Dark City: Chapter 1

It’s no fun being a Prince. Everyone thinks it’s fun being a Prince like in the fairy tales where they always rescue the damsel in distress and take her off to a fantasy palace where they live happily ever after. That’s a load of well, crap. It’s not like that. All I do all day is work, work for the ‘people of my kingdom’ who I hardly even know ‘cause Dad, ‘King Mortimer the second’, won’t let me near them. I’m only allowed to communicate with the high up nobles who are all fifty years older than me or more and some aren’t even human! Oh, and I haven’t met one good looking girl in the palace or even one in distress. Well except for that one time when… no, that’s too embarrassing to remember. Anyway, I’m not into girls. Love can wait a few years, at least!
Well actually I do talk to one of the palace guards called Alex. She’s quite nice and okay, maybe good looking as well, but she won’t help me get away from my princely duties and besides, I wouldn’t marry her, she’s my best friend! One day I’m going to run away from Silver City and the palace and live my life among normal people who will take me as a normal person not some Prince. That’s the problem with people, when you’re a Prince they expect you to want to be Prince. Trust me, being a Prince isn’t all its cracked up to be.
Today was no different; I had to go out on a trip into the City in the silver carriage of the Prince to show the ‘people of my kingdom’ I cared for them. How could I actually care for them when I didn’t even know one person amongst them? Another thing that annoyed me was that I wasn’t even allowed to sit in the same carriage as Dad or wear normal clothes like normal people. I had to wear a ridiculous silver embroidered white shirt and trousers of a similar colour that looked like somebody’s second hand pyjamas. I sat back sulkily in the carriage not wanting to be stared at by the thousands of people that had turned out to see me. Their eyes disturbed me. I wasn’t actually that good around crowds but I could face them if need be.
“Prince Maxwell, what is wrong?” asked Torsten, the palace guard who was guarding me, “If you are displeased then I will endeavour to make you feel better.”
I just sat there seething inside. I couldn’t scream out loud that I hated every second of this journey to the City Centre where I would have to get out and sit next to my dad while he gave a speech. I couldn’t scream that I hated being a Prince and hated being watched and recognised by everyone. I couldn’t tell Torsten he was too up his own arse for my liking and his vocabulary was way from normal. Then I thought of something that could make me feel better. Just a bit.
“Torsten,” I said, “Do us a favour and shut the curtains around the carriage. I hate being looked at.”
Torsten reached over and pulled the curtains together, then reprimanded me on my language, “Prince Maxwell, it does not become you talking like a common civilian. You should have said: ‘General Torsten please may you close the drapes around the carriage. I do not wish to be gazed upon.’ I expect a Prince of your age to have a more elegant manner of speaking.”
I stared at a spot on the floor fuming with anger. I hate being told off for bad grammar. If I had a wish right now I would wish to strike Torsten dead with one blast of lightening or to be an ordinary person living in Silver City and then I wouldn’t even know Torsten. Like either of those were ever going to happen.
The carriage jerked to a halt so I took it we had reached the City Centre. Torsten opened the carriage door, walked outside then bowed low as I got out.
“Presenting His Majesty King Mortimer the Second of Silver City and Prince Maxwell!” yelled Torsten though a megaphone.
The crowd went wild as we stepped out onto the City Centre’s square. I sighed and wished I was somewhere else. People stared at me as if I was some sort of rare animal in a zoo; to them I didn’t even seem like a person. None of them cared about the person inside me, which was me. None of them would ever take a chance to know me because I was too ‘high up in the world’. None of them could strip away the deception of my Royalty and see the person inside me. Cameras flashed as we walked over to sit on the makeshift thrones on the podium in the centre of the square as if a photo of us could tell them what we were like. Could you see a person’s dreams or a person’s sense of humour from a photograph? No, not unless they were holding up a sign saying something stupid like, ‘my dream is to be an international tennis racket air guitarist superstar!’ and who would go round with a sign like that anyway?
