Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron (YA 17+ Sci Fi Adventure) (7 page)

Miles took his un
iform from behind the counter. It was a medium sized blue and red polo shirt with the Le Cinema Magnifique logo on the front pocket. He begrudgingly threw it on over his white long sleeved shirt which he was more accustomed to wearing under an expensive suit. As Miles buttoned up the shirt Ryker looked at him for a while before speaking.

“S
o you lost your real job huh?” Miles paused and stared at Ryker with a look of irritation, he wasn’t in the mood for making friends.

“T
hat's none of your God damn business.”

“Sorry, man
,” Ryker apologized, “it's just that, I've seen guys like you before...they usually don't last too long,” he added, taking another bite of candy.

“Well
,” said Miles, “that's because 'guys like me' don't belong in places like this. Guys like me find respectable jobs and make something of our lives no matter what circumstances arise.” Ryker laughed, chewing the last of his candy strip.

“No dude, guys like you don't last beca
use they get shuttled, you know, to Gyaros.” A sudden spark of panic rushed through Miles as reality briefly broke through his ego but he quickly reinforced himself.

“I've devot
ed 5 years of loyal service to The Energy Department of Elissa, I hate to disappoint you Ryker, but I'm not going to be sent anywhere near that moon,” he said, his eyes piercing intensely.

“Alright
,” said Ryker, “but hey, if you do end up over there one day, I know some guys who might be able to help you out.” Miles looked at Ryker with a confused and doubtful expression, his left eyebrow raised high above the right one.

“Firstly, let's get one thing straight: I do not need your help because I am not going
there. And secondly, how can
anyone,
let alone a lowlife such as yourself have contacts on Gyaros?”

“Wel
l,” said Ryker with a devious smirk, “cuz I've been there.”

Now Miles knew
for sure that Ryker had to be lying.

“Do you seriously expe
ct me to believe that?” he asked.

“Not really
,” replied Ryker, “but it’s true,” Miles rolled his eyes as Ryker continued, “see, I was a second child. My parents tried to keep me hidden. And they did, until I was five that is. I got shuttled over with my Mom...she died a couple of years later though.”

“You can stop lying to me now Ryker
,” Miles said impatiently, without even a hint of empathy, “even if you were sent over, there's no way off Gyaros, not for you or anybody else,” he added.

“That's what I'm trying to tell you
,” Ryker said with an animated look, “I know someone who can send people back!” Miles was tired of listening to Ryker and he refused to let himself believe a word of what he had just been told. As he the events of the past twenty four hours flashed across his mind he lost his patience and turned to Ryker angrily.

“Do you have any fuc
king idea what I've been through?” he asked rhetorically, his cheeks turning pink, “I don't think you do, Ryker. You see this place?” he continued in a low voice, looking around at the empty cinema lobby, “this disgusting, run down, pathetic excuse for a cinema? This, Ryker, is the last place I would ever want to spend a minute of my time,” Miles paused, looked Ryker straight in the eyes, “and yet, here I am. Getting ready to bend down on my knees and sweep up old pieces of popcorn from a rotting carpet, and the only thing I can possibly do to make this any easier, is to tell you to
shut the fuck up!”
There was a moment of silence as Miles continued to stare fiercely into Ryker's bright blue eyes.

“Yeah, whatever
,” mumbled Ryker as he shrugged, turned away, put his headphones back on and went back to manning the register. Miles indignantly took a dustpan and broom from behind the counter and began to clean the floor of the lobby. With Ryker sitting quietly behind the counter and Mr Grayson remaining in his office for the rest of the working day, Miles had several hours to himself as he cleaned the various rooms of the movie theatre, which given the recent turn of events, wasn't entirely a good thing. Hundreds of thoughts raced through Miles’ mind as he worked, thoughts of his family, his job, his future, ‘Chet must be wondering where his dad is, I wonder what Hellen told him.’ These thought made Miles feel nauseous, his mouth was dry and his body ached from the beating by The Enforcers. ‘Just stay focussed Miles, you can do this. Take things one day at a time and the months will just fly by!’ Forget about months, the hours seemed to tick by slower than ever that day as Miles waited anxiously for his shift to end. The cinema finally closed at around 10pm. Miles saw Ryker packing his bag on the way out of the lobby. ‘Ah man, I really shouldn’t have been so hard on him,’ Miles cringed and thought. He felt bad for snapping at Ryker earlier but just couldn't bring himself to apologize. Instead, Miles just made his way to the tram station a few streets down in the heavy Yellow District rain with his now empty briefcase to wait for a ride back to the hotel.

