Graffiti filled the walls of surfaces on just about every building the eye could see dotted around the rundown city. Biting remarks, some very simple yet others needlessly elaborate had been written clearly to send a message. "Power to the people." had been written in blood red spray on the marble column of a tall bridge, while "Mayor no more." had been sprayed onto the back wall of a hospital.
The less frequented and shady zones of the city had even become well visited venues for graffiti artists, each one trying to best the other in expressing the growing hatred and rage at the poor excuse for a leader of the city which had been bled drier with every passing day it seemed. Feelings that many had concealed deep down, resurfacing now that a strong leader whose identity remained yet shrouded in mystery had risen to gather them together against a common cause that they too shared with the mysterious figure.
And as the sun set, and darkness began to shroud the sky like a black carpet spreading over a white canvas, a hunched back figure in a large hooded jacket far too large for him crept silently through the shadows, surprisingly agile on his feet considering his lack of footwear.
He walked on and on, only stopping to crouch and turn away when he heard footsteps, praying that the hood in the jacket he had managed to salvage from a garbage bin from the dump would conceal the green on the skin in his unwashed face from any onlookers who would happen to be out and about at this time of day in an already bleak and hostile city which he was unlucky enough to find himself in.
He moved quickly, hunted by his fears, taking care not to step onto any one of the accountable number of broken bottles, pins, jagged edged cans and many other pieces of rubbish which had been scattered onto the alleyway ground. It wouldn't have been so bad if he was wearing shoes, but the pair of sneakers he had been wearing had been lost when in his desperation to take what looked like a deliciously iced slice of cheesecake from a young boy whose large muscular parents were quick to give chase to the thief.
He had almost shed tears of regret upon shoving the small, screaming figure onto the ground. But another look at the thin, trembling sticks he had for his arms and legs and another loud and dismal growl from his belly had driven him mad with anger.
A splitting headache that never seemed to go away caused him to momentarily grimace in pain, and he had broken out of all bounds.
He didn't care that the child who had fished the cheesecake and placed it on the bench they were seated on, was surrounded by a large group of people, many of them much larger than himself. He didn't care that while many of the large and muscular grown ups were wielding a variety of sports equipment like baseball bats and tennis rackets that he himself was not only without a weapon of any kind, but was so starved and weak that every step seemed to strain his muscles to their limit.
The only image in his mind, was the cheesecake and how yummy the icing on the yummy choice of dessert looked so scrumptious to him even from his position behind the bush. The longer he spent fixed on that beautiful cake, the more he felt a horrible itch come over him. An itch he could not suppress even as he clenched his fists and teeth, an itch he felt needed just had to scratch if he was to not go insane.
And with a furious roar, he had at last rushed out from his hiding place and despite his weakened state, managed to drag the child from their perch on the wooden bench and nab the cake as he left his frightened victim screaming on the ground as he made a dash for the nearest exit.
They were on him like an avalanche. "This guy's a child molesting creep, let's string him up." yelled a voice behind him in a gravelly, cold growl as he charged, brandishing the large iron golf club in his hand. He seemed to be the cue for the others to join, as suddenly several tall figures began dropping what they were doing as they dived into the fray, rushing in his direction.
He couldn't see them as he dared not take one glance back, but hastened for the wide open gate which was just before him, hoping to get the crowd confused in the maze of buildings once he left the open, flat grassy turf of the city park.
At least that was what he had hoped.
So desperate and single minded was he, in his frantic attempt to evade his pursuers that he had not noticed the odd positioning of his foot as it stepped onto a slightly loose part of his laces, and caused the entire knot tying the strings together to unravel as he continued to misjudge his steps in his blind panic. The now loosened shoe quickly as he continued to sprint forward, slower than he hoped because of the weakness still present in his feeble legs.
Suffice to say next, he tripped and fell dropping his ill gotten source of nourishment onto the cold and slimy pavement, still damp from the rainstorm he had been forced to weather yesterday.
It was only thanks to sheer luck that he managed to scramble back to his feet, and to continue to outpace the furious mob that was by now so close that he could almost feel the heavy weight of their stocky arms on his shoulders, though in doing so he had somehow managed to loosen the poorly tied knot in his remaining shoe which soon slid off his sweaty feet in a few steps.
Not able to spare a second, he continued to dash through the street running a red as traffic screeched to a halt only just avoiding the crazed beggar speeding through the crowded street as if suicide was his soul intention. But the red light though nearly killing him had bought him valuable seconds which he used to sprint into a dark alleyway and leap onto a conveniently placed rubbish bin before scrambling over a tall stony wall which divided him and the garbage dump which he knew would be totally deserted. Sure enough as he struggled to his feet and brushed himself down as best he could after landing roughly on his back, he didn't see another soul as he cautiously made his way between piles of stinking refuse.
He had returned to the secretive place behind an old warehouse he met with his only friends that night, barefooted and weak having had nothing to eat but a banana peel which he had forced himself to bite on, savoring every second the nasty odor hung in his mouth.
