Chapter 19: User-Friendly

“Sebastien!” Russell cried, and he ran down the stairs, leaping two at a time and hugged the man. Sebastien gripped him tightly and the two embraced.
“I've been looking for you everywhere!” Russell said, holding Sebastien at arms length and smiling at him.
Sebastien thought he saw his smile twitch.
“Tell me about it.” Sebastien agreed. “Where on earth did you get to?” Russell led Sebastien to a collection of rust-worn barrels in the corner of the room. They overlooked the crater. The tide splashed against the side of the house, climbing up the pillars supporting the steel floor. Russell could see cogs twisting and splashing water about them in the heart of the new lake. There were pinnacles erupted out of the water, like hedgehog spikes, little platforms which had escaped the torment. Small scrabbles of civilisation littered these pinnacles. Russell saw wires spurting electricity at the edge of the crater, and more substantial machinery beneath the surface of the water. They were blotched and splotchy and worn. A propeller juttered through the water at the opposite edge of the crater, and Russell could see the sea out beyond that, cascading into the crater through a hole in the wall. He swallowed.

He turned back to Sebastien, all smiles. “I honestly couldn't tell you. I remember leaving the sphere, but after that...” Russell remembered Hurricane Melanie well, but he refrained from mentioning it. He remembered the corpses, the ironbeaks tearing at flesh, Lester falling, clawing desperately, into the hole, and then... “And then,” he continued, “I woke up with Melanie! Quite a way from the Sphere, I think, I looked up on a hill and couldn't see it anywhere.”
“The sphere is gone.” Sebastien supplied. Thats probably why you couldn't see it. The ironbeaks tore it to pieces.” He scanned Russell. If it came to it, he could probably take Russell now. Russell was close to the edge, he could barrel into him and knock him flying into the water. The electricity coursing through it would fry him before he could cry out. But what then? What about Melanie? She was the dangerous one. Only Russell knew how she worked, how she ticked, how she destroyed like that, and he couldn't risk letting her off again, especially when he and Belle were so close. Sebastien didn't do anything.

Russell swallowed again, and looked at the floor. “Is that so?”
Sebastien leaned forwards.
“So what happened to Steamham?” he asked, his eyes searching the broken, fatal skyline.
“Don't know. It was like that when we got here.” Russell replied. He wondered if Sebastien was trying to coax a confession out of him.
Sebastien was startled. “Really? You mean, you didn't-”
Russell leaned forwards. “Didn't what?” He caught Sebastiens eye, but Sebastien looked away.
“Didn't what, Sebastien?”

“Russell!” Belle butted in, elbowing her way past Sebastien to wrap her arms around Russell. “Dont think you can forget about me!” she laughed, and let an arm languish on his shoulder as she leaned on him. “How is Melanie?”
Russell thought long and hard about this. How was Melanie? He wasn't sure if he had seen her at all. He had seen her body. But residing in that corpse was... well, Lester, for one thing. Lester had escaped the clutches of death to right his wrong, or so he said. But he was sure that there was something else in there. Something dirty, something wrong, something which shouldn't have been there. Had Melanie died when she had landed in that field of blue light? Had something crawled inside her all the way back then? It would make sense, and it would be a fitting end to his life that he had spent all this time chasing a corpse. He thought upstairs, where Melanie, or Lester, sat in wait. The less they saw of her the less he would have to pretend, the less chance they were found out.
Russell decided that Belle didn't need to know any of this. “Fine.” he gruffed. “She's upstairs, sleeping off the walk.”

She held him tight, and squeezed out of her throat, “Oh, Russell! I always knew you had it in you to be a good father, to be a wonderful father! Wasn't that right, Seb? Wasn't I saying just as we were walking around that crater, that Russell obviously loved his kid, didn't I, Seb?” Sebastien nodded solemnly, licked his lips, bowed his head and said “She's right, Russell. You're a...” he struggled for words. Finally, he thrust out his hand, and, eyes blazing, said in hard tones “You're a good father, Russell. I'd be proud to have you as a father.”

you genocidal freak, he thought.

