Ada, Noel, and Emberly traveled on foot, carefully trekking through back streets to avoid any potential threats that surrounded this part of the city. Scoundrels and thugs were everywhere—some definitely residing in the Underworld. Survivors always had to be heedful since strangers normally looked to start trouble.

Finally, the trio reached their notable street: A four-way intersection with formed lines on each corner of the block. People were being checked in and outside of the Underworld, being checked by a pair of guards at an entrance, each on a non-traditional payroll. Although it had been a few hours since the opening time, for the first time in many weeks, the checkpoints were operational the earliest anyone could recall.

Noel managed to get past, hiding Mathieu's switchblade in his shoe, Emberly stashed her remaining fireworks in an abandoned building she hid many treasures in before, and Ada was frisked last and met up with Noel and Emberly at the bottom of the steps.

As soon as the day started, sales did. The Underworld not only served as a place of refuge but it was also a black market. Survivors waltzed around the Underworld in search of any valuables they needed. Seeing that the underground location was nearly overpopulated, the addition of just a handful of people was enough to make everyone feel like worker bees in a colony, having to work tirelessly to keep such a place running. The trio pushed through Underworld residents and visitors who were essentially apocalypse backpackers. Emberly and Noel walked past the fare gates as Ada lagged, silently window shopping for items she possibly needed. What she really wanted was a weapon, anything from a gun to a knife, but the last person caught selling weapons was snitched on and then exiled seeing that it endangered more lives. Although it was forbidden to sell weapons in the Underworld, someone was always willing to sell them under wraps.

Ada glanced around—tables to her left carried bootleg hygienic products, fire-starting tools, scraps of metal for various uses, and random junk. Tables to her right sold empty wine bottles, necklaces & charms made from the dead, and Emberly's recent interest: Combustibles. As embarrassing as it was to admit, Ada recognized a lot of faces around her. They were people she had exchanged words with before, unkind or not. Unless you wanted to delve deeper into the market of the Underworld, you had to go past the fare gates. Just before the fare gates and turnstiles were some of the vendors that thought being closest to the exits and entrances would serve them very well, and it usually did.

This time around, there was a man she had never laid eyes on before—someone new. And this outsider seemed to have a lot of people circling them. In all of her months there, Ada had never seen a gathering so calm. There was no pushing, shoving, or hassle. It almost felt like there was some sort of public conference going on, and Ada wanted in. Moving about, she was now placed on the other side of a tall glass wall that separated her from Noel and Emberly—who already slipped past the fare gates. Ada gestured for them to go on about their business while she took interest in whatever was going on. Recognizing that Emberly was capable of handling herself, having personally escorted her back to the Underworld was enough for Ada to feel indifferent about her safety at this very moment.

"What's she doing?" Noel questioned.

Rhetorical or not, Emberly most likely wasn't going to answer even if she knew the question. He was willing to wait, but as he did, he received unsolicited blown kisses from nearby women. He wasn't against them. In fact, he very much respected their line of work and the fun that they managed to incorporate into their other's morbid lives. Blushing at the sight of a few beautiful young ladies who invited him to accompany them, he placed his hands into his pockets and silently denied their offers, acting as if he was being charitable by having to keep an eye on Emberly. As expected, they thought it was admirable and cute and Emberly rolled her eyes and shook her head as he carried on with reciprocation. Suddenly, he heard a familiar sound of tap shoes running about. Looking over, he saw his companion, Taps, running up the stairs towards him.

"Noel! My bruv! My mate!" he expressed in excitement, "There you are! I've been searching everywhere for you, where on Earth have you been?"

In between, he momentarily became distracted by the side-lined women as well but eventually returned. He looked almost as if he was going to pass out. Being the eccentric man that he was, he rambled and rambled before getting to the main point which was that some 'big wigs' wanted to help them move on up with their shoe selling, and by 'big wigs' he meant someone with the Council. There had been rumors of council members coming in and partnering up with salespeople in the Underworld in exchange for some wonderful benefits—better access to necessities and being welcomed into the council association itself.

A smile grew across Noel's face and he playfully grabbed his buddy by the lapels of his coat,

"What the hell are you doing up here!? Who's watching the totes!?"

