My shower is but a short distance from my bed in my small hovel.  I fashioned it from a leaky pipe.  My friends, Lyla and Blake helped me find some spare doors to make the shower walls.  The grate below carried the water away.  A chamber pot nearby allowed my to handle my business.  I can't imagine how people had to clean it before, but in my lifetime, laser cleaners had been around for a long time eliminating things like mold, mildew, dust, germs, dirt and grime, and even human waste.  We had to, or else the Earth itself would have been drowned in it. 

People also kept the habit of keeping a laser cleaner in their closets and drawers, eliminating the need to waste water to wash our laundry.  It even did away with body odor.  One could even use it to clean their bodies, but I found the feel of the water to be therapeutic. I needed it so much right now, bringing down my very hot body temperature from my all too vivid dreams.

I step out of my shower, reaching for my laser scanner.  "Dry," I say.  It dries me instantly. 

I grab my clothes.  My only set.  In today's world, minimalism has become a way of life.  Overpopulation did away with people being able to have lots of things, though the rich still managed to have a greater variety, preferring to rent their clothing and return it in exchange of something different.  Those who could not, it was not entirely uncommon to find pants that could turn into a skirt, or vice versa, or other outfits that could change into something else, depending on the individuals needs and lifestyles.  Jewels and embellishments could also be added for variety, or traded in, and ladies, and sometimes men, enjoyed make-up, tattooing, and body modification.

I could not afford the tattoos or modification, or even the simple piercings.  My outfit that I wore outside had two purposes.  One was to help me hide.  And the ability to move freely.  As an unregistered citizen, I needed speed and invisibility.  The other was to blend in with the entitled people.

I wrap myself in black from head to toe, covering my very white head.  I look around at my hovel.  My shower door is slightly ajar.  I clean my shower with my laser.  I turn my attention to my bed, which is little more than some thick covers. 

"Clean," I say, and my laser cleans them.  I fold up my covers and put them in a hide-away. 

I grab my night-vision glasses.  I have to wear them in the night.  Being albino, your pink eyes don't offer much sight in the distance, even on a full moon lit night.

I climb out of my hovel, which is little more than a hole in the ground, covered by debris.  This was the remains of New York City, a place where people once thrived.  The "Great Earth Shaking" put a stop to the remaining Earth dwellers, or so the Higher Ups in society thought.  When the population grew so big, we no longer had enough space for everyone to continue crawling on the ground.  Most of the rich, and the elite, were already living in floating cities in the skies.  When The Great Shaking happened, all remaining sky scrapers collapsed  to the ground, leveling bridges, and crumbling roads.  Not even Lady Liberty survived.

People died in vast numbers.  The worst was the stench of the decay.  It rose even to the high rising cities.  The people that managed to live, still had to battle the rats.  They came in droves, feeding into a frenzy that resulted in an overpopulation of their own.  When they ran out, they began to attack and feed off of the living....

It was amazing the creative things people would do to survive.  Gasoline and other primitive things were used to make a circle of fire to keep them at bay.  Other communities would sleep in shifts, fending them off, sometimes even using them for food.  Between the rats and the cockroaches, they ate most of the food already.  I guess that the people felt they were owed somehow. 

Somehow, I managed to remain a vegan in all of this.  No rat meat for me.  My friends and I managed to invent a small sound wave that would keep the pests at bay.  It was inaudible to most human ears, but the vermin couldn't stand the sound. 

I look up.  I can see the floating barges in the night sky.  This is what carries the waste from the people up above.  It's amazing the things that people throw away, even when we have reduced so much.  I follow it.

I see Blake following me nearby, keeping up with my fast pace, his dreadlocks bouncing with each step.  I suppose there are some good things that changed for humanity.  "Race," was no longer an issue, and never brought up anymore.  Skin, eye and hair color, and even hair texture could come in any color, variety, or combination, and nobody cared.  Blake, and his twin sister, Lyla, are almost as pale as I am, with bright violet eyes, and Blake sometimes scored a fuzzy, curly-cue goatee.  Lyla sees us and joins in our run, her texture of hair matching his.

They always join me when I follow the barges, each for their own reasons, but mostly to help give me a boost.  They do so now in a dead run, allowing me to have a running start and brace from their clasped hands as they throw my small frame up in the air. 

I fly into the air, shooting out from my wrist a small rope, fastened to a powerful magnet.  It fastens to the belly of the floating barge, and hoists me up.  I have magnets in the palms of my gloved hands, the knees of my pants, and the soles of my shoes.  I crawl from the underside onto the surface.  Thanks to the "automated drivers," there is no one to see me when I get here.  I go to the control panel and lower the barge closer to the ground, and I slightly tilt it, allowing a small portion of the contents to fall below.  I can never allow too much.  It would crush the people below with the amount of contents on this thing.  With these fallen items, the people below will find ways to use, sterilize if necessary, and even burn things for warmth.  Paper and wood were still favored.  Plastics had to have proper ventilation for the toxic gas.

I level it back, bringing the barge up higher to the next level.  About 13 or so levels of waste and discarded items are necessary to climb before I finally make it to "the floating gardens."  The rat population grew so big, they began to feed off of the natural wild life.  These floating gardens were made, with indigenous trees and flowers, to give the birds and other animals a place to repopulate.  Not many people come here, but I am a Pagan.  I am allowed to surround myself where green things grow.  I could also enter the above society unseen and unchecked from here.  I hide behind a giant shrub, changing my outfit into a lady's gown.  I put my jewelry on, that I leave carefully hidden.  If I were to take it down below with me, it could get me killed.  I pull out my compact mirror.  I give myself some smokey eyes, paint my white lashes and eyebrows, and change my lips to red, bringing out the natural red in my eye color.  A little blush is fine.  No foundation.  Even in today's technology, there is no color to match my light hue.

For just a moment, I think of Blake and Lyla.  Twins.  A world as over-populated as ours only allows you to have one child.  Families that purposely had more than one were now considered a threat to humanity, and exterminated.  Lyla and Blake's parents couldn't bring themselves to abort one of them, so they became vagabonds and hid.  Lyla and Blake grew up to be aces.  Some population threat they turned out to be.

I came out of my green hide-away, into a circle of trees.  The crows were always here to greet me.  They also warned me if there was somebody lurking nearby, aiding me on when to come out and when to remain hidden.  Tonight was a friendly greeting.  I was safe, for now.

I head to the center square.  Here is where I will take my leave to the society up above.  It is the lowest level of floating cities that exist, but it is where I manage to make a difference.  It is where I use my secret gifts freely, grisly though they may be at times.  I steel myself for the things yet to come.

Authors note:  Image of Lyla, unknown.