Orphen

Betrayal/ Friend

Alice ditched Bunny. She'd never survive the streets anyhow. An unsocialized, undersized twelve year old girl autofails in the real world. Alice's Dad pulled some crooked deals on the side when he lived back home, and Alice was bright, even before the bio-enhancements. Sure, the corporation could amp up your brain on drugs and play with your genetics, try to rewire them, but if you were dumb to start out, you just displayed average in the show caseand the corporation doesn't like just average. They beat you and starve you and study you to death for an average score, not that they treat geniuses much better.

At least they endowed Alice with survival skills. He would have no trouble landing a crooked or straight deal, with his skills. He walked through the kaleidoscope of City streets learning the expression and pacing of the city, until he transformed, a chameleon, indistinguishable from all the other dirty junkies on the street. He stopped by a hotdog stand and bought one, using money he had slowly accumulated from incautious lab techs, then asked the balding Indian for directions to the nearest bus station. Maresh explained that a few blocks north and another couple blocks east, there stood one that could take him anywhere he could get a ticket to. He might have to switch buses a few times, if he planned to travel too far out of town though.

Alice engineered his way to the bus station, and bought a ticket that would eventually land him in Austin Texas, after switching buses a dozen times or so. Alice didn't mind, that would make him harder to track.

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When I woke up, I didn't see Alice, only a sky that was a little lighter than the fluorescents in the lab. The ground beneath me felt like my prison, but it smelled different. I stood up and found a corner to relieve myself, being careful not to wet the edges of the oversized flannel shirt. Once I had oriented myself to the new surroundings, I began walking. At first, I looked when I walked at the colors and the people and the shops, but then people started yelling at me. So, I decided that it was better not to stare.

I had shuffled along like this for hours, gazing timidly at the stained concrete beneath my feet, not knowing where I wanted to go, when a running person pushed me aside and darted into the shadows behind one of the stairwells. I puzzled, went to investigate, and when I got close the dirty teenager in the khaki baseball cap grabbed me and commanded me to hush. I could see a man in a Hawaiian shirt through the rungs in the stairs. He looked like he had lost something. Maybe he was a tourist and he missed his turn? He slowed when he passed our hiding spot. I thought  I saw him look at us through his sun glasses, and then he went away.

I stayed there with his hand forced over my mouth unable to move. Finally, my captor, pushing his soggy t-shirt into my back, told me that I never saw him and that if any one asked about him, I had never met him. He briskly walked behind one of the dark narrow passages between the buildings, I followed him gripping the oversized flannel sleeves for comfort. Green-hat kid knocked on a moldy looking door. I crept up closer behind him. The door opened and a deep voice boomed, "You can come in, but how do I know your little sister is cool?"

The oily faced teenager turned around and glared at me then protested, "She's not my sister! Just some homeless girl from the alley! Maybe she followed me here looking for food." 

Green-hat pushed me back, a tight expression on his face, "Go away girl! I'm just as hungry as you, can't ya tell?"

A round crooked-smiled man popped out from the door, and examined me from every angle. "You want a job girl? We'll have to fatten you up a little, but we should be able to use you for something."

I confused, "nodded my head."

He smiled, "You can start by cleaning up the shop." He pulled me inside the door into a neat, checker-tiled restaurant and handed me a long pole with a coarse bundle at the end and demanded that I sweep. I stood and looked up at him blank and unsure how to proceed. I didn't know what the pole was for. 

He bellowed, " Are you going to sweep the floor, or should I send you back to tha streets kid?" He motioned in a swinging motion with his hands into a plastic thing still in his hand. I guessed he wanted me to do that with the pole. So, I accepted the plastic piece from him and attempted to imitate what he had shown me. He seemed contented and wandered over to a table where some men were chatting. When I realized I was watching, I bowed my head and focused on sweeping the contents of the floor into the container. I wanted to avoid the man yelling like the street people.

When the container filled up, I wasn't sure what to do. A woman from behind the counter had been watching me. I brought the container to her and pointed unsure what to do. She showed me a box and how to dump it in, and then took me down a hall where she made me sit down and brought me some food. It tasted better than anything I had ever eaten before. She showed me how to use the metal sticks to eat with. Then asked me if I had always been on the streets. I shook my head. The lab people had never wanted me to speak just type things on the computer. 

"Then, where were you?" she asked kindly, "You don't act like the street kids nor any rich kids either."

I just stared at the empty bowl.

"Do you not talk child?"

She wanted me to talk to her like the lab people did to each other. I tried, "I lived under floor. There were computers and people in white coats up above. They would take me out and tie me to the desk and make me type."

The woman made a face I don't understand then grabbed my hand and pulled me up some stairs. She ran water, removed my clothes, and gestured for me to get in. I was frightened but I did what she said. The lab people hurt me if I didn't do what they wanted. She had been kind to me. I didn't want her to hurt me. She rubbed slick stuff on my skin and in my hair. When she had become satisfied, she dried me with something soft and gave me a dress to wear. She brought me to a soft piece of furniture and told me to sleep. Eager to please her, I closed my eyes.