by James Ellyard

Created on: September 16, 2009   Last Updated: September 18, 2009

Justice

Rain began to erupt from the invisible clouds high above London in the charcoal sky. The acidic drops bubbled as they hit the pavement, boiling like a thick treacle. A human stumbled along the street, his head swinging from side to side like a swaying lantern. The sound of a gunshot was still prickling in his ears as gasps of precious oxygen fled from his lungs. He passed an alleyway where a group of bedraggled humans huddled around a canister that glowed with an emerald flame. Their white, telescopic eyes followed him, almost examining the man for valuables. He tightened his grasp on the steel briefcase, and quickened his pace.

It was another dark day in London. It was always dark in the twenty sixth century, except for the minimal hours of twilight granted in the summertime. A handful of peculiar folk still wandered the streets; diving into taverns and boarded buildings at regular intervals to avoid the oppressing gloom. A lone electrical lantern gave a faint radiance on a corner of a terrace, illuminating a small, splintering fence that defended a forgotten chapel. A car swerved into view, hovering inches above the asphalt, the soft humming breaching the silence in the street. Three large letters dominated a central panel of the machine. AG COP - Anti Gravity Crime, Order and Punishment. A metallic neck appeared from a window, and craning to examine the area, its eyes glistened like crimson pebbles; searching. The spectral pupils caught sight of an unusual man who suddenly vanished into the fog; the car pursued and dissolved into the silence.

*

Torturing calmness encapsulated a single figure that struggled in a wooden chair, restrained by thick wires and a filthy piece of cotton gagged his jaw. The man with a shining briefcase unlocked the door and entered holding a rusty revolver in his right hand. The crude metal rose, pointing straight at the silhouette which now writhed about in panic and alarm. A single bullet crashed into the wall, then crumpled pathetically to the floorboards. The door slammed. Distant footsteps echoed as a pattering of feet fled down the staircase...

*

The clock tower gazed sadly over the majestic turrets of the houses of parliament, with their glittering windows and marble statues that stood solemnly, staring back at the continual progress of the clock. The human wheeled around a corner of the tower; which was crumbling over time and falling apart along with its ancient city. In his relief to see his destination,

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