Chapter 2

The smoke clears and I see that I’m in a tunnel.  The dust burns in my eyes, and there’s fire and junk all over the place.  Worse yet, there’s a pile of debris blocking the way out.  Worse even that that, I’m still with the team.  Damn.

“That should keep the planet going,” Biggs meows, hopefully.  “At least a little longer.”

“Yeah,” is Wedge’s ingenious response.  I watch Big Barret, but he stays silent.  Jessie moves towards the debris pile and begins rigging an explosive.

“Ok!  Now everyone get back.”  The pile burns up and we have an escape.  Woo.  Outside our little huddle-spot is a nice-looking urban courtyard.  We make our way to the center of that.

“All right!” Barret begins his debriefing speech.  Great location, right?  Center of a courtyard?  “Now, let’s get out of here.  Rendezvous at Sector 8 station!  Split up and get on the train!”  And everyone splits, except for Barret and me.  I look him in the eye; it’s time I asked my due.  What’s left of my conscience tells me that this might not be the best time.  I ignore it.

“H, hey!”

“If it’s about your money save it ‘til we’re back at the hideout.”  And he storms away across the courtyard.  That went well.

*                    *                    *
There’s an odd feeling in the air.  A tension.  Everyone knows that something terrible has happened but nobody wants to talk about it.  Instead they just go about their business as usual, except everyone moves like someone who’s keeping a massive secret.  Everyone is shifty eyed, cautious, and scared.  But they keep moving.  They never stop moving.

This city is really an ant-hive disguised as a jungle disguised as an octopus disguised as a city.  There are no redeeming qualities.  There are no flowers.  Making my way to the Sector 8 Station my mind drifts to the fact that I have never once seen a flower in this place.  Just as I begin to dwell on this, I see a flower.

A basket full of flowers, to be exact, carried by a young girl in a pink dress.  I look at her eyes and she notices and looks back.

“Excuse me.” She says, then nods to the plume of smoke coming from the north.“What happened?”

“Nothing.”  I respond.  No point getting into a conversation with a stranger, right?  “Hey, listen, er, don’t see many flowers around here.”

“Oh these?  Do you like them?  They’re only a gil!”   She holds a sunflower out towards me.  It’s center reminds of eyes.  I could use one.

“I’ll take it.”

“Oh, thank you!” She exclaims.  She smiles bright, the only genuine smile I think I’ve ever seen in this city.  “Here you are!”  She takes my money and hands me the flower.  I take it and nod, trying hard to remove my eyes from hers.  Finally I look away and am gone.

Seconds later, I’m still thinking about flowers, but am rudely interrupted by a voice.

“Hey!  You there!”  The head of a squad of Shinra soldiers calls out to me and begins running towards me.  I casually turn to stroll the other way, but there are more soldiers behind me.

“That’s as far as you go.”

I already have my escape planned.  I’m standing on an overpass.  Beneath me, a train track.  The odds are against me that this train will come when I need it, but I’m used to playing the odds.  Besides, I need to get the hell out of here.  Hurry up, train.

“I don’t have time to be messin’ around with you guys.” I casually explain to the soldiers, hoping they’ll understand my predicament.  I hear a rumbling.

“Enough babbling, grab him!”  They soldiers charge at me.  I casually climb the railing, touched that they want me alive.  I see lights below me, and I bend my knees.  Three seconds until these soldiers are on me.  Two seconds.  Still no train.  One second.  I jump anyway.  While in midair I see the train beneath me.  I’m safe, it worked.  The soldiers disappear in the distance.
*                    *                    *

I’m laying on top of the cargo car that my associates are riding in, listening to their conversation.  Whoever said I was decent was lying.

“Cloud never came.” I hear Wedge say.  It sounds like he’s actually a little sad?

“Cloud… Wonder if he was killed?” Why do you wonder? So you can take more of the money?