The next day was much the same as the last, though the tension between Miles and Ryker had
subsided somewhat and they found themselves engaging in light conversation throughout the day. Ryker had learned to avoid the subject of Gyaros, talking instead about sports results and recent news stories. Miles was actually thankful to have something to distract him from the current events in his life, even if he still considered Ryker to be somewhat of a loser. At one point during the day, they found themselves on the topic of video games, something that Miles had enjoyed greatly during his days in high school and college though had not had any time for in recent years.

“You look
way
too serious to be into video games man,” said Ryker jokingly.

“Oh yeah?” Miles replied
smiling, “in my college years, I put a solid two hundred hours into Legends of Red District 4!”

“No fuckin' way dude, I can't even get halfway through an rpg like that
without getting bored to shit,” Ryker said, looking surprised.

“That's the problem with your generation, Ryker. You have no patience.
It’s all War of Unification first person shooters and mindless action games. You'll never know the simple joy of grinding for hours on end, slowly but surely levelling up each member of your party in preparation for an epic battle of wit and perfectly executed strategy,” Miles explained philosophically.

“Yeah, and t
hank God for that,” Ryker replied, making Miles laugh for the first time in the past three days. During the conversation, Ryker brought up the idea of stopping by the arcade down the street after work. Miles thought it was a childish plan but, after some coaxing, eventually agreed, ‘well I guess I could use the distraction’. Miles' shift continued rather uneventfully with only about five or six customers showing up to the cinema that day. He tried to keep himself focused on work but with little to do, Miles often found himself slipping into anger, frustration and regret as he recalled Tyler’s smug grin, ‘that asshole is the reason I’m cleaning toilets in this shithole!’ Though now on moderately friendly terms with Ryker, Miles was still alone with his dark thoughts for most of the day. ‘I wish I’d fucking killed him,’ Miles thought to himself, ‘I wish I’d finished the damn job.’ As closing time was approaching, Miles returned to the lobby to meet up with Ryker who was already out of his uniform and looked eager to get to the arcade.

“You ready?” Ryker asked excitedly as he saw Miles leave cinema 2 with a bag of trash having just cleaned up after the final showing of the night.

“Just a second,” Miles replied as he brought the bag to the trashcan by the front window. Although embarrassed to show it, Miles was also quite eagerly awaiting the night out, anything to get out of his own head space for a while. Even at his job in The Energy Department, he had rarely spent time with his colleagues outside of work, other than the odd dinner with Clark who, truth be told, was quite a cook. Miles dusted his hands and took his briefcase - which served as little more than a lunchbox these days - from behind the counter as Ryker hoisted his backpack over his right shoulder and the two left the cinema leaving Mr Grayson to lock up for the night.

The sig
hts, sounds, and smells of the Yellow District were still foreign and disturbing to Miles as he and Ryker walked down 12
th
Street to the Gamer's Paradise Arcade arguing light heartedly about their drastically differing tastes in music. Upon passing a small and cheap looking fast food restaurant Ryker stopped.

“H
ey man, I'm gonna get a burger, you want anything?” Miles shook his head gently and Ryker disappeared into the burger joint alone. As Miles waited impatiently out the front of Mike's Burger Palace, an old woman with ragged grey hair and a long brown trench coat began to approach him from across the street. Beginning to feel uncomfortable, Miles glanced through the restaurant window at Ryker who seemed to be waiting for his order. The old lady began to mumble incoherently as she drew closer, Miles stared at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact. 'God damn it Ryker, hurry up...' he thought as the woman started shouting what sounded to Miles like complete and utter gibberish. Moments later, Ryker returned with a greasy paper bag and a large drink under his arm. He casually pushed the old lady out of the way and continued towards the arcade. Miles followed, slightly disturbed by what had just happened. You just didn’t see crazies on the streets of the Green Districts. Anyone deemed psychologically unsound was whisked off to The Psychiatric Department for treatment and testing, and they rarely came out again.

