[Lemontime]

Just something i'm writing for english. not finished yet..

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Life

It sat, towering over a huge pile of rubble below it. Twisted girders, splinters of wood flung across the dusty, barrend land around it. It sat in the shadow of a giant city, a city that moved. The enormous, muddy treads flanking it on two sides.
Figures decended from the monster city, ropes flailing below them as they scurried towards their prize, axes and grinders in hand, ready to salvage the fresh wreck, ready to enslave its occupants.
Cheers fell upon the carniage, citizens celebrating another succesful chase. “For victory!” they screamed, “For Life!”. The howls lasting long into the night.
* * *
Hack sat staring over the plains spread out infront of him. The heat from the day radiated, sending blurry waves floating upwards, fogging the scene before him. But he knew what it was.
The huge block, spikes protruding from its sinister black walls, crouching low on its treads, huge jaws opening and closing; tearing parts off the rubble beneath it. It was a traction city.
Years earlier, the largest city in the world, New York, had exhausted all its resources. Water, food, power. Everything. So they moved, building a city on wheels, like a tank. It destroyed half the continent, the mayor mad with power. But word had spread, other cities followed, uprooting, forging alliances with their neighbours, or eating them.
But some had refused to move. They built their cities high in the mountains, great walls and fortresses spanning entire valleys to keep the traction cities out. They aptly named themselves the Anti-tractionists.
Hack was one of them. He jumped forward, sliding down the steep embankment below him, dirt and rocks thundering down infront of him, crashing into the flat earth below. Hack hit the ground hard, the impact shaking his bones. He ignored the pain and started walking.
* * *

It took two full days. He reached the wreck at dusk, the sun setting on the flat horizon, giving an eerie glow over the plains, casting long shadows from all it touched. Beneath the city was blank, Life had completely dis-membered the smaller city, the only evidence of it’s existance a few insignificant shards of metal.The heat from Life made the scene un-bearable, furnaces smelting all the newly aquired metal. The smell of burning wood filled the air.
Hack jumped onto one of the seven storie treads, caked mud crackling under his feet. He looked at all the cogs and gears used to turn the monolithic structure, grabbing hold of one of the nearest as he began climbing towards the main body of Life. The gears were cold from two days of no use.
Hours passed and Hack began to worry. He could hear a deep rumbling coming from inside Life, a rumbling that he knew as the sound of an engine starting. He reached the top of the towering metal treads, swinging himself onto the top, into another pile of mud.
Sweat dripped down his face, his hair filled with the salty fluid mixed with mud.
The ground started to move.
* * *

Clumps of dry earth rained down over Hack, thick dust filling his eyes. He stumbled along the giant square treads, searching above himself for a handhold, seeing only the smooth, dusty plates of the cities belly. Twenty metres from the end, Hack began to panic, searching frantically for an access ladder, anything he could hold onto.
Then he saw it. Ahead of him, ten metres at least, the twisted iron rungs of a rusted metal ladder protruding from the black metal. Hack crouched low, ready to spring into the air. Five metres.. Four… Three… The ground disappeared. He’d reached the end of the tread, he was floating through the air, his arms flailing wildly as they searched for a purchase on anything around him. He turned in the air, facing the ground now as he watched the dusty, rocky landscape getting closer, the tread of the enormous city still racing towards him, threating to crush his existence.
The air around him shook and Hack knew this was it, but then it hit him. The wind was forced from his lungs and Hack heard one of his ribs splinter in the deathly silence. Dark figures swooped all around him as he was torn from the path of the deadly treads, out into the calm above the burning plains. He passed out.
* * *

