City Lights

The city’s building of varying neon lights never seemed to stop glowing in the night. It was half-past midnight, even then the city never seemed to sleep. Everywhere people were walking up and down the sidewalks. People leaving their office buildings with their corporate black and white suits made with the finest of silk pants and golden cuff links, some people wearing the most warm-colored jackets to complement their leather pants, all along to match their hairstyle to make their fashion statement, and their were like Trina, people who wished to remain unseen wearing the blandest black sweats so she went unnoticed in Neo Maridia’s society. Whether it be the homeless or the ultrarich it all meshed in Neo Maridia. Trina felt like an ant when looking up at these buildings. Trina’s perception became warped when looking at these buildings for any more than a few seconds she would think they were going to collapse on her and swallow her up. Towering traditional office buildings with glass windows, stone cathedrals with various crescents at the top that looked reminiscent of castles, upscale apartment complexes made of bricks with wide balconies on each floor, reverse pyramids, all blended to form a mix of traditional and artistic engineering feats.

As Trina looked up there were a bunch of hover trucks floating above her. The number of hover trucks was reduced at night, due to recently Neo Maridia implementing its reduced air traffic law. Even the law can’t stop the rich from having good sold to them. But you could still see these hover trucks stopping by people's balconies and having their little drones scanning the back of the

Neo Meridia's roads connected with one main road down each street with turns to go down mini avenues. Along with bridges and highways that would join over bodies of water to connect all parts of Neo Maridia together. Trina looked to her side on the street. She saw these two cars with no mufflers revving up their engines, each rev sounding like an explosion. One car was a lime green trans am with a black stripe streaking from the hood of the car to the trunk. And to the left of him was a generic-looking white sedan. The engine noises sputtered and popped with each passing second, both drivers tapping on the gas pedal trying to exactly time when the light turns green, so they can get that initial edge of acceleration over their opponent. The white sedan driver got the green light timed correctly and got out to about a 10 feet head start. The trans am driver hit floored on his gas pedal to make up for the lost grounds and by the next block, they were each right next to each other again. Each driver's skill truly came to the test, within the next five hundred feet came more ongoing traffic, each car precisely shifting from one lane to the next, never touching another car, all while trying to maintain their speed. Both cars made a right and drifted into another avenue. The lime car took the lead coming out of the turn since he was in the inner right lane before the turn. Then coming down from the other avenue came two cop sports cars with their sirens blaring. One passenger in the cop car had stuck his upper torso out the window, pulled out his pistol from his holster, and started firing gunshots at the street racers, it was just another day in Neo Maridia.

As Trina looked inward towards the city there was a cluster of thin buildings that disappeared into the clouds. These buildings were Neo Meridia's diamond district, elegant slim glass square prisms buildings for only Neo Meridia’s most wealthy of residents. More than half of the building's rooms were empty because entire floors were dedicated to letting wind get through so the buildings could maintain balance. It disgusted Trina. Once these buildings were created, the Morbital (Neo Meridia's news and only social media platform) reported the buildings as an architectural testament and a symbol of Neo Meridia's innovation and resilience. Architectural testament, news never mentioned that the people living there originally were forcibly removed, resilience my ass. The diamond district can fucking burn ground for all I care.

Trina got off the main road sidewalks and made a turn into one of the less populated alleyways. When she walked there was a shortness to her breath, her fight with Drack did have an aftermath. It wasn’t too troublesome, but it did feel like someone was pressing on her lungs. She dug through her duffle bag and pulled out a helmet and grappling pistol. When she found an opening of one of the hover trucks making a stop to deliver a package, she fired her gun at the back of the truck. A little metal head quickly expanded, tied by nylon rope. After it sprang out of the chamber and made contact with the truck. Trina pushed a button at the handle of her gun, it started to reel her upwards. In a matter of seconds, Trina was already a few feet away from the truck. Using her momentum she let go of her grappling gun and grabbed onto one of the truck’s ledges to push herself to get on top of the truck. The truck driver did hear some noises outside his truck but didn’t give enough of a shit to care. And so the driver carried on to make his next delivery.

Trina picked up her grappling gun and kept it close to her hip. The truck started moving at a decent speed, not too fast as to cause turbulence if a change of direction was needed. Trina looked at the one buildings screens project a three-dimensional holographic advertisement of a woman purposefully replacing her arm with a prosthetic one, then a montage plays of her having more fame and fortune by lifting heavier objects and defending herself, gets the Morbital’s attention and her getting on TV, then leads her to be a model, glorifying how cool and trendy it was to have advanced prosthetics. Trina looked at her own arms with estrangement. Trina was puzzled by the advertisement's message and found it more harmful than good.

Once Trina started seeing the truck veer away from her destination she grabbed her gun and duffle bag and decided to jump off. While free-falling, Trina fired her grappling gun at the back of another hover truck and the gun started to reel to a new car. As Trina swung from one truck she shifted her body weight from side to side to avoid any of the ongoing air traffic. The sequence of the free-fall gave her weightlessness to just let her mind sink into a calm ocean, even if it was a split second. And dodging the ongoing traffic was adrenaline and being in control of her that she sought. This is amazing, this feeling … is true freedom. It's the little things. The little things. And Trina continued to swing from one car to the next. She made it almost an art form, gliding through the air like a graceful bird, and her swings were almost rhythmic swinging from at the precise moment for the most airtime and speed.

