Haven Ward

by Elias Witherow

  Most people were in bed this late, the squishing street empty except a few stranglers and beggars. If you weren’t part of a gang down here, then you were either a beggar or a vendor. The garbage people would try to sell you just so they could eat was depressing. One of these vendors was still out as I passed it. I stopped and pulled out a precious tablet of glu.

  “What are you selling?” I asked, feeling more and more worn out.

  The vendor, an old man with missing teeth, looked me up and down, “Rat meat. If you got the glu.”

  I handed him the tablet and he forked over two small pieces of meat wrapped in old yellowed paper. The meat looked like it hadn’t even been cooked. I pocketed them none the less and pushed on towards my hole.

  A cool breeze stirred the air and more music floated my way from the rich city. I watched as Hazmat Hovers flew in the distance, circling Midtown. If I could steal one of those…

  I shook my head. Dreaming wouldn’t do a damn bit of good. All’s it did was personify the misery of the present situation. I just wanted to get home and forget about everything, letting sleep kiss me with its soft, indifferent lips.

  I stumbled through the streets, winding down roads filled with eyes that peeked at me from under dirty hoods, till I reached my shack. It was a run-down pile of rubble, the roof caving in and the electricity only worked half the time, but it was my own little slice of silence where I could crash. I pushed the rickety door open, seeing that some of the lights were on. That was good.

  “There’s my little brother,” I heard a voice greet me from the far room. I threw off my rags and tossed my gun on the floor, going to greet my big sister. She was lying on the floor, on top of her makeshift mat. She looked bad today. Her eyes had thick grey bags under them and her skin was ghostly pale.

  “Hey Ashleign,” I greeted, pulling out the meat, “I brought you something to eat. It’s not much, but something’s better than nothing.” I chucked it at her. She opened the paper and devoured it. I went and sat at her side.

  “ How do you feel today?”

  She smacked her lips hungrily, “The stomach pain is growing worse. Weston I need some. I really do. I…I was hallucinating today. I think I saw mom.”

  “We don’t know who mom was.”

  Ashleign shut her eyes, “She was beautiful.”

  I scrubbed my face with my hands, “Don’t you think we should try to kick this?”

  She sat up and winced, “You know what happens if I try to detox? Do you know how bad it is now? I can’t even begin to imagine the horrors I’d see, the pain I’d feel. I’d go insane. I don’t think I could make it.” She laid back down, “Shit I’m right at the edge of it now, baby brother.” She was trying to put on a brave face for me. I knew she was in hell.

  “Don’t call me baby brother, you’re only four years older than I am,” I muttered absently.

  “Please. Give me a pill. Please Weston, I can’t go through another day like this,” she begged.

  I stared at her, feeling like my conscious was being ripped into pieces. Why was I continuing to feed her this disease? She had a strong head, she could fight her way through detox. I knew she could. I played with the tablets in my pocket. Precious, precious glu. She would rather get high then eat, slowly withering into a corpse with an addiction.

  She propped herself up on one elbow, “It’s been two days. You can’t even begin to imagine the pain I’m in.”

  I patted her leg, “You don’t have to guilt trip me, Ash. I love you. I want you to be happy…even…even if that means doing this for you.” I flipped her a tab. She caught it and immediately ate it, chewing it up, starting to feel it.

  She shut her eyes and exhaled slowly, “Oh shit. Ohhh. Thank you. Thank you, West.” I turned away from her. I couldn’t bare it.

  “I wish you’d get out of that tribe,” She whispered, “I don’t like you being in danger.”

  “You know I have too. You know that’s how we survive.”

  “Isn’t…isn’t there…some other way,” She muttered, spittle leaking from the corners of her mouth. She was going deeper and deeper, lost in the ocean waves of High Tide High.

  “Not for a kid like me,” I muttered, half to myself, “This city would eat me alive if I didn’t have King’s protection.”

  “We could..make it…with…without him.”

  “No we couldn’t. He’s like a father to me, I can’t turn my back one him. Not after all he’s done to help me. To help us.”

