"Don't go out alone at night." Chich growled at him one evening over their bowls of rice and beans, sitting around a fire in an old oil barrel with a group of Shantytown residents. "Now that yer down here with us you gotta be careful, if ya ain't the bone collectors will get ya."
"Bone collectors?" Héctor asked, trying the words in his mouth curiously.
"Bad folks who want your bones to sell." One of the Tias replied, looking up from her own bowl.
He glanced around at the group, waiting for some climax of a joke or someone to start laughing, because it surely had to be a joke, right? "People do that? Really?" He near didn't believe it, but not one face around him held anything like a smile, all of them only nodding with sombre expressions.
"They took Elias last month and tried taking Emilo the other day." Another one of them spoke, nodding her greyed head towards the ragged teen sitting beside him.
Emilo took a drag of the cigar in his mouth, the smoke escaping out from his ribs. "Lucky for me the war left me with some fast reflexes, I knocked the guys head off when they jumped me and ran all the way home."
"… What… what do they do to the people they take?" Héctor shivered, a cold feeling of dread settling into his being.
Chich shrugged. "Well if yer lucky they just rip out what they want and leave you in a gutter, if not word is they take you away and harvest all yer bones." He loudly scraped the last bits of his meal into his open mouth, belching when he was done and fixing Héctor with an intent stare. "So that's why ya gotta be careful, no wanderin' alone at night, no going near dark shadowy alleys. If ya think someone's following yer get to somewhere public with lots of people, they can't take you where there would be witnesses."
"That's enough scary stories for the night, let's be getting to bed, amigo." Emilo sighed after an uncomfortable silence, picking himself up his seat and clasping his hand down on Héctor's shoulder. "It's getting late and Mama Ester wanted us to help rebuild a wall in the morning."
Héctor followed him after bidding goodnight to the group, walking behind the younger boy as he swaggered his way across the old rotten boards of the walkway, towards the small shack the pair of them were sharing. "Don't worry about it too much." Emilo spoke once they were inside, making sure to bolt the door despite the glassless window in one of the walls.
"How can you say that? They nearly got you?" Héctor fidgeted with his hands, watching Emilo snatch a hold of his old rifle from the revolution before clambering into his hammock, his leg hanging out and his gun firmly in his hands.
"Nearly being the key word, I got away. All I'm saying is you over think these things you just make yourself sick with worry."
Héctor climbed in to his hammock on the other side of the shack. "So if you're not worried why did you lock the door? Can't someone just get in through the window?"
He heard the snap of the rifles magazine being loaded. "Believe me amigo it takes longer to climb in through that window than barge in the door and I will have shot them in that time. Don't worry you're safe with me."
Yes so safe, he couldn't help but think to himself, in a small room with a trigger happy insomniac. He had only been staying here for little over a week and the amount of times he had gotten out of bed in the night for a drink only to startle the teen and find himself staring down the guns barrel was enough to make anyone question their safety. He supposed at least he would probably get a warning if someone did break in while he was asleep, after Emilo had been killed in his sleep during the revolution his jumpy nerves meant it would be hard for anyone to sneak up on him again.
"Ey, I can almost hear your brain overworking, go to sleep will you?"
"Why can't we just go to the police? Why aren't they stopping this?" Héctor spoke up again, shifting his head to look over at his companion to see the sombrero he wore tilted down over his face, cigar smoke still rising from beneath.
"And you're still not asleep." The boy groaned. "You've been down here, what? A week? Have you ever seen a police officer around here in all that time?" He asked, waiting for the response that didn't come because they both knew police never came this far down. "They don't care what happens to people like us, that's why we gotta look out for each other. Now please go to sleep."
Héctor fell silent, tugging his thin blanket more comfortably over himself and trying to settle down comfortably, his head resting back into his bundled up jacket in place of a pillow. He listened to the sounds of the water outside, calm and soothing, as well as Emilo's fingers clacking against his gun tapping out a gentle rhythm. He knew it would be a long while before the boy got to sleep, if he did at all, and it admittedly made him feel a little better knowing someone was watching out for him. "Good night." He yawned, closing his eyes and only getting a grunt in reply from the boy who still had his gun trained towards the locked door.
The next evening Héctor found himself in the upper city, having spent the afternoon visiting Ceci then ducking into a nearby bar to get a drink. Now twilight was falling over the city, the streets becoming quieter as shops closed for the day. He was eager to get back to his current home down in Shantytown, the others chilling words from the night before still sitting heavily in his mind, he glanced around at the empty street and he could nearly hear Chich's growl of 'no wandering alone' as if the small man was there at his side. It was still just about daylight, it would be fine, he tried to tell himself even as he walked faster.
A wailing sound caught his attention coming from an alleyway just ahead of him and he paused. It was a baby crying. He glanced towards the noise in confusion, those weren't houses down there it was businesses that had already closed or storage buildings, he stopped and waited, hoping that it was just a family passing through the alley as a short cut on their way home perhaps, yet as he stood there the crying didn't stop nor did it fade like someone was walking away with their child. He peered about once more at the empty street, darkness beginning to fall around him, no one else was here at all and he couldn't just walk away if it was a child alone, he would feel awful for the rest of the night with worry. With his mind made up he turned on his heel and headed down the narrow alleyway away from the dying light and out of sight of any would be passers by.
Walking further down and he found the alley full of wooden crates, most likely from the businesses that backed onto this area and just on the other side of one he found the child, only an infant sitting on her behind wearing a pale pink sleep suit and a ribbon tying up her little scruff of dark hair.
When he saw her he lost all his wariness, quickly walking up to her and lifting her up into his arms. "Hey, mija! What happened? Why are you out here alone?" He cooed, his hand curled around the back of her head. Her cries softened into sad grumbles and her large damp eyes lifted to look at him. "Where's your mama and papa?" He asked, knowing she wouldn't be able to answer him. Damn she was just a baby, someone had really just dumped her out here like she was garbage? How could someone do that? "I'm Tio Héctor and I guess I'm gonna help you find-" He cut himself from his soothing rambling, had he heard a footstep behind him?
"Is someone there?" He called over his shoulder, glancing about and holding the little girl closer to him. "Hello? Anybod- Ah!" A sack was thrown over his head as someone grabbed him from behind and the baby snatched away from him. "No! Get off!" He cried, muffled under the sack, the person against his back grabbing a hold of his flailing arms and pulling them back while someone else grabbed him around the knees and hefted his legs up. The baby was screaming somewhere nearby and he was frightened for her but just as scared for himself as he was lifted between his attackers and carried. "No! Please stop!"
There was the distinctive sound of a van door being slid open before he was roughly thrown inside, the bag still softening his cries as someone got in with him, hands firmly keeping him pinned down and rope being wrapped around his wrists. He continued to struggle as he heard the door slam shut and the engine start.
"Stop fighting amigo, we don't want you to hurt those nice bones of yours!" His attacker chuckled as the van rumbled down the street. Away from his friends or anyone that could help him.