D. MacHale - The Pilgrims of Rayne

Loque nodded and called out to the others, “Docking party! With me!”

Five of the Jakills left their vantage points by the rail to join Loque and prepare to tie up the ship at the pier. I wandered back to the bow of our ship and took another look at the looming city scape. My eye caught something that seemed a little off. We were still pretty far away so I couldn’t tell for sure. I had to wait patiently, watching, knowing the closer we got, the more clear it would become.

I glanced down at the water. It was just as green and sparkling as back on the island. Below the surface I was able to make out shapes. At first I thought I was looking at rocks. Or maybe a reef. But as the water grew more shallow, reality became clear. Literally. There were ships down there. Wrecks. A lot of them. They were big, too. It was hard to tell for sure, because I didn’t know how deep it was, but some of these sunken ships looked huge. I’m talking ocean-liner huge! We passed over the decks of several wrecks of all sizes. The water was clear enough to see the difference between pleasure boats and others that looked like working boats or freighters. We passed over one monstrous shadow that was definitely an ocean liner. I could tell because toward the tail was the faint blue color of a swimming pool. I got the chills. I was looking down on a graveyard of sunken ships.

I flashed a look back to the buildings. As we grew closer, the truth was slowly emerging. The buildings were no more alive than the ships below the water. I could make out detail. The structures were scarred and pitted. There was more broken glass than intact windows. Some buildings had huge chunks taken out of them. I couldn’t tell if the gashes were a result of some kind of attack or simply rotting away. I looked up one wide street between buildings to see that an entire, huge building had crashed and crumbled there. The wide boulevard was totally blocked by the massive hulk of this toppled skyscraper. The ground was mostly covered with rubble. There were massive piles of broken cement and twisted steel. It all had a strange, magical sparkle that was kind of pretty, until I realized the sparkling came from light reflected off tons of shattered glass. There were cars, too. Lots of them. Many were buried, their headlights peeking out as if trying to get a final glimpse of daylight.

The one thing I didn’t see was people.

Several Jakills lowered the mainsail. We relied on engine power to continue our slow journey toward the pier. I could now see the ships that were tied up. They looked to be military craft, not unlike the boat that the Flighters used to attack Rayne. These boats looked even worse for wear than the Flighters’ junker. Huge patches of rust had eaten through their hulls. I was surprised they were still floating. One was barely above water, with its stern dipped below the surface. It would only be a matter of time before it slipped down and joined the others in the underwater tomb.

Looking at the Jakills, I saw more confusion than concern.

They didn’t know what a city was supposed to look like. To them this was normal. Of course the big question was what happened? Why was the city empty? No, not just empty. Abandoned. Was there a war? The thought flashed that maybe there had been some kind of epidemic that wiped out the population, and we were about to be exposed. But whatever happened there, it wasn’t recent. This place had been dead for a long time.

I had to believe that if there was a nasty biological threat, it would have died off long ago. At least, that’s what I told myself.

Siry expertly guided the ship toward the pier. We gently bumped along our starboard side as Loque and the other Jakills jumped over the railing with ropes. There were large cleats that they used to tie us off. As the rest of the Jakills came up from below, Siry gathered the entire group by the bow.

“Pendragon says he’s seen places like this before,” he announced confidently. “It’s called a city.”

Rat boy asked, “Where did Pendragon see a city before?”

Everyone looked at me. How was I supposed to answer that?

“I’ve heard of places like this,” I said vaguely. “But I’ve heard they are busy places that are full of people. This city looks… looks-“

“Dead,” Loque said soberly.

All eyes turned to the city of rubble.

“Here’s the plan,” Siry said, sounding businesslike. “We’ll send a small party out to explore. The rest should stay here and guard the ship.”

“Against what?” rat boy asked. I really had to find out what his name was. Calling somebody “rat boy” wasn’t cool.

Siry answered, “There may be Flighters here.”

“Who’s going?” Twig asked.

“Me, Twig, and Loque,” Siry responded. “I’m going too,” I said.

Siry shot me a ticked look, as if I had stepped on his authority again. Too bad. I wasn’t about to hang out on that ship. I needed to learn about this city. I didn’t want to make this a power struggle, so I quickly said, “If there’s only a couple of you going, you might need protection.”

How weird was that? I was putting myself out there like some kind of enforcer. Or some kind of… Loor. Siry thought about it, then nodded.

“All right, Pendragon will come too.” He said this to the group as if it were his idea. I had no problem with that. He saved face and I was going on the scout. Siry addressed the group again. “Do not let anybody aboard. If anything happens to this ship…” He let the thought dangle. He didn’t need to finish. Nobody wanted to be stranded there. Every Jakill nodded in agreement.

Siry, Loque, Twig, and I prepared for our trip by each taking a wooden blowgun and a pouch with ten blow darts. I wasn’t sure if I’d be effective with the blowgun, seeing as I’d never tried it before. I figured the wooden weapon would be better used as a short club. I took the darts just the same, tucking the pouch and the weapon into the waist of my pants.

“We won’t be long,” Siry announced.

The four of us climbed over the railing and dropped down to the pier. The wood beneath our feet felt like squishy sponge.

“It’s rotten!” I called out. “Watch where you walk. You don’t want to put your foot through.”

We walked gingerly toward shore, mostly with our eyes down, to be sure we weren’t stepping on a plank that would splinter and plunge us into the water. Along the way we passed a few more of the military-looking gunboats. Up close these boats looked even worse. Their hulls were rusty. Their decks looked as rotten as the pier. I noticed something that made me a little nervous though. As bad as the boats looked, the large gun that was mounted near each of the bows, the same kind of gun that had fired on us off Rayne, looked pretty clean. It didn’t gleam or anything, but it looked to me like it might actually work. I tucked that thought away and kept moving.

We reached the beginning of the pier and stepped onto land. The first thing that caught my eye was a large street sign on the ground that was nearly buried in debris. At one time it was probably bright blue with large white letters. The color had long since faded. The letters had gone gray. But I could read it. There was a large arrow on top, under which it read: FOURTH STREET BRIDGE. I wondered if this was actually English, or my ability as a Traveler translated it for me.

The four of us stood together, silently taking in the remains of what was once a busy metropolis. To say it was a mess is an understatement. The city was in ruins. I was afraid a strong gust of wind might topple one of the huge structures down on top of us. It felt like a giant, fragile, city of cards.

“Let’s look around,” Siry said, a little less confidently than before.

We walked slowly through the rubble, our sandals crunching the debris. The area near the pier looked like it might have been open space at one time. Maybe it was a park or an area for ships to off-load cargo. Now it was a massive junkyard. Most of the rubble was just that-nondescript rubble. Every so often I’d see something that looked like what it had once been. I saw a suitcase, the skeleton of an umbrella, many bottles of different shapes and colors, even a few shoes. That was creepy. Empty shoes.