Down and Out: A Young Adult Dystopian Adventure (The Undercity Series Book 1) (2 page)

Caden took Deb and scooted over while he stretched his legs out and got comfortable beside them. Jolon snuggled into the puffed up chair, and they got cozy. The constant faint hum of the air circulation system soothed their weary bodies much as Teddy imagined a stream of water would.

His brother yawned and tucked his hands under his head. “Don’t start with any stormy dark nights. At least, no dark; get enough in the day. Sumpin’ bright, ‘n daring.”

“An’ romantic,” Deb chipped in while Caden groaned.

“Please, no more mushy junk. It’s pathetic.”

“Thanks a lot, Cad. If you don’t like my adventures, don’t listen.”

“Nah, I like your stories, it’s...” She made a face at him over Deb’s head. “Well, ya got the imagination to do storms and such an’ make them interesting, but the romance stuff....”

He glared at her. “Yes?”

“Well, it’s all kinda; I don’t know, if that’s romance, I don’t want any.” She rolled to her stomach, her face unreadable.

Teddy studied her, suspecting something more to what she claimed, but he let it go. They both realized a while back any discussions about anything personal had to happen in a more private setting; otherwise, every subject became a family topic and led to endless embarrassment.

“Fine,” he said with a tang of bitterness and settled into his tale.

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T
he next morning, Teddy was stiff and sore with what felt like a permanent hollow in his side where Deb’s elbow spent the night. Since sunlight never touched any area of Undercity, they set their time by a pendulum clock, which stood in the centre courtyard of Uppercity where people gathered to socialize and trade with each other. The Upperlords determined the accuracy of this timepiece, and they judged their time by the position of the sun travelling over the greenhouses.

The chimes from the windup clock in the kitchen rang out with its whirring metallic bell; he rolled off the edge of his bed and stood, stretching. One of his parents must have come in and blew out the flame in the night, so the room was black. He patted the shelf by his bed until he found his tiny handlight and flicked it on long enough to light his tin and rag lamp again. The armchair lacked an occupant, and he decided his brother vacated to his own bed sometime in the night.

“Come on, let’s get breakfast before Jolon eats everything,” he said, scratching his head, the strands of hair greasy. Well, two more days to bathing day. He sniffed and decided by the musty strong odour in the room it couldn’t come too soon.

Caden twisted out of the blankets. “Ohhhahhhggg, yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” As she sat up, she wove her fingers in her curls. “Eh, perfect.”

“Problem?”

“Just the usual hair issues. Serves me right. Went to bed without covering it.  Never good.”

The whiff of potatocakes drifted in, and Deb went from inert to almost bouncing out of the room with a loud yell of “Fooooooood.”

Teddy laughed as he placed his lamp in a larger can and picked the holder up by the wire handle on the side. The makeshift lantern wasn’t the easiest thing to carry, but the flame kept the gloom back.

“Oh, help, she takes way too much energy.” His sister got up and patted his head as she left the room, her daily reminder she stood at least six inches above him.

He ignored her and wandered down the narrow hall. The icy cement nipped his bare feet and sent a chill up his spine. He entered the kitchen where warmth radiated from the stove—a sizeable metal tank their father made up and piped to vent the smoke. The cooker worked most of the time, his father being quite handy and resourceful. Sometimes his resourcefulness earned the favour of several Upperlords and provided the family with such luxuries as direct vents to the main purifier instead of recycled air. Teddy didn’t want to be negative about the community he lived in, but most people seemed to possess a high level of acceptance and lack of hunger for a society with little food and terrible living conditions.

Overall, their home was small and somewhat dilapidated, but the place was security to Teddy. He loved every corner even when washing day was a ways away and the dishes piled high in their bin.

“Oh, my loves,” their mother greeted with her hair everywhere and a wave of a half leg from a wooden chair. She turned and opened the stove door, shoving the wood in.

“Cakes are up and syrup is...” She squinted at the label on the jar. “Grape, I think.” She stuck a finger in and licked the digit spotless. “Still tastes good, though. Who wants some?”

Deb jumped up and down. “Me, me, me.”

