Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century 1)

Zeke patted the bag.

“You’re an idiot,” said the seated man with the bottle and the bulky clothes. Then he brought the mouth of the bottle up to the edge of his mouth, where it knocked loudly against his gas mask.

He gazed sadly at the bottle and swirled its last few drops around in the bottom.

“I’m an idiot? My momma has an expression about a pot and a kettle, you jackass. ”

The man looked as if he were about to say something ungallant about Zeke’s mother, but he didn’t. He said, “I don’t think I caught your name, kid. ”

“I didn’t offer it. ”

“Do so now,” he said. There was a hint of menace underlying the command.

Zeke didn’t like it. “No. You tell me yours first, and I’ll think about telling you mine. I don’t know you, and I don’t know what you’re doing here. And I…” He fumbled with his bag until he’d pulled his grandfather’s old revolver out. It took about twenty seconds, during which the man on the roof didn’t bother to budge. “I have a gun. ”

“So you do,” the man said. But he didn’t sound impressed this time. “And now you’ve got it in your hands, at least. Ain’t you got a belt? A holster?”

“Don’t need one. ”

“Fine,” he said. “Now what’s your name?”

“Zeke. Zeke Wilkes. And what’s yours?” he demanded.

Inside his mask, the man grinned, presumably because he’d gotten the boy’s name before giving away his own. Zeke could only see the smile because of the way his eyes crinkled behind the visor. “Zeke. Wilkes, even. Can’t say I blame you for dropping the color, kid. ” And before Zeke could complain or retort, he added, “I’m Alistair Mayhem Osterude, but you can join the rest of the world in calling me Rudy, if you want. ”

“Your middle name is Mayhem?”

“It is if I say it is. And if you don’t mind my asking, Zeke Wilkes, what the hell are you doing inside this place? Shouldn’t you be in school, or at work, or something? And better yet, does your momma know you’re here? I hear she’s a real firecracker of a lady. I bet she wouldn’t like it if she knew you done took off. ”

“My mother’s working. She won’t be home for hours, and I’ll be home by then. What she don’t know won’t hurt her,” he said. “And I’m wasting time here talking to you, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way. “

He stuffed the gun back into his bag and turned his back on Rudy. He breathed slowly and evenly through his mask’s filters and tried to remember exactly where he was, and exactly where he was trying to go.

Rudy asked, from his spot up against the wall, “Where you going?”

“None of your business. ”

“Fair, and all right. But if you tell me what you’re looking for, I might be able to tell you how to get there. ”

Zeke walked to the edge and looked down, but he didn’t see anything through the thick, sticky air. His lantern revealed nothing except more of the tainted fog in all directions. He said, “You could tell me how to get to Denny Hill. ”

And Rudy said, “I could, yeah. ” Then he asked, “But where on Denny Hill? It wraps around this whole area. Oh. I get it. You’re trying to go home. ”

Before he could think to argue or be vague, Zeke said, “It ain’t home. It never was. I never saw it. ”

“I did,” Rudy told him. “It was a nice house. ”

“Was? Is it gone now?”

He shook his head, “No, I don’t think so. As far as I know it’s still standing. I only meant that it’s not nice no more. Nothing inside here is. The Blight eats up paint and fixings, and makes everything go yellow-brown. ”

“But you know where it is?”

“Roughly. ” Rudy untangled his legs and stood, leaning on his cane and wobbling. “I could get you there, easily. If that’s where you want to go. ”

“That’s where I want to go. ” He nodded. “But what do you want for helping me?”

Rudy considered his response, or maybe he only waited for his head to clear. He said, “I want to go looking through that house. Your pa was a rich man, and I don’t know if it’s been cleaned out good or not, yet. ”