Chapter #2Prologue: Gertrude by: ItsMe   "Gertrude! Gertrude wake up!" a familiar voices whispers in your ear "Wake up sleepy head!"
You felt groggy, and replied in a frail swipe with your hand.
"Oh don't be like that! Solace could be eating you right now and you'd sleep through it, now get up." You arise to your feet out of your makeshift bed and rub your eyes.
"Keirra, What time is it?" you ask.
She pulls open the curtains and looks outside the window. She community is just starting to breathe life as the shop doors are opening and other micen walk out their doors. Keirra points outside the window towards the sky, or in other words, a crack in a high ceiling. "Its dawn," she says in a blissful tone. "We will have to start work in a few hours, don't we?"
You are still shaking the sleep out of your eyes as Keirra hops on the bed. You look at the bed made out of a sardine can. The scraps of rags used as blankets served better as a reminder that you are poor rather then the use of comfort.
"Something wrong?" asked Keirra.
You look at her and put on a false smile "Of course not" you reply. Your friend have had nothing all her life until you took her into your home, it would only look bad to wish for better things in front of her. Keirra cocks her head to the side.
"What do you want to do until we go gathering for supplies?" she didn't wait for an answer, jumping from the bed she exclaimed "Lets go exploring!".
You nod your head softly to calm her down and hug her. "Are you sure you want to go exploring? We can go and trade some supplies, get something nice for ourselves.". You aren't sure why you suggested that. You have nothing to trade worth its weight.
A torn bow you used to tie around your waist when you were little. Soiled rags you call blankets. Molded loafs of bread the size of your hand you're expected to eat. It's time like this you wish you were a magician.
Keirra shook her head in disagreement "That's no fun though!" she puts on a playful smile, her innocence radiated from the grin.
"Alright, fine lets go on an adventure." you give in "There nothing really here anyone would want anyway." you say gesturing to some junk lying around, like a bent needle. You open your drawers made of a matchbox and pull out your only piece of clothing you can find, all it is made out of is cloth sewn together. Still, it keeps the cold away.
Keirra hops around you in excitement as the both of you walk down the dirt paths through the colony.
Niarb. The most cilized place in all the colonies. The ceiling above you is a foot high from your location. The streets you walk are circles upon circles that wrap around the center. The farther you go to the center of the rings, the higher up you go.
The hill bore the colony headmasters. The people who distribute the food to the poor. The people who send the mose mice tot heir deaths to feed this colony. Among other things, you're either a shopkeep, maintenance worker, or scavenger. Most of the time, only the educated or experienced micen come back. Anyone unfortunate to be poor, like your mother, is normally caught as they cannot afford to pay for mentors.
The hill isn't empty either. It has tunnels and rooms. It's the warmest place in Niarb, and the most expensive.
You, however, are experienced. And if you survive one more year, you could become the newest to teach the kids how to harvest food from the pantry. It's a good thing scavengers get to keep the most of what they could carry, if they wanted. You aren't greedy, but you're sure if you didn't take more than your share, you and Keirra would have starved to death. She isn't the best at scavenging. And she isn't the best at being a shopkeep. She sells whatever you and her get dirt cheap.
You arrived at the gates to the entrance and ask the sentries of you can leave. You see a micen run up to you and shake his head. "Today isn't a good day to go adventuring miss. We were supposed to get contact from the colony at the of Solace's closet. It was supposed to be here days ago, we don't know if it is destroyed or if all of the carriers were caught. I can't stop you from leaving, but I was told to warn everyone."
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