Tales of Monsters and Angels

1.1 Strawberries

The platform reached the sky roof and stopped, throwing its riders several inches in to the air as usual. Girls who were still new to the agri-service tittered and grabbed the walls or shoulders crowded near them for balance. The rest, used to the platform's abrupt stops (going down was much worse) pressed their lips together and kept their eyes on the doors.

"Where do I start?" asked a girl next to Lina.

"Run to the back," she answered. "Pick any unclaimed wheel, and when the inspector comes, keep your head down and don't make any noise." It was the most she had said to anyone in days.

When the doors opened, it was a race against the hours, the fatigue and each other to fill their harvest quota of berries for the day.

Picking strawberries was no more or less difficult than any of the other agri jobs to be found at the top of the thousands of skyscrapers, but it was better than most a drudge girl might find. There were horrible things, monstrous things, in cages at her other job.

The sky roofs were the greenhouses for the world. The only places that received enough light and clean air for healthy plants to grow. Small sized crops, like the strawberries, grew in planters mounted on great wheels that rotated regularly, ensuring that every box got the same amount of sun as the others. Sunlight, real sunlight and not the yellow that brightened the grey air, hardly ever reached the streets of Pharm City.

In the underground compartments where she lived, an old shuffling neighbor would come out of her junk-pile sometimes and corner Lina to complain about the lack of light.

"Used to be what they called 'cracks in society' when I was young," the woman always said, her rotten breath filling the air. "'Cracks' that was what they called it, makes it so some people would fall through, but most would get caught before they hit the bottom and couldn't get back up. Now they got canyons."

"What are canyons?" Lina had asked the first time. After the first time, she just edged away and left the old crone to talk to herself.

"Canyons're deep trenches in the land, deep ruts you and a thousand other souls get lost in. The land towers up on either side, and you are lost in between, never to see the light of the sun. That's what they got now. Canyons."

It wasn't land that towered up, blocking the sun, though. It was the concrete skyscrapers that filled the world and not just a thousand souls were lost at the bottom, but millions. Lina was one of them, except that she saw the sun during the day. She burned under it. It was better than the dark stains spreading across the floor and the hands hitting the glass at the Genieworks building on floor -7.

Pick for three hours. Break for 10 minutes. There were laws protecting workers. Pick for another three hours. Break for 10 minutes. Stand straight and hope your back doesn't cripple you too fast, because no work means no food. The wheels were always turning, the fertile-sprayed green leaves the most vibrant color imaginable, except for the red, red berries. They were for the high-rankers, the only ones rich enough to afford them.

No berries were discarded. A berry with a spot or a less than perfect form was eaten. But it was rare. They were genetically designed for perfection, and besides, a girl who didn't make her quota would be replaced. Tasting that first strawberry had been like watching the first sunrise from a sky roof - a burst of light and life across her tongue. Sweet and tart, previously unimaginable flavor that was something besides dusty.

Lina never grew tired of strawberries, but she was growing tired after three years of labor of feeling her dreams dying little by little.

Sixteen years old and she was beginning to understand that she would never be allowed to do or have anything for the simple pleasure of it besides eat an occasional berry. She could not decide for herself or choose one thing over another, she simply had to continue to sweat and strain and struggle to survive.

Lina's baskets were not filling fast enough. Sweat glued her poly shirt and pants to her skin and stung in her eyes. Strands of hair came loose from the knot and clung to her cheeks. Three more hours passed, her back and head on fire from the sun and from bending over, her thighbone that had been broken by a popper addict when she was little turned her steps into pain-riddled limps. Ten minute break. Finally, only an hour and a half to the end of the day.

The inspector came. In the team of a dozen girls, three were at quota. The others finished quickly, the greasy inspector pinching bottoms as he walked along the rows while they worked. He liked the girls who squealed the best.

"You're short 105 grams," he announced as Lina gave him her last basket.

"Give me just another minute," she pleaded. So little, but enough to cost her this job. "Just one more minute, please."

He scowled. Then he smiled and rubbed his head. "A favor. Because I'm so nice."

He wouldn't forget she had been under. Any threat he could hold over the girls, he did, and Lina suspected he had a disgusting price in mind for this 'favor.' An animal who should be locked up decided if she could work or not, and at the slightest infraction would come visiting her compartment. She raged in helpless silence.

This was how her life would be until she died, if the tunnel where she lived didn't collapse first. Then she would be buried alive, suffocating and drying up in the darkness. Maybe she already was.

One hundred twelve grams and two berries that were subpar in her pocket, and she was done. Lina didn't eat the subpar strawberries even though she loved them more than anything else. As of a couple of months ago, she always took the unacceptable ones with her.

The dark thing in the last cage loved them, too.

*********************Thank you so much for reading! This story is a bit of an experiment for me, in style and genre, so please tell me what you think. Do you find the world real? Is Lina believable and do you relate to her or not? I appreciate your comments and if you enjoyed the story so far, don't forget to vote :)*********************