Vitality In A Wasteland

7

Yours faithfully,

Commander Elia, thirteenth council head and senior Corvega general of Capital

The next few pages were regulations and other paperwork. Reading through it all Claire lit a match, chucked the papers into her bin, and set them ablaze. She sat looking out her window of the dancing orange lights of the upper city. She pondered all possible calculations of what could go wrong. How was she expected to so easily just find one of the greatest mysterious of the fall? And with a woman who isn't even considered a born citizen and is clearly defiant of the order? She needed to pay close attention, she knew this would be the greatest challenge she had in a long while.

***

Claire was escorted by a machine to the lower cabins, barracks of low rank initiates and aspiring hunters. These were huge, repurposed shipping containers stacked upon each other, several towers loomed around the shaft of the long elevator leading below to the darker levels and above to the upper city, home of Claire. She never lived in the stacks before, she was one of the fortunate few who were taken into the higher homes. She was glad she was for the streets below were crowded. Wherever she walked she seen blank faces with tattered clothes and stains that would never wash away. The air smelled of soot and dust circulated by the several thousand air conditioners connected to the high up pipelines. People lived getting by on only a hand full of credits, others were criminals either hiding from upper city courts or awaiting the most desperate point in their lives when they would need to kill or be killed. Rats the size of large birds and flies the size of rats, Claire wanted to puke, even walking with the guide machine made her skin crawl as if danger was in the air, waiting to bite. They ascended four levels of metal stairs past containers where clothes were hung from strung up rusted car doors. A large spinning wheel on the side of one of the towers guided filthy water through tight cannels, water droplets sprinkled from an old pipe, Claire carefully avoided it and walked on. She could hear crying in one of the containers followed by a loud man's cursing, in another was the disdainful cheers from drunk men by a makeshift bar. She tightened her grip around her holster upon her hip, with her stun gun.

The guide led her to a high up entrance to a blue container, it knocked twice and walked back down the stairs. Opening the door was a half-asleep Madeline still wearing a white shirt and jeans, her tiredness suddenly vanished when she seen Claire, her eyes widened, and her posture tensed. Claire let herself in, there was barely any space in the container for both. The only space was a mattress, a small cabinet, and a sink.

"They took you here?" Asked Claire.

Madeline fiddled with her fingers anxiously and nodded.

Claire looked around at the sight and sniggered. "They didn't even take you to the lab. I thought that's where you came from."

Madeline said softly, "I came here."

"Hmm," Claire said. "For someone who apparently has so much importance to the order, you still have low rank in Capital."

Madeline lowered her head.

Claire said. "So where is it? The oasis?"

"I do not know," said Madeline.

"You don't or you won't tell me?" Asked Claire. "Because my report says you will lead the way. I must take you in my Corvega since scouts are still bringing back the one you stole. I do not like having passengers and your already on a tight leash with me. So how do we get there?"

"I do not know," said Madeline, solemnly.

Claire sighed. "We will find out then, come along."

"Where are we going?" Asked Madeline.