I plonked myself onto the throne and sat there sulking, bitter. Why did I have to do anything for the kingdom? No normal teenager would be doing this. No normal teenager could have really done anything amazing for the kingdom at this age. It was stupid trying to make me set an example since I didn’t even get to speak out like my Dad so it was kind of pointless me even coming!
“Dear people of Silver City…” said dad.
Blah, blah, blah! Bor-ing! Who would want to listen to a speech on a hot day? Speeches never did anything for me, even if they were on something interesting. There was just something… tiring about them, something that just made me want to sleep. All the people in the crowd must have been mad to listen in this heat. I yawned, just rested my head on the throne and closed my eyes…
“Maxwell! Wake up Maxwell!”
I lifted my head off the bed. Hang on, how did I get into a bed? I sat up and yawned loudly but froze halfway through when I saw dad with a thunderous expression on his face.
“Maxwell, look at this,” he said angrily and chucked something across to me. It was a newspaper. I unfurled the newspaper and there on the front cover was a colour picture of me asleep in the town square. Underneath was the caption, ‘Prince Maxwell: Our lazy Prince’ then carried on to slag me off! I was shocked, did I fall asleep? Oh crap… that is bad but what else could you expect? Anyone would fall asleep in that heat. Apparently I was supposed to be a responsible young adult but I just wasn’t ready for it. Being a Prince was absolutely no fun. The papers seemed to think otherwise.
“Maxwell Jonathan Lloyd Fenroy, I am very disappointed in you,” said dad, “You have let me down, you have let the Fenroy dynasty down and you have let the kingdom down by being so uncaring as to fall asleep during my speech. You have to grow up and act like a Prince if you are ever going to take over from me as King.”
“What if I don’t want to be King?!” I yelled, “I’m sick of being told what to do by you! I hate being responsible! I’m fourteen and you expect me to act like an adult! Well here’s some news for you, I’m not!”
My dad’s face went red and then he bellowed, “I expect you to be in the throne room in fifteen minutes for a report from one of the soldiers and you will act like an adult and a Prince! You will not sulk!”
With that he stormed out, robes fluttering behind him. Dad had a really hot temper sometimes. Mind you, so did I.
I sat on my bed sulkily with my head hung, my purple hair falling in my eyes. It wasn’t fair. I didn’t want to be King, the idea of ruling made me feel sick with responsibility and I certainly wasn’t an adult like dad seemed to think I was! Then, I had an idea. Not just any old idea, it was a great idea! I would run away tonight after the evening banquet, which, may I add, is a complete waste of time, effort and money. My thoughts were away from the banquet though as I smiled to myself and started packing a bag of travelling stuff. I wrote a list to check my stuff off which looked a bit like this:
1 First Aid kit
1 Compactable Bedroll
1 Collapsible Water Bottle
3 Pairs of socks
5 Pairs of extra pants
2 Boxes of matches
10 metres of rope
£100
2x9 packs of Condensable meals
3 Bags of Salt and Vinegar crisps
1 Automatic Army pistol
10 Boxes of ammo
1 Army regulation penknife
1 Pair of sunglasses
1 Book (The Legend of Kyran)
Then I took off my stupid silver embroidered clothes well, pyjamas and put on a pair of black army regulation jeans complete with a gun holster and an ammo belt, a white t-shirt, a pair of black army regulation boots and a black army regulation jacket in which I slid three packets of Starburst. I nicked the army gear from the cadets’ dormitories. One of the cadets probably woke up without some clothes. Whoops… oh well. I whistled merrily to myself as I pulled some gold robes (gold is not my colour but I was only going to wear them for the feast) on over my running away stuff. I slid my escape bag into my pine wardrobe and laughed. At that moment, someone knocked on the door and made me jump violently. I slammed the wardrobe door shut then opened the door.
“Prince Maxwell if yah would follow me to the throne room.”
“Alex!” I exclaimed, “How are you doing? I haven’t seen you around the palace in ages! Where have you been?”
