Clone City

Once Ord reached the safety of the forest, he stopped running. He had to. It was too dark to see. The laser show had finished and the only light was a faint glimmer from the last road sign. He felt his way around bushes, the length and breadth of which he could only guess. Arms outstretched, he came to what he thought must be a massive tree. Feeling two knobbly roots at its base, he sat between them. Looking up, he could not see a single star but thanked them before falling into an exhausted sleep.

He had not slept long when drops of rain began to smack the back of his neck. He pulled at his collar, without lifting his head or changing his position. But when the rain began to splat harder, he stirred. Slipping his rucksack off, he stuffed its contents into his pockets and hauled it up over his head. In this way, he was able to catch snatches of sleep despite the downpour.

When he awoke, he found himself lodged uncomfortably between the exposed roots of a cedar tree. He was so stiff he could hardly move. Pushing himself up onto one of the roots, he began to rub life back into his legs. As he rubbed his calves and thumped his arms and shoulders to warm up, he looked around. Seeing his rucksack lying in a puddle, he picked it up and placed it on top of the other root. Pools of water were everywhere. The sun had risen but could not be seen for mist. Painfully, he stretched a leg out and felt how wet his trousers were. He wondered how long it would take them to dry.

When he stood up, he felt the weight of the things he had stuffed into his pockets. He knew that some of it was food. He pulled a bar of black chocolate out of his jerkin, tore the wrapping off and shoved pieces into his mouth. The relief he felt was immediate. He closed his eyes as he felt the chocolate melt and slide down his throat. He imagined his innards craning upward to receive this bitter-sweet river.

After he had eaten all the chocolate, he thought the mist had got thicker. Shelter, food, clothing, he told himself. It is not going to be easy, he thought, blowing into his hands. Hobbling out from under the tree, he decided to circle the city. He looked up at the tree he’d sheltered under. It was huge. A giant of the forest, he thought as he squelched through the puddles to get back to where the forest edged the perimeter.

As Ord picked his way in a clockwise direction around the city, he noticed the debris the downpour had left upon the forest floor. There were all sorts of birds foraging. Some were big and waddled, while others were scarcely bigger than his thumb. He grew warmer as he moved, but wished the sun would hurry up and get hotter as his trousers still stuck to his legs. He took another packet from his pocket. This time it was dried fruit. He began to eat them one by one. He wondered how he was going to survive. If every night was as cold as the last, he would need to build a shelter and make a fire. He wondered how he could do that without smoke revealing his whereabouts.

Preoccupied with these thoughts, he hardly noticed he was climbing. He was approaching the top of a small incline when he saw a deer appear below from out of the mist. He watched it munching the leaves of a bush. When it raised its head, pricked its ears and sniffed at the air, he saw how sensitively it was tuned to its surroundings. He then spotted another, probably its companion, on higher ground. As it stepped onto the ridge, it sent a shower of tiny stones tinkling down. In the same instant, there was a flash of light as if the sun had pierced the mist for a split second. He noticed the deer below bolt and vanish. Then, looking up, he saw the other lay on its side. A wisp of smoke curled from its flank.

Mystified, Ord stood staring at it. The stillness seemed to vibrate. He waited. When nothing happened, he decided not to carry on up to the top. Carefully, he stepped over some twigs to reach a rock. Crouching behind it, he recalled how the deer had fallen before the stones it had dislodged had even come to rest. He decided it would be safer not to move until the mist cleared.

When the mist lifted, he got up and peered through a gap between the two large rocks. Seeing nothing, he was about to carry on when a movement at the top of the ridge made him freeze. He could hardly believe his eyes. Could it be Url? He watched as Url tore his jacket off. He then ripped his trousers off. Seeing metal catch and reflect in the sunlight, Ord eased himself back. This was not Url. It was a robot. He looked again. It was tearing at its face, pulling rubbery strips off it. Stunned, Ord gulped back his fear. Instinct told him to run, but he remained still. The memory of the deer was still fresh in his mind.

808 inspected the deer it had killed before clumping away to rendezvous with the others.

Ord waited until its whirring sound could no longer be heard before getting up. He noticed his hands were shaking, but he decided to continue in the same direction to find the glade where he had discovered the tree with the face on it. He hoped to make a shelter there near the stream. As he walked on, he found it hard to shake off the grisly sight he had just witnessed. He stopped several times to try to make sense of it. What was a robot doing here? Why was it dressed as a Packer? And why did its face resemble Url’s? He could make no sense of it, but took comfort from the fact that his clothes had dried. Loosening his collar, he pressed on.