Laz's Law

Chapter 24 of The Triple World

Yana pulled at a hangnail as her sleep-heavy eyes adjusted to the too-bright sky. It was gone midnight, and yet the horizon was on fire. Since Laz’s death, the scrapyards had all been plunged into anarchy. The New Eden Collective had crumbled without any authority to dictate their next moves to them. Yana’s mind flitted back to the vertical farm and its skeletal remains. The scrapyards main supplier of resources had been left in ruins, nearly collapsing, with most people having the same idea as Yana and the cannibals. Most places were being ransacked as Laz was no longer there to protect anyone. Even homes. You could say what you wanted about him, but people had been scared of him, and if you paid for his protection, you might have paid heavily, but he certainly fulfilled his side of the bargain. Yana knew this first-hand. Her grandfather had paid for his family’s protection. They may have gone to sleep hungry most nights, but at least they never feared a break-in. Word got round when you were under Laz’s ample-sized wing.

Yana stood in the entrance of her home - the make-shift cloth door flapping about her shoulders. She watched the flames in the distance lick the sky - each one a snake, darting its tongue out to taste the darkness. The smoke reached up, arching like an angry scorpion stretching out its tail, ready to strike. Yana reached for Shay beside her, stroking his soft yet stolid head.

Finn was snuffling in his sleep behind her, but Alex’s silhouette emerged from the sofa, swift and stealthy.

“Can’t sleep?”

Shay pricked his ears.

“Ancestors!” Yana started, clutching her shoulders as she pulled the tent-style door back into place.

“Sorry.” Alex raised his hands in surrender. “I can’t either. The past couple of days have felt like some sort of weird waiting game.”

“Yeah,” Yana recovered herself. “Well, when you accidentally kill the only figurehead of an entire region, and there is nobody to replace him, the only real course of action for people to take is a pretty disastrous one. Who knows what we’re waiting for.”

Alex raised his eyebrows. “You didn’t kill anyone. He lit his dynamite in the wrong place. Besides, if he hadn’t pegged it, he would have killed us.”

Yana nodded, a pensive frown forming across her forehead. “Probably would have been better for the whole of the Surface if we were the ones who got crushed instead.”

“Not for Finn.”

Yana stared at the ground and let Alex wrap an arm around her shoulders.

“Do you think Yeren’s ok?” she whispered.

“I haven’t hear any noise coming from her place all night. All likelihood is, she’s sleeping.”

“Must be awful to forget everything.” She looked up at Alex, a half-spoken question drawn on her face.

But he said nothing, and just gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Bangs exploded outside, distant enough not to cause panic. Yana shuddered all the same as if the humid air was chilling her instead of scoring a smattering of sweat across her skin.

“FUCK.”

Both heads darted up - alert.

They heard Sasha’s voice shoot through the air, hard and fast like an arrow. “Get the fuck out!”

“Shay, stay.” Yana pointed towards Finn’s sleeping form in the bottom bunk bed. “Guard.”

The wolf slinked off, growling slightly, to stand sentinel over the dreaming boy.

Yana catapulted herself through the flimsy fabric of her front door and out into the fire-filled night, Alex hurtling after her.

She came to a halt as soon as the scorched air hit her. Before her was a woman. She recognised the sun-bleached hair and tatty, green protective cloth of the northern scavenger. “Skandi? What are you doing down here?”

Skandi smirked at her, venom dripping from her bloodshot eyes. “Everywhere and everything is fair game now. No such thing as boundaries anymore.”

As she spoke, a grizzled, brown bear of a man lurched out of Sasha’s doorway, seemingly having been thrown. He growled as he righted himself, pushing off the ground to flank Skandi on her right. A fair haired, feline man inaudibly appeared to her left, having climbed the mountain of trash without making a single sound. Smooth motioned, he straightened his legs, reaching his full, tower-like height.

“We’re paying everyone in the southern scrapyards a little visit,” Skandi stretched her arms out, feigning fatigue. She brought her elbows to rest on the shoulders of the men either side of her. “You took your time watching the pretty fires,” she said, cocking her head at the horizon. Her eyes flirted over Yana’s home for a moment, before lingering on Alex. “We were getting bored waiting for you to fuck off back inside. But some of your neighbours are ever so accommodating.” A nasty snarl of a smile twisted across her lips. “It seems that I want what you have. And now, there’s nobody to stop me from taking it.”

Sasha snorted as he took a step towards the brown bear. “Is that so?”

