The Skeleton City

1



This city existed long before I was born, before even the old world ended. Way back, when there was plenty for all, and the sun was a cheery yellow, I’m told, the city did have a name. Now, though, we simply knew it as the skeleton city, a shell, all that remained of a once thriving megapolis.

This was a city that, even in death, was far larger than a person could walk in a day. From my perch in the highest floors of the tallest edifice’s carcass I could see forever, and it was all a city’s bones. Those of us stuck here have to struggle every day to scrounge enough food to survive. A hard life, but if it’s all you know, it’s not that bad.

Our sun, Lucile, was well on her way to sinking below the horizon. As the blood of the sky deepened into purple, I sighed and got up from my favorite spot on the floor’s lip and shuffled to my work station. To earn my adulthood, I had relearned the secrets to the magic of telecommunications, and I was very good at it; I wore my unique tats (depictions of cable bundles that ran down my neck and along my limbs) proudly. Now, I used my knowledge and ability to help my tribe grow to a stable size of twelve where all the others were less than half that.

I tied back my matted black hair, which was a clean as possible, we didn’t tend to spend much time on hygiene, and stood. I did not mind being a bit dirty, I mean,so long as we were clean enough to stay healthy, and not smell too much, it was fine. Though, with the decay of the city who could smell a thing anyway. I was slightly taller than average, a testament I think, to our tribe’s great rat hunting expertise, and my ability to keep them mostly out of harm’s way.

I used my computers to scan through the feeds from the remote sensors we had set up all around our territory. Well it was the territory we occupied, the gangs controlled everything. The feeds were more finicky than usual, and I couldn’t get all of them, always a new problem. But, that was for tomorrow, tonight was the hunt, and I was hungry.

As I finished changing the batteries on a hand radio, with visons of delightfully oily rat stew flowing in the back of my mind, Travis climbed in from the floor below, “Hey, Asea, you ready?”

Travis was a wonderful man, tall dark hair, healthy tan, and beautiful blue eyes. He stepped up behind me and hugged me warmly.

“Replacing the last batteries now, Trav.” I returned, turning to look up at him.

I loved to trace the lines of his tats, symbolizing his hunting skills, he was the best, “What is going down, on the street?”

“Latest reports from the streets are that the dragons are on the move.” he took the radio and put it in his pocket, “We finally have access to the sewers again, and it’s rat season!”

“The big juicy brown ones, awesome! I’m starving.” I smiled, even knowing we were going I still could not contain my enthusiasm, “The wireless is a bit glitchy right now, don’t know how much help I’ll be.”

He smiled and traced the cables depicted on my neck, eliciting chills down my spine, “You always help more than you think. In any event, you are pretty good at carrying the rats.”

“You tease.” I pushed him away playfully, it was not the time for that, “Here, I finally got enough radios working for the whole hunting party.”



***



The skyscraper was on its way to collapsing, so not many besides us ventured into it. Both me, and Trav had grown up in the Crimson Tower, so we knew every square inch. That is not to say we ran blindly down the halls, the building was long past condemned after all, but we did move along a good clip, enjoying the time we got to play together.

“Allow me, milady.” Trav nobly announced as we came to the hole we used to go between the floors and he jumped down, “I’ll catch you, I mean it this time.”

“Ass.” I landed right beside him as he reached up to offer his hand, “You know I can climb so much better than you.”

“Don’t mean you have to, besides, I like catching you.”

“When you do decide to catch me.” I teased bounding off.

Into the building’s bowels we spelunked, talking of our favorite rat recipes, getting ever closer to the ground, “Rattatuie, that’s not made with rat.” I laughed, jumping into the pit that led to the lobby.

“Then why is ‘rat’ in the name?” he followed closely.

This was the courtyard of our small castle, where we met to talk, where we gathered before and after hunts, and where we kept watch for dangers trying to sneak in. There was rubble in front of where the doors used to be, we used a side entrance that was hard to see from the street. Currently Samantha, Mary, Joanne, and Steven watched the door and street beyond, keeping us safe.

