“Now that that’s taken care of,” she rubbed her hands
together briskly, “let’s get down to business, shall we?”
“I guess,” I shrugged. I really didn’t care.
“Well, now you know,” she replied dryly. “The first world you
have to fix is plagued by poverty.”
I smiled. This was something I had plenty of experience
with, so it would probably be a cakewalk. “Alright,” I grinned wider. “Let’s
go.”
The lady waved her hands, and a hole in the air appeared. I
know that doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what it looked like. “Just step
in,” she instructed solemnly, and hung her head. I had no idea what was going
on, but I didn’t want to ask either. So I stepped up to the portal, and
prepared to go in-
“AAAACK!” I screeched. It had sucked me in before I reached
it! “What the-“ Almost as soon as I had entered, I was flung out. Right into a
dumpster.
“The heck?” I wrinkled my forehead. “What the…oh man,” I
covered my nose to keep from gagging. Right then, I gained a new definition of
the word “stinks.”
“Heh heh…” A man’s body rose from the trash. “Come look at
our new roommate, Chandra.” He had a scruffy brown beard and long greasy hair,
and his clothes were so threadbare they were nearly gone. Then a woman I
assumed to be Chandra crawled over from the other end of the dumpster. She
looked the same as the man, except with red hair instead of brown and without
the beard. “Huh? Oh…wow,” she stared at me. “What happened here?” I followed
her gaze to my clothes. They were exactly the same as before. A little dirty,
maybe, but spotless compared to hers.
“Vuuul,” Desire shyly inched out from behind me. I almost
slapped myself, I’d completely forgotten about her. “I’m sorry,” I said
soothingly as I patted her fur. “It’s okay.”
“Who’s your little friend there?” the man grinned, revealing
his yellow teeth. “A pet? How do you feed her?” He leaned closer, and the stink
grew.
I coughed. “Just found her somewhere,” I replied. It wasn’t
a complete lie.
He laughed, a harsh, spitting laugh. “Hey,” he moved back
over to Chandra and started whispering something in her ear. I’m not one to
eavesdrop, but I was pretty confused. I just made out the words “take” and
“sell.” All I needed to hear. “Umm, I better be going now,” I placed my hands
on the side of the dumpster, and prepared to jump.
“Oh no you don’t!” Chandra shouted as she lunged for me. I
nimbly rolled to the side, but the man pinned me down. “Nice try,” he snarled,
“but judging from your clothes, we need that money a heck of a lot more than
you do.” To my horror, Chandra reached over and ripped my shirt off. I
screamed, but the man covered my mouth as Chandra struggled with my pants. When
she had worked them off, the man let go of me, grabbed the shirt, jumped over
the dumpster wall and bolted. I reached out to grab Chandra as she scrambled
over the iron wall, but my hands closed around empty air. “Vulpix!” Desire
hopped up onto the edge of the wall, and looked at me for permission to
Flamethrower. “No,” I whispered. “It’ll burn my clothes.” I scrunched down
deeper in the trash, my sunburned face turning even redder. “Arrgh, WHY do
these things always have to happen to me?” I grumbled.
“Vul vulpix,” said Desire in a cute little Vulpix voice.
“Please shut up,” I responded in an annoyed tone. The
couple, seeing that I had slumped down into the dumpster, started advertising
right in the alley. “Shirt and pants! Perfect condition! Ten cents, only ten
cents! Trade for food!” the man called. Chandra kept her eye on me. “Seven
cents, only seven cents ladies and gentlemen!” the man lowered his price. “A
bargain! Come see for yourself!” The “sale” had drawn a few customers, whose
mouths instantly dropped open when they saw my clothes. More people rushed in,
most of them nude, and cries rang out in the now-crowded alley.
“I have two cans of beef, will you trade?”
“Five cents and an egg!”
“I have it! I have the seven cents!” a middle-aged woman
shoved her way through the crowd. She reached out a pair of dirty hands.
“Here!”
But a small hand darted forward and grabbed the money.
