55 Luke

I didn't pay attention to the seasons so much. Didn't have much of a need to keep track of time. Didn't really care to pay attention to it until it started affecting me. And that's just what it was doing today. It was cold. Actually fucking cold. Not some brief breeze that snuck its way over the steel walls, but an actual, round-the-clock cold. It wasn't raining yet, but there were actually clouds in the sky. I normally didn't look up as if I did, there was a good chance I would either get knocked over the head by some little punk kid or have something of mine stolen, but right now, I wasn't worried about that.

Goni, Trap, and I were waiting in an alley nearby the grain street. While the Hornets were down and out of the game, the Rats had gotten the allegiance of most small business still operating around the town. The Nuns were some of the only people who actually preferred the Hornets, but that's mostly due to their only knowledge of us being what Riu told them. They didn't know better. And now they were gone. I heard mixed reports about them. Some said Fire Nation stopped sharing food with them. Others said that the farms they used around Ba-Sing-Se were put to the torch. Either way, they had packed up and left. Too bad for the slums. They wouldn't be getting any food from the Hornets, so naturally, they turn to the friendly neighborhood gang, the Rats.

We attacked and looted a garden they were setting up a few days ago. Some Rats died there from what I heard. I wasn't there. Was on guard duty at the Hive. Turns out Mat'ik was killed there by the Rats. Didn't know him very well. Danev liked him, so I guess I still felt pity either way.

Anyways. We were waiting in an alley by the Grain street. From what we heard, the nuns donated all remaining food to the slums before they left. The Rats didn't want us getting to it first, so they hoarded it all away and began distributing it to the people. Seemed selfish but was probably smarter. Keep the food within arm's reach and appear as saints to the people. We were lucky we got the location of the stash out of the prisoners. There was no way in hell anybody on the streets would've given it to us. At least not without "encouragement." And I've seen the "encouragement" that Trap provided. These people could consider themselves lucky for a lack of it.

I was looking out a corner of the alley, keeping an eye on the one-man patrol going around the stash. He didn't make it obvious though. He went into alleys nowhere near the stash, went down fake roads. Anybody not watching for over 10 minutes would think he was just on an average stroll. Except we knew what he was hiding and where it was.

The sentry walked into the alley where we stood as part of his masquerade to feign an average walk. I tried to keep my teeth from clattering, giving me away as I signaled towards Goni that he was hear. I reared back as I heard the footsteps approach, growing louder.

The sentry hadn't even turned the corner before he was grabbed by the arm and the neck, and thrown to the wall of the alley, knocking him out right then and there, leaving a nice crimson blot on the stone wall.

We crossed the grain street and the people, at this point, now had a good idea as to what was going down. They silently changed directions, hoping to get as far away from the soon to be skirmish as quickly as possible.

I took my place on the right side of the door as Goni took the left, club in hand. I knocked the secret knock on the door. A cute series of taps and waits that was responded to by the opening of the door.

The door hadn't opened an inch before Goni pulled the door wide open, nearly pulling the Rat down with it. The opening was enough for him and he swung wide and hard, batting the Rat square in the face, knocking him down backwards into the building with a small crimson splash of blood. He wasn't dead, but he wouldn't be waking up for a good few hours. And when he did, it would be met with a pain in the dead worse than little much else.

We stormed inside. The food was there. We loaded our sacks full with as much as we could until we could barely close them. There was still some food left, but we weren't waiting for Rats to come and take what they wanted. We threw everything off the shelves, piling it all near the far corner of the room, all bundled together. Trap came with a small pouch of blasting jelly, sprinkling it over the pile of goodies before striking the flint and steel, setting the pile ablaze. We left just as quickly as the pile took aflame, leaving a nice message reading "Fuck you" behind.

I was tempted to spend a few more minutes by the fire as the risk was preferable to damn cold outside, but I couldn't complain. As soon as the adrenaline ended its course through my body, I felt something strange. Pride maybe? I don't know, but I was alive. We won today and that's what mattered. Right?

"Alright" Goni said. "That was good. Where to now, Trap?"

Trap was responsible for memorizing the information he had gotten from the Rats. Refused to write it down as, according to him, "written words aren't reliable." I know he just can't read, but I still can't understand how somebody like him could capture an interrogate an entire group of gang members. Actually, you know what? Insane, psychotic, terrifying, yeah. He was the golden boy of interrogation.

"Danev and Riu were going to the iron works, so they'll be at arsenal. We'll see them there."

"Sounds good." I said. "They'll probably be done by now and we'll meet up with them to see where we go next."

"Perfect." Said Goni. "Let's not keep them waiting."