A/N: Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I did creative writing (outside of class assignments)! Of course, I had my reasons why writing was extremely difficult in the past, but now I am available to do so and I'm trying to push myself to write more often now. This will be my first story with multiple chapters, but I currently don't have everything planned out, so I just hope that I don't abandon it…heh heh. Hopefully I didn't just spoil the mood before you could start reading! Please enjoy the story and remember, constructive criticism isn't rude, it helps me become a better writer, so if you see any problems in my writing, please include it in your comment at the end of the chapter!
"Get back here, you piece of shit!" the merchant yelled as a scrawny teenage girl came barreling out of the front door of his shop. She threw a quick glace over her shoulder, emerald green eyes glimmering with delight. A single loaf of bread flew out of the filthy sack on her shoulder as she rushed around a corner in between two buildings. Well, there goes two whole days of food rations…, the girl thought, weaving around the various disorganized alleys. She pulled the sack up her shoulder protectively as she jogged past a group of people sprawled out in the dirt with hollow cheeks and empty looks in their eyes. Though she wasn't much better off than them, a sense of guilt washed over her as she passed by with a bag filled with baked goods. Focus on your mission, Lea.
Lea slowed her pace to a casual walk as she observed each home she passed, searching for a specific place. When she approached the house she was looking for, she casually slipped behind it. Her eyes scanned the vicinity to make sure nobody was nearby, then gently knocked on the backdoor beside her. The rusty hinges wailed in reluctance as a man cracked the door open.
"Well? You gonna hand it over or did you fuck it up?" the deep voice commanded. Lea pulled the sack off of her shoulder and reached into the bag. Carefully, her arm emerged from its depths, grasping a thick, unsealed scroll. The man immediately reached through the opening in the door, snatched it out of her hands, and slammed the door shut. The sound of paper rustling slipped through the cracks of the door as Lea stood patiently outside. "And he didn't notice you stole his business records, correct?"
"He only noticed me as I was leaving with the bread, I'm positive he thinks I stole food."
"And the forgery?"
"Common handwriting. Making a revised copy was almost too easy."
Without exchanging another word, the man opened the doorway once more, holding a bundle of cash. Lea quickly grabbed the money and stuffed it into the sack, then glanced up at the man to make her last remark. "Remember me next time someone you know needs some work done." He stared at her for a moment, then slammed the door in her face, puffing up a small cloud of dust onto her boots. Lea placed her hands on her hips as she glared at the door for a moment and flicked the short, dark brown bangs out of her left eye. Prick… She backed out of the alley and made her way deeper into the city to go home.
Even though nearly everyone in the Underground District was suffering from poverty, homes generally got cheaper as you moved farther away from the center. The merchants rigging the economy and some other wealthier men owned the homes in the center since they were built the largest, the first, and the closest to the main market, which was camped in the center of the city. As Lea waved her way deeper and deeper towards the edges of the city, the houses began to become visibly lower in quality. More factories were cluttered in between the houses, desperately built as close to the ceiling vents as possible so that smokestacks could be built and vented out into the surface world's air. She stared up at a dirty smokestack looming above her and unconsciously rubbed her hands on her pant legs, thinking of the filth clinging to the insides which dirtied every shirt she ever owned until she had to recycle them for tinder. Her eyes wandered down to the forest green shirt she was wearing, which hung onto her body like a filthy, worn rag, and examined the soot she was unable to wash out. It was handling the dirt and wear well, but she'd need to set aside expenses to buy a new one after a few more cleaning jobs. She focused her eyes forward on the alleyway as someone began trudging down the alleyway towards her, a zombie-like expression making his hollowed cheeks and large eyes even more noticeable. The two pushed themselves as close to the walls of the houses as possible, but still ended up gently bumping shoulders as they walked by. When the cheaper homes were being built in the underground, the alleyways also became an unfortunate victim as well, gradually getting narrower until you could barely fit a single person in it.
As she neared the farthest outskirts of the district, the walls on the ends visible in stronger detail, Lea happily trotted down the narrow alley, realizing she was almost at her home. Just in time, as well. Painful aches started to work her way through the nerves in her legs and she felt her muscles gradually weakening, starting to give out from the minimal strain she forced upon them earlier today. As she approached the very last houses on the edge of the district, a woman opened the door of her home, which resided on the bottom floor of a 4 family house, each with only a single room and just barely enough height to stand upright. Her home was on the bottom floor, about 70% underground with small windows level with the sidewalks, and on the other side, the edge of her ceiling.