  “We could start over.”

  Exasperated, I knelt next to her, “We would starve and you’d have to detox. I don’t know which would kill you first but I’m not risking anything when it comes to you. You’re the only family I have in this world, Ash.”

  She smiled, just a slight turning of the lips, eyes shut, wading deeper into the waters of glu, “It’d…it’d be easier…for you…if I just…died.”

  I stood up, shocked, “Don’t you ever say that again,” I leaned down snapping my fingers in front of her face, “Hey! Can you hear me?! Not ever again. Everything I do, I do for you because I love you! I can deal with it, I can take the risk, but I’m sure as hell not putting you at risk. Ever.”

  “You’re……..sweet,” barely a whisper.

  I went over to my mat, feet creaking over the broken, rotten wood floor, “Only for you.” I sat down on my mat, pulling the rest of the meat out. I ate it in seconds, a thick oil oozing from the half cooked meat. I didn’t care. I was famished. When I finished my stomach screamed for more, but I silenced it. I was use to dealing with hunger. Use to coping. Almost everything I earned I spent on Ashleign. Or I just fed her my glu, keeping her sane for another couple days. It was a miserable way to live.

  I hadn’t realized she was using glu until one day she started to get really sick. She stopped running her vendor, just lying in bed day after day. She had been running out, forced to take smaller and smaller doses, everyday a mini detox. It must have been hell. Then she confessed, half insane, body withering away, that she had been using. It had crushed me. She needed my help though and since I loved her more than anything, I did what I had too. I joined the Dynasty Tribe.

  I turned over on my mat, shutting my eyes, blocking out the night’s horrors and past tragedies. If death was an eternal slumber, it might not be so bad. God I was tired.

  The clouds were thick and ripe, no sense of time seeped through the greasy infected sky as I trudged to Dynasty Gern. My head was pounding, a swirl of confused thoughts all bumping into each other. Waking up had been a sharp realization of the nights events. I passed another neon sign for the Draw, its lights mocking me with its reward of a pass to easy living. It only made me hate the rich more.

  The food from last night had reminded me just how hungry I was. I ached for more. I stopped at a vendor and one tab bought me two stale biscuits and a cup of water. They were nothing but crumbs on my clothes by the time I got to the Gern. It was early, but a lot of the tribe was already there, sitting around smoking, talking, faces dark as news of the nights events spread.

  A man, one who had been with the tribe a long time, stood when I entered, crossing the floor to meet me, “Hey West. I heard about last night. I want you to know we’re going to get these assholes that did this. The Hunters just declared war on us.”

  I looked up at him, “I don’t want a war Kite, I just want my boys back.”

  Kite smiled softy at me, “You’re a good kid, but you know this can’t just go away. I assume you’ll want to go with us when the time is right?”

  I walked past him, “Sure…ok.” I wasn’t hungry for blood, for vengeance, like my tribes men were, I just wanted to set things right. It seemed like this was how I could do that.

  Kite followed me, “I just want you to know that just because you’re a kid, it doesn’t me we won’t watch out for you. You’re part of this tribe. We’re all brothers.”

  “Yeah, I know Kite, I know.”

  “Just keep your wits sharp.”


  “I will.”

  I was looking for Roland, eyes scanning, searching. I needed to talk to him. Deep down I dreaded it. I had tossed and turned last night, mind running free. What if he hated me for what happened? He had started to get close to Mathis before he was killed.

  King was in his office towards the back. I went in, not sure what he had in store for me today. I felt numb, exhausted. Surviving each day drained you of everything except your will power. And that’s all I was running off.

  “Good morning, little Weston,” King greeted from his desk. He was smoking a giant pipe-like piece of wood, the bowl in the shape of a head.

  I mocked a salute, “What are my orders today, Emperor King.” Even my voice was a monotone witness of my fatigue, my heart not in my words.

  He stood up, sucking on the tip of his pipe. The smoke was sweet smelling, almost like cooked meat. I wondered just what it was he had put in it. He opened one of the drawers from his desk and tossed me an all too familiar envelope.

