Ch 8: Form the line

The noise of metal scrapping of one another ringed loudly from under Sammy’s hood, who was fighting his scrawny legs to keep up with Diaz's fast pace. Getting his long pants trampled under his shoes wasn’t helping either. Before the two left, the young worker kept thinking about how to keep the kid’s unmodified status a secret.

Diaz- “ I still can’t believe it, though. Even the upper levels are filled with enough toxins and poisons to decompose at least some fingers. Except for ya.”

The shy kid kept a tight leash on his words, but with Diaz he felt a bit of kinship, at least enough to tell him some details about his <home>. “ I…was born in the group. Church, I guess? But then some people from higher up the elevator took me and raised me for a while…I guess?”

Diaz-” Even higher, huh? So, that wasn’t a rumor then? There are more floors than the ceiling.”

Sammy- “ Maybe. I don’t remember much, the people there kept me locked in a room, and I only saw them-”, he then started to count on his fingers, repeating the same number a few times. “Maybe this many times”, the kid then showed Diaz seven fingers.

While he wanted to find out more, the fuzzy haired worker had to rush for his next assignment, but was still a bit scared that someone might find out Sammy’s unusual condition. “ Should I replace his fingers with prosthetics? I have a few around here. Maybe a metal mask…no, he would have to take off from time to time, the dust from those things do destroy lungs.”

In the meantime, Sammy found some glue and some small metal plates. “Diaz, can I stick these to my legs?”

…

The two now stood in front of a dilapidated brick building, with missing windows and dust from ancient paint flying in circles around the construction. And still, the place was so noisy it scared Sammy while he still was a few meters away. Enough for him to regret ever leaving the tower.

Sammy- “ Do we have?”

Diaz- “ What? Yeah, of course”, he replied fast enough to flinch the little kid. “ Ehhh, don’t worry, don’t worry, it’s filled with kids, just like you?”

-“ There are other children besides me?” For Sammy that revelation was as genuine as if someone discovered the existence of aliens. Which made Diaz starting to regret his latest choices in life.

They entered, one by choice, the other dragged inside and greeted the couple running around trying to keep the dozens of yelling, hobbling and dragging bodies of small humans from making too much of a ruckus. Sammy didn’t quite get why Diaz and Zuwa appeared so perplexed by him having no prosthetics or metallic parts crafted on; until he saw the children still too young to receive some.

Most of the kids there had twigs tied around where limbs were missing. Instead of two eyes, half of them could only use one or had scars and pupils tightly kept shut with paper clips from hurried up operations. Before the local clinics, set up by the upper levels, could accept them, everyone down here had to survive the first seven years with just their wits and maybe cobbled up chairs on wheels.

Diaz-” Wait here”, and Sammy was left alone, on a hard metal bench. It was cold, but he didn’t mind it, it cooled him down. Then a couple of rowdy voices triggered his flight or fight instincts.

-” Wow, is there someone under those clothes?”, asked with loud one of the kids.

- “ Must be. Probably someone new, since Diaz brought him”, replied the second while curiously checking out Sammy, who under their gaze became fixed like a statue. “ Hey, you coming with us today?”

Still feeling closer to a mute, Sammy nodded, but also headshaked, confusing the gaggle of kids. Fortunately for them, Diaz returned to clear up the air. “ Calm down, you pack of beasts. And yeah, this is Sammy and he’ll be apprenticing with you today. Say hi.”

The other kids chorused a terrifying “hi”. The loud one then raised his hand.” Why is he covered in all those clothes?”

Diaz- “ He doesn’t like how he looks. Next, last question.”

-” Is he any good at scavenging”, asked the more inquisitive one, eyeing the mute Sammy.

Diaz only shrugged. “ Now let’s move. Sammy, I’ll explain the basics on the way.”

…

A few minutes after they left, a group of rough looking men tried to barge into the building, but after two of them were shot down by the couple, they yelled their intentions.

-” We just wanna check if a boy matching this picture is inside. That’s all.”

-” Go shove it up your arse, you brute. Like we’d let a bunch of animals like you destroy our home. You wanna check our house? Try to make it past our guns first.”

The group talked among themselves and figured out a solution. Or something akin to it.” Listen, soon enough the entire underground will find out about the bounty. Let at least one us enter and do a search under your supervision. If there’s nothing here, we’ll mark you off the checklist, so that others in future won’t bother you. Ok?”

Now the couple whispered to each other and finally agreed to the terms. “ Fine, but we’ll choose who enters. Which is gonna be you, loudmouth.”