Teddy added his lamp to the two on their rickety, stained plastic table, snatched a potatocake from the tray, and slathered jam all over the patty before curling it up and handing the roll, plateless to save water, to his sister. She snickered and shoved half in her mouth, her cheeks bulging.

Pa sat down on his stool and stuck his legs out in front of him. “Well, all Upper orders are filled and yesterday’s haul should satisfy any new inquiries for a while. Seems as though we’ve got a fragment of breathing space.” He beamed, excitement sparkling in his pale blue eyes. “So, I figure we dig through the southern corridor today.” He winked and scratched at his patchy beard. “Might be the big one. Promising, eh, Teddy?”

He swallowed hard as his father’s plan stirred a thrill in his chest. “Yep, ‘cording to the map.”

“If you can trust a wilted book with odd pages and weird pictures,” Caden mumbled as she picked at a potatocake.

“Hey, that was one of my best finds,” Jolon protested, his fists full of food.

Pa grasped Jolon’s shoulder as he bounced to his feet. “Hasn’t failed us yet. Whelp, let's get moving, my gophers. Who can tell what kinds of things we will find today?”

“But I’m not done.”

Ma fluffed Jolon’s curls. “Rest easy, dear, I want you to stay and help me and Deb transform yesterday’s booty.” She held out a thermos and a couple of packs of potatocakes and cookies. “Don’t forget these and tell your pa oil stocks are getting low so we might need to change to the gas torches if you can’t find any.”

Teddy stuffed the supplies in his survival stash before he slung the grey sack over his shoulders and adjusted the straps. He rushed after his father and sister while Deb shrieked with delight and his brother groaned, muttering complaints about having to do all the disgusting work.

They entered the shadowy warehouse and collected their scrounging gear. Boxes, bags, and piles filled every corner in an ordered system only his mother understood. Their home was a secure fortress surrounded by cement walls and metal fences with a bridge across a broad crevice, isolating them from the worst of Undercity’s dangers.  Sometimes rival scroungers would try to break in, but never succeeded.

They did not make enough money to hire a brute, which the more respectable places owned, so they made do with two mangy dogs who slept most of the time. Critter was a huge, rugged creature more vicious in appearance than in nature, and Stub was, well, a tiny three-legged thing nastier than she appeared. Teddy didn’t carry much love for either of them, they stunk and drooled.

“Now,” his father began as they made their way through the cluttered racks, “I’m guessing we follow this staircase a while further. I don’t want you two to be nervous, but I’m not too certain where we are going.” He whistled and Critter came loping over, nails clicking on the cement, with Stub marching behind.

“What do you mean?” asked Teddy, exchanging puzzled glances with Caden. “I thought the map was pretty clear.”

He gave the dogs their breakfast, which they gulped and slurped faster than he poured the goopy leftovers into their bowl. “It is, but we’re heading into the more central part of the old city. We should locate lots of shops and other places to plunder, but we might find a higher concentration of...” He paused to put his effort into moving the wood and steel door hiding their access to the tunnels. The metal screeched and creaked, screaming in protest as the bottom scraped against cement. They helped, shoving with everything they had.

Pa huffed and cracked a wacky grin. He left the remainder of his last sentence behind and hoisted his bulging stash to his back. Teddy snatched up the lantern Ma created from little candles, jars, and wire. They worked where they had air. By doing so, they saved their handlights and batteries for the dead spaces.

A shiver trickled down his spine as it did when he explored the passages of the past. It was staggering to consider the many places they scrounged were once outside, exposed to the elements.

According to his schooling, history’s leaders had foreseen the vast meteor shower, which decimated their world. To prepare, they built an immense dome out of some advanced energy network they created in outer space. What they did not predict was the massive seismic backlash. Extensive sections of the protective net collapsed leaving only a small portion to live in thus creating Uppercity.

Still, he had a home, a family, and a means of making credits. Not much to some and luxury to others, but safe to them.

At first, the area was essentially impassable with rubble and garbage, but they were experts at dealing with such obstacles. Though the work was hard, they spent over a year cleaning them out and achieved much with few resources. Now, the passages were comfortable to travel.

The roof was good. Only three places sustained major damage and needed re-enforcing with beams and whatever else they scrounged up. They found few corpses along the way and those had decayed to skeletons. Those they disposed of with as much dignity as they could, sealing them up whenever they came to a little hovel leading nowhere else.

