A loud alarm woke me up in the middle of the night, and smoke slowly started to fill my lungs as I became aware of my surroundings. I knew all too well what these alarms meant, it was part of the routine of anyone living in the outskirts of the New Horizons Colonial City. We were under attack. We have been under attack for the last 10 years. They say it is the aliens that constantly put pressure on our city, as they wish to slow down the glorious progress of mankind, but honestly that mattered little to me. I was too young to remember when we weren't at war, but if there is one thing that living on the outskirts taught me it is that the attacks were actually a positive sign. The deaths gave me the chance to scavenge and find the necessary items to survive, an extra food ration pack, drinkable water, and new clothes. It is cruel I know, but such is the world I grew up in. You either adapt and survive or die a miserable death.
I left my room and went down the stairs, I could already hear the screams of the people that were caught out. I feel lucky to have my own room, unless you get directly bombed, being inside reduces the risk of direct exposure to the bombs. It is one of the few good things my mother left me. I made my way to the middle floor of the building, where there was an electrical box that was no longer functional. The average person wouldn't pay attention to it, as no longer functional utilities were the norm in the outskirts, this one however was special. It was close to the former pipeline system of the building. I had passed my childhood playing in this area, and I was eventually able to create a pathway to the old water reservoir of the building. It was empty now, but its walls, made to keep the water at its intended temperature, were thick enough to protect someone from the bombings. If the building caught fire, I'd probably die of suffocation from the smoke, but nowhere else in the building would be safe regardless if it caught fire, so this was a risk I was willing to take.
I had managed to keep this place a secret, if information about this shelter came out, it'd eventually get overcrowded and one of the clans would lay claim to it. Fortunately, this area was one of the few areas that wasn't under strict control from a local clan, as such none of its inhabitants responded to a superior per say. Unfortunately, the reason this area of the outskirts was abandoned even by the clans was its uselessness. It had no functional plants, no water reservoirs, nor was it close to one of the food packet delivery areas set up by the New Horizon Colonial City's government. Eventually, the sounds of screams and explosions died down. I quickly made my way out of the reservoir and out of the building into the city. It was utter chaos. The fire was still rampaging and the first scavengers had already made their way outside to get everything they could from the dead bodies. I had no affiliation, as such I worked alone. This meant that I couldn’t aim for the obvious bodies, as if I found something and was noticed, the larger groups would pressure me. I’d always look in back alleys or crumbling buildings, as these were either less visible or riskier targets.
I moved quickly and managed to find a few untouched bodies in an alleyway between ruined buildings. One had nothing, and the clothes barely seemed usable, still I stripped him to utilize the cloth from the garments. The other body brought me much more success. It had a standard issue ration pack, which contained enough food and water to get by, if consumed in rationed quantities for almost 3 weeks. Sure, they were meant for 1 week, but who was crazy enough to waste such precious resources. Anyways, time was money. In about 2 hours, the cities’ police were gonna march in to recover the bodies and ‘ensure the safety of everyone’. Under no circumstance did I want to find myself close to a body when these people came. Scavenging was illegal afterall, just there was never any police force present, except for the body recovery protocol. After an hour passed I started to panic a bit, I was having little luck with the bodies I found. They were mostly from the homeless or children, they were starved and their clothes mangled. With time slowly running out, I ventured into one of the collapsing buildings. This one looked particularly affected by the bombing so it was largely left alone by other scavengers due to its risk, but I had little option. I quickly went room by room, but all that was left were the blood canvases created by the mangled bodies, and the smoke emitted from the freshly burned ones. The fire was also far from dying down, so the deeper I went the more unbearable the conditions. In one of the higher floors, I ended up finding another ration pack. Deciding that this would likely help me fight off starvation if I were to find nothing before the next bombing I ran outside and finally breathed some fresh air.
It wasn't long, but eventually the police came in with the cleanup crews. Overall the process didn't take long. Still, seeing these groups of humans dressed in anti-projectile vests, with helmets and military grade guns never stopped giving me the creeps. Honestly I barely even understood why they bothered to clean everything up. We were the excess, for most of them we weren't even human.Humanity had an anti-missile system, however it only had a certain reach. As such, the city was built within these confines, unfortunately, humanity grows in population at extremely rapid rates and it wouldn't be long till humans overgrew the space. This is how the outskirts were born.
