The Scavengers

Kade squinted through the downpour to keep track of Five, who was a powder-blue silhouette against the blurry, gunmetal gray horizon. He swept the abandoned maglev highway back and forth just as Kade had taught him, head down and rain pouring off him in streams. It joined the rivers pouring down from the hundreds of levels of city above them and emptying into the great drains just below. Until Five stopped short, then stooped to grab something.

Kade quickened his stride to catch up, as the humidity turned his body into a swamp beneath his ponchy.

Five hoisted a cylinder over his head triumphantly. “Dad, I think it’s a photosynthetic converter!”

Solar panels were cheap as carpet and as easy to install as unrolling them onto a roof. Converting their captured solar energy to power at a reasonable efficiency was the expensive part. Kade took Five’s skinny wrist and held the little bit of tech up to see.

“That’s a beauty,” he said, then looked around the make sure no one was looming out of the murk to snatch their prize. “Couple hundred credits for that. Food for the next two weeks.”

Five stuffed it into his old lunchbox and gave it a shake. The converter and all the previously scavenged components from that day rattled around. “Let’s go. I want more money.”

Kade resumed following, his eyes sweeping the ground in case Five’s overexcited vision missed anything. Everything thrown out by the city ended up down here. Then, scavs like them found the worthwhile bits and recycled them back up via the rust retailers.

Kade also took long sweeping glances up the sides of the grey canyon. Mr. Poke remained tight in his right hand, humming with power and loaded with two, twelve-inch titanium bolts in case someone else sewage-brained enough to be out in this storm.

Then, he noticed a drone lying on its back, turned over and then discarded by the eager boy.

“Five!” he bellowed into the rain.

Five stopped short and came sloshing back.

Kade bent double over the drone, ignoring his aching back to avoid drenching his knees and letting water in above the tops of my boots. “Okay. You see this?” he said.

“It’s a dead delivery drone. Someone already pried open the courier cylinder, and its fan motors are burnt out,” Five said with certainty. His little boots went splash-splash as his limitless energy surged against his little body

“Yeah, but look here,” Kade said and swapped Mr. Poke for his handheld plasma cutter. He made a couple glowing incisions above the desecrated corpse’s modem then reached in and ripped out a little green bit of plastic. “Extranet chip. A good hacker can reprogram that and get pirate ex-fi in a few minutes.” He slipped it into Five’s bucket. After all, what were kids good for but manual labor?

“Can we keep it? I want our own media,” Five said.

“Maybe,” Kade said. He pushed Fives onward. The dark shape of an overpass loomed ahead. This one must have some remaining use to the upper world, because its original concrete structures had been reinforced by a steel exoskeleton. Maybe it took sanitation workers to the water treatment pumps that recycled all the rainwater back up.

A whirring split the air, interrupting his examination. Kade didn’t need to look up and squint into the gloom, because he knew the sound of a spinner flying low overhead.

He started running. With the rain hammering him, he felt like he was accelerating in slow motion, every step fighting against the city to gather a bit more speed. He caught up to Five and dragged him forward. “Go! Into cover, sky demons.”

Five nodded and ran, until they threw themselves under the overpass and out of the way. Kade shoved Five into a corridor, under an ancient sign. He spun around and aimed Mr. Poke back around. Condensation dripped through his fingers, and down the insides of his sleeves.

The spinner slammed down on the maglev highway, throwing up a tidal wave of water that shimmered in its headlights. It screeched as it skidded right up to the concrete pylon and tapped against it.

Kade sized it up. The spinner had a broad, angular bumper and doors, connected by sweeping organic lines of its main body. There was no armor, and an oversize engine shoved out the front. A fucking luxury ride, he realized. Some glitter head coming to fuck up a couple unknowns then go home and laugh about it. He should run. Glitter heads were as unpredictable in motives as they were in the firepower they carried.

Then the hatch opposite him popped. The spinner rocked as someone egressed. Kade took aim around the slanted windshield.

Then a tiny little shadow tottered out. It cried out, and Kade’s hair stood on end as he remembered baby Five making the same raw screech.

“You.” A young woman said. She had a soft voice, and it barely got through the rain. “Can you take my child?”

“Is that a toddy?” Five gasped.

“No,” Kade replied to both of them. “Glitter head, I ain’t a charity service.”

“She’s got ten thousand credits on her,” the woman said. “Go on.” She shoved the kid around the spinner’s hood. Kade confirmed it was definitely a little girl wrapped in a red blanket pinned around her shoulder. There was a black card pinned there. The little girl turned around and fell on her rear. She was lucky the rain had lightened, or it would have driven her into the ground and drowned her.

