ‘We’ll get you home, for now though, welcome to the family.’