Season 04 - Episode 06

‘this at least’

Iz wakes from a nightmare and just for a minute thinks she's back in her prison cell. Then the thick mess of sound made by thousands of miserable people far below reaches her and she knows she is free.

For a while she just lies there, soothed by the soundscape and the knowledge that she can do exactly as she pleases. Then she yawns and stretches and sits and swivels, planting her feet on the cold metal floor.

Her bed, such as it is, is a twisted tangle of fetid blankets atop a small platform of gathered boxes. It sits within the small, windowless shack she has made for herself by leaning rusted metal sheets against one another and the wall.

She rubs her grubby face with grubbier hands and has a good scratch, before standing and moving to the only doorway. A stiff, stained sheet of heavy fabric is hung across the opening and she pushes this aside now to step out onto The Scapes.

Her shack is at the very end of the platform, as high as it's possible to get on these Scapes, well above the highest door leading back into The Levels. No-one else lives this high up which gives her the peace and space she has craved since her incarceration.

Crossing the mesh metal walkway, Iz approaches and then leans on the rickety old railings that stand between her and the void. She looks across the impossible plunging depths, down at the opposite side of The Scapes where swarms of people fill it completely.

The war between GovCo and The Church decimated The Levels, driving countless refugees out onto their nearest Scapes. Since The Church disappeared, GovCo has cracked down even harder, seizing all abandoned property so that those who fled out here now have nowhere to go back to.

Iz allows her eyes to wander over the dizzying mess of walkways and stairways and shacks and platforms all built on top of one another, all clinging to the vast, vertical plain of brickwork opposite. Other than the top few levels directly opposite her, every space seethes with bodies, people on people on people.

Everyone seems to have somewhere to go, hurrying past and around and over one another in all directions. They even fill the fragile, foolhardy bridges strung across the great space between either side and she knows that if she was standing over there, looking over here, the view would be exactly the same.

For now they're being left alone, GovCo are busy on The Levels, inside the doors with the horizontal grey stripes. She knows it won't last though. They'll squeeze and squeeze the Inners but it will never be enough for them. Eventually they'll come out here, to feed on these desperate masses as well.

She doesn't know what she'll do then but she'll work it out when it happens. For now she's happy enough with her quiet corner and her freedom. It's more than she's ever had before and that's plenty.

Turning from the hectic scene, she spots a small pile of objects a little further along the platform. She groans and sags and pulls a face. The platform is empty and when she leans out over the handrail and cranes her neck, she finds the level below seems the same.

Approaching the pile she squats to inspect it then sighs and shakes her head. Morsels of food, items of clothing and a whole mess of sad little trinkets. Pieces of jewellery, mostly home made but occasionally real, Inner stuff too.

Iz has told them so many times that she doesn't want this. At least they've stopped bothering her in person now and only sneak up when she's sleeping. She's not spoiled or stupid enough to turn down free food and so picks out anything edible. The rest she sweeps aside with her foot, adding it to the growing heap against the wall.

All she wants is a quiet life.

Why can't they just leave her alone?

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