The City in the Sky
CHAPTER 18

The gun hissed. Mulligan felt as if a sledgehammer had slammed into his sternum. It was becoming harder to breath.

“That was for The Kestrel, yeh bastard!”

Mulligan’s eyes sprang open in surprise at the sound of Jana Windfury’s voice. He saw Granger’s body lying across his chest. The man’s eyes stared wide with the shock which pierced his body via Jana’s bullet.

“James, are ye okay?“, asked Jana with patent concern as she gasped for air.

With a little effort, James was able to push the smaller man off him. He rose to his feet gasping and holding his side.

“Yeah, just give me a second”, replied James.

“Oh James, I’m so sorry. I never wanted to involve yeh in anything like this.”

Mulligan did his best to manage a smile and said, “Don’t blame yourself. As I recall, I involved myself. Besides, I’m still in your debt remember?”

Even in the dim light afforded by the smog, James could see Jana’s green eyes glowed with tears through the lenses in her mask. “Well if yeh want to call it even at this point, I won’t hold it against yeh”, she said with a wet laugh.

Then they both laughed together for a moment. Laughed through the pain and fear.

Suddenly Jana’s eyes widened with fearful realization. She had seen Reginald’s lifeless body still protruding from the hull of the Kestrel.

Her voice was saturated in emotion as she asked, “Is he....?”

She left the statement unfinished, afraid to say the word, but Mulligan understood and nodded his head, unable to look her in the eyes. They sat in silence for a moment to mourn the loss of the stoic Clockwork.

“James”, she said softly, “I’m sorry we couldn’t help yer friend.”

All at once James’ thoughts flew to Lucy. He had been so in the moment of trying to stay alive that he hadn’t given thought to much else.

“Do yeh think she will be okay?“, asked Jana.

“I don’t know. I left a message for MCA before we left. I only hope we can get home alive to see if it got there.”

Jana nodded her understanding and said, “About that, I’ve been doing some thinking. By my estimates, we’ve crashed roughly 53 miles east of Central. If this thing still works”, she said looking at the compass mounted on her wrist, “I say we head that way.”

“53 miles is a long walk, Jana. Do you think our masks will hold out that long?”

“Given the circumstances, James, I don’t think we have any other choice.” A somber fear had filled her voice, which attacked Mulligan’s psyche like a disease. He pondered what a strange experience it was to be human. To feel terror, happiness, hopefulness, and despair all in a matter of minutes. Perhaps this was all part of the humanistic value of “Negative Capability” that the poets had postulated. He looked up hoping to compare Jana’s feelings, but found that she had already started walking.

It was slow going. They said little to one another, just trying to conserve their breath. James’ mouth was parched and evil tasting reminding him it had been several hours since he had last had anything to drink. It seemed they hand landed on an alien planet to Mulligan. “Venus, perhaps?“, he thought dryly. Strange noises came upon the wind. At least once Mulligan could swear he heard the sound of water crashing against land. The heat was almost overwhelming and if that wasn’t enough, there was the smog. It was like a living enemy. It hovered at the edges of their masks like an angry swarm of insects. It wanted to be inside them, to fill their lungs and guts full of ash. It coated their exposed skin, mixing with the sweat. Though Jana was only a few feet in front of Mulligan, the smog would sometimes obscure her from his vision at times as if it were deliberately trying to separate them. But after several hours of walking, all these concerns were being eclipsed by a more urgent problem:

The masks were starting to fail.

Each breath became more laborious than the last. Each step became a battle. Mulligan had to fight the urge to tear the mask from his face and gulp down draughts of tainted air. They took to leaning on one another for support. Finally Jana fell to her knees. Without her support, Mulligan collapsed beside her. His vision started to blur around the edges.

“I’m sorry, Lucy”, he whispered thickly before the world faded into blackness and he thought nothing more.