Prequel in the works among other things.

The nightmare jolted her from sleep. She sat up straight in her battered sleeping bag quivering like an arrow. For a moment she was frozen in time. The afterimage of blinding lights, and the sound of tinny detached voices always inspired bowel deep shudders. But it was the haunting wail of a baby that followed her back from her dream, making the follicles rise on the backs of her arms and the nape of her neck.

Karla rubbed her arms through the layers of clothing, briskly trying to erase the memory. Her jacket crackled loudly with the movement. Her frosty breath puffed with a little more force than usual as she warily took note of her surroundings. She wasn’t surprised any more that they were unfamiliar. It had stopped being such a shock to her system after a few weeks.

Currently she was hidden away on the rooftop of a restaurant, wedged tightly next to a heating vent. Snow piled up in drifts everywhere else, flakes swirled in shimmering zephyrs.

Despite it being deep winter, and possibly suffering from frostbite, it still wasn’t a bright idea to seek more reliable shelter so soon after arriving in Wabun. Karla had deliberately ignored the temptation of the credits hidden safely against her ribs. To take advantage of a hostel or a rooming house without knowing first if they were reliable was risky business. The city was huge and imposing. The bright lights and devouring crowd could easily distract you from the fact that the rooming house was just a front for the sex trade, or worse, a skin walker’s workshop. Karla shuddered at the thought of being illegally harvested for somebody else’s cybernetically altered body. Sometimes the two trades were interchangeable. It was a competitive market.

I’ll take frozen toes over that any day, she thought grimly.

On a lesser scale of concern, being one of the many homeless younger generation following the devastating Global War, she also had to contend with officials searching out under-aged kids for government sanctioned homes. She was on the cusp of sixteen and had to dodge those commission-paid freaks for a few more months. Though those homes were geared to place kids in the workforce once they reached of age (which, really, what other options did they have?), she heard the horror stories about the treatment some of the kids received in these ‘homes’.  Karla grimaced. She really didn’t need anyone else trying to tell her what was best for her and then skipping off without a freaking explan—

Covering her face in an attempt to rein in a surge of anger and loneliness, Karla took a steadying breath.

Her movements had alarmed the pigeons also drawn to the heat duct. As Karla settled back into her bag once more, their sounds returned to sleepy coos. Guileless eyes blinked at her sleepily.

Hiding most of her face behind her blanket, her thoughts returned to her situation. Karla knew she could get lost in the metropolis that was Wabun; and that’s exactly what she hoped to do. Though she was young, she wasn’t new to the dangers and challenges of homelessness. She wasn’t stupid. She was alone; and she wasn’t used to that part. It would be up to her to find a safe home base. Then she would decide what to do about Jayce’s vague last instruction to her. Would she give it some thought? Or taking cue from her older brother’s obvious lack of consideration, maybe she would take a chance and find out if his pathological secrecy around their origins really did mean she had to stay off the grid. ‘Cause if she discovered it was all just some testosterone control issue of his . . . if the reason she didn’t know anything about her parents was because the oversized walking armory she called a brother wanted his hero-worshiping little sister under his thumb a little bit longer . . .

Karla gnashed down on the blanket with her teeth.

Then he’d better hope that the reason he abandoned her without notice in their small apartment was because his dangerous courier job had gone sour and he had to run for it to keep her from getting drawn into the crossfire. Your life had better be on the line! Karla wished she could threaten him. There were so many reasons this time it just didn’t wash. They normally had back up plans, and contingency plans, and signals that they’d used over the years to get out of tight spots.

This time he only left her a note:

There’s something I have to do and you can’t come with me. Go to the address on the back. I told them you would be coming. They’ll look after you until you get on your feet.

Like, what the hell?! Jayce was no erudite but what--? He couldn’t add . . . ‘I’ll meet you in Vale--? If I should bite the dust, you should know our parents were directly responsible for nuking one of the original territories on the Northern Continent?’ Or maybe, ‘As an infant you displayed a rather uncanny ability for firearms and you accidentally killed our parents so I had to go on the run with you to keep the authorities from taking you away from me (which she could halfalmostkindofbelieve).’

And so THAT’S why you are all alone, and you can’t go back and look for me, and you have to be extremely suspicious of anyone you may meet, and can never have a normal life.

Karla frowned at her blanket. Stupid Jayce voice stuck in my head.

So she deliberately didn’t do what she was told. It was no big deal. The address he left for a safe house in Vale Protectorate was just his way of getting her to do what he wanted, the way he wanted it. If he was going to leave her without any way to try to help him, or find him; she wasn’t about to sit around Vale and twiddle her thumbs, waiting for word that might never ever come.

She sniffed. Ah crap. Here came the tears.

Just don’t die, okay? Karla blinked fiercely as her vision blurred. You’re all I have, a smaller Karla voice managed to admit before it was wrestled into the dirt by the street tough version.

Her eyes drifted shut with the half amused realization that her personalities were having fisticuffs. 

Karla huddled into a tighter ball to preserve warmth, distantly hoping that her far away toes wouldn’t be too badly damaged come morning. She’d have to find a better arrangement for the next evening.

She must really be tired. The cooing of the pigeons was actually rather soothing . . .

