Season 05 - Episode 05

‘man locked in’

Ak is stuck.

He's trying to get through a hole in a wall but the hood of his coat has become snagged on a raggedy edge of broken bricks and he can't twist around to free it. The skinny woman Ya, who has become his guide, is smoking one of her foul little white sticks and watching, amused.

“You really are hopeless, aren't you?” she says, as she reaches behind to free him.

As she leans against and around him, Ak can smell the fetid stench of the smoking stick mixed with her body odour and something else, something he realises he likes.

“How you've survived on your own is beyond me,” she says as she works to free him.

Then suddenly Ak is free and he half steps, half falls fully into the room.

She turns her back on him and heads for the open doorway across the room.

“Why did you take us this way anyway?” he moans absently. “Surely there was...”

Ya suddenly backs into Ak, shoving him roughly. He frowns but she silences him with a hard look, shaking her head. A second later a thick knot of bodies rushes past the doorway, loud and sprawling, banging on the walls and floor and ceiling, howling as they go.

“That's why,” Ya says eventually, after the sounds of chaos have receded.

“I know you've explained this before,” says Ak, genuinely unsettled by the abrupt appearance and disappearance of the mob. “But I still don't get what's happening down here.”

“Alright,” Ya sighs, as if talking to a small child. “Until very recently, everyone here believed that being rich is the best thing you can be and that anyone can get rich if they just work hard enough. With me so far?”

“Yes, yes, I know this bit,” says Ak. “Sounds eminently sensible to me.”

“Of course it does,” says Ya. “The problem is that all the wealth is in the hands of the Four Families and they hoard it. Then they stack everything in their favour so that really there is no way to get rich. No matter what we do, they get richer and everyone else gets poorer.”

“But then why?” asks Ak. “If it's all so obviously rigged, why do people still believe it?”

“Because until recently,” says Ya. “As far as we knew, there was no way out, we were all trapped here. But now, for the first time ever, there's another option.”

“You mean...” says Ak, nodding up towards the ceiling.

“Exactly,” says Ya, grinning broadly. “Up we go! People are realising they don't have to play the Four Families' game any more. It's... stirring things up a bit”

“But what has any of this to do with me?” Ak whines, pulling his coat close around him.

“You're the one who's going to lead us up,” says Ya. “That's what they say, anyway.”

“But I'm not anyone's saviour, Ya,” Ak moans. “I just want to go home.”

“I know,” says Ya kindly. “But that's ok. To get home you need to find the long range elevators. When you do, everyone else can just follow you. It's win win.”

“I suppose,” says Ak, staring at the floor. “I don't know what you all think's up...”

“Nice story,” says a man's voice.

Ak and Ya turn to see a great slab of a man folding himself through the hole in the wall.

“Shame it's not going to happen,” he says, grinning terribly and showing them a knife.

“Back off!” says Ya. “We've nothing worth stealing, you'll do better back that way.”

“Oh, I've found exactly what I want,” says the man, staring at Ak.

“You're working for The Four Families!” Ya hisses.

“Yep,” says the man happily. “And they want this little prick dead.”

“But he's here to save us!” cries Ya. “Would you really sell us all out for a bit of cash?”

“A lot of cash,” the man says, before abruptly lunging at Ak.

Ak cringes and freezes and closes his eyes.

Nothing happens.

He opens his eyes again.

Ya is wedged between Ak and the man, locked in a silent embrace with him. Her fist is at the man's neck where she has plunged a thin blade up to the hilt. As the pair stagger apart however, Ak notices blood on the man's knife too and a dark stain spreading at Ya's abdomen.

“No!” Ak cries to Ya, catching her as she crumples into him. “What have you done?! Why did you do that?!”

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