Subject Nightingale 1: Birth and Death (10 page)

“
Is that a bird!?” Whisper interrupted her thoughts when she spotted it. “Oh man, I've never seen a real bird before!” She tugged Nightingale's hand to try and bring her lower, but Elise gave Whisper's hand a tug in response.

“
You can look later, we're running out of time.” Elise hurried them along. “Our grocery list just grew pretty large—we need a whole new set of clothes, enough food for another person, a bag, a water bottle, sleeping things... All the stuff needed to get Nightingale started.”

“
Get me started with what?” she asked.

“
Started living!” Whisper answered.

Chapter 11
Lay of the Land
 

Nightingale looked all over as Elise and Whisper led her through the city. She couldn't help but look behind herself every several steps, worried that someone from the Lab was going to grab her. They never wanted her to leave, so she assumed they were going to be chasing her down. But they had their chance, right? She had apparently been asleep in an alley for two days straight—if they wanted to find her, wouldn't they have done so by now?

“Don't look so suspicious,” Whisper said.

Nightingale frowned and looked down at the girl. “Why do I look suspicious?”

“Because you're covered in blood and looking all around like a suspicious person!” She reached up to tug on the hemline of the stained shirt. “What is that, anyway? It looks like someone splashed paint all over you.”

“
Quit bugging her, Whisper,” Elise chimed in next.

“
Fiiiine
,” Whisper whined with a sigh, and then went back to walking quietly.

Nightingale was back to looking all over after that, but instead of keeping an eye out for someone from ECHO, she was taking in her surroundings. Everywhere she looked she saw people huddled in alleyways; gathered around steel-drum fires, roasting some sort of unappetizing meat, or just sitting on the ground existing. The apartment buildings only looked a little better—they were run-down and boarded up, most likely filled to overcapacity, but at least those residents had a roof over their heads...

The local businesses didn't appear to be in much better shape than the apartment buildings. Many of their storefront windows were cracked and taped up, and none of the shops appeared to be particularly thriving.

“
You actually live here?” Nightingale eventually asked.

“
Yeah, we've got a pretty nice spot in an alley, it's not too far from here,” Elise answered.

“
It doesn't look very safe.”

“
Believe it or not, there are worse places we could be living,” she said. She proceeded to explain when Nightingale returned a quizzical expression. “Unofficially, White Rain Falls is divided into three rings: There's the inner, which is pretty nice because it's so close to the main tunnels. The cops still keep things under control over there, mainly to keep the riffraff like us outta the higher levels. But White Rain Falls is still pretty low on the totem pole, so even that area is kinda crummy...

“
Next you have the middle ring, which is where we live—it's mostly safe, as long as you don't stray too close to the outer circle.”

“
What's the outer circle like?” Nightingale hardly needed to ask to wager a pretty safe guess, but the chatting was helping to settle her nerves.

“
It can be pretty nasty,” Elise said. “The cops hardly ever go out that far, so the people over there just kinda do whatever they want... But we're right at that perfect spot: close enough to the inner circle so there's order, but far enough from the tunnels so the cops don't hassle us.”

“
The tunnels?”

“
Yeah, the tunnels you ran through, right?” Elise stopped on the sidewalk and pointed up toward the center of the disc above them. A gigantic cylinder extended from its center, but Nightingale lost it in the rooftops as she followed it down with her gaze. It was pretty far away. “It's how people get up and down.” They started walking again.

“
What's...what's up there?” Nightingale asked. She didn't suspect Elise knew anything about the Lab, but it couldn't hurt to ask, right? She seemed to know everything else about this place.

Instead, she was answered with a puzzled expression. “More cities...” she said quietly. “Are you messing with me?”

Nightingale shook her head in response. “No, I don't think so...”

“
There are cities up there, Nightingale, and below us. Did you really not know that?”

“
Yeah!” Whisper piped up next. “You said you came from up top, didn't you? You should know all about it up there! Like, what do rich people eat? What are your homes like? How big are your beds!?”

