Tales of the Bounty 9:00 Part 2

It was quiet enough for Jim to notice the sound of his pen scraping across his paper. They had a nice little touch screen terminal for him to log all his complaints and refunds, but he still preferred to write everything down. An auditor had to be angry somewhere. He was bored, very bored. He needed the chaos. It stopped him from reflecting.

The only nice thing about this evening was that his daughter and grand daughter were going to be able to visit. He has just one child and one grandchild and they are everything to him. This will be the first time they are able to come and talk to him while he is on duty.

It is slightly after 8PM. They will be here at 8:30. He is excited. The Falls are quiet. Nothing moves. A few drops of water echo out across the wall. The water surrounding the Falls is clear during the day when the clouds are out. At night, it becomes black and deep, just like a limitless sea. The closest city is too far to bother counting. Only trains travel here. Nothing else. After eight o'clock, the sea life will rise up from the deep trenches below. If you were to look out over the gate, you would see only darkness.

The city is built on a random stretch of underwater mountains that are surrounded by great precipices in the sea floor. In those faraway dark places, monsters still live. They rise up at night to feed. Long red squids a hundred feet long; sharks white as paper and as wide as an aircraft; manta rays spread across like rooftops; a whole array of glowing jelly fish, and everything else.

Every night they do this, and every night they come towards the Falls. The trains move so fast, they seldom have problems with the monsters. Despite knowing that the wall around the falls is impenetrable, most of the creatures rub up against it. In the squids case, they stick to it. It is quite a sight to those visiting the city, but for those dwell in it, just another night at the Falls.

Jim takes a deep breath. They will appear at any moment, but he will keep an eye on the paper. He does not want to appear surprised when they show up. He was a quiet father, never expressed a lot of emotion.

"Pardon me sir, but are the trains not running this evening?" a random deep voice asked.
The deepness of the man's voice startled Jim and so did his approach. Nothing was moving in the Falls, only a few drops of water on rounded metal would stir an echo. How had the man moved so quietly? Jim did not want to show how surprised he was by the man's approach, so he feigned any further surprise and focused on the paper he was scribbling on.

"No, all trains have been canceled, didn't you see the signs?" Jim squeaks out. He takes a moment after the reply to look up at the man standing over his corner. This time he cannot feign his reaction.

The man is tall. In fact, he is taller than usual. He wears a long trench coat; black and covered in that slick rain material. It the typical coat of Farcry. Beneath the coat is a white dress shirt with the collar just peeping out. White is not a typical color in Farcry. The strangest thing about the man was most certainly his face. He wore a mask that covered the tip of his chest and neck to his nose. Masks were typical in Farcry. The water would make the scrapers pollution stagnant and unmoving, therefore many citizens wore masks. This one was different. It looked like a hard black material, but it had spinning etchings of gold laced throughout it.

They were indescribable. Stranger than the mask were the stranger's eyes. They were completely black, with no color or detail. Almost as if the mask grew into them. They were definitely not human. His hair was long and dark and had beads in it. Above the mask, his features were sharp and his skin, tan. Tanner than usual for Farcry.