"Steel Dreams Chapters 34-37" by Charles Davis

It was a stair case. Nothing particularly special about it. Just a plain black metal staircase against a bright white wall.
It spiraled up farther up into the building. They began to climb it, their footsteps clinging as they walked.

“Don’t be in a hurry to run up,” cautioned Junil. “It’s a long ways up to the next level, save your strength.”

“This isn’t what I expected this to look like,” stated Kal. He wasn’t the only one who found the staircase a bit out of
place.

“What do you mean?” asked Junil.

“Well, it’s just,” Kal struggled for the word. “Mechanized.” Junil giggled a litte.

“The machine, doesn’t concern itself with the lower end of the city,” he said. “It’s only concerned with the main force
that feeds it, the upper levels.” Junil started taking off his white suit, revealing his normal clothes underneath. Das and
Kal followed in suit. Das looked down at his belt to see the missing sword.

“We’re going to need to steal some weapons also,” he said. They weren’t able to bring their weapons with them when
sneaking past the White Suits for obvious reasons.

“We’ll figure something out,” said Junil, not quite sure himself what they’re were going to do.

They continued up the steps for quite a long time. Sweat dripped off of Das’s brow as they lunged up in a spiral motion.
They had been climbing for about an hour with no end in sight.

“Man, you weren’t kidding when you said we had a ways to go,” said Kal.

“Yeah, it’s a long way to the so called top from the bottom,” said Junil. They continued to push on, occasional tripping
over they’re own feet.

“My legs feel like they’re bleeding, that can’t be good,” stated Das, as he bent over and rubbed his exhausted calves.

“There it is,” Junil said suddenly. They stopped looking down at their tired feet and looked ahead of them. Out of what
seemed nowhere was the top of the stair case, connected to a door. They sat down on the steps for several moments
before continuing on, giving themselves a rest.

“So where are we now?” asked Kal.

“Judging by how long we climbed, I’m gong to guess we reached the level, five levels below the very top,” Junil estimated.
“Our next step is to steal a ship. They should have some on this level.”

Das sat panting on the step panting. He took the back of his hand swept some sweat from his forehead. The water was
cold on his hand for a second. But after a moment, the heat from his band returned his back to a comfortable warm feeling.
He thought of Raluna. He missed her. He had tried to not think about her, in a vain attempt to keep his emotions down.
He needed to hold her, if not but one more time. He got up.

“Let’s go,” he said. Junil nodded, and they got up. Das opened the door and they stepped out onto the street. The whole
level was built on the roof of one of the large buildings. On the roof were tons of little buildings of various shapes. All had
blinking, multi-colored lights and the flying ships were closer to their heads now. It was harder to breath here. A light fog
of smoke and smog hovered around the whole area, and the place burned the nose hairs whenever they breathed in. They
walked through the foreign territory looking around with wonder. It was easier to see the full scope of the cities power and
hugeness from up on the roof.

“So where do we find a ship?” asked Das.

“Hmm,” thought Junil. “I guess we wait by a parking space, until one lands.” They walked around looking for a designated
landing area. They found a small cluster of them in a line by a building. They positioned themselves behind the corner and
waited. They sat for another hour letting time pass.

“It sure does take a long time do things here,” stated Kal. Das let out a laugh. Suddenly a light from above started shinning
brighter and brighter on one of the landing spots. A ship was landing. It settled itself on the spot and the door to it flung open.
It was a small craft, only able to fit at most five people. It was circular shaped except for the wings which came off the side
and the bottom which was flat. A well dressed Yuntok in a black suit came out of the ship. He hit a button on a key chain
and the door shut and locked.

“Ok,” said Das. “Now’s the time, go hot wire it Junil.” Junil looked at him.

“I don’t know how to hot wire a ship,” he stated.

“What? But you said we would have to steal a ship when got here!” said Das in a panic.

“Yeah,” agreed Junil. “So I came up with the idea. It doesn’t mean I know how to do it.”

“Bah!” Kal let out exasperated. He pulled his boot off and quickly ran up and hit the man who got out of the back of the ship
in the back of the head with it. The man fell down unconscious. Kal quickly yanked him back over to where the others were.
He pulled the key chain out of the man’s pocket. “Come on,” he said. They ran to the ship. Kal unlocked it and they got in,
with Kal in the drivers seat.

“Do you know how to drive this?” asked Das.

“Of course,” Kal said with confidence. “I’m a captain, remember.” He hit a button and the ship went flying backwards off the
roof. It started falling towards the ground. Kal quickly got control over it and they started to climb up towards the top of the
city. Other ships buzzed past them as they ascended.