Ryker spent the next minute and a half comically attempting to unpack and eat his meal while keeping hold of his large soda which slightly amused Miles.

“Aw fuck it, I'll eat it when we get there,” he said, finally giving up. Ryker didn't have to wait much longer as they soon reached their destination. Nostalgia swept over Miles as he stepped through the doors of the arcade. Although much smaller and more poorly maintained than the great arcades of The Green Entertainment District where Miles had spent a large portion of his youth, the familiar sounds and flashing lights were a welcome reminder of a carefree age.

“Oh sweet, there's hardly anyone here!” said Ryker with a grin
, “so what do you wanna play first?” he added excitedly. Miles carefully scanned the small, dimly lit arcade, all of the games were new and unfamiliar. Except for one. Miles' eyes fell upon a small worn out machine at the back of the building. Enforcer 2, a famously unforgiving side scrolling shooter which Miles had spent countless hours, and credits, playing every day after school.  Miles jogged towards the machine with the excitement of a seven year old child and Ryker followed.

“God, I haven't seen one of these in
years!”
said Miles with a subtle smile stretching across his usually serious face.

“Not too many people play this one anymore
,” Ryker said as he looked at the bright flashing title screen of Enforcer 2 which displayed a heavily armoured Carthage Enforcer wielding dual magnums and blasting away green aliens.

“What do you say?” Miles said, positioning himself at the player one controls
, and smiling suggestively at Ryker. Ryker put his burger and drink on the machine.

“L
et's do it!” he replied.

Miles placed the palm of his hand on the machine's dusty credit transfer terminal and purchased lives for him
self and Ryker. He stared down at his controls. It had been so long since his hands had assumed this position, it felt familiar and safe somehow. A large joystick was accompanied by three small buttons, one for shooting, one for jumping and the final button performed a powerful melee attack. In the centre of the machine there was a large red button labelled “START”. Without further hesitation, Miles pressed it down hard.

The title screen was qu
ickly replaced by a scrolling two dimensional landscape. Miles' character spawned in at the far left of the screen, flickering for a few seconds before becoming solid, Ryker soon joined the game, playing as a female Enforcer. Miles had rarely seen the player two character as he had almost always played alone. Remaining dead silent, Miles and Ryker began to make their way through “Mission 1: The Streets”. The first enemy of the game, a mercenary with a large purple Mohawk, approached from the right and fired a slow moving red bullet at the Enforcers. Miles and Ryker both jumped over the projectile with ease and shot back at the enemy who fell to the ground, flashed briefly and then disappeared. The second foe was perched on a high ledge and was lobbing grenades at the players from above.

“Up there!”
shouted Miles, Ryker pushed his joystick diagonally up and to the right, aimed his weapon at the grenadier and fired, eliminating the enemy. Two more mercenaries attacked from the right side and were quickly dealt with by Miles. Then, from the left side of the screen, a small attack dog came running. Ryker turned and shot but his bullets went over the dog and in a split second both Ryker and Miles were defeated.

“Fuck!” e
xclaimed Ryker as the continue screen appeared with a 10 second countdown.

“You have to
crouch-shoot,” Miles said calmly.

“I know, I know
,” Ryker replied taking a bite of his burger before restarting the game. On their second attempt, Miles and Ryker were ready for the attack dog. As it approached Ryker quickly turned, held his joystick downwards - crouching his character - and fired a shot low enough to kill the smaller enemy. They continued on, soon dying once again, this time at the hands of a flying enemy. After several attempts Miles could feel himself regaining some of the skill of his childhood years as he deftly dodged projectiles and eliminated countless enemies. By the time they had reached the Mission 1 boss Ryker had finished his meal, having had plenty of opportunities to eat between lives. The boss was a giant bipedal mech that fired rockets, which are quite easy to dodge if you can recognize the attack patterns.