Luminescence

One.

Rape was almost inevitable as well. Desperate men scavenged the city for women that they could easily take for a sweet round. I walked with Alex almost anywhere for the sole reason of looking buffer to scare the evil men away. Wearing baggy clothes was always a must, especially in the winter when temperatures dropped below freezing.

But today was definitely not a cold day. As I wiped a drop of sweat from my forehead, the summer heat bore down onto the metallic junkyard. The metal items surrounding us did nothing to help relieve the boiling temperatures in the sun.

My fingers fumbled with a new ship I had been lucky enough to get my hands on. Whoever had owned this ship before knew their parts, but not well enough. They took the simplest of items off of it to hopefully make a profit but were too lazy to finish the job.

Scavenging for leftover parts in a ship was like finding a needle in a haystack, with a lot of hay. It took patience, precision and determination.

Suddenly, my fingers grasped around a fairly large object within the vehicle, and a shaky gasp escaped my lips. Yanking it clean out of the ship, my eyes bestowed something that could get Alex and I off the streets.

A catalytic converter.

This is what every scavenger in the yard dreamt of finding. Quickly before any of the other worker could see my discovery, I shoved the fairly large item down my satchel along with a few other trinkets I had.

"Alex..." I shakily whispered with wide eyes, and he turns his head over to me with a confused look in his eyes. "I think I just found our ticket out of this hellhole."

I throw him my satchel from the other side of the vehicle, and his eyes widen as he opens it with caution. This isn't just any catalytic converter. It's in perfect condition, and can be used in any vehicle that flies. A catalytic converter contains many metals inside of it that are worth a fortune. Palladium, rhodium, platinum; it was like striking gold in a machine.

Alex's eyes widen as he quickly hides the satchel once more. A grin so wide grows on his face, that I could've sworn his cheek muscles were about to shred. The first blossom of hope bloomed in our chests for what seemed like years. It was short lived, yet beautiful.

'We have to turn this in today,' Alex interprets, and I quickly nod in agreement.

"We go tonight, 8 o'clock under full darkness," I whisper. "Our boss is gonna love this!"

The trader, or who we called our boss in other words, is our source of money. First, we would give the parts to him. Then the trader would sell the part for a higher price to the Plague, and in return he would get more money.

I quickly put the satchel back on in a casual manner as a few burly men walk by, inspecting our duties to see if we found anything valuable. I held a breath, praying that the men wouldn't open my satchel and discover the most valuable piece of equipment I had ever found in my life. I bury my face in the engine, looking for parts and attempting to cover my identity and it seemed to work. While I received nothing but a glance and a sly smirk from two of the men, it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Time flew fairly quickly throughout the rest of the day, as our excitement never had pushed us to work this hard before. Alex has found a few other valuable scraps in the airship, but not as valuable as the item in my satchel.

But when the work bell rang, Alex and I knew it was time.

Like a professional athlete, we sprint back to our makeshift home to get the other parts we had found today. It was two blocks away, but it felt like we had arrived in just seconds.