The hunting party tonight was to be: me Travis, Clyde, Laura, and Missy, all the rest were resting up for their turn at night patrol. The party gathered in the middle of the lobby to discuss the plan.

“Dragon patrol, keep down!” Clyde whispered, almost before we got there.

Instinctively we all darted for cover. It was not a good idea to tangle with the gangs, any of them. The gangs were thugs and scavengers, and they liked taking from the weak. The dragons were the worst of all, they were the ones even other gangs feared to tangle with. They had no women(choosing to use their greater strength to force themselves on those of us that got into their talons), they were abusive(even to their own), and they were not afraid to kill anyone(even just for fun).

I crept over to Clyde to whisper in the elder’s ears, “They’re supposed to be two blocks north…”

Shadows of big men with guns passed in front of the dirt fogged glass, and there was a lot of them. A few paused to try to peek into the darkness, but were hurried along by the others.

“Suppose to be and are, are two different things, Asea.” Clyde eventually shrugged after the last siluet passed, “I think they’re looking for something.”

“Something crashed…” Travis suggested.

“When?” I punched him in the shoulder, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It was while you were doing your nooner to recover from your turn on midwatch.” He shrugged, “At the very least I thought your computers would have told you.”

“Sensors are down again, damn…”

“You’ll fix it tomorrow.” Clyde hushed, “Be quiet!”

After we were certain they all had passed, we relaxed, “Do you think the sensors are working enough to get us to the sewers?” Travis asked hopefully.

“I didn’t see anything when I checked earlier…”

“If your sensors are down, only one way to find out.” Clyde glided to the door.

The night was dark and moonless, a good night to be sneaky. By the dim light of the few stars that peeked through the clouds we made our way to the edge of the Dragon’s turf and the only usable entrance to the sewers for miles. The sound of metal on metal was a relief, we were going to eat well tonight.

One by one, we dropped into the ancient manhole, as Travis slid the cover back in place we turned on our torches. The smell took some getting used to, but this was the best place for rat in the precinct, and my dad always said happiness was often covered in shit. Another plus, was that it was also well away from the traditional breeding grounds of the albino sewerdiles: crocodiles that had evolved to thrive in the dark of the cities bowels.

The domed roof was covered in moss, the incessant drip of far off pipes muted other sounds. This truly was happiness covered in shit. Carefully we made our way down the slippery storm drains and cracked pipes to the area we knew of as the cistern.

I took out my tablet and scanned for a signal. Static periodically broke the connections, but I got a decent picture of what was going on. I checked all the feeds as quickly as they could cycle, then found what I was looking for.

“The nests have moved, this way.” I lead our hunting party, “Everyone have their radios and nets?”

Every one acknowledged by mumbling and holding up the devices. After we synchronized and made certain our signals were good, or at least useable, we moved out. The dingy moss covered concrete floor was more slippery than I remembered, Travis had to more than once catch me. It would have been fun if we weren’t on the clock and being watched by the others. We didn’t make good time, but the thought of fresh rat spurred us on. Finally the squeaks of our prey filled the air, it was going to be a delicious night.

The nests were crawling with the large rats. They were easy pickings, because there was no real danger down here, we split up. We walked quietly into the alcoves and scooped up the 5 pound rats and carefully snapped their necks before putting them in bags.

“I got a full bag.” I keyed my radio, “Anyone else have an update?”

The party reported they had full bags and Clyde ordered us back to the entrance. I was the first back and began to check my feeds.

“Are we good?” Travis asked as he climbed the ladder to wait just below the cover

“Coast is clear.” I informed Travis, who carefully moved aside the manhole cover.

Torches extinguished, we stealthed back to our base. Then lights flashed behind us and voices erupted. We had a standard procedure for this, run like hell. We split up, hoping to throw off the dragons, who usually didn’t go too hard into chases because they preferred the easy way.