“You put her out here, I’m going to take the money and send her back. You don’t have a nanny?” Kade said.

“I have nothing. Please. You’re a father, I saw your kid,” she said.

“You think I can afford another fucking one? Ma’am, it’s dangerous down here, and I can barely keep one of them alive,” Kade yelled.

The toddler threw her head back and bawled. Water pooled around her cloak and dripped down around her.

“I can’t keep her alive, or anyone else. Please take her.” A figure burst out. Kade saw a knee-length formal grey skirt, sweater soaked to her body, and a mess of brown hair. She grabbed the toddler and hauled her about five paces forwards. For a moment, he saw a long, hawkish face, eyes wide and utterly terrified. she ran back to her spinner before the girl could grab her. The fans powered up. The toddler stood and was blown back on her rear. The spinner lifted off, showed off a handful of bullet holes across its narrow trunk hatch, and fled into the rain.

Fucking glitter heads, Kade thought, and lowered Mr. Poke.

Then Five stepped past him.

“Stop!” he said.

“I’m getting the toddy,” Five said.

“No, you’re not,” Kade said and grabbed his shoulder. “That kid is bait. Clearly someone wants her mother and will come for her too.”

“We’re not just leaving her. She’ll freeze in the rain,” Five said.

“We can’t take her either,” Kade said. The toddler rose up unsteadily and tottered toward the cutting edge of the rainfall.

“Yes, we can. How are we going to leave her?” Five said. Then, he sat down. “I’m not leaving until you say we can take her.”

Kade stared back and forth between the two children. He poked Five’s backside with his boot. “Come on, we need to get your new ex-net account set up.”

“No,” Five said. He held out his lunchbox for Kade. “I want the kid.”

The toddler fell down on her knees. She wailed again, then started crying in earnest.

“Fine, take her,” Kade said. Maybe Five would realize how hard it was to raise a helpless resource black hole.

Five dropped his lunchbox and ran over. “Hello,” he cooed and grabbed the screaming toddler. He shrieked in pain and fell on his backside. Water flowed around him. “She bit me.”

“They tend to do that,” Kade said. He scooped up Five’s lunchbox and hung it from his left arm, then cradled Mr. Poke across the crook of his left elbow. He walked forward. Five cooed softly as he scooped the little girl up more successfully and hauled her out of the rain.

“There’s a note, and a bundle of credit chips,” he said, and turned the kid over to read it off her shoulder. “Her name is Moon.”

“Well, you’re going to have to cover her up because she has no raincoat,” Kade said. “We’re going home. Ten thousand credits are six months of living. You can have your media too.”

“Our media,” Five said.

“Fine, ours,” Kade said. He didn’t want the media. All the glitter soaps and then tekkie shows alike were just a reminder of the world he’d left behind. It was a life he could no longer live, and engineering tech he could no longer practice with.

They walked the three miles home with Five’s ponchy bulging from the toddler sequestered within. At the skeleton of the crashed maglev bus, Kade turned right. In the foundations of the skyscraper were a pair of loading docks that hadn’t been used in centuries. Kade helped Five up the dock, then climbed up after.

At the back of the loading bay was a steel security door Kade had ripped out of an old bank vault and hauled here. He entered the code on the keypad, and the three locks clicked one after the other.

He’d segmented the room into six smaller rooms with tarps. He hit the switch by the door, and the lights came on. A couple fans hummed as they pumped fresh air through the ancient vent ducts. The rain catch tank read almost full, so he put the children through hot showers, then bathed himself.

“Does she need diaper?” Five said, as he wrapped her in his blanket.

“Yes,” he said. Turned out, he had a couple left from when Five was a baby, and after making sure one was clean, they got it on.

Kade cooked up a couple salvaged ration packs on the burner stack, He picked the cushy civilian survival rations instead of the mil fiber-deficient blocks. He checked over his shoulder at Five sorting their salvage, and the toddler wandering around the soft carpet floor.

Then he remembered the toddler had was with them and might not chew as well, so he cut off a corner of the vegetable ration and divided it up into its component veggie substitutes. They had a heavily scuffed metal table and two different office chairs. They pulled it up, poured water, and got to eating.

“Why do you think she left her toddy?” Five said.

“Someone was clearly trying to kill her. Did you see the bullet holes in the spinner?” Kade said.

“No,” Five said, and his mouth gaped in a wide ‘O’.

“Yeah. Someone wanted mom dead.”

“She looked like one of those office workers in media. She was wearing a suit and heels,” Five said.

