Untitled - Chapter 2 -The Outsiders- Seg.1

{segment 1 of chapter 2}1

“Avalia.”2

I look up at the sound of the old man’s voice and see his frail cloaked figure standing on the hill looking out at the far away City. The dark, cloudy sky tinged with the usual kaki green rests on the flat landscape with the exception of the mountains casting their shadow on the horizon. I move to the man’s side. I’m much taller than he is now. It’s strange standing over someone who used to seem so big. “Yes, father?”3

He points a bony finger at the City. “One day, we will get in there.”4

I look passively out at the vast carpet of dark jagged buildings surrounded by the formidable walls and somehow doubt it. There are thousands of Outsiders who try to get in all the time, and our little troop of twenty-two starving men and women seems a little pathetic. We can barely hold up against the attacks of the other outsiders, let alone hold an attack of our own. We travel about a bit to avoid the other gangs and scavenge food wherever we can. It’s not the best life, but life behind those dark walls doesn’t look from here to be that much greater. I wonder what it is like. It’s cold and windy today so I pull my thin coat closer. It was once a white blanket thrown out by the Insiders, but now it’s a pale, patchy grey with armholes. 5

Better than nothing though. Underneath the coat all I have is my dark grey dress that comes down to just above my knees, which also is more of a sack with armholes, pulled in by a thick brown belt. I wonder what I would look like to an insider. I’ve seen my reflection occasionally in clouded water, but it’s always been distorted by the ripples. All I know is that I have straight dark brown hair and light-coloured eyes. And that my name is Avalia. It sounds like too pretty a name for someone like me.6

When I asked my father why he named me this way he gave me a vague answer that my mother named me. Whoever that was. Without saying anything, I walk away from my father and back to everyone else where we camped. As I often do, I wonder how we got this way. If I could pinpoint exactly what caused everything to happen, could I go back in time and stop it from happening? No, it would probably happen anyway in some way or another. 7

Our history is common knowledge. No doubt it’s distorted by word of mouth, but that’s our only way of keeping a record of things these days. There are probably plenty of Insiders who can read and write but it’s a rare skill among us. I generally keep it to myself, but when I was young my father taught me to read by using an ancient book of fairytales. I didn’t see the point in learning but he said I might need the knowledge one day. And maybe I will. You never know.8

But the Outsiders, without anything else to fill their time in the evenings, have always told stories. That is how I know why we are this way. Hundreds of years ago there was a war. Of times before that war, we know very little. But we do know that life was much better before the war. It’s said that there was always water to drink (crystal clear, no less – that part I’m not sure I believe) and there was always food to eat in most parts of the world. Some myths even say that instead of poisoned oceans, the water was full of salt. Strange. I can’t imagine that much liquid full of little crystals. Don’t ask me who made that one up.9

According to the legends the clouds where pure and white, and there was also glimpses of a bright blue sky behind them. Blue! I’ve only seen that colour a few times in my life. It sounds like paradise. But the war was vicious and merciless. When it was over, nothing was left pure and healthy. The few wealthy, powerful or just intelligent people in the world gathered together and built a great wall around a large expanse of more fertile land. Excluding the people left outside, they would easily have enough food to sustain many generations to come. They assumed that eventually the ones left behind would die out. 10

But we didn’t. We adapted and survived. Why anyone would bother is beyond me. Sometimes the Insiders venture outside their walls to collect more supplies or materials, but they’re stronger now more than ever with their powerful robots. No one can take them.11

I reach the camp where everyone is sitting around a small fire flickering meekly against the wind. Nobody greets me as I sit down on the soft ground. It’s not that anyone dislikes me or I them, I just don’t talk very much. I often feel somehow… apart from the rest of the troop. Or maybe I just don’t feel safe with them.12

My father returns from his feeble optimism on the hill and stands beside me. He stares calmly at Sasher, our leader of sorts. “Where are we heading next?” he asks.13

The broad shouldered man with short straw-coloured hair looks up from poking the fire with a stick. He uses the stick to point. “To the mountains. There will be some food near there and now that the other troop has left, it’s ours for the taking.”14

My father blinks away the funny look that reaches his eyes. “That means… Won’t we have to cut rather closely to the City if we’re to get there quickly?”15

Sasher looks at him from beneath heavy eyebrows. “We will go around the City.”16

Father twists the material hanging off of him in his hands. “Yes, but still… We’ll be going rather close. Do you think the Insiders will see us?”17

He shrugs slightly irritably. “So what if they do? They won’t care as long as we don’t try to get through their precious walls. Take that as a warning, by the way.”18

This silences my father. He’s satisfied with just being close to the City, or he’s disappointed, or scheming. I pull out a clump of long, slippery yellow grass and rip off the roots with my fingers. Then I concentrate on plaiting the pieces together. The world disappears as long as I can’t see it. 19

I am unhappy.20