“
I'm not rich,” Nightingale insisted. “And I don't know anything about this place... I just woke up in some building, I don't remember anything...” She stared at her feet as she walked, hardly realizing how honest she was being.

“
Well, that's okay,” Elise said. “You don't have to tell us. Everyone who lives on the streets had some sad thing happen to them in the past that forced them out.”

“
What matters now is that we're here, and that we keep moving forward!” Whisper exclaimed, having heard this speech before. “Right, Elise?”

“
That's right!” Elise grabbed Whisper's waist and lifted her off the ground, heaving the smaller girl up and onto her shoulders.

Whisper squealed with laughter and held on to her sister's head for balance.

“Now come on, we're gonna be late!” She took off running, and Nightingale felt worried for Whisper. She didn't look particularly sturdy up there...

Chapter 12
Humble(?) Beginnings
 

Nightingale was surprised to learn that
the pit
was actually
a garbage pit
—nothing more than a giant hole packed to the brim with recently discarded items (mostly just random clutter). Aside from the expected over-stuffed black trash bags, everything from broken plates to busted furniture to torn clothes could be spotted from the edge, just waiting to be foraged.

“
This is it?” Nightingale asked, nearly shouting over the sound of the giant ventilation fans that protected the city from the scent of garbage.

The ground surrounding the pit was paved, and painted with warnings such as
Danger: Loose garbage
,
Keep out
, and
No foraging
. Elise and Whisper paid the warnings no mind, though, walking right up to the edge of the pit and scoping out a safe route.

“
Where's all this come from?” She was thankful for the ventilation, to say the least—the fans sucked the odor away with such power, Nightingale could hardly smell it despite being right beside it.

“
Up top!” Whisper answered. “We're pretty far down, and we don't think too many people pick through it before it reaches us. So by the time it gets down here, we get the best stuff!”

“
Over here, Whisper,” Elise called out and waved her sister over. “See the path? Right over the bureau and onto the mattress, just like earlier.”

Whisper nodded and took a few steps back from the edge to get a running start. She ran and let out a quiet shout when she jumped, clearing the three-foot gap easily enough, and then Elise followed. She waved Nightingale over next.

“Are we allowed to be doing this?” she asked, hesitant to dive headfirst into a hole full of trash. She stood at the edge and peered down the gap, but it was only several feet deep—naturally, ending in more garbage. She could see between some openings in the junk, but the actual bottom was too far down to spot.

“
Sure!” Whisper answered. “Those people threw all this stuff out, what do they care if we look through it and take a few things?”

“
I guess she's got a point, right?” She looked at the nightingale on her shoulder, but it just chirped and fluttered away. Nightingale sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “Yeah, I don't blame you.”

“
Come on, Nightingale!” Elise urged. “We don't have a lot of time before the place is emptied!”

Nightingale rushed toward the gap and leapt over it, landing on the bureau with a bit of a huff. She still felt weak from hardly eating recently, and she grabbed her head when she became a little dizzy.

“Are you alright?” Elise asked as Whisper got to work, looking through the least offensively smelling bags and piles first.

“
Yeah, just hungry,” she answered. “What are we looking for?” She still wasn't excited about foraging like this, but she didn't see many other options. She needed to learn how to do this—like Elise said, she needed to just keep moving forward.

“
Whisper will help you find clothes. I'll take care of everything else.”

Nightingale nodded and walked past Elise, over to where Whisper was standing on an old mattress and poking at bags with a stick. “What, um...” she started, but then stopped herself to watch for a moment. “It looks like you've got a pretty technical process figured out...”

“Yeah, it's pretty scientific,” Whisper answered without looking up.

Nightingale cracked a smile. “Wanna show me what you're doing?”

“I'm looking for bags that feel like they have clothes in them. You'll know when you find one, so grab yourself a good stick!”

“
A
good
stick?” Nightingale frowned thoughtfully and looked around. She spotted a three-foot long rusty piece of rebar laying atop some broken concrete, so she grabbed it to show Whisper. “How's this?”

