My Story - Edited as of 8/17/2011

It started with a dream and a need to continue on when I woke up. It is only the first few chapters and I am still trying to flesh out these parts. Please leave feedback and comments! Its tentatively titled Dark City but that is still in the works.

Added a bit, changed/updated names. Still A LOT of work to do!!

Dark City

Chapter 1: The Book and The Stranger

 Nuri had heard of The Book. The legend of The Book was as old as the legend of the lush green lands with the flowing sparkling water. Actually, that was what The Book was about. The legend told about when the water freely flowed everywhere and it was free to everyone. It told the story of how mankind became greedy and started possessing and blocking off the waters. Those in control sold the natural resource for profit and the cost kept getting higher and higher. But their greed wasn't satisfied. The machines made a deal with the greedy men and showed them how to bottle the clouds so the rivers and lakes dried up, the land became parched, and water was a highly sought after commodity. 

That was when the dirt took over the barren land and the seasons were no more. Hot scorching month dragged into hot scorching month. It was the greed of man for control over the water that opened the gates for the Visitor controlled machines to destroy our world. Greed made Man blind and then Man forgot machines are only machines and controlled by another. This race was also greedy. After destroying the land, they set their greed straight on man's demise. War broke out, machines versus human. Of course the machines won. Many people died, cities destroyed, and those who lived were scattered throughout the land. More visitors came as the conquers left, many of shady nature. Soon, there came a sort of new culture that was born. One of survival through the corruption, the dirt, and the newly rampant machines. The Visitors left their machines, some destroyed and broken in pieces, left for scavengers to gather and create new machines, and others aimlessly adapting to life on this planet. In the void of the Visitors, new life came here from out there, beyond our scorching sun. Strange visitors that soon claimed this planet as home.

The sky was no longer a brilliant blue but at times a deep red, searing orange, or a blinding white during the heat of the day. No longer did night give our planet a reprieve from the heat for the nights were shorter since the Moon was half destroyed in the battle.

The Book was supposedly this chronological history and also told of the secret on how to undo the powerful hold The Hand, the group that governed the planet, still had over the water and how to have the water freely flow to the people once more for the water will bring back the life to the planet.

Nuri heard of The Book and the legend but always believed it was a child's bedtime story, one to bring hope to the hungry eyes that would stare up at their parents, looking for answers. Until The Book was shoved right into her hands.

"Catch him!" yelled a wiry man as he stopped running, his body convulsing with deep breathes. He held onto his bowl hat while he crouched down waiting for his breath to fill his lungs. His greasy brown hair stuck out wildly from under his hat. His dirty green eyes held disdain at the seemingly meager attempt from his gang to catch the gypsy boy in front of them.

The boy, about the age of 10, ran up to Nuri, shoved the book into her hands and whispered "Take this to the Gypsy Queen, Nuri". Then he disappeared in the crowd. Startled he knew her name, Nuri just stared at the worn leather bound book, unaware that the gang of low leveled criminals were headed towards her.

"Run," whispered a man's voice in her ear, as he grabbed the book and stuffed it into her bag. Pushing her, and rushing through the crowd, they started to run. Nuri only got a quick glance at the stranger beside her. His long sun-streaked hair was pulled back from his face. He was concentrating on weaving through the crowd.

Nuri looked back to notice the gang getting caught up in the small crowd and she smiled. She felt reality settle in a bit, enough for her to scan the surrounding buildings and calculate a way back to the motel she and her friends were staying at. The motel was on the outside of the small town and they were on the opposite end. The motel looked like remnants of an actual motel, though some rooms were blocked off due to structural damage. Most rooms were operational. The crowd they just passed through was caused by a food deposit made by "The Hand" organization, the main governing body of the world. They controlled everything from food and water rations to political policies and intercity trade.

The sky was darkening into a brilliant twilight as Nuri and the stranger approached the motel. They had stopped running once they made sure they had lost the small gang. And now Nuri was able to clearly think about what had happened. She stopped dead in her tracks.

"Who are you?" she questioned the unknown companion.

"It would be better if we got out of the open," he replied, his eyes still scanning the surroundings.

"No, I need to..." Nuri started to demand but the guy pushed her inside the bubble domed parlor of the Gaslight Saloon. Nuri had to squint her eyes as they readjusted to the poorly lit room. Just as the name implied, the saloon, a small room with a few tables and chairs with a long bar, was dimly lit by gas lights. The stranger found an empty table in the semi-crowded parlor.

A waitress in a faded green dress grinned at the man, hand on her hip, the other clutching a small pad of paper.

