"Steel Dreams 32-33" by Charles Davis

The guards starred at them as the carriage bounced up and down as it traveled. The
whole group had stopped yelling and they sped forward with determination. Das
looked at Kal. Kal shook his head, he didn’t know what the tournament was either.
They had been riding for a good half hour.

“This place sure is big,” said Das as he watched the buildings race by outside of the
carriage.

“Yeah,” agreed Kal. The guards pushed them to be quiet. They rode in silence, each
of them trying to think of a way to get out. They’re weapons had been stripped so that
was out. Neither of them could use magic, nor were either of them strong enough to
break the collars around their necks. So their they sat. Two helpless Yuntoks.

Finally the vehicles came to a stop and Kal and Das were forced out into the street. They
were in the center of a makeshift town. The houses were made of pieces of scrap metal and
torn sheets with oil stains on them. Various people peered out of their cloth doors to see the
commotion. Das and Kal were pushed on through the town. The finally came to a cleared
out area, that everyone circled around. In the center of area was a raised square platform
with a rope running around the outside of it. It was a fighting ring. Kal and Das were pushed
to the side of the ring. Junil stepped out of the crowd and confronted them.

“Welcome to my side of town,” he said in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “You have
been chosen to prove yourself through tournament. I have reviewed your scenario and have
decided this is the best way to decide your fate. Here’s the deal. If you win, you will have proven
yourself worthy, and we will offer you aid in your quest. If you lose. Well, we kill you.” He
looked at both of them. “Which one of you will participate in the tournament?” he asked. Das
stepped up to say something but Kal gave him a kick to the stomach and Das reeled back winded.

“I will,” stated Kal.

“Good,” said Junil. The collar was taken off of Kal’s neck. He was then led up into the ring by an
Elf, who wore a skirt made of leather and chain, and no top. She had a ring through each nipple and
a chain connecting them. On the other side of the ring a large man with a bicep the size of Kal’s ring
was led by a Yuntok of the similar dress as the Elf that had led Kal up. Both Kal and the other man’s
shirts were removed and their hands were quickly wrapped in white cloth wrap. They were then both
handed chainsaws.

Junil walked up to the edge of the ring and peered at Kal through the ropes. “The rules to the game are
simple. Who ever dies, looses.” Junil smirked. Kal looked at the other man in the ring and gulped.
“Begin!” shouted Junil.

The large man pulled the cord on the chainsaw and revved it. Kal followed in suit. The circled each other
for a moment. Sweat dripped off Kal’s forehead as the crowd yelled. The man charged. Kal jumped to
the side and hit the other spinning blade away with his. The man turned and swung at Kal’s head. Kal
ducked and rolled to the side as his opponents blade came slashing downward. Kal quickly got to his
feet and charged back. The large man knocked his blade out of the way and moved behind Kal. Kal
spun around and caught the other man’s blade as it swung. The stayed with blades pushing on each
other, trying to out power the other. Sparks shot from the two spinning blades and the base of the
saws shook from the vibration. The large man had the upper hand and pushed Kal back against the
ropes. Kal’s chainsaw rattled out of his hand to the floor. The man swung at Kal’s head and Kal
suddenly went downwards face first, causing the blade to just miss him. Das had grabbed Kal’s ankles
from behind the rope and pulled at just the right time. The guard holding onto Das hit the button and
Das fell to his knees. Kal punched upwards into the other man’s groan. The man groaned. Kal put all
of his force into his arm and flipped the man onto his back by his groan. Kal then quickly grabbed his
chainsaw and swung down towards the man as the man swung his chainsaw up. Kal’s blade stuck deep
into the body of the other man’s chainsaw. The chainsaw sputtered and died. Kal pulled it out of the man’s
hand. The man laid on the ground looking back up at Kal. Kal turned off his chainsaw and threw it to the
side. He had won.

The crowd cheered and Junil climbed up into the ring. He helped his man up to his feet. He looked at Kal.

