Story: Requiem For The Lost
Distribution: Ask and ye shall receive.
Archives: fanfiction.net
Contact: lindsayw@gmx.net
~
There's something infinitely tragic about human nature; that we constantly fight to survive, though no power within us can change our fate. We fight, even knowing we are doomed to failure, and that is a bright and shining light - and an ironic fate.
~
".Members of the Colonies' Medical Relief Organization are stating that the rash of viruses on L2 colony V08744 are finally dying down. The colony has been released from quarantine, however citizens and visitors are being warned to take precautions. Anyone with showing signs of a sudden fever, or loss of muscle control is advised to seek help at their local hospital, or a CMRO station."
~ ~ ~
'The Hole', as Bit liked to call his gangs' hideout, was what must have once been a quaint little grocery store. Once. Now however, it was a small greyish-yellow colored building, with rotting boards cover empty spaces where windows and door would have once been. All of the walls appeared to be caving in, and it seemed only the pressure they exerted on each other that stopped the structure from collapsing entirely.
Small and large holes not big enough to be windows were scattered over the exterior. It was to one of these larger gaps, just slightly above ground level, that his new friend motioned him. The blond haired boy approached, gazing at the other in askance.
Bit sighed and shook his head. "You really don't know nothing, do you?" Without waiting for a reply, the street boy continued. "This is our entrance," he explained. "You didn't really expect that we've learned how to walk through those boards do you? Besides, tearin 'em down would make it that much easier for others to get in."
"I guess," he said quietly. He followed behind Bit, shimmying his way through the small space. The rough stucco scraped at his skin as he passed though, making him wince at the slight burning pain, but he shrugged it off. The boy stumbled to his knees with a quiet "oof!" as his feet caught on the edge of the hole. A hand appeared in front of his face, and he accepted it with quiet thanks as he was pulled to his feet.
Bit was grinning at him. "I did that my first time too," he admitted. "Duo's always having to remind the littles to watch their first step." He motioned the boy out of the hallway they had entered, and into a fair sized room.
Inside were several children. Most looked to be about the blond boys age, and a couple might have been slightly smaller. The difference in size from child to child did not seem to be very great however, and none of them were much older than he was to all outward appearance. Even Bit, who was one of the older ones, couldn't have been more than a year older than him.
"Hey Driff!" Bit called out to a blond haired boy who was one of the larger kids. "Did the coppers give you any trouble over at Macy's?"
"Nah. That guy just keeps getting fatter an' fatter. He had trouble waddling over to the phone ta call fer help!" Many of the children laughed at this. "But," Driff continued more seriously, "I heard 'im talking to the cops sayin he wanted to hire younger help, so next time ya send someone fer medicine or food 'r something, make sure they're good!"
"Thanks fer the warning Driff. We'll have ta send someone to check 'im out 'fore we try goin on any more raids I think." Bit turned towards him, and motioned towards the inside of the room. "Go on, kid. Wait here. I gotta talk with Duo, so just sit tight, kay?"
The blond boy nodded slightly and entered under the curious eyes of the watching children. Finding a relatively clean patch of ground, he sat down to wait, placing his hands in his lap and watching them intently as he listened to the receding sounds of Bit's footsteps in the hallway.
"So kid, watcha doin here?" He looked up, startled at Driff's sudden question. Biting his lip, he wondered if it was safe to tell another person about his current problems. He had gotten lucky with Bit, after all, but the image of the man in the alleyway threatening the black-haired boy did not want to leave his head.
After a minute of thought, and trying to block out the uncomfortable feeling caused by a roomful of curious stares, he answered. "I'm lost. I don't really know how to get back to the place I used to live, so Bit said that he'd see about me staying here."
Driff gave him a lengthy stare, and he heard a few mutters from some of the other children. "Ya sure don't look like you're from around here - no one wear's clothes that look like they came from a dumpster in A-sector. If Bit trusts ya."
He nodded quickly, trying to come up with an excuse that would pacify them. "I don't know where the clothes came from," he said. It was the truth, actually, because he really couldn't remember. It just wasn't the whole truth. "I figured that they were so dirty, that no one would want them anyway." He gestured to the soot stains all over the material.