"What woulda like?" the woman said sweetly.

"Two house ales, ma'am," he replied with a quick glance and fleeting smile.

"No problem, doll." The dressed up woman jotted down his order and sashayed towards the bar.

"Have a seat," the stranger directed at Nuri, who continued to stand cautiously away from him.

"I promise to answer your questions, but you may want to sit down in the mean time." Nuri slid into the chair opposite him and placed her bag on the floor and between her feet.

"That's better," he smiled. His brilliant white teeth flashed in the poor lighting and Nuri though it made his hazel deepen to a golden green. Nuri's heart sped up and she had to look away to quickly gain her composure. The waitress placed the drink order in front of them, once again putting her hand on her hip and sweetly smiled at the man. She completely ignored Nuri. But Nuri didn't mind. It gave her a few fleeting moments to gather her thoughts once more.

"There ya go, darling," the waitress said, sugar dripping from every word.

"Thank you." was all that the man replied as he turned his blinding smile towards the waitress. He handed her some money and from her bulging eyes, it more than covered the bill. The two waited as she left, quite satisfied with the tip her gave her. That is when Nuri pounced.

"Who are you? Who was that boy? Who were those guys? And what was that book that was shoved in my guy?" she fired off. At the mention of the book, Nuri started to reach for her bag. She wanted to see what this book was and why it had cause such a commotion.

"No, leave it," the man gruffly whispered, quickly leaning towards her. Slowly Nuri sat back into her chair and narrowed her eyes. "Tell me why." she simply demanded. The man seeing that Nuri wasn't going for her bag anymore once again flashed his brilliant smile that caused her heart to start thumping. But this time Nuri wasn't caught so off guard.

"My name is Nicolae Gunari. That boy was a runner, a messenger of sorts. He was being chased by the Chymical Gang, who you saw, because he carried a very important package. That gang is small and not too inept, but can be very dangerous. And that package is the book that is now in your bag."

"But he knew my name," Nuri softly mused. She took a small sip of the amber colored liquid and relished the bitter taste. Few and far between did she ever get to taste the house ale or anything other than dirty water. Water was expensive as it was so anything made from it was that much more expensive.

Nicolae just shrugged off her comment.

"And how do you know all this?" she asked, a bit wary of his knowledge.

"I am part of the movement to change the way this world works. To overturn the villans who run this world. And to do this, we need The Book," he explained. "I heard rumblings that it was headed this way, so I tracked those rumblings and found it." Nuri heard of the movement, a small nameless group of people that have been thrown off by word of mouth for their extremist ideas and terrorist actions. And that scared Nuri. To get involved in an underground terrorist movement wasn't an idea Nuri liked. Being a Gypsy, moving town to town, and selling recycled metal wares for a living was hard enough.

"You want The Book?" Nuri asked.

"No," Nicolae softly answered. "I do not want The Book. But there is someone who does. Someone who will know what to do with the knowledge within The Book to change the course of things."

"Then take it to this 'someone'." Nuri was getting a bit aggravated as Nicolae started to dodge answers.

"Nuri," sighed Nicolae, "You must take it. The runner passed it to you. You must take it to the Gypsy Queen." He shifted a little in his seat, showing some uncomfort in the wooden chair. His golden green eyes scanned the room and then settled once again on Nuri.

"Why me?"

"Because that is what the Gypsy Queen wants. She wants you to take it to her." Nuri inhaled deeply, confused and disturbed from the way this conversation was going.

"Who are you? You aren't telling me everything," Nuri questioned again, but this time without force. Her head felt like it was spinning. Why would the Gypsy Queen want her to take The Book to her? How did she know her?

Almost as if he read her mind, Nicolae said, "The Gypsy Queen knows about many people. She has eyes and ears all over the place. Don't let this come as too much of a shock to you." He stood up, downing the rest of his drink. "Let's go. That roughneck group will not take too long to regroup and try to find you."

Nuri sat silent as she mulled over this information. She would obviously have to tell her friends about this. She stared up at the man in his brown leather vest and his long-sleeved brown shirt. The color set off the golden tan and gleaming eyes of the man. She nodded and stood, walking out the bubbled dome to the motel.

Chapter 2: Nuri and the band of rogue Gypsies

Ever since Nuri could remember, the world was dirty. There had always seemed to be a layer of dust and dirt on everything around, from the sparse furniture that laid scattered in a room to the sickly looking plants that wilted thirsty in the hot sun. The dirt would even cut deeper lines in the people's faces , making them seem more angry and more tired. It made everyone seem more tired and angry than they might actually have been.

