Weekly Drabble #256: Seven Most Wanted (Patreon)

This week's drabble prompt came from Henri Black with 'why not both?' Which... well, originally this was going to end with a confrontation and one side or the other asking that question, but as the story developed and got re-drafted, the confrontation and the line got postponed. Nonetheless, hope you enjoy!

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Seven Most Wanted:

There was a loud crash from down the street, followed by a string of cursing. Ducking into the burnt-out husk of a building, Robert hurried away from their pursuers, Tayo and Lopika following him. The three children stayed quiet and moved carefully through the darkened interior. Despite being so young, they’d all learned quickly how to survive in the free-for-all zone that had once been their home.

Well, maybe not quite a free-for-all, Robert thought as he paused by a broken window, using his small truncheon to quietly sweep away the shattered glass beneath it so as not to make any sounds as he approached, very carefully peering out. But close enough. Close enough that it was better that him and the rest of his little gang were better on their own than with a bunch of adults who either didn’t care about them or had their own problems.

At least, it was usually better. It might not have been if they hadn’t been lucky and smart that time that it really counted.

“What do you see?” Tayo whispered. Lopika glared at him for speaking, putting an angry finger to her lips. She was Earth-born, but had quickly learned the City’s rules, even more than some people who’d been born here.

Robert just waved the other boy to be silent as he peered out from a corner, looking back the way they’d come. He stayed absolutely still. Their pursuers were only human, but there were lots of things in the City that weren’t, and lots of those didn’t see like humans did. Some keyed their vision off movement. Wire cats were one of them. They might not notice if you were staring right at them, but once you so much as twitched or even breathed too deeply, they locked on and then you were in trouble.

Maybe as much as Robert and his companions were in right now. They’d been out doing the dailies – running errands for cash and trade, collecting scrap from the parts of the district still unclaimed by new tenants, checking out the shops and stalls in the marketplace. The usual thing the children did to keep their heads above water. Some of the Kings had been on patrol through the square. They’d been a lot more common before the war, but they still tried to hold onto what they had left. The residents looked to the Kings for protection and supplies. Robert didn’t know about that. His parents had trusted the Kings, and they’d ended up dead in a pointless turf war.

Right now, he was keeping the rest of the group safe. They could trust each other and they could trust Cass. That was it.

Hammering that point home, today at the market, Robert had picked up a different tone to the buzz of the conversations around them. Tayo had noticed the gangers were watching them, but it had been Opie, one of the shop-boys who’d hurried after the trio that had clued them in to the danger. The guards had been asking about them. It wasn’t that uncommon for the gangs to ‘recruit’ children, especially if they didn’t have anyone looking out for them. In other circumstances, he wouldn’t have minded that much. As long as you were useful, working for a gang guaranteed food and protection.

That’s what his parents had said. His dad, who’d been one of the troops and his mom who’d helped maintain Kinside’s machines. Both of them were dead now because the gang tried to take too big a bite out of someone else’s territory and both sides had ended up crippled. The Kings weren’t going to keep Robert and the other children safe. That’s why he’d formed his own gang with kids he knew weren’t slanted. There were other orphans in the area, but Robert had steered clear of them. He didn’t want anyone like Skinner, Raggedy Ann or Patches around. He wanted to be able to go to sleep and not worry about waking up.

Not more than usual, at least.

With the gangers asking after Robert, he’d decided it was time to get out of the market. He and Tayo went to find Lopika; the girl liked to work the crowds on her own, keeping an eye out for coin-purses, inattentive shopkeepers and neglected satchels.

Most commerce in the City was done by trade. In the sections the Masters controlled, their humans earned service credits on an e-tab, but sometimes they needed things that weren’t, or couldn’t be, provided by the Masters. For that, they had coin that human-run businesses and services accepted. The grounded closest to those regions would take that coin in trade for under-the-table deals, but the further from the Masters’ towers you got, the less valuable their currency had, and the more middle-men you needed to go through to do business with the servants, each needing their own cut. Here in Kinside scrip (as it was called) was worth only a third of what might be in the Masters’ districts. It was still worth something though, and worth getting. Robert’s gang had a respectable little stash of scrip, added in part by the two bloody bags full of coins Snowy had dumped in front of them one evening. The Watcher had offered only a dismissive snort before she’d taken flight again. Robert and the rest hadn’t known what to make of that. Maybe it was a thank-you for the help they provided the Watchers, or maybe it was an attempt to make them wealthy enough so they, in Robert’s father’s vernacular could, ‘fuck right off’. Tuyen had said maybe it was because she liked them. Joshua had called her an idiot.

Robert told him to shut his bitch mouth – another phrase he’d learned from his father when one of his underlings was talking too much. Joshua was the biggest of the group and Tuyen was the smallest. He was always picking at her. He shouldn’t have called her an idiot, but he hadn’t been wrong. Snowy didn’t like them one bit.

