Season 05 - Episode 11

‘out too but’

Ko is so tired that everything hurts but keeps on working anyway.

He is standing on a great mound of rubble, along with a couple of dozen others, bent at the waist, picking quickly but carefully through the debris. Every so often he spots something of use in amongst the carnage, a useable tool, an item of clothing, a packet of food.

When he does, he lifts it out, moving slowly so as not to set the unstable pile sliding under his feet and then inspects the item before dropping it into the sack he wears on his back. These scraps will be gathered up and redistributed, put to the best use they can be, but they're just a bonus, they're not really what they're searching for.

Ignoring the growing pain in his back, Ko heaves aside a large clump of concrete, letting roll away behind him. In the space below he sees the usual mishmash of debris but also a small, strangely shaped object, painted grey with dust. He cocks his head on one side, trying to catch up to what his eyes are telling him.

The object has little fingers.

He drops to his knees and clasps the tiny hand in his, lowering his cheek to almost touching as he tries to peer in and under the wreckage. The hand is cool but not cold and as he squeezes it gently he feels the fingers curl against his just slightly.

“Here!” he cries. “Here! Here! I've got one!”

In a moment about half the other people in the room are around him, dragging away concrete and metal and furniture as quickly as they dare, while the rest continue to search elsewhere. Gradually they reveal a skinny little arm, a bony little shoulder, a birdcage torso.

Ko keeps hold of the little hand, feeling the life within it, faint yet fierce, not daring to let go as the bodies around him work frantic. Finally, Ko stumbles up, backwards and down, sitting heavily as the others raise the child from the rubble with broken voiced cheers.

Between them they rush the frail little form from the room but as they go Ko catches a glimpse of a dust painted face. Flat grey streaked with red, punctuated by two open eyes, white and wide, eyes that are stunned but absolutely alive.

For several minutes Ko sits and cries, allowing the great waves of emotion to crash through him. Relief and sadness, sorrow and joy. Then, as the torrent subsides, he wipes the tear-and-dust sludge from his face, drags himself back to standing and gets back to work.

“Ko!” cries a voice from behind, sudden, urgent.

He turns to see Qi stumbling towards him across the chaos. Qi had come back to Ko's class again and again and they had spoken at length several times. Now however, Qi looks very different, no longer a gawky, gangling, awkward girl. Hair cut short and different clothes, Qi is now a gawky, gangling, awkward boy.

“Ko!” Qi gasps, finally reaching him. “I thought... I heard you'd all been killed!”

“Ah,” says Ko, nodding sadly. “Right. Yes. That wasn't us. That was Si's group. He used to be with us but we... had some political differences so he left and set up his own group. The Church wiped them out.”

“I'm so glad!” Qi cries then stops and flushes red, open mouthed with shame. “No... not glad. I don't mean... I'm so sorry. It's just when I heard The Resistance... I thought...”

“It's ok, Qi” says Ko. “I understand. I like your new look by the way. It suits you.”

“Thanks,” says Qi, suddenly unable to hold Ko's eye. “It feels... good. Listen, there's someone who says she wants to meet with you. She's waiting over there.”

“Ok,” says Ko. “But she'll have to talk while we're working.”

“Of course!” says Qi earnestly. “What are we doing here anyway?”

“Well,” says Ko, pushing his hands into the small of his back and looking up at the gaping hole in the ceiling. “Yesterday, GovCo and The Church were fighting a few floors above here. The EnFo's drew The Seraphim out into the centre of the room then detonated a bomb causing a collapse which wiped out the Seraphim. Unfortunately, in between this floor and that one was a food distribution centre we'd just set up so that got wiped out too.”

“But that's...” says Qi aghast. “That's evil! Did they do that on purpose?”

“I don't know, Qi” Ko sighs. “I suppose it doesn't make much difference to the people who fell. All we can do now is pick up the pieces. Go get your friend then come join us.”

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