The Urimine Effect Read online

a stone, the rope turning on a hidden pulley system. All too soon the rope stopped, sending searing pain through her paws as she slid down the last few feet.

  Yin hesitantly grabbed onto the second rope and closed her eyes, pushing herself away from the metal railing besides her as she fell down the last couple stories. She flinched as she neared the bottom, but the rope slowed down, and she set herself lightly on the pavement below.

  A massive fire had started somewhere in the building above, and flames leapt from the shattered windows all the way up the the top floor. Meregals ran to and fro around her, frantic but unable to help.

  Yin grabbed a scared looking female by the arm, "What's going on?"

  "There's been an attack by the anti-assimilation movement."

  "Why?"

  "What do you think? They don't believe in human integration. Let go I have to leave." Yin released her and ran into the chaos at the base of the tower. Several Meregals had started a rescue attempt and were sending people into the building. In between the chaos, a robot stood staring up at the flames with a look of total abandonment, his eyes filled with a knowing sadness.

  "Marcus!" Yin yelled, driving her way through the crowd. The robot turned.

  "Marcus! Is that you?"

  The robot nodded its head sullenly and blinked twice. He looked a little better since she'd seen him last, but his general demeanour was caught up in some distant memory from the past.

  "Are you okay? When did you get here?" Yin took his head in a motherly way, and looked him over for any new dents or scratches.

  Marcus made his best attempt at a shrug, "I had just arrived when the building had begun to burn. I did not think you were safe." Yin recalled King Pen telling her that he'd have Marcus brought up the next day, today.

  A smoky grey Meregal came and ushered Yin and Marcus into the building next door, pausing to tell them to sit still until the fire was put out, or the building was finished burning.

  "Is King Pen and Jovie alright?"

  The meregal paused, "We haven't found either of them yet."

  Yin absorbed this before another explosion rocked the building.

  Someone yelled outside and everyone frantically ran away from the tower. Dust and ash fell from the sky, blocking Yin's sight of the chaos outside. There was another explosion and the ground began to rumble underneath her.

  Yin turned and faced the oncoming wave of smoke, closing her eyes and feeling the rush of the rough wind across her fur. The yelling became frantic outside, shouts being passed from mouth to mouth.

  "The Tower has collapsed!" A voice shouted over the roar of the others.

  A White female came and draped a blanket over Yin's shoulders.

  "Where is King Pen and Jovie?" Yin asked.

  The white female shook her head, "They were in the tower when it fell, in King Pen's study."

  Yin bowed her head, mourning for the loss of her newfound family. Marcus stared on with his sad, drooping eyes as Yin curled up into a ball on the cold cement and cried. The white Meregal sighed, shaking her head, and left with more blankets for any of the other's whose terror caused them to feel the blows of their loss.

 

  White Pillars surrounded Yin when she awoke. White cement, covered in grey, the air stifled by smoke. Her mind turned to remember why she was here. The cold concrete felt hard against her paws as she stood up, shaken by some disaster she couldn't quite grasp. A blanket slipped from her shoulders and a robot stood above her, its eyes filled with a knowing sadness she couldn't place. The sun's light played through the smoke, making trails of mist in the musky air. White stone shone above, an overhang above the pillars.

  Yin coughed but couldn't remember why she was coughing. Huge heaving gusts of air left her lungs, choking her dry throat. She leaned against a pillar for support, the cries of hundreds running through her mind. She was confused. She didn't know where she was.

  The robot tried to approach but leaned its head in silent contemplation. Yin tried to ignore it.

  The smoke sat in a space just beyond the white pillars, a wall hiding a shifting field of black and white. Yin walked toward the bitter haze, wondering why so many people were running around. The robot followed just behind.

  There was an alley way just off past the source of the smoke, leading back behind several buildings where a Meregal couple stood, a grey female crying into the male's shoulder. Yin's eyes swept desperately across the open space, wishing for some meaning to come from all of this chaos.

  A large piece of jagged concrete stabbed through the mist, beckoning her with answers. Yin picked up the blanket, wrapped it tightly around herself and left the safety of the overhang. The piece of concrete got bigger as Yin got closer, most of it swallowed by the smoke. Several more pieces were lying just beyond, and then a pile.