Kade shrugged. Office work was the soil of the economy upstairs; necessary and mundane at the same time. There were a lot of reasons some office woman would be running from other glitter heads with guns. “Look. You’re right, leaving her there was a bad thing. What we need to do is recycle her back up. Find someone to take her to a home who can properly care for her,” he said.

“What if nowhere is safe? We can raise her anyway, you raised me!” Five said.

“I still am raising you, my dear boy, and I don’t have room for another,” Kade said. His fork clanged off the bottom of his bowl. All done. He yawned as the food settled inside him.  “I’m going to bed. Don’t go outside,” he said.

“Okay,” Five said. He slid Moon off his lap and held her until her little legs got steady. “Listen. I’m going to show you around our habby, okay?”

“Mama.” She bounced up and down and fell on her butt.

“Mommy left you with us now. You’re so cute,” he said and scooped her back up..

Kade rolled his eyes, then lifted the cutout tarp doorway on his own room. He clambered into his bunk bed, turned on the cooling coil, and threw himself back on his pillows. He fell asleep staring at the ceiling painted black, with little lights flickering in the best impression of stars in the night sky.

He was wrenched awake by ear-splitting bawling. He clamped both hands over his ears and closed his eyes. In the darkness, he felt Five’s quick footsteps patter a few paces, then the dresser they’d found creak as he lifted the unwanted toddy from the top drawer. The screaming pierced through his hands loud as ever.

He rolled out of bed and stomped out.

“Put her in my dresser so she can look at the stars,” he said. Five’s own ceiling mural was under construction. Kade had thought they’d share a room until he was a teenager, only to realize a year ago the nine-year-old was gaining independence faster than he’d expected.

By 6 a.m., his eyes were puffy and stung, Five was yawning, and Moon was sleeping soundly in her blanket.

“This every day. For the next two years, you ready?” he said.

Five bit his lip for a moment. “Yes,” he said with no enthusiasm. “Are we scavenging today?”

“No, we’re going to see the rust retailers and pick up some loot. Maybe sell our haul too,” he said.

“Can we keep the media chip?” Five said and sat up straight.

“Yes, easily,” Kade said.

“Sure!” He ran into his room with the flutter of tarp.

By the time he emerged, Kade had breakfast rations cooked.

“Tada!” Five said.

Kade spun around and snorted. Five had on shorts and a pair of very long, very neon orange socks. They were from a package they’d recovered from one of the ancient glitter shops. It had been stripped of value long ago, but Five had found a dozen pairs of bright athletic socks. “Flashy,” he said.

“You like?” Five said and kicked up a leg.

Kade flicked his forehead. “Yes.” Then he went back and snatched Moon out of her dresser. The toddler whined something, then began chewing on the corner of his collar. By the time he set her down at the table, saliva was dripping onto his shirt.

Once done, they grabbed their usual stuff. Five took Moon again. Kade grabbed the empty trading bag, threw in an extra diaper, blanket, and ration pack. Moon grabbed a wrench out of a tool rack as five carried her to the front door.

“Hey,” he said and put her down to free up a hand to grab her. Moon bolted away and ran, tongue hanging out and wrench waving about.

“This is why you never let go of them. I had to learn to do business one-handed,” Kade said as he stepped in front of her. He swiped the wrench and pointed back at Five. Moon tottered about in a circle, and the embarrassed boy scooped her back up.

They set out along the street. The rain had stopped during the night, and water flowed fast and white-capped under the grates, foam lapping up as much corrugated steel as it could reach. The air was warm, and even thicker than when there’d been rain. This time they walked until they came to a worn peak of building, part of a diamond tower rising two miles up. They stepped through the caved in front doors and over the remnants of an ancient siege. Kade knew the bottom layers had been abandoned except necessary facilities after the great riots. He didn’t know how far back those had been.

They came to the grand staircase. This had been swept clean recently. A brilliant, sunset red arrow was painted up the center of its span. At least they’re still alive, Kade thought as the staircase creaked beneath him.

The building had a reinforced steel central column. A grid that had been built over, then abandoned to rot, then built over again. The air grew drier as they approached.

“Hey grimers,” an ashy voice said.

“I thought you did nights, Lin,” Kade said as the pale woman with black braids and makeshift combat armor emerged. She lowered her weapon to point at the floor.

“I do days now. After turning back a milli drone last week,” she said.

“Moving up in the world,” Kade said. He grabbed Five and the bundle that was Moon and ushered them along.

“What’s the kid got?” she said.

“Don’t ask.”

A water pipe had been installed right across the aisle, and someone had hung laundry from it. It was a row of faded grey and brown clothes. At the middle, a shimmering sequined orange gown and a purple suit dried side by side.

