Chapter 12: The Job Begins
My first delivery came the very next morning. The item I would be delivering was a shield, a large one, but very lightweight for its size actually it was lightweight for any shield. It was at this point that I noticed something very strange about the city; the city was moving in the opposite direction of the delivery. At first, I thought it was just me, but as I looked at all the deliveries that were set for that day, I realized that they were all in the opposite direction we were heading. This is actually quite ingenious, the way the foragers do business meant that the city was always heading away from where the deliveries were to be made.
The forge city would move forward at all times, slowing almost to a stop only for a few hours at a time above cities that would offer them jobs. Once the jobs are accepted, the city would move on as the items were being built. It would take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to complete the items that were requested. Because of this, by the time the item was completed the city was no longer nearby and the item would have to be delivered, to the person who wanted it.
Seeing that it was my first day on the job, I was only given four deliveries to do by the end of the day. The four boxes I would be delivering that day were loaded into a flying machine that they called a carrier. Which looked very similar to a bird it had wings and everything, but it had a strange opening in the back of it where a bird’s tail would usually be, and there was heat coming from it along with small amounts of fire. I didn’t pay it any mind, seeing that my mind was currently stuck on how I was going to control this thing. Adam walked up as I was wondering what to do next. “Don’t worry, you won’t be flying it, it will be running completely on autopilot. Most of these require someone to Pilate them but seeing that you have no clue how to fly one, we figured it was best to give you the one with the autopilot in it. Once you’re in it, the system will take over and fly you to the destination, well just above it really. It will circle around for about a minute before it turns back and heads to the next destination point.” Adam explained to me.
It seemed easy enough; my job would be to make sure the package arrived at the delivery point unharmed. The carrier would fly over the delivery point, then it would dropped the package and me at that point, it would slow down to make a circle, then descend high enough for me to get back onto it. That’s where my job would start, I would have to get to the ground before the package and catch it. Then I would have to get it to the person that it was for, and then get them to accept it, after which I would have to get back to the carrier and get on it before it started its ascent to head to the next delivery point. This meant that I had a lot more to do than all the other delivery guys seeing that they could fly or land when they needed to.
I climbed into the machine wondering how it would fly. I sat down in a seat and strapped myself in with a belt. I looked back as they all cleared away, then the hole at the back of the machine ignited with fire like I had never seen before. I was pushed back into the seat becoming instantly glued to it. It took off flying faster than anything I had ever rode in before, and then it flew higher and higher into the skies. It wasn’t long before I couldn’t see the city below me, and I began to get very cold as the clouds around me fell below the carrier. After which I started to have trouble breathing, I tried relaxing then waited as the carrier rushed through the air.
The carrier slowed about ten minutes later and a red light began to flash in front of me, it was time I get to work. I looked over the side of the carrier and saw as the package fall from the carrier. I took a deep breath and off I went, within a few seconds I was standing on the ground below looking up. I could see a small dot getting bigger as it came to me it must be the package. I estimated it would be about a minute before it would get to the ground. So I looked around and found where I would be delivering the package then appeared outside the door knocking. The seconds felt like hours as I waited for an answer, I was so nervous to meet the first person I would be delivering a package to that the excitement was making me crazy.
I was shocked by who answered the door. It was a little old woman, I got the clipboard they gave me to identify the receipts and flipped through it to the page with her name, and there it was an image of her next to the name. I smiled and handed her the pad. “I need you to put your mark here and I will collect the payment that was agreed upon.” She placed her mark and head to get the payment and just in time too. I looked back and could see the package was about to slam into the ground. I vanished catching it just before it hit the ground, then I actually walked back to the door getting there just as she got back with the payment. “Thank you dear, you have a nice day and don’t you work too hard now.” She said with a very nice voice as she smiled, I smiled back at her and then turned around seeing the carrier just above the tree lines speeding up and starting to climb back into the skies.
“Well, at least it looks much easier to get into at that height, it was nice of…” My thought was stopped whenI realized it was speeding away from me and I had to get on it now. I waved at the old woman then vanished reappearing on a tree next to the carrier. Again, I vanished and was in my seat just as it went to full speed; I didn’t even have time to strap in before being glued to the seat.
As it pulled up high into the skies, I thought this was going to be a fun day. By the third delivery, I was starting to get the hang of it. Turns out once the delivery was confirmed the carrier would head back to me to pick me up. I then found out that if I did the confirmation last, I would have enough time to prepare myself before the carrier returned for me.
I enjoyed my work for the next few days, making deliveries of all kinds, all over the world was amazing. And I actually got quite good at my job, delivering everything perfectly on time every day. Soon I was approached by Adam. “How are you doing today Daniel, I have a question for you from my superiors.” I looked at him quite surprised, I really didn’t know he had any superiors or who they could even be for that matter, after all the only person that ever told me what to do was Adam. “Sure, go ahead, I don’t plan on leaving here soon. So I guess I can do something they would want hopefully it’s not too hard.” I said to him with a laugh. “Well, so far you have been doing regular deliveries, which mean no weapons, small shields, and no advanced technology. The reason for this is simple; any of these deliveries wouldn’t put you at a very high risk of being attacked. So that we can make sure you got the hang of things, before we gave you any more difficult tasks. But now that you’ve gotten the hang of things and it seems as though you’re the fastest delivery boy we have ever had, we want to give you some weapons, and advanced technology deliveries, but it will be completely up to you whether or not you do it.”
I thought for a second about how dangerous it would be, but then I realized that soon I would have to be leaving this place to continue my journey. With that thought in my mind, I figured being exposed to some danger for a while would allow me to practice protecting myself with my new skill. “Yes, I Will do it, just tell me what it is I am going to be dropping off.” I replied to Adam with a smile. “Great, I’m very happy to hear that you are willing to do this. It would greatly help out the city to have another carrier to do the more dangerous deliveries. Yeah, I almost forgot to tell you, delivering weapons pay’s 10 times as much as you are being paid now.” Adam said with a smile as he walked away from me.
That night I got some rest as I prepared for what was to come the next day. I wanted to make sure I was fully rested and ready for anything that could come my way. I was very excited about the next day; hopefully I would get to meet some more interesting people than just older people. Though I didn’t have anything against older people, seeing that I was older than most of them that I met, I had still really gotten tired of making their deliveries.
The morning came a lot quicker than I expected, I had stayed up more of the night than I thought I would of because of how excited I was. I just couldn’t help thinking about all the things to be delivered today, and all the new people I would be meeting. I walked out of the room and to the area where the carriers were. And as I walked up to where mine was kept, I noticed it was gone. I looked all around and didn’t see it anywhere and so I headed off to find Adam hopefully he would know what happened to it.
Continues in Chapter 13 or go to previous Chapter 11
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