“No way!” Barret proclaims, almost denying it.  Really?  Does the big guy have a soft spot?

“Say, do you think Cloud’s going to fight to the end for AVALANCHE?” Biggs looks up at Barret with an odd look in his eye.  A look he’s not used to expressing.  Is it hope?

“The hell would I know?  Do I look like a mind reader?” Barret rages back and slams his fist into a nearby crate.  “Hmph!  If y’all weren’t such screw-ups…”

“Hey Barret! What about our money…?” Wedge pipes in, causing Barret to slam the crate again, cracking it.  Since I’m interested in this topic as well, I knock on the roof.  They look around, then ignore it.  I try it again.  Again with the confusion.  These guys are too fun.  I climb around the side of the car, pull the door open, and swing down into the car with them, performing a front flip in midair for style.  The shocked looked on everyone’s faces tells me I did the right thing.

“Looks like I’m a little late.” I grin slyly.  What’s Big Barret gonna say to that?

“You damn right, you’re late!” He rips into me.  Just like I’d hoped.  “Come waltzin’ in here makin’ a big scene!”

“It’s no big deal.”  I’ve got him right where I want him.  “Just what I always do.”  And I wink.  It’s think wink that’ll get him.

“Shit!”  He ignites.  Here we go!  “Havin’ everyone worried like that, you don’t give a damn ‘bout no one but yourself!”  And he’s mine.

“Hmm…” I begin.  “You were worried about me!?”  Add in the googly eyes and… we have a winner.

“Wha!?”  His disgusted face returns.  “I’m takin’ it outta your money, hot stuff!”  He looks at the wall for a moment, then yells to the rest of the crew.  “Wake up!  We’re movin’ out!  Follow me!”  One by one these clowns follow him past me to exit the front of the car.  They all stop to talk to me on their way out.

“Hey, Cloud!  You were great back there!”  Wedge salivates.

“Heh heh… Cloud!  We’ll do ever better next time.” Biggs vows.  He’s right.  Depending on how well these guys pay, there might be a lot of next times.

“Be careful, I’ll shut this.” Jessie says and she shuts the door I flipped into.  “Oh, Cloud!  Your face is pitch-black….” I say nothing as she comes up to me and wipes my face off with her hand.  Our eyes meet.  “Say, thanks for helping me back there at the Reactor.”

What should I say?  Does this mean something to her?  The intercom chimes before I can answer, and we head into the next car.

“Last train out of Sector 8 Station.  Last stop is Sector 7, Train Graveyard.  Expected time of arrival is 12:23 AM, Midgar standard time…” The intercom finishes and a sad song comes on.  Looking around the car, I see a cross section of a nighttime metropolis.  The sad music, the sad faces, the grey train car, the greenish tinted lights, and the smell of old dairy give this car its atmosphere.  It’d be sad, if I weren’t so used to it.  Walking past a homeless man I look him in the eyes to see them.  They’re so sunken in I can’t tell what color they are.

“Huh?” He says to me. “This is my house, so make yourselves at home.”  I pass on by.  I wander around to see what the other passengers are talking about.

“You see the headlines in the Shinra Times?”

“The terrorists that bombed the No. 1 Reactor are based somewhere in the slums.”

“…blowing up a Reactor… they sure put some thought into this one.”  Barret notices my wandering and grimaces.

“Stop actin’ like a damn kid.  Si ‘down an’ shu’up!” He growls.

“Someday AVALANCE’s gonna be famous… and me, too!” Wedge whispers to me as I take a seat next to him.  Just what I want to listen to, a fame hungry terrorist.

“It seems this train hasn’t switched to security mode yet.” Biggs tells me from across the aisle.  “I’m sure that will change by tomorrow.”

“Hey, Cloud.  You want to look at this with me?  It’s a map of the MIdgar Rail System.  Let’s look at it together.”  Jessie asks.  I nod and walk over to her.  “I like this kinda stuff. Bombs and monitors… you know, flashy stuff.”

