NewCity

Summary
This was for the writing competition. I got these words: foreigner guarantee hope money Naturally, I turned it into a dystopia. It's slightly based on the Doctor Who episode Gridlocked. Enjoy!

Chapter 1.
Rubilene's first steps in NewCity.

Her father, Howard32, stepped off of the sky trams onto the Waiting Platform for the first time. He inhaled shallowly, ever-paranoid about the Fumes scintillating slowly above the glass dome breaking the barrier.

Rubilene was too excited, however, and took a deep breath of new air, air far from her hometown of Verlahk, or "Scar Town." It was too far to the outskirts to be counted for much, which was why her city-born father had a numbered name, a name that meant that he was the thirty-second oldest person named Howard alive on her continent. Her brother, Kye240, had a numbered name as well. Not Rubilene, however. Her name was Unique. She was the only one with this name on this continent alive, something that made her happy. She was the only one of her alive. She could not be reduced to a simple number.

"Rubilene!" called Saylula, her mother. Her mother also had a Unique name. Saylula always referred to Rubilene by her full name, never nicknaming her, so that people could hear her beautiful, Unique name.

Rubilene was half-and-half, half her father, half her mother. She had her father's thick hair, but her mother's hair length and dark brown color. She had her father's long nose, but her mother's pointed one instead of her father's beaky nose. She had her father's blue eyes, but her mother's face, combining for a striking effect. Her skin was a combination of both, her father's pale tan and her mother's coffee-brown, giving her a beautiful permanent tan.

"Rube, c'mon!" Her brother, however, had no qualms about shortening her name. "There's synth-food! I've always wanted to try synth-food!"

Rubilene groaned internally. There were "guarantees" everywhere, and synth-food was one. Any taste you can imagine, delivered into your mouth. Burgers that taste like ice cream. Ice cream that warms you up instead of cooling you down. Just specify! Blech. Rubilene knew that it was a load of plastic and ground-up veggies. Nothing beat a radish pulled right up from the ground.

Another "guarantee" was safety. From what? NewCity had no enemies, their doors open to all. Inside, only the rich were truly safe, the situation for the poor much like that of a slum in years past. The only other thing NewCity kept people "safe" from was something they created: the Fumes.

The Fumes. Dangerous chemicals, exhaust and acid rain and chemical testings from years past gone awry. Some said that monsters moved within the gases, but everyone knew that they would kill you.