Okay. So now things are beginning to come together quite quickly. We get development of more characters, and so things are all fine and well with that.

Did I mention that Curtis will start going in by day now?

Let's see the first time he goes deep into the District, shall we...?

The Return to the Journey

The day shift the next day seemed a little hectic to me.

But then again, that likely has much to do with the fact that it was also the first day I had entered the heart of District 10 and seen some of the horrible things that occurred within the district.

I forget exactly how I managed to get into the district; James and Abejide were both asking me what I was doing, and I had made a very quickly-constructed excuse for going into the district. I knew I would either have to get James and Abejide to see things from my side of the equation or continue making up excuses, and so I made up another excuse as I followed Harold at a distance into the heart of the district.

And instantly, the first sensation that hit me was the awful stench in the air. Despite the clean-cut look of the district in all of the pamplets that I had seen of the district, there was garbage just about everywhere in the district. It lent itself to the foul smell in the air that I found I absolutely could not stand.

As soon as the two of us were far enough in the district, Harold turned to me warily.

"I hope you're not too squeamish..." he said quickly.

"I don't think I am," I said. "But still, I can't help but wonder how the bloody hell you're able to stand this awful stench."

"We have different senses of smell from you," replied Harold. "This is not so bad to us as it is to you. It's still pretty bad, though..."

I shook my head, the thought that one could get used to such a smell partly making me squeamish. "I don't know how you can get used to it, then," I said. "This smell is awful!"

Harold shook his head nervously. "Come on," he said. "You said you wanted to see the district. Well, here you are..."

I nodded, and he began to move into the district itself. Nervously, I followed, trying my hardest not to mind the stench as I moved along behind the poleepkwa. I found it absolutely the most difficult thing I've had to do, however, and so I looked to the poleepkwa in front of me nervously.

"Caroline will be with us in a few seconds," he reassured me. "Don't worry."

I nodded, feeling a little better that Caroline would be with me. Because at least I knew that she cared, and that was more than enough for me to continue on. Thankfully, we did eventually run into her after a certain point. I nodded to her, trying my best to smile as I walked in.

She saw right past it, and tilted her head to the side, the antennae following.

"Are you uncomfortable?" she asked.

Grimacing slightly, I nodded.

"I can't stand the smell here," I said. "It's absolutely atrocious..."

The poleepkwa rolled her blue eyes to the side before looking at me. "Unfortunately," she said. "With all the junk that gets heaped on us here, it's hardly surprising..."

I nodded, knowing exactly what she meant by that statement. One would have thought that there would be very little junk laying around in District 10 given that it was far away from Johannesburg. However, given a few months and over two million aliens that scraped off of whatever last scrap of food they could find, there were bound to be junk heaps everywhere. And indeed, there were plenty of junk heaps just from the rations alone. Admittedly, however, the smell of all of the junk heaps combined was much stronger than what I had initially anticipated. After all, I had only expected aluminum cans left lying around. To think they would give off such a vicious smell was something I had not expected, of course.

I made this known quite quickly.

"But I would expect it wouldn't be as bad as this," I said.

Caroline shook her head. "You have no idea..." she said nervously as we moved on.

"Why do you think Matthew goes out?" asked Harold suddenly.

Thinking about this, I nodded. "I see your point," I said. "I think I'll shut up now and just look..."

"I'm afraid you might not like our first destination, then," said Caroline softly.

Raising an eyebrow, I looked to the woman. "Why not?" I asked.

"You'll see," said Harold nervously. "You'll see..."

Nervously, I nodded, not looking forward to what I was going to by the sound of Harold's slightly more agitated clicks.

I remember thinking to myself when I first saw our destination that I really should have seen it coming, but didn't for some odd reason or another.

When we stopped, I stood in front of a large junk heap, around which multiple poleepkwans were scavenging. It was not overly tall by any means, but it did take up about as much space as a tent normally would. I cringed in disgust, the smell getting ever so stronger.

But what shocked me the most about it was how many poleepkwans were invading the pile. All colors of poleepkwa were scavenging at the base of the junk pile, looking for various scraps of stuff. Occasionally, one came across what could be construed as an article of torn-up clothing and would walk away with that, and other times it would take in half-rotten meat and eat it. Most others came across a can of cat food and ran their feelers down the open can hoping to pick up a morsel. Afterwards, they all left, either by their own volition or because a more violent poleepkwa had come in and attempted to wrest them out.