We look at a small screen mounted on the side of the train car.  A wireframe of the entire city appears and rotates.  The city is round, like a plate.  In fact it is a plate. The devil’s dinner on a plate, that’s Midgar.  Jessie narrates.

“This is a complete model off the city of Midgar.”  She begins, and the image zooms out to show the whole the city.  “It’s about a 1/10000 scale.”  The image zooms in to just show the top half.  “The top plate is about 50 meters above the ground.  A main support structure holds the plate up in the center, and there are other support structures built in each section.  The No. 1 Reactor we blew up was in the northern section.”  She continues casually.  “Then there’s No. 2, No. 3, all the way up to the No. 8 Reactor.  These reactors provide Midgar with electricity.”  And we’re trying to rid them of that? “Each town used to have a name, but no one in Midgar remembers them.  Instead, we refer to them by numbered sectors.  That’s the kind of place this is.”  So that’s why we’re trying to destroy it?  A dotted line appears on the map and spirals around the city.

“This is the route the train is on.  The route spirals around the main support structure.”  She points to the line, then to a square on the line.  “At each checkpoint, an ID sensor device is set up.  It can check the identities and background on each and every passenger on the train from a databank at Shinra headquarters.  Anyone could tell that we’re suspicious, so we’re using fake ID’s.”  With a loud THUD the lights switch from greenish to bright red. “That light means we’re in the ID security check area.  We’re almost back now.”  I nod and head back to my seat in between Wedge and Barret.  I wish I could understand the reason for having a train in a city that looks the same wherever you are.  It’s like squirming inside of a paper bag: you’re not getting out no matter where you go.

I notice that Barret is looking out the window.  Looking outside reminds me of sinking into water.  Below us spiraling upward is the slum city below Shinra.  Midgar’s shadow.

“Look… you can see the surface now.  This city don’t have no day or night.”  Barret describes aloud.  I have no comeback.  “If that plate weren’t there… we could see the sky.”  I look up and see the bottom of the plate.  I can see the giant pillars holding each sector up.  If one of those pillars were to ever get damaged, countless innocents would be at risk beneath.

“A floating city… Pretty unsettling scenery.” I mumble.

“Huh?” Barret looks at me.  “Never expect to hear that outta someone like you.  You jes’ full of surprises.”  He stands up.  “The upper world… a city on a plate…” He begins.  I’m not in the mood to mock him.  “It’s ‘cuz of that fuckin’ pizza’, that the people underneath are sufferin’!”  He slaps a seat.  “And that the city below is full of polluted air.  On toppa that, the Reactor keeps drainin’ up all the energy.”

“Then why doesn’t everyone move onto the plate?”  I wonder aloud.  Good question, really.

“Dunno.  Probably ‘cuz they ain’t got no money.  Or, maybe…” He looks at the ground and wipes his nose, “cuz they love their land, no matter how polluted it gets.”

“I know… no one lives in the slums because they want to.  It’s like this train.  It can’t run anywhere except where its rails take it.”  A slave to its own destiny, I think.  Are we like that?  Are we just puppets of our dreams?

The train whistle pulls me out of it.  The sound of the breaks screeching howls into my ears as we pull to a stop and exit the train.  The station has the look of a place that was grand about sixty years ago but hasn’t been kept.  The stairs are cracked, the clock is dead, and, just like the rest of the city, there’s a haze and an atmosphere of sad nostalgia.

“Yo!  Get over here, all’ya!!”  Barret barks at me.  I join the crew standing conspicuously in a circle around Barret.

“This mission was a success, but don’t get lazy now.” He’s so inspirational, isn’t he?  “The hard part’s still to come!  Don’t y’all be scared of that explosion, ‘cause the next one’s gonna be bigger than that!  Meet back at the hideout.  Move out!”

Death of a Walrus.