It wasn't always like this. She could remember sitting at the pale green vanity looking into the broken mirror as her mom brushed her hair. That was the longest time they stayed in one place. They were Gypsies. They traveled from town to town every so often. But this time, they stayed the whole middle months. Her mother would tell Nuri stories of another time, in this world, when things were once clean and bright. A time before her and her mother, a time when there was an abundance of clean water that flowed everywhere. The vanity was painted green but after years of fading and time and time again of being wiped down of the dirt that seemed to cling to everything, it was now a pale sickly green that peeked through the layers of dirt and dust. The mirror was broken, most of it missing. But Nuri would sit on the dirty stool, look into the broken mirror, and imagine a different world.

Nuri's mom disappeared when she was 7, and Nuri stopped sitting at that dirty vanity. What was the point of imagining another world in another time when she was here in this dirty, sun bleached world and had to face a cruel reality and survive on her own?

And every morning, like this morning, for the last 11 years, Nuri would remember when she had sat at that vanity dreaming as her mom brushed her hair. It was a memory she couldn't let go of or forget. And she tried.

Nuri stared at the dingy ceiling of the small motel room, tracing the cracks across the dirt stained surface, once again daydreaming. Hot sunlight streaked through the grimy window, quickly heating the small room. She had told her small group of friends about the incident that happened earlier in the day. Nicolae was there to repeat what he had told Nuri about The Book, himself, and the request of the Gypsy Queen. There was a small debate about honoring the request, the intentions of The Movement (to which Nicolae fiercely argued against their misinformation) and if they should take a look at The Book. In the end, the group decided it was best to help out in this quest. The Book didn't offer much help as it was written in a different language, an older language.

Bang, bang! "Hey Nuri, you up?" called Besnik as he continued to bang at the door. Suddenly out of her reverie, Nuri wiped her eyes of sleep. The image of her mother reflecting through the mirror stayed burned behind her eyes and mixed into the emotional conflict of continuing on this quest. She knew it was the draw of the Legend of The Book that was caught the group's attention but for the guys it was the urge to be part of The Movement, regardless of the conflicting information they knew about it.

Bang! Bang! "Hey!" he called again. Nuri and Besnik have been friends since they were little. Their families traveled in the same group of Gypsies then. The group broke apart soon after Nuri's mother disappeared.

 "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she muttered, rubbing the last of the sleep and images out of her eyes. Throwing her legs over the side of the small bed, she slipped her feet into her worn leather boots.

Bang! Bang!

"I'm up!" she yelled back. Leaning forward to tie her shoes, Nuri decided that maybe she would stay that way. Hunched over her legs, she let her arms fall to her sides, lightly grazing the floor by her boots. She let the tension slide off her back, down her arms, and into the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small bug wander across the dirty worn carpet. A sliver of shiny metal from the bug's dirty wings reflected the warm sunlight "Anthrobots," she said with a small air of disgust. "I'm up," Nuri sighed.

She snatched the worn blue jean bag up from the floor. It was extremely worn and extremely patched up. One strap was now a small strip of fraying fabric. The other was thinned and tied in the middle where it broke. A small hole had been worn in the top of the bag from constant grabbing and pulling. The clasp broke on the flap, so Nuri hade repaired it by threading a thin rope through a few holes she had made around the opening to pull the bag shut and not have everything fall out.

Nuri kept everything of hers in there including a small tin cup, a pair of lace gloves that used to be her mother's, wrapped in brown paper that felt like soft cotton from the many times she had opened the package and stared at the gloves. An extra pair of clothes, a broken brush, and a few gadgets she worked on to sell for money. And now The Book. Slinging it over her shoulder, she left the room.

Outside, the air was hot, heavy and dry, like most days. Small wispy clouds lazily crossed the bleached sky. Nuri looked around at the small town. Broken down buildings littered the roadside. The road was pockmarked with many holes from wear and tear. Once in a while, a traveler may come across some cement or blacktop that once covered the whole road way. The main building was newer than that of the broken town buildings. It was larger, way larger as it encompassed anything that the town would have. But it was encased with a thin plastic covering. The covering allowed cooler air to circulate throughout the area, and to keep the dust out. Though, the dust always seems to find a way in. Things in the domed buildings were more expensive than anything out in the town, but it was more clean. Better quality, too. That is where The Gaslight Saloon was located that Nuri and Nicolae talked from the night before.

