An Inch Of Infinity (Short Version)

CHAPTER 5~A Normal Morning

The doors to all of the containers are shut and locked. My door won't open until it's time to wake up, at exactly 4:45 in the morning. I hear Keepers approaching once more. I need to get inside now. I have to crawl through the rust hole,and I manage to scratch my side on the rough medal. I hope I don't get tetanus, but things could have, or even should have been worse. That was way too close. I couldn't help but notice that Maxwell's container was empty,and had a 'FOR RENT' sign on the front. I dump my finds under my bed, in the crates that support it. Exhausted, I fell asleep, wrapped in my quilt, before I could even take off my shoes.

My alarm alerted me that I had an hour until school. I got up, and I climbed out of bed feeling groggy. I remembered that Maxwell was gone and sighed,I already forgot what he looked like. It's not like we saw each other a lot. All that I could remember was his music, not the best thing to be remembered by. I walked to the factory to get last night's wages. I got 20 coins.

These will pay for my daily meals, and if I spend it right, I should have 3 left over. That means I will have to go to the breakfast house on the other side of our little neighborhood and I'll save the food I got last night. Normally those coins would go to my rent, but the guy I've been renting from either hasn't minded me not paying rent for two months or he died. He probably died.

The breakfast house isn't even that bad, so I don't mind having to go there. Coral and I always go there anyway. On my way there I grabbed the pot from last night to bring to the breakfast house. The food is gross, and everything is grey, but the staff are nice enough and will often help with people who can't afford food. It's the cheapest food around.

As I walked to The Breakfast House I saw a girl who looked like me when I was younger, maybe 9. It reminded me of a lot of buried memories. Her shirt was too small and it was torn at the bottom and her slieve was cut. Her pants were shredded at the bottom and her feet were bare and covered in gashes and blood. I could see her ribs through her shirt. Her face was dirty and covered in scratches, and if I'm guessing from a deep purple shiner under her eye, she got in a fight, and it looks like she lost. I bet it was over food.

When I was her age I was always fighting over bread. The bakers of the bakery by the coast would throw out one fresh loaf each day just to watch us fight for it. None of us really needed the fresh bread, we could steal our own bread from somewhere else, or maybe find some in the dumpster, but there was the hope that we could win, that maybe we would go home with warm bread. Some go hoping to feed their families, others to feed themselves, like I did, like this girl might have. We would do it out of hope.

I never won any of the fights, though some would say I won in my own way. People would die in those battles. Coral and I would team up, and we've had some close calls, she broke her arm and I twisted my ankle. We both got a lifetime supply of black eyes and fat lips, but when we finally gave in, I had managed to tear a piece off of the bread. We both decided it wasn't worth the small mouthful to risk our lives when we couldn't win and no doctors would help us, not without compensation.

I took Coral to a doctor in training, who put her arm in a splint, but she couldn't use it the same for almost a year. That's how she trained herself to be ambidextrous, able to use both hands equally. A good quality. And a good reminder to never do that again. Even those who won would only end up with half a loaf.

I always hated those fights, and they were all over town, bread at the bakers, a bowl of soup in an alleyway, burnt food at the market, the list goes on. Some people get in fights from food they already bought, ambushed by the desperate. This girl clearly had lost, because the all too familiar face of defeat cast a shadow on her face.

When I walked near her she flinched away. I hadn't really thought about it much, I just gave her one of my coins. She gasped and slid it into a pocket I couldn't see. Smart girl. Then she ran off, hopefully to find food. That would be enough for a school lunch at her age. Food for kids is cheap. That reminds me of my childhood, or lack thereof.

When I was at the orphanage in another community, the other girls would pick on me and try to make me give them my food. I often would refuse and I still have the scars to prove it. I had a hard time there, but when I turned 5, like all of us, I had to fend for myself in the outside world, and the tables turned. I had a natural skill for theft, not something to brag about, but it kept me alive. Several were caught and the Keepers left with them. I think the Keepers know how we get our food, I bet those Keepers even like it.

Either way, I got the high ground. I had those girls running around doing my bidding, begging just so I could have the money. All for a loaf of bread each. I always made sure they got cold bread. They didn't dare keep the money because they knew I could get food they could not, sure they might come across enough money for a day, but it can mean less in the future. I was on top of the world. I even put on a few pounds, and I grew a bit.

I almost was almost sad when I was relocated here when it was time for me to leave the orphanage. Almost. I did have at least 200 coins to take with me. All that and I managed to lose it within a day. That's when I learned to keep it in a hidden pocket. Preferably on the inside of my shirt. I already have almost 50 saved up again, but I always have something that comes up. Even so, I'm not going to starve anytime soon.

Before I realized it, I was at the breakfast house. I gave them the cooking pot, and they gave me a coin in return. I pulled out my membership card and got exactly what I needed until the next mealtime, without gaining wait just as the law requires.

It cost me 8 coins. Breakfast is always the most expensive of the three meals because it's not considered a 'required' meal. Most meals are 5 coins, but at the breakfast house I could get lunch for as little as four coins, although that was rare. I finish up my moist oats and see that there is extra time until I have to be somewhere, So I jogged to meet Coral at the park.