Clinging onto the ledge and hanging for dear life, I manage to snatch a piece of bread off the display and swing myself back up the ledge using my legs.
I then climb up the rusty ladder.
A piece fell off. The people below me stir.
Panicking, I scramble up the creaky ladder, cutting myself in the process. Itโs a very deep cut, practically ripping my entire palm open.
I bite back the urge to scream a curse word and finally make it to the top of the roof. Thatโs when I hear them.
Ducking under a platform, I hold my breath as they get nearer.
I say โtheyโ because I honestly have no clue what their names are. They look like giant insects, except you replace the wings with sawblades and the pincers with chainsaws. And the chainsaws are on fire. And both of the blades are poisoned. And the things can fly. Did I mention theyโre ten times larger than a human?
One climbs over the platform Iโm on. I hear itโs jumbled up voice speaking to itโs otherโฆfriends? Companions?
Donโt speak, don't breathe, don't make a sound.
It begins to crawl off, then stops, screeching so loud I lose the ability to hear for a few minutes. My left ear recovers first, but I touch my left ear and when I draw it back, under the dim sunlight mostly obscured by the thing, thereโs blood.
Fighting the urge to just expose myself and be done with life, I draw my hand back to the damaged ear.
Keep cupping it, Iโll be over soon.
I try not to cry out, as the hand I ripped open climbing up the ladderโs blood started dripping onto my lap. It hurts more than when I got shot, and thatโs something.
At least my ear feels better than it did when that horrible thing burst it
I should be used to this by now, I think to myself.
I gently hold the bread over my head so it doesnโt get soaked with my blood. People donโt like eating half-moldy bread with blood on it. I figured that out pretty early in my escapades.
The thing bangs itโs head on something again. Below, I hear some random stranger yelling profanities at it.
You stupid pitiful bastard. Must be new around here. Well, you wonโt be here anymore.
The building- and my hiding place- shutters as an insect-bot thing leaps off it, attacking the person. He doesnโt even manage to scream.
New record for how fast they can kill something.
The bot roars in triumph and jumps back onto the battered building for the second time. I held my breath as the force of it almost knocked me out.
I see blood on itโs jaws. So, so much blood. Iโm too busy trying to close my eyes, I don't notice something falling on my lap.
Interesting.
I pocket it and wait for everything to be over and try not to vomit.
I fail at that task, sadly. Luckily I was mostly silent, and it was mostly water. Iโm already skins and bones anyway.
Itโs half past one when I finally get to move again.
~~~
โOh. Youโre back.โ
I roll my eyes.
โThank you for giving me such a nice welcome.โ
He punches my shoulder.
โWhere were you? It took three hours for some berries andโฆwhat, a damn piece of bread?โ
โShut it, you spent all night on two apples.โ
He clears his throat to snap back at me, but someone stops him.
โNow now, no need to get annoyed with each other.โ
The girl beams at me. I swear she likes me, but I donโt like her. Go figure.
โShove off.โ The boy orders her. She shoves him instead, and he flips her off. I tsk-tsk-tsk at that and give him a little kick.
Theyโre related, but you wouldnโt know when you first saw them. The girl has dirty blonde hair that she tried to dye herself- emphasis on tried. She wears a tattered dress, which she made herself out of the meager supplies we have. Itโs a rather bold dark mauve color. Lord knows where she scavenged the wool from. On her hair is a flower pin, a lilac. From what I know, her mom gave it to her before their house was blown up. Her brother, older than her by ten minutes, has navy colored hair with a white streak running through it. He wears all black and covers almost every inch of his body with something. Fingerless gloves, a barely functioning watch, a black long-sleeved shirt, long black pants that were torn on the bottom, socks that his sister knitted for him(they were brown but he threw coal all over them so that they looked black- if you didnโt look so close) and boots with heels. He didnโt care that they had heels, and neither did I, to be honest.
I call them Sister and Brother, Sis and Bee for short. They call me Cal, which is short for Companion. I know, very imaginative, but we donโt have names in this world. No one does. Which is why we need to improvise.
