The United Territories

Chapter 3

     The pain, it was unbearable, like needles on an open wound with lime on it. Hiro could have felt the pain, yes, but was unaware of its source. Hiro had no strength, he couldn't even open his eyes, he wanted to observe his surroundings but he just could not. It mad hime feel incapable, weak and a bit of insecurity lurked in the darkness of his mind.
     Never in his life did Hiro, the roof racing boy of a fairly poor district of Portland, felt helpless. In a matter of hours he had lost his best friend and now this. He could not feel anything, he was in pain in every place of his body. This pain was different, Hiro was acustome with pain, but this pain was new.
     Hiro had broken his entire left arm when he was seven years old. His father had taken him and Jinsoo to the near outskirts of the metropolis for their first day of roof racing. The area he had taken them, resembled an old Arabic town and the peopl living there resided in buildings no taller than four stories. Hiro remebered that day in detail. That day would define his life amd impacted his entire future. Hiro was so excited to learn his father's and Jinsoo's mother's legacy.
     Jinsoo and her mother, his father and him made their way up onto the roof of a two story building. The sun was searing down on them and the sweat that was on Hiro's arm was evapourating, making him unusually sticky. To the back where the four of them stood, was a building one story higher than the roof they were on. Down below on the left handside was a street filled with people, who were trading goods and services. Whilst on the right handside was another building, this time its roof was a few feet shorter, Hiro's father would have never let his first practice been that. That was child's play in Hiro's book. The only option, infront of them, a two story roof, nearly identical to the one they were on.
     "Hiro you'll go first okay," his father said with no emotion.
     "I have to jump that?" Hiro enquired as he pointed infront of him.
     "You see any other option boy?" his father
     " NOoooo." Hiro lenghtened. He moved his blue tipped hair from his eye and crouched into a running position at the door. He wanted a running start, more momentum to overcome the 25 feet that stood between Hiro and the other building's roof.
     Hiro took a deep breath and readied himself and took off! He sprinted like a cheetah. He was undoubtingly fast on his feet, everything past him like a blur. He calculated the ledge, jumped up on it for added height all in a matter of seconds and became air borne.
     Time had slowed for Hiro as he flew above the gap between the buildings. He was getting there, arma and legs swinging freely. Hiro was making an arc in the sky, just a few more feet again. His right arm out stretched. His finger tips had touched the yellow limestone but his dody could not make it. At the end his leg muscles had not pushed him into the air adequtely for him to make the jump.
     Hiro snapped back into reality, his eyes wide open. He felt the force of gravity acting on him once more and he plumeted to the ground below. He was spinning as he dropped. Screaming he was, as he tried to grab ar the hanging clothes. Then he hit the ground with a "THUD!".

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  "HIRO!!" Jinsoo screamed, she rushed too the ledge to see an unconscious Hiro on the ground. Jinsoo ran down the stairs to help him, skipping stairs in the  process. She went down sliding on her knees in the dirt next to him. His face was smeared with sand and she wipped it off for him. That made her smile. He had a pulse so he was alive, but his hand that was next to her leg was distorted, deformed. Bones projecting at odd places and the site was gruesome.
  His father lifted him into the van they had arrived in and her mother stitched his arm and place his bones into place. Jinsoo's mother was an experienced surgeon and doctor but was without a job. The reason, Jinsoo never knew. Her mother always avoided that question.