All the maintenance shafts and tunnels were manually operated, the only manually operated things in Wakefield. It was impossible to have them be automated or, in any way, controlled by computers, otherwise they would be susceptible to system wide malfunctions.

It took a while to climb down to the 'Sewers of Wakefield' as people took to calling them. 'Sewer' was a fair description for the lower-station even if it wasn't originally meant to be seen as that. Sure, the lower-section was the home of the water-recycler, energy cores, waste disposal, and the central life-support system. Everything that the city of Wakefield needed to function. But there were also apartment complexes and store centers as well.

The lower-station was meant to house the people who operated all the essential Wakefield machinery just as the upper-station was designed to house the government. This was the case with all city-stations apparently, the brain that controls everything is at the top and the feet that makes everything move is at the bottom. A simple, albeit inherently human way of designing large structures like a mobile city. But then the 'Oxygen Crisis' began.

When the Union government started having difficulty maintaining oxygen levels, all the cities started taking to steps more and more radical steps to conserve the vital resource. First, came the decision to enclose all the public areas and bridges between buildings. Creating bubbles within the bubble to allow the majority of space inside of the City-Station to fill up with Co-2. Then came the population controls, originally it was a maximum of three children per family, then two, and now they're talking to lowering to just one child per family. And finally, the decision was made to deactivate the life-support in the lower-station one level at a time. With one level at a time. Even the people who operated the essential systems in the lower-section need oxygen masks to travel down and conduct any necessary maintenance. Dozens of levels have now been left abandoned.

It was certainly a surreal experience to walk around those empty corridors as Mara did every single day, twice a day. After climbing down the maintenance shaft, she walked through the darkness clenching her oxygen tank with one hand and a metal pipe that she had stashed in the maintenance shaft. There were plenty of people in the sewers who would kill for a full tank of oxygen. She moved carefully through the dark corridors, past all the abandoned stores, deactivated media feeds, and inactive transit-terminals, with nothing but the emergency lights to provide illumination...which wasn't much.

The windows meant to enclose all the platforms were broken out, the stores had long been ransacked, and, on occasion, Mara would find the bodies of those whose tanks run out on them. Succumbing to Co-2 poisoning, their tanks were always gone by the time Mara had spotted the bodies.

Every now and again, Mara would look out one of the broken out windows. Above she could see the light of the Central-Station, but below she saw only darkness. It was like being at the observatory, looking out at the stars, only, instead of stars, she saw the faint glimmer of security lights. Although, some of the lights down below were moving in the blackness. Sewer Gangs. Loners like Mara would never call attention to themselves by using their own lights while moving around the lower-section.

One of the sewer gangs were on a nearby platform but they were in the opposite direction of Mara's apartment and they seemed to be moving away. It was a mild comfort to Mara who tightened her grip on the metal pipe. She walked down the bridge towards the tower where her apartment resided. A few people were squatting in this building, Mara could hear them walking around in the floors above and beneath her, but she never spoke to them and they never spoke to her. When it came to living in the Wakefield Sewers it was best to keep a low profile.

Mara was always careful to make sure no one was around when she got to her door. She checked around the corners on both ends of the hallway, she was clear. She set the bag with her oxygen tank down on the ground, pulled a small black box from it, and then opened up a panel on the wall next to her door. The black box was a portable battery, it cost a lot but it was worth the expense. Mara gently tugged out a couple of wires from the wall and connected them to the battery, activated the apartment's security system. The electronic handprint next to the door lit up and Mara quickly placed her hand on it to unlock the apartment.

She had a member of the cyber-underground reprogram the security system of the apartment for her a while back. That was another major expense, Mara practically starved for the next two weeks after that but she couldn't just sleep in one of the ransacked stores. Her oxygen mask could fall off while she slept, or worse, one of the sewer gangs could stumble upon her. Nonetheless, it was an expense she would prefer not to make again and, in fact, couldn't make again in the near future. The cyber-underground had since been driven out of Wakefield and it would be a while before they regained their foothold.