"Lotsa people 'round here, as wouldn't care about that. If it ain't fulla holes, or fallin off a body, then they'll go fer it." Driff told him. "Prolly better if we try an get something else." He turned to a red headed boy sitting off to the left. "Eh Cagey - you got some old things don't ya?"
The red-haired boy looked up from a conversation he was having with a petit black girl, and grimaced. Getting up, he went to one corner of the room, and rummaged around in a scuffed red-plastic cooler. He pulled out a ragged white t-shirt, and a dirty pair of cut off jeans and handed them to the blond. " 'Ere. They were my little brother's." He didn't elaborate.
"Thanks." His voice was still horse, and came out sometimes in a near whisper, so he wasn't sure if Cagey had even heard him before he turned away and sat back down. Before he could change, Bit came back into the room, followed by a boy with waist length brown hair, dressed in clothes similar to those he had just been handed.
"So you're the kid Bit brought here eh?"
"Y-Yes."
"C'mon. I want ta talk with you." The blond boy hesitated, and then shuffled out of the room after him, still carrying his armful of clothing.
~ ~
The boy with long brown hair stopped at the end of the hallway, and gestured him into a room empty except for a few crates of various sizes. When both were inside, he shut the door and leaned against it with his arms crossed.
"Bit says that you don't remember anything." It was a statement, not a question. The younger boy nodded hesitantly, unsure of what to make of this new person. He was older than him, but slight, and he had an angry look in his eyes. At the same time, there was something undeniably 'right' about him, that made the blond inclined to trust him with his secrets, few as they might be.
"No," he began. "Just fire. . . and a dead woman . . . Bit says it probably happened when I hit my head - but I don't remember that either." He smiled weakly at the rather pathetic joke. Bit had found it funny, but Duo didn't seem to care.
"If it's true, then you'll be staying here." Violet eyes appraised him with a slight suspicion. "You don't seem to be the type any bigger guys would hire ta help get rid of us, and it wouldn't feel right leaving someone like you on the streets. They'd eat you alive."
The blond felt an enormous rush of relief at these words, combined with a shudder at what could have happened to him if he hadn't met up with Bit. Duo's next words made him clasp his hands in front of him uncertainly.
"I know ya don't remember anything, but do ya have any skills at all? If you're gonna stay here, then ya gotta earn your keep, even if you are still a little kid."
"I - I guess - I can hide pretty well, since I'm small." It was the only thing that he could think of, and he had the feeling it wasn't much. Any child on the streets knew how to hide well; and there were several children in the room he had left that were smaller than him, even if they were much younger.
Duo sighed, and placed a hand on his forehead. "We'll have to figure something out then. But in the meantime, you need a name. You don't remember that either, right?" He shook his head. It was just another thing that he needed. In fact, he was worse than the small children in this way, because he had none of the knowledge of the streets that was needed to survive.
"Cat."
"Huh?" The blond looked at Duo in confusion at the statement that had come from seemingly nowhere.
"Your name." Duo told him, emphasis placed on the second word, as though the younger boy had lost his ability to think, along with his memories. "You don't have a name, and you said that you're good at hiding. I figure, that ya gotta know how to be quiet to do that. Besides, if we call you Cat, it might confuse the cops when we're on raid - they won't know if we're talking about an animal or a girl or boy or something." He smiled brightly, and it transformed his entire face. "Like a code name, get it?"
'Cat' did not mention his lack of knowledge as to what a codename was, but nodded at the logic. In any case, he did rather like the name. It seemed familiar, as though he should know it, and that made him happy. Perhaps he would get his memories back sooner than he had thought.
~ ~ ~
Someone was crying.
It was dark in the small room, and rather cramped now that all of the children were there. There must have been at least ten, though Cat had not bothered to count. The period of time he had spent staring at the ground trying to figure out who he was must have been longer then he'd thought. Though the trek to the Hole had been a lengthy one, he hadn't realized just how late it was when they arrived. By the time he had gotten back the room his eyes were already trying to slip closed, and he could barely speak from yawning. With the lights of the colony dimmed to 'night', it had been all that his tired mind could do to find himself a place to sleep.