"I-I-I got," he attempted to recall the bloke's name and snapped his fingers upon retrieval, "Tracey! Tracey said he'd watch it for just a second and you know how he is so we've gotta get back pronto."

Noel, for a split second, remembered Emberly just as he dashed towards the stairs that led down to the lower levels of the subway. Nearly slipping off the third step, Noel looked back at her,

"Wait!" He looked back, "Emberly, will you be okay?"

She nodded,

"I'll be fine. I'll just look for Olimpia."

Noel resumed his rush but returned one last time, having Taps unfavorably wait from five steps below.

"And tell Ada I'm sorry but this is just really important. Just tell her it has to do with the council."

Although she had no intention to, Emberly nodded. She watched him and Taps vanish into the clamoring crowd as they flew down the stairs.

"Aw, did someone leave the little baby abandoned?" A nearby purple-haired woman teased. She and another whimsically dressed man began cackling obnoxiously at this wild assumption, leaving her to give them disgusted looks. Good for herself, Emberly gave them the eye roll of the year,

"Has anyone ever told you your hair looks like red cabbage?" Emberly asked with a disingenuous smile. She watched as the woman stood unamused, holding a cigarette between two fingers. Her companion continued giggling, giving Emberly more leeway to speak her mind, "You should try it sometime. It's gross."

Emberly turned away and waltzed down the stairs as the purple-haired woman glared at her departure, shushing her cackling comrade.

Ada, on the other hand, was still intrigued by the gathering. She walked ahead and quietly made her way through the crowd of subway dwellers, tip-toeing to see what this new face was offering that evoked so much public interest. The reactions, as far as she could tell, were mixed. Standing behind another woman who was somewhat her same height, Ada peeked over and around her shoulder, seeing what looked like four small children. Ranging in age from pre-teen to teenagers. Ada's mouth fell agape as her eyes widened. She looked at the others surrounding her, hoping to judge whoever was okay with this.

"Disgusting…" she heard a raspy woman's voice beside her.

Ada turned around and made brief eye contact with the woman, overall feeling some relief that she wasn't the only one bothered by it. Too stunned to even catch the last few words of this random man's announcement, he concluded his speech by coaxing up some questions.

"What do you sell them for?" A random man behind Ada asked.

"Anything high-in-demand will do."

"Like a car?"

"Sure. About three of them," he thought of an example, something that almost came across as bragging, "I had a man once trade two cars. Both with trunks full of rifles."

He said it so mockingly. He knew the people down here didn't have such resources like that, and even if they did, it was still wrong.

"What do you gain from this?" Ada's voice suddenly cut through the chatter.

The man stared at her, taking everything, from her age to the way she looked into account. Needless to say, he didn't care whether or not she felt opposed to it,

"I gain a lot from this. I gain respect, I gain tools for survival, I gain property, and most importantly—notoriety," he bragged some more, "A man sold me his entire crop field for a child. Another man sold me an unused water tower out in Ottawa for two."

"How many have you sold?" Ada questioned, fearing the answer she would receive.

"More than ten. Less than twenty."

"What do they need them for?"

"Any reason. Labor," he paused, "Personal."

Being a person who once devoted most of her time looking after children, and looking after one now, this situation was hitting Ada true and personal. The gentleman winked at her before he could turn and walk away from the crowd, beckoning the children to follow. She knew the world had become primitive once again but she never knew humanity could stoop this low just because dead people started to walk. Besides the few people who could turn away before she did, a few others surprisingly seemed to be in favor of having a child at their side to do their dirty work. Notably, a lot of those people were salespeople, hoping that it could be beneficial to their business somehow. She recalled some of the stranger's words, referring to their children's minds as brilliant, but exploiting it for being capable of espionage and weaponized innocence.

Back to Emberly's situation, she went to the far end where she, Ada, and Olimpia usually camped. Just as expected, Olimpia was there, helping out the older folks with getting their day started. When Olimpia saw her, Olimpia stopped what she was doing, stood up, and welcomed Emberly into her arms. Holding her face, she looked down at her,

"Why? Why do you keep doing this?!"

"I'm sorry," Emberly apologized, "I won't do it again," she said for about the hundredth time.

