11. Elle

25/5/G19 10:12

“You're just a girl Elle! How can you possibly think that you're ready to be outside the walls alone?! Here in Valhalla you're safe; here the Adina can protect you around the clock from all the horrible things that lie beyond its walls. I can't let you leave, and I won't change my mind!”

Elle ignored her mother's lecture and rushed upstairs to her bedroom before she lost her temper. She always took the passive approach to the arguments she had with her because she knew her mother wasn't that bright and couldn't understand a rational reasoning when it was presented to her. She started to pack a bag. She was leaving with or without her mother's blessing.

Elle and her parents had the luxury of living in one of Valhalla's pent house suites – two floors equipped with powered lights, electric heaters and Glaze-built furniture. There are only a handful of people that were lucky enough to reside in these palaces, but Elle didn't care. Valhalla was her prison, she hated her mother and her father was always working. She had never seen outside the Adina defended fortress and her parents were doing all they could to see that she never did.

“Stop packing, you're not going anywhere,” her mother said, having followed her upstairs before blocking the doorway.

For Darry's sake, why are you such a fool.

“Do you think you can keep me here forever?!” Elle had now lost her temper.

“I will keep you here until your dad can sort you a full guard so that you

will be safe!”

“That's not the damn point! I need to prove myself competent so that Dad and the Adina will take me seriously! I want to enlist and you, Dad, nor anyone else that has a problem with me for whatever reason, can't stop me! I want to help turn Glaze around, I want to help people! I’ll manage what the other Adina soldiers haven't. I'll put them all to shame. Then they'll have no choice but to recruit me!”

Elle finished packing her snow white back sack and threw it on over her antique, grey, 'perdry' jacket that she was wearing. Her mother stood arms folded in the doorway. “Drop the bag, and sit down Ellone.”

“Mum, get out of my way.”

“No.”

“GET OUT OF THE DAMN WAY!”

Elle had a fiery temper when provoked, but her mother couldn't let her only daughter get robbed, raped, or worse out in Glaze. “No,” Elle's mother replied sternly.

“AARGH!” Elle pushed her mother back, causing her to ricochay off the hard concrete wall and hit the floor with a thud. Elle made a mad dash down the stairs and out the door as fast as she could.

Sorry Mum, but no one gets in my way.

It took Elle the better part of an hour to calm down after the incident at her home. The cold breeze that drifted down Valhalla's well kept streets was

helping. She had grown up on these streets, but even when she was little she was never allowed to explore; her parents always had her on a short leash, hand-holding was their favourite restraint. I'm free. I will have my own adventures now. My own stories. Someday I'll be as revered as Ingeld and the other Adina Elites. I'm free.

At this time in the morning the streets were always fairly empty. Very few people worked in this section of Valhalla, it was mostly occupied by the people rich enough to have shed their working lives. The area was filled only with the new-build apartments that were constructed within the ruins of the previous architecture. New and beautiful within, decayed and ugly outside. Although the Adina had been refurbishing these buildings as often as manpower and cells would allow, evident by the scaffolding and cranes seen in all directions.

Elle only saw a mechanic (who was most likely maintaining the power lines) and the postman. She almost depised the postman for the news he brought her only a few hours ago; the news that the Adina had turned her down for the third time. This is what had made her take matters into her own hands. If you had manned up Dad, pulled some strings and told those politicians to shut up, I wouldn't have even needed to apply!

Elle had prepared for this day since her first rejection from the Adina, the row with her mother was no more than a hick-up. She would continue as planned. First step – transport. I'm not going to get over those vast snow fields without it...or so I'm told. I've got plenty of cells but I'm going to need them later on, I'll have to settle for a cheap tricycle.

As Elle walked out of the upper-class district the scenary failed to change, but the inhabitants did. The further towards the outer wall of the city one travelled, the smaller and cheaper the apartments became. This was

accompanied by the increase in shops and businesses on each street. The rich had their every need delivered to their doorstep, the rest were not so lucky. Towards the very edge, Elle approached a street of small businesses; a food store, a post office, a laundrette, and a garage.

The garage sold all kinds of contraptions; bicycles, tricycles, battery powered cars, although they were often more expensive than the pent house suites. One side of it was dedicated to repair, with many machines, tools and half-assembled vehicles. The other had polished, shining products ready for sale. As Elle approahed the garage she knew she might need to haggle with the oil-covered, balding man, so she let down her sandy hair and fixed her comely green eyes on him to grab his attention.

