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1
LEAH
The door swung open as Leah Mallory burst into her tiny apartment. Her landlord called it cozy and charged through his silver, prosthetic teeth for it. Leah called it a glorified closet.
She only had enough room for her shabby bed—which was just a really tall mattress laid on the floor, no matter how much she pretended otherwise—and a one-person table she needed to fold to get out of bed. And she really didn’t want to think about the bathroom. She had enough bruises on her knees from bumping into everything from the toilet, to the walls.
But her apartment was...livable. Everyone needed a place to sleep.
This dingy little place would never be home for Leah, though. She’d been forced to sell the house she’d called home all her life. She didn’t regret it, not even a little, but she couldn’t stop the memories of running through the front yard from making her sigh every once in a while.
Leah took off her shoes and threw them in the corner. Her grandma would be appalled if she’d stepped inside with “all that dirt and grime off the streets”. She'd actually traipsed through mud today to get a rare black orchid for her boss; she wasn’t bringing that thick layer on the soles of her shoes into her room.
She booted up the holo-messages on her home station as she took off her wrinkled shirt. A recorded hologram of her boss, Chanelle Lavigne, popped up.
Leah sighed.
The only thing she had in common with her boss was that they were both blonde. Chanelle was thin, gorgeous, and she had a perfect nose. Leah’s nose had been broken in seventh grade, when she’d overestimated her coordination and had gotten hit in the face with a football. She hadn’t been playing; she’d just wandered too close to the field.
She’d always had a knack for getting in trouble when all she wanted to do was stay out of it.
“Mallory,” Chanelle’s nasally voice filled the apartment. Her hologram kept flickering as she narrowed her eyes. “I’ve changed my mind. This orchid is too dark. It’s making me morose. You need to take it back.”
Leah gritted her teeth as she put on her one good, non-wrinkly blouse. Great. She’d lose another day of driving aimlessly down forgotten roads. The new hologrammed maps barely covered them. Farms were few and far between nowadays, and leaving any big city was an adventure.
A dangerous adventure since the Zavorians had invaded Earth. They didn’t call it an invasion, though. The Zavorians pretended to guide humans so they wouldn’t fall back into their excessive ways.
Funny how that “guidance” had turned into people not having enough food and being scared to walk alone at night.
Everyone was overworked, overstressed, and on the brink of collapse. Like Earth itself.
“And the coffee you got me today was utterly useless,” Chanelle kept on droning. “I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to find the brand I love. I don’t care that they say it’s not available anymore. Just call every shop in the city and see if they have it. Or you can go visit them on your lunch break.”
Leah didn’t have a lunch break. Had she even eaten today?
“And if that fails, I’m sure you can get your hands on the contact information of the supply chain and talk to someone directly. Honestly, Malorry, it’s like you’re not even trying to be a good assistant, no matter how many chances I give you—”
Leahwastrying. She worked fourteen hours a day on an eight-hour pay and had the blisters on her big toes to prove it.
“—and I can always find a new one,” Chanelle said.
Leah’s heart dropped. She needed this job. She neededanyjob. She had too many bills to pay, and less than half of them were hers.
“Keep that in mind for tomorrow,” Chanelle went on. “By the way, I need you here at six o’clock sharp, I have a meeting and I don’t trust the alarm. Find a way to wake me up without coming into my bedroom. Don’t be late.”
With that, Chanelle’s hologram mercifully disappeared.
Leah looked at her reflection in the smudged window—mirrors were a luxury; you didn’t need to know how you looked as long as you could work. She ran a hand down her face, trying to ignore how deep and viciously dark the circles under her eyes were getting.
If she got back from the hospital at eleven PM, then she could shower and be in bed within fifteen minutes. Then she’d have a good four hours of sleep before she’d have to wake up and take three different transport pods to get to Chanelle’s house.
Leah’s belly rumbled. She tightened her stomach muscles and redid her ponytail.
There was nothing in the refrigeration alcove anyway, and the chocolate treats in her raggedy bag had a very precise role. They were on the—very—cheap side, but they’d do their job.
Her holo home station buzzed. Another message.
Leah’s chest constricted as the scratchy beep vibrated through the room.
