I hid myself in my hoodie as I walked by people, sometimes I would bump into a few and quickly reach into their pockets. No one seemed to noticed, if they did then they didn't care. Not like they need this money, at least not as much as I do. Ducking into an alley, I begin to count my loot. Should be enough to satisfy him. Stuffing everything in my bag, I head to school.

I could already hear trouble when I entered the school. F-stop had some kid against the lockers. Growling started behind me.

"What, Eddie? Wanting to help the poor bastard?"

"No and don't call me that!" I rolled my eyes.

"Then what's got you worked up, Slice?"

"Just wish F-stop didn't think he's the top dog." Suddenly Wade pulled F-stop off of the kid and F-stop walked away.

"He doesn't. Even hothead knows Wade is." This didn't please him either.

"Did you get any loot?"

"Yeah… I'll meet you after school." We parted ways and the day went by slowly.

Only Tim and Eddie were in the abandoned house when I arrived. Eddie almost took my arm along with the money.

"This is it?!" I glared at him.

"More than last time."

"Yeah, but that wasn't much either." Tim voiced his thoughts, Eddie's suck up.

"Shut up, Tim." His glare then matched Eddie's.

"Oh, sorry. I mean T." Sarcasm dripped from me. What made these guys choose such stupid nicknames? Suddenly a loud noise interrupted our thoughts.

"Guys! Guys! Guess what!"

"Just spit it out, Skitts!" The boy liked to be called Skittles, but Eddie thought it wasn't 'badass' enough.

"All the big time gangs are gathering for a fight at the docks!" That removed the frowns from the other two.

"What? You're not thinking of going?! They'll kick our asses!" Eddie's frown returned at my sound logic. He started pacing around the room.

"We'll just hide. When the last gang standing is exhausted we'll take them out. We'll become the top dogs!" Pathetic… But everyone else seemed to like the idea. Despite my bad feelings, I have to go with them, someone has to make sure they don't get killed.

"Shit. They really are all here." Skittles seemed to realize that this was a bad idea, but we can't back out now, Eddie won't let us. The other two couldn't stop grinning. Fighting soon started and it wasn't long before the cops showed up.

"Let's get out of here!" We began to run, and I could hear shots fired. Before we could make it to the fence, an explosion stopped us. The air filled with purple gas and we fell down in coughing fits. Last thing I saw was everyone trying to crawl away, then nothing.

Blinding light kept me from waking up, but eventually I was able to open my eyes. Looking around I could tell I was in a hospital. Tim seemed to be on a bed next to me, but I couldn't see Skittles or Eddie. There were plenty of people around me though, and all of them were groaning or crying out in pain. What I saw next was horrifying, some kid started melting. The doctors rushed around him, but did nothing.

"Lue?" I turned my attention back to Tim, awake and in pain. He screamed and I tried to sit up, but quickly fell back.

"Tim?! Whats the matter?!" His skin started peeling and his screams became shrieks. "Shit, Tim!" I began to cry as doctors huddled around him, but refused to even touch him. The shrieks became louder and I tried to get to him.

"Get back on the bed, miss!" I ignored them and pushed doctors away. Tim's screams stopped as he became a skeleton, the rest of him laying around him and falling to the floor.

"No, no, no… Tim…" I ran out of the hospital, several doctors trying to catch me. As I stepped outside, I heard a loud bang. Ignoring it, I ran till I got to our hangout, falling to my knees and sobbing as soon as I got inside.

"Hey!... Lue?!" Skittles ran to me and tried to get answers, I just continued to sob. "Come on, Lue. It's okay." He held me, unaware that we could end up like Tim and that other kid.

"T is dead…" The kid had a look of shock on his face as I told him the news. "What about Slice?" I shrugged.

"Haven't seen him." He sat down on one of the old couches and held his face in his hands.

"We shouldn't have gone to the docks. I shouldn't have told Slice. Now we're all going to die because of me!" I sat next to the kid.

"Its not your fault, we all made the decision to go." He leaned against me as I patted him on the back. Don't let him die, hes only in middle school… Just a kid. Though being in highschool doesn't make me an adult. "Besides, you don't know that we'll die. Maybe we'll get lucky and only become really sick." I added a poor laugh in hopes that it would cheer up a bit.

He just looked at me with a scowl, definitely Eddie's brother. I got up and stretched.

"Come on, lets see if we can find Edd… I mean Slice.'' We had spent several hours searching, but came up with nothing. Eddie was nowhere to be found and neither of us could decide whether we wanted to declare him dead or not. Upon return to the hangout, I fell onto a couch and almost fell asleep.

"Tomorrow. We'll find him tomorrow."

"Sure, Skittles. We'll look for him again when we wake up." This seemed to be enough for him, soft snores came from him. Following his example, I fell asleep myself.