Olimpia scoffed, finding it almost impossible to ever remain angered at her. She reeled her back in, burying Emberly's face in her bosom. This time, the hug felt as if Emberly needed it. Without giving any signs, Olimpia momentarily wondered where this sudden tenderness was coming from.

"Where's Ada?"

"She's still upstairs. She was 'shopping' around."

Olimpia let out a sigh of relief.

When the time for them came to finally reunite, despite Olimpia wanting to jump on Ada and have an overreaction, she kept her composure and greeted her cordially. She was unsure whether Ada felt the same way, but Olimpia had grown a deep connection with them. It felt almost familial seeing that she was already used to feeling like an older sister. Despite being older, Ada had proven herself to be way ahead of her time and it was something she was instilling in Emberly without even realizing it. Olimpia, on the other hand, hoped to instill something in Emberly as well, but she wasn't quite sure whether or not she had accomplished that yet. She wanted to make it her life's mission ever since Emberly started acting out. Olimpia and Ada sat on the platform floor, having three to four burn barrels spread out near the center of the platform. As an accomplishment in everyone's eyes, the underground managed to have some electricity restored on this very atypical day. Although it wasn't much, ten flickering lights, out of a hundred and something others, were enough to restore some sort of decency to someone's day.

Ada rested her head on a backpack and used it as a pillow, keeping her hands placed on her stomach. Olimpia looked over at her,

"Hey," Olimpia reached over, placing her hand on Ada's arm, "I know you hate it but Phillip and his mother are grilling food on the lower levels."

"I don't have anything to trade for that right now," she became embarrassed.

She found it almost comical that she spent a whole night out and she only came back knife-less.

"It's okay. He owes me. I gave him five bullets yesterday. That's gotta be worth more than three grilled rats."

Ada swallowed her pride and sat up. She had to be honest with herself anyway. As much as she found eating roadkill the most revolting thing ever, she knew it was her only way of survival. Although it sounded disgusting, they were pretty good once cooked to perfection. Besides, she had depended on nothing but skewered rats for the past couple of months—they all had. Her, Emberly, and Olimpia. Eating all sorts of critters was so normalized that eating any other rodent or reptile was seen as an luxury upgrade. As she and Olimpia prepared to head to the lower level, they both spotted Emberly walking in from the sidelines. After being called over, she respectively approached them. Asking whether or not she was hungry, she was inclined to say no, knowing the cost of having to support her all the time even when she did bad things. It took a longer gaze for Emberly to finally confess,

"Okay, maybe a little."

"Olimpia and I are going down to see if Phillip and his mom can spare us some food."

As they walked down the stairs, Emberly thought it'd be proper to sit and wait atop the steps for when they returned. Turning her head just to scratch an itch on her scalp, Emberly took notice of a young boy. Her interested stares were reciprocated when he did nothing but glance at her every now and then. People had offspring in the Underworld but rarely were they ever people around her age group, nor did they stay around long enough. They were either newborns or adolescents that were far older than she was. Families, for the most part, avoided the Underworld because it just wasn't a place for a child to grow up in. A mother or father would rather sleep in a cave knowing that their children would be safe than sleep in a hellhole with one eye opened every night.

Finally, Ada returned with Olimpia. After identifying each other before approaching one another in the darkness, Emberly was luckily given a fried squirrel on a stick while the other enjoyed their rats. Emberly sat in place and bit into her meal meanwhile her older guardians walked off into the neighboring train cart. Wiping her mouth clean with her sleeve, she looked over at the random boy for a final time. Picking up the courage to speak to her, he began striding towards her. She wasn't sure what this meant. Seeing that she had a hard time getting along with people in this place, she clenched her squirrel-on-a-stick between her teeth and quickly put on her mini-backpack. Standing, she placed her head down and prepared to walk away,

"Uh, wait," the boy said. She stopped and turned to look at him, sizing him up in the process. What she saw up close, she couldn't make out from afar: He looked like a typical child from a Rags musical. His jacket could be reliable had it not been for the five torn holes it had. The hem of his bottoms was shredded and had holes, revealing scabbed ankles, and his left shoe was wrapped in loosening duct tape to keep the soles intact. He was used to the stares ever since he arrived here, "Where'd you get that?"

