A String of Lights

Chapter Two - Sketch

**Leo's POV**

"C'mon, Leo, puhleaaassseee!" she whines, stumbling after me as I lead the way.  We are still making our way through a labyrinth of alleyways, our trail only blazed by a mark made by one of my Gangers here and there.  We have to get there quickly; the night is setting in and before long we won't be able to see the marks anymore.  Then, we may wonder into the other Gang's territory, and...let's just say that won't be very pretty.

"We're almost there, Roan.  Just a few more minutes." I say.  Man, a few more minutes never fail.

She snorts.  "Yeah, that's what you said a really, really long time ago."

"Why yes, yes it is."

Roan finally decides to shut her mouth for a little bit and takes to looking at the scenery.

Every once in a while, we pass an opening between two buildings.  The sun is dipping impossibly low on the horizon, and it's hazy orange clashes with the black of night and stars pushing the sun farther and farther into the ground.  Off in the distance, big cylindrical buildings stab into the sky.  The giant skyscrapers fade into the fat, flat square buildings of downtown.  Even the downtown squares are getting smaller and smaller.  It looks like we're on our way out of PipeLine.

Behind me, I hear a thump, and I turn to see Roan sitting criss-cross applesauce in the dirt.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me."

I laugh.  "So you really wanna camp out here tonight?"

She shrugs and picks up a stick, drawing swirls into the soil.

I sigh, knowing I can't win here, so I sit down in front of her and she hands me the stick.  I draw what looks like a target.

"Okay, this is what PipeLine looks like.  It's just a bunch of circles, squished together.  Now, the bulls eye," I put a few tall sticks in the center, "The bulls eye is uptown.  You know, fancy businesses, law firms, TV stations, fancy restaurants, a hospital, the whole nine yards."

Roan nods, squinting through a sea of bugs to see by poorly built uptown.

"So the ring around uptown is downtown?" she asks tentatively.

I nod.  "Right.  Outlet malls, shoppes, bakeries, art galleries, music venues, stuff like that." I put up some smaller twigs around the skyscraper sticks of uptown.  "Then comes the suburbs, just outside of downtown.  Parks, expensive houses, fast food places, schools."

"Expensive houses, I like." Roan puts some leaves around the twigs.  "There's one more ring."

I smirk a little.  "Right.  The slums.  Bars, arcades, greasy food places, crummy houses, cops cars patrolling, and PipeLine penitentiary."

Roan sighs.  "That's HQ?"

I smile wide.  "Give the girl a prize."

She groans.  "I should've known.  Why couldn't we have just taken the Metro?" she takes a rubber tube from behind her and stretches it all around our organic city.  "The Metro goes everywhere, even into the slums."

"It wouldv'e been a lot easier.  But in uptown, downtown, and in the suburbs, the check for keycards.  Only citizens of PipeLine can ride the Metro."

Roan thinks for a minute.  "That's new since I've been napping.  But they don't check in the slums?"

"Correct.  Nobody cares in the ghetto." I get up onto my feet, offering her my hand.  She takes it begrudgingly and I boost her onto her feet.  We set off again, but this time we only walked for a few minutes.  We stop when the alleyway ends.  We end up on a sidewalk, a few feet away from sprawling green lawns, white picket fences, and million dollar mansions.  I  lead her to the left and we walk for a little while more, sports cars occasionally passing us.