“Well, there was no death, but you spared one of my best men,” said Junil. “I’ll let you get away with it.”
He looked at Kal and let out a laugh. Kal grinned.

“It’s not often we get visitors from the outside world here,” said Junil as he sat down in a chair in his house.
It was the nicest out of all of the other houses, but still made out of the same materials. Unlike the other ones,
it had two floors to it. Das and Kal sat in two other chairs in the dark room, illuminated by a single light bulb
attached to the ceiling. Suddenly they’re came two other men into the room carrying Kal and Das’s weapons.
They were handed them. “I must admire such a fine blade you have Das. Where ever did you get it?” asked
Junil.

“So you can help us find our friend,” said Das eager to change the subject.

“Yes I can. Let me see that piece of paper of yours.” Das handed it to him. Junil looked it over again. “These
numbers are an address. Hmm.”

“What is it?” asked Kal.

“This place is up in the highest level of the city. It’s also the hardest to get to.” He looked at them doubtingly.
His expression changed to determination. “But not impossible.”

“Good, what do we do first?” asked Kal.

“First we need to sneak up to higher levels.” He thought for a moment about what came after that. “I guess we
can try and steal an airship from there. Maybe we’d be able to drop you off from above. If we can get some
parachutes or something.”

“We can’t get close enough to just dock it on top of a building or something?” suggested Das.

“No, there’s a power field all through the city that tracks the movement of all the ships through the heat they put off.”

“So they wouldn’t be able to track a person dropping in from a ship though,” added Kal.

“Exactly.”

“All right, let’s do it,” said Das.

“There is another problem, though,” said Junil.

“What?” asked Das.

“The only door into the buildings we know about is an enemy tribes territory. There are three different tribes that rule
down here. We’re the Chain tribe. There’s also the Leather tribe, and the White Suit Tribe. We’re allies with the
Leather tribe, but our tribe is at war with the White Suit tribe. And that’s were the door is.”

“So what can we do?” asked Kal.

“Our only choice is to go in disguise and try to sneak by. It has been done before,” said Junil with another determined
look on his face. Suddenly his face turned to a sickly expression. He threw his head back and let out a yell and started
shaking.

“What’s going on?” yelled Das. A man ran into the room with a small block of wood with him. He grabbed Junil and
pressed it against his face. Junil stopped shaking and went limp. He was dragged out of the room. “What just happened?”
asked Das again. Another man came into the room.

“You’ll have to excuse Junil, he has the sickness,” he said.

“What sickness?” asked Kal.

“Junil used to work in the most high-tech area of the city. He worked there for many years. There’s a sickness that’s going
around this city that especially effects people who have been in that area for exposed periods of time. The machine that is
Dox gets to them, and they feel as if they are loosing ground and all control over themselves. Then that happens. The only
known cure at the moment is wood. Any who have the sickness, must touch a piece of wood at least every four hours or
they lose it. Apparently Junil hasn’t been lately.”

“Will he be ok?” asked Das.

“Yes. Give him a few hours. He should be better.” The man looked at them. “I’d get some rest now. You have a big night
ahead of you.”

“I don’t like this,” said as he tried to make himself comfortable in his new garb. It was made of torn and shredded polyester
which itched like crazy. It consisted of pieces of a white button up undershirt, a white pair of pants, a white torn jacket, and
a white piece of cloth tied around the neck. “It doesn’t feel right,” Das added.

“Well if this is how they dress,” stressed Kal. Das nodded. He looked at the buildings as they raced by as the carriage
carried forward through the city.

“They used to be the most prestigious of people in Dox, the White Suits,” said Junil. “They’re forefathers, dedicated to the idea
of power created the mainframe, and giant computer that runs this city. They saw it as a way to be able to control the rest of
the people in this city easier. It ended up controlling them. And when it turned out that the computer didn’t need its makers
anymore it dumped them. They couldn’t stand to leave the city they created, so they stayed down here, plotting the day they
will be able to retake the city.” A serious expression came over Junil’s face.

“A giant computer runs this city?” asked Das.