This barrier also allowed for a culture barrier. The poorer and more dirty people stayed on the outside, baking in the hot sun while the more richer population stayed in better conditions. But not that better. Outside, kids in torn clothing or even no clothing at all, played in the dirt road. Young mothers, looking old and ragged, shook the brown dirt out of clothing. Because water was scarce, a few young women knelt outside scrubbing their few dishes clean with the course dirt.

Inside, the ladies wore cleaner dresses in a style that was old but elegant. They were fuller and many even had a deep color other than dirty brown. Few had scraps of lace on the dresses. The men wore suits and had their shoes cleaned by beggar boys hoping for a small coin.

Pinion City wasn't much different than any other city the group frequented throughout their travels. Dirty, poor, and filled with low level riff raff. There were other cities, bigger cities, where the dome not only encompassed one large building, but the whole city. They tended to stay away from these cities due to the bigger trouble they seemed to attract.

Nuri looked down at her worn skirt and brushed some dirt off. Faux gold bangles clanked noisily against her dark skirt. "What is taking so long?" she said to no one. She felt a rough shove and moved aside. Grinning, Milosh stood beside her. Milosh joined Nuri and Besnik from the start of their little group. They met him and he just stuck around. Milosh was good-lucking in that bad boy kind of way. He had his long dark hair pulled back in neat dreds. Even in the heat, he wore long black pants, and a black shirt with black jacket. He was proud of his outfit. As most people would have sweated and overheated in the black clothing, his was a special synthetic material he paid hard-earned money to have personally made. Everyone had to wear some kind of long covering to protect them from the harsh sun and scathing sand or burn quickly from the sun's rays and blowing sand. Milosh surveyed the town, pulling on his black gloves.

"You know how Mirela is. She is flirting with the desk boy," he answered her, squinting in the sunlight. Mirela, with her long golden brown locks and sleek eyes, loved attention. And she knew how to get it. Mirela joined the group a few years ago. There was a little flirting going on with her and Milosh though it didn't seem to go anywhere and neither did Mirela.

Soon, little Luminitsa and Besnik stood out with them. Luminitsa, clutching a small toy she found in one town, grabbed Nuri's hand. She was around 7 years old, though small for her age. She wore an oversized dress Nuri had to restitch to fit her.  Luminitsa was orphaned when she was only 2 years old. She had lived in an orphan shelter when Nuri saw her on one of their travels and decided to take care of her. The orphanage didn't care about losing one child when they were overcrowded as it was. Nuri smiled down on the little girl's frizzy brown head. Besnik stood beside Milosh, cigarette in one hand, his brown and dirty trench coat in the other.

"Mirela" yelled Milosh, "Time to go!" Not waiting to see if she answered, Milosh started walking. Nuri looked around for Nicolae, as he was their impromtu leader in this quest, but she did not see him. Following Milosh, Nuri heard Mirela skid across the wooden porch of the motel, giggling. The little Gypsy group was once again together to travel onto the next town.

The small fire crackled against the dark night. No stars illuminated the darkness, they haven't since The War, but the broken Moon peeked behind a dark cloud. Luminitsa laid curled up by the fireside, softly breathing. They had travelled at a fast pace, hoping to keep distance between them and the Chymical Gang.

"Well, what do you suggest?" Besnik asked the sleepy group. He slumped against a large rock, falling down with a "humrph". Milosh and him had been at it trying to figure out where to go next. Besnik wanted to veer towards Gadget City. Besnik was the group's tinkerer and he wanted to haggle for parts so he could finish his reading contraption. The machine was supposed to help people who had trouble seeing. He called it the Gleaming Spectacle of Seeing. Milosh wanted to steer away from the city of Rivot Cog. Nuri guessed it was from a past romance of his. This thought made her giggle. Milosh and his romances were many. Females would swoon over his dark looks and aloof attitude. And he loved the attention, though the endings to these romances were not always pretty.

"Where do you think the Gypsy Queen will be?" Nuri asked. She took out The Book and felt the dried leather cover. It was a tanned brown and the etched emblems were a deeper, muddier color brown. Pinching the sides of the lock, which looked like a small beetle bug, she heard it unlock with a clear click. The paper pages were soft to the touch, not crisp as she thought they would have been from age. Soft like a cotton cloth and a creamy white color, not yellow from age. She loved the hand drawn pictures and brightly colored photos that dotted throughout The Book. She may not know what the strange wording may say, but she could imagine what it must have said from the pictures. Beautiful blue waterfalls crash into a foamy white water below. A bright blue sky dotted with cotton white clouds and a pale yellow sun. A whole moon, covered with shades of gray floated in a deep velvet colored starry sky. Deeper in the book, there were hand drawn illustrations showing some kind of contraptions she didn't understand.

