From Nothing to Something

Chapter 2

"Stop, thief!" A guard yelled behind Ash, who was digging around in a dumpster looking for scraps. Ash turned around and fled, with the guard in pursuit on a motorcycle. Ash leapt up to one of the pipes and jumped on the roof of the factory directly behind him. 

The guard rode down the street below, trying to spot Ash before he got away. 

Ash weaved between the iron smokestacks, leapt over pipes running along the ground, and held his breath to avoid inhaling gases from a toxic leak. After he leapt over another alleyway, he landed on a flat roof and could see the massive steel wall and the distant ocean on the other side.

The guard slowed down to a stop when he knew he couldn't catch Ash. He turned around and left.

Ash jumped down to a street right next to the wall, where trucks from the Important's sector came to have their food processed. He reached a small alleyway, where a couple of his friends were waiting. Ash brought out a fresh apple slice from his pocket he had grabbed desperately when the guard spotted him.

"Here you go, Bruce," He said. "It's all yours. Now I don't owe you anything."

"Good job, man!" Bruce said, slapping Ash on the shoulder. "I'm feeling generous today, how 'bout we split the apple and we each have some, is that okay?" 

"Thanks, bro!" Ash said as he took his half and wolfed it down. "I was running the whole time!"

After the old clocktower struck 3, and the sun was low in the sky, they waved goodbye, and Bruce and his other friends walked to their houses on the old ships in the bay, and he started walking toward his house on the other side of the city.

He didn't walk far before it started raining. It has rained before, but this time the clouds were a beige color, and the rain burned into his skin. 

"Ow!" He said as he ran under a roof. The water dripping off burned into his clothes. 

"Attention, citizens," The PA said. "Monitors have declared an acid rain storm. Anyone outside get under a metal roof immediately. Also, please note that Sectors 4 and 5 of the Unimportants..." and the PA burned out. It did that sometimes. All Ash could do was stand there and wait as the acid rain slowly subsided. In a matter of minutes it was like the rain never happened. 

After the sun broke out of the clouds, he started walking again, but then heard a deep rumbling noise from behind him. 

He turned around so that he was facing the wall. Now, instead of solid concrete with a smooth metal skin, there was a giant crack in the wall, and a foul, brown, sticky liquid oozed out. 

What Ash didn't know is that the trash mound that had been known as the Hill for more than 40 years had toppled and fell into the ocean, creating waves that pushed the polluted ocean on land.

He then heard a crash. Suddenly, the crack widened, and Ash stared as the wall cracked open, and a rusty cargo ship burst in, followed by a gargantuan wave that followed. Earlier, the ocean had pulled the ship out to sea, and used it as a "battering ram" to the wall. 

Ash backed up slowly, and started to run as fast as he could. 

Even though in the back of his mind he knew that he was the fastest kid in his Sector, he could never beat the wave. It was like trying to escape death from a Creature. Impossible. Eventually, he had run almost halfway around the city, and he was slowing his pace. The energy from the apple had given him plenty of energy, but it was now running out. Now the acidic water lapped at his shoes as he ran, and it burned through the leather and to his feet. Oh, it burns! 

"Hey, Ash!" Someone yelled. Ash turned around to find that a man was standing at the front of the ship, and was surrounded by men. One was holding a lasso. 

"Give that to me Bob." He said. "Can you catch this?" He asked.

"I'll try!" Ash called back. The man threw the lasso at him, but missed. When he fished it back up, he failed to realize that the rope that made up the loop was burnt through; now the lasso was useless.

This time Ash caught it, but as the people on the ship heaved people up, Ash's fingers slipped.

"Help!" He said as he fell into the water.

"Mayday, mayday!" The man said as everyone scattered. "Man overboard!" 

As Ash sunk through the mucky water, he eventually floated up to the surface. He gasped. It burns!

Quickly, he swam to a little "raft" fashioned together by some old logs and some dead seaweed. 

He clambered one and wiped the muck off his face. A coca-cola bottle, one of the many remnants of the Before, clung to his arm, and he brushed it off only to reveal a nasty cut. It used to be small, but due to the acid it was swelling and pus oozed out. Small black lines, ever so tiny, stretched out from the wound. 

He drifted behind the ship, and watched in horror as the ship drifted away and crashed into the wall. 

Men and women fell into the water as the boat flipped and crashed onto the wall. It exploded with a tremendous explosion that caused flaming metal to fly everywhere. 

"What's this?" He asked as he discovered a tiny (but full) syringe stuck into his arm. A metal pole stuck out of the water and hit his arm with a BAM! 

"Ow!" He cried as the syringe injected the blue fluid into his veins. He turned the syringe over to find that it was a sleep syringe, used by Importants after they came back from the bars and dance clubs. 

Ash suddenly felt really tired. He started having hallucinations as spots danced in his eyes. There was a man riding an ancient sailboat around and around him, making him sleepier and sleepier. 

He collapsed to the raft as the raft floated through the drain system, and out into the trash fields.