Prologue

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Hunger. Something you'd become well acquainted with over the past six years, was now gnawing away at the inside of your stomach. You hadn't eaten for three days due to the roadwork on the street just above your head. The night workers were busy hammering away during the time of night you would emerge for your little hideaway long enough to get necessary amounts of food. It's not like you could go out in the day either. That would just be suicide.

You could feel your vision going blurry every now and then due to malnutrition and fatigue. You had to keep your eyes open no matter what. If you give in to your drowsiness, there's no telling what might happen. You glanced around your living quarters in desperation trying to find something that might entertain you. There wasn't much in the sewers. Yes, the sewers. That's where you lived. The main entrance is a manhole cover on the street above the workers are working around so neatly. There was a nook behind the wall where the ladder was beneath the lid and that was your safe haven. Directly in front of you was a long, wide stream of waste water. It smelled awful and the fumes soaked into her clothes, but at this rate it didn't matter. There was no one to complain about it.

When the hybrids first took over, there were still a lot of humans who lived underground like you. Of course, large hoards of humans aren't exactly inconspicuous and they were quickly hunted and exterminated as quickly as possible. After that, people decided it would be safer to live individually or in groups of three to avoid bringing  attention to themselves. A few years back,  you would run into one or two every now and then, swap stories, share food, and be on your way. Now you never see anyone anymore and it's safe to assume that you never will. You shifted positions on your sleeping bag and saw the lantern like flashlight flickering suddenly.

Crap. I need to get more batteries too.

You didn't have that much time before the light was completely blown and you starved alone in the dark. There was one other option, but that was pretty risky. About ten minutes down the cement walkway lining the sewer water there was another manhole that would open up in an alley way. But there's no telling what might be above ground over there. The one reason you were trying to wait out the road work was because you knew that once the workers were gone things would be back to normal. No body would be out at that time of night and you could happily pick the lock of the unguarded convenience store to get some food. Everything was predictable because you had been doing the same thing for years on this block. However, if you were to go with the other option, you would be entering completely different territory. You debated these options comparing the pros and cons. Eventually, you came to the conclusion that you couldn't last a few more days while trying to wait out the inconvenience. Grabbing your flashlight, you slipped on your cheap green flip flops (the only things you could find in the dumpsters) and began your adventure. 

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