Class Zero

by Y A Marks

  Most of the other teenagers survived by doing all sorts of extra-curricular activities: stripping, prostitution, selling or running drugs, and smuggling weapons or people. There aren’t many jobs for someone under eighteen, especially if they don’t have a high school diploma. I heard about the days when high school was free. I always wondered how things were back then.

  Luckily for me, I had my superpower. I could steal with my lucky left hand, and I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut about it. If people weren’t happy for you, they were jealous. Resentful people took away the little bit you had. Dhyla etched that sentiment into my head over a thousand times.

  Once away from Ms. Roller-Eyes, the sound of mischievous giggling tickled my eardrums. I stopped and glanced around. A fake “what’s-going-on” look plastered on my face. Two tiny bodies wagged their butts on the other side of the cot. I took a step forward, and two heads popped up with their hands clawed.

  “Boo!” they both said.

  My hand covered my heart. I leaned my head back as though they had scared the living daylights out of me.

  “We got you,” Mari said.

  I glanced into her bright, green eyes and nodded. “Yeah, you did.”

  “Good, ‘cause it was my idea,” her brother Miko said.

  Miko was seven years old with auburn eyes and a questioning mind. Mari, his sister, was only a year behind him at six years old. Both of them had infectious smiles and shiny brown hair that I wished I could just pluck out and stick in my head. It was a shame kids that young had such perfect hair when mine was matted and atrocious.

  Mari glanced at her brother. Her mouth twisted. “It was not your idea.”

  “Yes it was,” Miko said.

  “Crix, you two,” I said. “You make me not want to give you the surprise I got you at the Perimeter.”

  “You got us a surprise?” Mari’s face brightened.

  “I hope it’s something cool,” Miko said, and sat back on his cot, which was at the foot of my cot.

  I shook my head to show them a fake display of being upset with their behavior. Truly, I would be upset, but when I was around them I was always happy. It didn’t matter what was going on, just seeing either one of them would make me smile.

  I sat on the bed and pulled my backpack around to my stomach. I rummaged through my stuff and lifted a pair of socks. I held them in my hand and stared at the white cotton.

  “Hmmm, would you look at that? I wondered where those were,” I said.

  They glanced at each other, at the socks, at me, and then back at each other.

  I continued to remove various things from my backpack. I brought out my scanner, then my headphones and ringer. A belt came out next. I stared into the fake leather and spun it around in my hand for a few moments. Miko’s tiny face soured while I secretly giggled inside.

  “Ugh,” he complained. “Get to the good stuff already.”

  “Wow, that’s gratitude for you,” I said.

  I pulled out a bottle of shampoo, and Mari grabbed it.

  “Hey!” I said. “That’s mine.”

  “Well where’s my gift then? I like shampoo.” Her pink lips trembled as she placed the bottle back into my hand.

  After watching their tiny faces prune for the sixth or seventh time, my heart couldn’t take it anymore. I pulled out the two plastic dog toys. I gave the one with the beret hat to Miko and the one with the fancy eyelashes to Mari.

  “Thanks,” they both said.

  “Wow, she’s so pretty,” Mari said, and held it in her hands like a tiny baby. “What should I call her?”

  “I dunno, what names do you like?”

  Mari shuffled on her cot. “Um, how about… Priss?”

  “Priss?” Miko stopped his play and stared at Mari. “What kind of name is that?”

  “I dunno. I heard it somewhere.”

  “Well, pick something else.”

  “Um… Daria?”

  “Daria the dog. I like it,” I said.

  “Okay.” Mari kissed Daria’s tiny forehead.

  Miko held his unnamed dog while his eyes watched suspiciously. “Hey, when you were out there, did you feel the earthquake?”

  “Earthquake?” I asked.

  “Yep, the whole place rumbled. Ms. Cooper told us all to get down, and that it was probably an earthquake.”

  “Well, I didn’t feel any earthquake,” I said.

  “But you must have felt something. It happened right before you came in.”

