The town was surrounded by a thick wall of refuse. Most towns were. They had protected themselves against the wilderness by piling up anything they could find between the buildings at the outskirts. Often more walls divided the town inside from itself. A few places were well crafted from the bricks of fallen buildings, other places were piles of garbage, abandoned vehicles, and sometimes, the now skeletonized bodies of those who had been the most recent to die before the deadliest part of the final plague began. These were always the easiest places to get through. The girl stepped one foot in front of the other, heel-to-toe, heel-to-toe along a concrete curb, glancing at the wall periodically, trying to find such a weak-spot. She lifted one foot for a moment, singing a quiet, indistinct song about a lovely ballerina, and savoring her newfound ability to balance on one foot without raising her arms. There were no words in her songs, only the hums and grunts that she was able to make, but the words were clear in her head. She looked around, glancing quickly at the sky to gauge the time of day, then to the wall, where she saw what she had been looking for.
The town was surrounded by a thick wall of refuse. Most towns were. They had protected themselves against the wilderness by piling up anything they could find between the buildings at the outskirts. Often more walls divided the town inside from itself. A few places were well crafted from the bricks of fallen buildings, other places were piles of garbage, abandoned vehicles, and sometimes, the now skeletonized bodies of those who had been the most recent to die before the deadliest part of the final plague began. These were always the easiest places to get through. The girl stepped one foot in front of the other, heel-to-toe, heel-to-toe along a concrete curb, glancing at the wall periodically, trying to find such a weak-spot. She lifted one foot for a moment, singing a quiet, indistinct song about a lovely ballerina, and savoring her newfound ability to balance on one foot without raising her arms. There were no words in her songs, only the hums and grunts that she was able to make, but the words were clear in her head. She looked around, glancing quickly at the sky to gauge the time of day, then to the wall, where she saw what she had been looking for.