Surrogate - Chapter 1: Unfinished

There were all sorts of crimes being committed in the city at any given moment, and it was almost impossible for the Athalka Police to keep track of all of them. Whether somebody was stealing a carriage, or just a horse, something was always being robbed, so the police didn’t bother with those crimes as much as they worried about things like magic disturbances or riots. They happened much less, but they were definitely not unheard of. The police did a good job keeping the surrounding scum out of the premises.
         A very large slum sat at the southern border of the city, and was slowly beginning to creep up the west and east sides of it as well. Many of the townspeople were afraid of the trash-ridden monster fully consuming the city that they loved so dearly (which is a mystery to most), so they decided to put up a massive fence circling the entire border of the city, which was at least two-hundred miles around. It was made of pure steel, and it cost the city a fortune to put up. It stood about eighteen feet in height, easily capable of looming over any man. It was lined with an electric chord at the top so that trespassers would have difficulty getting in.
         That wouldn’t stop her. Not like anything really could. At this point though, she wasn’t going to have any trouble getting into the city. The sounds of her heaving lungs resonated against the walls of the cold dark alleyway. Her feet slipped in the snow as she ducked beneath a dumpster and clasped her hands across her nose and mouth. A few moments later, a second group of feet followed. She watched as they shuffled across the small layer of ice situated on the dirt. When the sound of their feet disappeared into the center of the city, she  pulled herself out from under the gigantic trashcan.
         “You dirty Elementian rat!” A voice called out from the end of the alley. A man dressed in all red clothing, lined with silver armor around his legs and arms, pointed at her rather awkwardly. “You ain’t gettin’ away this time.” He gripped the rifle harder as he made a lunge toward her. The bayonet on the end of his weapon slashed near her throat viciously, but she quickly braced herself against the wall closest to her. “All you scoundrels think you can jus’ come and go when ya’ please! This time it’s different.”
         The girl looked around the area and took a deep breath. The man in front of her was crazed, and obviously not hesitant to kill her in any way he could. She didn’t have enough to think about anything, but luckily she didn’t need to. The man pulled his weapon back once more and was a few inches away from piercing her stomach with his blade when a voice called out from the sky.
         “Hey!” She did not recognize the voice, but she didn’t need to. When the guard looked up, she started running again, and soon she was out of the alleyway. When she turned her head to look back, all she could see was smoke and a small red spark in the middle of it all.
         She turned back around and began to run faster. She was on the furthest outskirts of town now. She shook her head before vaulting herself onto the top of a small barrel. The barrel led to the top of a small shed, and from the shed she could climb onto the top of a taller building using a ladder that was situated on the side of it. When she was finally as high up as she could go, she took a look at the next obstacle she would have to face. The fence was tall, sure, but that wasn’t really the problem. She was already higher than electric railing, and she could pass it easily, but the fall would most definitely break her legs. She usually didn’t have to take this place, but recently the west side of the city was being gridlocked with guards, and some had even been called from the city to quell the recent ‘infestation’.
         Many people from the slums were attempting to move up into Athalka without being noticed. The population of the city was increasing, but it was impossible for the city to actually expand with the fence in place. The locals were becoming increasingly tired of the influx of poor residents. So they decided to send word to the royal court, and to many of the people’s surprise, an actual response to the problem was given. They sent a handful of sentries from VANGUARD. The soldiers trained in VANGUARD were said to be the most disciplined out of all soldiers in the country, and some even boasted that they were the most dangerous in the world.
         There was really no telling why they would make a decision like that, even for her. She spent a lot of time listening to gossip and hearsay, but nothing she had heard could lead her to an idea as to why soldiers from VANGUARD would ever be deployed to a place like Athalka. Surely the ‘rats from Elements’ weren’t such a big deal to the King.
         Now she wasn’t really searching through her brain looking for a reason why VANGUARD would be in Athalka. She was looking down, and nothing was popping directly into the front of her mind. She had done it once before, but there was another person with her, and it was much easier when you had more than one. There was one thing that she could use to help her down, but she was afraid that if she missed, she would hurt herself and not be able to get back into the city later.
         “There she is!” She turned around quickly and saw four guards running toward her. They weren’t from VANGUARD, they were city guards. Almost the most incompetent people alive, but then there was Jarod. Luckily for her, his stupidity helped her out in a lot of situations.
         “Lisa! What’re you doin’ up thar?” A boy’s voice called from the ground. He waved up toward Lisa and a stupid silly grin sat on his face.