“Hey!” shouted the woman. A different hand snatched my clothes away from the
bearded man. “Come back here!” he protested. But it was too late. The alley
broke into a madhouse of screaming people, groping for the ones with the money
and clothes. Punching, kicking, and biting, they fought, pulling each other’s
tangled hair and bumping heads, sometimes accidentally and sometimes not. The
small alley had become a mass of stinking bodies, piled on top of each other,
crying out with every blow. The dumpster shuddered loudly as people were hurled
against it, and a few even landed in the garbage beside me before they
instantly leaped back into the melee. I saw the two thieves running off in the
distance, but the people in the alley didn’t seem to realize they were gone. Or
maybe they were just attacking in anger. I shook my head slowly as I took in
the spectacle before me, hardly daring to believe it. My hard times were
absolutely nothing compared to this.
Not too much later, many of them had been knocked out, so I
assumed the worst part of it was over. Those left conscious were laying face up
in pools of blood, taking in ragged breaths. Tears tricked down my cheek as I
watched them slowly die. They say that when watching someone die, you feel so
helpless, that you want to help but can’t. Right then, all the old tales were
confirmed for me.
“Vuuul…” Desire hung her head sadly. “Pix, pix, Vulpix!” she
nudged me towards the edge of the dumpster.
“What? You want me to help? But there’s nothing I can-“
“VULPIX!” She jumped back in a battle stance.
“Oh…umm, alright,” I swung one leg over the wall. “But I’m
telling you, there’s nothing I can do.” The rest of my body slipped down onto
the ground, narrowly missing a Flamethrower. I sighed and looked at the bodies
that littered the faded pavement.
A small boy turned to me. “Please…help,” he stuttered.
“Can’t breathe.” He coughed up blood.
“Vul,” Desire urged me. I crawled over to the boy, almost afraid,
and put my mouth on his. I inhaled through my nose, and exhaled into his
throat. I blushed, hoping that at the very least we were left alone. If someone
wandered in, they might think…well, that, and possibly that I was the
one that killed all these people. So all I could do was keep breathing, and
pray that no one would come. For my sake and his.
“Uhh…” he moaned softly and pushed me away. He sat up and
wiped his mouth, gasping. “Thanks,” he replied, then squinted his eyes at me.
“Who are you?”
“I…I’m not from around here,” I stuttered.
He raised one eyebrow. “You wouldn’t look it.” It was ironic
how much difference clothes could make.
“Whatever,” I shrugged. “Ummm….can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
I scrunched down lower. “Why is everybody around here so
poor?”
He jumped back, startled. “You really AREN’T from here, are
you?”
“I already answered that,” I replied tartly, “Now can you
answer my question?”
He gave me an odd look I wasn’t sure what meant. “Government
took it all.”
I blinked. “ALL of it? Why would they do something like
that?”
He lowered his eyes. “Almost all of it. It’s not certain,
but there’s an estimated sixty-five dollars left in the entire country. That’s
all the government didn’t find,” he sighed, “and the precious few that have
money are so careful with it, since it’s so rare.” He looked back up.
“But…why?” I was completely shocked at his story.
“Why? Well, no one knows for sure, but rumor has it they
spent it on nukes for a war that never came. Others insist they still have it,
they’re just waiting for the right thing to spend it on. And still others….” he
shuddered, “others say it was just fate.”
Now it was my turn to shudder. He had no idea how close he
was. “Well uh…what do you believe?” I smiled weakly.
“I really don’t know. I just can’t think of any plausible
reason they would take it. So I guess that puts me in the third group then,
huh?”
“Yeah,” I stared ahead solemnly, “I guess so.”
“Vulpix!” Desire leaped down from the edge of the dumpster.
She smiled happily and padded over toward us.
“A pet?” he raised his eyebrows. “How much money do you
have?”
I fidgeted. “Uhh…none.”
“Riiiight…” he looked at me suspiciously and walked away.
“WAIT!” I scrambled to my feet. “Come back!”
He stopped. “What do you need now?” he sounded somewhat
annoyed.
I stumbled up to him, and stopped. “Where does the
government keep the money?” I panted.
He stared. “There’s no proof they actually have it.”
“But where would they put it?” I looked up at him
desperately.
“I wouldn’t know,” he replied.
“Are you SURE you don’t have any clue?”
“Yes,” he was genuinely upset now. “I’m sure. Now please,
just go away. I don’t like talking about it!” he lowered his voice. “The only
reason I did in the first place was because you saved my life.” And with that,
he darted off, leaving me lost and alone.
Note: The next chapter may take one or two weeks to get up,
because I have only written up to this point. Please be patient as I write it.
The last thing you want is a rushed story, right?