Read Online The Mountain and The City: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale by Brian Martinez - Free Book Online
Authors: Brian Martinez
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Vision Boxes. But their faces are blank now, like so many, because the Death has found them. Like so many.
**
It's easier climbing down the Stairs than up them.
We come to the Floor with the big number five on the Wall and Child stops so hard I bump into her. She doesn't notice because she's listening again, listening to the Building, Her ears are twitching with sound.
Then I hear them, too: foot sounds.
Careful to keep my balance I slowly, quietly lean over the Railing to look down the long space between the Stairs. Child does, too, but it's too dark for her to see down there with the Sun sleeping, and even I have to squeeze my Eyes to see to the bottom.
There's nothing there.
Then I see it.
The Munie is small, not as small as Child but not full-size. It's a woman Munie. I've never liked to think of them that way, like Real People with bodies for anything other than hunting and killing. I only say this one's a woman because I've found they're better hunters than the men. Not as big, but good trackers with strong noses.
It sniffs at the Air, following a scent to the Stairs, and in its filthy hand I see a flash of red. An Apple. Child lied to me, she did go Outside for Supplies, and she did bring danger back with her, but I can't say it to her now because there isn't Time to say it and anyway the noise would fall down the Stairs and bring the Munie faster.
We turn and climb again with our Feet as light as we can make them. At the number ten we slowly open the Door and leave the Stairs behind.
The Hallway smells of the Death. In some places the Early Days of the Change can still be seen in the bones and the clothes and the torn apart things that were left behind. This is one of those places. It was clean once, but not now.
Without words I tell Child to follow me down the Hallway and through a Door which was left open in the panic of the Early Days. I can see in the Real Times it was very serious about keeping Real People out. When a Door is thick and has buttons, it was made to keep Real People out. I close the Door but it doesn't stay because the buttons don't work. Some Doors need the buttons to work, and that does no good anymore. This means there are no locks between us and the Munie climbing the Stairs behind us, which means we're not safe here. But that's not a problem because we're not staying.
The Room is white from the Ceiling down and filled with long Tables that hold Machines. Broken glass glitters on the Floor between the Tables, so I tell Child to be careful. “Walk on the Silvery Tape foot,” I tell her, and she tries but it's too loud and a little funny, so I lift her up and bring her the rest of the way to the Window.
Now I know how serious this Room is: even the Windows have buttons. I try to open it, but instead of being stuck open like the Door its stuck closed. The Night is awake Outside. The City sleeps in the dark, and under us I can see the Building with eight stories. It's close enough to reach like I'd thought, but not easy. It has a Roof made of Glass so the Sun can get in and make the Plants in there grow, because Real People did those things in the Real Times. They cared for the Beasts and the Plants until the Time came for them to take the World back.
Some of the squares of Glass are missing, but none that are close enough.
I try to open another Window and that one is stuck, too, but I'm glad I tried it because there's a Table under this one with a roll of Silvery Tape. I take it and stuff it inside the Suit and then take a Machine from one of the Tables and go back to Child.
“What doing?”
“Leaving.”
I hold the Machine over my Head and throw it against the Window. The Glass is thick so it doesn't break the way I want, but it does leave a picture like the small Beasts with Eight Legs make. It also makes noise. I pick it up and throw it again and it makes an even bigger picture that bends toward the Outside so I pick it up and throw it again and this time it
**
It's easier climbing down the Stairs than up them.
We come to the Floor with the big number five on the Wall and Child stops so hard I bump into her. She doesn't notice because she's listening again, listening to the Building, Her ears are twitching with sound.
Then I hear them, too: foot sounds.
Careful to keep my balance I slowly, quietly lean over the Railing to look down the long space between the Stairs. Child does, too, but it's too dark for her to see down there with the Sun sleeping, and even I have to squeeze my Eyes to see to the bottom.
There's nothing there.
Then I see it.
The Munie is small, not as small as Child but not full-size. It's a woman Munie. I've never liked to think of them that way, like Real People with bodies for anything other than hunting and killing. I only say this one's a woman because I've found they're better hunters than the men. Not as big, but good trackers with strong noses.
It sniffs at the Air, following a scent to the Stairs, and in its filthy hand I see a flash of red. An Apple. Child lied to me, she did go Outside for Supplies, and she did bring danger back with her, but I can't say it to her now because there isn't Time to say it and anyway the noise would fall down the Stairs and bring the Munie faster.
We turn and climb again with our Feet as light as we can make them. At the number ten we slowly open the Door and leave the Stairs behind.
The Hallway smells of the Death. In some places the Early Days of the Change can still be seen in the bones and the clothes and the torn apart things that were left behind. This is one of those places. It was clean once, but not now.
Without words I tell Child to follow me down the Hallway and through a Door which was left open in the panic of the Early Days. I can see in the Real Times it was very serious about keeping Real People out. When a Door is thick and has buttons, it was made to keep Real People out. I close the Door but it doesn't stay because the buttons don't work. Some Doors need the buttons to work, and that does no good anymore. This means there are no locks between us and the Munie climbing the Stairs behind us, which means we're not safe here. But that's not a problem because we're not staying.
The Room is white from the Ceiling down and filled with long Tables that hold Machines. Broken glass glitters on the Floor between the Tables, so I tell Child to be careful. “Walk on the Silvery Tape foot,” I tell her, and she tries but it's too loud and a little funny, so I lift her up and bring her the rest of the way to the Window.
Now I know how serious this Room is: even the Windows have buttons. I try to open it, but instead of being stuck open like the Door its stuck closed. The Night is awake Outside. The City sleeps in the dark, and under us I can see the Building with eight stories. It's close enough to reach like I'd thought, but not easy. It has a Roof made of Glass so the Sun can get in and make the Plants in there grow, because Real People did those things in the Real Times. They cared for the Beasts and the Plants until the Time came for them to take the World back.
Some of the squares of Glass are missing, but none that are close enough.
I try to open another Window and that one is stuck, too, but I'm glad I tried it because there's a Table under this one with a roll of Silvery Tape. I take it and stuff it inside the Suit and then take a Machine from one of the Tables and go back to Child.
“What doing?”
“Leaving.”
I hold the Machine over my Head and throw it against the Window. The Glass is thick so it doesn't break the way I want, but it does leave a picture like the small Beasts with Eight Legs make. It also makes noise. I pick it up and throw it again and it makes an even bigger picture that bends toward the Outside so I pick it up and throw it again and this time it
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