         “Jarod! Oh, thank goodness. Just stand right there, okay?” Lisa was thinking quickly now. She pulled the cane from her back and immediately jumped from the top of the building. A few moments later, after she had cleared the electric wires and the fence was within her reach, she thrust the cane out in front of her and hooked it onto the links of the fence. Before she had time to fall any further, she kicked her legs off of the fence and leapt for the spot where Jarod stood. When she landed on him, they both flew back and a heap of snow was thrown in the air.
         “Geez, Jarod, can’t you just stand still for one second!” She said angrily as she stood up and brushed herself off.
         “Lisa, I’m sorry, it’s just, yer not as light as you think you are,” he said as he shook some dirt and snow out of his hair.
         “Well what’s that supposed to mean?!” Lisa’s mouth gaped at him, and when she finished, she ground her teeth together in disgust for the boy.
         “I’m just sayin’, I’m not as strong as you think I am…”
         “Whatever, Jarod, let’s just go…” She said as she rolled her eyes and began to walk toward what looked like a giant trash heap.

         They continued in silence for a good fifteen minutes before they approached one of the entrances to the slums. Lisa and Jarod stopped at the large arc that had the word ‘Oxygen’ carved into the top.
         “Do you want to come to my house for dinner, Jarod? I think my mom is making some sort of pasta. Sounds good. I’ve never had it.”
         “Nah, I gotta be home and help my dad fix our roof. It’s almost so cold in there we can’t even sleep no more.”
         “All right, well, I’ll see you tomorrow then. You are coming with me aren’t you?” She said as she raised an eyebrow quite sharply.
         “Aw, Lisa, I dunno know, its jus’… I mean, lookit what happened last time, ya’ know? I think I might have…” Jarod said. He sounded a bit intimidated.
         “Oh, come on, Jarod! You’re not gonna let me go alone are you?”
         “Don’t you try to pull that one on me, Lisa!”
         “Eh, whatever. If you’re coming, meet me in Carbon in the morning, all right? Eight o’clock.”
         “Well why are we meetin’ in Carbon? We should go up around the east side, not the west!”
         “It’ll be easier to get in, even with all of the guards on the west side. We can sneak past them, but we can’t get over the gate in the east side of town. Besides, if we get in on the west side it’s a lot easier for us to disappear into the crowd, especially in the morning. You know that, Jarod.”
         “Yeah, but ever since they started puttin’ in all these VANGUARD guys, I’m not so sure no more Lisa.”
         “VANGUARD doesn’t kill children. It’s in their code of ethics.”
         “Well I’m turnin’ nineteen next week! They might think its close enough.”
         “Not with the way you talk and look, Jarod. They wouldn’t even let us into the antique shop first time they saw you.”
         “Ey! That ain’t my fault!”
         “All right, geez, calm down already. Just meet me in Carbon, all right?”
         “Awright, I’ll meet ya in Carbon. But if we get caught I’m tellin’ my dad that you dragged me.”
         “See you tomorrow, Jarod!
         Lisa ran out from under the arc with a stupid smile on her face. He was a strange boy, but that’s why Lisa liked him. She felt a little bad towing him around everywhere with her, especially after she had learned that he had a huge crush on her ever since they were little, but that didn’t stop her. She couldn’t really do everything by herself, and even though he wasn’t very smart, he sure was good at taking orders.
         
         Lisa lived in the middle of the part of the slums that was called ‘Oxygen’. She wasn’t really sure why it was called that, but she never really bothered to figure out why. It had always been that way, so nobody questioned it. Other places in the slums had similar names, so it wasn’t like a special circumstance. All of the slums together were actually called Elements. All of the people from the slums were Elementians, but people from Oxygen were also Oxygenians.
         She stopped at the gnarled wooden front door of her house and slowly pushed it open. She pulled off her coat as she stepped into the house, and shook all of the snow out of her hair.
         “Is that you, Lisa?” A woman’s voice rang out from behind a wall.
         “Yeah, it’s me mom.”
         “Dinner will be ready soon. I put your clothes on your bed.”
         “Thanks!” She said as she ran up the stairs of her house. They led to a single room with a small bed and a dresser with two drawers in it.  Lisa pulled the cane off of her back once more and placed it on a hook next to her dresser. She pulled a few rocks out of her pockets, and put them in the bottom drawer. After she had put all of her clothes away, she headed back down to the kitchen where her mother was preparing the food for them both.
