This chapter will be very short. I'm sorry about this, but I promise the next chapter will make up for it and then some! Unfortunately, that also means that the next chapter may take a while. Even as short as this chapter is, I hope you guys enjoy it.

Thanks to all you out that for your reviews, favorites, and follows. I really do appreciate them!

The bulls stopped chasing her by the time she made it to the town center, which wasn't far from the train yard. Instead of the tall buildings she was used to in the city that could be several stories high, including the tallest building in the world, these were only one or two stories. And instead of several buildings clustered together on grid-like streets, these were along one long, wide main street with several very narrow side streets off of it.

There was a Hoover Wagon hitched to a pitiful looking horse and a couple of horse and buggies, but most of the people in the town center walked. The grocer restocking the apples and grapes in their bins caught her eye. They looked so good, and her stomach growled low and angry in agreement. It'd been almost a full day since the last time she ate, and even though she didn't want to steal, she didn't want to starve either.

When the man disappeared in the store, Arya walked by and tried to look as casual as she could, waiting until she was close enough to reach for a grape or two before running away with whatever she could grab. She walked so close to the bin, she barely had to reach for them when a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled it up and the grapes fell to the ground.

"What do you think you're doing?" the grocer yelled at her, not really expecting her to answer him, Arya wrenching her arm free from his grasp.

"I'm really hungry, mister. Do you think you could spare—"

Not even letting her finish what she had to say, the man's face scrunched into a frown, and then his face turned a blotchy red. "Beat it, kid!"

"But I just need—"

"I said beat it! Or I'll call the cops!"

Arya didn't bother to see if the man would follow through with his threat; she ran across the street to put as much distance between her and the grocer as possible. She wasn't sure why the man was so angry. Even the grocers in New York, as grumpy as they were, would give a couple of grapes or an apple to a hungry child.

She decided to walk down one of the side streets, and to her right she noticed the back of the main street stores, which was nothing more than an open yard with a steep hill and garbage cans lining the back walls of the buildings.

A man came out of one of the back doors with a pot in his hands, walking to the garbage can nearest his door and poured whatever was in the pot into the can. When he turned around to go back inside, he caught Arya staring at him and frowned. He didn't move until she did, until she turned and walked back down the small side street. Little did he know, she didn't plan to go far.

As soon as she heard the sound of the back door open and close again, she backtracked and rushed to the garbage, constantly watching the door. Whatever the man poured into the can left its contents soggy, and she stood there looking down into it at the watery sludge of old food.

She didn't want to do it. Her stomach turned every time she thought about doing it, but to remind her of just how hungry she was, her stomach not only growled but rumbled.

Taking a deep breath before holding it, she reached in and grabbed the first thing she felt would hold solid long enough to pull out and eat. Just as she found something, she heard a commotion around the alley on the main street. There were cop whistles mingled with confused voices and screams and Arya saw a wolf trotting along the side street she'd come from, then stopped when it saw her. They both stared at each other, dumbfounded.

The voices grew louder from the main street into the side street, and she knew they were coming. Having no idea why she did it, Arya tried to shoo the wolf away, to go over the hill and out of the view of the people coming. The wolf just stood there as though it had no idea what she was saying until finally it turned and ran over the hill like she wanted.

"Hey, you! Kid!" a cop called to her a half minute later. "Did you see a wolf come by here?"

Arya nodded wide-eyed and tried to look shaken by the experience. "Yes, I did! It ran there!" she told them while pointing in the direction that wasn't where the wolf went, but they swallowed the story hook, line, and sinker.

The men were halfway across the yard when she allowed herself to relax again, but then the back door opened and the man that once held the pot came out again. "You!" he called out. "Git!" he said to her, dropping the sack he was carrying outside and lifted his arm. His hand was ready to smack her, but she didn't give him the chance.

With whatever lump she grabbed from the can, she ran back to the side street all the way to the main street, and only when she was sure there was no one following her, she stopped and checked the lump in her had, her prize from the garbage.

It was an old, stale biscuit that had been softened by whatever was poured over it. She closed her eyes and willed herself to open her mouth and lay the thing on her tongue. It smelled like rot, and it tasted only a little better. By the time it hit her stomach, she heaved. It took everything she had in her to keep it down. Rotten food was better than nothing.

About a mile down the main road, it branched off into three smaller roads, and at the intersection was a sign that read "The Helping Hand Mission." An arrow on the sign pointed to one of the smaller roads, and that was the road Arya decided to walk down.

Gendry did tell her to get her hair cut at one of the missions, and she hoped they would have some food for her, too.

"Well, aren't you a sore sight," the mission worker, an old woman with a tight gray bun and crows-feet around the eyes, said while snapping a blanket in the air when she saw Arya.

"Hello," she said to the woman in her cheeriest voice and biggest smile. Her father always told her that people were nicer to a smiling face than a frowning one. "Do you think I could get a haircut, and if you can spare it, some food?"

The woman sized her up then finally said, "Why sure I can cut your hair, little lamb. You're in desperate need of a haircut. You look like a girl with all that hair clear down to your shoulders, but I can't help you with the food. Gave out our last can an hour ago."

Even with her stomach rumbling in protest and her spirits low, Arya forced the biggest smile she could for the woman. "That's okay. I need the hair cut more than the food anyway," she lied.

The woman didn't seem to believe her any more than her stomach did.

Spearing biscuits means to search the garbage for food.

Hoover Wagons were cars that had their engines (as well as other heavy parts) remove to be used as a horse-drawn carriage. Before the Great Depression, many people were able to buy cars, but during the Depression, fuel was unaffordable and they didn't want their expensive purchase collecting dust.

I think most of you know what "git" means, but if not, it's like "beat it" or "scram." I think it's suppose to be short for "get going."