Russell smiled coldly. “Well I'm glad you think so, Seb!” He clapped Sebastien hard on the arm, and laughed inwardly at how Belle was making Sebastien act. Belle grinned and caressed Russell and rested her head on his shoulder like a lover who had been parted. She was far more open and aggressively friendly than she had ever been before in Russells memory. Sebastien glowered as she ran a soft finger up Russells other arm.

Then Russell stood. He had to think of something to keep them occupied, something to keep them busy until he could catch them unawares... Lesters ludicrous plan came to mind. Though he scoffed at the idea of saving the island, as the tide made itself comfortable in the rusting, busted valleys of the island, travelling to the tower was a good idea, because it gave them something to do so they weren't here, where they could reveal accidental secrets. If needs be, Russell thought, the tower was also at the height of a precipice. If he needed to, the tower could make a good murder location and getaway in one.
“I was thinking.” he said. “I was thinking that we need to do something.” Sebastien and Belle both looked at him curiously. “About what?” Sebastien asked. Russell looked towards the distance. “I was thinking... I was thinking we were brought here, I was brought here, we were all brought here, for a reason!” He slammed his fist against the wall. “I kind of... I almost feel responsible, for whats happened, because it was my fault the tower malfunctioned in the first place. I couldn't do it by myself...” he stopped short, and took a deep intake of breath. “But with you here, Sebastien, then we could actually do it!”
Belle looked from Sebastien to Russell confusedly. “Do what?” she asked.
“We can save the island” Russells eyes were ablaze as he twisted round and the sun hit behind him, silhouetting him against the lake. Sunlight hit the water and blazed up around him. “We can strap Melanie into the tower, and hit whatever switch Lester wanted, and we can undo everything! We can make everything alright again!” He turned and grinned at the both of them. “Well? What do you think?”

Sebastiens face slowly split into a wide grin. “I see what you're trying to do, Russell.”
Belle froze.
“I think its a fantastic idea,” he continued, and she relaxed a little. “I mean, its the apocalypse, right? What else can we do but try?”
“Do, or do not. There is no try!” Russell recited, smiling to himself.
“What?” Belle asked him.
For a second, Russell didn't know what to say. Then he remembered that there was no such thing as Star Wars here. “I forget sometimes that there's no such thing as Star Wars here,” he told them.

By the evening they had started walking. It wasn't far to the tower, a days walk at most. Russell didn't have long to come up with a plan. They had been walking together, chatting as they walked up a chain-wreathed hill. When they reached the top Sebastien looked out across the landscape. Rivers criss-crossed the peaks and troughs of the steel, heaving island. He flashed a look at Belle. “Its beautiful,, in a way, don't you think?” he asked. Russell saw that they were busy up on the top and called up to them, “Hey, guys! Melanie needs the toilet, we'll be right back!” Sebastien waved them away down the hill, calling back “Sure, sure, like there's not enough rust!”
“No I don't-” Melanie began, but Russell shut her up. He shoved her to the side, so they couldn't be seen by the two, and squatted down in front of her. “Right. We're going to the tower.”
Melanie smiled. “We are? Oh, brilliant! So we can actually-”
Russell interrupted him. “Yeah, you can take care of the island, you can fix it, thats right.” Melanie grinned. “Thats fantastic!” Russell nodded. “But listen,” he continued, “Thats not important right now. How do we get rid of...” Russell jerked his head out of the grove. “Those two.”

Melanie frowned. “Frankly, Russell, I'm having difficulty remembering why we need to hide everything from them in the first place!” Russell sighed exasperatedly and shoved him. “You gave me good enough reason yourself! If they already want to kill us, everything we say will be counted against us!” He sighed. “I mean, they brought us to this, but they will have convinced themselves that we're liars.”
“And we are!” Melanie hissed.
“Yes, and whose fault was that?” Russell snapped back. “Listen, we just need to catch them off-guard so we can get away from them.” He looked out at where they stood. “I don't want to kill them, even if they want to kill us.”
He looked back at Melanie. “So go on. You got us into this. How do we get rid of them?”
Melanies head was in her hands. “I don't like this, Russell. Sebastiens like my kid, and Belle ain't far off. I can't believe we're in this deep against them.”
Russell smiled. “Wait, though, Lester, its not you, its Melanie, right?”
Melanie slapped his thigh. “Shut up. You know what I mean.”
Russell stood. He looked down at his diminutive daughter, who wasn't any more. He wasn't sure why he was being so cruel to her. Him. Whatever. Lester had spent so long being so much... so much better than him. It seemed fitting that he'd been brought this low, spending his last days like this. And Melanie... well, Melanie. He turned away from his daughter. “C'mon. They'll think we're up to something.”

