“City Life”

by Sophie McConchie

It was raining in the City. Ember’s boots squished. The flickering streetlight

made her pale skin almost glow. The smell of the polluted river floated down the

streets and filled her nostrils. Her drenched clothes uncomfortably clung to her

body. Her black hair kept falling into her eyes as she watched what had unfolded in

the alley.

A boy was standing over the girl. She looked young, with her skin stretched

tightly over her bones. Her red hair was fanned out on the ground. She wore a

strapless light blue dress that was torn at the edges. Her shoes were missing. Her

chest was still. Even at this distance, Ember could smell the lilac perfume that

came from the girl.

The boy was couched over her, with his back to the mouth of the alley. He

was dressed simply in jeans and a hoodie, which concealed his features.

Ember guessed what he was. There were hundreds of them in the city. They

take a person’s life force if they didn’t get what they want and they leave the body

for the family to find. Ember lost a brother and a mother that way.

Her father then left the City in an attempt to escape and left everything

behind, even his own daughter.

Ember took her knife out of its sheath. It wasn’t a good weapon, but it she

was lucky to have one at all.

Takers ruled the City. They kept everyone in, and they killed anyone who

tried to leave the City or work against them. This included people who owned a

weapon of any kind.

You had no freedom of religion, speech, or even the freedom to get an

education. In fact, there wasn’t even a school system. If you follow the rules, you’d

live.

Ember grabbed onto the knife and approached the boy quietly, making sure

she didn’t make a sound.

About halfway down the alley, the boy turned and caught eye of her. Her

suspicions of him were correct, his eyes had white irises due to the life force they

had taken, only showing the pupil. He lept up, but instead of charging at her, he

fled through a door which led into a bank, one that hadn’t been in business for

years.

Ember grabbed her phone, put her knife back into its sheath and ran down

the alley into the street. She punched a number into the phone and held it up to her

ear, speaking in an old language that the Takers would not understand.

She ran down the alley, listening to the other person on the phone with a

young female voice, and was urgently speaking in the same language.

Ember nodded and closed the phone; pausing to crush it under her foot in a

puddle of water. She ran faster.

Turning onto a street, she looked around. Seeing no one, she hoisted herself

onto the fire escape. Maneuvering her body, Ember climbed the rickety stairs until

she reached the sixth floor window. Crouching, she took her knife and pried the

window open.

She scrambled through the window as softly as she could, coming into an

abandoned apartment. It was her safe house, according to the Voice.

It was the Voice who kept her alive. Ember would steal a phone, call a

certain number, and await further instructions. She didn’t know who it was, but the

Voice had been her one chance of survival for the past few months.

Ember took a spot on the floor that had clear view of the door and window.

She had no possessions, except her knife and the clothes on her back.

She thought about what the Voice had said, slowly translating it in her head.

“Go to the safe house,” the Voice said. “Think about what we had been going

towards this whole time. Stay there until dawn, then call me. It’s time for Them to

go.” Then she hung up.

Ember wondered if she was just a pawn in this. She didn’t mind if she was.

She wanted the Takers to disappear. If she had to go down, she would at least try to

take some Takers with her.

She waited for dawn. Spent the night sleeping in short shifts, checking out

any small noise that woke her up.

About an hour before dawn, she left the house, determined to find a phone as

quickly as possible.

Dropping from the fire escape and landing on the pavement, she walked

down the street, watching the citizens start to come out of their homes to go to

‘work’. ‘Work’ was whatever the Takers made them do. Walk around the City

until you were called aside to do something.

Ember had been called multiple times. Every time she looked into a Taker’s

white eyes, she saw her family members’ life force, swirling around in those cold,

stoney orbs.

Today Ember was determined to stay away from ‘work’. She slipped

through alleys, and when she could, she’d pick anyone's pocket for a phone of

some kind.

She was already on her fourth person when she caught eye of the boy from

the night before. He had seen her and was pointing in her direction to a Taker.

Ember didn't know if he was pointing at her, but she ran in the opposite

direction anyway, not taking any chances.

A Taker pounced on her as she turned the corner. He pushed her to the

ground, bound her wrists, and put one foot on her back, keeping her down.