"Ah, Lea, you're already back home from work." the middle aged woman smiled as Lea approached her.
"Yes, and I've brought you a gift as well!" Lea reached into her sack and fished out a loaf of bread.
"You brought food! I knew you were making more money and all, but I didn't know you could afford all this extra food," she chucked in confusion, gesturing at the open sack filled with bakery foods with one hand as Lea placed the bread in her other. "Thank you very much, dear. You are too kind to this family."
Lea smiled, throwing the sack back over her shoulder, then walked away from the last houses, onto the rocky edges of the district. She climbed over the large boulders which marked the undeniable end of this district wall to the builders from centuries in the past. Most would struggle to climb these steep rocks without taking extreme caution, but Lea, highly experienced with climbing, vaulted her way up the jagged rocks with ease, not slipping or taking a single misstep. Finally, she vaulted herself over the largest rock and saw her home.
Her body dropped down a few feet with a thud into the crevasse: a somewhat flat rock surrounded by the outermost wall of the Underground District and boulders which were all at least 4 feet above the rock floor. A burnt brown carpet, stolen from a home which had caught flames, was sprawled across the center of the earthy cavity. Nearest to the wall, a brown, lumpy mattress, which had been originally been white, laid across the floor with only a single red blanket to keep her warm.
Her empty stomach grumbled as sauntered across her home. The bread called out to her, its warmth and heavenly smell wafting out of the old sack. Lea immediately reached in and snatched a loaf, debating on whether she should ration it or eat the whole thing now. Her eyes glanced away from the delicacy, focusing on the miscolored object below. The cash. Her scrawny arm immediately reached into the bag and pulled it out.
Does this mean I have enough…? Her opposing hand went limp, dropping the bread onto the rocky floor as she rushed across the room and reached underneath the mattress. She pulled her arm out, holding a large stack of cash, which she immediately combined with her new income and began to count.
"I have enough money to pay the stair fee…" she placed a portion on the mattress in front of her and continued to count.
"Enough to cover a few weeks of food and…" As she counted the last portion, her legs began to wobble in both excitement and pain. She stumbled, nearly collapsing onto the floor, and dragged herself onto the mattress.
"I have enough money to get treatment for my legs…" A small smile grew on her face as she rubbed her diseased, slightly numb thighs which were sprawled out in front of her. "I may not be able to get citizenship on the surface, but at least I can see how beautiful it is up there for a little while and I'll finally be able to walk properly again." She gently placed her medication funds at the end of the row of neatly stacked bills beside her and rifled through the extra money in her hands as she gazed forward in thought. Her body was twitching with energy; all she wanted to do was twirl around in excitement, but running away from that merchant, heck, even dropping about five feet into her home, all took a heavy toll on her legs. It would be at least half an hour before she'd have the strength to start walking around.
Well, it could be worse, she sighed, leaning her head against the rocky ledge behind her, and at least I'm only in the early stages. I will be able to get treatment before it gets too bad, I'm lucky. Lea reached into the sheath on her hip and began mindlessly cleaning her knife with the bottom of her shirt. She wasn't very skilled with a knife, but she was able to use it efficiently enough to save her from some of the more dangerous jobs she did for extra cash. Of course, it was also great for cutting up her food, which served as its primary purpose. She paused. I wonder if I will ever need this for anything more than food on the surface… Hesitation and doubt began to crawl into her skin. What if the people on the surface were cruel? What if people tried to mug her or beat her? She shook her head and pounded her fist on the mattress.
"No. I'm not a child anymore. No pointless running or hesitation, I am going to the surface tomorrow," she snarled in affirmation in the empty space, staring intently at the crack in the boulder across from her.
Then, her mind absorbed the situation fully and she smiled ear-to-ear.
"I'm going to the surface tomorrow."
A/N: It's been so long since I wrote my last fanfic, and I've done barely any creative writing since then. Hopefully I wasn't too rusty. This chapter was a little on the shorter side; I hope to make future chapters be a few thousand words longer.
Also, I would love to know if I actually effectively tricked people with Lea's home. When you realized she didn't live in that house with the woman and read it back, did it make sense? Or did I word it in such a confusing way that it didn't make sense after you gained that new knowledge? Did you already figure out she didn't live there? I've never tried writing something like that before where you trick the reader to make a reveal more surprising, I'd love to know how I did.