Belle looked sideways at Sebastien. “You're right, I guess.” They stared out at the valleys without speaking. Sebastien saw the sun tick closer and closer towards the slit in the earth it disappeared into every night. The sun and the moon, each a lamp about the size of a house, span on an axis every day and night. The oldest parts of the island were the clockworks. There was the sun, the moon, and the stars. Many years before, a balloonist had climbed a couple of thousand feet using helium collected from gas mines on the other side of the island. He had flown past the sun, nearly blinded by its brilliance. He had seen the intricate cogs, the spinning wheels, the clinking chains as it rose and sank daily, had seen its brilliance wax and wane. But he climbed higher still, to the stars themselves. They hung in the sky like chandeliers, each star about the size of a man and suspended by chains to a massive spinner. Next time he tried to go higher and drowned in the carbon monoxide choking the winds. Before he died the crackle in the speakers told them that the seas carried on as far he could see, before the crackle in his throat killed him.

“I mean, all the rivers... if they weren't going to kill us,” Sebastien continued, “They'd be kind of beautiful.”
“A bit like Russell, really, and Melanie.” Belle supplied. Sebastien narrowed his eyes at Belle. “How do you mean?”
“Well, they make a good pair, father and daughter, I mean, don't you think?” she asked. She turned to see the two of them trudging back up the hill. “I think they look very cute together. I guess it means that you were wrong about him being a terrible father.”
“I guess it does.” Sebastien replied solemnly. “But theres more important things afoot now than that outburst. Most threateningly – they want to kill us and you're admiring them!” He shoved her. “What gives?”
Belle sighed antsily. “I don't even know!” She watched as Russell picked Melanie up and swung her over his shoulders so she was sitting on his back. They meandered slowly up the hill, Russell leaping over streams pooling in the foot-pounded bronze. “Maybe its just...” she fingered her own belly, running her hand across it.
Sebastien watched her idly a moment, then double-took. “What do you mean, 'maybe its just' like that? Rubbing your belly like that? Are you saying-”
“That I'm pregnant?” She asked him. The wind ripped between them. “I think so.”

Sebastien said nothing. His mind was running like a wild man but his mouth refused to speak. He hung open, looking her up and down. “Are you serious?”
She grinned happily. “Thats right! I'm pretty sure! Theres been morning sickness, and no period to speak of. Its fairly certain!” Sebastien said nothing. “What, aren't you happy for me?”
“Happy?” he shouted, then grabbed her lapel and pulled her in so they touches noses. “Why the hell would I be happy?” he hissed at her, his eyes slits and his nostrils flared. “You're carrying his child?” Belle was surprised, and pushed him away. “Yes! Damnit, I thought you'd be pleased! I'm carrying the future of the island in my womb!”
Sebastien wrapped his forehead in his hands. “What you're carrying is demon spawn! Haven't you seen what his last daughters done? What if your spawn turns out just the same, huh? What if you make another monster!” He kicked the ground. “I don't know how you could have been so stupid!”
“Stupid?! I'll give you-”
“Whats going on?” Russell asked, curiously. He saw Sebastien and Belle lying on the floor, Belle straddling Sebastien with her fist raised, about to throw a punch. Both of them froze as he arrived and made himself known.
“I just heard your wonderful news.” Sebastien grunted, and he pushed Belle off him. He stood, shook Russells confused hand briefly, and muttured “Congratulations on your new baby.” He stalked off across the hill. Belle looked up sheepishly at Russell from the floor, and tried to smile. It didn't work.