That’s a real long story just to tell you why I like Mike more than the rest of the Scavengers, and the point is that one of the reasons he even became one is because he was a lot like me. I always appreciated his help, but I think the biggest surprise was that he stuck around after my shenanigans. See, Mike’s what you’d call a “cool guy.” He’s basically got the opposite of what I do. Jackie? She sends people running like a Creep infestation. Mike? Slick, handsome dude who kicks ass at sports and can jam out on a guitar. That’s, like, the double whammy. He can impress both the sports chicks and the feels chicks.
See, what he doesn’t get credit for is his brain. Guy’s smart and super-curious. He can just keep it under wraps better than I can. Now here’s the deal. I think the fact that I can’t keep it in is why he stuck around. Or at least it’s why he didn’t ignore me. He’d come around once in a while to see how I was, and then he’d sneak in these questions about any new places I’d traveled. That was just how he did things. He’d come around asking about parts of the Tower I’d explored, since he knew I was basically the only one who had the brass to piss off Security. Thing is, you can really only do that so many times before you start, you know, talking. About stuff. And that’s how me and Mike ended up spending a day a week talking about said stuff. But I mean, you know, what do you say to someone that cool when you’re young? I tried, though, and hey, let’s give the man some credit—Mike stuck around. One day he even came by just to see how I was doing. No questions about the Creep or the Tower. He just started talking to me like a normal dude last year.
When I turned sixteen. Hm.
Creeper.
I’m kidding about that.
What was I talking about? Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re saying, that I lose track of what I’m talking about when it comes to Mike. Maybe I do crush on him a bit. Who cares, right? Whatever. Anyway, he’s a Scavenger now, so, of course, I went out to say good-bye to him. That stuff’s dangerous work.
The Scavenging happens every three months. Technically, we’re all supposed to say good-bye to the people from our floors chosen to be Scavengers, but nobody from Floor 1 or Floor 4 gets picked for it. It’s everyone beneath that gets selected, and you can’t say no when you’re chosen to be a Scavenger. That’s like saying you want your family to die. We depend on the Scavengers to go into the lower parts of the Tower to get new supplies, which could mean lightbulbs or scrap metal, or even things like salt and sugar. There are two things that people want from Scavengers more than anything else, though.
The first should be obvious: food. We live on a diet of some pretty pathetic vegetables. Most of the time, we get more of the same from our Scavengers. Vegetables. Which, I mean, you can’t complain. You need them to live. Duh. Other times we get brought meat. Now, I don’t know where this meat comes from or what gets killed to have it, but once in a while, we get delivered straight-up steaks. What the heck, right? Where do they even find this stuff? Well, they do, and that’s all most people care about. Rarely, and I’m talking, like, super-rare, the Scavengers bring back candy.
I can’t even tell you how unheard-of that sugar is. You might as well give the kids drugs, especially the young ones. They gobble sugar up. Why do you think everyone looks forward to birthdays? It’s one of the few times you get to eat something with sugar in it. Well, once in a while, one of the Scavengers will come back with a haul of candy. They might be chocolate bars or rainbow-colored orbs, but they’re always delicious. Now, remember, we can’t just go grabbing this stuff. The candy still gets taken up to Floor 1 first, so it can be distributed later. Still, makes your day when your food crate arrives at the beginning of the week and you’ve got a candy bar inside as a surprise. Me and Mom share them sometimes, watching the clouds outside the window while we munch on chocolate. Not like we say much to each other, which is preferable, but it’s nice to spend some time with her that doesn’t involve her crying for hours. So, yeah, I kinda like chocolate for reasons beyond the sugar jitters. Those are probably the best days I have with Mom. I just wish they happened more often ’cause, you know, at least then I’d feel a little more comfortable talking to her. At least I’d like to imagine someday where she surprises me with candy and has a conversation that doesn’t involve a double dose of crazy. It sucks ’cause I know she loves me, I mean, she’s always excited when my birthday comes around or holidays. It’s just the large stretch of time that we call normal weeks and months that is hard.
Anyway, like I was saying, obviously everyone wants food, but there’s actually one thing they want more than that. Want to take a guess? That’s right. Information. Nobody knows how far down the Tower goes, where it ends, or how we got up here in the first place. So, yeah, of course, it’s nice to get a clue. Once in a while, the Scavengers bring up new movies, but those only tell us so much. A movie will kind of tell you what the world was like once, but it doesn’t say anything about how we got here.
Not that it really matters. We all know when the Scavengers find something that’s actually important, and we all know that we’re never going to see it.
That… probably deserves an explanation. A Scavenging wraps up based on a couple of things. Obviously, if the team loses a lot of Scavengers, they have to come back up, along with the supplies they were able to get. If I understand right, the floors just below Floor 21 have been picked dry. No food, no movies, nothing. So, Scavengers have had to go farther and farther down over the years, but the farther down they go, the more dangerous it gets. Why? Well, now, that’s a good question, isn’t it? I ask myself that all the time. Do the hallucinations get so bad that they, like, make the Scavengers go total nutjob?
I dunno, but not all the people that go down make it back up. Facts is facts, Jack. Anyway, the other reason why a team might come back early is because of supplies. Scavengers have to eat food and drink water like anybody else, so they can’t just stay gone forever. When their food supplies are up, it’s time to wave them on home.
There’s a time limit on each Scavenging, though. About… two weeks, I think. A team has to be back within two weeks so they can drop off whatever they’ve found. That stuff has to get sorted and sent out to people like me, after all. God knows I can’t live without my latest Blu-Ray movie. Lives are worth risking for movies and candy, am I right?
Again, I’m kidding.
When the Scavengers leave and when they come back, we’re all expected to line up in the halls to cheer on whoever’s representing our floor. Since mine doesn’t send anybody on the Scavenging, I usually line up with Allison on Floor 8. She might not live there, but Mike does, and I swear to God if she ever makes me go see him off alone, I’m going to kick her in the kneecap.