As quick and agile as I was, I was weighed down with rat carcasses, and I really wanted to eat tonight, after two days any one would. I tripped on something, spilling my load. After a second of frantic grabbing I realized I didn’t have time. I abandoned my rats and bolted, right into a waiting thug who promptly knocked me out. 

2



Slowly I opened my eyes, or eye, my left eye was swollen and I was just glad the blood was dry. I was lying, naked and cold, in a small cage that was not even large enough to stretch out in. The room was small, and cluttered with cages similar to the one I was in. The cracked walls were whitewashed cinderblock, and duct work was everywhere. I was not in a happy place.

“Oh look who’s finally awake?” a leather clad hooligan smiled at me.

He was shortish and thick, in both his body and head. His smile was enough to elicit waves of fear all over my body. I curled up in a fetal position, looking frantically about for signs of my friends. They weren’t in sight. He approached suddenly and rapped a stick on the cage, then opened it to put a bowl of something in front of me and slammed shut the cage again.

I sniffed it, rat stew. It was thick and greasy and the chunks were so juicy. They may not have cooked it well, but I was hungry enough to eat horse, which wasn’t that bad either when you could find it.

“Thanks for the rats, thought you should have a little of what you caught.” He smiled and goose bumps erupted again.

His long black, greasy hair was in a ponytail his dark brown, almond shaped eyes were blood shot. His tats were like all Dragon: flame breathing lizards everywhere his skin showed.

“You can’t give me a spoon?” I asked shoveling some of the gruel into my mouth with cupped hands.

“Don’t like doing dishes.” His demonic smile grew, “But, we might be able to work something out, I’m sure your much more exciting awake.”

“Ass.”

“If that’s what you like…”

“Hey dumb shit!” called a voice from a cage on the other side of the room, “Where’s my food?”

The thug turned around, walked to the other man and kicked the cage, “I don’t even know why were kept you alive. No State pig is worth any ‘resource’.”

The man looked to be taller than me, he must have been so uncomfortable in the cage, which was smaller than mine. His too smooth skin was a little paler than I had ever seen. His clothes, a strange kind of uniform I had never seen before, were in tatters. Yet, despite all this, he did not appear nervous, in fact, he looked liked things were going precisely to some unknown plan.

“I thought the state was a myth.” I set my empty, licked clean, bowl to the side and grabbed the bars.

The punk turned on me and scoffed, “They come around every so often with promises of a citizenship and hope, and any that take the bait are never heard from again.”

“Would you come back if you had the choice?” The man returned, still no emotion.

“You shut your hole, Cassey would have came back for me, you probably don’t even know him…”

“As hard as it maybe for you to believe, The State has thousands of citizens…

“The state is a myth.” I announced, wanting more food.

From what I could see of him, he had no tats. I found it odd that an adult didn’t have any kind of tattoo. As far as I knew, it was a sign of adult hood. Strange how he did not care, and still looked more like an adult than our captor.

“Can I get some more stew?” I asked, pushing the bowl toward the dragon.

“I’m sure we can work something out.” The dragon smiled, approaching slowly.

“Go to hell.” I reassumed the fetal position at the back of the cage.

Another thug stuck his head in the room and told our ‘host’ he was needed elsewhere, “You can talk all about hell with our emissary from the State before we send him to the beyond.” He returned, striding out.

After a moment I called out, “Hey, Statesmen, how the hell did you get captured, thought you people were supposed to be invincible.”

“What appeared to be a stable landing pad turned out to be not so stable.” He shrugged as if that kind of thing happened all the time.

“Landing pad? As in you came in a flying machine?” I laughed, “Those disappeared with the yellow Lucile.”

“Perhaps here.” He shrugged, eyes closed, he didn’t care if I believed him.

“Did you happen to see anyone else brought in with me?” I asked, grateful for someone who was at least not an enemy.

