Into an unfamiliar sector

The young trader led Druuna through a maze of debris and decaying buildings. Hurriedly he paced forward, grimly maintaining a firm grip on the leash around Druuna's neck. Druuna followed him as best as she could, given she still wore nothing else but a pair of worn out running shoes and the lush beauty of her body. Now and then she stumbled over broken tiles and other obstacles, sometimes barely able to stay on her feet. Having her hands still bound behind her back didn't help at all.

"Can't we walk a little bit slower?" Druuna asked, while breathing heavily.

"Not unless we're a safe distance away from these gentlemen who so eagerly bid on you a few minutes ago." His blue eyes ran over Druuna's marvellous assets. "Not that I would dispraise their taste." He grinned, baring a set of shiny teeth that blended perfectly with his boyish face.

Druuna blushed. For some reason the young man unsettled her. Druuna was used to men appreciating her ample forms - in fact at most times she enjoyed it. Being the centre of male attention stirred something in her that just waited to break free at any given moment and turn her into a slut/creature that only lived to make love and be loved in return. But Caliban's dauntless confidence was irritating. Every word, every look made her feel as if she was an inch away of stepping into a nest of poisonous snakes. As frightening a brute like Bedford might be, Druuna had long learned to get along with these type of men. This duke of hazard posed a riddle she would have to unravel. And that quite quickly. Nothing less but her life depended on it.

"How much longer we need to go?" Druuna asked, hoping to learn more about her rescuer.

"You'll see soon enough, my lovely property."

"Property?"

"Well, as it stands, I paid a good deal of cash and goods to get you out of this amiable congregation. Doesn't this make you my property by all rights of a trading transaction?"

"Not if I have a word to speak in this cause," Druuna argued boldly.

"Too bad you haven't." To underline his words, Caliban yanked harshly on Druuna's leash, making the leather bite uncomfortably into the nape of her neck. "Now shut up and be a nice girl. I'd rather bring a few more strides between us and the place I found you instead of discussing trade issues with my most recent acquisition."

Druuna opened her mouth to voice another objection. But Caliban clearly didn't intend to waste another second to this conversation and so Druuna obeyed.

The route Caliban chose to take soon led them into a sector Druuna had never been in before. The sectors she was familiar with consisted of a mixture of still inhabited buildings and ruins of various stages of destruction with worthless wreakage littered all in between. In this new sector, they passed huge constructions of metal and concrete. They were linked by porous pipes camouflaged by bizarre patterns of rust and spalling paint. A tangle of electric wires and other cables criss-crossed to their sides and sometimes also over their heads. An unfamiliar, biting smell lingered in the air. Burst engines and other strange, deserted machines gave witness to another age, when they had a purpose within a functioning system. Now, all these plants and facilities were nothing but yet another testimony to the downward spiral Druuna's world was taking.

Strangely, Druuna felt here more at home than at most other places. Except the tiny cabin she called her own, somewhere in the sector left behind. With every new minute in this deserted place, her nakedness and the bounds restricting her movement, seemed less crucial.

"What is this place?" Druuna finally dared to ask.

"They call it 'The Refinery'." The way Caliban pronounced the word, hinted that he didn't know much more than its name either.

"Re-fi-ne-ry?" Druuna tested the flavor of the syllables on her tongue. It tasted mysterious. "Never heard before. Does it have any meaning?"

Caliban shrugged. "Dunno. Someplace I've heard, that way back in another age, they used this word for a certain kind of plant where they processed crude oil to petroleum usable to engines, motors and other things."

"Crude oil? Petroleum? What do these mean?"

Caliban stopped and turned around. "You've never heard of the old age, when petroleum was the most important resource? Even more important than water or the serum?"

Druuna shook her head. "No. I dunt know much of the old age. I've read a book about beautiful things like forests of trees and meadows of grass and flowers, though I didnt understand what their significance was."

Caliban frowned. All of sudden he looked more the boy his face indicated than the cold-blooded tradesman. "If it helps you, those are things I have never heard about. Forests? Trees? I think I've heard 'flower' - but it was used to call a young whore."

"It must have meant something to the people of the old ages," Druuna insisted. "Or why would they have kept scripts in written form about it?"

"Why keep documents and books at all?" All of sudden, a crisp twitch usurped Caliban's right eye. Not more than an instant, but enough to be a distraction. The young trader shook his head.

"Everythin' okay with you?"

Caliban wiped a hand through his hair and blinked. "Yes. I... nevermind."

Druuna nodded. This young man seemed stranger and more mysterious with every moment. But the young woman didn't press the issue any more. "If you want, we can proceed," she offered softly.

"Yep. You're right." He grinned. "Guess I deserve being fed my own medicine." He hesitated before he was about to take her by the leash again. He frowned. And sighed.

"Well, let's go some more."