They both looked down at the skewered squirrel in her hand,

"Downstairs," she hesitated.

"Is it free?"

"No. It has a cost," she corrected. She studied his mouth and was freaked to see that it was salivating. Whether or not he had the means to afford it wasn't important because it was obvious that he didn't. Holding the skewered rodent in her right hand, she held it up and offered it to him, "You can have it."

The young boy stared at her before she inched it closer to his face. He graciously took it and thanked her before breaking his composure and devouring it like a starving animal. Emberly tried to conceal her astonishment, but was more surprised at the fact that she met someone who starved more than her despite eating once or twice a day if she were lucky. His devouring allowed specs to fall to the ground but it didn't stop him from bending down and picking up the visible pieces. Once he was finally finished, he stripped the skewer clean of any remaining meat. Her eyes were set on him like he was a circus act: Youngest and fastest eater alive. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and snickered,

"Sorry."

"It's okay," she comforted, still trying to process what happened before her eyes.

"I'll try and pay you back when I can."

"Don't worry about it," she forced a chuckle.

Suddenly, someone called for the hungry boy. He went by the name "Newton". Newton, who seemed somewhat relaxed after eating, returned to being tense. Newton turned to a very tall man with a slim build, very shaggy hair, and a five-o'clock shadow. He had somewhat of a tall yet wide nose and had a prominent jaw structure. In fact, he seemed young and charming. That's when the shaggy-haired man looked at Emberly next, realizing that he might have cut into Newton's time with her. Up close, he looked radiating compared to everyone else. Although shaggy, his hair was neatly cut and his clothes looked picked from a fresh batch of laundry.

"Made a new friend already?" he accused almost playfully. From the looks on Newton's face, it didn't feel like a game at all. Instead, the shaggy-haired man used this moment to make a new friend of his very own, "What's your friend's name?" he asked Newton. He upheld a mysterious aura about him and instead of being truthful and admitting that he didn't know, Newton suddenly became adamant about learning Emberly's name. She told them, unsuspecting of anything strange, "Emberly, huh?" He turned away from the side and faced her directly. Newton, at this point, was dismissed with a simple jerk of the head. Newton strolled off a couple of feet away to assist another vendor that Emberly certainly recognized. However, the shaggy-haired man picked up where he left off. He examined her stance and unshakable demeanor, "You look like a tough kid."

Emberly thought of the best way to respond to that, wanting not to sound too cocky but confident,

"I've been told that,"

"Have you ever thought about getting a job?" Emberly shook her head at the strange question. Looking to the side, she saw Newton, who seemed to be deeply invested in their exchange for someone who couldn't even hear, let alone make out, what they were saying. Returning her to their conversation, he asked her a pretty personal question, "Parents still around?" Emberly shook her head again, which raised his brows, "Sucks. I know what it's like for a kid with no parents to be out here. It's tough," he said. After noticing that she didn't have any response other than a minute of sorrow, he tried to make up for it, "I'm just saying if you want a job that can benefit you I could help out. Think about it. A cool kid like you, having your own job?"

At this point, he was winning Emberly over. He sounded like someone who had her best interests at heart and talking to him was like talking to someone who had the potential to be her friend.

The constant traffic in the subway was something that obscured people's vision and confused people's sense of hearing. In the middle of a nostalgic boy band conversation between Olimpia and Ada, Emberly's take on it was wanted, which caused Ada to search for her. Looking up, Ada recalled where they last left her—and thankfully, she was still there. However, what sat uncomfortably with Ada was that she was speaking to an adult whose silhouette looked hauntingly familiar.

Olimpia studied the concerned look and traced the gaze, and as soon as Ada stood up, she did too. The overprotective cousin powerwalked over, yet remained at a safe distance, within earshot. Ada called for her right away, demanding Emberly come over to her instantly. The tall employer looked over at Ada and recognized a pretty face such as hers.

"I have to go," Emberly said as she departed. She moved only a step until the gentleman put his hand on her shoulder,

"W-wait, who is that?" he whispered. He slightly bent over and maintained eye-contact, "I thought you said you had no family?"

"You asked about my parents," she corrected, "That's my cousin."