  Yin kicked a piece of concrete and started to climb.

  "Don't go up there!" The robot yelled, its voice wavering through the ash.

  Yin looked back but kept going. Left foot, edge. Right foot, flat step. Grab next hold with left paw. Right paw. Left foot, right foot, left paw right paw.

  Yin grabbed a piece of lose concrete and slipped back a few feet, sending a shower of loose rubble down the concrete mess.

  A Meregal's foot protruded from the rocks where she'd lost her grip. Yin stared in astonished horror, wishing she knew what had happened.

  She dropped her blanket and dug quickly until she'd uncovered a shoulder, light brown and hugged tightly by another arm. Yin let out a stifled squeak and turned back to the robot waiting at the bottom of the pile.

  "Get help! Someone's in here!" Yin Scrabbled desperately, trying to uncover the hidden bodies. pieces of concrete clattered down the slope, uncovering a chest and arms. There were dried streaks on one of the bodies, a female, as if she'd been crying. The other, a male, had signs of sadness written across his face. Yin kept pulling until both were completely exposed. She pressed her ear against the male's chest. No response. She tried the female.

  Yin's heart beat cloaked her hearing and she pulled away in frustration. Several medical officials had begun climbing the pile beneath her.

  "Is anyone alive?" One asked, a white female that ticked something at the back of Yin's mind.

  "I'm not sure, there are two here. One of them seems to be dead."

  "What about the other?" The white Meregal called back.

  Yin calmed her breathing and placed her ear against the female's chest again. She closed her eyes, blocking out the sounds around her and listened.

  A shallow, steady beat met her.

  Yin opened her eyes and pulled away, "The female is alive!" She shouted to those below. The medical team hurried their efforts.

  Yin gripped the edge of another block and continued pulling the broken pieces away from around the couple. She felt a paw on her shoulder.

  "We'll take it from here." The white Meregal said, carefully guiding Yin away from the bodies. She pulled a slender rod from a bag on her back, and snapped it against her paw. It elongated and split apart, forming a stretcher that hovered parallel to the ground. Another Meregal did the same and proceeded to move both bodies onto the carriers.

  Yin kept climbing the pile, keeping an eye on the horizon for any break in the thick wall of grey. It confused her that so much smoke was pouring out of this seemingly endless pile of rock. She couldn't remember anything before she woke up, but she knew something devastating had happened. And something about the two Meregal's she'd found in the rocks seemed familiar to her.

  Yin shrugged mentally and moved on, keeping a steady pace until she stood at the top. A light breeze had started and the smoke had begun clearing away, letting the sun shine through, and Yin sat down to enjoy a moment's rest.

 

  The clouds dissipitated quickly after that, leaving a view of the devastation around Yin. She cocked her head in confusion, but her thoughts quickly turned to terror at the thought of where she stood. She huddled into a ball and wat
ched the chaos in the streets below. Meregals rushed about, stifling injuries and unconscious friends. A team of scavengers worked desperately on the opposite side of the rubble pile, clearing debris in search of the dead or dying.

  Yin felt the cool wind across her fur, stealing the warmth from her skin. She climbed down as quickly as she could, pulling the blanket back around her once she'd reached it, scrabbling down haphazardly after that to escape the chill weather.

  The robot stood as it was before, watching Yin besides the concrete blocks along the outer limits of the broken building. Yin patted it on the shoulder and began walking away from the Meregal infested mound.

  "Robot, who are you?" She asked.

  "I am Marcus." It cocked it's head but neglected to continue. Yin decided she would say it was male by the way it responded to her.

  "Marcus, where am I?"

  Marcus looked confused, "You're in Jasper."

  Yin had no recollection of such a place, in fact, she didn't remember anything from before she woke up.

  "Have I been here long?" She asked.

  Marcus did his best 'shrug' interpretation.

  Yin frowned. "I guess there's nothing else to it then. I must be here for some reason, right? But anyway, why is it so cold? It wasn't any less than comfortable a few minutes ago." She turned back to the rubble pile where the other Meregals continued to dig through the broken pile. The sky was filling with clouds now, covering the sun between the tops of the buildings.

  "A rain storm maybe?" She asked Marcus.

  Marcus eyed the ground.

  Yin sighed and started