The Factory Trilogy 01 - Gleam by Tom Fletcher Page B

And I couldn’t do my work because I was all hot and sweaty. And after classes I was crying in the corridor on the way home and Vurnit came up to me and asked me if I was all right. I said I was. He asked if I wanted to see the pendant and I said yes. I think I said yes too quickly. He held it up for me to take and I thought we were going to be friends properly. I took it in my hand and – it made a sound like bacon – like, hot, sizzling. It didn’t hurt at first. Then it did, and I couldn’t let go. I started shouting and Vurnit was laughing. The others were laughing too. I cried in front of them.’
    Alan tried to control his voice. ‘Where were the teachers?’
    ‘They don’t watch us outside of school.’
    ‘Where were the Arbitrators? The Administrators?’ Alan spat. ‘Were there no fucking Alchemists prancing about? Where was your mother? Give me that hand.’
    Billy backed away from him.
    ‘Billy, I—’
    ‘Don’t swear, and don’t blame her.’
    ‘I’m not. It’s just—’
    ‘It’s not like you were there either.’
    Alan gritted his teeth. The side of the Pyramid sloped down away from them, as high and steep as the sharp white mountains that could sometimes be seen catching the sunlight to the west. Black stone carved with elaborate designs gave way to alcoves like the one in which they stood, gave way to windows with balconies, gave way to columned galleries that spanned the whole side. The Pyramid was not as solid as it looked from a distance. It was a honeycomb: a hive of monks and drudges. It was intricately hollow and the closer you got to the shining, haloed point of it, the more ornate the detail and architecture became. Alan put the hip-flask to his lips once more and held it there, drained it, grimaced and put the flask away again.
    ‘I want to be here for you, Billy. I would be if they let me.’
    ‘Why didn’t you just stay?’
    ‘They exiled me.’
    ‘But only because you kept breaking the rules.’
    ‘Billy …’ The Dog Moon was hot in Alan’s stomach, but did nothing to burn out his fury. Vurnit and his friends, the Teachers, the Alchemists, the Administrators, the Astronomers – the whole damn lot of them, they could all go to hell. Billy was old enough to know what they were now. Old enough to hear the truth.
    ‘Billy, I wasn’t born in the Pyramid. Did you know that?’
    Billy shook his head inside his oversized cowl.
    ‘There was a small town at the base of the Pyramid called Modest Mills. You can just about still see the ruins of it now: fallen-down walls and the outlines of buildings, all half buried by the dustdrifts. It wasn’t all dust then, though; it wasn’t a wasteland. Modest Mills was white stone and brick and wood, proper human-sized houses, not like the cells up here in the Pyramid, and not the giant ancient buildings of the Discard either. Modest Mills was where I was born. We weren’t Pyramidders, nor were we proper Discarders; we were in-between. We traded with both. The Alchemists and Astronomers sent their lackeys down for supplies from the Discard Wilds, the Forests of Dok, the Warehouse Wastes – animals’ parts, y’know, certain fungi, swamp plants, metal bits and pieces from the old machines. And Discarders came to sell. They did buy, too, but mostly just from each other. The Pyramidders didn’t have much that the Discarders wanted, from what I recall.’
    ‘I’m getting cold. I want to go inside.’
    ‘Billy, please don’t go. Don’t leave me, Billy. I’m sorry for losing my temper. It’s just the thought of somebody hurting you. You don’t know – you
can’t
know.’
    ‘I know what it’s like to be the one getting hurt, though.’
    Alan laughed. ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘There’s that. How does it make you feel?’
    ‘Sad.’ Billy sat down next to his father and then looked up at him. ‘Angry, too.’
    ‘I’m angry, Billy. That’s why they kicked me out. I was angry then and I’m still angry now.’
    ‘They should