“Yes,” said Junil. “It’s a monster the likes nothing on Staraunat has ever seen. And the city isn’t run by it. It is the city. This
city is just a giant machine who’s only purpose is to take up space and melt minds so it has more power to itself. I have seen
its heart. I was lucky enough to walk away.”

“What did you used to do here?” asked Kal. Junil breathed in deeply remembering his past.

“My job was to press the button. The way Dox is kept running is through the constant feeding of magic. Yes, even this god
forsaken place has magic in it. It is the only true power in the universe. The way the magic was fed was through voluntary
donation. People of all races, especially those who have enough power over their own magic to cast spells and such, where
the ones who donated. They had been fooled enough to believe that donating to the power of the place held some kind of honor
to it. They would have to be placed inside a chamber, then a button would be pressed, and a piece of the magic force that lives
inside all of us would be sucked out of them and fed to Dox. One being could donate six times before they’re whole life force
was sucked clean of them. My job was to press the button on the machine.”

“Why did you leave?” asked Das.

“We were donating an Elf once. I hit the button and she started shaking and cry as Dox drained her of her final strength. She cried
out for her land and her people. The last thing she cried for were the trees. I have never seen trees. I never realized that until I
heard that.” Junil paused for a moment and touched the piece of wood that had been tied to his chest under his clothes. He
brightened up. “Well to make a long story short, I left, and now I’m here. My mission is to destroy this city by any means
necessary and to free these people. Right now our first step is taking over the lowest level, and then the next, and then the next,
until we have finally taken it back, and we can destroy Dox and return the land to what it once was.” Kal smiled.

“If this place has any prayer, you’re the one who will deliver it hope.” He put his hand on Junil’s shoulder, Junil smiled.

“Hello, yes I have the papers and the information here, but I need you to tell me the password to the printer. Ok. Hang on let me
type it in. Ah yes, yes, yes, that’s very good. I’m glad you called. I was feeling lonely. Oh nothing. It’s just these lights and this
flashing screen. It seems to have driven me quiet mad. But I know I have to keep seeing it or I’ll simply cease to be. That’s the
only thing. There is no world beyond this. What a second. They’re seems to be a group of other business associates walking this
way. Three of them. How do I know? They’re dressed like us. One of them is bald. With a tattoo on his head though. But I’ve
seen weirdo with the young kids now adays. I should go report this to the boss. I have to go. I’ll call you back later. Ok. Bye
bye.” The man in the suit set down the hunk of scrap metal he had been talking into and stepped away from the lifeless metal box
he had pressing invisible buttons on, and ran off to report to his superior.

They walked through a sight of insanity. Everyone there was dressed in the shreds of suits like the three of them were. Most of them
were busy talking to each other about various matters of consequence. Many of them had pads of paper that they hopelessly wrote
down things on. On man was sitting on the floor in a pile of his own waste just calmly rocking back and forth as the world happened
around him. There were no buildings or any sort of attempted housing. It was just a flat street filled with people. All over the ground
there was litter, urine and fecal matter. They apparently just went to the bathroom where ever they stood. They seemed to busy to
bother with anything else.

The three of them walked through the streets trying to act in much of the same way as everyone else. They finally had come to the place
they were looking for. The door to the inside of one of the buildings was sitting there, unguarded. It was a small maintenance door.
But it would do if it would let them get up. They walked towards it.

“Stop!” a voice shouted out. It one of the men, followed by another group of men behind him approached. It was clear he was some
kind of leader. “I need to see your credentials,” he said. Junil walked up close to him.

“We need no credentials,” he said with passion. He then punched the man as hard as he could. “Run!” he yelled. They ran for the door,
away from the mass of men coming for them and fighting off those coming from the side. They made it. Junil threw open the door and
the men shrieked and scattered away from the door. The three of them were alone in the center of the street.

“What happened?” asked Das.

“They can’t stand to see what’s beyond this door,” said Junil. Cause then they will see what this city really does to them. Come on.”
They walked into the building.