“Hiya, how's it going?” Elle said feigning shyness.

“Not bad thank you love. What can I do for you?” the garage employee replied as his face lit up to her presence.

“I need to go see my dad, you see, he's very ill. So I'll need something to take me to south Dillington,” she lied.

“But that's miles across the fields, are you sure you want to go alone?”

“I'll be fine. What do you suggest, those tricycles look like they'd do the job?”

“Yep, one of those will do you. They're rather dear though?”

“How much would you like for one?”

“500 watt hours.”

“Well,” Elle said looking at the floor, “I only have 375...” She shead a tear. “My dad, he doesn't have long to live, will 375 be OK? Please?”

“Um, sorry love, no. 500,” he answered struggling for the words.

Urgh!

Elle wiped the tear away from her cheek and spat out, “Are you completely heartless?! I shead a tear and everything!” She pulled a small box out of her bag and threw it at the old man's feet. “500. I'm taking the white one,” she said with a hint of spite as she took the white trike from the front row of vehicles. He didn't stop her.

Elle approached the towering, gleaming, metal gates that sat between the great stone wall that surrounded Valhalla, her heart began to race. Could Mum have asked Dad to alert the gate security?...No. No way she did. She's probably sat at home moping, like all the times Dad worked away...I hope...

She was almost certain her leaving would be unhindered, but her defiance still made her feel a strange combination of nervous and excited. She pedalled her trike slower and slower as she joined the queue awaiting clearence to leave.

The Adina monitored everyone that entered and exited the city. This meant the traffic, in and out, was transferred through the gates in small groups, policed by ignorant guards. Elle passed in her trike as the four Adina dressed in black leather and patched jackets paid little attention to the task given to them to catch up on gossip.

“Yeah, Ollie got an arrow straight through the stomach! Doc says he

should live but I fooking doubt he'll ever get sentry duty again. Being responsible for the escape of three dangerous prisoners is not something you live down! Obviously there were a bunch of others that got collared for it, but I heard they're getting off light,” said the guard with multiple face piercings.

“I heard one of the prisoners kidnapped a guy! Some poor techie or summin',” another said as he pulled Elle's hood down to confirm she wasn't a member of the wanted list. Right again. Mum is moping. Thank Darry.

“Fooking bastards! Heimdall should have killed all of the scum locked up in those dungeons,” the pierced guard replied. No way, he's better than that.

“Definitely! That prisoner murdered his own family! Then he takes the techie and puts a knife to his throat! Next fooking day I have off I'm gonna hunt that sick twat down and gut him!” A third added as three people snuck past behind him.

“Sounds like fun, count me in!” The pierced guard added.

The fourth guard tilted the rusting metal barrier up ninety degrees to allow the queue of people to enter and exit through the gate.

I'm free.

Elle cycled faster and faster. I can go where ever I like! South-west to Great Manu , south-east to Puule or even visit the Sun graveyard to the north-east! Someday I will. But today, Lidz.She hit the ancient road which gave her trike more speed and stability, but

not much. These were built long ago and like most things in Glaze had aged considerably. Without the materials and technology to repair them, they had cracked and fallen into the ground in places where the planet had changed over the years.

Every object on the road caught Elle's gaze as she took in her surroundings. The long dead street lamps, the stripped carcasses of the old cars, even simple bridges impressed her. If there wasn't one in Valhalla it fascinated her. Most people of Glaze wouldn't look twice at these things, but she wasn't most people.

Elle was so preoccupied she almost didn't notice the geological nightmare she was approaching. She had studied the old maps of Glaze at great length, but what she had not considered was the passing of time. In this case, it had destroyed a bridge that would have carried her across the great chasm that lay ahead of her. It streched as far as the eye could see in both directions and there was no way she was crossing; she would have to go around. She slowed her trike, dismounted and approached the edge of the cliff cautiously. Leaning over the edge she saw the outline of the engineering marvel reduced to snow-covered rubble. Damn. It's a long way around. That's going to set me ba-

Elle froze when a hand reached out beneath the snow and grabbed her ankle.

This frozen world lies in ruin, betrayed by all who grace her.

Glaze awaits, to be ours once more…

Written by Tom Davies and Alec Davis, 2011.

© The River Versus: The World At Large.