The water slums were the shabbiest part of town, with rickety wooden houses filled with refugees, in the oppressive Haven City. The water was filled with mines and we were only protected from the outside world by a metal gate.

My family was fairly normal; our father had been killed by the metal heads and our mother had no job while I had two siblings, an older brother, Rik and a younger brother, Jay.

We lived in one of the shacks squished up in the middle of the lagoon with around three other families in similar circumstances. Rik was our only source of income, with a job shifting fish in the port. It was nowhere near enough to keep us alive and I had become the food collector of our family.

I didn't have the heart to admit to my family that I got our food by travelling out the city gates and braving the metal heads. Most of our food was mangoes and fruit picked off the trees as well as the meat from all of the lizards that haunted the outer walls.

The people in my house got suspicious but they didn't question me because they needed the food and supplies. My boots were made of metal head and lizard hide and so was my jacket and so was most of our stuff. We wouldn't survive without any of the supplies from outside the wall and there was no way I would stop my ventures even if the baron himself came knocking at my door.

My daytimes consisted mostly of wandering the pumping station. I sometimes snuck into the hover bike races but you could only do it so many times before you got caught and I wasn't one to try my luck. As if I even had luck in Haven City.

I was just starting my usual rounds, picking up some lizards and fruit when I heard something up higher on the hill. I swung up onto a hanging tree branch before flinging myself up onto the ledge. The noise was coming from a tiny orange thing glistening on the ground. As I stepped towards it, I heard more rustling in the trees and a dozen Krimzon Guards had me surrounded.

Their commander stepped forwards as another yelled, "You're under arrest!"

As another two stepped towards me and handcuffed my hands behind my back.

They were about to pull me away when the commander said, "stop," quietly. I looked up at the man's face with disgust. He was the commander of the Krimzon Guard, the worst of the lot and even the lowest scum in their forces deserved to die. "I have a better idea. Take her with us to the…" but the rest of his words died out as he drifted out of focus and I fell unconscious to the ground.