“Ok,” said Junil, as they reached the top of the buildings of the city. “You’re going to want to head towards that building,” he said
pointing ahead. There was a glass dome on top of it and a balcony that led all the way around the building one floor below the
roof. “You’re going to have to get onto that balcony some how,” said Junil as he examined it through a pair of binoculars he had
found in the ship. “There’s a door on the side of building, that’s where you’re heading.” Das nodded.

They couldn’t find any parachutes so Kal needed to get the wing of the ship to almost touch the edge of balcony. He careful
maneuvered it and got it as close as he could. Das climbed out onto the wing. They wished him luck and he jumped off. He missed
the balcony, but managed to grab onto the edge of it before falling. He slowly pulled himself up and rolled over onto it. He stopped
for a moment with his heart racing. He got up and headed towards the door, his heart racing even more as he approached.

He opened the door. There was a staircase leading directly down in front of him. He walked down it into a small room with a dirt
floor. Metal grates covered every wall and the floor. There was a large wooden table in the middle of the room. It was covered
in blood and had various odd looking metal instruments with sharp points and blade edges to them. On the other side of the room
in the corner there were various lumps in the dirt floor where it looked as if something had been buried. Almost like graves. Das
peered in at the figure that had been crucified on the wall. He looked around the table for any sign of Raluna. Nothing was there.
He looked to the side and saw ropes rapped around the grating of one of the walls. It looked like something had been tied there,
but had been cut free. He walked over to examine it, but tripped over a grave like lump in the ground right in front of the wall. He
turned around to see it.

Sticking in the center of the lump was a single white feather. A heavy feeling fell on his heart as he bent down to examine it. He
plucked it up and held it to his face. It was hers. He let out a scream and thrashed on the ground by Raluna’s grave. She had
been killed and buried right on the spot. He leaned on the wall breathing heavily. He didn’t what else to do. There was nothing
he could do.

He stared at the lifeless grave. Something shifted and a clump of dirt fell off. He came up closer to it. He put his hand on it. It
was ever so slighty moving up and down. As if something was breathing. Suddenly he started digging as fast as he possible could.
He remembered. His hands plunged into the dirt and brought back up Raluna’s face. She breathed in and weakly blinked her eyes.
She was a creature of the land. Being buried alive couldn’t kill her. He pulled her out of the ground and held her in his arms as she
moaned slightly. She was still alive. He hadn’t come too late. Everything was going to be ok.

He felt something warm and wet on his hands. He pulled them off her back and looked at them. They were covered in blood.
He bent over and looked at her back. He looked back at her. She looked at him and started crying.

“He took my wings!” she cried as she fell into his arms.

“Who did it?” Das asked.

“It was him,” she said.

“Who? Tell me! Who?” he demanded. She sobbed harder.

“The man who killed my father!” Suddenly the door swung open and footsteps came down the steps. The armored man stepped into the
room and looked at them.

“I see you found her. Alive to. What a spirit.” He laughed. Das got up and reached for his sword. It wasn’t there.
They had forgotten to get

weapons. The man ran after him and kicked him in the head. Das went flying back and his head wacked Oagainst the wall. He fell
to the ground.

“Well, after all this time, you’re probably wondering who I am. My name is Yino. And I killed that woman’s royal father all
those years ago. I’ve always held onto one of his unique blue and silver feathers ever since then. As a sort of trophy. After all
it’s not every day you get to kill such a royal creature.” He walked over and stepped on Das’s neck, keeping him on the ground.
“You know,” he said leaning down towards Raluna’s face. “I could have killed any Saratan out there. All I needed were the wings.
I decided to wait and kill you though. It was because I saw you’re face. I can see him in you. I would never forget that look.”
He smiled at her. “And now, thanks to your contribution, I have resurrected him. Me. I did it. I’m responsible for the resurrection
of the savior! And now you will all see his glorious power come true!”

He laughed as the ground started to shake. Suddenly the ground opened up and they all were dumped into a metal chamber.

The ground shook and the unbreakable city shook with it. From out of the depths of the wires and machines of Dox, rose a gigantic
ship made of the same lifeless metal material the city was made of. It had the shape of a giant metal bullet. It rode past the
city slowly. The shear size of the thing was almost to much to comprehend. Kal could barely see an end to it from he sat in the
small air ship.

“Come on, we have to get out of here, something bad is going to happen,” said Junil.

“We can’t leave Das!” said Kal in a panic.

“We will not let him die. They are on that ship. I know it. We’ll go after it. But we need to get out of here now, something worse
is coming.” Kal looked at Junil.

“What? What’s coming? How do you know?”

“Whether I like it or not, Dox has placed a part of it’s being into my body. I can feel it. I know what it thinks.”

“What is it going to do?” asked Kal in a whisper.

“…It’s coming to life.”