**author’s note: as per usual, the below story is unvarnished, but that’s what drafts are for, enjoy it**

The man with the iron fist

That’s the way it was with him. Always running, never fighting. “Welcome to Chit Lom” said the sign. He was taking a slow walk down the surreptitiously marked out path and wasn’t sure what made this piece of dirt any different from the last he lifted his foot of in a puff of light yellow brown dust. Locke lifted his eyes from the patch of ground immediately before his feet or the first time in a few indiscernible hours to inspect his surroundings more closely. His experience told him that he was headed toward more than just the current empty stretch of Karoo-like desert and sizable craters would initially suggest to an un-searching eye.

Locke dug his hands into his worn jean pockets; the memory of where precisely he had put the crumpled piece of paper had escaped his tired mind. The bits of lint left over in the depths of his pockets drifted off with the breeze as he pulled the softened from age paper into the harsh sun to look at. “Chit Lo, Soi Sam, tell them Joe sent you” said the paper in faded ink. He flipped it over, Soi 4, Sala Daeng”. Locke stumbled onwards; searching for the glint of the glass like city dome he knew had to be appearing soon. He glanced back down at the patch of yellow dust before his feet because his eyes were sore from the brightness of the mid-Martian day. The reflection off of its gleam made him close his eyes momentarily and he felt his steps take him left of his intention as his tired body groped for balance without guiding sight. The few seconds of relief were bliss as his headache eased in the dark behind his eyelids.

When he opened his eyes again the brightness was intensified until his pupils constricted again and he reduced his eyes to slits – barely open, but open enough to catch the tint he had been searching for. The city dome was just ahead. Locke pulled his cloak more tightly around his shoulders and let the sleeves run back down to his wrists. He glanced back over his shoulder as he approached the now obvious dome 10 minutes of walking later and his fear of dehydration was replaced by his agoraphobia. The translucent invisibility of the dome from far was an obvious distortion of light from up close and octagonal grid patterns on the hazy dome criss-crossed across its surface. Locke paused where the yellow path he’d been on for 3 Martian days met the dome. “Joe sent me” he croaked into the hard glass-like surface before him. There was a pause and then a ripple in the dome propagated from a point on the surface before him and he stepped forward, ducking his head through the rippling wall…

**authors note: I wrote this introduction to the rick-rack rhythm of the rail road, hunched up in a seat designed for a Thai person half my size, in the last car of a train trekking from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Thailand. I had 16 hours to spend with only my moleskin notebook and tablet keyboard to keep me entertained. At about the 8 hour mark, giving up on sleep, I pulled out my pencil and moleskin and began to write. Thus Locke was born.

I have another 3000 words to this story following the above which I will put up in due time. I’m not sure just how long this story will be in the end yet but I am hoping to finish it in the next 3000 words. It feels like a 6000 word story**