novelraw Chapter 7-10
Chapter 7-10
District Three sits directly to the north of Deuce. This area is known as Beverly’s Rodeo or simply ‘Rodeo’ for short. The word Rodeo is generally understood to mean ‘a place to buy fine goods’. Whoever Beverly was has long been lost to history, though we do know the name has pre-System origins.
Rodeo is the home of many of the best restaurants and shops in Lost Angels. While a few ultra-exclusive businesses operate within Central itself, the next tier down make their homes in Rodeo, along with the tier below that. A working-Class family might splurge on a once-in-a-year treat here, but they are far more likely to visit in order to take in the spectacles of the Arena.
The Lost Angels’ Arena, originally located in Deuce, has now resided in Rodeo for over two centuries. The massive stadium, capable of seating thirty thousand spectators, is the premier entertainment venue of the city and hosts events every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Primarily focused on gladiatorial combat, it also occasionally hosts popular musical performances and other shows.
- Fodorick’s Lonely Traveler – Guide to Lost Angels
It seemed like there were two roads next to each other, clearly divided by a line of short stone pillars rising up about four feet out of the ground. On our side, further from the wall, there was heavy traffic, with people everywhere. They were intermingled with wagons, carts, and other conveyances.
Some were pulled by tri-horns, others by types of animals I didn’t recognize. A few of them even looked like smaller, more docile versions of the quadrosaur that had almost killed Tara and H’ruk. I Identified one that had three horns like a tri-horn, only the ones on the sides swept sharply forward, and it was covered in scales with clawed feet.
Creature: Scaled Tri-hornLevel: 11Worst name ever, I complained to myself. Then I was distracted by the sight of a person pulling a two-wheeled cart behind him at a full sprint along the far side of the road. The lithely muscled man ran with his hands by his hips, holding two wooden bars connected to the cart, which was less than five feet wide and had a single bench seat. A couple was riding on it, with a kid between them.
As I looked up and down the far side of the street, I spotted several more human-pulled carts. There were also people running casually along with them, moving at speeds I doubted I could match even for a short sprint. Arlo noticed my surprised look and smiled.
I edged a bit further to the right. There was plenty of space between me and the pillars, or bollards, but it didn’t hurt to be safe, right? If the moat was as deep as the walls were tall, it would be a long way down. No amount of practice jumping from the Wasted Stairs would save me from a fall over twice the height my barrier could handle.
The air was noticeably cooler now that we were in the massive shadow cast by the seventy-five foot high inner walls. As we headed north, the buildings we passed started to change. They became much smaller, closer together, and were obviously places that people lived. Laundry hung from ropes stretched back and forth across the smaller streets, clothes suspended several stories in the air.
Small balconies jutted out from a few of the buildings. Most of the structures were the same thick-walled smooth stone I was used to. A few had been painted or whitewashed at one point, but whatever was left was cracking and peeling. On the larger streets, some of the buildings looked like they had stores on the ground floor and housing above.
The crowds grew thicker here and there, people mostly seeming to be going in the same direction we were before turning off into the streets to our right. I saw several patrols of guards, or police, in their dark blue armor and full visors – they were easy to spot since everyone gave them plenty of space. No one seemed to want to be within arm’s reach or even make eye contact with them.
The size of the city started to overwhelm me as we passed block after block. It took us almost fifteen minutes of quick walking just to reach the gatehouse in the center of the inner wall, a squad of guards standing on either side of the opened gates. As the instructors leading the group continued right past it, I heard a voice call out indignantly.
“Why aren’t we entering the city?!”
It was Marta who’d spoken, though I saw Clarice nodding alongside her. She pointed at the guardhouse we had started to pass on our left.
“Our families are that way, and so is the Guild headquarters!”
“We’re going to District Five,” I heard JJ respond gruffly. “There’s no point in cutting through Old Town, it would actually take longer.” He overruled the girls’ objections and got everyone moving again quickly.
Curious, I turned towards Thompson, who was walking not too far away, with Trite trailing along behind our group.
“Where are we going, Head Instructor? What’s in District Six?”
“District Five is sometimes called Army Town,” she answered me. “It’s where the Army HQ is, along with their main barracks and the families of many soldiers. Trick Step has gone ahead to secure lodging for all of the students there. The Army always has empty barracks, with many of the troops on duty around the QZ.”
“Why aren’t we staying at the Guild?” asked Jayce in their unique doubled voice.
Thompson chuckled at that.
“HQ has plenty of rooms available for Delvers passing through or stationed in the city,” she acknowledged. “It does not have enough rooms for nearly two hundred students, twenty-plus instructors, and Delvers passing through the city. Not to mention that some Delvers would be… irritated at having to share the limited space with so many students. The barracks are the best solution available on such short notice.”
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We kept walking and walking, with some more walking after that. I could have crossed Sunland back and forth a handful of times in the time we spent reaching the northern end of the inner city, where we turned left into the setting sun. Within a couple of blocks, the buildings had become considerably nicer, with larger windows, more balconies, and well-maintained whitewashing.
We made a right turn down a substantial street, and I spotted Trick Step lounging against a wall. She peeled herself off of it and fell into step next to Thompson. I was close enough to easily overhear their conversation.
“We’re all set for at least a few nights,” she reported. “You’ll need to talk to someone more senior than I could reach to figure out a long-term plan.”
