The Girl in the City

The Girl in the City Read Free

Book: The Girl in the City Read Free
Author: Philip Harris
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side streets, and no one took any notice of her. She saw one Transport policeman, but he was already quizzing an elderly man and ignored Leah. Still, Leah turned off the street as quickly as she could, cutting down a dank alley.
    She’d barely taken three steps when a young man appeared around the corner ahead of her. He was holding his thigh, red blood glistening against the pale flesh of his hand. Leah threw herself against the wall behind a rectangular metal container filled with rotting garbage. The smell caught in her throat, and she gagged. The man’s uneven footsteps echoed down the alley towards her. She pressed herself against the wall, hoping that it might somehow swallow her up.
    There was a grunt, and something clanged against the metal container. The man appeared. Leah could see the wound in his leg clearly now. It was deep, the flesh red and exposed beneath his hand. His pants were soaked in blood. He was clutching a rectangular leather bag in his other hand. The man looked back over his shoulder, his eyes filled with a mix of pain and terror.
    A gunshot rang out, loud in the confined space of the alley, and Leah squealed. The man fell forward, sprawling into the dirt. Red blossomed across his shoulder. His eyes met Leah’s and widened. Twisting sideways, he threw the leather bag towards her. It slid across the ground and landed near her feet. She stared at it, her mind a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts.
    The man reached out towards her, his hand stained red. “Please…”
    Leah heard a woman’s voice, strong and confident. “He’s down here.”
    The man spoke again, but the words were too quiet for Leah to hear. Then he closed his eyes and let his head fall to the ground. Leah waited, willing the man to open his eyes again, to get up and grab the bag and run. The man didn’t move.
    Leah stared at the bag at her feet. It was old, the brown leather battered and worn. The flap was held closed with a piece of rusty wire. There was no strap, although there were holes for one. The bag bulged slightly where something angular pressed against its side.
    Leah made her choice.
    Pushing herself away from the wall, she scooped up the bag and ran. Voices chased her down the alley—the woman and a louder, gruffer male voice she hadn’t heard before. She flinched, expecting another shot at any second, but she made it to the corner of the alley alive. Either they didn’t know she had the bag, or they didn’t want to shoot a teenage girl in the back. Or the bag was worthless. Leah didn’t want to think about that possibility. She needed it to be full of salvage, something her father could trade for food or unis.
    Leah skidded around the corner and collided with a scrapman. They fell to the ground in a clatter of pots and pans. Cutlery scattered everywhere, and the man swore at her. Leah’s hand slid across the ground, the rough concrete tearing skin from her palm. The man kicked at her as she got back to her feet and swore again as she ran off. She shouted an apology back at him and darted across the street towards another alley. It was risky—she’d rather be near a crowd in case the man and woman caught her—but she couldn’t afford to stay on the main thoroughfares. That was the best way to get the attention of the patrols, and her fear of Transport was even greater than her fear of the armed strangers.
    Gambling that her pursuers hadn’t reached the main road yet, she ran past the first alley she came to and took the second one instead. Hopefully they’d assume she’d run down the first and waste time searching it.
    Leah ran behind a row of shops and a couple of restaurants. The air was filled with the stench of rotting food, and she covered her mouth with her hand. One of the buildings was damaged, the back corner of the rough wall freshly blown out by some sort of explosion, and Leah had to jump over the concrete strewn across her path.
    A cloud of black flies swarmed in front of her, disturbed from

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