Ryker led them farther down the city, to a path that lowered into a small town that he called Bell Down, named after the large domed building in the distance roughly shaped like a bell. None of the kids had been this far away from the mid-level slums before, and to Zan it felt like a million miles away from the Pipelands. He constantly looked around as they walked, waiting for an ambush from Eclipse Guards at any moment, always looking for an escape route.

Ryker adjusted the hair tie around his ponytail as they walked. Despite his gruff, stubbled appearance, he had a somewhat strangely effeminate face, Zan thought, with pouty lips and sharply pronounced brows.

Gosaline sobbed quietly, holding Marcin's hand.

"Did anyone see what happened to Dallos and San?" Marcin asked, for maybe the third time.

Wes shook his head, looking down with a glazed, stunned expression. "San was behind me, on the ladders. I think. But... I didn't realise she wasn't with us on the bridge until it was too late."

"I'm sure they got out another away," Edrund said, trying to sound positive.

Gosaline broke into heavy tears, wailing. "Like... like-like... Keithan."

Marcin hugged an arm around her and stroked her hair. He looked like he was going to say something, offer some words of comfort, but seemed just as defeated as the others. His fingers running through Gosaline's red hair looked like he was brushing them through flames. Playing with fire, Zan thought, like we've all been doing.

Marcin looked up at Ryker. "So why are you helping us?"

Ryker met his eyes, but had no discernible expression. "You kids certainly aren't any friends of the Mayor's, so that makes you friends of mine. Like you, I imagine, I felt like I needed to do something to fix this broken world."

"What have you got against the Mayor?" Edrund asked, wiping his floppy hair away from his face.

"He and I saw a difference of opinions, and so I left. And when I saw you all on the tower, something told me that you were on to something."

"Right," Marcin said miserably. "Something like getting us all killed."

"Tell me about why that disk was so important," Ryker said.

The kids shared thoughtful looks, gaging if they should trust him. Marcin eventually said, "You'll see once we read it."

Ryker nodded. "Fair enough."

Zan fell into troubled thoughts, wondering why those black armoured guards had been there. Somehow he felt like they were after him specifically. He shuddered, hugging himself, and kept looking out for any signs of betrayal from Ryker.

Passing Bell Down, they came to a wide cliff face where a house had been built into the rocks. Ryker told them the man here was an old mechanic, someone they could trust. Dull shrubs and weeds covered a patchy area of grass around the cliffs.

The heavy iron door opened to an old man with wispy white hair and a haggard, deeply lined face. Seeing Ryker, he welcomed them in, muttering a stream of thoughts about the fate of the city and the insanity of people. He showed them into a widely spaced living area, with a kitchen section on the far corner. The air was damp and stuffy, like a mouldy cave, with bulbs along the walls that gave the carpeted room a warm yellow glow.

Ryker introduced him as Aukren Camboss, one of the oldest mechanics in the city and someone who knows the inner workings of the machines as well as anyone. He explained their situation to Aukren while the kids dropped onto the sofas and chairs with heavy sighs.

"Please, make yourselves at home," Aukren said, waving an arm over the room as he shuffled to a console station by the wall. He was well spoken, with an aristocratic, scholarly manner. "Help yourselves to anything you find in the kitchen. Sounds like you kids have been through a few scrapes."

Priya was the first to get up, saying, "I'll see what I can find us in there."

Zan smiled to himself. She was as exhausted and beaten down as the rest of them, but was still looking out for them all however she could.

Wes and Edrund lounged on the sofa close together and playfully pushed each other away while bickering. Their usual mirth was gone, however. The events of the day, and their losses, hung over them all.

Marcin turned to Zan beside him, holding out the diagnostics disk. "I'm gonna check on Gos, see how she's doing." He pointed his head towards Ryker and the old man, who were turning on the consoles. "Go see what's on this. And I'll be there in a bit."

Looking over at Ryker, Zan said, "I don't trust him."

Marcin gave a half shrug. "Neither do I, fully. But I trust him enough to let him think he's helping us, for now."

Zan nodded, eyeing Marcin. He was only nineteen, like Zan, but he seemed much older. Growing up on the streets hadn't removed Marcin's softer side and good humour, but there was a seriousness behind his eyes – the responsibility of them all that weighed him down.

