Scarcity by Robert Calbeck

Author:Robert Calbeck [Calbeck, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781074850661
Google: khu4xgEACAAJ
Amazon: 1074850661
Goodreads: 46625007
Publisher: Independently published
Published: 2019-06-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16:

New York City, United States of the West

Tanya shivered in the rain. Their meager cover helped some, so long as the wind didn’t blow at all. Naturally, it hadn’t stopped blowing all evening.

She stared across the street at what had once been a public park. Now it had a four-meter fence with barbed wire at the top and armed guards patrolling its periphery. They guarded the posh garden plots owned by the ultra-wealthy. Even in the dark, Tanya could see succulent tomatoes and laden fruit trees just waiting to be plucked. Her stomach grumbled.

Luthor would probably say that being homeless was “suboptimal,” but she just thought it outright sucked. Now that Michael had finally quit complaining, all she had to deal with was the dark, the cold, the wet, the hunger, and the very noticeable lack of a bed. She had dealt with some severe hunger during the war, same as everyone else, but she had grown soft in recent years as the world struggled to return to normalcy. It had only been a day since she’d eaten and there was a terrible crick in her neck from sleeping in the dirt. She didn’t even want to think about what was happening to her hair and her complexion. Vika doesn’t seem to be having any smogging problems. But Vika hadn’t yet returned to show off her perfect skin. Tanya hadn’t extracted a promise from her not to kill anyone to procure a phone. Hopefully, their quest to contact Qwiz wouldn’t leave any bodies.

The worst part was when she had to pee. She couldn’t go into any store to use the restroom because she would be scanned and they would be discovered; even if she could get in, no store manager in their right mind would let someone as dirty and disgusting as her use the facilities. She had never before wished she were a man. Until now. They could just whip it out and pee any old place. She had to find a secluded corner and squat. But the homeless and Markless were everywhere, it was almost impossible to go without someone watching, or worse, commenting. Her bladder became bashful with an audience. The boys never could understand that it is really quite difficult to pee with someone watching. They could carry on a conversation midstream—so to speak.

She was not about to pee in front of Michael, so she walked out into the rain. She was already soaked, who cared if she got a little wetter? A row of bushes marched behind a bench in front of the barbed wire fence. She crouched down between them to relieve herself.

Undoubtedly, she was being watched by not only her cohorts, but an indeterminate number of fellow homeless. But she couldn’t see them and that made all the difference. As she finished, she saw Vika return to their nonexistent cover and begin talking with the boys.

Through the haze in the distance a solitary black figure with an umbrella walked in her direction. She had no interest in being caught with her pants down, figuratively or otherwise.

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