Katriona— Wol, Year 13,147

Katriona decides to walk on the land streets instead of the sky streets, for no reason in particular, other than she can.

There’s something about the land streets that mesmerizes Katriona. The masses of people pushing through the crowds. The smell of a hundred different ways to prepare government-provided mystery meat is in the air. The sounds of vendors shouting and haggling, the roar of land motorcycles, and parents scolding children.

She walks down the street with one hand firmly clasped on her bag and her eyes open wide, but she loves it nonetheless. There’s nowhere else on their overly controlled planet that has quite so much energy. The Mother could see down there if she wanted to, but the government has made it very clear where they want most of her attention- up above where the rich walk.

Katri can see people walking high above on the transparent sky streets. Though there’s not nearly so many pedestrians above as down below, it still cuts down on the amount of light that filters down to the land streets. She knows it’s not a nice place to exist, but with 12 billion people (and counting) on the planet, they’ve had to find a way to fit everyone in together.

She sees a huddled group of refugees from Ghar, identifiable by their oxygen-deprived blue lips and persistent coughing. Those born on the oxygen-rich colony planet don’t last long on Wol, but there’s nothing else for them to do, since their planet is literally breaking to pieces. The government doesn’t know what to do with them either. So they sit on the streets and in government shelters, slowly suffocating to death.

Katriona can’t help them all by herself, so she walks past with an internal shake of her head. Her friend, Bryn, would have given them coins or something. She isn’t Bryn, though. Does she feel bad about it? If she concentrates really hard, maybe. The government should be taking care of them. But they don’t. She stops concentrating on that line of thought abruptly.

Her mood lifts soon after as she continues walking down the streets. She enters a store that is packed with people scrambling to take advantage of a promotion. She runs her hands through the fabrics and exits the other side of the store under the stern glare of the security guard. The prices are astoundingly cheap, but she doesn’t need to buy there. She makes enough money now to buy clothing in the sky shops.

Someone catcalls her from a land motorcycle as she exits the store, and she sticks her middle finger out at him without looking. He shouts back, but his words are incoherent. A girl walking towards her shoots her an appreciative grin, putting a smile on Katri’s face. She takes a snapshot of the guy with her contact lenses and goes on her way.

The land streets are dangerous, sure. They’re full of people yelling at each other and even yelling at her, of course. But she doesn’t have to walk through them. Many of her friends wouldn’t.

But then, what’s the fun of life if you never leave your comfort zone once in a while?