The smell was bad enough, but seeing everything with the scavengers.

"This is disgusting!" I said, facing Caroline as I looked at the blue plates on the back of her head. "How the hell is this possible?"

"Months of rations and poleepkwans dying," replied Caroline. "This pile has been here for a long time."

I crossed my arms in front of me, not very amused by this. "But... Why this many people starving?"

Harold turned to me, brown plates shining in the sun as he regarded me. "I take it you don't deal in ration-giving..."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "That's another person's job. I'm supposed to make sure order is kept here..."

"I see..." said Harold, looking back at the pile sadly. "Nobody here really gets fed that well, I tell you. Mostly, you only get food if you go to the ration line early or if you have a child with you. I'm lucky because I bring Matthew with me whenever I get rations, and the whole tent is able to get enough food to go for a week without starving. Others aren't so lucky..."

I remember being appalled. "You mean, there are people that don't get any food at all?" I asked.

"Unfortunately," replied Caroline, looking down on the scavengers as they moved around. "And so, most of them have resorted to things like this. It's what Matthew does at another pile like this, actually."

My eyes widened in shock, looking at Caroline as she glanced down sadly. "You mean, there's more than just this pile?"

"They're all over the district," replied Harold glumly. "It's sad how many people you can see scavenging around in a day..."

At once, a stream of thoughts came into my mind. How horrible must it have been for the poor poleepkwans to wonder into the smell was the first thought that graced my mind, but another thing that occurred to me was how unsanitary the junk piles probably were. Another thing that had me thinking was all of the diseases that they could have possibly caught while trying to search for food. Even worse was the fact that the only meat there was likely half-rotten by the time they found it, and that the clothes were probably dirty. As well, I remembered that there was no place truly nearby for them to wash anything with water.

Shaking my head, I ran my hands through my hair as I looked to Caroline.

"And nobody cared to think about this when they placed the location for this district?" I asked.

"I don't think they cared, period," replied Caroline softly. "They just wanted us out of there..."

I shook my head, this new detail disturbing me to no end. I crossed my arms in front of me again, looking at Caroline and Harold. I was still in disbelief that I was seeing this, so I pinche myself lightly on the arm. Upon not waking up from a subtle nightmare, however, I groaned.

"Damn it..." I said. "Don't you have anywhere else to put your garbage?"

Harold turned to me, frowning slightly. "What do you mean by that?" he asked. From the way his clicks sounded, I realized I had unintentionally offended him.

"I didn't mean it like that!" I replied, stepping back. "I mean, think about it. This is spreading illness like there's no tomorrow! The junk heaps have food, sure, but some of it can kill the poor things faster! Can't you figure out a way to dispose of your trash that won't kill off your fellow poleepkwa?"

Harold's expression softened upon hearing me ask this, and looking down he shook his head.

"We tried," replied Caroline. "But the earth isn't deep enough to hold all of our garbage..."

"I wish something could be done about it," said Harold, looking dejectedly at me.

I nodded, knowing that he meant that I was the one he hoped would help his people.

"I can't promise anything," I said. "I am only a security guard, after all. But I know a higher-up, and I'll try..."

Harold nodded at me, a smile seeming to form on his mouthparts.

"Thank you," he said.

I couldn't help but feel right then that my attempts to help them would end up going nowhere, and the feeling of hopelessness was not helped by what I had seen that day.

It was thus with a heavy heart that I returned to my post before the day went out, Harold and Caroline not going with me for understandable reasons. Upon returning to my post, I simply sighed and nodded to James and Abejide.

"There was nothing there," I said.

The two of them noticed the slight waver in my voice, but thankfully chose not to say anything about it as I stood right next to them.

I was still a little perturbed about everything when I had gone to my night shift later. I was quite silent as I entered, which disturbed Marius a little bit as he knew I was usually a little more talkative than that. He did try to start a few conversations on topics I forget about, but I was still thinking back to the junk piles and how horrible life must have been if they were resorting to eating half-rotten meat to make sure they didn't starve to death. It was to the point where I was saying nothing much of my first trip deep within the distrct during that night shift.