This is it, Ember thought without fear. She was expecting this to happen

sooner or later. She braced for an impact of some kind, because publicly beating a

rule-breaker was common. They were often killed from just the first blow.

Instead, she was picked up, dragged to a car, and thrown into the backseat.

She righted herself, and found herself facing a girl no older than herself.

“Who are you?” Ember asked, struggling against her bonds.

“You call me for help and you’re asking who I am?” she asked, with a smirk

on her face. Her eyes were white with only a pupil that studied Ember intently.

The Voice. It matched the girl’s.

Ember stayed silent for a minute. One part of her mind started to think

through escape tactics while the other part was focused on finding the answers to

the questions that she had swirling in her head.

“Why are you here?” Ember asked, slipping her knife from its sheath

silently.

“I’m here to see my dog get put down,” the girl said simply, “and here you

are.” She paused. “It’s my job to find rebels like you in the City.”

Ember hesitated. “I’m no one’s dog,” Ember snapped, starting to cut through

her bonds.

“But you are, so eager to please moi,” she said as she gestured to herself

happily. “And you don’t have to wait any longer. We’re almost at HQ anyway.”

Ember slipped her knife away, having cut the bonds to the point of where

she could break them apart effortlessly when she needed to.

Escorted out of the car, she was taken to a large building. It was at least fifty

floors high, with a gleaming outside, almost looking futuristic. No one came in or

out of any of the doors except Ember, the girl, and a single Taker.

They entered the building which was not as impressive on the inside. Ember

was led into a hallway with doors branching off.

She spotted a door called CONTROL ROOM, and an idea came to her.

Here goes nothing, she thought.

She pulled her hands apart, breaking her bonds. Grabbing the blade of her

knife, she spun around and brought the handle down on the Taker’s head.

He crumpled as the handle made contact, falling without a sound. Ember

spun and threw the knife at the window, breaking the glass.

The girl screamed in an attempt to alert anyone nearby. Ember covered her

ears and ran into the control room, closing the door and quickly locking it.

Grabbing the nearest chair, she stuck it under the door handle, hoping to buy

herself more time. As she looked around the room, her eyes passed a hole in the

wall, followed by the control panel.

Ember looked over the control panel, praying that the rumors she had heard

were true.

Her eyes fell on the red button at the end of the row, under a plastic

covering. The one next to it was a simple white button. Individually they would do

nothing. Together, they would accomplish what Ember had been going toward this

entire time.

She moved to the buttons, hearing some commotion on the other side of the

door.

BANG! BAM! went the door as they tried to break it down. Quickly, Ember

pushed the white button first.

A voice came on the loudspeaker. “LOCKDOWN. LOCKDOWN.”

Smiling to herself, Ember took a hammer from the tool case nearby.

Looking at the security camera, she said something in the old language. She

brought the hammer down on the red button, breaking the plastic and the button;

making what she did irreversible.

A few seconds went by until she heard, “SELF DESTRUCT HAS

COMMENCED. LEAVE THE BUILDING.” Ember smiled to herself.

The door burst open as Ember watched the timer tick down. Five… four…

three… two… one. Ember looked at the security camera and waved goodbye.

Weeks later.

“Everyone knew who Ember was. The girl that was taken from the streets.

The girl who sacrificed her life for people in the City. As soon as that building

exploded, all the Takers dropped dead as if a plug was pulled. After that it was

complete chaos. Everyone running, taking all they could while they ran from the

City in search of a new life,” said a girl the reporter was interviewing.

She continued. “I mean, after what Ember said that was translated from

what, Latin? Everyone is wondering what she meant when she said, ‘Dad, you left.

If you’re alive, look for the broken handle and see what I did.’ What did she mean

by ‘broken handle’?” The girl paused for a minute. “Aren’t you a reporter?

Shouldn’t you know this already?”

“Just needed an interview from a witness ma’am,” the man said politely.

“Everyone wants to know what actually happened, especially since the security

tapes from the building came out. Thank you for your time.”

Without another word, he left the small shop. In his hand, a bag contained a

burned knife with a broken handle. The bag’s label was: Ember’s Knife.

“I’m sorry I left you Ember,” the man said quietly as he watched the sun set.