Drawing the line there, Ada confronted him. Before things could escalate he removed his hand from Emeberly's shoulder.

"Don't you ever put your hands on my cousin again, you—"

Before she could finish, the man backed away. Whether it was to avoid trouble or not, he walked down the edge of the platform, carefully squeezing through crowds of people to reach the other end of the subway station. Noel, who hadn't been noticed by any of them yet, snuck up behind them,

Ada grabbed Emberly by the hand and dragged her away. Olimpia remained in place, confused by Ada's actions. Once Emberly was brought over, Olimpia welcomed her into her personal space. She kept looking over her shoulder, seeing the shaggy-haired man eventually disappear out of sight,

"I don't want you ever speaking to that man again, do you understand me? He's evil."

"Why?"

"Just—" Ada almost blew a fuse, causing a couple of eyes to look in her direction. She reasserted herself, "Just don't speak to that man again. He wants to hurt you, do you understand?"

Noel strolled in from the side, looking at the three of them.

"What's wrong?" Olimpia asked.

"That guy is a human trafficker. He barters children. I saw him upstairs giving some kind of deranged speech on the benefits of owning kids or whatever."

"That's Zachariah Perez," Noel randomly interjected.

Ada was disgusted. Noel was sure it was because she didn't fully know much of what went on in Noel's clique, so he clarified that he didn't know Zachariah personally and went on to inform them that Zachariah was part of the council; a claim to which all of their mouths nearly dropped. He went on to explain that he and two other council members came down to the Underworld to check out some of the businesses going on and that Tap's and Noel's shoe "business" was something they were interested in.

"How's that asshole a part of the council?" Olimpia asked, still looking around for him although he was long gone.

"I guess this is a bad time then?" Noel questioned.

"For what?" Olimpia responded.

"Taps and I got offered some special deals with them."

"Meaning…?"

"Meaning they wanna work with us," Noel said, awaiting an expression other than the ones they currently had. The three girls stared in silence. What did this mean? That's what Noel was moving on to explain anyhow, "It means that we could get some extra benefits. Maybe a warm bed to sleep in. Better food. They have another community just for them from what I've heard."

Ada groaned, taking her values and beliefs into play.

"The food chain just doesn't stop, does it? No matter the era."

However, Noel wasn't finished getting to his next point—or rather—his next question: Would Olimpia, Ada, and Emberly come with him if they were offered the chance? Even after what just transpired?

The day went by fairly quickly and for the first time, Noel was surprised to see himself be tolerated around the girls. Ada still showed some resistance but she couldn't remain too cold around the young man who helped save her and her younger cousin. However, Emberly felt different about it. Noel was someone she felt like she had to tolerate because of their past. In her eyes, he wasn't a good guy. A good guy wouldn't do the things he did. Sure, he could've turned out much worse—but this wasn't a period where people should be rewarded because they could've turned out worse. Sure, no one was perfect and everyone did and said things they'd regret, but intentions, motives, and context were vastly important. Maybe Noel had seen his wrongs and maybe he did truly regret what he did, but the only way he could prove that was by bringing back the loved ones he killed. Emberly lost her aunt, cousin, and close friends because of him. Ada survived with his help but what did being with her mean to him? Maybe things would've turned out differently if his family didn't die as well—leaving Ada behind to fend for herself. As far as Emberly could tell, you could trust no one, and if Ada forgave Noel? She was a bigger fool than Ermberly thought.

Emberly found herself in a forest. She was unaware of how she got there or where it even led to. No matter where she turned or no matter where she looked, the forest seemed to stretch out miles as if it was the entire earthscape. Her hair was tied up in a slicked, neat bun and she wore the familiar uniform that she spent the majority of her time at the Chenot's manor—an attire she wanted to forget. Tears streamed down her face, feeling alone already knowing that she was the only person in this universe and that no one would be coming to rescue her no matter how hard she screamed. Her shouts did nothing and no matter how loud she yelled, they amounted to nothing but a whisper. Turning as a result of dire confusion, she noticed a loud horde coming her way. The horde was the only thing capable of making sound. Their snarls and growls were louder than the ambient noises themselves and they brushed up autumn leaves. Emberly ran and hid behind a tree but as she looked up, she saw another horde. They lifelessly walked toward something almost as if they had a purpose, but she was thankful to say it wasn't her. All except one.

