City of the damned

Thanks to the war, Luna was born poor. Living on the streets of an apartheid state.

'Our overlords treated us like vermin. I guess the winners of war get to do anything they want. It's not like we are in a position to fight back anymore.'

She spent most days begging for money. The more worn her clothes had gotten, the more skin that showed, the more stares she would get from depraved men. There were little to no laws here, but men like them didn't last long. Even criminals don't take kindly to that behavior.

Her father had a low paying job. Even with her mother whoring herself to the ugliest men you could imagine, they barely got by.

An eternal smog covered the city. Pollution pumped directly to us from the pristine cities our captors call home. 'We call paradise.'

'Thanks to them, life spans have drastically decreased. My parents died when I was only sixteen. The shattered remains of a once great city is all that's left.'

Eventually, she had to succumb to the cities ways. Doing the job she always wanted her mother to stop. Realizing it's the only way someone like her can do to survive. Those who lived before the war are the only ones who had any education. Who had any skills.

She had no friends, no family, no loved ones to guide her through this nightmare. Some take the easy way out. Those who venture too close to the walls are gunned down by auto turrets.

'Our owners do not feel the need to keep us in here themselves. They don't have time to waste on us. They use robots to do their dirty work.'

She would watch as people were gunned down. Wondering if they had it worse than her, or if she had a stronger will to live. 'I have to admit, the idea of escape does sound tantalizing. It's right there, right in front of me. I just have to walk forward and it'll all be over. The pain would be gone. I would be gone. No one would miss me. Sometimes I wish I could just reach out and grab it. Grab death.'

Walking out there would be embarrassing. She can't stand the thought of others watching her as she does to them. 'People like me, waiting for their opportunity but never taking it. Watching how easy it is for others. Overcoming the innate desire to live.'

As she sits on a ledge of a building pondering these things. A man had snuck up from behind and took a seat next to her. She didnt noticed him until he started to sit down.

"I would say it's a nice day to die, but everyday here is the same." His expressionless face is just like everyone else's. "Do I want to jump, or get shot?"

'He's an older man. I'm starting to wonder if he lost everyone like I did.'

He closes his eyes and stays silent for several minutes before slowly leaning over the edge to fall to his death.

'Death, this place reeks of it. The crows that fly overhead never shut their fucking mouths. It's just a constant barrage of caws and occasional gunfire.'

'Are we doomed to live like this forever?' Perhaps part of her wanted to live longer to find out. She's hopeful of the future, but her will is broken. Deep down, everyone is hoping that someone, or something will save them from this nightmare. The future looks grim. No matter how strong you think you are, you can only take so much. '

Will I be able to taste freedom someday? Or will I succumb to the fate that befalls everyone here?'

One would think there was an underground faction dedicated to escaping and attacking our suppressors. They tried at first. But like everything here, they were either killed, or their wills broken.

She stands up from the ledge and makes her way home. At least what she calls home. It's nothing but a dark alley. These streets are crawling with dangerous people. She never understood why they would harm people in the same situation as they are in. The grunts who do the dirty work she understands. They had no choice. Join the criminals, or be the victim. Their leaders are something else. They like inflicting pain on others. The only good thing that they do is increase the population, by force. It's sick to think about, but they have the only supplies to keep the children born here alive.

Her heart stops when she sees three men run out of an alley to block her path.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing all the way out here?" The man in the middle of the formation says.

'Did I get sidetracked? I was sure I went the right way. No. I'm on the right street. They must be expanding their territory.'

"This area is protected by Trey." Large areas are protected by groups fighting back against criminals like them.

"We'll deal with him and his goons after we get done with you." The man yells.

The two other men on his right and left start walking towards her with switchblades in their hand. Their confidence shows they've done this many times before. Unfortunately for them, she's always prepared for a fight.

She catches them off guard by rushing towards them and roll to avoid their strikes. She takes out her concealed small baseball bat and hits one of them in the back of the leg. When he falls down, she hits him again, this time aiming for his head. It makes a loud crack like she just hit a home run, as it makes contact, there's no doubt she had broke his skull.

She tries to make her escape, thinking they will check on their friend. That was her mistake. They run past him to chase her down. They have trouble catching up to her as she easily traverse the rough terrain. Jumping over broken chunks of buildings and potholes with ease. However, they are persistent. They won't let their prey escape so easily. Not when it's right in front of them. She needs to get away or split them up somehow. She can't risk taking on two at once again.

She slows down slightly to pick up a rock, only stopping briefly to toss it into the air to hit it with her bat. The two men prepare to defend themselves, but the rock misses its target by a mile. She glances at her bat and finds that it has a dent in it. She begin to run once again wondering why she thought it would work.

'I'm not a fighter, but here I am fighting for my life. So far, I think I'm doing pretty well.'

As she keep running, she spot an abandoned building in front of her. '

This would be a great spot to find new weapons and get out of the open.'

She runs inside and rips off the framed printed layout stuck to a nearby door as she runs past it.

'Knowing me, I'd have gotten cornered in a dead end if not for this.'

Most of the doors in the building are missing, so she waited until she was far enough away from them to glance at the layout. She manages to find a flight of stairs to take her to the second floor. She had thought of a plan after seeing that the elevator doors are open. She continues to run up to the third floor while taking her shirt off and wrapping it around her hands. She can hear their footsteps close behind her.

She rounds the corner and finds the open elevator door. She leaps into the open space and grabs onto the hanging cable, her shirt saving her hands from being shredded as she slides down. When she reaches the second elevator opening, she uses her legs to jump off the wall and land on her back on the first floor. She hears the men cussing as they run back to the stairs. But it's too late, she's back on her feet running to the exit.

After loosing them, she makes a mental note of where their territory extends to now. Making sure to avoid that area at all cost.

'They're getting too close to where I sleep.'

She decides the best option would be to set up near the wall, just out of reach of the turrets. No one goes near them unless they have a death wish. She would have stayed in the area Trey in is control of, but she hardly know him or his group. Besides, there might be a war if those guys decide to encroach on his territory.

It's hard for me her sleep. The occasional gunfire waking her up from time to time. No one in the city has guns, it's all from the turrets. Since she couldn't sleep, she decides to go for a walk. The moonlight illuminating everything around her making it easy to see at night as she walks along the turrets line of fire.

It's easy for people to avoid crossing the line. The dead bodies and impact craters from gunfire creates a visible barrier around the city.

Just as she's about to head back, something catches her eye. A cloaked figure laying on the ground, moving. They're just outside of the rang of the turrets. Despite her better judgment, she decides to check on them not knowing if it is a trap.

She kneels over them and pulls back the hood covering their head. Her eyes widen, her brain trying to comprehend what she's seeing.

'Whatever this thing is, it's not human.'