"More importantly, were is our new friend?" questioned Mirela. She had a small smile play on her lips as she twirled her hair in her fingers. Mirela's hair was the color of golden honey. It waved and curled down the middle of her back. Her deep brown eyes had hypnotized many of men before. She wore a tight half corset, that she restyled to show off her bosom. She changed between a flowing brown skirt and tight brown pants, both embellished with golden chains. She was skinny and small, but curvy in the right places.

"Does it matter?" Milosh sounded stern and the look on his face echoed that sentiment. Mirela gave a little pout at Milosh, shifted away from him and laid down on the thin gray blanket. "All he had done is give us a problem to take care of with vague answers to any questions we had given him," Milosh continued to his two remaining listeners.

"I thought you wanted to do this" Nuri questioned, puzzled to Milosh's attitude. In the distance the three friends heard a metallic rumbling. They stopped talking and stared intently into the night. Besnik crouched next to a pile of dirt, readying himself to douse the fire if needed in a hurry. The rumbling became louder, waking the two girls. Besnik scooped dirt onto the fire while the others grapped and stuffed their thin blankets into their bags. Nuri hurriedly stuffed The Book into her bag and crouched close to Luminista who was shaking.

Nuri saw a dark shadow come up close to the group. The metal creature gleamed in the pale moonlight. It looked like a spider of sorts. One that was horribly overgrown and made of dented metal, rusty cogs, and grinding gears. Its large, thin legs came down in a rumble. The creature's metal joints squeaked, telling of its need for oil. The creatures two main pinchers covered its mouth, which was grinding with spiky gears. It looked around into the darkness, lingering for a moment, then moved on.

As the rumbling became distant, the group let out a collective sigh.

"Damn it!" said Milosh, glaring at the doused fire. "There goes our fire for the night. That wood was hard enough to find in the daylight."

Chapter 3 The Chase

The towns started to blur together for Nuri. When they travelled before, it was at a more leisurely pace. They never got into such serious trouble that they needed to stay on the move. They used to spend days at a single town or a week or more travelling between towns. But as the band of gypsies were being chased by the gang of notorious criminals, they didn't have the luxury of time. A day at the most was spent in a single town while travelling consisted of a few days hard walking. The group grew tired but kept on.

A few towns were very similar to Pinion City. To Nuri that city seemed to be a dream she once had in a different life she must have lived. These towns were dirty and in the open sun bleached air while a single building offered relief at a high cost. But there were a few cities that were more densely populated, more high-tech, and more diverse. In these cities, people created machines from whatever scrap they could find. Some were built to help and relieve some of the work from the people, while others were built to fill in a void that was created after the War had ended: machines created in the image of bugs (that actually then reproduced and built other bugs as them, Nuri saw it once!), or machines built to look like trees that no longer stood. These tree machines are what blew cooler air around in the domed cities.

The city that they were in now was one of those cities. Only it was much bigger than any city Nuri had ever been to. Buildings were as tall as the sky and roadways winded their way through the buildings, off the ground and into the air. There were even a few flying cars that deviated from the elevated roadways to create their own paths through the dense buildings. And this was all within a domed bubble!

The people were also diverse. Different races gathered here to live and mingle together. Creatures with tentacles coming out of their heads mingled with people with highly painted faces and elaborate clothes and even "normal" looking people, though in this city the "normal" people almost stood out as odd.

The city, Dark Torque, was added to after The War. Buildings were connected by smaller tin units. Eroding streets that divided buildings were now tin kitchens or storefronts or amusement parks all owned by one group who congregated in the back of the buildings and offered their services to customers who crowded the front of the buildings.

Buildings that were built pre-War were crumbling, some with gaping holes in their side from collateral damage during The War. Many lower rooms of these buildings were occupied with tenants. Some buildings, the smaller buildings were used as stores. The air still held the dirt which stained the city a bronzed brown, but the air was cooler and lighter than the other cities.

It would have taken Nuri and the gang days to explore this city and to find its hidden secrets but time was not on their side. Or maybe it was, Nuri thought, as the gang weaved through the crowded streets. Nicolae was leading them towards a tin kitchen. She could feel the heat coming off the stoves even at this distance

"What if we hid out in one of the buildings. Kept a low profile," she mused to no one in particular, "There are too many people, no one would pay attention to us and the criminals would think we had passed through like we had been." Nicolae heard Nuri and looked at her but she was too deep in thought to notice his concerned look. He continued to urge the small group closer to the kitchen. Soon the aromatic smells reached the hungry group and the banging of the pots and pans only increased that hunger.