MERMAID SCAVENGERS | By @WendyyWolfe

4. Like A Strand In The Wind

And the days go by
Like a strand in the wind
In the web that is my own, I begin again
Said to my friend, baby nothin' else mattered!

He was no more than a baby then
Well he seemed broken hearted
Something within him
But the moment that I first laid
Eyes on him all alone
On the edge of seventeen

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
Oh baby ooh said ooh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
OOh baby ooh said ooh

Stevie Nicks

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A biting cold wind blew through the tunnel as Delta tread cautiously through the pitch black dark. Every single Sunday for years she'd been traversing this route because Sundays were the only day the tunnels were left formerly unguarded. On Sundays the CI cameras did the work, but Delta had a way around those intrusive capabilities.

Her grandmother had often told her stories of the bitter lives they had experienced when they lived in the labor camps. Those stories had shaped her viewpoints about the world she knew as compared to what was described in the historical accounts of their ancestors in the great restoration.

Tales of a country they once called The United States of America. But that was long, long ago.

Recorded transcripts in books found hidden in the walls of that old church building served as a road map to her discovery of the truths suppressed by the governing leaders they had today. Oh, there was no denying Alitto City was a glamorous picture of wealth and prosperity with its modern skyscrapers and buildings of blue glass.

In Alitto City there was no such privilege of private transportation. Everyone who had a need to commute rode in above ground sky shuttles, a high speed rail built for the ultra rich or the private ones which transported the Allegiances to and fro.

Everyone else walked or took the commuter paths, a grid of belted sidewalks, that moved in one direction, North or South. There was one on every city block downtown. With only those two choices, it wasn't hard to figure out your day. In fact, The Sovereign Coalition of Federated Territories made it easy for each and every person born to plan their future. Because they happily chose it for you. And if you failed to follow their carefully constructed plans, you ended up like Zephy.

Alone, and stripped of your identity.

On more than one occasion, before her death, Delta remembered her own grandmother telling her how lucky she herself felt to just be alive, as she would describe how Delta's own parents' tragic demise came about when Delta was barely two years old.

With a deep sadness no one but her could feel, she would recount how they had joined a resistance group, dropping their only child at her door to go and fight the war on their freedoms. They had never been seen or heard from again.

After setting fires all over the Third Estate Districts to bring attention to the difficulties of the proletariat masses, they along with their movement allies had been rounded up and placed in the work camps to punish them for the uprising. Her grandmother had been spared to bring up her granddaughter with what little resources she ever had, which wasn't much. Too old to work, she had been forced to resort to using up any credits she had saved over her lifetime.

The City-State was only too happy to let her because it meant they didn't have provide for yet another parent-less child. This was the exact situation Zephy had endured, but the difference for her was that she had no relatives to speak of. And when she turned eighteen, she was tossed, straight to the streets for refusing the work duty they assigned her to. Delta couldn't fault her.

Quill and Zoey on the other hand had been born into the family of the elite. They had been reared with the future of Alitto City in mind and the future of the Federation.

Their Uncle was an Allegiant and as such they had been tutored and moulded for the role they would one day take on.

Of course that wasn't their fault either. It was just the way it landed, and in the recent past, as Quill had turned thirteen she began to understand a bitter and hard truth.

Some of the older teens who had been in her circle of friends, she found out, were Third Estate District and had suddenly disappeared. When she asked her parents about this they had simply laughed, telling her that by now she should have known that although she considered them friends they were well below her standard and had been sent to various other cities to perform the work arranged for them, and wouldn't be coming back. This had infuriated Quill who demanded they explain this all.

She did not like what she had learned.

Delta remembered how she had come to her house in tears and asked Delta if it were true and wanted to know if she also would be taken from her. Sadly, Delta explained to her that yes, soon she would be gone as well. At the age of Seventeen anyone who did not belong to the Allegiant Class would leave and Delta was shocked she hadn't known. That was when Delta herself realized how devastating their lives truly were. Their lives, because they were stripped of choice and freedom, and Quill because they had kept her blindly in the dark about the cold hard facts. That day Quill made a vow to be part of Delta's resistance group. Her tender heart had hardened a little and she changed, promising that she'd never let it happen.

It was endearing to Delta, though an impossible dream for Quill. But she wouldn't be swayed. To Delta's surprise it had been Quills idea to escape the life that had been planned out for her as well. Even at just thirteen Quill sensed the unfairness of it all and she become a valuable part of the group, feeding information to them on every level and proving her sly intelligence was a force to be reckoned with. She also wanted to get her ten year old brother Zoey out. For good. She did not want to be a part of a system that treated people worse than animals. For two solid months she and her brother had secreted all kinds of supplies and even some weapons to the old church on the hill. Between Delta and three others they had five handguns. At this point, Jenaro, realizing that Delta had serious intentions, introduced her to Eero and she used one in payment to him for his services rendered.

That was when they all began the plot to leave Alitto City and that was when Delta found out there was one last form of payment Eero would expect.

That kiss.

A series of loud piercing whistles broke the atmosphere and totally annihilated Delta's random thoughts.

Shouts and more whistles could be heard from outside where they all were in the tunnels. Everyone froze in silent heart wrenching fear.

Delta watched in horror as several 'Usee,' Investigators appeared and blocked the exit ahead of them. The Civic Investigators with them had weapons drawn.