Finally, though, Marius seemed to notice that I was being more silent than I had any right to be, and so he crossed his arms in front of him and looked at me.

"Curtis?" he asked. "Is something wrong?"

Blinking, I said nothing for a few seconds. Drumming my fingers along the barrel of my firearm, I finally spoke.

"I went deep within the district today," I said. "Caroline was with me..."

The Afrikaaner nodded. "And what you saw there was bad enough?"

I nodded. "Marius, you haven't the slightest idea..." I said. "There were these huge junk piles where these things were foraging for food and clothes... The sanitation must be awful... And there were aliens that were satisfied with half-rotten meat! I can't imagine why anyone would settle for something like that..."

Marius looked at me. "They did have to do that when they were still in District 9, you know," he replied.

I was surprised at this. "They did?" I asked.

"Unfortunately," said my companion. "They made a documentary on what happened just before the big move to here..."

"Really?" I asked. This came across as very strange for me, as I had never heard of such a documentary being done. "And it showed the same things as I saw here?"

Marius nodded. "Pretty much," he said. "It's kind of wierd, actually. You'd think MNU would do something about this, especially after the experiments were uncovered..."

"I heard about that," I said. "So you think there is something I can say about that if I were to talk to someone?"

We were both silent for a brief period of time, the two of us not even moving our limbs. The meaning of the question sank in, and then Marius turned to me with a mischievous grin on his face. He chuckled softly and in good humor.

"You conniving bastard!" he jokingly exclaimed. "Using Piet Smit to make things better? That's brilliant!"

I nodded, smiling as well as I realized how odd the situation really was. "I promised them I would try to do something about it," I replied. "And maybe I can pull a few strings..."

Marius nodded, still smiling. "I don't know if that would work, but damn it that's brilliant," he replied. "Good luck with that."

I nodded. "Thanks," I said. "The fact that they're still in squalid conditions doesn't make me feel much better, but I did need something like that..."

"Hey, you're my friend," replied Marius. "Friends are supposed to stand up for others when they're not feeling so good, right?"

Smiling at this bit of soothsaying, I nodded. "Yes," I said. "Thanks, Marius."

The Afrikaaner nodded, and we both struck up a short conversation almost immediately afterwards.

I was in a slightly better mood when I had gone to the tent again, and I nodded. When I entered, I saw Jonathan sitting there again, exactly where I had seen him sleeping the night before. This time, he sat up, looking to me as Jamecyn and David glanced at me from where they sat. Matthew had already fallen fast asleep, and Harold and Mark were both nowhere to be found. I looked to Caroline and Edward as they looked to me.

"Where's Harold?" I asked.

"Out," replied Jonathan. "They're helping Wilbur again..."

I nodded. "I wonder why he is such a problem..." I said.

"MNU has business with him..." said David. "Exactly what it is, I have no idea, as he never tells us what he did in the past..."

"I can imagine..." I said, thinking about what could have possibly happened with "Wilbur" again. "Why would Wilbur need help?"

Jamecyn shook her head. "It really pisses me off..." she said. "He's always moving around the district because of MNU. He can never stay in one place for long..."

"Oh dear..." I said. "It's that much of a problem, eh?"

"Unfortunately," said Jamecyn "Now if only he'd tell us what the fuck happened, then things would be better!"

Edward simply shook his head. "Now, now, Jamecyn, I'm not sure you have any right to talk about him like that..." he said.

"But he never opens his mouth!" said the dark green poleepkwa. "How am I supposed to know we can trust him?"

"Well, let me put it this way," I replied, putting my hands in front of me as I spoke. "The enemy of your enemy is your friend. Meaning that since both of you are out of favor with MNU, you have reason to trust him."

Jamecyn blinked at me nervously, not sure what to make of my advice. She nodded.

"I still don't think that's good enough, but whatever," she said.

Jonathan shrugged. "I mean, other times he's not much of a problem..." he said, rubbing some of his face plates. "It's just this one thing with MNU. But he tries to make sure the rest of us don't get hurt by him..."

I nodded. "There's that too," I added. "Jamecyn, I'm not sure why you're so walled off against others..."

