"Where is your cabin?" Michael asked.
"A1," he replied looking at the time on his watch. "We better get hurrying. The last chair lift trip to A3 is in ten minutes. It's a long walk till A1 if we miss it and we don't want to be outside before curfew."
They hurriedly made their way to D3 and just about managed to reach the chair lift in time. There were two other miners alongside them in the lift.
"So, amnesia boy? What's your story?" Chuck asked putting his legs up rudely on to the chair in front of him.
Michael explained to Chuck how he had suddenly regained consciousness beyond the Perimeter and how Elena had found him. He also told him how she had taken care of him, got him a pass and job in the city. He noticed that the expression on Chuck's face had changed to one of discomfort when he had mentioned Elena. It was as if he was embarrassed by some memory.
"Yeah, I know Elena. Her dad looked after me when I broke my foot."
It seemed to Michael that everyone knew Elena. That wasn't surprising since there were not many medics in the Peak City. Also, her father had set up his own legacy among the people. They had reached A3 and walked down to A2 by the time Michael had narrated his whole story.
"What about you?" asked Michael.
"Well, I used to live in the desert towns towards the north of the city when I was a child. Moved here and been living here even since."
"You live with your family?"
"No. I live alone." Chuck did not say anything more. Something about the question had clearly bothered him but Michael did not push for a more detailed answer.
They arrived at the cabin which was basically a small compartment which belonged to the many compartments that were part of a long, narrow dwelling. He could hear loud music coming from one of them while he heard a woman moaning and a bed creaking from another.
Chuck's cabin was a complete mess. It consisted of a worn-out mattress, which was so flattened out that it looked like a blanket, that was surrounded by cigarette-butts, wrappers, used tissues and empty liquor bottles. There was a small kitchenette along with a dirty bathroom where you had to suck in your stomach to close the door from the inside.
"Not bad eh?" said Chuck. "It's just a little messy but I'm sure we can clean it all up someday."
"Yeah…" Michael said reluctantly. Sleeping in the destroyed city wasn't sounding like too bad an idea anymore.
Chuck had a spare mattress which he made space for on the ground after adjusting his mattress. He found a glass bottle that still had some liquor at the bottom of his untidy covers as they started to turn in for the night.
"You want some?" he asked but Michael politely refused. "Suit yourself bud." He said taking a deep gulp and downing the whole thing. Then he let his head fall onto the pillow and within a few minutes he was already snoring loudly.
**
March 19, 2032
Destroyed Denver, Old Colorado
One pleasant afternoon, when there were not many people at the clinic, Elena gave her nurses the task of looking after the patients telling them she was going to the city to check on the herbs in her greenhouse.
Elena, however, had an entirely different reason for going beyond the Perimeter. She did not go to get herbs this time. She went because she needed an escape.
She made her way down the mountains and through to Destroyed Denver below. She was one of the few people who had permission to pass through so that she could gather herbs and supplies for her clinics. She was well-respected by the Nazis in the city after her father had saved the commander's wife.
She tried not to look at the refugees when passing by the fence of their ghettoes because it always made her guilty. She wanted to help them all but it was impossible. Helping them convicts was a serious criminal offence punishable by death. She had on rare occasions helped some of the poor people in the destroyed city if they were seriously injured though tried to avoid it as much as she could because their presence in the destroyed city was illegal. A few months ago, she had brought one of them who was terminally sick into the clinic. She had looked after him for two weeks and in return, he had stolen most of her belongings and run away. Her father, too, had once brought in a patient from the destroyed city who had stayed inside the clinic for a few days. Elena had been changing his bandages when he had attempted to rape her. She remembered it very vaguely but she could recall that he had grabbed her and shoved her onto the bed. She had had no idea what was going on at the time but thankfully, her uncle had been right outside and had thrown him off her. She remembered her uncle dragging the man out of the cabin. She remembered hearing sounds of struggle before hearing a sick crunch and a painful moan from her assailant. She had tried to see what had happened but her uncle had forced her inside and ordered her to stay inside. Her uncle had dragged the dead body and dumped it somewhere. After that incident, her father had stopped treating the people of the destroyed city. She had only helped Michael because she had felt he was someone from the Peak City.
She walked for an hour and approached an alley where there were a group of people drinking rum. She did her best to avoid any eye contact. The people of the destroyed city did not normally stay outside keeping to the crumbling buildings for fear of getting detected by Nazi patrols. She heard someone whistle at her. Looking around, she saw a man with shaggy hair and bushy beard staring at her.
"Hey, you lookin' fine gi-" He stopped when he saw that Elena had her rifle aimed at her. He raised his arms in an apologetic surrender and hurried away.
Yeah, you better run you pervert.
Elena trudged ahead and the city started to appear more deserted until eventually, there was not a single soul in sight. She looked up to her right and saw the meat factory. That was where the Perimeter was, the threshold till which the people occupied the destroyed city. Many people did not dare to cross the Perimeter out of fear of the unknown. Out of fear of the terrible things that happened beyond it. Beyond that was where humanity stopped. Murderers, gangs, drug trades, human trafficking; it all occurred beyond the Perimeter. Elena crossed it without any hesitation.