25 Luke

The view from the top of the outer walls made everything seem smaller. The homes, the streets, the people. Even the world past the walls appeared to be the backdrop of some child's playset. The river, the forests, the grasslands, the towers, the soldiers, the burnt-out farms, all of it. From the top of the walls, it seemed you could just jump down, into the green of the outside world and never come back, but assuming you found a way to even get down alive, there were guards.

People weren't allowed to leave the city anymore. The last people who tried were hauled back in on chains and thrown in the middle of the slums, hands and feet still bound. Being the charitable folk we were, we helped them best as we could. And by that, I mean us Hornets stole all money the Fire Nation had left on them as well as the literal clothes off their backs before taking the chains off and taking them back to the Hive for our own uses.

It's been a month since the last food supply came into Citadel. Of course, given what happened last time, we didn't interfere. That wouldn't end any better than it had last time. Food was now the number one concern in the slums. The military district was fine. The military families and their children were well fed, at least from what we could see. Street urchins weren't allowed into the military district anymore which meant recruitment and executions were no longer public affairs. The last time there had been an execution, just a few common thieves who stole from a rich soldier's wife, a few slum kids tried sneaking away amongst the rich. Obviously, they stood out like a sore thumb, were caught, lashed, and thrown back into the streets they called home. That wasn't to say the Fire Nation had just suddenly stopped "enacting justice," no. They still did it. it just wasn't a public spectacle any longer.

"Let's go." Danev said. "Fire Nation patrol's comin' back 'round."

Technically, scaling the wall was a criminal offense. Although we hadn't scaled it, but rather just taken the stairs furthest from the gate. Riu's been having his Hornets go up atop the outer wall from time to time to scout the inner wall and military district. For what, I wasn't really sure.

The streets were filthier than ever. Half dead bodies littered the street from old starving men to young boys. There were older women, but hardly any little girls around. Plenty of filthy boys running around, looking for the first meal of the week, but the only women on the street were hardly distinguishable from the men. Just as few teeth and just as abused bodies. It's wasn't the most beautiful of sights.

The Hive itself wasn't in the best of state either, not that it had ever been a palace or anything. The walls were eroding. Holes were appearing in the apartment complex. One hole led directly to the mess hall and had been merely patched with a dining table turned on its side.

Ladle wasn't particularly pleased about the quick-fix, but Danev argued that until they took over a quarry and started getting their own stone imported, there was nothing they could do. That shut Ladle up well enough, sending him back on his more tedious job of keeping the Hornets fed.

There were 22 of us left now. Sanjay just left in the middle of the night while "Light-head" died of sickness. The name was funny for the first few days when "Light-head" started suffering of "light-headedness." It was funny until the real flu came along, he started puking and coughing up blood, and finally died in the night. We all thought it was the food, but we didn't exactly have any alternatives. We ate the food anyways. We were just more paranoid now.

On the way back to the Hive, Danev took me aside. He didn't have the tell me for me to see it. A child from the military district. In the slums. It was a common criminal's wet dream. It made sense though. We were travelling along the inner wall. Just another part of Riu's "plan." It didn't take planning at this point. Planning took too long and the more you waited, the higher the odds were of some random asshole coming by, shanking the kid, and taking his stuff for himself. You couldn't let an opportunity like this pass by.

Danev and I split apart. I stalked along close to the stone homes along the grain road. Danev's whistling caught the overweight's boy attention, drawing his eyes toward him. I crawled behind the boy, huddling up and planting my body behind his legs, keeping my head at an angle to see Danev at work. Danev closed the distance between himself and the boy, striking conversation that I couldn't make out at the moment. Danev pointed up towards the top of the inner wall, the source of the boy's newfound attention. Distracted, the boy found himself pushed over, my body tripping him until he fell flat on his back, seemingly shaking the earth itself upon impact.

The boy's overweight carcass had rolled me onto my stomach, but somehow, I managed to wriggle myself from under his legs and planted a fist into his stomach, keeping him on the ground. Danev rushed over to my side, pinning the boy's forearms to the ground while I rummaged through his belongings. 1 silver, 3 candy bars, and a Fire Nation soldier toy. I took it all. I was moving on to the boy's shoes, holding down his leg with one hand and unlacing his shoe with the other until a woman's scream shouted from behind me along with the rushing of Fire Nation soldiers.

I dug my new belongings deep into my pockets, but left the shoe, out of time, making a run for it with Danev who was close behind. The last thing I saw was the mother hugging her sobbing boy as 1 soldiers stayed behind to help the family while the fest followed.

It wasn't a challenge at this point. We knew the slums better than they ever would. The maze of cheap housing projects and crumbling homes confused those from the inner city, but not us. We had lost them after a minute of pursuit if not less.

We only dared to catch our breath when we were back at the hive. Anytime sooner and there were other threats aside from Fire Nation. I was still pissed at myself for not getting the shoes. My sandals were down to the straps that went above the foot. Calling it footwear was too much of a compliment. I planted myself on a seat in the mess hall of the Hive across from Danev, finally letting myself catch some air. I could have really used some water, but it hadn't rained in the last week. Urine didn't work out to well. We've resorted to using sewage water. We found an open grate near the Hive that we used, but some Hornets were paranoid as they insisted that they could hear talking and walking down there. Riu shut them up easily enough and we now had semi-reliable semi-safe drinking water. At this point, anything sounded good.

Ladle brought us both over 2 wooden cups of waste water. He was kind enough to remove any solid waste before serving it to us, but he sometimes missed a bit. You were taking a chance with each gulp you took. I removed the contents of my pocket and laid out the loot on the table between Danev and me, letting Ladle take one of the candy bars. I didn't mind. I still had one for myself and one for Danev.

"What did he do to earn that?" grumbled Danev. I raised my cup whether as a show of Ladle's work or as a toast, or maybe both. Danev seemingly took it as both as he silenced his complaints and knocked his own wooden cup against my own before taking a prolonged and risky swig.

I ate the chocolate bar, trying to remember when was the last time I had eaten any meat. It had probably been around 2 months ago when we attacked that Fire Nation convoy, taking all they had. There was some good venison and beef in there, most of which we cooked in a nice feast for ourselves the night before-. The night before they took the food and the lives of Sunji, Heddik, and Lannit. I took a swig as though it were alcohol yet it eased none of the memories as alcohol did.

I missed them. I missed good food. I missed Reek. There were a lot of things I missed. Few of which I would ever get back. I hadn't seen Reek since he learned of my allegiance. I assumed he gave up on me and went back to wherever Miro's gang hung out. They barely appeared in the streets anymore. It was strange. Worrying even. Of all the things I missed, I missed the past. Things were better. Food was less of an issue. My safety wasn't always in question as the "gang war" kept me in once piece in terms of health and economics, but things were changing and I was changing with them. For better or worse.