The thing about burns, they don't have crews.

If they catch you fighting now, they put you on the Hydro–Farm for a year. A whole year, and you don't get any tokens for it.

If you kill someone in a crew, they put you Outside. The crews never fight each other anymore.

In the Arcade, Rajah always wins. He's sharper than me. Faster, with better eyes. But that night I was better. I beat him right at the end, when I fired a laser–combo into the Tron breeding center.

So I got to wear the mark.

For a couple of weeks, I was the only one.

Then Turbo came to the Arcade and said he got one too. A bum. Turbo said he shot him in the back near a Feeding Station.

It was on the Info–Board, but the Dead Score never says how they die—they just put the number up. So we didn't know, not for sure. Some of the Game Boys didn't believe him, but Turbo wanted a mark anyway.

He had to play me for the mark, and I beat him, so he didn't get one.

Merlin said we had to have new Rules. My mark was okay, because all the Game Boys saw me earn it. We have to have Rules, like the game, so everyone has the same chance.

When we went out on the stalk, everybody knew what Turbo would do. He blasted a bum right in front of us. He got his mark.

After a while, Rajah got one too. Then he got another one. He was the leader again.

The next time we were in a fan and we saw a bum, four Game Boys blasted him at the same time.

Merlin said we had to have new Rules again.

The burns started to hide, deeper in the tunnels.

We got off the Conveyor and walked right into a fan of Music Boys. They all had their boom boxes. The leader, Mohawk, he had his on his shoulder. He had three yellow X's on it. Rajah asked him what they meant. He pointed to Rajah's sleeve. Same thing, he said.

That's how we knew. Everybody was doing it.

In the Sex Tunnel, we saw the leader of the Dancing Girls, Charm. She had four red slashes on the thigh of her shiny black Dorban pants. It looked like lipstick, but we knew by then.

The Dancing Girls all carry razors. The one I got that night told me they don't have to blast burns in front of the others. They use their razors, take a piece of the bum back to show the score.

I told Merlin, and we changed the Rules again.

We didn't video so much after a while. In the Sex Tunnels, it wasn't so much how you styled anymore—it was your marks. The crews split up. People worked alone. It was easier that way…the burns would run if they saw a crew coming.

I was the leader. Not just the Game Boys' leader, everyone. I had the most marks.

They all hunted burns. The Deaf Boys, the Muscle Boys, even the Love Boys…the ones who sell in the Sex Tunnels.

Everyone wanted to know my secret. I didn't tell them. But what I did, I just went deeper into the tunnels. At first, the Medical Tunnel was the best. All the burns have to go there, sooner or later. I used to take fingers, they were the easiest. But Merlin said it was too easy…you could take more than one finger from a bum, and we wouldn't be able to tell…it wasn't easy to keep count, like with the Arcade.

Ears were the easiest.

Sometimes we hunted in packs. "There's one of them," the scout would whisper, and we'd get close and do him. But when we started to have arguments over the ears, everyone decided to work alone.

Like the burns.

Soon the burns would run if they saw a crew jacket. That made some of the Game Boys feel good, but I saw they were dumb.

The burns couldn't go into the Safety Tunnels where most of the old ones stay. You have to have tokens to stay there. Burns don't have tokens—they can't get them. They can't even sell their blood.

I went deeper into the open tunnels. And I left my jacket at home.

After a while, I could tell when a bum was close, even without looking.

Sometimes I went in so deep, I didn't come out for a week.

But I always had the ears, I was always the leader. The Book Boys kept score. They write on the walls. Every day, something new. With spray cans, they tell the story. That's how we would know if someone got put Outside—it would be on the walls.

When I went deep, I looked like a bum now. Smelled like one. I always carried a paper bag with a bottle of wine in it. And my blaster. And a knife, for taking trophies.

One time, I heard footsteps. People coming. The Cricket Boys, running toward me, holding their bats high over their heads. If I had my jacket, they wouldn't bother me. I could have told them the truth—they wouldn't hurt a Game Boy. But I didn't want them to know my secret, so I ran.

I ran hard, them chasing me, screaming. I heard a whisper–hiss: "In here!" I ducked into a side tunnel. A bum was hiding there. He pushed me down, under a pile of garbage. The Cricket Boys ran on by.

"They're everywhere now," the bum said. "They're trying to kill us all." He looked like a bum all right, but he didn't have any wine. I offered him some of mine.

"Thanks," I told him.

He took a drink. "We have to stick together," he said.

I took his ears.

I pretty much live in the tunnels now. But when I come back, I am the leader. It's on the walls. In the Sex Tunnels, I have my pick. They all know me.

Everybody hunts now. I get spotted a lot by different crews, but they can never catch me. I know the deep tunnels better than anyone.

I used to pop Zoners when I went out, but now I don't need them. Rush–rush–rush. More marks. I'm the best of them all now. I don't need Zoners.

I was lying down with my back against the wall, having a cigarette, when I heard someone call out, "There's one of them!"

It didn't even make me nervous. I got up slow, peeked around the corner to see who was coming. I could always slip away.

They came closer. I couldn't make out their jackets.

Time to run for the deep tunnels. They were real close, charging at me hard.

I took one more look.

It was a crew of burns.

Tunnel of Love

Before the Terror, there used to be what they called Agencies. I only know part of this—it was a long time ago. I know about it from the Book Boys—what they write on the walls. The Book Boys are the only ones who know where to find the Sages. The Sages are so old that they were born Outside. Born before the Terror. There aren't many of them left. The Book Boys, they used to write what the Sages told them. That was when there were a lot of the Sages, but there aren't so many now.

This is complicated. I know it is complicated. But I have to make a record, so I will try. These Agencies, they were part of the Rulers. Not like the Rulers down here. Outside, before the Terror, the Rulers went back and forth. I mean, the Rulers changed—different ones all the time. Not like down here. Outside, the Rulers had many, many smaller Rulers. Little Rulers. They were called Agencies.

One Agency would be for health. It would rule everything about health. Another Agency would be for war. It would rule the wars.

We don't have wars anymore. We have Warlocks, but that's just a name that sounds the same. Down here, the Warlocks are potioners—they make stuff you can drink. The stuff lets you see the Outside. You can go Outside in your head if the potions work.

They don't work for everyone. I bought a potion once. When I was very sad. It cost me one hundred credits. Open credits, too—the kind you can use in any of the Tunnels. I wanted to see Outside, so I could see the Agency—the Agency that protected the children.

But I never saw it, not really. What I saw, it was like a big blob, spawning. Spawning little blobs. Like what women do, to make babies.