“No, you were the only one, I’ve seen.” He returned, then as an afterthought, “That means your tribe will come to get you, though.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your tats, they aren’t gang, that means tribal in this area.” He shrugged, misunderstanding my question, “By the by, I’ve never seen that pattern before, looks like a cable bundle going down your neck?”

“I earned my adult status as a technomage, my tats, yes, a cable bundle, signify that. Don’t know of anyone else that has that same knowledge. It’s after all, from the old city.” I shrugged, we were probably going to die, so it didn’t matter what he knew.

“So, familiar with electronics, would you happen to have a microwave transceiver?” He asked, “Or a radio, or any other form of wireless tech?”

“My sensor net is down, our wireless net is on the brink, was going to fix it, but…” I didn’t want to continue that thought

“Well, keep an eye out, they are over confidant and liable to make mistakes.” He shrugged, “If something happens you need to be ready.”

“Expecting more statesmen?” I asked, hopeful.

“No, I’m pretty sure my team is dead, or we would have heard about it by now. And The State seldom sends solely search and rescue parties, not enough resource for that.” He shrugged, “But you are tribal, you compatriots will help you, I know it’s a tribal thing. Just be ready.”

“Not likely.” I sighed under my breath, “We avoid all encounters with the dragons, it’s safer that way.”

After that we were silent. I ignored him as much as possible, he did not move. As my stomach growled, I looked over again. His eyes were still closed, he was just waiting. How could he be so calm, the dragons were liable to put him through hell before killing him, yet he just waited.

As time stretched into eternity, the closet door opened up and Travis carefully looked about, “Trav, over here!” I whisper called, hoping I was loud enough to be heard by him, but not by the dragons.

The statesmen didn’t react, maybe he was asleep? Anyway, Travis slinked over, pulling out his pick set, “So glad I found you. Did you see the others?” he asked as he carefully picked the lock.

“No, are you the only one?”

“Clyde has a quartet at the hide out, and I didn’t see anyone else in this place.” He whispered, “Our whole tribe is scattered…”

“Where are we?” I cut him off knowing I didn’t like the direction it was going.

“The old arena, the dragons have gotten big, there’s dozens of them.” The lock popped open, “We have to get out of here, now.”

He grabbed my wrist and dragged me out, “What about him?” I indicated the statesmen, who only now looked over to watch us, perhaps he wanted to see me.

“We don’t know him, how do we know he isn’t a dragon?”

“He has no tats, can’t be a dragon.” I asserted, edging toward him.

“Maybe he hasn’t earned his tats yet.” He insisted, pulling me to the closet.

“He’s right, you have no reason to trust me, get out before you draw too much attention.” He shrugged, closing his eyes again.

“Common Asea, he told us to go.” Travis almost panicked.

I grabbed his pick set and threw it to the statesmen, “Hey, wait, those are mine!” Travis stepped toward the cage.

“I’ll get you a new set.” I promised, pulling him back to the closet, “We have to give him a chance.”

He was about to argue, but a noise at the main entrance announced our time was up. We jumped into the closet and carefully shut the door. In the back was a large air register large enough for a person to climb into, we did so, me first. 

3



The exit of the air ducts on the roof of a small building near the great coliseum. My father told me that before even he was born great competitions were conducted in this place and people gathered to watch from even beyond the city. I still found this difficult to believe.

Carefully we climbed out of the duct work. All around us, the sounds of fighting wafted to our ears. It was like the world was ending again as Travis encouraged me on, crouch running along the roof top.

“The Hawks are trying to get some territory, we should have plenty of cover.” He promised as we made our way to the ladder.

The stars loomed overhead as I climbed down the ladder. As I stepped off Travis pushed me down. Bullets ricocheted from the bricks as he covered my body with his, as I was still nude, the rocks cut deeply into my skin. Suddenly he went limp.

“Travis, the spray and pray is over, you can get off me now. Trav…”

I struggled to look up at him, the rocks cutting even deeper into my already scared skin. As I looked into his eyes and they stared blankly back at me. Warm fluid dripped from his clothes and I shuddered with realization. Suddenly he was tore off me and I screamed bloody murder.