The bear made to shove him away, but Sasha darted out his palm, slamming it, pinky-first, into the man’s Adam’s apple. The bear was down, doubled over, clutching his throat.

“Ances-”

Yana leaped at Skandi, grabbing fistfuls of hair and yanking down with all her might. Knees and elbows flailed, hands slammed, heads knocked. Alex leaned back, butting the blond man square on the nose before kicking him down the trash tower he had just climbed. At the bottom, he clocked a very full cart of household belongings. Evidently, they weren’t Skandi and her little gang;s first stop.

Finn hovered at the door of his home, eyes - following his sister - wide with fright as he watched Skandi pin Yana to the ground. “Shay, threat,” he shouted, pointing to Skandi, before Alex near shoved him back inside.

The dog pounced on Skandi, teeth racing straight for her throat. He pinned her to the ground, front paws on her shoulders, slathering and frothing onto her face. His prey squirmed and squealed, clawed and clubbed as his jaw got closer and closer to her neck.

“Shay, stop.”

Alex took a handful of Skandi’s hair and lifted her off the ground as though she were nothing but a half-full bin bag he was about to throw over his shoulder. She kicked and swung, landing nothing more than a glancing blow on his upper thigh. He hurled her over the side of the rubbish tip after her feline friend, watching her roll and tumble down, jerking and spasming against every hard surface she hit. A cacophony of metallic clangs rang out into the night until the final thud when she reached the bottom, followed by, of course, the unholy howls of her curses.

Yana pulled herself up and lurched at the brown bear straddling Sasha, crunching his fist into his jaw.

“Yana!”

She turned to look behind her. Finn stood outside their home, saucepan in hand, holding it out to her. She grabbed it and without any hesitation, without any reluctance whatsoever, she brought it down on the bear’s head with a sickening clunk.

The bear slumped forward.

All of them rushed to push him off Sasha, and tumble him down the garbage hill side. Sasha coughed and gurgled, crimson staining his mouth and nose. Yana raced to his side.

“Sasha?” She gripped his shoulders, pulling him up into a sitting position.

“It’s ok. I’m ok,” he rasped out.

“Come on. Let’s get you inside.” She placed his arm around her shoulder, Alex striding over to take the other half of his weight. Shay whimpered at the feet, distraught at not being able to help.

Staggering through the front door was a struggle, as they had to maneuver themselves in single file, sideways. Sasha grunted with every jerk or jolt his body made until he collapsed onto the sofa, letting his head loll back, and steadying his breathing. Dutifully, Shay sat beside him, resting his head on his knee.

Yana perched on his left, using an old piece of clothing to dab at his bloody nose and lips. The rag shook in her hands as she cleaned his face up.

Sasha looked at her. Reaching out, he steadied her hands by taking them into his. “It’s ok. I’m ok,” he said again.

Yana gulped down her tears, eyes watery with fear. She stopped herself from lunging at him, and instead gently placed her arms around his neck, resting her forehead against his. “It;s not safe here anymore. Not without Laz.”

Finn sidled up to Alex, leaning against him as he watched his sister with his fervent, fixed gaze. Alex ruffled his hair and placed a calming, reassuring hand on his shoulder. He thought about raking it through his own hair, as an excuse to cease the physical contact, but the boy was particularly vulnerable, right now, and instead, he squeezed his shoulder, just as he had done to his sister earlier that night.

“We need to leave,” Yana said, resolute.

“And go where?” Sasha almost laughed, but stopped himself when the pain in his jaw made him flinch.

“We need to go East.”

Sasha seemed to stop breathing for a moment. “You mean to the Temple?”

“They have rules. Laws. You can’t just break into people’s homes, like this, and then get away with it. There is absolutely nothing to deter those three from coming back. Skandi will be sore about this. She can hold a grudge. She’ll bring more men with her next time. We need to be gone by then.”

Still absent-mindedly squeezing Finn’s shoulder, Alex piped up, “That sounds great, truly. But what exactly is this Temple? We won’t have to follow some phoney religion and pretend to believe in total cannibalshit, will we?”

Yana unwound her arms from Sasha’s neck, much to his chagrin. “No. The Temple of Tarot is just what is left of the old world. The people who didn’t want to go off into the desert, and ‘claim a part of the Surface for their own,’” she said, air quoting. “The Temple of Tarot exists because the people there still believe in community and decency. I’d always thought about going there. But, it’s a long way, and I thought we’d never make it on foot.”

“What makes you think we can make it there on foot, now?” Alex asked.

“Desperation.”

Alex felt Finn’s shoulders involuntarily hunch as he listened to his sister.

