8: Maximus Xent’s SKAT

Tribute someone, he knows who he is! Oh, and I think I’m going to make my chapters longer than before. There’s so much I want to add, now that it’s getting interesting!

Saraha immediately jumped up, grabbing one of her knives, unsheathing it, and pointing it at the stranger. “WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

“Whoa, calm down!” said the boy, around two years older than them – sixteen, maybe seventeen. “I just wanted to ask.”

Logan shot him a look. “Give us a minute,” he said to the youth.

“Who do you think he is?” asked Flo P.

“He could be ANYONE. Just because he’s young doesn’t mean he’s not with THEM,” said Saraha out of the corner of her mouth, keeping a wary eye on the stranger.

“We should hear what he has to say, though,” Ji-Ji said.

The boy smirked. “Are you done conferencing? I dunno if I’ve ever seen four kids as wary as you.

“But I’m being rude. My name’s Maximus Xent. I wondered what you were doing out on the streets this early, all alone – honestly, that’s all! I’m president of SKAT. That’s Street Kids Assosiation of Tribes.”

“What’s that?” asked Logan, furrowing his brow.

“I’m basically the head of this giant organization of street kids who’ve broken off and formed groups in different parts of the city. In the beginning, it provides food and shelter for kids who don’t know where to go. Then they join one of the city’s tribes. It’s totally underground, and no one knows about it except the lucky few, and the tribes, of course.

“So I know orphans or run-aways when I see them, and you four are clearly typical. Not wanting to be found. I can see it on your faces. I know it’s a stretch to say, but you can trust me.”

“There’s one thing we want to know, just to test if we can really trust you,” said Logan. Do you know anything about, say… walruses?”

“And don’t lie. I can see a lie on anyone, because it crosses their face in a split second and leaves. So don’t,” said Ji-Ji menacingly.

Maximus Xent chuckled. “Walruses? Not like the tusked, whiskered animals, marine animals? No, I don’t. Wait, I do! Not the Wal Clan, ruling the Southern Tarus area of the city? No, not that? Okay, then, I don’t have a clue.”

“We trust you, sort of,” said Ji-Ji, speaking for the group. She must have decided she wasn’t suspicious, but still was eyeing him warily.

“Lead us on, then, to wherever you’re going to take us,” snapped Saraha. “We’re not waiting here forever.”

Maximus smiled at them, then motioned them on. He was a lot taller than them and walked faster, the dishevelled group jogging behind him. He led them through unfamiliar dark alleys, all dirty and pitch dark. The one time they had to cross a lit street, Maximus hurried them across quickly, checking both ways to make sure it was empty before and afterwards. It might have been a fifteen minutes walk before Maximus Xent flung out a hand.

They were standing before a cellar door to a small, old, dilapidated factory. Maximus opened it and walked down the steps, telling Logan, who went last, to close them quietly behind them.

They followed Maximus to a basement. The roof and wall had crumbled. A small hole could be seen, but it all seemed to be broken and a dead end to the basement of the factory.

“Miaow with seven handles,” said Maximus, his voice bouncing along the walls.

Out from the hole popped a flaming, scarlet red head. It was followed by a toothy grin and bright green eyes. “Maxee, where were you, mate?” it asked.

Maximus grinned. “Look who I found! Interesting kids – you’ll see. I’ll have to go out again, to get the stuff, though.”

“Come on, then, don’t loiter,” said the head, and it popped out of sight again.

Maximus crawled through the hole, motioning the four to follow. Ji-Ji, Saraha, Flo P and Logan all threw each other a giant group glance, and then followed Maximus. The hole led through a tarp, into a dim room. It wasn’t too large, but had the appearance of being so. Hammocks were slung all around it, some scraping the ceiling, others brushing the ground. Kids of all verities lay on them, on the floor, others against the wall.

Maixmus smiled at the group’s faces. “What, is this atmosphere different from what you’re used to? There’s this type of thing in all large cities, although I dunno if it gets any bigger than our multiplex organization.”

The red-haired boy, lanky, grinned at them. He was nearer their age. “My name’s Alec. If you’re hungry, we’ve got food, but I’m ’fraid it’s not much. We’ve been running low these days. Come ’ere.”

He guided them to a corner stacked with boxes. Pulling off a couple, Alec pulled out five apples, and a can of beans. He divvied up the beans into four small helpings, as well as the apples, but kept one for himself.

“We’ve got food,” said Ji-Ji, taking a can of tomatoes and adding it to their sad-looking beans.

Alec looked agog. “Where’d you get that?” he asked. “No street kid can get ANYTHING anymore, and I mean it.”

Flo P looked at him. “We brought it from home. And what’s with this shortage of food and creeping about the city?”

Alec sighed. “You’re not from Andersbad, are you? I saw it the moment you walked through the door. Kids from great places who aren’t happy. You have no idea what it’s like surviving the rough, and trust me; it’ll get rougher.

“Our network was just a network before, not underground or anything. And then we were pronounced ‘dangerous’. People to be eradicated. Children to be rounded up and sent to orphanages. So then we had to go underground. You can’t show your face anywhere by day unless it’s if you look normal. Like part of society, not some vermin found on the street.”

“But how do you get food, then?” asked Logan. “How does this still work?”

“There’s always the sketchy people who’ll sell anything to anyone, but now the price is higher to turn one of us in than to sell any goods, so we mostly borrow by night,” explained Alec.

“Borrow? You mean steal, right? You’re just plain robbers who tell tall tales,” sneered Saraha.

Alec rolled his eyes. “There’s always haters. What would you rather us do, DIE? There’s something corrupt going on here,” he said, “and it’s getting worse.”

Logan eyed the other three, and they returned his stares. Maybe it wasn’t just them. Was it happening all around them? On such a large scale, maybe in the government, Logan wondered? And this frightening force… it wasn’t just after them, anymore… It was all around them.