I weave in and out of the crowds, trying to get beyond the flames... but there are too many people, and too much fire.
I turn the other way and head North, towards the Domes.
After all, the rich folk are probably safe, so why shouldn't I go join them?
I run across the footbridge towards the Domes, and dart into the nearest one, trying to ignore the melting walls.
To my surprise, the floor is covered in a jelly-like cushion, and there's a girl- almost a full-grown woman- plopped in the middle like she owns the place.
Based on the fine, lacy T-dress that she's wearing, she probably does.
She wiggles toward me, her dress impairing her movements, then rises to her feet awkwardly, before falling on her rear yet again. Then she looks up at me with those pleading spear-blue eyes, and I have to supress the urge to groan at how pitiful she looks.
She probably wouldn't last a week out in the slums.

The girl uses me to steady herself as she gets up, and I nearly fall under her weight. She isn't as fat as the businessmen on the screens, but her belly is showing that she's obviously well-fed.
She smiles at me, and I'm nearly blinded by the brightness of it. Then she HUGS me, and I cringe away at how squishy she is. She looks hurt at this, but I couldn't care less about her feelings, because I can hear the Sentinels marching along the streets outside.
I grab the girl by her wrist and start to drag her towards the stairs but I quickly change my course of action when I see a HUGE SENTINEL MARCHING DOWN THE STAIRS.
There's no time to question what I should do because a moment's hesitation could mean instant death... or slow and painful death... either is a possibility when the Sentinels are involved with the living.
The girl whimpers, and I wonder if this is her first encounter with a Sentinel. That would explain why she's just cowering in the middle of the jelly-floor like a kicked dog, instead of running the other direction.
She mumbles something that sounds vaguely like 'Dip', before taking off at a surprising speed.
Perhaps she has encountered Sentinels before.

I waste no time in darting after her like a dog after the butcher's truck, eager to get away from the hulking robot that is currently attempting to walk across the jelly-floor.
The girl glances at me as we run, and I stifle a laugh at how wide her eyes are.
Together, we run out of the Dome, and back into the real world.

Everything is either: On fire, screaming, or dead. Occasionally I see something that is on fire And screaming, or on fire and dead, but these instances are few and far between.
The girl is clutching my hand like a lifeline, and I wince at the realization that- like it or not- I'm stuck with her until I find some place to ditch her.
I pull the girl along as I navigate the swarmed streets, and I ponder what to do.
If I ditched the girl then I could hide without having to worry about what to do with her, but if I did that, she might get injured, killed, kidnapped, robbed... there's a whole plague of things that could bring this girl.. Should I call her a young woman instead? She looks too mature to be a girl... I'll call her a girl until I learn her name. That'll save time.

I drag the girl towards the Tumbles, and she stops dead in her tracks when she sees them, then tries to bolt back TOWARDS the fires. Is she insane???
I grab her by the wrist after I catch her, and she puts up a fuss, but then appears to decide that she'd much rather take her chances on the Tumbles than get burned and trampled.
Perhaps she's smarter than I thought...
This thought changes quickly when she starts running towards the Tumbles, and stops at the edge, her eyes somehow widening even more than before.
She was obviously not expecting what man-made abominations the Tumbles houses.

She shrieks like a wounded cat when a Guardian rushes her, then runs back towards me and tackles me in a stifling hug.
I'll never get used to how squishy she is, but that'll probably change in a few weeks. She'll get much thinner, her flesh practically withering off of her bones, and those wide eyes of hers will sink into her skull until she looks just as haunted- if not more so- than I do.
I pat her head gently before taking hold of her hand and rushing into the Tumbles; determined to get to the other side.
For those who have never been in the Tumbles, they should count themselves lucky that they haven't been. Its a treacherous labyrinth, steeped in darkness. It is also full of mutated rats that are two times larger than their daylight-dwelling counterparts.
Old man Striker says that the shadows went into the rats to make them bigger, but I don't believe that story. To be honest, I only believed one of his stories, and that was one about a time before the Dome versus Slum system even existed!