And that was where he was heading now, as he shuddered and pulled his jacked tighter, thankful to heaven that this discarded outfit at least had the zip intact.
He was fairly confident no one had followed him here, but paranoia left from the several times his assumptions had let him down forced him to take one final blinking glance back, paying especial attention to three colored sparks which were bound to want a piece of him should they clap eyes on him even briefly.
The only sound he could hear was his own breathing as for what seemed like the longest minute of his life, he peered back the way he came, not daring to move.
He allowed himself a weak pant of relief, before slowly slinking forward, stopping every few steps to check once more for any sign of movement.
It was only when he had closed the remaining distance between himself and the warehouse, and he heard the pitter patter of light and cautious footsteps which he knew belonged to his equally as unprivileged friends that he allowed himself to relax and sit down, confident that not even those three spoiled brats claiming to be "heroes for the city" would find them here.
They sat in awkward silence, communicating only through mime the terrible sensation of malnourished they all shared from having not eaten a proper meal in at least days.
It was only when one of them sighted a messy line of writing, painted in silver ink on the wall they had been leaning into to sit that they looked directly at each other each one as puzzled as the other.
Someone had been here, while they were away, trying to stay away from each other during the daylight hours lest one of them be captured and brought to jail along with the others accompanying him.
"The mayor needs to die. Die mayor die" it read, and beside it was a piece of paper glued to the wall. It had been significantly damaged by water but some of the writing was still legible.
"The mayor only cares about himself... doesn't treat everyone equally... doesn't care about everyone's safety" one of the more readable paragraphs seemed to read. "Need...stand up against him.. our rights..." another one of the less tattered parts of the large paper said.
The green skinned young man took a while to reflect on what his friend had just been looking at. And as he made out the very blurry words "join the fight. Stop injustice" at the bottom of the poster as well as a large photograph of the mayor yawning lazily at the top of the page, he allowed himself to crack a small grin.
Finally someone somewhere who didn't see him as a crazed lunatic when he ranted on and on about how much he loathed that evil man who had stripped him and his friends of almost all of the few rights they had. "The mayor. I accuse that man. That man stole the food from my mouth." he had managed to yell the last time the coppers dragged him into a holding cell where he spent the next 3 days gnawing his nails since the prisons here were too greedy to spare him anything that could be remotely called a meal, and he had been thrown into a dump at the back of the prison, which was already filled with stinking bodies when the officers found him one morning still and not moving and had luckily taken him for dead.
His excitement only grew as he saw sprayed onto another wall of what appeared to be a smaller warehouse, another line of writing this time reading "Freedom is coming. Very soon Mayor will be gone." .There were other messages painted onto the same building, but he had read and seen what he wanted.
It didn't matter if nothing happened for a while, since all he had to do now was to hold on. Whoever took charge next couldn't be worse than the lousy skinflint counting up his money in that cozy office with central heating and all the yummy food he was bound to be munching on, while he and his gang stood out in the freezing cold forced to weather insult after insult thrown at his door for various reasons but mostly because of the color of their skins.
"But it's not my fault I was born this way. I'm sorry, please forgive me." he had once tried pleading, only to be booed back into his alley as the group of townsfolk he was trying to entertain with a song and a bin which he was using as a drum turned on him once they realized where the sound of the song he was trying to sing came from.
No workplace would take them for an interview when they turned up, and revealed their green faces they had tried to conceal with hoodies they had somehow managed to find just for the occasion and they couldn't go back to school now that those nasty trio of do gooders had launched a smear campaign against them.
"Here take this." his friend interrupted his thoughts by tossing him a bag of chips, small but still satisfying and filling.
"Where did you get that?" he demanded, surprised as he was happy to finally have some proper food for a change."
"This girl, this girl saw me crying on the sidewalk this morning and she just tossed me these. Said she'd give me more but this is all she had."
"What else did she tell you?" he could not help asking, doing his best not to sound rude or angry since for once in his life he felt indebted.
"She says that things will be different soon. And then I think, well then she left. Said something about not blurting about it to her sisters or something, I don't know. Seemed in a bit of rush to get going or something."
The man scratched his chin thoughtfully for a moment, before shrugging. "Whatever. As long as there's something for us to eat, I really don't give the slightest care where it comes from."
Thank you all you epic people for reading the next chapter. Yes, I did read your reviews which you left me as few as they were were and I would like to thank every one of you who supported me thus far in encouraging me to keep writing.
These take a long and exhausting process to think up and write and I promise that we will see more of our heroine Bubbles soon, as well as other less seen and less valued characters soon. I'm not very good at writing or characterizing characters so sorry if anyone seems out of character. But anyhow thank you. And as usual I would like to hear what you believe is coming up for Townsville so that it can finally be the safe and happy place the girls always wanted it to be. Thank you all and I will see you in the next chapter. Thank you and bye bye.