The Pack-Retribution by LM. Preston Page B

in a pocket and closed her eyes. She briefly pummeled herself into the complete darkness that reminded her of the safe place she’d lived within most of her life. Being blind hadn’t been a handicap. It had been a safe haven. It was a familiar place that allowed her to be what she needed to be. A place without the weakness of what was seen, only what she believed.
    A faint sound of young voices wafted around her. Her eyes fluttered opened bringing her back to her dim reality. “I hear something. Someone over there in that abandoned building.”
    Valens chin dipped. “That should be where Nan lives. Several families share the bottom floor. The top floors are for the Help Center and the homeless.”
    “Good. You leading the way?” Shamira asked.
    “Yeah, she’ll let me in.” Valens went ahead of the others. His hand fisted up, froze for a moment, then knocked on what appeared to be the back door to the building. The door was a thick, makeshift door of hollowed metal.
    They were sandwiched between two empty buildings in an alleyway. The sand-swept corners hadn’t had the luxury of the sand drains that drew loose fragments of sand within it to clean the streets. This part of town was neglected in the Mars cleanup, Shamira guessed.
    Valens knocked once more before the door clicked open and a girl’s head appeared.
    Shamira closed in behind him to study the girl. Nan stood about Shamira’s height with brown hair and large blue eyes that appeared tired. The girl was extremely thin with a weak malnourished look about her. Shamira couldn’t help being angry at seeing another casualty of what Monev left behind.
    Valens reached into his pocket and pulled out some coined credits of money and handed it to the girl. “Nan, thanks for talking to us. Here’s some credits for food since I wasn’t able to get by here this week.”
    The girl’s thin face brightened with a large beam of gratitude. “No, thank you. We are so grateful you help us, but now the Security Force Elite Reconstruction Program will start supplying us food and supplies while training some of us to work the underground heating systems and wind towers. If you didn’t get us moved to the top of the list I don’t know how long we would’ve been able to survive.”
    “Great, I told them about your mom and what she was trying to do.” His face turned solemn. “But, I’m actually here for information.”
    “Anything I know, I’ll tell you. What’s going on?” Nan sent a cautious look toward Shamira.
    “Do you know if there’s been any underground illegal action? You know, someone trying to supply dream to some of the recovered addicts? Anyone’s lives being threatened?” Valens asked.
    Nan looked confused. Then she turned her head slightly and peeked behind her. She stepped forward and closed the door. Whispering to herself, she wrung her hands. “Well, there’s something going on. One of the recovering addicts who was having a hard time of it, showed up a few weeks ago and said he was quitting the program. He and a few others packed their stuff and left. None of them had kids or family here on Mars to help them.”
    Shamira came up next to Nan. “Were they over their addictions? Did they ask for food or anything to help them to survive after they left?”
    Nan bit her lip. “No, both were working through the withdrawal pains. It takes almost a year to work through them; the pain hits less often depending on when you last used. A lot of the grownups here had a stash of dream to last them a while after Monev got destroyed and they would use what they had. We still have some people who are just now out of supply and decided not to go with the rehabilitation program offered by Earth.”
    Kurt leaned over. “Something is off. You saying that several of the recovering drug addicts packed up and left? How were they acting? Did they seem like they were using again?”
    Nan’s face frowned in thought. “Now that you mention it, no. They acted like