The Arena - The Moon Trilogy - Book #2

Chapter twelve:

By the time they were halfway across the large field, Clarity's legs were tired and starting to feel like spaghetti noodles. Her fingers were still aching and leaking an almost worrying amount of red. She had worked up a sweat and the brittle, dead grass was poking her sore legs. Rachel's weight was starting to hurt her shoulders, and it was clear that Clara was struggling as well. Rachel was doing her best to help with her one good leg, but it didn't make much of a difference.

The group stayed silent and the only noise was the quiet crunch of the dead grass as they took each step and the occasional swish of a breeze. Once or twice, Johnny would cough, though he never did wake up.

The sun was peeking through a thin veil of wispy clouds. The added heat of the sun's rays did nothing to lighten Clarity's mood. She could feel the beads of sweat gathering on her brow before they tickled her as they dripped down her face and onto the already-wet collar of her shirt.

As they continued walking, the unmistakable sound of helicopter blades was heard in the distance.

Although the menacing noise was still a ways off, the group reluctantly quickened the pace. The helicopter drew nearer and nearer, and soon, the five conscious people were running. Even though they were tired and injured, they managed to make it to the strip of concrete that separated the buildings from the grasslands.

The strip of grey stone was broken every once in a while by metal grates, presumably to drain rainwater.

The small group hurried forward and they turned sideways to squeeze into the narrow space between buildings.

Every building looked more or less the same. The city they were in looked to be a part of the newer housing projects, with exact blueprints for every twenty-story living space. The sunlight glinted harshly off of the metal frames and shiny, black-tinted windows.

The small crack that they squeezed into was shrouded in shadows, and Clarity found herself tripping over invisible cracks in the concrete. But soon enough, they were out in a narrow street between the skyscrapers. The sun would have disappeared completely had it not been almost directly overhead.

They never stopped moving. Sam, Alex, and Johnny were ahead of the girls, so they decided which direction to take. They headed left down the street, their feet slapping quietly against the pavement.

There weren't any hovercars visible, but there did appear to be mass garages at the end of each street. A few times, they passed someone walking a dog, and once, a group of kids on bicycles, but otherwise, the place seemed eerily deserted.

They turned a corner and found themselves on an identical street. This kept up until they finally turned a corner that led into a large, open square. Tall, multi-storied stores hedged the square in on all sides. It looked to be the place where most of the shopping was done in the area if not all. The ground was grimy and trash-covered with overuse or abuse.

There were a few uncomfortable-looking metal benches scattered around the square, and in the middle, there was a large fountain that spurted a thin trickle of dirty water. There was obviously very little up-keep done in the area.

It was completely understandable that nearly everything was done digitally now, including shopping, working and the like, but that didn't mean they should just stop maintaining traditional ways of living. Almost everywhere except the bigger cities was the same way, geared only towards the people that did everything through their technology.

Apparently she'd been zoning out because when she looked for the missing Alex, she realized that he was just exiting one of the many stores.

"We're in the Montana housing district. A pretty new project, I think." He made a disgusted face. "Not from the looks of it, though."

Clara nodded before saying: "Where are we going now?"

"I think I might know somewhere. It's not too far, but it's been a while since I've been there. I don't know what's happened to it since." Alex said, looking a thousand miles away. "For all I know, it could be paved over by now."

"It doesn't matter. Right now, it's the best we've got. We'll take anything." Clarity said. The others agreed with her.

They had to search for a while before they were able to find a place with a public bathroom, which was only more evidence of the lack of foot traffic to visit the place.

But they finally found one. They squeezed into the tiny facilities one by one and cleaned themselves up. By some miracle, Alex was able to locate a roll of bandages and some rubbing alcohol to finish the job. Clara was busy the longest because she helped Johnny as well as herself.

Through it all, the most they were able to get out of Johnny was a groan or two, and he never got any less unconscious. Ever since she'd been back in the fray, that seemed to be the norm with him.

When they'd checked themselves over several times and made sure that no one was going to die any time soon, they moved on to their next order of business, which was locating transportation.

Alex was apparently the designated leader because he once again took charge as they went around asking for any information that might help them on their little quest.

The sun had nestled itself behind the buildings and shadows fell over most of the district before they were finally able to secure themselves a car with enough seatbelts for all six of them. And even then, it was cramped. Johnny took up more than a full seat because he wasn't even able to sit upright and they didn't want his head banging against the window.

Even without the limp passenger, the back row of seats was tiny as it was.

It would be a long ride no matter how close their destination was.