“Hey Pesté!”
I had completely dozed off, but that sudden call brought me back to reality. Observing my surroundings, I noticed that the police had already gone, instead I could see a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was relatively short, but his young age, 13 at best, justified the height. Like most in the outskirts he was skinny, although he was part of the lucky few as he wasn't skin and bones, which meant he had enough food to survive. If I recall correctly, his name was Roberto.
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“Pesté can you hear me?!”
Pesté, that was my name. I hated it, but that's how everyone called me, so I couldn't just make up some new name. It's hard to get people to forget how they called you for the last 16 years. This name was the consequence of my mothers hatred towards me. That's all she saw me as, a pest that had caused her and her husband to break up. It definitely wasn't the fact that her husband wasn't my father, but it was some other street rat, whom she never mentioned the name of. Adding the accent at the end is the only thing I was able to ingrain in my name, so I guess it could be worse.
“Pesté stop ignoring me, I know you can hear me!”
Right, I should probably hear what little Roberto has to say.
“What do you want, little kid?”
“Little kid? I'm just 2 years younger than you! You're not even old enough for the military yet!”
“But I don't constantly act like a little brat. That's the difference between me and you Roberto. Give me a second, I'll come downstairs.”
I got up to leave, and made my way to the kid. Despite how I responded to him, I really like the kid. He is one of many orphans of the outskirts, but he preferred going solo instead of joining one of the many orphan gangs. In a way he was similar to me, although I technically wasn't an orphan since my parents were potentially alive somewhere, I just had no contact with them. I didn't know who my father was, and my mother had left for the military 3 years ago. Yet, even if invited, I refused entry into those orphan gangs. I guess having grown up with a mother, even if she hated me, made me feel left out within that group. Roberto on the other hand, was left out by the gang for his ideas. He wanted to join the military program when he reached 16 and could finally apply. I eventually made my way outside my building, and waved at the kid. I did want to clear up a small mistake he made.
“For your information, I am old enough to enter the military”
“Since when? And more importantly, why are you still here!”
He almost looked angry at me for still being here, I’m not surprised considering his obsession with said military, but frankly I didn’t have his same interest.
“Because I don’t plan on joining the military. I don’t see why I would fight for a government that doesn’t even acknowledge my existence.”
“But at least you wouldn’t be here anymore,” Roberto protested.
“Who’s to say the situation isn’t worse in the military? We’re under attack, sure, but they should be constantly fighting those attackers. The chances of dying are probably pretty high. Also, I heard they had a pretty tough exam, what happens if I don’t pass it?”
“Who said the entrance exam was tough, or that there even was an entrance exam? Have you ever met someone here that failed the supposed ‘test’? Anyone that entered the military program never returned. That’s all I need to know to make my decision. And about dying? I’m eventually going to die here, from hunger or by an explosion, or who knows even because of the gangs. At least I will be well fed if I die in the military.”
Roberto’s point was valid, yet I didn’t agree with it. Sure, this place was rough, but it wasn’t unmanageable. I definitely think that my situation was good enough to warrant a stay. This said, it was true that no one from the outskirts that took the exam, ever came back here. The exam's existence was a rumor from when they opened the program 3 years ago, but times have changed, and so has the program. ‘Rise against the Aliens, for humanity, for all’, that was the slogan they used to sell it. It all started 3 years ago, the war had been going on for 7 and the effects were starting to be very apparent. So the government seeked more recruits, and a program to allow citizens to volunteer themselves was born. To few people’s surprise, inhabitants of the outskirts flocked to this program. A guaranteed home, food and water, what wasn’t there to love. Oh and obviously, the false pretense of defeating the ‘monsters’ that had made life miserable on the outskirts. I wasn’t surprised when I woke up to see my mum had left that day. Almost half of our population had done so here in the outskirts, and over time, more and more people went. Those that remained now were the gangs, who had a good position in the region and didn’t want to forgo the power, kids below the age of 16 and some individuals like myself who didn’t hate life as much here. Anyways, I figured the military wasn’t what Roberto wanted to talk with me for so as we started walking I asked him about it.
“So what did you want to see me for?”
Roberto suddenly got very excited. Although good spirited in nature, it was rare to see him really excited about something happening. He smiled wide and looked at me.
“A telescope!”
“A telescope?”