  “You’re going to another meeting today. I’m selling that pass you got me yesterday.”

  “That was fast,” I said storing it in my pocket.

  “Everything’s fast down here,” he said cheerily, “You good to go?”

  “Where’s Roland?”

  “I told him not to come in today. He woke up right after you left and wanted to go home. A couple men helped him and are staying with him.”

  “He doing better?”

  “He’ll be good to go in a couple days I think.”

  “Did he say anything about Mathis or Bird?”

  King sighed and walked around to the front of the desk, sitting on the lip, “Look Weston. We honor the dead here, but we don’t let them suck us down into the grave with them. You understand what I’m saying?”

  I set my jaw, “Forget they ever existed? Pretend like nothing happened? Go about my day with a skip in my step and a whistle on my lips? Is that what you’re saying?!”

  His eyes hardened, “Don’t talk to me like that boy. Don’t let this drag your promising future into the shit of the city. You need to keep your emotions in check when you’re talking to me. Remember who took you in.”

  I sighed heavily feeling like my body was being pounded by exhaustion, “Yeah…yeah I get you. Sorry. This is…it’s just been…hard. I’m sorry.”

  His eyes softened and he put his pipe down, “I know I’ve given you a lot of responsibility. But you have to understand that I wouldn’t give it to you if I didn’t think you couldn’t handle it. I’m not saying forget about them. No. Honor their memory by fighting for them. It’s what they would have wanted. And Weston?”

  I looked at him with dreary eyes.

  “No one blames you for what happened. Not a single man or woman in this tribe thinks this is your fault.”

  “Ok King.”

  “Now,” he said, the cheer back in his voice, “You’re taking that to a man named Rocks at the Dragons Gern. We’ve been on good terms with that tribe lately so I think everything will go smoothly. Take a half gallon of glu from the man. That was the agreed price.”

  I blinked, “A half…gallon?”

  King smiled, “I’m a business man, I know how to push my product. Now you know where Dragon Gern is right?”

  “It’s over by the gates to Midtown.”

  “Correct.”

  “I’m a little nervous about walking around with that much glu. Don’t you think this would be better handled by someone higher up?”

  “Things are moving, people have their assignments, and we have this Hunter problem to deal with. All my men are busy. And I trust you to see this through.”

  I smiled involuntarily, “Heh. Alright King. I’m not going to let you down.”

  King was packing his pipe again, “And. If you pull this off, which you will, I’m going to throw you a little extra. How does half a pint sound?”

  I blinked, nearly choking, “Of…liquid glu?!”

  “That’s right.”

  Liquid glu was about four times as valuable as the tablets. Apparently when you shot up with it rather than just take the pill, the high was extremely strong, much more pleasurable then the tabs. I heard one guy once tell me that it was like your brain was dipped into a cool pool of ecstasy and then made love to. Suffice to say, it would be a huge payday. I could finally get Ash and I some real food. Have a real meal. Maybe two. Hot meals.

  “Th-thank you,” I croaked.

  “Heh, you’re welcome kid. Now get out of here and get me my glu. And yours.”

  I left the Gern feeling like a new chapter in my life was opening up. I could finally tear out the pages to my shitty memories and possibly start over. King would start to pay me more and more and I could get Ash some help. We could move out of the pile of rocks we lived in now, maybe actually buy a place. I smiled to myself. I was getting way ahead of myself. The beginning of goods things usually ended up in bitter disappointment. One step at a time. One breath at a time.

  The air felt a little fresher this morning. I hadn’t forgotten about my dead boys, but this deal could seriously turn my life around. I shivered. Checking my gun, cocking it and putting it out of sight, I started the long walk to Dragon Gern.

  Chapter 3

  I knew it was just paranoia, but it felt like the people whom I passed were avoiding me. It was as if they knew what had happened last night. They were either afraid of me or knew I had a price on my head. Probably a little of both. I decided to keep my gun visible, the butt sticking out the front of my belt.

