They walked. And they walked. As they walked Lester began to tell Russell about the island. What did he want to know? Everything. He learned about how they ate first, as it had been a couple of days. “Heres a good spot!” Lester said to him, and the group stopped. Russell stared at what they had stopped at. It barely seemed possible. In front of them was a vending machine, buried in the hillside. He looked across at Lester and grinned. “This is a joke, right?”
“What do you mean?” Sebastien asked. “Its not a joke, its really easy to use – look, I'll show you-” and with that he began to search around on the ground. He found a wire hanging out of a crack and grinned. “Here we go-” and ripped it out. Dangling from the bottom was a coin – a pound coin. It glimmered darkly in the evening light. “And then you just put it in this slot,” he said, inserting the pound coin.
He chose a Yumyum bar, clicking 3-C into the machine and out it dropped. He ate it hungrily, and discarded the wrapper onto the ground. Russell tensed. “Aren't you going to throw it away?” He asked tersely. “Why would I do that?” Sebastien asked confusedly, and he pointed down at the wrapper. A group of little creatures had gathered around the wrapper. They were shaped like a ring, with a propellor in their midriff and little legs. They took turns squatting on the wrapper, ripping it to shreds, then they shared a feast of shavings. Russell gaped. “The only thing is,” Sebastien continued, “Is that whenever you do this it makes waste, and nothing eats that stuff.” He pointed at a large pile of silver coins Russell had failed to notice. He squatted himself and looked at them, and saw a pile of soot-blackened 10, 20 and 5p's. He grinned and took some of the silver, and put it into the machine. Belle shouted out “What the hell do you think you're doing? You'll jam it, you idiot!” But she was cut short as another Yumyum bar fell out of the dispenser at the bottom.
Nobody moved a muscle.
“That... how did you-” Sebastien spluttered. “How could you have been sure that was going to happen?” Lester cried, advancing on Russell. “This is the only vender for about two miles. Theres a village further down the road which relies on this thing! They might have starved if that hadn't worked!”
Russell was dumbfounded. “It always works like this where I come from!” Lester looked as if he wanted to hit him. “Food is valuable here, Russell. You can't mess with it...”
He paused for a moment. “Then again... its not like theres an infinite number of coins in the universe. This discovery could be really important, for when we can't find any more golds. Show me again how it works?” And Lester squatted next to Russell and was taught about the value of coinage.
Further along the road he was taught about water (“It comes out of these taps here, y'see? But for the love of god don't get any on the ground. If we spill much more the entire area around the tap could split and fall into the Below..”) and clothes (“We call them 'knitters'. Cos they knit. No idea where they get the wool from...”). With time they got to a small village called 'Moran' and decided to hold down the fort for the night. Russell entered and marvelled. It was beautiful, in a way, the same way a deserted building could be beautiful, Chernobyl could be beautiful, the leftovers of a gang war could be beautiful. It was essentially a shanty-town – people had utilised some of the animals in the area as saws to cut sections from the beach and collect them into make-shift houses, where they slept. The houses rusted and croaked in the wind, as this was one of the highest points on the island. People spent most of their time outside, as their houses were decrepit and smelled of the sea. Russell smelt the sea and let it fill him. It trickled down his nose and sank into his pores. The pungence of the seaweed which infested Brighton beaches had gone and left only the rather high and cold smell of rust to mingle with the salty tang of the sea. He licked his lips. He had forgotten how much he had missed the sea. He could feel it all over him. The sea really was taking over this place. As they descended into the village, Russell realised how ram-shackle it actually was. The people looked happy enough – they were lean, from their meager diet, and tough. A wiry people, they imitated their landscape to the nth degree. But the houses were flakes, flakes of rust hung together with netting and the stink of the place. It seemed viscous enough to act as a glue, in any case.
A couple of the houses were more substantial than the average rust-shack, but Russell was disappointed when it was into one of these ginger-delicate houses he was led into. He was awkward about entering, like he couldn't touch the sides or it would fall apart. Lester apparently was due a favour by the man who owned this house, so they would be staying here for the night then heading onto the moors in the morning (the quickest way to the village Melanie was staying in). He was all for not leaving the hut, but Belle dragged him up. “C'mon, theres a bar further in!” she said happily. “I'm really not-” began Russell but she cut him off. “Absolutely not, theres no better way to get to know team-mates!” and she hoisted him up, ignoring his cries of tiredness. He slumped, defeated, then headed off after them into the darkening night. But before he could get too far, Sebastien stopped him. “You should probably know that when Belle says that she means to get to know someone, she means it in the biblical sense.” Russell said nothing, but looked after the disappearing redhead. “Is there a problem with that?” His mouth was wide and grinning but his heart burned when he said that... he remembered that disappearing car, and the wet stain of Juliet's lipstick on another man's neck. He gritted his teeth and battered through his guilt. She was dead. She'd been dead for two or three months now. Everyone else had gotten over it. Why the hell couldn't he?
