Numbers

I

Rain fell harshly on the tin rooftops of the city's neglected suburb on the east side. Instead of waking up to rays of the suns, the easterners, as they call themselves, awoke to the harsh screaming of the rain.

The eastern suburbs were poor, the poorest out of the nine sections of the city. Southwest being second poorest and Northwest being third. One the east side, the tin roofs were salvaged fro the city dump on the other side of the wall with guards stationed with loaded guns. Many kids in the section were shoe less, their clothing seemingly huge on their thin bodies.

Few kids went to school, going to work instead so that they could survive. As they say on the eastern side, "Knowledge doesn't heal physical hunger, money does." And money was essential and very uncommon.

The walls of their homes were covered in dirt, moss, and vines. Roofs were rusty, tin, and put together with even rustier pieces of iron squares with nails to keep the make shift roofs together. Doors were long pieces of cloth on a rod that look ready to break at any moment, some homes didn't even have doors. The inside of these homes were small, barely able to fit a family of two, and messy with a heavy, suffocation smell; there were only two rooms in the house, the bathroom, with a toilet that rarely worked and a long iron rod that resembled a shower and no privacy. They only got running water twice a week, three times maybe if there was a holiday, but those were rare. The second room was the main room, which commonly had a number of beds, depending on the family size. The beds were made of rags and dirt, sometimes a few rocks. Some of the main rooms in the section had couches and a wobbly coffee table where they would eat dinner. Tucked into one of the corners, the "kitchen" was located, which only consisted of a wooden icebox and a poor excuse of an oven.

Towards the back of the city, deep in the corners of the walls that separated them from the Northeast and the middle section of the city, is a small house, one of the smallest in that section. A young girl lays in her crappy bed, covering her ears with dirt stained hands; blonde hair in a disheveled braid. Her brown eyes glaring harshly at the tin roof above her, water slipping through the holes, falling on to the ground and onto her.

"Stupid rain," Iris growled, grabbing her holey blanket and throwing it over her head. That's when a clap of thunder shook the roof, causing it to echo and vibrate in an ugly manner. "Shut up!" She screamed at the sky, it's reply even louder.

For awhile, the girl stays in her bed, savoring the bit of warmth that it had trapped. Then she finally let out a heavy sigh and threw the raggedy blanket off of her, the cold hitting her like a wall, stabbing into her flesh. Iris ignored the cold as best as she could as she walked over to a small, wooden dresser that was actually a cabinet. Digging through the clothes, she pulled out a pair of ripped up jeans and a dark green hoodie. Sliding both pieces of clothing on, she put her hood up and left the house, head down towards the ground, occasionally looking up so she doesn't run into anyone else who dared to be outside.

Many people bid the young girl a good morning as she passes, but she says nothing to them. The look in their eyes always making her angry. Maybe she was overreacting, but she didn't care for what people thought of her.

Orphans weren't common, but they weren't rare either when it came to the some of the poor sections of the city. Iris was one of the few orphans, her parents killed the last time they went to another section to help other poor sections. Many people checked up on Iris a few weeks after that, when she was 8, but she was 12 now and had become very withdrawn with herself. The only people she cared about now was for herself. Most orphans turned out that way so many people aren't really effected by the coldness, but a lot of them do pity the orphans, which never turned out any better. Iris was one of the easier stories, a child of real strength and willing to move on. Others weren't so lucky.