Whisper glanced over her shoulder and nodded her approval, and Nightingale began poking at the many black bags around them.

Meanwhile, Elise had moved several yards away, climbing carefully over stacks of busted furniture. She found a solid desk to stand on at the top of a pile, and put her hands on her hips as she surveyed the area. There were several trash bags a few feet beneath her, right in front of a plush office chair. She sat on the edge of the desk and then slid off, and landed seated right in the chair.

She retrieved a three-inch pocketknife from her pocket and flipped it open with a flick of her wrist. She jabbed the blade into the bag and tore it open, and then grinned wide at its contents. “Jackpot!” she shouted over the fans.

Whisper looked up when she heard Elise announce her good fortune, and then turned her attention to Nightingale when she announced the same.

“
I found one!” she said, heaving a packed bag onto the mattress. “At least, I think. It feels like clothes, right?”

Whisper grabbed the bag with both hands and tore it open. As expected, it was full of clothes—pants, shirts, coats, even hats and gloves. “Wow, this is great!” she shouted. “Elise, we hit it big, too!”

“A lot of these look torn, though,” Nightingale said as she reached into the bag to inspect a few of the articles. She pulled out a black T-shirt with several crimson butterflies printed on its side, the design wrapping from the right hip around to its front and back. Her eyebrows lifted at seeing it—despite a tear nearly separating one of the short sleeves from the rest of the shirt, she immediately liked it.

“
Aw, that's a pretty shirt!” Whisper said, looking up at it, her tone suddenly jealous. “It looks like the perfect size for you, too!”

“
You think?” Nightingale asked, holding it up to her torso. It looked like it would fit just fine.

“
And don't worry about any tears, I can stitch them up, no problem!” She pulled a pair of jeans out of the bag and held them up to Nightingale's hips. “People throw their clothes out without even trying to fix them. With some thread and a needle, though, an outfit can last forever!” The pants looked like they would fit, so she tossed them up and over Nightingale's shoulder for her to hold.

“
Heads up!” Elise called, and tossed a black and red backpack to Nightingale.

It felt like it was pretty packed, so she opened it up to look inside: half a loaf of packaged bread, bottles and jars a quarter-filled with condiments and spreads, silverware, a mostly intact glass plate and other kitchen supplies, even a nearly empty shampoo bottle.

“Wow, you really did hit the jackpot!” Whisper exclaimed upon seeing all the items.

“
You found all this stuff over there?” Nightingale asked, looking between its contents and Elise.

“
Yep! We share everything evenly, but the bag, water bottle, and clothes are yours—so keep an eye on them, alright?”

“
Roger!” Nightingale nodded excitedly and zipped up the bag, then slung it over her shoulders. She was already feeling better about her situation now that she had a bag of food on her back.

“
How'd you two make out?” Elise asked next, looking over the bag of clothes, and the outfit Nightingale was holding.

“
We found a bunch of clothes!” Whisper showed her sister the open bag. “We even found some winter stuff!”

“
Wow, a whole bag?” Elise's eyes went a little wide. “Well, we've only got a few minutes left—pack it all up so we can get going, we'll look it over when we get back home.” She looked at Nightingale. “Do you wanna change before we go? You can just leave your dirty clothes here.”

“
Change out here?” Nightingale frowned and looked around the area.

“
Sure, there's nobody around—just be quick.” She turned her back to give her some privacy, kneeling beside Whisper to help pack the clothes into their backpacks.

Nightingale looked around for a moment longer; the place did look rather abandoned... She dropped her backpack and slipped out of her bloodstained white outfit, and quickly into the clothes they had found. The jeans and T-shirt were a perfect fit, and she was already feeling more comfortable. She smiled and looked down at herself, touching the butterfly design on the side of her shirt.

“How's it look?” she asked.

Elise glanced over her shoulder, and then she and Whisper stood once they were finished packing everything up. “Good! You look like a real girl, now, not like an escaped mental patient!” Elise laughed.