Prelude
The night was dark. Rain poured down, and waves crashed against the dock one after another, so that anyone standing would be forced mercilessly to their knees.  Walrus, the walrus, edged his way along the side of the building inch by inch, careful not to fall or make any noise that might give him away.  His tuxedo drenched, he peeked around a corner and made the turn.  His goal, the window, was just eight feet away.  Eight slippery feet away…

He made it to the window!  After some time, he turned his head to peek in.  All his hopes… no, all of his dreams rested on what he would see inside this window.  Whatever was going on inside this building would determine his fate.

As his eyes moved towards the window they opened wide.  Walrus was astonished at the horror that was taking place within this building.  Horror unheard of even in the deepest recesses of hell.

An asian family was celebrating the birthday of their 10 year-old son, who was interested in baseball and violin.  He also loved chocolate cake with strawberry icing, and his favorite musician was Kanye.  His parents didn’t understand this choice.  The children were swinging at a pinata.   A walrus pinata.

The walrus began shaking with fear, and lunged into the violent water.  He would survive, as a walrus, but his fate was sealed.  He could never love again.

Andante
An Asian man was sitting on a park bench.  He was deeply religious (Methodist), and was staring at the figure next to him on the bench.  It was a golden statue of Jesus.  It had not been there when the man sat down, and he could not remember it appearing.  It was just there, where it had not been before.

Tears appeared in the mans’ eyes as he began remembering his sins.  He confessed them to this Golden Jesus.

He was Japanese, this man.  Japanese and with a family.  A wife.  But also a mistress.  His cheeks itched with tears as he told this to the Golden Jesus.

It was he who had taken some money from the school’s music fund to go on a quick vacation with his wife.  It was he who had failed to go to his son’s baseball game because he was stuck in a rehearsal.

It was he who had cheated on his wife and been a bad father.  And it was he who had stopped up the toilet the night before and gone to bed without unclogging it.  As he confessed all this to the Golden Jesus a young child ran up.  The child had been playing soccer in a nearby field.  His name was Charlie.  He loved soccer, and Thomas the Tank Engine.  The child lifted the Golden Jesus to his mouth and took a bite out of its head.  It was not a Golden Jesus after all.  Just cheese.

Intermezzo
The Asian man, John, waited in line at Burger King.  His palms sweaty, his forehead sweaty, his underarms sweaty, his back dry and uncomfortably warm.  He was starving.  His stomach felt as though it were collapsing upon itself he was so hungry.  He was also badly shaken.  He had just confessed his sins to a Cheese Jesus.  The heresy.  How could such a thing exist.  Blasphemy.

He was three people away from being at the cash register.  Two people away.  One person away.  Finally John approached the register.  The cashier’s back was turned, and so John focused instead on the menu.  He would get a Whopper Jr., a small fry, and a diet coke.  He had to watch his cholesterol, after all.

Finally the cashier turned around to face John, and both were shocked beyond belief.  John’s greatest fear had come true.  He was face to face with the being that had haunted his dreams for years.  Walrus too was shocked.  Here in front of him was the man who had ruined his life.  Who had taken all that was sacred to him.  Who had ended his chance at being Walrus the walrus.  Walrus stared into John’s eyes.  John stared into Walrus’s tusks.  Both were full of fear.  Both were full of hate.

Minutes passed.  The fast food establishment was silent.  All who were there bore witness to the greatest stare down of the 21st century.  Finally, after eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds, John broke.  He screamed, the thought of those tusks piercing his body was too much.  He screamed bloody murder.  He screamed as though his self were crawling with spiders (he also hated spiders).  He screamed and it sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

John ran from the restaurant.  He would never face Walrus again.  Never be able to show his face in a Burger King again.  He was permanently scarred.

Walrus, on the other hand, gained some courage that day.  Walrus had certainly not died.  Lo, he had become more of a Walrus than John would ever be Man.  And thus the Walrus was born.

Fín.