Scavengers {#Wattys2016}

Chapter One

Again....

    ....I ran through the streets finding a large cement building where several people had little card board stands. I many people had lost their hands and arms. A leg maybe. The elderly's teeth had fallen out and left many wide gaps. couples held each other close through the rain.

Many tried to avoid the acid rain and stayed under metal roofs which held up with the danger. I went into the cement building. If only I could stuff more within my bag. If only I could manage a few more. Then maybe there would be enough.
I looked at a few of them and some took glances at me while others simply tried to close their eyes not having to stare into the misery.

   Inside it wasn't much better many merchants called out in the crowded place trying to get the attention of many. This was the trading area. Simply scavenged things that were gathered up. Some had kids return with things for them so they could just get a bit of food in response was payment. Others just gave them a place to stay.

    I went to one stand where there was an old man. I put my bag on the ground and opened my bag. I tucked the fabric down under so it wouldn't be seen.

He said nothing and was absolutely quiet as he glanced at me and then continued to converse with someone else trying to strike a deal. I took out the bottles of water and placed them on his counter and saved seven for myself. I left and was people saw the bottles they snatched at them trying to get anything they could. Children were shoved aside as they were too small to get in front of the large adults.

    I just wandered looking at different stands seeing what they had to offer. I exchanged a box of half filled nails for two small loaves of stale bread.

I sighed, I wasn't going to have much either way. I looked around, no one here really actually ever did. I went to a familiar stand looking at the trinkets and jewelry which was hand crafted from anything found.

The woman smiled at me. But didn't speak to me. She resumed to getting a broken bead onto a thin line of string. I pulled down my scarf and I picked up a nice piece fashioned from broken glass. It had pretty colors. Colors that had now all died.  There had not even been a single rainbow in the sky for almost eight years now. I've almost forgotten it's color scheme.

    Was it Red, orange, yellow blue green, indigo, and violet? Or was it red, orange, yellow, green, then blue, indigo, violet? And the sky... I remember a time when it was blue. A bright blue, now though it was always grey and seemed so dead.

  The woman interrupted my thoughts. "So you got something to trade or not?", she snapped losing the smile.

The old hag was she normally was. She wanted business and if you wouldn't comply you'd be gone.

"No, not for something of this quality", I said. "Well you can't afford much else!", she snapped.

"Something that could hurt others? I can afford much better", I said.

   I put down the necklace. It would only be a danger to wear. If the glass shattered there was no telling what would happen or where the shards would fly. And the jagged shards were not smooth and could cut the skin either way. 

Common sense they used to teach us in school.

    I looked along with what there was here at this stand. Nothing much of interest. I was about to leave when someone glided past me. I heard something drop and hit the ground with a slight ring.

I picked up the shiney silver necklace. It was simple. Dangling from the cord was a small cross. I hadn't seen this in a long time in a three dimensional form.

I searched for the man but he had disappeared.

I looked at the trinket in my palm. It was cold against my skin. Then I resumed to search for the owner. This wasn't mine and I had always been taught to try and return things to their rightful holders. I ran out seeing the man was not there within the building. I looked down the road and spotted him.

I ran after him since he was going at a strange quick pace. "Hey!", I called.

The man didn't seem to hear me. I put my hand on his shoulder halting him. His eyes snapped back warningly. He seemed ready to beat me for the insult but I held out the necklace.

"You dropped this sir", I said.

His eyes softened but he shook his head, "That thing is useless to me", he said quietly and turned around.

       The man was already twenty feet ahead of me within the seconds I stood there. Though his walk was slow he covered more ground than I had ever seen. I looked at the cross in my palm. "Maybe to you, but not to me", I muttered putting it on.