By this point my enthusiasm for the city was long past. It had been a brutal few days and I was exhausted. As far as I had seen so far, Lost Angels was just a bigger, dirtier version of Sunland with way more people squeezed in. Then I remembered the magical sight of the four tall towers piercing the sky, and I reconsidered. Briefly.
The barracks we were to stay at weren’t that different from the one I’d stayed at back in East Bank, only much larger, like everything here in the city. The rooms held three rows of four bunk beds for a total of twenty-four beds per room. Even with all of the students, we didn’t come close to filling the building, so we were assigned two Squads to a room. The Deathdealers were our roommates, which I could live with.
I was very glad I didn’t have to share a room with Clarice’s Squad, who were put with one of the other trainee squads and were complaining quite vocally about the accommodations. It wasn’t until Thompson informed them that they were welcome to go stay with their families – as long as they never came back – that they shut up briefly.
I claimed a bottom bunk by one wall for myself, pulling my ‘new’ blankets out of my Inventory and onto the thin, hard mattress of the bunk. When I tested it, I found that it strongly resembled what I’d been used to sleeping back at Sister Mercy’s little orphanage.
I feel right at home here… sharing the room with a bunch of others on a nice, hard bed. Well, except for one small detail.
The ‘detail’ was named Tara, and while she still hadn’t rejoined the Squad Comms, the instructors still considered her part of Squad Hard Limit and had assigned her to room with us. She stayed well away from me, ending up in the top bunk at the opposite end of the row. We’d all agreed it was best for the orcs to get bottom bunks to themselves, lest their weight collapse the only moderately-sturdy structures.
By unspoken agreement, the blonde Defender and I avoided all eye contact. I barely made it through a dinner of trail rations before I climbed into my bed and passed out, leaving my belt with my pistol and cutlass in the chest at the foot of my bed.
The next few days were a bit chaotic. We didn’t have any of the school’s usual training facilities, of course, so the instructors had to improvise everything. The barracks had a long, narrow basement with a shooting range, but it was cramped compared to the open space we were used to. The lanes were squeezed together and I could pretty much only work on my precision aiming against stationary targets.
Melee training was out in the open in the courtyard, which got blisteringly hot in the middle of the day. Lecture classes were held outdoors as well, and electives were cancelled. The Guild hired some off-duty Army cooks to feed us, and the food wasn’t much worse than what we had at the Academy. The company was, however.
The trainees had discovered there were no restaurants close enough for them to visit during our short breakfast and lunch breaks. They were forced to eat in the dining hall – the Army called it a mess hall, for some reason probably related to food fights – with the rest of us. Their constant complaining was initially a source of amusement and then very quickly got annoying. At least they disappeared every night at dinner so we didn’t have to deal with them then.
A pair of the trainees were apparently so unhappy with living in the barracks that they actually quit, returning to their families and dropping out of the Academy completely. Meanwhile, Tara was spending every free minute away from us, with Maya and her team. She didn’t even bother to rejoin the Squad.
She was able to get away with it because we weren’t having proper Team Combat sessions where she would have needed to be on the Comms. Also, because I didn’t really want to deal with her right now and I wasn’t going to push. At least this way, I could complain about her to my teammates without her listening in.
We’d spent PT2 that day working on unarmed combat, because Leon was a Brawler and didn’t have his giant wall of stairs to make us jump off of. Plus, he and JJ had already been leading us on runs around the area every morning, where we’d sometimes see soldiers out doing the same thing.
“Do you want offense or defense first?” I asked Raylan.
The drill was for one student to practice attacking while the other defended. Once the defender’s barrier broke, you’d change. Raylan picked offense, so I settled back into a defensive stance, and we went at it. He wasn’t holding back, and for a minute I lost myself in concentration as I tried to keep my forearms and shins in the way of his flurries of strikes and kicks.
“Break!” I called out as my barrier finally shattered when he drove a thrust kick into my gut. I lowered my arms as he regained his balance, then he stepped forward suddenly.
crack!
I gasped in shock as he smacked me right in the jaw with an open-handed slap.
“HEY!” I shouted, drawing the attention of the few other students still hanging around the courtyard. I rubbed my aching jaw as I lowered my voice to a growl.
“What the fuck, Raylan?!”
“You need to get your shit together, Az!” he barked back at me. “We all get it – you’re mad at Tara and jealous about her and Maya hooking up. You need to get over it, or at least stop whining about it all the fucking time! Dead gods, you’re the one getting on everyone’s nerves now!”
Outrage swelled in me, and I opened my mouth to yell back at him, furious. Then he stepped back with a flinch, and my anger turned to lead within me in an instant as I realized Intimidation had triggered again.
“Shit, I’m sorry! FUCK, I hate this Wasted Skill!”
He waved it off as he stepped back closer to me.
“Look Az, I’m saying this as your friend – let it go. It sucks that she is ditching us all the time, but you can’t stop that. It’s her choice. If you keep whining about it though, it’s going to turn the Squad against you! Arlo is already frustrated, haven’t you noticed?”
“Are you saying he’s taking her side?!” I asked in shock.
“No! None of us know what happened, since neither of you are talking, so there’s no side to take! But remember those two knew each other before they got here. Who was with her when Yuri cornered her back in the restaurant? Arlo! So don’t be surprised if he’s sympathetic to her now!”
I had to take several deep breaths to try and calm down before responding. It came out in a wail.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do?! I fucked everything up!” I admitted, tears welling up in my eyes.