Now that he had lain down and was covered by a relatively thin piece of cloth, however, he found himself suddenly unable to sleep. Everything that had happened to him that day whirled through his mind in a mad blend of colors, words, and sounds.
Someone was crying. From another place in the darkness, he heard a quiet rustling sound as one of the other children withdrew themselves from the slight warmth provided by the thin blankets they each had, or shared. Quiet footsteps moved closer to the barely audible whimpers and sobs, and he heard a few shushing sounds as the one comforted the other. Slowly the cries faded away until the dark room was silent once more.
Another child gasped and moaned in their sleep, and was quickly awakened. "Quiet!" a hushed voice whispered. "Don't start wakin' up everyone an their dog!"
Cat pulled himself into a sitting position with a frustrated sigh, keeping the small scrap of blanket firmly wrapped about him. He wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. The place was just too different. He may not have had anything to compare his new sleeping arrangements with, but he wished there was something just a little bit warmer, and little quieter, and a little less dark.
"Can't ya sleep Cat?" The whisper that seemed to drift out of nowhere made him jump in surprise, and he turned to face Bit.
"I guess I can't stop thinking about everything that's happened today," he whispered back. In the background, someone growled for him to 'shut up and go to sleep', and he flinched, shutting his mouth quickly.
"Don't worry 'bout him," Bit whispered, pulling him to his feet. "Come, let's go outside for a minute - jus' be quiet. One of the reason's no one else tries to come here, is cause they think it's too unstable for anyone to touch without it fallin on 'em. We don't want to change that eh?"
The blond haired child nodded, and allowed himself to be led slowly through the maze of sleeping bodies towards what he assumed was the entrance. He couldn't really tell in the darkness. A very quiet creaking sound could be heard as the door out into the hallway was opened, and a tinge of grey made itself known amidst the black as light from the moon and the few working streetlamps streamed through the windows to pool on the floor.
"Why did you let me come with you? Here, I mean." Cat asked the older boy. He didn't want to question his good fortune with the way his life - what there was of it - was going, but the thought wouldn't leave him alone. "It's not like I'm much help to you right now - even the little kids know more than me."
Bit gave him a quirky grin. "Yeah, but why would I want ta leave you? Ya might help us out one time, and - we need the numbers."
"Number's?"
The black haired boy winced. "You 'prolly should know about us here - at least a little bit."
His tone was guarded, and Cat couldn't blame him. He was a new comer - and even a young child could collect information. They were sometimes better at it than adults were. 'How did I get that idea?' he wondered.
"We're all kids here," Bit continued, blithely unaware of his friend's thoughts. "I guess ya can see that we can't do much on our own - too small." He frowned at his hands. "But mos' guys out there - they expect that. They think we'll be helpless, so when we work together - BAM! - They don't know what hit 'em." His face darkened. "A ways back, a bunch of us got sick - real sick. There was a pluge - plag - a really bad disease goin 'round. It got so bad, that some of the littlest died. 'Course one o' the older boys Solo couldn't have that, so he went out to find where they had medicine."
Cat frowned. "But where is he? There isn't anyone here older than you or Duo."
Bit hushed him with a wave of his hand. "Comin to that, jus' wait. Anyways, he got the oldest kids to go out and ask 'round, along with himself. They had ta split up, so it had to be the oldest see? But - they got sick right away, even if they did find out. Duo - he was like Solo's kid brother - he went to the hospital to get the meds, but Solo and the others died afore it could work."
"So that's why Duo's in charge then?"
"Well, he was sick too, but once he got better then ya." The black haired boy stopped and turned to face him, brown eyes gleaming in the darkness. "But don' ask him 'bout it kay? He's doin' the best he can, but little or not, if you remind him 'bout Solo, he'll get mad."
The blond haired boy nodded solemnly. His seriousness was broken by a yawn however, and Bit tapped him on the shoulder. "You go back ta sleep kay? Tomorrow we gotta teach you the ropes - and we don' want you passin' out on us."
~ ~ ~ ~
TBC.
~ ~ ~
Ghost Whisper: Did it turn out okay? It was a long time - I know - but too many stories are demanding my attention. ^_^;; Not sure when the next chapter will be, but keep an eye out - you don't want to miss Cat's introduction to the world of the streets, do you? ^_^
Distribution: Ask and ye shall receive.
