THE HUMANE (The Elegian Series #1)

ONE - The Visit

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The Lower City

Day 92 Quarter 02 Year 217

KALISTA

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The minute she arrived home after hours of scavenging in the Big Old Dump, Kalista Young found herself staring at her father's empty plate, his lunch nowhere to be found. She looked up at her parents in confusion, chest heaving, as she subconsciously dragged her battered wheelbarrow inside.

"What happened?" she asked, wiping the grime off her face with her shirt.

Her father, Kaleb, stood up from his chair and smiled wanly. "How's scavenging?" he asked, completely ignoring her question.

This isn't good.

"Didn't find much," she explained, trying to mask her confusion. "Just some old metal pipes. Tomo gave me only a bill for it."

She fiddled for the said bill inside her pocket, and when she reluctantly placed it on top of her father's open palm, crumpled, her shoulders slumped in disappointment.

"I'm sorry, Dad. That's all I could give for now."

"It's okay, Kal." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's still something."

She watched him turn around and crouch, removing a loose plank of wood from the floor. It revealed a small space, its floor covered with a thin sheet of dirt. The space contained only a medium-sized box, and her father gingerly put the bill inside it.

Her eyes started to well up in tears, exhaustion taking a toll on her. She turned away, wiping the tear away, feeling as if the whole four hours of rummaging for things under the torrid sun was useless. They had the box for years now, and they hadn't even filled half of it yet.

"Come on, let's eat, honey," Elizabeth, her mother said. She'd been watching the two of them silently from the kitchen.

Kalista nodded, pulling the chair out from under the table as careful as she can.

This chair won't last a day.

As she sat, she took the time to contemplate the appearance of their house—a very meager one. It looked as if they'd put together trash and rubble just so they could create a makeshift shelter. It was undeniably true though, since most of their things were all found from the Dump.

At least the house can stand on its own.

Her parents sat across from her. Elizabeth divided her meal into two—half a sausage, half a potato, some soy beans. She put the half onto her husband's plate, to which he responded with a smile. Kalista remembered her confusion a while ago, causing her frown to reappear.

"Dad, where's your meal?"

"I gave it to Tomo," he said, gently squeezing his wife's hand. "One gallon of water costs a full meal now."

"No," she argued. "A gallon costs a quarter portion of a meal."

He chewed on a spoonful of potato and looked down. "Not anymore."