Loudmouth-” If this fucking bounty wasn’t worth it”, he mumbled before agreeing to the terms.

…

Eury’s and Zuwa’s path brought them at another set of human lines, waiting patiently for their turn to finally speak with the mighty counter. Unsure of what to do next, the girl followed the old man around, who started to chat with the familiar faces first. And focusing on the ones he knew had difficulties with completing their forms.

Zuwa- “ Ah, yeah, yeah, man I don’t remember that either. Hey, Eury, why don’t you take a look? Maybe you youngsters kept more in touch with the new rules.”

Eury- “ Sure, cuz that’s what young people like. Keeping in touch with bureaucracy updates-” she said, with half a mouth. The girl guessed what he tried to do, but her instinct said that it was a waste of time. In her experience, talking directly with the counter staff would have definitely landed her a job much faster.

After going over the files, she quickly figured out the issue; wooden language once again used to trip up people. Still, her experience doing basically the same task on the upper levels played out smoothly in her favour.

A waving stick of a hand from the row next to this one called Eury over. “Uhm…can you take a look over my papers as well?” Just like Zuwa hopped for, the wind whispered to strangers as well. He explained that the man Eury just helped out owed her a favor now, but she was willing to accept other forms of payment as well.

The worker then searched his pockets and found a shiny rock, a small mineral that she planned on selling later for a sandwich. “You barter or do you just want credit?”

Eury mulled over it for a second, deciding that for now the best option was for- “Both, actually”, which made several other ears spring up afterward.

…

Several hours later, Eury relaxed her neck by popping the loudest cracking sound her sore body could muster and munching on some rat jerky offered by Zuwa.

-” I don’t even care where it comes from anymore, food is food”, said the ravished girl, cheeks filled and stomach appeased. “ It even helps with the coming down from the energy drugs.”

Zuwa- “ They moved from the intravenous feeding?”

Eury- “ What? Like the deep miners do?”

Zuwa-” Ah, some things never change up there, do they? Of course nobody told you. Decades ago, that used to be our power boost of the day. Sometimes it even covered as the meal of the day.” Stories told by him had the same, sad halo ring around them, as most old people tales do. But at the same time, you could also see a licker of yearning for those moments from the teller.

Or at least, that’s what Eury thought about him. Though, twice so far, her interpretations about the old man failed to the wayside, so who could tell if she guessed right the third time.

Eury- “ Tomorrow I’ll have to establish some ground rules. And break times. Maybe make some kind of counter so that people understand that I have my limits.”

Zuwa- “ You know, it’s great that it worked so well today, but you shouldn’t lean on those laurels so easily yet. Rumors travel, yes, and maybe it’ll work out..but-”, the ramblings cut off into mumbles, and the old man sat down, with a blank stare at a brick store a meter away from him. The heated card then popped from his back.

Lucky for him, Diaz expected this and another reason he left Eury in his care was for this moment. The process was simple, all she had to do was to keep him company for a couple of minutes while the cooldown did its thing.

Eury- “ Guess you reached your limit. But I promised to take care of you, so here we are.” Now that it came to it, she was surprised how difficult it was to summon something to talk about. Not even fidgeting fingers around helped start that engine. Except for one topic that bothered her for a while now. “So…were you also a parish goer while you lived up there?”

Zuwa heard the question, but his mind had a bit of trouble processing it; except for the word “parish”, which triggered some memories. “ I built them. Their praying stools and benches; from metal pipes that sparkled like tiny, joyous flames. But ignored their masses and prayers. Didn’t sound right.”

Eury- “ Ah…so you weren’t a believer.” The girl’s ears turned red, and she felt a bit of tightening of the chest from the shame. “ But you listened to tales?”

Zuwa- “ Some…most of them bored me.”

The 15 minute alarm rang off and Eury slotted the card back in. She expected Zuwa to slowly rise up, but was taken off guard when he almost leaped on his feet. Even more concerning was the alarmed look on his face. So was his next command, as he ordered her to hide in a corner while he grabbed something from a board nearby.

Zuwa- “ A bounty. Sammy’s face up and front, while… you appear to have longer hair?”

Eury- “ That’s my picture from my first day at work-”, she rushed to look at the image.

Zuwa- “- and Diaz? That’s his working mask, right?”, to which the girl nodded. “This is not good. Not good at all.”

The girl's mind went blank and her body moved on instinct to sprint back to the tower. And from there maybe find where Diaz and Sammy went.

Zuwa- “ Or maybe you can follow me because I know what the boy’s assignment for today is?”

Eury- “ Right. You are correct. Let’s do as you said.”