“It’s not good for either of us if you scream.” The statesmen calmly covered my mouth, “No, I’m not the one that shot him. I do apologize I didn’t make it in time to save him, though.”

As he helped me up he threw some gang leathers at me, “You have a choice, put those on, or remain as you are.” He announced, scanning the horizon for danger.

Grumbling the whole time, I put on the remarkably well fitting clothes, “Why are you doing this?”

“You have knowledge of radio, and electronics, I do not, yet I need to get in contact with my people. That means you are my best hope for that.” He shrugged, “Are you ready, which way is your base?”

No coherent thought would enter my head. No matter how hard I pondered, I couldn’t remember where our skyscraper was. The man waited, apparently in no hurry. The sounds of fighting cascaded all around but none of it meant anything.

Suddenly, a group of gang bangers dropped in on us. Without thinking he jumped and punched and kicked and shot, all of them faster than I thought possible.

“Whu, hu, houw, wha…” I couldn’t even form a question.

“By necessity, all recruiters have special services training.” He shrugged, it was no big deal to him, “In case something like this happens. But, I still don’t know very much about radios, got held back twice in that course. I need you, but I will not wait for you.”

I stopped him before he could walk away, my head clear enough to remember home, “Fu, fine, okay, thu, this way…”

“Let me lead, tell me which way, stay close, and if you see any danger, let me know.” He pumped his shotgun, and stepped in front of me, “Sorry about your friend, looked like you were close.”

All I could do was nod as he grabbed my hand and pulled. I so much wanted to tell him to fuck off, but right now, I was distracted, and he was my best hope to survive. The night was dark and with all the battling going on, I just wanted this nightmare to end.

The roof stretched before us as we ran crouched along it. He was constantly looking around to make certain we were not snuk up upon, all I could do was follow, quietly directing him to the south west. Suddenly I realized I was on all fours at the edge of the roof and he was holding his hands up to catch me.

“The longer you take, the more likely we will be ambushed.” He called out, almost un hurried.

I did this every day, I knew I could jump and land on my feet, just like he had done. In fact, I would have been more graceful. Yet now, I was stuck. After a few deep breaths, I dangled off the edge and dropped, he caught me easily.

“Du, down th that alley,” I stuttered, “Th there is a um a sign for Brood_ay, stra strange name, I know, guh, go left.”

As we approached the corner he slowed, motioning me to stop my own advance. After pressing himself against the wall, he jumped around the edge furiously pounding on an enemy that I hadn’t even known was there.

“How did you do that?” I asked, suddenly cogent.

“One has to be constantly aware of their surroundings if one wants to survive in hostile situations.” He shrugged, then motioned me to follow again.

We continued in this fashion for a few blocks, he was so incredible, his movements so certain. I had never known anyone to have no fear. He was amazing. I was convincing myself this was some sort of dream until we found ourselves at one of the frequently used entrances of the skyscraper.

It wasn’t right. While not wide open, it was slightly ajar, visible, exposed. None of us would forget to secure it, that was safety of us all, and it was burned into our subconscious. He felt my hesitation and we both slid into the shadows to talk it out.

“We can’t go that way,” I whispered, “It’s been compromised, nobody leaves the door open.”

“Then I guess we are now on our own.” He stood casually, “It appears I have to get out of the city on my own…”

“Get down.” I told him, finally able to think on my own, “No one can walk the city in any decent period of time, and besides, we have other entrances, follow me.”

To this day I don’t know why I trusted him, but I did, I wanted him to know what I was capable of as well. I led him through the alleys of building bones to a collapsed hovel then turned on him.

“How good of a free runner are you?”

“Decent enough I guess, we don’t get much chance to practice…”

“Keep up if you can.” I smiled, darting off.

This entrance was in plain sight, but only the most gifted of us could use it. It had been my own special portal to the city when I was a kid, and I knew how to run this gambit eyes closed. The first challenge was the balancing rocks. Small and unstable, if one spent too much time on them, they would fall, and they were a tad slippery, rain must have passed through, he kept up.