Alex smiled and tucked her short pink hair back into her head band, her green eyes sparkling, “I’m fine Prince Maxwell,” she replied then pulled a face, “As for where I’ve been, I was assigned to Lord Seato for a while, yah know the really ugly green one? Anyway Prince Maxwell, I have come to take yah to the report yah father asked yah to attend.”
“Oh that,” I groaned, “And don’t call me Prince, you know how much I hate it.”
“Okay… Maxwell,” said Alex cautiously, “I don’t dare call yah that around other people because it seems… rude.”
“Ah what the hell,” I replied, “Let’s go to that stupid report.”
I walked down the corner with Alex at my back. My dad and my sister, Princess Stefanie, were sat down on their thrones already. I guess I was late then. I sauntered over to my high backed throne and sat down. We were to listen to a report from one of the android warriors, 354. All the warriors looked the same and spoke the same, they looked like normal female humans wearing tight leather outfits with green hair and spoke in cool measured tones. I felt a bit sorry for them being called numbers though. All the androids were assigned to different things, some guarded my father and others guarded the castle.
354 had a troubling report.
“Your Majesties King Mortimer, Princess Stefanie and Prince Maxwell,” intoned 354, “I have some dreadful news for you. The Carverlian forces are mobilizing against us and have declared war on our planet. Some assassins have also been dispatched to kill all members of the Royal family. I have a message from Queen Mirina of the Carverlians. She wishes to be put on screen.”
“Put her on,” commanded Dad.
354 took a small grey communications device from her pocket and wired it up to the big screen. Queen Mirina’s scaly green face appeared in front of us with the five pointed star of the Carverlians behind her. She smiled, revealing an ivory pointed fang and brushed back her blood red hair behind her delicate ears.
“Hello King Mortimer. I see you are well.” Queen Mirina’s voice echoed through the speakers, “I see you have your children with you. Young, beautiful Princess Stefanie and even younger Prince Maxwell. How old is Stefanie now, eighteen? Yes and Maxwell will be fourteen. Stefanie reminds me very much of Ro-”
“Cut the small talk Mirina. I want to know why you declared war on us!” Dad yelled at the screen, his black hair falling out the golden circlet which was his crown. I wore a similar one but it was made of silver.
Queen Mirina giggled, “You want to know why? Because we’re sick of the human race! We’re sick of you Mortimer and we’ll be sick of Prince Maxwell when he ascends the throne because of the birthmark on his skin. You believe in rubbish. You believe that a child marked with a seven pointed star on their skin and born of the royal family is the next King or Queen. Also you refuse to let us keep our own customs and culture we have had for thousands of years.”
“When my family went to your planet and found you and your daughter we helped you survive. I let you look after my children while I fought to give your planet order for eight of the longest years of my life. Your planet was full of cannibalism and anarchy until I saved it. You owe me a favour Mirina. I let you take care of Stefanie. I let you take care of Rosalyn when she was dying in childbirth with Maxwell. I let you take care of Maxwell! You didn’t want to kill him when he was rolling around on the floor with the star of Royalty on his arm, just a little child, did you?”
“Times change Mortimer,” snarled Queen Mirina, “We are now the most advanced civilisation this side of the Universe! Now it is time for our Carverlian customs to return! We will invade your planet of Rosinia and overrun it with the Carverlian race!”
I didn’t think that Mirina would actually manage to invade our planet. When Mirina had said that her planet was the most advanced civilisation, she lied; the people of Rosinia were far more advanced than the Carverlians could ever hope to be. We had huge war ships, thousands of trained androids and elite palace guards. We’d win this war easily. It was no biggie. Dad however seemed to think it was serious (well I suppose it was really) and wasted no time before giving orders.
“354 I want you to personally guard Maxwell and get another to guard Stefanie but first give all androids orders to prepare for war,” said Dad, “Also I want the palace guards to protect all important persons within this castle. You may go 354.”
354 left the room to alert the palace to the state of war.
I was worried. We had had an alliance to the Carverlians for, well, forever. Now they had declared war on us, what could have caused this? Also I had the assassins to worry about. They were out to get Dad, Stefanie and me. Who would they be? Anyone was the answer.
