Primal Gambit

Chapter 12: Valerie's Origin

Valerie was just a little girl when the Human Observatory called Marcotte began its reign over The Dark City, drawing power from wondrous imagination and the naïve obsession with the categorization of society. She became familiar with the vice grip of the human zoo at a very young age, when she was spared her life by chance. At so infantile an age, thoughts had yet to form into congruous conscience – though from the stories of those who had looked after her, both her mother and father were taken by a fledgling raiding party.

Without the proper resources to conduct their noxious raids beyond the city limits and into the multiple boroughs that dotted the landscape surrounding; they were forced to resort to more inhumane methods. A party of Marcotte marauders would return to the observatory with a fresh batch of miscreants, each plucked from within city limits – an offense punishable by termination and the entire company's dissolve.

Valerie's parents, a day after she had been born, were two of the first captives snared and dropped into the observatory.

It was there in The Outskirts she lived between youth and through her teens, ever fearful of the threats beyond the wall that separated the city from the uncivilized lands – the place people standing around tire fires referred to only as The Yard. The legends instilled her with fear of the things that could cross the borders at night and things too big to. Things that could silently eviscerate an entire patrol squad under the dead of night and transcend into the world of those with still a semblance of society, as opposed to the chaos that thrived in the dark beyond. Whether the myths were conjured only to keep The Dark City in or The Yard out escaped her, though she cast her own assumptions on what really lied out there – beyond the crumbling wall.

For those difficult years of childhood, she was robbed of the opportunity to be raised by loving parents. Instead she was taken in by her mother's parents, whose lives spent in a country less famished sounded like fairy tales. Besides the bond of blood they shared very little in common. Her grandfather did not agree with sending her to school, state-regimented ideals contrasting with the values he garnered throughout his own youth.

There was little information to be gathered about her parents, her mother having been disowned from the family during her twenties due to conflicting beliefs. There were only stories for Valerie to go from. She did not know her father, his family having long perished from living in an area of North America that had become much less accommodating. Finding food was scarce, cannibalism became involved. Her father escaped. Or so she heard.

Only stories.

The hatred for Marcotte festered within her always, urging her to act at as young an age as she was allowed. Vandalism was the weapon of choice during her youth before encountering various groups who shared the same dismay she had. It was at that point her arsenal began to grow. Reprogramming massive electronic billboards atop the windy summits of behemoth skyscrapers to sabotage the organization and display the true horrors occurring within became her specialty. Such a petite frame allowed her to shimmy and contort her way up rusted fire escapes until she reached the objective, however high it may have been.

It was the most effective way of showing scores of civilians the morose and dehumanizing conditions under the confines of massive concrete walls and electric fences. She quickly climbed the ranks of any activist party she involved herself with. And it did not take long for the interest of a mysteriously devoted member named Darwin to pique.

The two had a caustic relationship whenever they shared the same room, akin to the combination of fission and fusion. Their shared ideals and differing methods caused one another to become stronger, to become better. It was for this reason that the Human Observatory was most at risk from the activist party organized, funded, and backed by Darwin. Valerie brought the fire to the group, setting kindling to any quiet conversation – in turn creating a burning discussion between members on new ways to tear down the façade Marcotte constantly remodeled.

With the cunning pair at the helm of the Free Men Again party, they stood against overwhelming odds – the utmost viable option to combat the lucrative organization. There was only one problem with Darwin's latest and more perilous ideas:

Valerie could not say no.