"That's none of your business," she said as she turned away from me.

It was silent in the tent for a few seconds before I crossed my arms in front of me. "Right," I said. "Anyone mind telling me why Matthew fell asleep early?"

"Harold," replied Caroline. "He wouldn't leave until we put Matthew safely in bed."

"I see..." I felt a little bad for Matthew, seeing as how he rarely got the sleep every child deserved. "That's a good move then. I won't wake him up tonight."

"Why not?" asked Edward. "He always looks forward to hearing your tales."

"Sleep is more important for him," I replied, looking down at the sleeping child. "Besides, I have plenty of time to talk about the rest of the Greek gods on my own terms. Provided nothing gets out of hand, of course..."

"You never can tell in this damn place, but I see your point," said Jonathan. "I hope things are going well in the district..."

"They are," I said, turning to Caroline as I took out my recording device. "I wonder... story?"

"Of course," said Caroline, shifting slightly where she sat.

When the great one was finally able to walk outside, it walked outside of the small place it had grown so accustomed to seeing. The kind one was not with it, and so Balgernon was free to roam around nervously.

What it saw changed a few things.

It had only been around Ganrel, and so was very unprepared to see a startling amount of hardships endured by the people there. Balgernon saw a great many people laying in the streets, dying of thirst. The great one was appalled at this, moving along in the small place rather quickly after seeing this. It only stumbled more onto scenes of great hardship amongst other people. The great one seemed lost as it came across the sight of lesser ones attempting to carry containers they could not carry properly across. Nothing escaped Balgernon's notice at all, as the great one noticed the suffering of some around it.

And as it moved around, it gained a new appreciation for Ganrel's kindness.

Thus, when Balgernon returned to Ganrel's home, the great one spoke to the kind one.

"Ganrel, do tell me something," began Balgernon. "How is life out here in the desert...?"

The kind one was silent at first, not sure what the great one meant by this. "I trust it is a Marshlander's way of seeing the world?" asked Ganrel.

"I'm unused to it," replied Balgernon. "I've lived comfortably by a body of water all my life..."

Ganrel nodded. "It is hard in the desert," it said. "Resources are always scarce. And yet, we manage. We really do. It is a hard life, even as we adapt. But lately, there has been an awful drought in the area that will not let up. And... it makes things more difficult"

"I admire you all the more for your hope, then," said Balgernon. "I don't think I could understand what happens here..."

Ganrel looked at the great one disbelievingly. "Then why not go back?"

Balgernon shook its head. "I have nowhere to go back to," replied the great one sadly. "The place I once called home is destroyed now. I am now a wanderer, now and forever. I have no home now... And I can't stop moving, for fear of creating more danger for all..."

The kind one was silent for a brief period. Finally, it knelt next to Balgernon with a warm expression on its face.

"Then let me accompany you," it said. "Your loneliness must surely be worse than whatever destroyed your home."

"You would do that?" asked Balgernon uncertainly.

"If only it would make you more comfortable..." said Ganrel. "I would feel horrible leaving you to yourself. Let me be your companion..."

Silently, Balgernon agreed.

And so, the next day, the two companions left the desert town, Balgernon no longer feeling so alone as it heard the footfalls of the compassionate one behind it.

"And that is a good place to stop..."

I nodded, stopping the recording. I looked at the screen and noticed that my batteries would have to be replaced soon. I looked to Edward and Caroline as I turned the device off and stored it in my armor.

"It reminds me," I said. "You all must be very uncomfortable in these tents..."

"Very," replied Jamecyn to my left. "I wish we could go out and leave..."

"Which is unfortunately a little hard since your mothership left you here..." I added, my gaze going to where the sky was.

"We await its return..." said Edward vaguely.

Frowning, I looked to him. "You mean to tell me you think it will return?"

"Of course," said Edward. "I hold on to the hope it will return to us someday."

I nodded uncertainly, wondering what would happen when that finally occurred. I simply nodded to the group and moved to leave the tent.

"I wouldn't be sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing for us..." I said, pointing at myself. I am very sure Edward understood my meaning as he nodded. "But in the meantime, I'll see what I can do. Good night."

And with that, I left the tent.