But the closer she peered, the more she noticed a nude, elderly man who had a plentiful beard and long hair that hung from the edges, leaving the top bald and glistening. From head-to-toe, the nude man was covered in blood, practically passing as one color. Beside his feet was a Reanimated's corpse, mercilessly disemboweled like a turkey's carcass on Thanksgiving day. The man brought his finger to his lips and shushed, "Shhhhhhh…" he went on, holding the same note for an eternity. His shushing went on and on until Emberly fell into a crouch and covered her ears to dampen out the noise. She let out a silent shriek, feeling as if she were going mad.

That's when she was startled awake.

This was an encounter her mind had difficulty letting go of ever since her and Olimpia's escape from Julien's manor, and it was something she kept to herself. She never understood why it kept haunting her like this over and over but it was becoming easier to deal with as time went on. Emberly slept the rest of the evening. And that was a problem. By the time she'd wake up, it'd be past midnight and she'd be wide awake looking for things to do. She rolled herself out from underneath the train seats. Carefully looking up above her was Ada, completely snoozed. Across on the opposite side was Olimpia. They both did so much during the day that they'd be out like lights by the time it was curfew because things usually slowed down by that time.

She quietly shoved herself out of her child-like sleeping bag and rose to her feet, seeing someone rummaging through the belongings of other sleeping passengers on the train. It was taught by now that when falling asleep, you had to keep your belongings in a position where no one could steal them out from under your nose. Some people lived off of stealing and Emberly wasn't too far from them in a sense.

She stepped foot outside of the train cart and looked to her left, seeing young Newton still outside on the platform, drowsily sitting in a folded chair. Hanging off of one shoulder, Emberly walked towards him while her hand rummaged through her backpack. While putting on her spectacles, she approached him, greeting him just as his eyes looked up at her. He was exhausted.

"Hey, Amber-Lee."

She was stunned by the butchering of her name. She had gotten Emily, maybe even Amber. But never something as ugly as Amber-Lee.

"Emberly," she corrected.

She examined the sales table he watched over, seeing nothing but trinkets. Oddly enough, his employer wasn't around. She had certainly seen him around and described him as a bald man with a beard and a scar on his left brow. He was quite the pervert too. Then again, maybe his employer's absence was a good thing. Given the chance, Newton noticed that her hand was in her bag a little too long,

"Whatcha got there?" he asked. Truly, hoping it'd be more food.

Emberly felt around for whatever she was initially searching for and pulled her hand out, revealing a pair of black shoes. They weren't high tops, but they were better than the abominations he currently had on his feet. She offered it to him,

"Whoa," he expressed in fascination. A smile appeared on his face as he was offered them and he took it from her, "These are for me?" As she nodded, he looked at the shoes in awe at how minimal yet appealing they looked. They were clean as if no one had ever previously walked in them, "How'd you get these? How'd you know what size to get?"

"My cousin knows someone who sells shoes, so I brought you up and she asked if he could get you a pair. He's good at guessing people's foot size, so…"

Newton was a size 5.5, but a 6 wasn't too far off. In fact, it'd last him for some time. Considering the distance and darkness that Noel made his guess in—it was quite impressive. Without wasting any time, he put on his new pair of shoes, instantly disposing of the torn-up ones by leaving them somewhere for someone else to grab. He felt brand new, experiencing a whole new pep in his step as he prepared to break into them. As he strolled towards her he bounced around at the joints. For the first time, his feet felt warm and his soles felt protected. As she expressed how happy it made her seeing him enjoy his gift, he unexpectedly embraced her. Unprepared, she only had room to lift one arm and awkwardly pat his back. Newton thought nothing of it once they broke apart. Claiming that Bishop—his bearded employer—wasn't around to nag at him, he offered Emberly the chance to hang around and talk for a bit, but she declined with a hint that she had important things to do,

"I was actually going to head out," she shrugged.

"Head out?" Newton walked back to his seat and sat down, "You mean go up there?" he pointed towards the ceiling, referencing the outside. Emberly nodded, hoping she wasn't going to be judged. However, Newton was more concerned about her safety, "But isn't it dangerous out there? There's Strollers."

