The smell of rotting puddles of what used to be water stung her nose and burned her eyes forcing her to rub them both.

It was for a second, but in that one second, she found herself looking at dozens of people wearing armor.

Even if she was at the very bottom of the city and struggled just to live, she could tell that the stranger's armor lacked most if not all of the necessary technology that was common within the city, but that didn't make the strangers any less dangerous.

She tried to make herself as small as possible, so that even if the strangers did notice her, then they would consider her presence so insignificant that they would leave her alone.

She watched as the strangers began to inspect their surroundings, and her eyes followed the bravest of them as they entered the abandoned buildings.

This was the old part of the city, a place where the forgotten and worthless lived, there was nothing valuable here.

Even the lives of the people within this part of the city were considered to be of so little worth that if someone didn't starve to death, they were killed and eaten by someone else that just wanted to live one more day.

The sound of metal boots coming closer alerted her that the strangers had decided, that she was worth something, and as such she couldn't hide any longer.

She stood up as fast as she could and drew her light blade, but before she could do anything she found that her knife was now held by the armored stranger.

She turned to run, but before she could give a single step she found that she was surrounded.

"Easy there miss, we just have a couple of questions." one of the strangers said to her, but in her panic, she failed to notice which of them had spoken.

"Don't kill me." she said to them.

"Trust me if we wanted you dead, you would already be dead."

"Now I'll give this back to you if you put it away and tell us everything you know."

The man behind her aid, and as she turned to look at the man that had so easily disarmed her, she found that he was unusually clean, the man's face- hair- blue armor, and boots were all clean.

She began to feel her heart beating faster and faster and she could feel herself breathing faster as she knew who these people were.

They were people from the main city and she was a rat that they had just caught.

The people from the main city liked to come to this part of the city or the Old City in groups, they would hunt down the people of the old city and kill them.

They claimed to be doing pest control, as the inhabitants of the old city were nothing more than vermin that needed to be exterminated.

She hesitantly took her light blade from the man's hand and she was about to cut her own throat when the man spoke again.

"Does anyone own these buildings or do gangs control anything here?"

"She shook her head, if anyone owned anything here then they had long since given up on it.

The few gangs that did exist here lived closer to the Main city and it was because of them that most if not all of the food that people tried to bring to the Old City never made it here.

"No." she answered the stranger.

'No as in, I don't know or no as in no one owns them?" the man said to her.

"No one comes here everything was abandoned a long time ago." she answered the stranger.

The man smiled, and before she could even consider screaming, or killing herself she was dragged into the closest building.

The inside of the building was dark and she could barely see anything, she expected the strangers to kill her, torture her or use her.

What she didn't expect was for them to put what looked like a clean blanket on the floor and place what could only be called fresh food on top of it.

"Let's eat." the same man said to everyone before he handed her a strange-looking ball.

She looked at the strange ball for a moment but she didn't know what to do with it, did he expect her to eat it.

"What don't you like oranges? well, we have other kinds of fruit." he said to her.

She couldn't believe what she had just heard, if what the stranger had said was true then she held something that only the highest members of society ate, an orange.

Oranges were things that everyone knew existed but no one ever saw with their own eyes.

Sure she could see them on the screens that were scattered about the city or on holographic projectors that somehow still worked, but no one in the old city had ever seen much less held one.

She turned her attention to the blanket and her mind nearly stopped working, was that an apple?

Who were these people she silently asked herself as she hesitantly reached for the fruit and grabbed it before taking a bite.

She could feel the hardness of the fruit becoming softer as she chewed, and her mouth was somehow filled with both flavor and water as she finished chewing.

"The others should be here soon, we have a lot of work to do." one of the strangers said to everyone in the room.

No one said anything after that, yet even if they remained silent, she took advantage of that they were feeding her, so she ate until she couldn't eat anymore, if she was going to die then she would do it with a full stomach.

When the food was gone the strangers told her to leave or stay if she wanted, but no one was going to sleep tonight.

She watched as the strangers drew their swords and began to take watch.

Every time a light or the sound of something walking was heard, they hid behind the walls of the building.

It was as if they were expecting something to happen.

She didn't bother to try and sleep, if these men despite being heavily armed and armored were afraid of something then it would be stupid of her to relax for even a minute.

Yet even as the night passed nothing happened and it was before the sun rose that she began to hear the sound of marching feet.

She watched as the strangers walked out of the building and began to bring people into it.

The building began to be filled with people and so she decided to leave, as she wasn't going to be welcomed soon.

As she stepped out, she found herself looking at what could only be thousands of men- women, and children wearing the same strange armor.

Some were looking around curious about their surroundings, while others had begun to explore and so were now foolishly separating from the group.