“That shirt's so cute!” Whisper said. “Don't ruin it! I wanna wear it when I'm as big as you, okay?”

Nightingale smiled, and laughed for the first time. She nodded and grabbed her backpack. “Sure thing—as long as you patch up any holes, I'll do my best to keep it nice and safe.”

“Yeah!” Whisper cheered and grabbed her backpack, and the three of them made their way out of the pit.

“
Phew!” Elise said once they were back on the pavement. A warning siren blared, and Nightingale's eyes widened when the ground began to rumble. “Looks like we made it just in time!”

The sisters turned to watch the pit, and Nightingale did the same once she noticed where they were looking. As if the ground at the very bottom of the hole was opening up, all the garbage and clutter began to sink. The piles shifted and collapsed on themselves, and soon, they were staring at a massive, empty hole.

“We almost got swallowed by that thing!?” Nightingale shouted. “Why'd we have to cut it so close!? Why didn't you tell me!?”

“
We did!” Whisper said. “We told you it was gonna be emptied soon—it's emptied every day at six!”

“
It's fine,” Elise said, “we didn't get swallowed. We don't usually come here this late, but we needed to pick up a few extra things.”

Nightingale sighed and ran her quivering fingers through her hair, suddenly nervous at the thought of being stuck in there at six. The weight of the bag on her back helped to settle her nerves, though—it looked like they had found a lot of good stuff, so she didn't let herself get too stressed out about it. She took in a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly. “Well... I guess you're right. But I hope the water doesn't come from some bottomless pit, too...”

“It does, but you don't have to worry about falling into this one,” Elise said as they headed away from the pit.

As they started their trek, the nightingale returned to land on her shoulder. “Where were you during all this, huh?” Nightingale asked it quietly, and reached up to stroke its back gently. She shut her eyes and cringed slightly at a minor pinch in her head—it only lasted for a second.

She saw the bird soaring high above the pit; she spotted herself and the sisters before it dive-bombed straight down toward an open bag of food. It perched on the edge of the bag and began pecking at a group of maggots devouring the leftovers, quite resourcefully finding its own meal.

“
Yuck,” Nightingale said once she snapped out of it, shaking her head to pull herself completely from the vision. “Birds are gross,” she muttered.

“
Hey, yeah, where'd you find that bird?” The quiet comment reminded Whisper about it.

“
Actually, she found me,” Nightingale answered.

The bird fluttered off Nightingale's shoulder and landed on Whisper's, and Whisper gasped in surprise. She lifted her hand toward it and it hopped onto her finger, and she lifted it to eye-level. “Wow, I think she likes me!” She was smiling ear to ear. “She's so pretty! Does she have a name?” She stroked the bird's back with her other hand, and it chirped happily.

Nightingale shook her head. “Not that she's told me.”

“
Well maybe we should think of one for her. What kind of bird is she?”

“
She's a nightingale.”

“
Really!?” Whisper looked up at Nightingale. “Your name is Nightingale, and you have a pet nightingale!? You're totally like a superhero!”

“
Oh! That reminds me, Whisper!” Elise said suddenly, removing her backpack to rummage around inside. She pulled a thin comic book from her bag and passed it to Whisper.

“
Oh man, is that...!?” Whisper shouted excitedly. The bird flew back to Nightingale when she reached for the comic with both hands, snatching it away from her sister and pulling it close to her face. “M-mis... Mister,” she began, sounding out the words, “Mister Co—Mister Coffin, Vol...ume...three!?” Her eyes went wide as saucers and she looked up at Elise. “It is, it's volume three! Can we read this later, Elise!?”

Elise couldn't help but smile at Whisper's excitement. She nodded and took the comic book, placing it back in her bag for safekeeping. “Sure, we can use it for practice tonight—
if
you behave for the rest of the day, alright?”

“
Yeah!” Whisper cheered and pumped her fist in celebration. “Oh man, Mister Coffin's so cool! Have you ever read it, Nightingale!?”

Nightingale just shook her head. She couldn't help but smile, too; Whisper's excitement was pretty infectious.