SNAP! Hack woke to a burning, stinging pain in his spine. SNAP! Again. He screamed in agony as pain engulfed his body. SNAP!
“STOP!” Ordered a voice behind him. What followed was a disturbing silence. Hack’s vision was completely red, from what he did not know. Footsteps surrounded him, echoing off the walls, penetrating his mind with ill thoughts of their source.
“Who are you?!” Demanded the voice.
“I will tell you nothing, you dogs!” Hack screamed at the unknown voice.
SNAP! Hack shuddered in pain, feeling blood rolling down his back. SMACK! His head fell to the side, spitting teeth out in a glob of blood.
“Then this continues.” Muttered the voice.
The onslaught was relentless; whip after whip, blow after blow struck hack with deadly ferocity. He heard his blood dripping to the floor in great drops. He tried to move but his hands were bound so tight they bled, likewise his feet. Then it all went quiet. Hack heard footsteps leaving the room, but he just stood there, breathing hard and deep. The pain in him was overwhelming, he fell to the floor, landing in a deep puddle of his own blood and sweat- stimulating his fresh wounds.
A painful silence followed. Hack thought of nothing but pain, it filled his mind, his heart, his ears; a heavy beating heart thumping through his head.
Hours passed before he heard voices again. He shievered in the cold chamber, his body completely bare but for his torn under-garments.
“Go in now, there’s no way he won’t talk.” Whispered a muffled voice from behind him. Footsteps echoed around the room again as hack struggled to remove his blindfold by scraping his face across the rough floor, aggravating wounds on his face.
“Tell us your name!” Screamed a voice infront of Hack.
“Wh-… Who are you people?” Hack muttered through clenched teeth. A door slammed and Hack thought he was alone once again, letting out a quiet sob of pain.
“Don’t be scared..”
Hack held his breath. That was a ladys voice.
“I don’t want to hurt you, I want to help you. Set you free”
“Where are you? I can’t see you!” Hack muttered. The blindfold was suddenly torn from his face and he cringed at the blinding light.
“See me now,” she spoke “Hack..”
He slowly opened his eyes, the light throbbing through his mind. There she crouched, by the far wall. She was dressed in silk, the tight fabric accentuating her athletic, slender figure. Straight, jet black hair fell to her shoulders, a few lonely strands covered her bright blue eyes.
Hack looked around the room, taking in everything. But what was to take in? The room was completely bare, the all-white surfaces interrupted only by splatters of blood flung against them. She stood out like nothing else. Her dark red outfit blatantly visible against the walls.
She reached behind Hack and cut his bindings. Then she did something strange; she held his arms in place. He struggled against her, frantic to move his stiff muscles.
“What are you doing?!” He demanded, “Let me go!”
“If you move your arms right now, they will break. You must be patient, move them slowly, carefully and you will be okay,” she explained, “Same goes for your legs.” She released him.
Hack held his arms still for a moment then slowly- so slowly, he started to move them apart. Loud cracks emanated as tension was released from his weary bones. It took, what felt like, hours to free them completely, but soon Hack swung his arms freely.
* * *

His torso was completely wrapped in bandages, she had covered him with bright white cotton, half of it covered in blood, thick blobs oozing through the gaps.
“Now, who are you?” Hack asked of the mysterious girl, “Why are you helping me?”
She shrugged, “What’s it matter? I’m just as insignificant as anybody else, but you do not ask names of them, do you?”
Hack stared at her, mouth half open in a shocked expression; that was not the answer he had expected. She turned away from him and started running her hands along the smooth walls of the cell. Hack just watched, thinking about all that had happened.
“What-.. What are you doing? He enquired, still watching her.
Click! “Getting us out of here,” She said, smiling, “and I just did it.” She leaned against the wall, pushing her shoulder where the click had sounded from.
It moved. Hack ghasped as an outline appeared in the wall. She continued pushing, and soon the wall gave in, the thick block of metal slipping down behind the remaining wall.
Hack stood, pain engulfing his body, threating to make him faint. He walked to the new hole in the wall, burning pain stabbing at him with every weary step. He stuck his head in the small opening, his eyes adjusting to the sudden darkness. The tunnel turned abruptly about a metre in, blocking Hacks view beyond. He pushed himself in, up to his waiste, and peered around. It continued on into darkness, Hack saw no end to it. He pushed himself in completely and started crawling down the narrow shaft. After just a few metres he remembered.
“Hey!” he said over his shoulder, “Are you coming?” He waited. No reply. He repeated himself. Again, no reply. Hack pushed off his palms, back towards the cell, his body screaming in agony yet again. He entered the cell and found it just as he had left it: Dry blood caking the floor and walls, giving it an eerie look that scared him. But one thing scared him more; she was gone.