Kat woke Sunday morning without the familiar pangs of hunger. The rich pasta meal from the night before still filled her belly even as the vivid memory of it made her mouth water. Having fallen asleep well after her normal hour, she had slept past dawn. Rat was gone from his usual spot but she could hear Starlet cursing behind the trash wall at pedestrians likely both real and imagined.
Kat slipped her hand into her hidden stash along the wall and withdrew a hunting knife. The edge of the polymer blade looked sharp enough to slice through steel. A tremor ran down her spine as she once again considered how she had acquired the item. The event now seemed closer to a dream than reality. I stood up and screamed, she recalled of the terrifying night. My scream must have startled them and they dropped their knives. Then, they both just kind of panicked and ran. They probably weren’t used to someone willing to fight back. Her mind’s eye evoked the phantasmal image of the knives in midair before falling to the ground. That’s not what happened, she told herself. You were in shock. You didn’t really see that, you just thought you saw it. They were going to rape and kill you. That much stress will twist your senses. She tried to remember what her assailants looked like. All she could picture was the pointed tip of the knife that was seconds from being plunged into her body.
She dropped the knife into her new satchel. She had considered selling the second blade but having one knife next to her bed and one in her satchel for protection was more valuable than the coins it would fetch. Besides, if she became desperate for money, she could always sell it later.
Wednesday’s rainwater in the alley’s reservoir was no longer safe to drink but still clear enough for her to wash her face. Her plastic bottle for boiling water had begun to crack and today she would purchase a glass bottle when she fetched this week’s first installment of rent. After finishing her morning rituals, she grabbed her satchel and red dress and started for the Beggar’s Market. Reynolds had told Kat that she would store her dress for her, especially considering that Kat had volunteered to work at the clinic each Sunday. The doctor had also offered unlimited access to her medical journals and the promise of a small payment based on each Sunday’s profits.
Kat spent the day cleaning the shack, grinding herbs with the mortar and pestle and assisting the doctor with her patients. Reynolds hung on every detail of Kat’s date, asking candid questions and offering a matron’s smile when Kat discussed the particulars near the glorious night’s end. Kat talked about Sadler’s family during lunch at the clinic and for the first time, her possible future.
“How do you become a citizen, Maggie?” Kat asked as she picked at a strip of murine.
“Without a great deal of credits? Through distinguished service to a corporation,” Reynolds answered. “Your local corp has to nominate you for citizenship with Kavo-Liao International. It’s very, very difficult. You either have to be a war hero or at the very top of your field and if you’re at the top of your field you’re probably already a citizen.”
“Can the Trodden enlist in a corporation’s army?”
Reynolds put her glass of water down and gave Kat an unhappy look. “Are you asking because of Sadler?”
Kat lifted her right shoulder in a half-shrug. “Maybe, but I also don’t want to spend the rest of my life sleeping in an alley with the vermin.”
Reynolds offered a sad smile. “It doesn’t have to be like that. If you work hard in the mine and get promoted, miners can live decent lives in Shantytown.”
“But they never become citizens,” Kat said wistfully. “How could I ever have a life with Sadler if I can’t even spend the night in Waytown?”
“Oh, Kat,” Reynolds sighed. “I want you to enjoy your time with Sadler but don’t get your heart broken over him. The system was built to keep people like Sadler apart from people like…”
“Me,” Kat finished for her friend. She put the last strip of murine into her mouth and closed her lips while withdrawing the punji stick. She spent the final minutes of her lunch in sullen reflection.
Nine hours later, Kat lay on her alley floor. Her newest possession was tightly strapped around her left wrist. She had splurged for a secondhand watch powered by the wearer’s kinetic movements. She had been unable to find a single wind-up alarm clock in the entire market Sunday evening and resorted to a vendor who peddled a few electronics. The watch had cost a fortune even though she had bartered him down from fifteen large to thirteen. For that much of her hard-earned money, she had spent ten minutes testing and retesting the timepiece to make sure its features worked before finalizing the exchange. The purchase had wiped well over half of her reserves but she justified it as an investment in her future. Before returning home, she had walked all the way to Eastpoint to set her watch to the proper time by the clock above the gate.
The spot Kat lay in was also new. Taking the time to move her stash of belongings and to clear the trash farther back from the street, any intruder would now come upon Rat before herself. In the darkness of the cool night, she rested on her back, staring into the narrow slice of sky above her while listening to the fire crew break up for the evening.
Minutes later, a drunken Rat tumbled over the trash wall after catching his foot near the apex. He swore loudly as he hit the ground with a thump.
“You okay, Rat?” Kat asked from her back.
“Goddamned cripple,” he cursed himself. “I used to be the strongest laborer in the mine.” He reached out for his wooden cane that had fallen with him, two meters away. “I’m too drunk to bring the fire barrel back tonight. You’ll have to bring it over tomorrow morning, Kat.” He snatched the cane off the ground. “Hell, I can’t even walk across the alley without falling on my ass.”
Rat lurched upright with the cane’s support. Grubby fingers swept irritably under his eyes. “I’m not gonna get up one of these days.” He hacked loudly into his hand and then wiped the bloody phlegm on his tattered shirt. “No one will even notice either. Just the rats.”
“I’ll notice,” Kat promised gently.
“You’re a good girl, Kitten.” Rat’s voice softened. “Closest thing I had to a daughter.” He stumbled to his nest and eased himself down with a groan. “When I don’t wake up one morning, I want you to have my alley.”
“I ain’t living next to that bitch for the rest of my life!” Starlet screamed from across the trash wall.
“I can take care of that right now, you old hag!” Rat bellowed back.