Emberly became momentarily dazed,

"Strollers?"

"Yeah. The dead."

"They're called Reanimated. At least that's what we call 'em," Emberly certified before departing.

Afterward, she zipped up her backpack and flung it over both shoulders, unaware that something had fallen out of one of its pockets. By the time Newton could run to pick it up, Emberly had already vanished. Remaining close to his table, he searched around for her to no avail. Suddenly, his name was called out. "NEWT!" he heard. Looking over, he saw Bishop returning and forcefully tucking his oversized shirt into his pants and buckling up. Before he could be caught, Newton secretly hid Emberly's item in his pocket.

Emberly traveled up the stairs, made her way past the fare gates, and was permitted access outside by one of the guards at the entrance. Although she was just a child, that no longer hindered her anymore. Children, in this world, served all sorts of purposes and they weren't always the face of innocence as they were in the past. A child had to be tried as an adult because they were also capable of committing the same acts, if not better. Feeling as though she had been thrown into the wild, Emberly looked around her surroundings and saw the one thing that played the most important role in her midnight ventures—a Reanimated. She hid somewhere as she waited for its back to turn and snuck up behind it. Jumping onto its shoulders, it feebly collapsed to the ground, unable to hold the sudden weight upright. Once it crashed to the ground, she impaled it through the back of its head. Yanking out her blade, she immediately turned it over, dragged it by the legs into a hidden area, and got to business. By the time she was finished, she crawled out of the same spot, draped with its oversized clothing over her own, covered from head to toe in foul-smelling entrails. Lastly, she frisked it for belongings. As per usual, she found nothing of importance. Prepared, she slowly drifted against the grain of a quartet of Reanimated wandering through an alleyway.

Walking nearly a mile out, she carefully crossed a road that led to an old, Canadian deli. It looked like it had blown up from the inside, having all of its windows broken out and shelves tossed about and picked clean. Creeping towards the back where the bathroom was, a Reanimated, blocking the path, turned to look at her. It was a mid-aged man with brown hair, pale gray skin, and yellow-hued sclera. His left ear was split in half and the remains hung by a piece of cartilage. Seeing that the skinny path was big enough for only one of them, Emberly generously let the reanimated walk out first. She watched its every move as it strolled past her and once it was out of reach, she secretly vanished into the bathroom. She entered one of the stalls and stood on the plastic toilet seat. The bathroom was tiny, so reaching the ceiling was no problem. She pushed aside the foam ceiling tile and pulled out her two remaining fireworks for her to enjoy on the very last night she planned to sneak out—tonight.

However, she heard some noises just outside the bathroom, coming from the hall. Shit! She said to herself. Usually, the Reanimated never returned unless they got a whiff of a human's scent. Quickly getting herself together, she armed herself with her pocket knife. As soon as she crept out, she planned to attack the Reanimated seeing that it's back was turned, but this particular figure turned around and surprised Emberly with a face she recognized from the subway—it was the woman who worked for the same people she stole the fireworks from. She had a beanie over her long messy strands of blond hair and sticking out from her mouth was a cigarette. From the looks of it, she noticed the long ends of the fireworks, sticking out of Emberly's backpack.

"What the hell…?" the woman spoke, clearly possessing the voice of someone who smoked one too many packs. However, she studied Emberly's face and her signature double-bunned hairstyle. She chuckled to herself, "Wish you would've stayed in there, huh?" she taunted. Emberly was terrified. What could this mean? Emberly had never fought a grown woman before and she knew this meant that she would have to face the casualties they promised. Nervously, Emberly held up her knife, causing her opponent to retaliate by arming herself with her very own, "You sure you wanna do this little girl?"

Instead, Emberly tried to bum rush past her but her small frame could do nothing more than knock the cigarette out of the woman's mouth, which in turn got Emberly thrown to the floor and a knife put to her chin. Emberly began breathing heavily, on the verge of sobbing and begging for her life. But before she knew it, she was being holstered out of the deli from behind. Tears already coasted along her eyelashes, but she became even more dumbfounded when she saw herself being brought to the women's other employees—the ones she recognized as Toothless, the giant she stabbed in the leg, and one other man she had never met before,

"No! No! No! Please! I'm SORRY!" she squealed other incomprehensible words.

