Excerpt from "The Survivalist" - Chapter One - Act One - Scene One

The alley stretched out ahead like a dark black ribbon. Overhead a pale, crescent moon cast light through holes in the clouds. Shadows were broken here and there by light peering through gaps in the buildings where they had fallen into disrepair. Other elongated shadows moved in the half-light. Four shadows moving slowly, purposely, as if their owners were in search of something.

The austere brick buildings had been built a long ago by men who had come to this land in search of a better life. Men long since vanished. All that remained as proof that they had existed were these old buildings, now half abandoned and falling down. The ones that were left would need major repair if they were to be habitable again. Windows that had not perished with the passing of time had long ago being broken by children playing or by hooligans looking for something to vent their anger and frustration on. Rarely did anyone ever come down to this area anymore, usually homeless people or people on the run from the law. The warehouse area used to be very busy in past decades but changes in transportation systems and the economy in the past had ruined this place and it had been like a ghost town for years.

"I'm hungry" said the first shadow

"I'm cold" said the second

"I'm wet" said the first shadow again

"Don't worry" said the third shadow, "we'll find somewhere to rest soon"

"Look. Here's a place," said the owner of the fourth shadow as it pointed to a hole in one of the brick walls of an abandoned warehouse.

"Okay" the third shadow said, "Houlio, you go in first and see if it is safe for the rest of us."

The fourth shadow moved closer to the wall. Its owner, Houlio, put down the backpack he was carrying and bent over and disappeared into the hole in the wall. The others waited patiently for him to return. They looked around the alley for any others that might be seeking refuge there too. They could neither see nor hear any other movement in the alley.

Houlio returned, and poked his head back out the hole in the wall. "It's clear Sarah" he said to the third shadow. "There is no one inside. It will make a great place to stay for a while."

"Okay" said Sarah, "here is your backpack" as she handed Houlio his bag and he pulled it through the hole in the wall. "Come on Marci and Spider. Let's get inside and out of this rain"

Marci took off her shoulder bag and passed it through the rough irregular shaped hole to Houlio. Houlio took her bag and pulled it inside. Spider passed his in too and both he and Marci crawled inside. Sarah took another look around, bent down and scampered through after them.

Once inside Sarah stood up to join her three companions and had a look around. In the half-light she could see that they were inside a large warehouse. Brick walls ran down either side of the warehouse and she could see that both she and the friends had crawled in at the end of one of the longest sides. About three feet to her left the wall turned and ran right for about sixty feet and then turned right again and returned at the length of the warehouse. She could see down that end of the warehouse there was a small inwards goods and dispatch office that had been abandoned long ago. In the light let in by the skylights, she could see pallet racking arranged in rows down the length of the warehouse which were wide enough for a forklift truck to run between them and take pallets down from the racking. The racking went from the floor to the ceiling high above. Here and there pallets were still stacked in the racking but Sarah could see that they had nothing on them but junk covered in layers of dust.

Rubbish had accumulated over the years and had been added to buy the numerous homeless people who had sought refuge there. Here and there at the end of the warehouse where the four friends stood, they could see evidence of fires having been lit on the concrete floor in the past. The ashes of three or four fires were scattered around on the floor and she could see that there was still enough fuel to light one tonight.

"Come on" said Sarah, "let's get a fire started and get warm".

They slowly moved away from the hole in the wall and walked along the end of the warehouse at the ends of the pallet racking. Once they had determined that they were far enough away from the hole in the wall not to be heard by passers-by and were confident that their fire could not be seen, they put their bags down against the wall and gathered fuel for a fire. They gathered pieces of paper, cardboard and wood from the pallets and then crumpled up the paper and put it in the centre of a circle where a fire had been previously lit. Spider lit the paper with the match. The paper burst into flames as it was very dry and lit up the surrounding area as they all watched the yellow and red flames dancing. Once the paper was alight, they put pieces of cardboard on top to catch the flame and then smaller pieces of wood to get their fire going. Soon they had a nice fire burning and they all gathered around to warm themselves and get dry.

