Wind blew back her short, choppy black hair as she ran. She was twenty stories up in a blank, white landscape. She leapt gaps and climbed rails, performing feats that even a circus performer would have found terrifying. That is, if there were any circuses around anymore. She jumped from one building to another that was four floors shorter. Undeterred, she tumbled as she hit the roof top, then popped up again and kept running. A single misplaced step could send her plummeting to her demise, and yet…
And yet she felt the most alive she had in ages.
This, these rooftops, this was her home. She could run them forever and never tire, never bore. She grinned as she used a pair of stacked boxes to launch herself up, where she grabbed hold of a cable. She slid down it, barely suppressing a joyful shriek of "Wa-hoo!" Releasing at the perfect moment, her fall was cushioned by a soft stack of cardboard. She stood and caught a glimpse of herself in a reflective window. Dark, wild, tattooed, mysterious, beautiful. The sound of gunfire made her spring into action. Not even turning around, she jumped and slid down a slanted window, laughing as glass broke behind her.
This is the life.
0 0
She stumbled wearily into a bleached city. Occasional flashes of orange and blue terrified her to no end. People stared at her strange clothes and even stranger possessions. Suddenly, she spotted something black and red high above her. Used to cameras and deadly robots, she ducked into an alley and searched, hidden, for the source of said colors. High above her head, a woman, no older than herself, stood at the very edge of a building, oblivious to her curious onlooker.
Suddenly, the woman on the rooftop spotted her. Their eyes met. Despite the distance between them, each saw something in the other's eyes that knew they could trust them til the ends of the earth. Each showed age and wisdom far beyond their years.
The higher girl called out, "Can you Run?"
Run? I've been running for as long as I can remember. Confused, she nodded.
A wide smile broke out on the other woman's face. "Come on up!"
How? There was no elevator, no stairs. Just a few pipes. Oh, but there was a white concrete wall next to the woman.
Piece of cake.