Talia
"Talia.....y-you will kill him if you don't st-stop" West said from the distance. "What does it matter west, haan? He's a pathetic excuse for a father, so he's as good as dead already!" I said applying all the pressure that I can on the throat of the man I and west called father. I was straddling him and he was scratching my face as if that is gonna affect me.
"Yeah he is 'pathetic excuse for a father' as you like to say it Talia. But still he will be the only person left I can call family once you leave." West said, her tone was more pleading this time.
"Bring me a knife" I simply said reducing some of the pressure from his throat this time. "What? have you lost your mind completely. Oh my god Ican't believe Talia." West said and started to limp slowly towards us. "I said bring.me.a.knife" I looked up at her this time, my medium length red hairs falling over my face "or you know what just any other sharp object for that matter"
"Tali-"
"I said something West"
"Oh I am so done with you two." she says and turns towards our teeny, tiny kitchen to bring knife. And I roll my eyes, she says this like twenty times a day. Shaking my head I looked down at our father whose face has gone all red like tomato because of all the pressure I was applying "time for you to know your damn place old man"
"y-y-you bi....tch-" he tried but failed to say those two of his favorite words.
"Yeah that I am" I said smirking and reduced some more pressure and as soon as I did he gasped for the air. "Here take your precious little weapon sis" West slided knife towards me and sat on the floor. Picking up the knife from the floor I put it on his throat "one last time ARE YOU GONNA RAT ON WEST?" I screamed, my lips almost touching his ears.
"you see we are already living in a hell hole, and nobody will care if I kill you literally no one. There's already the problem of overpopulation, so your death will only give us teeny tiny relief" I said again when he said nothing.
"Oh god save...I can't, I can't take this everyday fight anymore." West said to some god she still believe in. Jeezs I don't know what makes her and others like her believe in that kind of shit, why don't these people get it that there's nothing as such god. And c'mon more than half of the people stopped believing in those crapping stories of god that people used to believe before the the first wave of destruction.
"Well time to rise and shine little sis because you see here our life is all about fight" I said but she completely ignored me "but of course I'll give you that lecture some other time" I completed rolling my eyes and turning to look at our pathetic father.
"You see we don't have the whole day, officer will come in maybe few hours and if I don't reach factory in time we'll sleep empty stomach tonight, you know no work equals to no food and water. SO ANSWER and wisely my dear father" he looked at me and then at West for few seconds "o...k-k" yeah finally!"
"Good for you." I said getting up from him and throwing knife on the floor. I pulled my now damp from the sweat hairs off my face. Temperature in these underground levels we live in is always high mostly because of high population on each level, machineries and then there's no way for air to pass so at the end of the day it feels like you are in the middle of a desert minus sun. I haven't seen sun in eight years but I'm still better than most of my neighbors, woman who live three holes yeah we call our houses 'holes' because they are practically holes drilled into ground to make a room and small only in name kitchen, because hey we don't cook our food we get food according to how much we work, as for bathroom well that's a privilege that we get only once in two weeks. Yep we don't bath for two two weeks because of limited water, now if you are thinking why don't we collect rain water then let me tell you last time it rained around two years ago, yep you read it right two years ago. So you see we basically don't need any kitchen or bathroom because we don't cook and as for shitting and pissing we get those privilege only once in a day which is more than enough I mean we hardly get to eat and drink enough. Anyways so where was I yeah the woman who lives three holes down our hole hasn't seen sun in her entire life she was born here and will die here in few months most probably, though she is only forty five but let's be real a human can go only so far without sunlight and only-in-name diet. Deaths are quite common here last month seven human babies died the day they were born and five man and women died, two of them were aberrants by the way. In this condition it is hard for even aberrants to survive so let alone humans.
"She will die anyway" said my dear old man getting up with his left hand on chest and coughing. "What did you just say?" I asked narrowing my eyes. He dare touch her and I'll not hesitate to kill him. "I said" he coughed again "she is going to die anyway. Tell me what are you exactly expecting Talia? That government will do as they promised? That they will take your family out of this shit hole? That they will give your family proper food and clean water?"
"Yes, that's what the plan is" I said tying my hairs in a ponytail.
"oh you are so naive" he said and laughed but when I didn't join him and instead stood there with my hands on my waist he shuts up and continued "oh Talia they are never going to and you know what will happen then? I will work earn my meals and eat, I am not going to share it with this leach, at the end she will die of starvation. And just like you said no one will care if she dies. Or maybe they will kill her in culling you know that is about to happen next month to end her misery"
I looked at West who was sitting in corner, she has tears in her eyes and when she saw me watching her she turned her face away. She don't want to die and I will do everything in my power to keep her alive. I closed my eyes and took few deep breaths "you are real pain in my ass you know that. I really hope they choose you instead of her" I said looking straight at the old man we call father "anyways you have already wasted my enough time"
With that I turned around and left, slamming so called door shut behind me. I walked in dimly lit stone hallway as fast as I could if I don't reach factory in time we have to sleep empty stomach tonight too. And if I want West to heal faster I need to give her at least food since here we don't have any access to medicines. I bumped into some guy but didn't turn to look at him "hey watcha you idiot" he shouted and as answer without looking back I showed him my finger, just one them "bitch" I heard and ignored.
I turned right down the slop which took me to chamber three 'ahhhh two more chambers to go'. They should have given us chamber four or atleast five, then I wouldn't have to walk this much. We live in chamber to two but factory is in chamber six this everyday up down still gets on nerves even after eight years. When I entered in chamber four I heard a boy wailing and few kids peeping out from their holes to hear, I turned left to take slope to chamber fifth and saw the owner of wails who was no more than eleven and few people who were surrounding him. No not giving him sympathy or anything just staring at him, after all of what use sympathy will be? Besides this is an everyday thing.
Boy was holding his mother's corpse and asking her to wake up. He knows that she is never going to every kid living in underground level knows but he is asking her anyways. I genuinely felt bad for him and I'd have stopped by and would have offered him my sincere condolences if I wasn't in such hurry.