• tab Adair stared blankly at the roof of his small and dingy tent. The wind from the night before had left a large hole directly in his line of vision while lying down in bed. Through the hole he could see the sun beginning to sparkle through the over sized buildings that not only sheltered his small tent, but also was the object of all of his oppression. Within a few minutes of his early morning wondering, he felt a new pressure on his chest; he rose slightly and alleviated his pain by coughing. He could feel mucus in the back of his throat writhing around on it’s way down into the body. With a sigh, he began to undress his body of the blankets that were wrapped securely from the previous night.
    tab After a while of tugging on every carefully placed knot of fabric, he freed himself of his bed prison. Sitting up on his bed he hunched over as his back made a deep cracking noise. From his throat arose a sound of both joy and discomfort, while he glared again at the hole over his bed. Sighing, he began to feel another strange feeling within the pit of his stomach. His face began to distort as a maniacal laugh escaped his lips. With joyous arms he hugged his stomach tightly while the pain of hunger began to rip him within the inside.
    tab As the pain subsided, Adair plummeted back down into his lump of fabric. “Ugh, I don’t want to have to fix that hole!” he yelled, staring up the slash in his ceiling. Winter was upon the urban jungle, and Adair already knew that fabric would be harder to find than normal.
    tab “Looks like I’ll have to do it anyways…” he lamented while hopping up.
    tab His body shivered for only a moment before he placed one of his tattered fur coats over his frail body. Smiling only a second to admire himself in a broken mirror, he whisked away into the cold, open air.
    tab Outside, the camp was in a blurry. Snowflakes were drifting to and fro throughout the endless lines of tents, and Adair was among them. He sighed to himself and walked along one of the middle rows. The Haven at least looks decent with a layer of white on it, no way to see the grunge out here. He thought to himself while he made his way through the endless tents, all the way out to the main street that surrounded the small park. As usual, cars were coming in an endless stream. Gurgles erupted from Adair’s stomach while the people in the cars glared out to him. Adair only smiled and waved happily. He didn’t much care for what people thought of him. Not even his messy hair or worn out eyes drew him back. He was happy and carefree, save for his tent, like all teenagers should be.
    tab It was hours before Adair managed to slip through enough concrete to reach the inner city where the best trashcans were stacked high.
    tab “I found the mother load.” He said, staring into one of the overfull containers.
    tab He reached his hands in carefully and began digging into the assortment of items. “Cloth, cloth, cloth.” He muttered while moving away some broken dolls. The importance of his tent outweighed anything, for if it wasn’t covered by nightfall, he would surely be frozen by morning. He sighed when he reached the bottom, he managed to find a baggy bumblebee colored hat, which now sat rested on his head, but there was nothing that could be used for tent fabric. So, he moved on to the next receptacle.
    tab Another few hours passed by and Adair was already burnt out on his failure. The last trashcan was already overturned and he sat on it, sulking. I have to find some cloth; I’d do anything for it. He thought, while a large thud awoke him from his angst. He looked up to see an older man bumbling along the narrow alleyway. “Oh, hey there oldie!” he said, waving two fingers in his direction.
    tab “Humph.” The old man replied while he passed him.
    tab Adair stared blankly at the man, and that’s when he noticed the fabric. The man had several pieces tucked under his arm, and was moving quite slow too. He did not want to miss the opportunity, so he jumped up and hurried to the traveling elder.
    tab “What you want, youngin’?” he said, chewing on some tobacco.
    tab “Actually sir, I noticed you and I are sort of… alike…” Adair began.
    tab “Don’t be expecting me to give you some o’ this fabric that it took a long time to git.” Sharp eyes said, staring at Adair angrily.
    tab “It’s my tent though… I need just one piece, and you have several…” Adair’s words were already starting to sound like pleas.
    tab “Go find some charity boy, these fabrics here are mine. Every one o’ them gonna be used to start a fire. Yup. Good fire.”
    tab Adair was stunned, “You’re going to use fabric as fire?! Then you need to let me have one, and fast! I need to leave or I’ll never make it home before dark. This is a matter of life and death!”
    tab The sharp eyes peered over at him, “You be barkin’ up the wrong tree. Strong survive, you should have looked faster and closer to home. Can’t do anything to help if you’re too weak to have a survive drive.” He chuckled to himself.
    tab Adair stopped walking as rage took control over him. The old man had a point, he needed the fabric because he needed to survive, and he should be willing to do anything to do so.
    tab “Stop right there, old guy.” He said, moving his small firearm into view and holding it up at the man. Adair hated using his only weapon, but in this case, it was necessary.
    tab The old man turned slightly and let out a small laugh, “You gonna shoot me boy? Gonna kill the old geezer cause he pisses you off? Weaker than I thought.”
    tab “Don’t be such a hypocrite,” Adair responded coldly. “you’re the one who said I should do anything to survive.” His hands were shaking wildly, would he really end someone else’s life for a cloth?
    tab The old man continued to laugh and began to fiddle around in his pockets.
    tab Adair reacted suddenly, and stared at his hands, tears welling in his eyes. “He was moving for a gun… I could swear it, he had been..” his shaky voice replied to his mind.
    tab An unmoving old geezer was down on the ground before him. Adair instantly threw his only form of protection at the side of the alley as tears moved down his cheeks. “I really…” he began, but stopped. The fabrics were free now, and he moved quickly to gather them all and stand back up. “I-it was just one person, no one saw, no one knows.” He reassured himself and began a sprint back towards the Haven.
    tab No matter how rotten he felt, no matter the consequences, he was happy to be able to be alive another day. He only assumed that’s how all life had to be, hard and cruel and full of daily choices; he was sure that the old man had been right when he made his speech on surviving. And so, that night, in his newly fixed tent, he reached a makeshift dream and lulled off, masking his guilt with his self-satisfied fantasies. tab