A scurrying, scratching sound echoed down the hall; they froze, waiting for more. Teddy gripped the blade he’d strapped to his side, searching for mutated rat dogs, crazed, vicious creatures, which lurked in the gaps and shadows. After one tried to rip his arm off, he always kept a sharp knife on him. His father was adept at killing the things though the scar on his face served as a reminder to them not to get overconfident.

“Might be shifting rubble,” Caden said with hope in her voice.

They waited a moment, but nothing happened. Pa sheathed his blade and agreed. “I guess all is clear. Go forth, gophers, go.”

Exhaling, Teddy let himself breathe again. He exchanged a grimace with her and caught up with their father.

“If we can discover one thing, that one amazing thing, we might move up and enjoy the sky,” Pa said.

He was a dreamer and Teddy understood because a day didn’t go by when he did not fantasize the same thing.

Caden rolled her amber eyes. “Yeah, yeah. The skies will part and the world will shift, and yada, yada, yada.”

He gave her a half hug. “Oh, come now, my pessimist, find hope and bring a smile to your beautiful face.”

She hid behind her hair, struggling with her difficulties with self-esteem. Teddy had seen her stare in mirrors and turn away in disgust.

Somehow, Pa had a healing effect on her. He was not so handsome with his scar, kinked back, and twisted leg, which made his toes point to the side. Perhaps the twinkle in his eyes and his addictive personality gave her comfort. His presence always improved Teddy’s mood.

“Dream with me, girl. Keep me young.”

Caden managed one of her rare smiles. “Fine,” she said with more affection than usual. “Oh, wow, wouldn’t it be wonderful?”

Teddy shared a chuckle with his father who lifted his lantern, casting light far along the corridor.

“It’ll do.”

“Don’t say anything,” she said as Pa guided them. “He’s happy, that’s what counts.”

“Okay,” he said and scrubbed his jaw to hide a smile though he understood his sister’s wariness.

She punched his arm. “Oh, stop.”

He could only imagine what her life was like in the Nest, the home of the traffickers who sold people to Adult Quarter scum of Uppercity. Some became brutes, some slaves, and others adult amusement. At least, that was a fate he avoided growing up. Every time he passed those seedier markets, he felt as though a thousand covetous eyes trailed after him. Eligible, desirable bodies were rare commodities Uppers valued, which was why their little sister never left their home. His parents itched to move up from the sewers to improve their daily comfort and for their protection.

‘A brute, this is what they need,’ his father would say and hug Deb close as she grew older. Apprehension showed in his eyes, so they all watched over her.

Teddy coughed as they reached a pocket of sour air. They slipped on masks and breathed in some oxygen from their tanks attached to their stash packs. It was not much, and they handled them with care, but the equipment allowed them to pass through various gas pockets and dead spots. They flicked on their handlights as their candles went out. Soon, they would reach the area where the passage would open up into a larger space. They stepped into the echoing chamber.

Caden shone her light toward the roof. “Hey, Teddy, if we can breathe the air filtering down from above, why can’t we dig our way to the surface and leave this city behind?”

He shrugged. “I think it involves the strength of the rays and the violence of the storms raging the on the sun. At least, that’s what my teacher used to say.”

“Hm.” She picked her way through the rubble. “The school thing didn’t give many answers, did it? Seemed to make more questions.”

He shrugged again. “They tried. Too bad you never went.”

“Yeah, well, the whole thing’s a vast pit now, isn’t it? No teachers, no books, just a hole leading to an even deeper hole.”

“Would you have liked to have gone?”

She kept her eyes on their father who was several feet in front of them. “I guess. Hey, Pa, are we going to go all day or do we get to stop and snack on something?”

He dropped his stash on the ground and sat down on the crumbled cement. “Good idea. Bring out the goodies.”

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A
while later, after they munched a potato pie and had a drink, they proceeded down another corridor and roamed the twists and turns, which terminated at a concrete staircase. Most times, they avoided stairs because they tended to be unsafe and often led nowhere. This particular set had a few cracks in the steps’ treads and risers but seemed sound enough.