“Plus,” she continued, “We don’t have much of a choice now. Staying here is not an option. Laz’s laws no longer exist. And we need to find somewhere safe,” she added with her eyes trained on Finn.

Sasha nodded. “You’re right.”

“Yes, I know,” Yana replied. “None of us will sleep much tonight after that rush of adrenaline, so I suggest we grab Yeren, pack everything we plan to take, then start our journey as soon as possible. If we can start our way under the cover of night, that would be wise.”

Alex cleared his throat and raised his hand as though about to ask a question.

“No,” Yana said as soon as she saw him. “There is no room for debate here. I am the head of my family. I am responsible for myself, Finn and Shay. We are leaving as soon as we are packed. Sasha will inevitably come with us as we have lived our entire lives by each other’s side and Yeren will do as she is told because she is too vulnerable not to. You will also do as you are told or you will be left here alone.”

Alex allowed a smile to pull gently at the edges of his mouth. “I wasn’t going to argue. I was just going to offer to inform Yeren.”

“Oh.” Yana swallowed. “Ok.”

Still smirking, Alex flapped open the door and sauntered out.

Finn perched delicately on Sasha’s right, opposite his sister. He placed his legs around Shay, letting the wolf’s warmth comfort him. “Do you really think we can get to the Temple of Tarot?” he asked, a mix of fear and wonder painting his eyes.

“Yes,” Yana replied. She took one of her brother’s hands and one of Sasha’s. “I do.”

The front door flapped open abruptly, and all three of them convulsed - nerves shot.

“It’s just me,” Alex said as he strode in. His face had lost its normal surety, and he looked at a loss for words, simply standing there and wringing his hands.

“What is it?” Finn whispered, clutching at Shay’s fur, reluctant to break the silence that had settled itself over them.

“I think they paid Yeren a visit before they broke into Sasha’s.” Alex’s voice was quiet.

“What do you mean?”

“I think it was pretty painless, all things considered. She’s still in her bed. And Skandi did say that some of our neighbours had been—accommodating,” Alex muttered.

Yana shot up from the sofa and stormed outside. The humid night air seemed to scorch her skin, as though the darkness had been set alight too. She stalked past Sasha’s front door, eyes trained on Yeren’s. It was ajar. Whole and unbroken, but open nonetheless.

She reached out, and pressed gently, gingerly against the corrugated metal. It swung open without hesitation and Yana stepped inside.

Yeren’s purple protective cloak was slung over the back of her metal chair, ready for her to grab. She always left it there - never hung it up. She was wholesomely messy: knick-knacks covered almost every surface - items she had scavenged but couldn’t bear to sell at the Tripedium Market or throw away.

The metallic kitchen unit on the right glinted uneasily in the ruddy light flowing through the open door. Yana took another step forward, rendering it dull and shadowed once more. Her breathing hitched. She tried to swallow the abundance of air in her throat, but coughed, disturbing the petrified room. Yeren’s bed was in the left corner, enshrined in darkness.

Yana took a deep breath and forced herself to take more deliberate steps until she found herself at the edge of the bed, looking down on Yeren’s inanimate form. Skandi, her bear and her cat had clearly broken in without a sound and slit her throat in her sleep. Alex was right. As far as deaths on the Surface went, this was not the worst Yeren could have ended up with.

Palpable despair settled on Yana’s shoulders, weighing them down. This was indeed not the worst thing that could happen on the Surface. And yet, Yeren had never hurt anybody - even all her make-believe characters were completely innocuous. She stared down at her friend’s lifeless face; the velvety darkness stroked her - one last comfort in death. All Yana could see was the innocent little girl smiling up at her, waiting to play. If it weren’t for the weeping wound blurring everything around it red, she could almost bring herself to believe that Yeren would snap her eyes open and crack a joke at the serious look on her face.

A shuffle rustled behind her and the fiery, diseased light from outside was cut off. Yana turned to see Sasha’s steady figure in the doorway, slightly slumped against it. She walked towards him, back to the kitchen area. She gathered up Yeren’s purple cloth and returned it to her. Starting at her feet, she draped the cloak over her body, as though she was tucking her in for the night - the way she used to do with Finn.

Before dropping the last of it over her face, Yana looked at her properly, trying to memorise her features. If it weren’t for the wet, burning slash across her neck, she could have been sleeping, dreaming of something lovely - perhaps her own life-sized dolls’ house.

Yana draped the last of the purple cloak over her face and turned back to Sasha. “We need to pack.”