“Stefanie,” said Dad, “I need you to direct the palace guards to places of use while I organise the androids. Then we will meet up in the controls room and go to the banquet. Officer Alexandra, I want you to take Maxwell to the banquet then protect him at all times with the help of 354.”
“What?!” I exclaimed as 354 came back into the throne room.
“Yes sir!” yelled Alex in the ridiculously loud voice used in the army and the palace guards, “If yah would follow me Prince Maxwell.”
“Why don’t I get to be in the battle?” I said sounding very spoilt, “Or at least help!”
“Maxwell,” my father said, “You are simply too important to risk as well as Stefanie. If Stefanie and I die you will be King of Silver City and of the rest of Rosinia. You have to remain safe because you are the future King. Also, Stefanie is more experienced in battle than you so I chose her to come with me. Now go to the banquet with Officer Alexandra and 354.”
“Yes, brother,” my sister added, “You’re needed for the future, we’re needed now. So just go.”
I walked off towards the dining room in a temper. When there was actually something fun I could do as a Prince I wasn’t allowed to do it! And my sister acting all righteous and glorified! Oooh! 354 led the way to the dining room walking silkily if you could do that. Alex followed behind me making loud clomping noises with her army boots. I tried walking quietly but my boots did exactly what Alex’s were doing. If I wasn’t quieter I would give away my escape plan! Princes didn’t wear army boots!
“What is that noise?” asked 354, “It sounds like…”
“Radiators,” I said quickly, lying through my teeth, “They’re always banging.”
“Oh okay,” replied 354, “Here we are at the dining room. Please, go inside.”
I pushed the gold leafed doors open and entered the dining room. Food was laid upon the table on golden platters. Not normal food; lobsters, caviar and swordfish. All classic feast food, nothing I liked.
The doors burst open again and dad and Stefanie entered the room; that was quick! They sat down at the table and the banquet began. I sat there, staring at the over-indulgent feast, watching the Lords and Ladies scoff it, sickened. I picked at the gold leaf on the chair around the trademark trying not to look at the nobles. I laughed when I read the trademark, Crapola Inc it said, I never noticed that before. Maybe that was why so many of the chairs seemed to break…
I looked back up and wished I hadn’t. Four nobles had an octopus and they stretched it across the table to pull the legs off. Oh, it was vile!
“Prince Maxwell?” asked Alex, “Are yah not feeling well?”
“No,” I groaned, my stomach heaving, “I can’t watch them eating that fast. And pulling that octopus apart, urghhh…”
“Would yah like some of this, yah Majesty?” asked Alex holding up a plate of… I don’t know what it was, “It’s jellied eel.”
Bleargh! I felt sick rise at the back of my throat. I leaned forwards about to be sick.
“Er, your Majesty,” said Alex panicking slightly as she tried to get my dad’s attention, “Erm, Prince Maxwell asks to be excused from the banquet as he is not feeling well.”
Dad took one look at my pale face and sent me out. Yes! Now I had the perfect opportunity to run away and I didn’t have to watch the nobles eating. It didn’t stop me feeling sick though. Maybe I was ill, and maybe I should stay at the palace until I felt better. But I thought of the war, it was now or never. I grinned shakily as I thought of running away forever.
“Prince Maxwell?” asked Alex again, “What are yah grinning about?”
“Nothing… nothing,” I replied noticing 354 shadowing me, again.
“It must be something,” said 354 coolly, “Otherwise you would not be smiling.”
“Ooh wouldn’t you like to know?” I replied and winked at her, “Aw come on, lighten up. You androids can have fun right?”
“No,” replied 354 stony faced, “We live only for duty. We have not even the most basic emotions.”
I sighed, “Is that all you care about, duty? That’s stupid.”
“Responsibility and duty are very important things,” said 354 stiffly, “They are some things everyone should learn.”
“Are you saying that I have no sense of responsibility?” I asked, livid.
“N-n-not at a-all,” stuttered Alex, nervously stroking the barrel of her blaster strapped to her back.