The next morning Karla was up with the sunrise. She uncoiled her cold stiff body and winced when she settled her boots down on the rooftop. She could barely feel her feet. Not a good sign.

They were wrapped in layers of socks that she didn’t dare peel off here so she was going to have to find a public washroom where she could carefully get a look at them. Karla grimly rolled up her bedroll and rearranged her clothing.

She literally carried most of her belongings on her shoulders. Several shirts and sweaters, a dress tucked into a couple of pants, you name it. Not only did it help conserve heat, it saved her from lugging it around in her duffle bag. She topped everything off with a hoody and her brothers cast off leather motorcycle jacket—which still dwarfed her—and a pair of new boots that she’d found on her way through Strongbow.

Karla did her best to comb through her long hair. The black nest was dirty and partially frozen but she needed to at least look neat if she couldn’t be squeaky clean. She finally forced the brush through and quickly twisted it back in a low Dutch braid bun.

After her final check to make sure her LCR Ruger revolver was still snugly bound to her ribs, and the Bowie knife was safe inside the sleeve of her jacket—both parting gifts from Jayce and constant reminders that something was wrong because he only grudgingly allowed her access to their weapons. Grudgingly as in guns were totally Hands. The. Fuck. Off. 

She gave an exasperated snort. Your secret’s safe with me big brother.

That much accomplished, Karla headed towards the fire escape that would lead her down to the street scape and her first full day in Wabun. Despite the hardened gaze that settled over her face, a flutter of nervousness turned into a full out riot in her stomach.

Jayce taught me everything I know. Karla bolstered her courage. I can do this. 

She decided to eat lunch in the safest place she could think of. 

Karla perched on the window ledge overlooking the school grounds of a possible future attendance sight. She made herself as small a focus of attention as possible as she ate the chicken salad sandwich she’d paid for earlier. She tried to eat it slowly. She couldn’t afford to make herself sick so she tried to distract herself by watching the student body below.

It seemed pretty big from what she could see. The name on the sign on the front building had said Lennox House but instead of the singular building it implied it seemed to sprawl into several connecting annexes in the back; older buildings that made up most of the block. Karla was currently looking down at a courtyard nestled in the middle where the students milled about between studies.

They were her age, she noted. Thereabout. And she didn’t see any government goons lurking about. That was a good sign. She’d have to come back a few more times before she could trust that observation but she still had lots of exploration to do in the surrounding area. She had to know what was going on around her. She couldn’t afford nasty surprises like a reigning gang that would demand alliance or payment or, ugh, a local police station on her doorstop.

Karla looked down at her fingers in surprise to notice that her sandwich was gone. She felt a stirring of disappointment. Her belly still felt hollow. With a sigh she balled up the wrapper and tucked it into a pocket until she could dispose of it later.

Up here, in this little pocket of winter sunlight, she felt temporary warmth. Her feet were also feeling better. Well okay, burning from recirculation since she had to play doctor to the poor white digits earlier but they were still whole which she took as a positive.

Time to go. Before she got caught.

Karla hoisted her bags, and swung herself over the railing of the balcony. Her hands and boots found purchase on the raised brick and made a quick decent to the ground. She made a small jump over the shrubbery at the bottom.

“Like what you see?” A quiet voice came from beside her.

With some difficulty Karla swallowed her yelp of surprise and spun to face the person in question. 

“What?” She asked shortly.

“The school. Do you think you’ll be coming here?”

Minutely Karla let herself relax. It was a girl, looked to be a year or two older than her. Just as scruffy. Her grey eyes were sharp though and she’d picked Karla’s form out easily.

“I don’t know yet.” Karla said with barely a shrug. She wasn’t lying.

The girl nodded abruptly. “Yeah well. If you’re checking it out . . . Lantern Hall is an okay place to stay.”

Karla’s brows drew together but the stranger was already walking away. “Okay.” She said. Thanks. Maybe.

It wasn’t at Lantern Hall that Karla finally found a place to stay, but an apartment building not far from there. She’d been discretely making enquiries about rooms for rent and/or part time jobs when an elderly gentleman overheard her. He was struggling to shovel the snow off of the sidewalk in front of his apartment complex.

“If you can keep the sidewalk and roof clear of snow for me,” the man puffed, clearly taxed by the exercise, “I can offer you a room.”

When he showed her the attic he turned on the hanging light apologetically. “It’s not much,” Mr. Vasilakis said.

“It’s a roof over my head,” Karla reassured him after quickly scanning the space and seeing it was indeed just what she needed. It was an empty space currently not being used for anything. There was a window at either end of the attic, and through the rear one she could see the skeleton of the fire escape. After a quick exploration she found the door that would take her to the roof. So that made two doors, one lead from the apartment building below and one lead to the roof. Both she could lock (Mr. V had a key—of course). And luxury of luxuries, there was a toilet and an ancient tub in one corner.

“I’ll take it.” Karla tried not to sound too eager.

“Good.” Mr. Vasilakis said gruffly handing over the shovel he was still carrying. “You can start now while I go wrap my blisters.”

Karla watched him retreat with a twist to her lips. She wasn’t sure whether she dared smile at her good fortune or not. She let her bags fall from her shoulders and decided to make good on her deal.