The only other human they saw in person was a teenage boy lounging in a little closet of space, the walls decorated by dozens of crayon drawings of war machines and death. Kade passed without saying hello.

Reed was the biggest rust retailer. While others spent time smuggling guns and advanced techno, Reed focused on basic shit. The front wall of his shop was a grid of plastic cubbies displaying everything from soap to water filters. A robot arm rose in its cradle and saluted.

“One of the reliables remains alive,” Reed said and unfolded himself from his lawn chair. He slapped his beer down on the counter. “We procuring or evaluating?”

“Both,” Kade said. He placed the photosynthetic converter down on the counter. The robot arm hovered over, staring with its sensors. “Three-hundred credits.”

“One-fifty. The millies are pumping out mid quality converters for their drones. Eighty-nine percent,” Reed drawled.

“Good top city peeps will pay more for ninety-three percent,” Kade said.

“Two-fifty. I still have to get it to the top city,” Reed said and frowned.

“Done.”

The robot arm put down the credit stack, then Kade released the converter and grabbed the stack.

“Now,” he looked at Five and the bundle that was Moon and took a deep breath. “I need a conductor for the infant.”

“Dad, you’re not selling her!” Fives said and backed away. Robot arm and Reed stood up and peered at him, and the bundle that was Moon.

Kade walked towards them, but Five retreated, clutching the bundle tight.

“I’m not selling her, I’m recycling her upstairs, where someone can actually raise her,” he said.

“We can raise her, her mom gave her to us,” Five said. Reed’s jaw dropped when he saw the toddler’s face. The robot arm recoiled back.

“How? She can go up to a family that can give her safety, proper food, schools. She can have a bunch of friends and an actual community. Like you see on media,” Kade said.

Five looked at Moon, then back at him. His cheeks flushed red as all the emotions welled up inside. “Maybe,” he said.

“Hey, Reliable,” Reed said. Kade spun around. “I can do it for a price. I can do anything for you. However, I’ll need a few days. Most people conducted have a useful skill or are willing to sign a bond contract. An infant is going to take a while to find a family. Come back in a week,” he said.

“We’ll do that. In the meantime, I need diapers and a few other things,” Kade said.

The robot arm raced along its track around the perimeter to the rear and started tearing open cabinets.

“I’ve got that. I’ve got everything, Reed said.

A deep roar filled the air. Like a massive beast with vocal chords tall as skyscrapers rumbling. It pumped through every air vent, then shook the entire foundation. Kade, Five, and Reed all froze and stared up at the ceiling. The siren petered off, then roared a second time.

“The deluge resumes shortly,” Reed muttered. “All that water boiled for the arcology processors is just recycling back down to us.”

Kade departed the store minutes later, hauling a backpack full of child equipment. Five put Moon down and held her hand as she tottered along. Lin saw them coming and cracked a smile on her scarred cheeks.

After they passed her guard post, Kade made Five pick moon up once more, and threw the blanket around her. She pulled the edge down and stared at him with her mouth slack “Hurry up, we can make it before the rain starts,” he said and seized Five’s shoulder. They hurried back across the abandoned building.

The front door loomed ahead. Kade checked its sides inside and outside.

He saw a hint of darkness around the corner. A shadow in the city glow where there shouldn’t have been one. He yanked Five back. “Stay dangerous, son,” he whispered.

Five stiffened as he understood.

Kade shoved him down under a long-abandoned rack. The vulnerable people stowed, he slung Mr. Poke off his shoulder and crept toward the nearest empty window frame. He could get a good view from there. He took long, arcing glances around at the darkened ruin.

He felt the floor beneath him vibrate, first. Behind them. He spun around, just in time for a pile of rubble to collapse. Mr. Poke came up, tip sizzling moisture off.

Something four-legged, six-eyed burst from over the pile, tasers sizzling on either shoulder. Kade hit the trigger and the bolt disappeared in the center of those six red eyes.

The stalker drone crashed to the ground as Kade shoved the three of them away. Both tasers fired into the ground and sizzled.

Kade threw himself atop of Five as he swung Mr. Poke a full 180 degrees to aim at the door.

Something whizzed angrily across his shoulder and pain followed. Kade fired without thinking. Moon let out a scream and resumed crying.

He hit the ground. His right shoulder ached, but he managed to jam another bolt into Mr. Poke’s receiver and take aim once more.

A shadow remained in the doorway.

“Hey gutter scav. I’ll make a deal with you,” the peep who owned the shadow called. “Give me the baby, and we’ll go our separate ways.”