Sarah took off her dark red jacket and put it carefully on her bag with her tartan scarf. She lowered her five foot four, lithe frame down to the concrete and sat with her legs crossed feeling the warmth of the fire through her faded jeans. Her strawberry blonde hair cascaded down past her shoulders and was contrasted against her navy blue top. When she raised her head, it was easy to see her pale complexion in the firelight. With her high cheekbones and thick lips, it was easy to see how she would be attractive to men.

Houlio soon joined her and took his place next to her by the fire. Houlio looked like an original homeboy with his bright blue and orange rave pants, Funky Boy lime T-shirt and Nike runners. As he sat down Sarah marveled at how someone so tall and thin could move like he did in anything he did, fluid movements with the minimum of effort yet performed with such grace. It was easy to see why girls on the street liked him. His wiry hair was closed cropped and worn under a bandanna. A thin wispy moustache adorned his upper lip and typical of the day he wore a small goatee under his bottom lip. His complexion was an easy giveaway for his Hispanic origins.

Marci and Spider completed the circle as they sat around to get warm. Sarah had wondered how Marci had gone her name as it was easy to see that she was from Chinese background. Marci had said that her original name was Xiaofang, but nobody could remember it, let alone pronounce it hence she had chosen the name Marci. Said that she had seen it in a magazine one day, liked it and adopted it as her own. At 17, Marci was other similar age to the rest of her companions. She was the shortest of the group at five foot four. Although of similar build to Sarah and although they sometimes loaned each others jackets, it was easy to tell the difference between Sarah and Marci from behind as Marci's hair was jet black and straight.

Spider completed the group. It was easy to see how he got his name. Gangly, tall, thin and deathly pale, he looked more like a praying mantis than a spider. Unlike Houlio, Spider preferred that grunge look and wore his clothing in layers, padded jacket, checked shirt and light blue T-shirt over khaki cargo pants. Spider also liked to wear his hair long and straggly, down to his shoulders. He might have been mistaken for Sarah's brother as his hair was blonde too, but more straw blonde than Sarah's. Spider preferred Blunstone boots rather than the runners to Houlio wore. Nobody knew Spiders real name and that was exactly the way he wanted it.

Unlike Sarah, Marci and Spider had not started living on the streets until they were 15. Sarah was grateful for this as she knew that she was already reasonably mature by the time she got to the streets at 12 years old. They had been together as a group since finding each other on the streets in their travels around two years ago and had stuck together ever since. Sarah had met Houlio six months before that and they had started hanging out together then. As time had passed Sarah and Houlio had formed a deep bond, much deeper than brother and sister and Houlio had taken on the role of Sarah's protector. Sarah felt safe and secure when she knew that her friend Houlio was near. They would often sit and talk together at length and both of them enjoyed each other's company immensely. They also both new and the love that they shared for each other was much deeper than any romantic love and that they would never have, nor ever want a relationship as a boyfriend and girlfriend.

"Has anybody got anything to eat?" asked Spider.

Sarah looked in her bag and found some tins of fruit. Houlio looked in his backpack and brought out the half a loaf of stale bread he knew that was in there. Marci had some dry biscuits and she offered that for the meal. Spider rummaged around in his bag and found the large bottle of Coke that he had in there unopened and offered that for their communal meal. They all had their own fork and spoon and they got stuck into their meal once the food had been shared around.

When the meal was over, Sarah suggested that they all try to get some sleep as they had been wandering the streets for many hours in the cold, wet weather and needed to recharge their batteries. They all agreed and soon were arranging their bags and clothing as comfortable as possible around the fire so that they could keep warm as they slept.

Sarah and Houlio lay near each other as the fire died down to some smoldering embers.

"I'm tired of this life" whispered Sarah to Houlio. "There must be something better than this", she said quietly so the others could not hear.

"There is something better than this for you little sister" whispered Houlio in the darkness "you deserve a much better life than this and you'll have it one-day. You have my word"

Sarah felt warm and comfortable and Houlio's words and it was not long before she closed her eyes and her tiredness engulfed her and she fell asleep dreaming of that better life.