“Good,” I said and stormed into my room.
Alex and 354 followed me into my room and stood guard either side of my door. I stretched my arms then pulled off all my gold prince clothes revealing the black army regulation attire beneath. Ready to go.
“Prince Maxwell, why are you wearing those army regulation clothes?” asked 354.
“Because I’m going to get out of here, away from the palace and being a Prince, I hate it!” I hissed, whilst pulling my escape kit from the wardrobe.
I pulled my pistol from out the bag, slid it into my gun holster around my leg then pulled my sunglasses from the bag and slid them over my eyes.
“Yah can’t… yah can’t!” stuttered Alex in shock, “Yah can’t leave! Not in war time!”
“I can,” I replied, “And by god am I going! You’re only young like me Alex… you could have a whole new life out there… free of…” here I stared disgusted at 354, “Duty… but if you choose to stay, fair enough but I’m going!”
“I am obliged to follow you,” said 354, “I must come and protect you. I am programmed to follow you and keep you out of danger. As it seems I cannot stop you leaving the palace then I have to follow you to protect you.”
Alex blinked, “Well in that case… I’ll come. I have to protect you too!”
“Come on then,” I said, “There’s no time to lose!”
We walked stealthily down the palace corridors to the main door careful not alert anyone to our presence. After a while of sneaking under people’s noses, we reached the front doors. I gently opened the heavy silver inlaid doors, stepped out in to the weak winter sunshine and smiled happily. Freedom! At last!
I walked across into the crowded street with Alex and 354 desperately trying to keep up with me. I was absolutely elated and bounced about the street with an almost electric energy. I had never realised that Silver City was such a busy place. Men, women and children all pushed through the street in tight knots between the clean steel and glass buildings. Cars zoomed overhead across the Silver City motorway which stretched across the whole city. It was actually quite scary but beautiful to my life starved eyes.
The City was the riskiest part of my plan as people could realise who I was but out in the country it would be a different matter. My plan was to get out the City via the motorway then to wander the world until I found a place where I could live as a simple human being.
“Gerrout my way!” yelled a heavily-built man at me whilst barging me to one side, “I need to report the assassins to King Mortimer!”
“King Mortimer already knows,” I said to him calmly (dope).
Bad move. The man stared at me then glared at me angrily. He pulled his clenched fist back and then punched me on the cheek! I reeled over into a market stall, fruit avalanching around me. My sunglasses skittered away across the floor to the feet of the man. He started to step forwards onto my sunglasses but then he looked at me properly.
“P-p-prince M-M-Maxwell?” stuttered the man, “I h-h-hit the Prince! Are you okay?”
“Not really,” I said, “But I’ll be okay, just one thing, don’t mention I was ever here, okay, or you’ll be for it.”
The man nodded and handed me back my sunglasses. He stood there shaking like a leaf. 354 stepped up behind him and pressed her pistol barrel against his neck. The man started to sweat, badly!
“Ever do that again to anyone again, let alone the crown Prince, and I will come back with my pistol and I will shoot you. Clear?”
The man nodded again quickly.
“Good, I’m glad you understand me, now farewell.”
354 walked off into the crowd with me and Alex following her.
“Wow 354!” I exclaimed, “Where did that come from? You’ve never shown that much emotion, like, ever!”
“Emotion? I feel no emotion. I am an android with only duty and responsibility, not emotion.”
“Whatever,” I said dismissively, “I know what I saw.”
“Stop arguing, yah’re like two old ladies arguing over bingo cards,” snapped Alex, pressing the elevator button, “We’ll never get anywhere with you two going on like that. And Maxwell?”
“Yes?”
“That was the most cheesy thing yah’ve said all day. Honestly, ‘wow 354!” she said imitating me, “Where did that come from? You’ve never shown that much emotion, like, ever!”
I heard a ping and the lift doors opened. I looked scornfully at 354 and Alex, blushing with embarrassment and walked into the small compartment. The clean white lights hummed softly as we quickly ascended up to the motorway, the motorway I had never seen in my whole life.