"Shutup," the woman responded.

Suddenly she called out to her partners, announcing that she had found 'the brat' they followed—music to all of their ears. Eventually, the blond woman's employees met up with them, all being men of more stature and varying pigment than their female counterpart. Their initial look at Emberly had them wondering what the hell kind of drug she was on to be disguised the way she was. What purpose did being daubed in blood serve? For right now, it served as a question that could be answered later. The unrecognizable man pulled out a knife of his own, which made Emberly's heartbeat even faster. She cried through short breaths as he held it up to her neck,

"You wanna steal from me?" He asked rhetorically, having an unspecified Mediterranian accent.

"Chill out, Otis," the woman whipped out her second cigarette and put it in her mouth, unlit.

"You want me to chill out?!" Otis began to rave at his employee, to which she could do nothing but carelessly scoff at, "And exactly how many fireworks did this little bitch steal?"

"Five from what I last remember? I got two from her just now."

"What do you want?" Emeberly managed to get out calmly, "They're just stupid fireworks."

Emberly studied all of them as they exchanged words with one another. What was at hand here? If they wanted to kill her, she would already be dead by now. It wouldn't make a difference. They were in the middle of the city where people turned every day. If she was ever found, how she died wouldn't be uncovered or even matter. She'd be amongst the insignificant dead that roamed the streets and were killed like roaches. She closed her eyes, as her breaths trembled. She hadn't done it for ages but she prayed that she would survive this somehow. She thought about all of the times Ada told her not to sneak out for this exact reason. Suddenly, she heard Otis as her eyes opened,

"Where are the other three?"

Emberly was too scared to lie or give an honest answer. She struggled with speaking, too terrified to even respond,

"Three fireworks means we get three fingers," Toothless chuckled, doing some snipping gestures with his hand.

"You're all forgetting the important part of the bargain," the woman said, sounding almost exhausted having to deal with these three knuckleheads.

"Which was?" Otis said.

"The more unharmed they are, the bigger the reward."

Emberly looked at all of their faces as if they all came to an understanding. She attempted to fight herself out of the woman's grip, ultimately being grabbed by Otis as well. As she struggled to fight out of their holds, she inquired what they wanted to do with her, but they never gave her a clear answer, giving her nothing more than threats to forcibly calm her down. Two others eventually broke off, leaving Otis and the unnamed woman to be left alone with Emberly. After learning that she wasn't going to be killed, she fought to a point where she did nothing but exhaust herself. They waited at some unknown secluded area Emberly had never been. A few moments passed until a black muscle car, with a poor paint job, pulled up into their street, having headlights so bright they nearly gave her a headache. Finally, the car pulled up right beside them with two people in the front seat: A woman and a man. Both redheads. Possibly siblings.

The male in the passenger's side opened up the glove compartment and removed a flashlight. He thought it may have been the effects of the dark, but he flashed it in Emberly's face, nearly stunned. The woman in the driver's seat was equally at a loss for words,

"Why the hell's she covered in blood? What did you do to her?" she questioned.

"Relax," one of them responded, "It's just Stumbler's blood."

When they clarified that it was some weird intensional thing the freak-child did, both of the newly encountered strangers opened up their car doors and swapped places.

"Put her in the backseat," the young woman said as she stood by the passenger side.

"What about our payment?" Otis asked.

"You get your payment after she's taken in and examined. For all we know she could be sick or injured," she said. When concerns about how Emberly was going to be restrained came into question, the red-headed woman gave a response that was remotely alleviating, "We get that this is just a job, but she's still a kid. Just put her in the backseat so we can get going."

Doing as they were told it took a lot of effort to put Emberly into the backseat no matter how hard she fought. When she was finally thrown in, the door was slammed on her before she could try and kick it out. She kicked repeatedly with both legs as she laid on her back and shrieked so loud it rang all four pairs of ears. Just then the car pulled off, leaving Emberly to sob loudly. Still laying on her back, Emberly stared at the rooftop as her eyes pooled up with tears and rolled down the sides of her face.

Not again.

NOT again.