Then a warped wall above a section of collapsed roof, unless you had speed enough, you couldn’t make it, he made it almost more easily than me, showoff. Then the blind dive into the cable net. Not even a real net, it was just the vestiges of wires that had survived. One had to grab one of the cable trunks then use it to swing like a vine to the broken windows of our hide out.

The side entrance overlooked the courtyard of Crimson Tower. As we entered, we stealthily approached the precipice of the third floor. I gazed in abject misery at what used to be my private kingdom. Hawks had infested my home, the only home I had ever known. I could not believe it. Fortunately, before I could rise to exact suicidal vengeance, the statesman placed a hand on my shoulder.

“You do not stand a chance.” He shook his head, “But, although your conclusion was based on grief, we do need to secure our flank before we continue. Wait here and do not make a sound.”

Before I could respond, he disappeared. I glanced about in confusion to find a sign or trace of him. Then, I saw him again in the distance.

Somehow, he had made it, undetected to ground floor on the other side of the courtyard. The Hawk he was behind went suddenly and silently limp. He was quietly placed on the ground by the statesmen before he once again disappeared into the shadows. Moments later, the throat of the Hawk almost directly below me was sliced open, his blood spraying the rubble in front of him, and he was also lowered silently to the ground. At the grunt of another Hawk being stabbed by a thrown knife, the remaining six Hawks turned and finally noticed they were being attacked.

They pointed their guns at the statesmen and pulled their triggers. Somehow the statesmen was not pelted by the storm of bullets. He tackled the Hawk nearest him and after snapping his neck took out those remaining in short order.

Before I could wrap my mind around what I had just witnessed he was behind me again, “Those bodies will not remain un noticed for very long. We have to move on. Where is your equipment?”

Deciding I did not want to piss him off, I immediately stood, “My lab is on the top floors, and it is a tedious climb. This way.” 

4

The climb was silent. I could not fathom how a person could be so calm, so almost tranquil on the surface yet have such a beast right below the surface. He followed silently, I am pretty sure he knew what I was thinking, but was nice enough not to try to explain or rationalize. Perhaps for him, it was simply more efficient to be silent and brooding, and handsome.

The last climb up the last collapsed celling to my lab was a welcome sight. As I climbed out of the hole the cool breeze refreshed my energy. I had set up motion sensors to turn on lights as I approached my workbench.

As the starlight was overpowered by artificial light, I turned to my wayward paladin, “So, you said you need a radio?” I asked digging through my collection of old wireless devices.

“Yes, and it needs to transmit on 350 megahertz.” He nodded, appraising my life’s work.

My jaw dropped and I shrugged, turning to the safe I kept the bulk of the military grade equipment I had accumulated over the years, “AM or FM?”

He stared blankly at me, at least I knew something he didn’t, could do stuff he couldn’t. That made me feel slightly better.

“All I remember is that our emergency frequency was 350 megahertz.” He finally shrugged.

“I’m hoping you’re not expecting me to establish SATCOMS, up until now, I though outside the city didn’t exist.” I opened my safe and dug through the spare parts, he stared blankly, “I’m assuming you are going to transmit voice, so how is it modulated? Amplitude? Frequency? Hopefully not split sideband…”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about he shrugged as I put the box of old military radios I hadn’t had time to salvage yet.

“Well,” I shrugged, “FM does propagate further, I read, let’s try that first. Hopefully I can get one of these work, as I don’t think I have time to refit anything else. Tell me about the state.”

He sat on a stool opposite of me as I worked, testing parts and swapping pieces, “That’s a rather vague question, but let me give it a try.”

After a moment of thought he continued, “We each have a job to do and we each do it. Because we are all working toward improvement, and we all have a vested interest, we are surpassing the tech level of the old world. It is a place where one never has to worry about their next meal, and we get more than one a day…”

“How is it possible to hunt more than once a day, and still have time to do anything else?” I returned, testing some of the parts on the test equipment I had.