Zan took the disk and then paused, his throat tightening. "I'm.... sorry, for earlier. For almost getting you killed."

"Don't worry about it," Marcin said. "It was a crazy moment for all of us."

Zan grimaced, holding back his emotions. "I shouldn't have been so weak. I just stood there. I could've got both of us killed. I saw those black guards, and... I froze."

"I know this is even harder, for you," Marcin said. "Your da and I may not have seen eye to eye, but he was a really good man. And he loved you more than anything."

Zan nodded, swallowing. Marcin patted him on the shoulder, rising, and then pointed at the disk as he left.

Pushing himself up, Zan crossed the room to meet Ryker and Aukren.

"Let's have a look at this disk of yours, shall we?" Aukren said, putting on thickly rimmed glasses that looked more like goggles. He inserted the disk into the side of the console. Zan frowned, not recognising the interface or the blocky, old-style consoles, or even the jittering sounds they made. Beside the console, the back-up battery unit shook and thrummed.

"Hmmm," Aukren said, leaning closer. "Looks like this has a record of the machine's status', going back... centuries."

Schematics and revolving images of machinery flashed on the screen, accompanied by fast scrolling data.

"What does it say?" Ryker asked. "I never figured out what these computers say."

Zan gasped. "Failsafe."

He shared a surprised look with Aukren, whose eyes widened. "You can read the machines?" Aukren asked.

Zan turned back to the console. "It says there's a failsafe. A secondary purpose of the machines. But... that doesn't make sense?"

Aukren frowned. "My boy, that makes perfect sense. It says here it was set up millennia ago, almost back when this city was first constructed."

When he saw Ryker eyeing him, Zan paused, becoming aware of himself. They shouldn't have been sharing so much information with him. He still wore his Eclipse armour, and to Zan that meant he was still a Mayor's man. There are no good people in the Mayor's office, his da had said.

Marcin came up to them and placed a tray of drinks on a side table. "Priya said to give you these. What have we found out?"

Zan smiled at him, his heart racing. "Marcin, you won't believe what this is saying." An awkward chuckle left him.

Marcin checked the screen but it made little sense to him. The machine language had been set up a long time ago for only a select few who learnt it to understand.

"It says," Zan began," that there is a failsafe set into the Grid. In the event of the outside world becoming unstable and contaminated, the machines can restore the atmosphere to a habitable condition."

"Bring back the world?" Marcin said with awe.

Zan pointed to a series of icons. "They call it a shelter, and a bunker. This word I don't understand, nuclear event."

Aukren grimaced. "Old stories, myths. Long forgotten. You've heard that the world was a terrible place? The Mayor likes to remind people that he is our saviour. Well, that came from a long time ago when this city was our only safe place. And it became our only home ever since."

"The Mayor says he keeps us safe in this city," Zan said. "But there's more to it, isn't there?"

"The Mayor is not the omnificent god he'd like us all to believe," Ryker said. "He is just a man. A man named Alpheus Dulator. Though he only wants people to simply know him as The Mayor, like all the Mayor's before him."

Aukren nodded. "It's more important that a Mayor leads the city, not a specific person."

Zan paused, a chill running through him. "My ma's name is on here."

A silence came over them as they studied the screen. Across the room, plates and glasses clinked as the others moved about.

"Your mother was Cliona McCawl?" Aukren said. He lifted his glasses to rest on his head. "You're Herrik's boy."

"You knew my parents?" Zan asked. His voice sounded hollow and distant.

"We all worked in the Mayor's office, a long time ago," Aukren said. "She was a wonderful woman, your mother, with a remarkable mind. It was a terrible thing, what happened to her."

"My ma worked with the Mayor? I was nine, when she died. I knew she had some important job, I remember her working late sometimes, but, I never knew it was for the Mayor. My da never said much about it, but he said it was an accident."

"She was exposed to the outside world, aye. The air is so toxic that we don't last long, those that go outside.

Zan thought about the drone that Dallos sent out. The drone he may have risked his life to send.

"They called it an accident," Aukren said, "during a routine check. But, there were rumours..."

"What?"