Right now though, Robert would gladly have Snowy around. The gangers had noticed the children getting antsy and zeroed in on them, which caused them to try and nonchalantly slip away, which caused the gangers to speed up, which caused Robert, Tao and Lopika to start running, leading to a pursuit through the district as the kids ducked through alleyways and short-cuts. Unfortunately, the men had grown up here too and they knew the area just as well. No matter what Robert and his companions tried, they couldn’t lose their pursuers. They’d run out of the populated areas, but the gangers had been right on them. They’d only just managed to get ahead of them and duck in here, but by the sounds of things, the men chasing them weren’t giving up.

As he watched, the two gangers came into view. “These fucking kids,” the first one was saying. He had a pair of holsters on his hips, but only one had a gun in it. He was holding a short stave in his other hands, greasy black hair hanging from his scalp. “How much trouble can they be? Well, now we know.”

The second nodded. He had a vest with empty slots for shotgun cartridges, the weapon strapped to his right thigh. A sawed-off ‘street sweeper special’. He had a long knife on his left leg, but he hadn’t drawn it, though his palm rode its pommel in annoyance. “Now we know,” he agreed, glancing around inattentively. “You know this is fucked up, right?”

“According to you, everything is fucked up.”

“Am I wrong? No. But this is uniquely fucked up, I think you’ll agree.”

“I ain’t agreeing to shit. You want to discuss your concerns with Cicero? Maybe give him your perspective on how he runs Kinside? Think that’ll be a productive talk, eh John? You’ll be lucky if he lets you keep your idiot tongue. We got our orders, same as everyone else and we follow them, or we get to explain to the boss why that didn’t happen. I ain’t going to be the one that tells him no and face it – neither are you.”

“These orders are still fucked.”

“Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Needs to be done, so we do it.”

“Does it?”

“Don’t start with that shit again. Dark season’s coming and pretty soon the people here are going to notice that we don’t have enough food for them. When that happens, we’re fucked. Butcher’s got the men and the meat. We need her on-side, unless you been keeping an algal tank up that tight ass of yours. Not sure it’d fit with the stick in there too, but you could surprise me.”

“Funny.” The men wandered up the street. Shotgun appeared to be in no hurry, making Holsters even more irritated.

“If we lose them because of-”

“Before you finish that sentence, jagoff, remember who was running right behind you. If we lost them, it ain’t because of anything I did. They got out of sight and now there’s a million places they could be hiding, if they didn’t keep running. If they did, then they’re gone.”

“They didn’t keep running,” Holsters said with confidence. “Kids don’t have the endurance. We were on their asses for a good while. They have to catch their breath, so as soon as they realized they were out of our sight, they’d have ducked into a hole. They’re here somewhere.”

Robert swallowed. Holsters was smarter than he looked. He was right. None of the three children were marathon runners. He keep watching. “Let’s say we find them,” Shotgun said. “What then?”

“You know what then. These kids have a date with the Butcher.”

Robert’s eyes widened to the point of saucers and he slid down the wall, cupping his hands over his mouth to stay silent. The Butcher? Betty wanted them? He knew they’d been fucking with the Trappers a lot recently, but... Oh, man. Oh, shit. She’s pissed. She cut a deal with the Kings for us. This was bad. This was super, real-time, holy-fucking-shit level bad.

Tayo and Lopika saw his expression, but neither of them made a sound. What? Tayo mouthed.

Butcher, Robert mouthed back. His companions each lost a shade of colour.

“And like I said: that’s fucked up,” Shotgun’s voice got louder as he got closer.

“Blow it out your ass. I’ve seen you make a man suck on the barrel of that street sweeper special you got on your thigh before you splattered his brains across the road. You’re as much of a bleeding heart as I am and I guaran-fucking-tee that if this were some band of dipshit adult thieves we were after, you wouldn’t be whining about the situation.”

“You’re right. That’s cause that bitch-ass punk and your thieves are all adults. Fair and fair. These’re kids, Paco.”

“Boo fucking hoo. So they grow from little assholes into bigger assholes. What’s the magic number, John? I mean, when can you pop ‘em and get a good night’s sleep after? Twelve? Sixteen? What’s that line that makes it okay?” Holsters paused, his voice losing its edge. “Not like they’ve got much to look forward to anyways. If the fat lady’s right and they’re all on their own, when dark season hits, they’ll starve. If we don’t bring them in and don’t get Betty’s help, so will the rest of the people in Kinside. Which is worse, eh? A knife to the throat and it’s over in seconds, or weeks of no food and wasting away?” Another pause. “You tell me.” He sounded almost sincere.

Shotgun didn’t answer that. “Let’s keep looking,” he said. “But this is-”

“-fucked up. I ain’t agreeing, but it is sorta fucked.”

The men continued to sweep the area, flashlights shining in empty windows, doors creaking. Quietly, carefully, the three children crawled further into the shadows of the building and away from their hunters. Every day was a struggle for survival in Horrak-Sarn... some days more than others. If we get out of this,Robert thought as he led Tayo and Lopinka to the hope of safety, Then we’ll definitely have proven we deserve to live.

If we get out of this.

That was still a very, very big if and as he heard the door to this building squeal open and footsteps crunch into the vestibule, he knew that it was getting bigger with every second.