Chapter Eight: Settling In
I'd been there a few days. In those few days, I'd 'moved' in. I'd picked a small corner room on the top floor. One side of the office faced south, the other East. It had had huge floor to ceiling windows which had given me plenty of light. Would have been a great view if the windows hadn't been so dirty, but I'd loved it despite that.
After a doing some recon in the building, I'd discovered a few other people in other parts of the building, but they had been too busy with their own problems to care much about a newcomer. So I stayed out of their way and gone looking in the empty parts of the building. I had rummaged around a bit...in dumps and various dump-like corners of the building. I remember it had seemed like such a triumph when I'd found some old cushions and knit blankets. I say old, but in actual fact, they probably weren't that old...they just happened to look and smell like it. They were pretty disgusting. But on a non-existent income, they were priceless.
The office itself wasn't that much better. Other then the having huge windows, it was as much of a dump as the rest of the building. I remember being able to smell where some people had used the corner of the room to urinate in. But I wanted to be on the top floor...it had reminded me of the High Place Ben had always talked about. It was comforting on some level. I hadn't realized that that had been why I had chosen that room at first. But it hadn't taken me long to figure it out. Anyway, despite all the dirt and disgusting smells, which I had been completely unused to, given the fact that I had come from a sterile prison, but despite all that, it had been...warmer, I suppose. Friendlier. More like a place you'd call home. Not just a house...a building. Buildings are everywhere...but they don't necessarily have to mean something...they don't have to be a place you bond with.
It was funny. In the few days I'd been there, I'd managed to make that tiny, dirty, smelly office feel more like a home then a lifetime had ever made Manticore resemble. I mean, I'd used an old desk that had gotten knocked over as a little shelf for whatever I might have needed it for in the future. It had been the perfect size for me, too...given my height at the time, that is.
Food had been a major issue though. There had still been running water in the building, thank the Blue Lady for that, albeit very cold running water, even by my standards. But believe me...it had been better then nothing. And, most importantly, it was free. Unfortunately, unlike food. Food wasn't free. And I'll be damned if it was cheap either...not that cheap or expensive had made much of a difference then, given the fact that I hadn't been just poor - I had been flat out broke. As in, no money. Nada, niente, nichts. Even if I had had money, knowing what I know now, I'm not sure I would have known what to do with it. Well, no. That's not exactly true. I knew that you gave the money to the vendors in exchange for whatever it was that you'd wanted. But see, I had had no clue about, you know, the whole concept of getting change, not getting ripped off...a few minor things. Yeah right. I was so ignorant, someone could have told me that an apple cost eighty bucks and I would have given it to them...without question too. I mean, here I am, a trained killing machine, taught in the art of interrogation techniques and I don't even know to question the prices of food. There's got to be some irony in there somewhere. Sad, but true. Then anyway.
So that had been my problem...well, one of my most immediate problems anyway. I mean, the whole being on the run from a secret military operation that would sooner kill me then let me be free was, you know, also one of my problems...just a minor one though. Yeah right, anyway...as I was saying...food was my most immediate problem. Even the little perfect X5 super soldiers needed to eat eventually. I hadn't eaten in a few days and my stomach was making sure I knew that. I hadn't eaten since we'd left Manticore. I'd found scraps of stuff here and there, but that's all they'd been. Scraps. Some of them you even had to question just how edible they really were. They sure as hell weren't nourishing though, I'll tell you that. But like I said, I'd been broke. And in a world where money rules, if you don't have any, you don't get anything.
So that was my life as of then. I lived in a dump...eating out of dumps, and on the verge of starving anyway. The little office had been no four star hotel, that's for sure. But it wasn't Manticore either, and, in the end, that's all that mattered. That's all I had cared about.
I'd been there a few days. In those few days, I'd 'moved' in. I'd picked a small corner room on the top floor. One side of the office faced south, the other East. It had had huge floor to ceiling windows which had given me plenty of light. Would have been a great view if the windows hadn't been so dirty, but I'd loved it despite that.
After a doing some recon in the building, I'd discovered a few other people in other parts of the building, but they had been too busy with their own problems to care much about a newcomer. So I stayed out of their way and gone looking in the empty parts of the building. I had rummaged around a bit...in dumps and various dump-like corners of the building. I remember it had seemed like such a triumph when I'd found some old cushions and knit blankets. I say old, but in actual fact, they probably weren't that old...they just happened to look and smell like it. They were pretty disgusting. But on a non-existent income, they were priceless.
The office itself wasn't that much better. Other then the having huge windows, it was as much of a dump as the rest of the building. I remember being able to smell where some people had used the corner of the room to urinate in. But I wanted to be on the top floor...it had reminded me of the High Place Ben had always talked about. It was comforting on some level. I hadn't realized that that had been why I had chosen that room at first. But it hadn't taken me long to figure it out. Anyway, despite all the dirt and disgusting smells, which I had been completely unused to, given the fact that I had come from a sterile prison, but despite all that, it had been...warmer, I suppose. Friendlier. More like a place you'd call home. Not just a house...a building. Buildings are everywhere...but they don't necessarily have to mean something...they don't have to be a place you bond with.
It was funny. In the few days I'd been there, I'd managed to make that tiny, dirty, smelly office feel more like a home then a lifetime had ever made Manticore resemble. I mean, I'd used an old desk that had gotten knocked over as a little shelf for whatever I might have needed it for in the future. It had been the perfect size for me, too...given my height at the time, that is.
Food had been a major issue though. There had still been running water in the building, thank the Blue Lady for that, albeit very cold running water, even by my standards. But believe me...it had been better then nothing. And, most importantly, it was free. Unfortunately, unlike food. Food wasn't free. And I'll be damned if it was cheap either...not that cheap or expensive had made much of a difference then, given the fact that I hadn't been just poor - I had been flat out broke. As in, no money. Nada, niente, nichts. Even if I had had money, knowing what I know now, I'm not sure I would have known what to do with it. Well, no. That's not exactly true. I knew that you gave the money to the vendors in exchange for whatever it was that you'd wanted. But see, I had had no clue about, you know, the whole concept of getting change, not getting ripped off...a few minor things. Yeah right. I was so ignorant, someone could have told me that an apple cost eighty bucks and I would have given it to them...without question too. I mean, here I am, a trained killing machine, taught in the art of interrogation techniques and I don't even know to question the prices of food. There's got to be some irony in there somewhere. Sad, but true. Then anyway.
So that had been my problem...well, one of my most immediate problems anyway. I mean, the whole being on the run from a secret military operation that would sooner kill me then let me be free was, you know, also one of my problems...just a minor one though. Yeah right, anyway...as I was saying...food was my most immediate problem. Even the little perfect X5 super soldiers needed to eat eventually. I hadn't eaten in a few days and my stomach was making sure I knew that. I hadn't eaten since we'd left Manticore. I'd found scraps of stuff here and there, but that's all they'd been. Scraps. Some of them you even had to question just how edible they really were. They sure as hell weren't nourishing though, I'll tell you that. But like I said, I'd been broke. And in a world where money rules, if you don't have any, you don't get anything.
So that was my life as of then. I lived in a dump...eating out of dumps, and on the verge of starving anyway. The little office had been no four star hotel, that's for sure. But it wasn't Manticore either, and, in the end, that's all that mattered. That's all I had cared about.