Archives: fanfiction.net
Contact: lindsayw@gmx.net
~
There's something infinitely tragic about human nature; that we constantly fight to survive, though no power within us can change our fate. We fight, even knowing we are doomed to failure, and that is a bright and shining light - and an ironic fate.
~
".Members of the Colonies' Medical Relief Organization are stating that the rash of viruses on L2 colony V08744 are finally dying down. The colony has been released from quarantine, however citizens and visitors are being warned to take precautions. Anyone with showing signs of a sudden fever, or loss of muscle control is advised to seek help at their local hospital, or a CMRO station."
~ ~ ~
'The Hole', as Bit liked to call his gangs' hideout, was what must have once been a quaint little grocery store. Once. Now however, it was a small greyish-yellow colored building, with rotting boards cover empty spaces where windows and door would have once been. All of the walls appeared to be caving in, and it seemed only the pressure they exerted on each other that stopped the structure from collapsing entirely.
Small and large holes not big enough to be windows were scattered over the exterior. It was to one of these larger gaps, just slightly above ground level, that his new friend motioned him. The blond haired boy approached, gazing at the other in askance.
Bit sighed and shook his head. "You really don't know nothing, do you?" Without waiting for a reply, the street boy continued. "This is our entrance," he explained. "You didn't really expect that we've learned how to walk through those boards do you? Besides, tearin 'em down would make it that much easier for others to get in."
"I guess," he said quietly. He followed behind Bit, shimmying his way through the small space. The rough stucco scraped at his skin as he passed though, making him wince at the slight burning pain, but he shrugged it off. The boy stumbled to his knees with a quiet "oof!" as his feet caught on the edge of the hole. A hand appeared in front of his face, and he accepted it with quiet thanks as he was pulled to his feet.
Bit was grinning at him. "I did that my first time too," he admitted. "Duo's always having to remind the littles to watch their first step." He motioned the boy out of the hallway they had entered, and into a fair sized room.
Inside were several children. Most looked to be about the blond boys age, and a couple might have been slightly smaller. The difference in size from child to child did not seem to be very great however, and none of them were much older than he was to all outward appearance. Even Bit, who was one of the older ones, couldn't have been more than a year older than him.
"Hey Driff!" Bit called out to a blond haired boy who was one of the larger kids. "Did the coppers give you any trouble over at Macy's?"
"Nah. That guy just keeps getting fatter an' fatter. He had trouble waddling over to the phone ta call fer help!" Many of the children laughed at this. "But," Driff continued more seriously, "I heard 'im talking to the cops sayin he wanted to hire younger help, so next time ya send someone fer medicine or food 'r something, make sure they're good!"
"Thanks fer the warning Driff. We'll have ta send someone to check 'im out 'fore we try goin on any more raids I think." Bit turned towards him, and motioned towards the inside of the room. "Go on, kid. Wait here. I gotta talk with Duo, so just sit tight, kay?"
The blond boy nodded slightly and entered under the curious eyes of the watching children. Finding a relatively clean patch of ground, he sat down to wait, placing his hands in his lap and watching them intently as he listened to the receding sounds of Bit's footsteps in the hallway.
"So kid, watcha doin here?" He looked up, startled at Driff's sudden question. Biting his lip, he wondered if it was safe to tell another person about his current problems. He had gotten lucky with Bit, after all, but the image of the man in the alleyway threatening the black-haired boy did not want to leave his head.
After a minute of thought, and trying to block out the uncomfortable feeling caused by a roomful of curious stares, he answered. "I'm lost. I don't really know how to get back to the place I used to live, so Bit said that he'd see about me staying here."
Driff gave him a lengthy stare, and he heard a few mutters from some of the other children. "Ya sure don't look like you're from around here - no one wear's clothes that look like they came from a dumpster in A-sector. If Bit trusts ya."
He nodded quickly, trying to come up with an excuse that would pacify them. "I don't know where the clothes came from," he said. It was the truth, actually, because he really couldn't remember. It just wasn't the whole truth. "I figured that they were so dirty, that no one would want them anyway." He gestured to the soot stains all over the material.