His mouth carried on without him. “I mean, you would, wouldn't you?” Sebastien looked down, scarlet. Russell wanted to get away from the nerve he had evidently stomped all over, and continued along a different thread as they continued walking. “So how come you guys are working together for this?”
Sebastien smiled. “I've been with Lester as long as I can remember. My parents were killed a long time ago – I can't have been older than five. Lester said that he found he wandering around up on those moors over there,” and he pointed over the hill. “I've been with him pretty much ever since. He taught me about the island. I think, apart from him, I know the most about the island here. Even so...”
Sebastien looked sheepishly over at Russell. “I don't even know why I'm telling you this. You must have the sort of face you can tell a secret to.” Russell raised an eyebrow and Sebastien continued. “But I never knew about... about that thing with the bomb. He never told me it was him who did it. He's never taken responsibility for it before.” He looked ahead, misty-eyed. “He must finally be beginning to accept it.”
Russell wasn't sure what to say. “Thats a good thing, though, right?”
“I guess,” said Sebastien. They continued to walk in silence a while.
It was later. Russell wasn't sure if his head was because of the tiredness or the alcohol. Either way, he was a different person. He asked the bartender again if he would show him how he poured the elixer – he was fascinated by it, even if he only tolerated the drink (it stung worse than anything he had tried before). The bartender rolled his eyes and left his line of vision for a moment before returning with a wriggling, spiked creature which waved as it moved, because its rear end was a syringe filled with a red-pink liquid. The bartender held the fist-sized creature upside down, and cracked its hind-quarters against a funny corkscrew style thing in the table in front of him. It squeezed the creature dry like a lemon. After it had been drained, the creature was dropped and landed hard on the ground, before stumbling away, one of its legs not working properly. Russell laughed raucously, clapping his hands and Sebastien laughed with him. Russell didn't care for anything right now except his new friends and his next drink. Melanie could go hang, he couldn't remember the last time he had had fun since that slab of meat had been born. What had she done here but make him worry?
He thrust his daughter from his mind and continued to watch the liquid as it was distilled, enthralled. Lester watched him a moment, then turned to talk with Belle. Dresden sat alone further down the bar. He took his drinking seriously and solemnly, keeping away from other people as he did it. He liked to concentrate on it. Lester said to Belle “so what is it?”
“What?” she answered distractedly. “What is it about him?” He asked slyly.
“Who?”
“You know who! You've been looking at him since we found him.”
“What, Russell?” she asked. “Have I?”
He laughed. “Don't tell me you haven't noticed!”
“Well, I'm not ashamed of it,” and she giggled. “I mean, he's not a bad sort, is he? I mean, once he's loosened up.” They both stopped to look at him and Sebastien high five over some long-forgotten in-joke.
“It took some plying, thats for sure. At least he's enjoying himself for once. I'm surprised he can – I'd be sick with worry for that girl, if it was me.” Lester smiled at him. “I envy him, having a family like that.”
“My thoughts exactly,” said Belle, and she eyed him hungrily.
“Belle, you know perfectly well that people can't concieve on this island.”
She looked at him and for the first time he saw it in her eyes, a madness which only came out when her eyeballs were dripping with alcohol.
“Maybe its just the men here. He comes from a place where the men aren't castrated by definition. Just by virtue of his birthplace he's manlier than everyone else here.”
Lester grinned. “Even Dresden?”
“Even Dresden. He can bring life into the universe. With nothing more than himself and a partner. How much more goddamned powerful can you be?” She sipped her drink. “Any bozo can kill someone. It takes something a bit more special to do the opposite.”
He smiled at her. “You really believe that?”
“Absolutely. If we can stop the decay of the island by me seducing that guy then I see no reason not to try. Hold my drink.” And with that she passed off her drink to Lester before he could say a word and advanced towards the drinking, happy couple.
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