  I stopped and stared at the seven brown freckles on his cheeks. My vision blurred as the day’s events spread through my mind. They must have felt the impact of the drone that rumbled through the street. I thought about Gray-Eyed Fox and the two cops. I had barely made it back, and my chest hadn’t stopped shuddering.

  A second later, Miko leaned forward with a confused expression on his face that brought me back to reality.

  “Did somethin’ happen outside?” he asked.

  I wasn’t going to lie to them because I didn’t like people keeping secrets from me. I took a deep breath and released it. “Yes.”

  “What?”

  Mari bounced to the front of her cot and sat on her ankles with her knees slightly to the side.

  I stared at their faces and forced a smile. “I ran into a group of people who, some-kind-of-way, figured out how to destroy one of the security drones that fly over the city.”

  Their eyes widened as though I was telling them a bedtime story.

  “It fell down and exploded a few blocks from here. That was the earthquake you felt,” I said.

  “What did it look like?” Miko asked.

  “Well… it was in pieces, but it was white and huge. Big enough that twenty people could sit on top of it.”

  “Woah,” Mari said.

  “This is a really bad thing. See, many people in the government are bad people, but they will leave us alone as long as we don’t break their stuff.”

  “But, Mr. Palmer is always saying that someone should blow the government to he—” Miko dropped his gaze. “H-E-double hockey sticks. He says they starve us and are in cahoots with their sorry asssss—” He held on to the ‘S’ for a second before ending it with a ‘K’ sound to make sure he didn’t curse. After he checked my expression, he continued, “Upper Class.”

  “Well, Mr. Palmer is right, sort of. When you’re poor, nobody cares about you, but I care about you two.”

  I could never make it without Mari, Miko, and Dhyla. They gave me just enough life to keep me sane. I didn’t like the world around me, but I didn’t see a way to change it. I settled to just existing and hoping that one day something great would happen to make life better.

  I stared at Mari and Miko’s faces. “Because of what happened with the drone, I’m sure the government will want answers. They aren’t the nicest people when they come asking. So I’ll be leaving out at first light, and you may not see me for two or three days.”

  Miko’s face darkened. “Wait. What?”

  “Where you goin’?” Mari asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out in the morning. I’ve paid up for two more weeks. I want you two to stay close to Ms. Cooper. She may be a tight-wad, but—”

  “She’s a good, Christian tight-wad,” they both said.

  I grinned. I hoped they understood what was going on. The last thing I wanted them to think was that I would ever abandon them.

  “Well, things might get harder over the next few weeks,” I said.

  Miko glanced at me, and his face brightened a bit. “Mr. Palmer said the government is raising the sub-cities one percent to keep us pass-us-byed.”

  “Subsidy and pacified.” I giggled. “I just want you to know that I’ll always come home. Okay?”

  “Okey-doky-artichokey,” Mari said.

  “And both of you stay away from Mr. Palmer.”

  CHAPTER 6

  My hand swept over Mari’s head, and a soft-bristled brush slid through the right sid
e of her hair. Sitting between my legs on the floor, her neck strained as I gathered all of her hair into a long rope at the back so I could braid it. A mat was beneath her to shield her legs from the cool, wooden platform.

  “Are you really going to leave tomorrow?” Mari asked, her tiny voice sounding before disappearing into the chasm above us.

  My chest cracked at those words. I wanted to stay with them. Most of the time, I was here in the Stadium. While stinky and dirty, with some of the most obscure characters a person could ever meet, it was safe. No one would hurt me as long as Ms. Cooper was around. I only left when I needed to get supplies, money, or was scouting a new ATM. I didn’t even see Dhyla more than a couple times a month.

  I pulled Mari’s head back and forced her to look into my eyes. “It’ll only be for a few days, I promise.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Miko glanced up from his cot. His eyes were only half open. “Maaaaaaari,” Miko dragged out her name. “Paeton isn’t like Auntie Martha. She’s not going to leave us.” His face turned toward mine. “Right, Paeton? You’d never leave us, right?”

