The City Slums

After going down seemingly endless flights of stairs I hit the bottom. I knew the door would be locked so, with enough force, I broke the lock and emerged outside. My first impression of the lower city was that of shock; it was crowded, dirty, and dark. Looking up I could actually see the underbelly of the upper city cloaking the buildings below. The place looked so... unclean. There was actually a thick smog hanging in the air, thousands of lamps lit up to try mimic the sun, clocks seemed to be everywhere to keep people aware of the time of day. It was not a good first impression and, after seeing the upper city first, made me feel sad that people above could live knowing people were suffering below them, literally below them. This seemed to be the city's basement level.

I was still in Sector Eight it looked like, so I guessed that the cities were mirrors to one another. I didn't have much of a plan other than to lay low and hope I wasn't caught by any security force. I still had to watch since I was unfamiliar with this entire place; I wasn't keen on getting myself in over my head. I think travelling far from the Sector I had been caught out in would help cover my tracks. I started looking for signs to the next Sector over, walking towards Seven.

I didn't realise how much of a sorry state the place was in until I walked further and further through the Sector. People were sitting out on the street begging for money, shuffling with their heads down as I walked past, some people giving me weird looks and double taking, making me cover my face. I knew it was the scars; it had been years since I had felt so aware of them. I felt a little bit self-conscious for the first time in ages.

I continued following the directions to Sector Seven when I heard people over the white noise of the crowd. It was a group of them, a bunch of guys, three bigger men had the other man backed against a wall. They were threatening him, I heard something about a Don and brides. My first thoughts were to help the guy out but I needed to stay low. This would probably attract attention. I couldn't just leave the guy struggling though. Those guys would do serious damage to him. I sighed and started walking down the alley.

"Look, I'm sorry. You won't see me near the Inn again, okay?" The guy being threatened said as I approached.

"Yeah, we know. We're gonna make sure of that," One of the bigger guys said. The one being cornered looked past them and to me. The look in his eyes was just begging for me to help him.

"What are you doing?" The three men looked at me, smirking and laughing a bit when I spoke.

"None of your busines lady. Get lost," one of them said. I didn't move.

"How about you leave him alone?"

"What? This your girlfriend? Need her to beat up the big scary men for ya?" Another taunted the guy. I rolled my eyes and refused to budge. "Look, you get outta here before you mess up that... well, mess it up more." Again I just didn't move. "Well, you had your warning."

One of the men approached and grabbed my shoulder. Without a second thought I turned, grabbed his arm with one hand, and punched his shoulder out the socket. The other two swung their fists and I ducked, kicked their shins, and got up and kicked one in the face and grabbed the other, throwing him against the wall. The first one who came for me I gave a hard kick to the knees to be sure. I helped the guy up and hurried him out the alley and towards Sector Seven.

"Holy shit! I didn't... you just... thank you so much I thought I was done for!" The guy gasped out when we reached the edge of the Sector.

"It's nothing," I said, checking that they hadn't followed. Not sure if they even could. "You okay? You're not hurt?"

"Nothing that won't heal," the guy caught his breath and looked at me, trying to be polite and ignore the scars. "Is there anyway I can repay you?"

"It's fine; I just did the right thing," I shook my head and was about to leave but he was insistent.

"No, it's not everyday you find a decent person in Midgar, let alone the slums," he said. "There has to be someway I can return the favour?" I thought about it. Honestly I just didn't want him to accidentally get involved if any security force caught up with me. I didn't know how brutal they were.

"Can you give me directions to any inns or the like in Seven?" I asked. He was more than happy to oblige and told me how to get to a small hostel in the Seven slums, along with directions to a bar called Seventh Heaven that he was at frequently. He was planning to avoid there for the next couple of days and law low in Eight so those guys didn't catch him again. Guess that made two of us. I decided to head to the bar first; I was hoping there was a television there so I could see if any news about the trains had appeared yet.

The bar itself wasn't that big, well it was pretty spacious but cramped from the amount of people. I noticed a small table in the corner and sat myself down, watching everyone move about and chat to each other. There were some people who were already drunk at this time in the afternoon but I could hardly blame them. I noticed a television screen above the bar, nowhere near as high tech as the one on the upper Sector, broadcasting the news. As I expected it was talking about sudden train delays. I couldn't hear what the reporter was saying but they showed no footage or pictures of me. So at the moment I was safe. Still I knew I'd probably get found eventually. I had to figure out what to do before then.

I stayed at that little corner table for an hour or so, watching people go in and out before it started to become quieter. I kept my eye on the news, waiting for something about the trains to come up but it never did. Maybe they wanted to keep it quiet, I couldn't be sure. I still had the feeling that the news would be out, if not already by word of mouth, or police would come looking for me if they weren't already.

When I looked away from the screen I caught eyes with the woman tending the bar. She was a beautiful looking woman with deep brown eyes, and long dark brown hair. I gave her a quick smile since she was looking right at me. She walked out from behind the bar, coming towards me. I was stunned at the length of her legs, probably more accuntuated by her short skirt. I kept eye conatct with her when she came over to my table.

"Hi, can I get you anything?" She asked, her voice soft and polite.

"Um, just water's fine," I answered. She definitely noticed that I had been there for a while and not ordered a thing. I knew it must have looked suspicious. She left and came back with a glass.

"Are you okay? You look a little nervous?" I could tell she was tyring to guage me. I couldn't blame her; she probably didn't want trouble in her bar. I took a sip of water after thanking her.

"Just... ran into some trouble on accident," I answered. "I've not been in Midgar for long, so it's put me on edge, to say the least."

"Believe me so much trouble happens down here it'll just be a drop in the ocean," she told me with certainty. I was inclined to believe her since she had definitely been here longer than me. "You have a place to stay? There's a hostel just down the road."

"I'll look into that. Thanks," I trailed off, realising I didn't know her name.

"Tifa."

"Christie. Thanks again."

I stayed in the bar for a little while longer before leaving to check out the hostel. Like everything else in the Sector it seemed cramped and busy. They had some space but it wasn't much. As long as I said somewhere to bed for the night I was okay. I just stayed there for the rest of the day, trying to plan out what on earth I should do. How long would it take for me to get back to the Plate? Where would I get ID from? How do I explain away the fact I don't have any? I knew I'd figure out something and everything will fall into place. Right now going to the Shinra building was my safe bet for directions, but that was the end goal. How and when I'd get there was another matter. I'd figure out something.