"Lotsa people 'round here, as wouldn't care about that. If it ain't fulla holes, or fallin off a body, then they'll go fer it." Driff told him. "Prolly better if we try an get something else." He turned to a red headed boy sitting off to the left. "Eh Cagey - you got some old things don't ya?"
The red-haired boy looked up from a conversation he was having with a petit black girl, and grimaced. Getting up, he went to one corner of the room, and rummaged around in a scuffed red-plastic cooler. He pulled out a ragged white t-shirt, and a dirty pair of cut off jeans and handed them to the blond. " 'Ere. They were my little brother's." He didn't elaborate.
"Thanks." His voice was still horse, and came out sometimes in a near whisper, so he wasn't sure if Cagey had even heard him before he turned away and sat back down. Before he could change, Bit came back into the room, followed by a boy with waist length brown hair, dressed in clothes similar to those he had just been handed.
"So you're the kid Bit brought here eh?"
"Y-Yes."
"C'mon. I want ta talk with you." The blond boy hesitated, and then shuffled out of the room after him, still carrying his armful of clothing.
~ ~
The boy with long brown hair stopped at the end of the hallway, and gestured him into a room empty except for a few crates of various sizes. When both were inside, he shut the door and leaned against it with his arms crossed.
"Bit says that you don't remember anything." It was a statement, not a question. The younger boy nodded hesitantly, unsure of what to make of this new person. He was older than him, but slight, and he had an angry look in his eyes. At the same time, there was something undeniably 'right' about him, that made the blond inclined to trust him with his secrets, few as they might be.
"No," he began. "Just fire. . . and a dead woman . . . Bit says it probably happened when I hit my head - but I don't remember that either." He smiled weakly at the rather pathetic joke. Bit had found it funny, but Duo didn't seem to care.
"If it's true, then you'll be staying here." Violet eyes appraised him with a slight suspicion. "You don't seem to be the type any bigger guys would hire ta help get rid of us, and it wouldn't feel right leaving someone like you on the streets. They'd eat you alive."
The blond felt an enormous rush of relief at these words, combined with a shudder at what could have happened to him if he hadn't met up with Bit. Duo's next words made him clasp his hands in front of him uncertainly.
"I know ya don't remember anything, but do ya have any skills at all? If you're gonna stay here, then ya gotta earn your keep, even if you are still a little kid."
"I - I guess - I can hide pretty well, since I'm small." It was the only thing that he could think of, and he had the feeling it wasn't much. Any child on the streets knew how to hide well; and there were several children in the room he had left that were smaller than him, even if they were much younger.
Duo sighed, and placed a hand on his forehead. "We'll have to figure something out then. But in the meantime, you need a name. You don't remember that either, right?" He shook his head. It was just another thing that he needed. In fact, he was worse than the small children in this way, because he had none of the knowledge of the streets that was needed to survive.
"Cat."
"Huh?" The blond looked at Duo in confusion at the statement that had come from seemingly nowhere.
"Your name." Duo told him, emphasis placed on the second word, as though the younger boy had lost his ability to think, along with his memories. "You don't have a name, and you said that you're good at hiding. I figure, that ya gotta know how to be quiet to do that. Besides, if we call you Cat, it might confuse the cops when we're on raid - they won't know if we're talking about an animal or a girl or boy or something." He smiled brightly, and it transformed his entire face. "Like a code name, get it?"
'Cat' did not mention his lack of knowledge as to what a codename was, but nodded at the logic. In any case, he did rather like the name. It seemed familiar, as though he should know it, and that made him happy. Perhaps he would get his memories back sooner than he had thought.
~ ~ ~
Someone was crying.
It was dark in the small room, and rather cramped now that all of the children were there. There must have been at least ten, though Cat had not bothered to count. The period of time he had spent staring at the ground trying to figure out who he was must have been longer then he'd thought. Though the trek to the Hole had been a lengthy one, he hadn't realized just how late it was when they arrived. By the time he had gotten back the room his eyes were already trying to slip closed, and he could barely speak from yawning. With the lights of the colony dimmed to 'night', it had been all that his tired mind could do to find himself a place to sleep.
