Chapter IV He was finally here. Now what? The night had gone uneventfully, same as every other night for the last few weeks. Kim had almost been hoping for some action, he was so bored of just walking along the black, the endless black...snap out of it! Now, an hour after taking off from his campsite, he'd finally reached what looked to be the outskirts of the city. There were buildings around him, albeit small ones, a story or two each; they looked to be houses of the Old Times, luxurious mansions compared to what he was used to...but useless now. None of their components worked. Most of them wouldn't be worth living in, and they'd all be looted by now anyway...it wasn't worth trying to move in. At least, that's how the legends went. The only useful stuff would be in the heart of the Dark City, where the looters couldn't reach without braving the legends of times past. There weren't many stupid enough to do that. Kim, while stupid enough to go into the city, wasn't stupid enough to go in without a weapon. His shotgun was in hand, loaded and cocked, ready to fire at anything that moved. Caution never hurt, especially when you were wandering into long-abandoned cities in search of hardened criminals. Let's move. -- He'd been walking for hours. The sun was directly overhead, or as close to it as it got these days; the towering buildings didn't cast that much of a shadow, or at least cast it away from him. Amazingly enough, other than the difference in the sun's angle, he didn't see much different than when he'd entered the city hours ago. Kim had grown up in the city of Louis Rock. It was a traditional city, with a population of about twenty thousand -- large, though smaller than Duncan. Rock was layed out along one main road, Trader's Way, with the houses no more than a mile away from the main street in most cases. The Dark City, though, was different. It was almost as if the people that had once lived here had been a several day walk from their homes! Who would plan something like that? The black road continued into the heart of the city, of course. To the sides of the road, there were side streets, leading into more buildings that looked like houses. Yet, it all looked the same. That, too, was almost maddening. Was there no indiviuality back in the times of the Dark City? Was there no personality? Ah, enough of that. Kim was no philosopher; he wasn't one that was supposed to decide these things. The time of the Dark City was long over; it was supposed to have been almost perfect, the time when there were many more people, when everything was automated, when there was technology for all, when guns were not needed but were plentiful anyway. Who was he to question it? Well, one of the only people stupid enough to visit the Dark City. Let's go on. Maybe something interesting will happen. At least this is a little more interesting than _just_ walking on the black road... -- The sun was setting, and Kim still hadn't gotten anywhere near the heart of the Dark City. A day, he thought. A whole day, and he wasn't anywhere near the destination he'd set for himself! Korrge was here somewhere, but almost certainly not in the already looted outskirts; he was in the central city, where he might find something, something to kill Kim with. But Kim wasn't going to find him tonight. He was going to have to find somewhere to stay, instead. He'd make it there tomorrow. Damn. Kim began to walk off one of the sideroads of the endless black road. He checked his gun -- yes, still loaded, still cocked, still ready to fire. He checked his meager supplies -- yep, still low, still just barely enough. Time to go in. The sideroad turned, headed into what looked like a residential section of the city... He looked again to the sky. It was definitely getting dark. Soon, he made it to some actual houses. They were all one-story, all relatively large but all similar. He could see part of their layout from here; they were largely indefensible, but well made, something that he could certainly set up shop in. He decided to enter one. The house that he chose was a little different than the rest. This house was an ugly pink, a color that he happened to like; the door looked like it was part-way closed, as opposed to most of the houses, where the doors were either missing or closed. And, for some reason, the house just seemed to be a good place to stay. It didn't have to make sense...did it? Kim again checked his gun, made sure that it was completely ready, and proceeded to the door of the house. He kicked it open, and looked inside. "Holy shit!" He hadn't talked to himself all day; probably, it had been sobering to enter the city, after weeks of work, but he'd gotten beyond his small neurosis for a while. Now, however, there wasn't much more to say. The house was hardly empty, as he'd expected. Just inside the door, there was a human body. It had begun to decompose, but only just barely; it was certainly less than a day old. From what he could tell, the person -- man -- had also died due to a gunshot wound to the head. The body was sprawled on its back over the floor of the front hallway; the body was small, wore black clothes. And that was all he could tell from here. Korrge? Kim bent over to find out... -- Korrge was miles from the building he'd been forced to kill the assassin just yesterday, even further from the house that he'd stashed the body in to keep out the wolves. Yet, the incident still grated on his nerves -- he'd been almost caught, in what should be the most deserted place in the world. What a waste. It had been a great base of operations, that alcove -- food, water, a place to sleep, and in the middle of a lot of houses to look for stuff in. Sure, they were probably all looted by now, they were close enough to the city boundaries...but it was worth a shot. Now he was on the run again. The assassin that had almost gotten him must have had friends, and they would send out more forces next time. He'd have to stay a step ahead of them -- he'd have to figure out a _way_ to stay a step ahead of them. And for now, that meant going a little bit deeper into the city, where there'd probably be worse dangers than just a few people trying to kill him. He looked at the sky, checking the time -- yep, it was getting dark. Probably he should find another place to stay for a while, hopefully another place as good as the last one. He still couldn't figure out the purpose of that building, slightly underground with just one entrance, well concealed -- had it been a military encampment? Why would it have been there? Ah, who cared, it didn't matter -- it was gone now, the food gone. He looked around, tried to find a good place. Wait -- good. A tree, old but sturdy-looking. Might as well climb up and have a look from there; better view, maybe he could see something good up there. Climbing it was no trouble. The further out branches were rotting, yes, he couldn't get out that far -- but he got up high enough for a good look around. The sun was setting in the western sky; to the northeast were the huge towers of the Dark City, where he'd probably have to get to eventually if he expected to find transport and some real goods. Nearer, though, it all looked the same; the streets were layed out in a grid, the houses were all one story deals, just like how he'd been dealing with all day. Slightly north was an intersection with the endless road, leading towards the heart of the city. He looked closer at the grid, looked for something different among the houses. They were all gray, faded with time; they all looked about the same, what looked like the same layout and size; all the same! Why the same? Then he spotted something. Just a couple of blocks to the east lay what looked like city building, maybe a school. Perfect. He climbed down the tree, headed towards it. Maybe this time he wouldn't be ambushed. The sun sank below the horizon.