The door accepted her hand print ad and slid open with a quick whish. Mara quickly grabbed her stuff together, closed the wall panel, and went inside, closing the door back up behind her. She then opened up another panel and disconnected the security system from the primary computer processor to prevent others from entering the apartment while she slept. Of course, they could always just cut through the door but that would require battery power that most people wouldn't be willing to use.

Mara was finally home but her work wasn't quite finished yet. She hauled the oxygen tank over to the apartment's localized life-support system located on the wall opposite to the door. She had left the panel for it open, exposing it's four empty slots for oxygen tanks. Mara placed her bag down, pulled out her screwdriver, and went to work floor. She had hidden the other three tanks beneath the floor panels in the event someone decided to investigate the abandoned apartment while she wasn't around. Working the full body soreness, Mara reinstalled all four oxygen tanks, including the one in her bag that was connected to her mask, and switched on the life support. Each individual life-support system ran on the same power system as the emergency lights and the union never took the time to disconnect all of them in every apartment after they all became abandoned as the price of oxygen continued to rise.

She held her breath as the system cycled out whatever Co2 had come into the apartment from leaving and coming back and fresh oxygen came in. And, finally, she took off her mask and took a deep breath. At long last she was home. Mara slumped down with her back against the wall next to the life-support. Every muscle in her body was throbbing in pain, Mara could have passed out then and there.

"Get back up." Mara said out loud to herself, "Get back up!"

Mara willed herself back to her feet and walked over to the kitchen. The abandoned apartment was decent in size, it was probably built for two. A small living room, kitchen, bathroom, and a small bedroom. Whoever used to live here was low on the income chain though, not as low as Mara was now but still low. There was no built in carpet or even wood floor, from one end of the apartment to the next it was just the cold plastic material that lined the walls of the city's various corridors. It was hard and very uncomfortable to stand on. There was no furniture left but it was a place to call home.

Mara opened up one of the cupboards to take out a small bag of noodles, her dinner for the evening, and one of the small water bottles she had in there. The water to the apartment had long been shut down. She opened up the bag and dumped the raw noodles with the water into a small boiler on the counter. Mara then connected the boiler to her portable battery and waited while the noodles cooked. It was only now that Mara was realizing just how hungry she was and that the 'meal' she was now preparing was going to do very little to help.

Once the noodles were ready, Mara disconnected the boiler from the battery and twisted off the bowl from the base that contained the heater. She quickly grabbed her one fork and carried the bowl of noodles and the battery into her bedroom. Though, 'bedroom' was probably not a good descriptor as there was no bed. Instead, there was a large pile of various blankets which Mara slept on every night. She placed the bowl on noodles on the ground next to the blankets and went over to the emergency lights in the upper corner of the bedroom. She opened up the panel and disconnected the lights from the stations power. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness but then she connected her battery to the station's emergency power to charge it up.

Mara then grabbed her pajamas from the pile of clothes that she had resting next to the blankets and began to change. After taking off her shirt, Mara noticed several strains of brown hair on her hand. At age 24, she was losing even more of her long hair. She still had plenty left but it was still demoralizing. She then checked the shoulder where the strap of her oxygen bag rested the whole way home. Even in the dark, there was a noticeable mark left by the weight with the skin cracking around it. Living in the Wakefield Sewers away from the artificial light had made Mara sickly, an issue exasperated by the harsh work and schedule.

But there was nothing Mara could do about that, she continued getting changed. It was while she took off her pants that she remembered the flyer that the woman had given her. She had folded it up and stuck it into her back pocket. She pulled it out and unfolded it. It was a flyer promoting 'The Children of Gaia', featuring an image of the Earth at the center of a Pentagram and the address of their place of meditation. Gaia was the Goddess of the Earth and the Children of Gaia believe that she has suffered along with humanity since the death of Earth and most of her creatures. So they strive to strengthen themselves and the Goddess by sharing and promoting positive energy. A nice sentiment, but Mara had no positive energy to share.

Mara tossed the flyer aside and finished getting into her pajamas. She then sat down, ate her noodles, and mentally prepared herself for the next day.