Now that he had lain down and was covered by a relatively thin piece of cloth, however, he found himself suddenly unable to sleep. Everything that had happened to him that day whirled through his mind in a mad blend of colors, words, and sounds.
Someone was crying. From another place in the darkness, he heard a quiet rustling sound as one of the other children withdrew themselves from the slight warmth provided by the thin blankets they each had, or shared. Quiet footsteps moved closer to the barely audible whimpers and sobs, and he heard a few shushing sounds as the one comforted the other. Slowly the cries faded away until the dark room was silent once more.
Another child gasped and moaned in their sleep, and was quickly awakened. "Quiet!" a hushed voice whispered. "Don't start wakin' up everyone an their dog!"
Cat pulled himself into a sitting position with a frustrated sigh, keeping the small scrap of blanket firmly wrapped about him. He wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. The place was just too different. He may not have had anything to compare his new sleeping arrangements with, but he wished there was something just a little bit warmer, and little quieter, and a little less dark.
"Can't ya sleep Cat?" The whisper that seemed to drift out of nowhere made him jump in surprise, and he turned to face Bit.
"I guess I can't stop thinking about everything that's happened today," he whispered back. In the background, someone growled for him to 'shut up and go to sleep', and he flinched, shutting his mouth quickly.
"Don't worry 'bout him," Bit whispered, pulling him to his feet. "Come, let's go outside for a minute - jus' be quiet. One of the reason's no one else tries to come here, is cause they think it's too unstable for anyone to touch without it fallin on 'em. We don't want to change that eh?"
The blond haired child nodded, and allowed himself to be led slowly through the maze of sleeping bodies towards what he assumed was the entrance. He couldn't really tell in the darkness. A very quiet creaking sound could be heard as the door out into the hallway was opened, and a tinge of grey made itself known amidst the black as light from the moon and the few working streetlamps streamed through the windows to pool on the floor.
"Why did you let me come with you? Here, I mean." Cat asked the older boy. He didn't want to question his good fortune with the way his life - what there was of it - was going, but the thought wouldn't leave him alone. "It's not like I'm much help to you right now - even the little kids know more than me."
Bit gave him a quirky grin. "Yeah, but why would I want ta leave you? Ya might help us out one time, and - we need the numbers."
"Number's?"
The black haired boy winced. "You 'prolly should know about us here - at least a little bit."
His tone was guarded, and Cat couldn't blame him. He was a new comer - and even a young child could collect information. They were sometimes better at it than adults were. 'How did I get that idea?' he wondered.
"We're all kids here," Bit continued, blithely unaware of his friend's thoughts. "I guess ya can see that we can't do much on our own - too small." He frowned at his hands. "But mos' guys out there - they expect that. They think we'll be helpless, so when we work together - BAM! - They don't know what hit 'em." His face darkened. "A ways back, a bunch of us got sick - real sick. There was a pluge - plag - a really bad disease goin 'round. It got so bad, that some of the littlest died. 'Course one o' the older boys Solo couldn't have that, so he went out to find where they had medicine."
Cat frowned. "But where is he? There isn't anyone here older than you or Duo."
Bit hushed him with a wave of his hand. "Comin to that, jus' wait. Anyways, he got the oldest kids to go out and ask 'round, along with himself. They had ta split up, so it had to be the oldest see? But - they got sick right away, even if they did find out. Duo - he was like Solo's kid brother - he went to the hospital to get the meds, but Solo and the others died afore it could work."
"So that's why Duo's in charge then?"
"Well, he was sick too, but once he got better then ya." The black haired boy stopped and turned to face him, brown eyes gleaming in the darkness. "But don' ask him 'bout it kay? He's doin' the best he can, but little or not, if you remind him 'bout Solo, he'll get mad."
The blond haired boy nodded solemnly. His seriousness was broken by a yawn however, and Bit tapped him on the shoulder. "You go back ta sleep kay? Tomorrow we gotta teach you the ropes - and we don' want you passin' out on us."
~ ~ ~ ~
TBC.
~ ~ ~
Ghost Whisper: Did it turn out okay? It was a long time - I know - but too many stories are demanding my attention. ^_^;; Not sure when the next chapter will be, but keep an eye out - you don't want to miss Cat's introduction to the world of the streets, do you? ^_^