  “No. Never ever. I’ll always come back. I’ll always find a way to come back.”

  Why did he have to talk like that? Did he even understand how much it hurt to walk out those doors? I couldn’t say I loved this place with its corners smelling of urine, the screaming spouses, druggies, and evil cat ladies. The whole place released an aura of constant dread like it was only two steps away from Hell. However, as long as Mari and Miko were here, I had a reason to endure.

  “See, I told you. Paeton is not like Auntie.” Miko put his best face on. I’m sure he was trying to be brave for his sister.

  Mari bent her head back to catch my gaze. “Paeton, why did Auntie leave us?”

  “I told you, I don’t think your aunt left you. How could she ever leave you? You guys are too perfect. I’m sure that she just got hurt on her way back.”

  “But if she’s hurt, then why didn’t she just take the bus or a taxi?”

  My mind searched for the right answer. I couldn’t tell Mari that her aunt had probably been shot to death on the street and left for the rats to feast on. Martha was sick the last few days I saw her. It might have been possible she just collapsed. I had no way of knowing.

  I finished the braid and ran my hands over her cheeks. “Sometimes if you’re hurt too bad, you can’t come back.”

  “She’s dead.” Miko’s mouth pulled into a dot.

  “No she’s not! You take that back, Auntie’s not dead!” Mari pulled away and leaned over to her brother.

  “Then why hasn’t she come back?”

  “She’s just sick like Paeton said and probably in the hospital!”

  “You don’t get sick for a year,” Miko said.

  Mari turned toward me, her eyes tearing. “Paeton, Paeton, tell Miko he’s wrong. Tell him that Auntie’s just had a hard time coming back.”

  I spread my arms and tugged her into my embrace. I never had the heart to tell them their aunt was definitely dead. First, I truly didn’t know, and secondly, I remembered how I felt when my own mother died. For a long time, I lost all hope.

  “We don’t know what happened to Aunt Martha,” I said. “I hope one day she comes back and has won the lottery or something. Or maybe, she found a way to go to college, and she’s become a doctor or something cool like that.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  Her body was a tiny furnace inside my arms. Mari and Miko had so much warmth in them. Kids are filled to the brim with love, but as people get older, the world saps it away. I wished I could find a way for them to stay full, even though I needed to steal my daily supply of love and warmth to stay sane.

  “C’mon, you two need to get some sleep, and I do too,” I said.

  “Okay.” Mari went to her cot. She kneeled down beside it and then leaned over and smacked Miko’s back.

  “What?” he moaned.

  “We have to say our prayers.”

  “Do we have to?” Miko whined.

  “Ms. Cooper says good children say their prayers before bed.”

  “I don’t wanna be a good kid. I wanna sleep.”

  Mari stood and shook his cot.

  “Just get up, Miko.” I finally joined in. I wasn’t a super spiritual person. Ms. Cooper was good to Mari and Miko for the most part and watched them when I wasn’t around. A few prayers weren’t going to hurt them.

  Miko kneeled down next to Mari, who gave him an indignant stare. After a second, she began. “God, thank you for today and for our food and for our home. Please watch over Paeton tomorrow and make sure she comes back safely.”

  Miko interrupted. “And if she’s in trouble, give her superpowers.”

  Mari turned to her brother, lifted an eyebrow, and frowned. “Amen.”

  How could I ever abandon these two? They were my lifeline.

  They stood and crawled into their cots. I tucked the blankets over them and kissed Mari on the forehead. Miko shuffled away as I neared. I rolled around, grabbed his head, and landed my kiss. He stretched his neck and rubbed his forehead on the pillow.

  “I don’t have cooties,” I joked.

  “All girls have cooties,” he said.

  Eighty percent of the lights at the very top of the stadium clicked off. A hollow booming sound echoed as the seats plunged into near darkness. In another hour, the next fifteen percent of lights would go off, signaling ten o’clock.