  The Midtown papers were heavy in my pocket. If I wasn’t so loyal to King, I’d try to talk my way in, just forget this life, grab Ashleign, and go. But I couldn’t and I knew they wouldn’t let me in. People joked that the only way to get out of the Gallows was to get shipped to Haven Ward.

  As I walked, I saw a man jumping up and down excitedly. He was standing by a Draw machine. He was an older man, nothing but rags for clothes. His long gray hair bounced as he jumped, fists outstretched in the sign of victory.

  “I won! I won ten tabs! I won ten tabs!” He was screaming.

  As I passed him, I lowered my voice and whispered, “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut the hell up. You want to be mugged idiot?”

  He stared at me as if I was some kind of alien, “Mugged? But…but I won this fair and square!”

  “Yeah exactly. You won, everyone on this street now knows you have glu. If I were you I’d shut my blabber and go straight to the Draw Office.”

  His eyes were wild, “Yes…yes of course…that’s…that some real…solid…advice little boy.” His eyes fell on my gun and they went even wider. “Wait…you’re going to mug me! You want my glu!”

  “What? No that’s-”

  “Help! Help! The Hunter Killer is trying to rob me!” The man screamed, taking off down the road.

  All eyes turned to me. Great.

  “I’m not robbing him, everyone calm down,” I coaxed. This was not how I wanted to start my day. And Hunter Killer? Had the new spread that fast? Was my face already that well known?

  Two burly men started walking towards me from across the street, looking angry and ready to hurt a little boy. They both had clubs over their shoulders, rusty painful looking nails jutting out from the tops .

  “Oh son of a bitch,” I muttered. I started walking the opposite way, double timing it, praying that they would just forget about me. If I got caught and these men beat me, they might find the Midtown pass I was carrying.

  “Hey kid come here!” One of them men yelled, picking up speed, “We got some things to talk about!”

  I ran. If these men were part of Hunter gang and they caught me, I wasn’t going to survive the day. My feet thudded over the hardening mud, kicking up clumps as my heart started pounding. My advantage in weight wasn’t going to matter much if the mud underfoot was drying. They were older, they had longer legs, the ground was toughening, and they smelled blood.

  I got to the end of the s
treet and turned, people looking up at me, eyes almost chuckling, knowing I was in trouble. No one liked a killer and here I was, branded as one at the young age of twelve. I took an alleyway, chest heaving, looking over my shoulder. They were right on my tail, not missing a beat. I didn’t think I was going to be able to shake them, but damned if I wasn’t going to try.

  I shoved people out of the way, knocked them down, tried to cause as much havoc as I could, needing something to distract these men. I thought about pulling out my gun and just shooting them, but the sting of the previous night was too fresh. The last thing I needed was the whole city hunting me.

  “Watch it mud rat!” Someone screamed as I tore past them, knocking over a basket they had been holding. It spilled everywhere. My breath was turning raw. I glanced over my shoulder and the men weren’t far behind. They were grinning, knowing they were going to catch me. I needed a new plan.

  I took a sharp right and burst through the front door of someone’s house, tearing through it, shocked faces of the residents nothing but blurs as I crashed out their back door and back into the street. I skid and froze, reversing my weight, diving back under house, scrambling frantically, clawing my small body under the tiny space that separated the ground from the floor. Mud smeared my face and filled my mouth, everything smelling like piss and shit. Then I froze, sucking in the rancid air, waiting, listening. A rat passed in front of me. I shivered. I hated rats.

  I heard feet thundering over me then two pairs crashed to the ground where I had been seconds ago.

  “Where the hell did he go?” One of the men said.

  “He’s a fast little bugger I’ll give him that,” the other responded.

  “We were right behind him!”

  A pause. Silence. The sound of heavy breathing.

  “Milando wants this little pest dead. We could use the reward money, we can’t give up, come on let’s go!”

  But the feet didn’t move. I lay there, gagging from the smell, watching as the rat came closer to me.

  “Are you sure he isn’t still in the house?”