“We don’t hunt, or at least it is not our primary source of food. And we don’t have to worry about others taking more than their share.”

“So, no hunting, that’s farming right, never seen it in action.” I began to put a radio together, and my mouth watered, “So enough rats for everyone, must be nice…”

“In The State, rat is not considered food, most are not big enough anyway.”

“No rat, what do you eat?”

“Other animals…”

“Sewerdile is nasty, had it before, only because we accidently caught one.”

“Not sewerdile either, we have cows and sheep, we also eat plants.”

“On purpose, even though you have all this meat? Weird.” I scoffed, doing some final checks on the radio, “So if you don’t have to hunt for your food, what do you do?”

“We have separation of labor, the key to high level civilization.” He shrugged, “Each person has a job to do, and they do it, earning resource they can spend on what they want and need.”

“When you’re not working what do you do, probably boring right?”

“It is called free time, and you can do whatever you want, within the bounds of law, of course. And of course we have entertainment.”

“So what, you have a few hundred people in the state?”

“We have thousands of people, maybe millions.”

“Impossible, the gangs don’t even get that big.” I scoffed, handing him the radio.

“Thanks. And it’s an entirely different world outside this shell of a city.” He keyed the radio, “Omicron Omega Rho.” He repeated several times.

“Are you sure this thing is transmitting?” he keyed it several times.

I pointed to the frequency analyzer and keyed the radio, “Its transmitting, but might not have enough power to get out of the city, not surprising…”

Then the radio chirped, “Alpha alpha alpha. This is border recon gunship, Pegasus 6. Last station, identify intention and identity. Over.”

“Delta bravo lambda, this is Recruiter Samuel Tauris, reporting failed run. Request hot evac for one plus one, grid 3K4RR, unable to be more specific. Over.”

“Recruiter Tauris, Intention and identity confirmed, evac request has been retransmitted to region control at Warbler Meadow. Over.”

“Pegasus 6, thank you for assistance, be advised no known anti-aircraft weaponry in area, however violence in immediate area constitutes orange conditions. Over.”

“Recruiter Tauris, Advisory noted. Be advised, Warbler Meadow reports rapid response lifeboat has been scrambled and is en-route. ETA 3 hours. Keep this channel open. This station continuing OPPATH. Out.”

“What’s a recruiter?” I asked as he put the radio on the workbench.

“A recruiter goes into the wilds to find individuals that have potential and if they are willing, bring them to The State to become citizens. People like you.”

“So, when you requested help for one plus one?” I grimaced, “I thought you didn’t get rescued?”

“There is a difference in going in blindly and looking for remains, and rescuing our people that are still alive and available to help the rescue project…”

“What about me, I’m not one of you…”

He shrugged, he was confidant in the outcome, but was going to give it voice anyway, “I hope I was not presumptuous, but from what I’ve seen, learning all this on your own, no formal education to speak, indicates you have great potential. And I apologize for being blunt, but I have also observed that you are now alone. Additionally, I don’t think you have the capacity to survive on you own.”

I was not insulted, I didn’t think I could either. But this was my life, my home, all I ever knew, “What about my stuff?”

“This is going to be a life boat for people, not hot salvage. Besides, I guarantee there will be far better ‘stuff’ in the state…”

My proximity alarms began to wail, someone, or ones, were on their way up to my perch. I now had absolutely nothing.

“Looks like your choice has been made for you.” He stated casually, did anything get to him?

“Do you happen to have a secret way down that perhaps can’t be climbed?”

“Just the elevator shaft and repelling gear.” I laughed humorlessly, my life was now covered is shit, “Don’t suppose you know how to use it, dad died before he could teach me…”

“Are there harnesses, or do we need to jury-rig something?” he returned, still confidant.

I nodded meekly, and led the way to the cache in the back. This was truly the worst day in my life. But at least with this much shit, there had to be happiness beyond.