Kade checked the stalker. The drone’s eyes were dark, molten polymers leaking from its mouth. “What’s the mom to you?”

“Don’t matter. I’ve got a KP-4 automatic rifle. I coulda sprayed you down, but money’s better if the girl is alive. So, you run away back to your scav hole and leave up city business to the upper city. We’re split,” the man said. He sounded young, and cocky.

Five curled up tight around the bawling toddy.

The offer tempted Kade like fresh fruit for a second. “You tell me what you want with the mother first. Then I decide.”

“Nah, this isn’t your deal. Just walk away, forget about her and her mother, and we split. Is my language too complicated?”

Kade turned Mr. Poke’s launching power up to maximum. His magnetic rails hummed as they drained everything from the battery. Kade stared at the fragment of shadow. He couldn’t quite judge where this glitter head was standing. So, he grabbed his water canteen and threw it. It clanked and bounced right through the doorway.

Heavy firepower roared and the canteen shattered in a spray of steam.

Got you, Kade thought. He aimed a foot to the right of the doorway, four feet up, and pulled the trigger.

This time Mr. Poke crackled, and hot air blew in his face. The wall shivered as the bolt punched straight through. The glitter head howled and toppled to the ground.

Kade was on him in an instant. He kicked the assault rifle back into the building and stamped on the man’s hands. Mr. Poke had shot him through his armored chest into his gut. Fragments from the disintegrating wall had sandblasted his chestplate and every inch of exposed flesh.

“Okay glitter head. Now, what did you want with the mom?” Kade said. He saw footsteps. “Five, stay inside!”

“She stole corporate property. Don’t know who or what, but they’re repo’ing everything from her,” the mercenary said. He sucked in a few deep, wheezing breaths. “Let me go. I’m the only one who saw her make that stop. I’ll forget it. Kids die all the time down here.”

“There’s no one else coming?”

“I was the only one clever enough to track her car.” He raised his hand. “Can you let me go? I’ll give the wrong course for her escape, and say I got jumped by a couple random scavs.

Kade mulled it over. He turned down Mr. Poke’s power and slung him over his shoulder.

Glitter head immediately failed the test by snatching a little pistol from the folds of his jacket.

Kade stamped his arm. then pressed his plasma cutter to the back of glitter head’s neck as he howled in frustration. He turned it up, and fried his brain stem, the processor at the seat of his skull and any neuro glitter in there.

The rain came roaring down. Kade was slammed to his hands and knees by the force. He pushed himself up to his feet. Glitter head’s blood washed away, and his flesh peeled around his many wounds.

All that for a toddy, Kade thought. “Five, you okay?”

Five looked up from the shelf he’d crawled under. Moon’s little face poked out under his chin. “We’re fine dad. Can we run away?”

“Not yet. Stay there,” Kade said and raised his cutter. He dropped to his knees astride the corpse and started sawing at its cheek. It peeled back, and cybernetics glittered.

“Dad what are you doing?”

“He’s got a head full of glitter. That’s a good score,” Kade said. He ripped out a full set of combat implants. The rain washed them clean. Then he emptied the glitter head’s pockets and snatched up his weapon.

He sloshed back under the awning. Moon looked up at him, and her mouth fell open. Kade stared into her brown eyes and dropped to one knee. “She’s fine,” he said. Moon bounced up and down in Five’s arms.

“Maybe her mom left her with us because she knew only a couple of crazy scavs could save her?” Five said.

“Agreed,” Kade said. “You were right, about how we can’t recycle her. We’re keeping her,” he said. He flicked Five’s nose. Then patted his hand atop Moon’s tangled black hair. Her hands snatched up and grabbed his pinky and thumb. She held on tight.

“Yes,” Five said.

Reed took the implants but said ‘not my industry,’ to the rifle. So Kade snuck his trio home along the side of the buildings, bag of kid supplies over his shoulder and a weapon in either hand. They got back, and he bolted the door.

“We’re not leaving for a week, just in case glitter head was lying. Find something to do,” he said. He dropped the backpack on the floor.

Moon wandered over and stood on his boot. “Hey, I need that,” he said. He waited until she lost interest and wandered off, followed by Five. No recycling here.

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Thank you for reading, friends. I hope you enjoyed this little trilogy about innocence as much as I enjoyed writing it. Next week I’ll be bringing back a recurring character for a one-off. However, I am planning another short serial in the future.

As always, if you enjoyed please like and subscribe for more ever Wednesday. Getting such feedback is one of my biggest measures of success and platform growth as a writer, so you matter very much to me.