  I stood for a moment, deciding if I needed a second to go over my plans before I slept. While I made up my mind, Mr. Palmer waved his hand at me to join him at the end of the platform. I dropped my backpack on my cot and scooted through the valleys between the cots toward him.

  As I arrived, he sat down on the steps since most of the seats were terraced off for beds, cots, or sleeping bags. His hand patted the area next to him. I stretched my arms wide. The sleep within me slowed my vital organs. I hoped this wouldn’t turn into some long conversation about how the government was out to drink our blood while we slept. Overall, Mr. Palmer was a nice man, but some of his rants could dig up all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories.

  I sat down and gave him a half-hug.

  “How’s the world outside?” he asked. “Has an atomic bomb killed off half the people and drenched the rest in radiation?”

  He was kidding. He spent half his time in front of the five monitors in the lobby watching twenty-four hour news. Atlanta and the rest of America was still livable, even though every day the country seemed to slip further and further away from the great nation he told me about.

  “Everything is fine. I did see a glow-in-the-dark cat munching on a toxic fish. I thought about bringing it back for Ms. Roller-Eyes,” I said.

  He snickered. “You shouldn’t call her that.”

  “Why? She annoys me every time I see her.”

  “She’s just a lonely, old lady. She probably just wants to be your friend.”

  “I doubt that. She’s a nosy, old goat, and she doesn’t like the fact that she can’t figure out my secrets. You of all people know I don’t like folks in my business.”

  “Well, some people are like that.” He leaned back, his long face angled toward the darkness. “You have a freedom that me and Kathleen lost.”

  The name confused me. I glared at him, and he turned with the weight of my stare.

  “Ms. Roller-Eyes,” he reminded me.

  “Oh, okay.”

  He shook his head a bit and leaned forward. “We can’t go where you can go. We can’t see what you can see.” He patted his knee. “These old bones don’t have the stamina to go miles on end, and these eyes don’t have the ability to see where danger is coming from.”

  “Is that why you watch so much TV?”

  “Well yeah, and also for the cute commentator.”

  “Dirty.” I said the word just loud enough for him to smile.

  “Just because I’m old doesn’t make me dead. Besides, it give
s me and the other guys something to discuss.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like when Ms. Olivia Collins decided to wear her hair up for three days with both ears showing.” His face brightened with the words.

  “And that’s something to talk about?”

  “It is when the woman has such a lovely and slender neck.”

  I shook my head. “So you brought me over here to tell me about some news-crush?”

  “Nope, I brought you over to thank you for the Tykol.”

  “No problem. I’m sorry I didn’t get the one hundred bottle. The store was out.”

  He turned to me and put his arm around me. “Paeton, you’re a good girl. I mean, you really are. You find a way to look after me and those two kids, while just being a kid yourself. We aren’t your family or your responsibility. You, my dear, are nothing like the government.”

  Ahhhhhh, crix. If I could just get through one conversation without him mentioning…

  “That sorry excuse for a government.” He shook his head. “It was nothing like this back in my day. Sure there was poverty, but not like this. I worked for damn near forty years, and I expected to retire easily, but oh no. There had to be a new retirement tax. Who wants the tax? Starkman and Bros. Corporation. That way they can make more money selling houses that retirees will eventually lose because now we don’t have the money to retire properly.”

  I laid back and relaxed. Sure, I had my own mental rambles that I kept in my head. They occasionally leaked out. I was pretty good at stopping them though. On the other hand, Mr. Palmer could go on for hours. He just spilled out what he considered “facts” about the government. He never really talked to me, just spoke aloud. Every once in a while, he’d pause and say—

  “Paeton, you listening? This is important stuff here, girl.”

  I gave him a smile and leaned in for a quick hug. “I’m sorry, Mr. Palmer. I have to leave early in the morning, so I have to get some sleep.”

  “Well, well, that’s fine. But I tell you all these sorry sons of bit—” He paused to censor his language. “Persons of interest can burn in Hell if you ask me. You don’t let them bother you. All of them are worthless. If I ever see them up in here, I’ll kill ‘em all!”