It was dawn. A young man named Jonathan Lovan was searching for things in the vast Dump of the third layer. There was a lot of garbage around, and he wasn't the only one there; there were others. Young and old, all scavenging for things. Mountains of garbage were around.
The young man looked toward the sky, where an island was floating. It was immense. Nearly as big as the entire city. He had seen it a hundred times. It still made him stop for a second.
"I hope I can find something worthy today," Jonathan said to himself in a low voice.
He moved through the east section first. It was the part most people skipped, too unstable, too far from the main paths. But that was exactly why he liked it.
A zone where rare components could still be found, since there wasn't much competition.
He pushed aside a bent panel and crouched low to look under a collapsed shelf unit. Dust, broken glass, and a strip of cable that was too corroded to be worth anything. He left it and kept moving.
The east section had its sounds. The low creak of things settling. The distant hum of the city starting its day. Somewhere behind him, another scavenger was pulling something heavy across the ground. He didn't look back. Not his business.
He checked two more piles and found nothing worth keeping. Some days were like that. You moved and looked and moved again until something changed.
A drone passed near him, low and quiet. Looking for something, or just watching.
"Humph, it seems some well-fed guys are scavenging around here. I should move somewhere else." He changed zones, toward a more isolated place.
He kept to the edges, stepping over things carefully. The Dump had its rules. You learned them, or you didn't last long. Where the ground was solid. Which piles had shifted overnight and which hadn't. Where the Robot Police came to stop and retrieve any material that may be too precious to be in the hands of a citizen of the third layer.
"Sigh, I hope I don't meet any Robot Police. I lost so much fleeing from them last time." He remembered the piece of equipment he had found that day, freshly thrown from the first layers. It was rare, and someone had noticed he had it. A big fight happened. He nearly lost his life, but it was worth fighting for.
"Ahhhh, why can't I find anything worth it? I have been looking for two days. My reserves will be over soon, then I will have to worry about what I will eat in two days."
He looked at a piece of equipment he had found. It seemed to have a little value. Maybe he could sell it for some Novas. Maybe 0.5 Novas would do.
"My luck doesn't seem that bad. At least I can buy some water, hahahaha-." He looked over and saw a group of scavengers, and they didn't look very friendly.
"I should change zones again." He grabbed his bag and the few things he had and walked away from there.
He arrived at a zone with just some kids around.
"This place seems to be already empty." This kind of place is where some orphans come to look for scraps. They have tough lives. He had been there too, in the past.
Seven of them, spread out across the area, heads down and focused. The oldest one, maybe twelve, was directing the others without saying much. Just a gesture here, a look there. He had the instinct already, that one. You either developed it early or you didn't.
Jonathan watched them for a moment before he did anything.
The youngest was dragging a piece of casing that was too big and too heavy for her. She wasn't giving up on it. That was either smart or stubborn, and at that age it was usually both.
He set his bag down and pulled out what he had found over the past two days. Most of it was small. A motor housing with a cracked casing, a roll of decent wire, and a few components that had some resale value if you knew where to take them.
"Hey, you guys, come over here. I've got some things for you." He called the group.
They heard him, but none approached.
Good reaction.
"Here, I will leave these scraps for you guys. You can get some good money when you sell them." He placed everything near a clear piece of ground.
"We don't need it. Take your things away." The older kid said it. He seemed more mature.
"Hey buddy, don't worry. I won't bother you guys anymore. I will leave it here. If you guys don't take it, someone else will. Hahaha." He left after saying that.
He moved behind a pile of garbage taller than him and waited.
It took a little longer than he expected. He heard the older kid say something low to the others. Then footsteps. Then the sound of the components being picked up one by one. The younger one said something and the older one shushed her.
Jonathan sighed in relief.
"It's good that they took it. I was worried they wouldn't." He got up from where he was hiding.
"Now I will have to worry about what I will take home tomorrow," Jonathan lamented.
He kept moving, deeper into the east section. The Dump was getting noisier now; more people arriving, sounds of things being dragged across concrete, voices he didn't recognize. He had maybe two hours before it became too crowded to work properly.
He found some small things. For some people, they were useless, but to him, they had some value. He had learned some tinkering from his father before, and that knowledge grew with time. and the teaching of Orin.
He stopped at a half-collapsed machine frame, something industrial, a type that may have come from a second-layer workshop when they were done with it. He looked it over. Most of it was stripped already; someone had been here before him. But the mounting bracket on the lower left side was still intact. Small, solid, the right kind of alloy. He worked it free with two tools and pocketed it.
His father had taught him that. Most people look at the obvious parts. The frame, the cell, the panels. The brackets, connectors, and small fittings, they get left behind because people don't think about what holds things together.
He thought about that for a second, then he kept moving.
He was digging into a pile of garbage when he found a mechanical arm.
"What! This… hahaha, I'm quite lucky. A mechanical arm, and it seems quite advanced." He was overjoyed. He quickly took it from the garbage and put it in his big bag.
"With this, it should be enough. I should go." He turned, and when he was about to take a step, he stumbled and fell. A mountain of garbage collapsed near him.
"Ouf, I'm quite lucky. Otherwise, I could have been buried here." He looked at the mountain of garbage that had fallen and saw something shining.
"Hm, what's that?"
He got up and went near it. He grabbed it at the tip and pulled, but it was stuck. He needed to use more strength. He pulled harder and saw the whole thing.
A hover-runner. Buried under all that. No idea how long it had been there.
"Oh, my god. If I can repair it, it will help with my scavenging and transportation."
He looked it over quickly. The housing was damaged, and the panels warped. But the cell casing was still intact. He tilted what he could see of it toward the light. No obvious burn marks on the contacts from here. Whatever had broken this machine, it hadn't touched what mattered.
Whoever had thrown this away hadn't checked properly.
He took some rope from his bag and tied the hover-runner, then started pulling it.
The Dump was waking up fully now. Many scavengers were coming. He met some who looked at him, eyeing his load, but he showed them a gun replica he had on him. It was hard to have a gun, because it was easy to get in trouble, but no one would know if it was fake. That stopped anyone with funny ideas. He got one long look from a man near the south path, a look that was still making a decision, whether to act or just forget it. Jonathan kept his pace steady and didn't slow down. The man stayed where he was.
The sound of the whole city awakening could be heard. Sounds of machines and Robot Patrols going around. He arrived at his house and went directly to his workshop.
No need for rest.