After bouncing from car to car Trina was finally at the edge of the city and made one more jump to a car that was going out of the city. She made her leap, the only thing that was under was a body of water. She looked out down from the distance looking at the red and white rectangles of cars all moving closer the tunnel entry way trying to make their way into the city. Even with all the problems this city has, people are still drawn to glitz and glamor, like a moth to a flame, hoping to make it here, all in the name of fame. It’s not all as it's cracked up to be. Trina couldn’t blame them though, she’s has Neo Maridia changed peoples fortunes but the stigma the city brought either you being a somebody or nobody sickened her. As Trina ended her thought she saw another hover car from afar with two teenagers riding on top. They waved to her excited to see another person riding a hover car and responded in the coldest manner, by doing nothing and just staring back at them with expressionless helmet. This city is going eat those two alive. Trina knew that waving back wouldn’t matter in the bigger picture, she had more important things to think to about. Neo Maridia has robbed her initial kindness.

Once Trina was one her final car she stood up and got a running start and launched herself onto the rooftop of a building. Then she trudged onwards, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Trina again started getting into rhythm again with the rooftops. By two or three strides she was ready to jump onto the next building. The more Trina traversed on foot the more the building's height decreased. Also, the buildings roofs got more rugged and outdated. The rooftop Trina finally stopped at, the building looked fairly old but not abandoned. There was a small water tower to Trina’s right that was partially hidden by the bricks surrounding it, lounge chairs laying around in sporadic locations, and plant vines in stone pots that grew so long they hung over the building almost reaching the top floor residence’s windows.

The lights of the buildings were now dimly lit. The bright moonlight was bathing on Trina in a slight turquoise blue. She took off her helmet and took a big gasp for air, letting her sweat-drenched frizzled hair breathe. I feel like I'm suffocating with this thing on. The cool wind felt good rustling through Trina’s hair, and cooling down her warm red cheeks. She bent over and put her hands on her knees, panting heavily. The adrenaline rush Trina was on wore off, the fatigue and exhaustion from all the traversing and the cage fight started to settle in. Her entire body felt like jelly. She started walking and she could feel her kneecaps buckling in every other step from the overexertion. Damn I'm going to feel this tomorrow. And her stomach roared for food. But, first, she needed to sit down and catch her breath.

Trina walked over to the building's ledge and sat down, her feet dangling overhead. By now she was far away from the city. Trina was now a few miles away from the Central District of Neo Maridia, she was now in Gillian. Neo Meridia's central district acted as a buffer zone between the Diamond District and the Gillian. The Gilian has been left behind by Neo Maridia, and citizens of the Gilian are left to fend for themselves. But the people of the Gilian have survived, even under the destitute circumstances, they formed mini-communities of those living next to one another. People of the Gilian didn’t have much but they had each other’s back and that made each day for them worth living.

Trina could still see the outskirts of the first two sections of Neo Maridia, in a wide landscape and their surrounding bodies of water. The closer to the center was the Diamond District was a cluster with all the tallest and slimmest buildings, and the further you are from the Diamond District the buildings got shorter, flatter, and less modernized. By the time we got to Gillian the buildings looked fractured, broken, stitched together from other parts of other buildings, or infected with moss and mold covering the entire building because they were abandoned long ago.

After traversing, Trina had the peace and time to confront her thoughts, for better or for worse, she didn’t have other things to occupy her time now, she was forced to face her thoughts. She thought to herself man this fucking sucks. Tired of this. Tired of the city. Everyday, I scrap and I claw just to make ends meet and it’s barely enough. It’s only a matter of time before it won’t be enough. I barely make any money now from these fights.

Maybe…maybe…I should lose? Maybe that's the way it was always supposed to be. She looked at her hands. Maybe that's all what I was ever made to do and nothing more. Why do I do this? Frustrated, Trina's grip on the ledge started to almost crack the building’s brick. Now she couldn’t use other chores to distract her thoughts. She was tied to this one thought. She wrangled with this idea for minutes and tried to find other solutions, stubbornly refusing to come to terms with Joe’s proposal, but still felt like she was running in circles with her plans. Trina still couldn’t think of a better alternative every plan she thought of ended in the same way. She was a member of the Gillian, a second class citizen, with nothing to her name and any job in the Central District would pay her even worse than what the underground fights were giving her. After denying her circumstances, Trina started to finally come to terms with her harsh reality. Slowly Trina started talking herself more and more into it trying to be as optimistic as she can, and downplaying the consequences she might have to face. I mean what other choice do I have? I’ll take a couple of hits and forfeit the match. And with the extra cash around I can help around the house a little more. Maybe mom will actually be pleased with me this time.

Trina’s mind felt more at ease even though the decision wasn’t in her best interests, she still had some satisfaction that her decision could have some utility for Trina’s mom; whom Trina had always to have to care for. By now Trina’s hunger was almost unbearable; her stomach was gnawing at her other organs now, and the bruise given to her only made her cramps more intense. Trina did her best to apply pressure to her stomach without touching her bruise to subside the pain, even if it was only for a moment.

So Trina jumped down onto the metal platforms that were placed outside and climbed down the ladders that were placed on opposite sides of the platforms. Then she finally made it down to the ground and made a quick exit out of the alleyway and onto the mainroad of the Gilian. She walked down a couple of blocks, to one of her favorite restaurants, the bright lights cast a spotlight on the wooden oak sign written in these bold brush strokes of ink called, The Tempera House. Trina’s eyes widened and her mouth started to amss moisture at just the thought of having food, so she swiftly walked through the dark blue curtain so she could finally have her meal.