"There were rumours that she had uncovered some classified files. Details regarding the machines. No one knew exactly what went on, however. Your father tried to learn the truth but was blocked at every step."

"So that's why my da left his job, and why he hated the Mayor so much. But why are the Mayor's black guards after me?"

"His personal guards are after you, boy?" Aukren asked. "That is interesting, indeed."

"They killed my da," Zan said, feeling numb. Fatigue seemed to overwhelm him suddenly, the day's events catching up to him. "And I think they're after me, too."

"They say his personal guards are not human," Aukren said. "Demons, some call them. Terrible forces of evil." 

Zan shuddered. He glanced at Ryker before looking away. He was staring at him too closely, like he was waiting for something, expecting something from Zan.

So his ma was killed during her service in the Mayor's office. There are no good people in the Mayor's office. They were not good to me. To me, or... those were his da's last words. To me, or... your ma. He had almost told Zan that the Mayor's men killed his ma. In an accident... that may not have been an accident. Zan's stomach churned and a bad taste filled his throat. He felt like he was going to be sick.

"You know the computer language," Aukren said. "And Herrik knew the Grid as well as anyone in the city. Only a few of us do. I take it you're a gifted engineer, correct?"

Zan nodded without pride.

Aukren tapped the screen and said, "With the machines down, people will be trying to fix them. Those that know the machines best will seek to solve the problem. And in delving into the core of the Grid they stand a chance of coming across the failsafe."

"Wouldn't they have had a chance to discover the failsafe before?" Ryker asked.

"No one has ever tried to fix the machines like this before."

"So," Ryker said. "The Mayor is killing those who know the Grid best."

"It appears that way," Aukren said gravely, looking away in thought.

"So what do we do?" Marcin said. "We need to tell people about this failsafe."

"How?" Zan said. "Everything is down, that isn't running on battery power. And those will die eventually."

"We go in," Ryker said, tapping on a schematic. "Right into the Mainframe, ourselves. We bring back the machines and initiate the failsafe."

Marcin puffed out an uncomfortable chuckle. "Right, just go in to the Mayor's Fortress, and walk right through to the Mainframe behind it. You still have your front door keys?"

"No need for the keys," Ryker said, a glint of something fierce in his eyes. "The roof is the best point of entry. I know my way around the inside. Zan knows the machines. If I can get him in to the Mainframe he can initiate the failsafe. Right, Zan?"

Zan hesitated, feeling his face redden. He tried to speak but couldn't get any words out.

Ryker leaned closer to him. "Zan, look at the procedure. You think you can follow the steps to initiate the failsafe?"

Zan frowned and nodded sullenly.

"I'll go in too, then," Marcin said. "Three is better than two."

"Alright," Ryker said. "But the smaller the team the better. You alright, Zan?"

Zan kept his eyes down, feeling his chest tighten and his throat seize up. "I... need some water," he said dully. He got up and left them, ignoring Marcin's call that they had drinks there.

He rounded the counter into the kitchen area, where he paused and tried to steady his breathing. Head into the Mayor's Fortress... bring the machines back... it all sounded so surreal. And it was all up to him...

"Hey."

Zan turned and saw Priya. She had a quiet smile, leaning against the counter, looking relaxed and peaceful, somehow. Like she had lived there her whole life. His heart melted in that moment, as if all his worries could be washed away.

"How you doing?" she asked.

Zan swallowed. "Just looking for a glass."

Priya went to a cupboard. "That's not what I asked."

Shaking his head, Zan said, "I don't know. I don't know what to think anymore. I... I think I'm just going along with what I think my da would want me to do. But I don't know if I can do it."

"Did you read the disk?"

"We did. It says... we can set the machines to fix the world outside. Ryker wants me to go into the Mayor's Fortress and work on the Mainframe."

Priya's eyebrows rose as she paused. She placed a cup on the counter next to him, bringing her face close to his. The pounding in Zan's ears increased.

"Zan," she breathed. "You're far stronger than you think you are. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. You just have to believe in yourself."

Zan said something, or he thought he did. All he knew was that Priya's face was so close to his, her large eyes absorbing him. They moved closer.

A blaring alarm ignited in the air, the bulbs on the walls flashing red and white.

"They found you," Aukren growled. 

(2558 words)