[ WP ] You are a civilian trapped in a war torn city .

`` That's not good enough, you're havin' a laugh if you think that's a good swap''. I held his stare. I was always bad at haggling. Once I went to Morocco with my girlfriend. We got pressured in to buying some tacky necklace for about fifteen times the asking price. I was so ashamed that I lost face in front of her like that. It was emasculating. 
 
 `` Mate, are you for real? Those carrots have two days left, tops. This is a good radio''. Actually, it was a pretty crappy radio. A charity started giving them out just after the war started so we could hear news about the front line, so most people had one at some point. However the build quality was terrible and most of them stopped working in the damp. 
 
 `` I've got two already - ca n't sell them. You got anything else?'' I hated this part. I'd lost, and he knew it. Food was getting valuable, especially fresh food like that. I looked again at the carrots. Last year I would have tossed these mangy things back in to the organic, fair trade, simply delicious basket and not thought anything of it. Did you know that baby carrots were just those mangy ones cut down? I did n't. 
 
 `` No, that's it''. I tried to look as pathetic as possible. It was a long shot, even if he does n't sell them he could eat them himself. We both knew there was n't any reason for charity. 
 
 `` Sorry, mate. Ca n't help you'', he looked past me, `` Alright, mate? Any carrots for you? What you got?'' 
 
 Fuck sake. I turned away and started back since it was late in the afternoon. Bad haul today. I left with some screwdrivers and a lump hammer, and now I'm coming back with a radio and a pair of gloves. That girl really laid it on with the radio. Good price, good price! Fuck off. Ca n't eat a fucking radio. What was I thinking? Still, it's something. Mainly I've just been bored. A little music on the windy-up radio could be a pleasant change of pace. 
 
 The streets in this part of town, which used to be an inner city slum, have n't really changed. A little more dirty, a little more rubble, but aside from that not too different. Most people here were n't smart enough to leave, or just straight did n't have the money. It's probably the most inhabited part of town. I turned down the alley that took me towards home, and the streets started to fill with more debris. A wall missing here, a half destroyed car there, and a badly shot up checkpoint. Most of the damage to it was done after the soldiers left by the rebels. I never understood what was so satisfying about shooting it up. They did it sporadically for days. 
 
 There's something about the war that turned everything grey and brown. The sky was the colour of old tea stains on the pot, the walls a uniform state of drab. I wandered in to the courtyard of my newest home, a small, two storey, derelict workshop building. It was a little safer here as the fighting was n't in the immediate area, and there was n't much left to bomb. Some other people had taken a cursory look at the place, but the ground floor is full of water. The first floor was n't too bad but from the outside it looked pretty beat up, even if the windows were still mostly there and the roof was intact. I walked up the metal fire escape and blew in to my hands. Oh yeah, I have gloves. Maybe not such a waste after all. And there was a little rice left. It had rained a lot recently so I had some water. Things were n't so bad. I jiggled the door unstuck and screeched it shut behind me. 
 
 I lit a small fire. I had a little metal barrel I used to burn wood in, although the wood was getting low. I had a lot of books to burn, if I needed to. Nobody really cares for books, they were valueless commodity to most people. I thought they had a lot of uses. I took them all the time. I was n't so stupid to check that the radio worked before I traded for it, so I gave it a little wind to see what I could pick up. Man, she was pretty though. East European, or something. Brunette, green eyes, long hair - regular foreign hottie. A year ago I probably would have just given her the screwdrivers. Huh, is n't it weird that a year ago I would have thought she was lucky to be here? I started thinking about those places. I went to Poland once, to watch the football. It was thirty Celsius and full of beautiful women. Fuck I wish I was in Poland, it's probably not even changed. 
 
 tbc.