         Lisa rubbed her hands together to keep them warm as she sat at the table, waiting for her mother to serve her their dinner. They didn’t usually have something like pasta to eat. Usually it was bread and soup. Or rice. Rice was pretty popular in the slums, especially in Oxygen. It was cheap, so people could afford to buy lots of it. Lisa’s mother had been saving up for a nice meal for about two weeks now, and Lisa was grateful that there was something on her plate other than giant glob of gooey white slop.
         “So, Lisa, what did you do all day today? You were gone longer than you usually are,” Lisa’s mother said as she poured some pasta onto Lisa’s plate. It was a strange dish. First you added the noodles, and then the sauce, apparently.
         “Oh, there was a fuss in the city today…” She said as she placed a noodle in her mouth, but quickly spit it out after realizing the temperature of the dish. She pulled her hair back behind her head and began to blow on the food to cool it down.
         “Well, what was that all about then? Was it VANGUARD?” Lisa’s mother asked. Lisa was her mother’s main source of news from anywhere. The only things that she knew about outside of the slums happenings were what Lisa told her.
         “Oh, not really. There was a magick disturbance today. It’s actually been the first one in a while. They were detaining some old woman. She set four apple carts on fire and blinded one of the city guards with a powder mixture that she made herself. Apparently it was an antidote, but when you expose it to someone’s eyes, it sort of burns them I guess…”
         “Well, that sounds exciting!” Lisa’s mother said as she sat down in her own seat and began to make her plate.
         “I suppose, I mean if you’re into that kind of thing. Personally I think it’s ridiculous that they even allow these people into the city. Isn’t there some way to tell the difference between them and regular people?”
         “Well, I’m not sure. It’s probably difficult to monitor something like that, sweetie.”
         “I’m sure there’s some sort of way to do it. There probably wouldn’t be so much crime if they could just keep the streets clean.”
         “Clean? Just because people don’t use magic doesn’t mean they aren’t going to commit crime, Lisa.”
         “Yeah, but it would be harder for them, and we wouldn’t have to worry so much about our safety. And Dad would still be here…”
         “Lisa, don’t start that now. I planned this dinner to be a peaceful evening for us.”
         Lisa didn’t say anything else. She just nodded. They sat in complete silence for the rest of the meal. The only sound that could be heard was that of a wooden spoon against a glass plate and teardrops falling onto a leaf of fresh green lettuce. She cleared her plate from the table and walked back up to her room in a melancholic trance.
         She lay in her bed for quite some time, but there was something preventing her from sleeping. She could hear a cracking noise somewhere in her room, and when she finally found out what it was, she was surprised. The owner of the antique store had sold her an amulet with a ruby on it for rather cheap. He said it was useless, a fake, but she bought it anyway. Now that she looked at it, the stone was no longer a deep red, but clear. And for some reason it was making a cracking noise. She had no idea what to do with in, so she stuffed it into her clothes drawer and went back to sleep.
         The next morning Lisa awoke bright and early feeling refreshed. Her day couldn’t possibly be ruined by the events of the night before. She took a little soap down to the fountain in their backyard. Her father had built a sort of barricade around the fountain so they could effectively bathe without other Oxygenians peeking in on them.
         She left without saying a word to her mother and headed toward Carbon, which was the westernmost section of Elements. People in Carbon were a bit colder than in the rest of the slums, which was odd, since they all had the same living conditions in each section, but it still happened.
         She approached the monument in the middle of Carbon, and to her surprise, Jarod was already there waiting for her.
         “Since when are you ever early for anything, Jarod?”
         “Since today. I couldn’t sleep last night thanks to you.”
         “You didn’t sleep at all? That’s not good.”
         “Well, I got some sleep. But not as much as I wanted to! Besides, I couldn’t just wait at my house until I figured it was time to come, so I just came.”
         “Yeah, same here. I didn’t get much sleep last night either. I gotta ask Roger about that stupid necklace he sold me. It was making weird noises last night,” she said as she began walking. Within a minute they were outside of the large arc that said ‘Carbon’.
         “You bought that necklace he was showin’? I thought he said it was junk.”
         “Yeah, but it was pretty...”
         “Oh, dear… Lisa? Gah, I don’t get girls at all, ya know? It’s jus...”
         “Shut up, Jarod. You’re so mean!”
         They continued to bicker as they walked, but when they saw the fence and the guards surrounding it, they grew increasingly quiet.
         “Oh, what was your plan for getting in again?” Jarod said sarcastically.
         “Jarod! Don’t question my methods!”