After changing my vomit-stained clothes into a โfreshโ new pair(which was really just secondhand jeans from Bee and an oversized t-shirt, hence the sarcastic โfReShโ), I start bandaging my hand, winching a little as I go over a sensitive spot. I see Sis preparing to help me fix my ear, and I distract her before itโs too late.
โSis, can you get the tea before it boils over again?โ
โOhh, of course!โ
She smiles and walks off, but not before blowing a kiss at me. I shiver, but thankfully she doesnโt notice.
Bee does, though.
โIf what she does pisses you off then tell her to stop!โ
โIโm not you, Bee, I canโt just say โStop it!โโ
He sighs.
โYou can. You can say it. Iโve seen you say that to her before.โ
โThat was different.โ
Another sigh. Then silence.
โPass me the black nail polish.โ
Bee is the total opposite of his name. When you think of โBeeโ you think of a cheerful and upbeat fellow, but my mate Bee is a sarcastic and glass half empty type of guy. Meanwhile, his sister, who we helpfully called Sis, is way too happy, always optimistic, and glass all the way full person.
Sis walks back with the teacups. She hands me mine first.
โHere, because you were so brave and cool today! I even sugared it.โ She smiled at me, showing off her perfect teeth. I resist the urge to kick her under the table.
โYeahโฆthanks.โ I say. Bee shoots me a look. I make a zipping motion with my finger, and he rolls his eyes and roughly snatches his cup of tea from Sisโs hands, spilling some on her and himself in the process.
I sip from my cup, ignoring the fact that I donโt even like sugar as the two twins start another row. Opening a small leather book, I leaf through the pages, stopping at the bug bots I wrote down myself.
As I read through it one more time, I gingerly touch my right ear.
Damnnit, still no sound.
Bee wordlessly sits down next to me and keeps painting his nails. Sis comes to sit down too, and we all quietly drink our tea and do our own stuff.
Above us, something explodes. I hear a bug bot-I figure thatโs their name, in this nameless world- tearing something apart.
Up there, we risk our lives, taking turns stealing food from the rich idiots that live safe in their houses, while the poor have to hide and many get killed every day.
But our bunker is safe, too.
For now, anyway.
Then thereโs something scuttling down the ladder, and before the three of us can do anything a girl with light green hair jumps from the ladder to greet us.
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48 comments
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfQvbZX8HyVHfKvfuqSr1I7LgBihADWEJH2-AcFadmiJ5yFig/viewform Hello please do this
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Oooh ok!
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D O N E
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Thanks! Sorry it didn't let you type the first questions :|
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It's fine lol
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Ooooo very intriguing, I must say. I like how you donโt dump a ton of backstory on us, but rather spaced the backstory out to keep the readers going. Very nice plot line and character development. I found 1 slight thing you could change: โLuckily I was mostly silent, and it was mostly water anyway. Iโm already skins and bones anyway.โ Both of the โanywaysโ at the end take away the effect, so maybe delete one. Nice jobbbbbb :D
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Thanks for the feedback, Moon! It means a lot :D oH nO i fOrGot aBOuT thAt pARt *implodes* I'll go change it lolol Tyyy ๐๐๐
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Np :) Lol :)
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XD :DDDDDDD
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:))))) how r u?
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im nice, hru?
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Oh my gosh, your nameless world is just as cool as mine. No, it's EVEN COOLER! Also your profile is really neat :)
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Thank you, and I love yours too hhh Aw thanks! Ethan supremacy >:) I love yours too, Zephyr is so coot kdsjiui
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Yeah! I think I want a Hamilton pic soon but I can't find one I want
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Oooh maybe I'll do one of those too after I'm done with this one xD
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Ooh yeah twins
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yes also WOAH THAT PROFILE CHANGE I LUV IT IDWJSLOIDU
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This has nothing to do with the story (though it was amazing) but I see you have fallen into the Hamiltrash hole. Good luck, once you go in, you can never come back out :")
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oH nOnOnOnSANSiwdoiewd- xD were you in it too also ty
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Bestie not were "am" Np :)
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LOL :D
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I have this tradition of watching Hamilton once every termly holiday ...it's low-key a problem.
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HAHHAHAAHHA time to make my problem too/j
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<removed by user>
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Yes ๐/j
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