Author's Notes: On April 2nd, 2022, my bunny rabbit Sequin passed away. She was 8 years and 9 months old, and died of natural causes. I've been coping with that lately, so weirdly enough it seemed like a good time to revisit this fic. Writing helps me when I'm dealing with things, and this time is no different. I'll miss her, but time heals all wounds eventually. This won't effect my writing schedule though…I'll be as slow as ever :P

Chapter 5

Scavengers

"Oh boy! It's time! Oh boy, oh boy! It's time, it's time!"

Big Billy's excited proclamations woke up everyone else in the gang, as well as little Marny. She could get used to sleeping on a broken bassinet, she could get used to living with a gang of creepy teenagers, but one thing she had trouble getting used to was Big Billy's derpy shouting voice.

"Billy, this better be good," Ace warned him, "I was dreamin' about a booze cruise with Ms. Bellum and that blonde chick with the lady coin fetish."

"It's new trash day!" Billy cheered gleefully, ignorant of Ace's grumpiness.

"New trash day?" Arturo repeated, "Why didn't you say so, ese? Get up everybody! It's trash day!"

One by one the gang woke up, and they all looked excited. Marny didn't know what was so great about trash day. Her brother Chester used to always complain about having to take out the trash. Then again, this was the dump. Where did people who lived in garbage take their garbage?

The answer was as simple as it was silly. Billy picked up Marny and took her with him, and she could see why they were all so happy. Several dump trucks had pulled up and were dumping mounds of garbage off in the distance. Marny wasn't sure why this was cause for celebration. Wouldn't that just make this stinky and rotten place stink worse?

"Alright then, everybody got the holes in their shoes gummed up?" Ace asked.

The others nodded, though Marny wasn't sure what they were talking about. Her shoes didn't have any holes, and Grubber didn't have shoes at all.

"Good. Let's go explorin'," Ace ordered confidently.

The gang followed Ace to a newly dumped trash pile, and Marny finally began to understand. They were looking for treasure in the muck and mire. Grubber actually dove into the pile like an Olympic swimmer, and Arturo made a trash angel. It looked disgusting, and it explained somewhat why these guys looked so diseased and smelled so bad. She wondered if they had been turned green because of Ace the vampire, or if they were always green, or if the trash had somehow done it.

Ace found a sturdy wooden box among the mess and sat down on it, content to watch everyone else scavenge for junk. It had been a few weeks since they found anything useful, but maybe today would be different. At least it was something for his friends to do to keep their minds off all the nothing there was to do besides this. The complete lack of structure worked best for the lazy thugs, but it also meant sometimes they had to get creative with their time.

"Hey, how come we hass to do everything?" Snake griped when he saw Ace just lounging around.

Ace answered this question in the typical way, by punching Snake's oversized nose. Snake rubbed his sore nose and went back to rooting around in the trash without complaint. For the two teens that was the end of it, but Marny saw what happened and got scared.

She hid behind Billy, who was just standing there staring at a length of old chicken wire. She knew now, Ace could hit, and he could even hit the bigger kids. That meant if she did anything he didn't like he would hit her too. She knew then that not talking was the right move, and just hoped that Billy could protect her from an angry Ace. If he couldn't, she didn't know what she would do.

Marny held onto Billy's pant leg and hid her face. Billy didn't notice for a few minutes, so engrossed was he in that chicken wire, but after a moment he finally realized the little girl was there.

"What's wrong, Fluffy?" Billy asked, "You don't like trash day?"

Marny didn't look up at him, but rather kept her face buried in his jeans. Billy, seeing she was upset, picked her up and held her.

"Did you see it too?" Billy asked suddenly as he held her.

Marny looked up at him questioningly. Did he see Ace hit Snake? Did it bother him too? Marny pointed at Snake to see if they were talking about the same thing.

"Snake? Did he find something?"

Okay, so Billy didn't see it. Marny wasn't sure what to do. She was afraid of Ace, but she didn't know how to tell Billy. Would he even believe her if he didn't see it for himself? Would he hit her too? Would he be angry if she said anything bad about Ace? No, she couldn't say anything, so she just contented herself with burying her face in Billy's shirt. Billy lifted her away, and put her down next to his find; the chicken wire.

"This stuff looks like barb wire," Billy commented as he pointed to the errant piece of trash, "Barb wire is what they use in prison to hurt people who escape. They use it in ABC Land too."

Marny cocked her head to the side, not really understanding what ABC Land was.

"Billy hate barb wire," Billy said gravely as he sat down in some fetid sludge, "You ever see barb wire, Fluffy?"

Marny shook her head no. Billy then picked her up and sat her down on his stomach, which overlapped his lap. He then picked up the loose wire to examine it.

"Barb wire look like this, but it have spikes that make me go 'ow!'," Billy explained in his own simplistic way, "ABC Land was the first place Billy ever see barb wire. Kids try to escape, so the grown up lady said no and put up barb wire. Billy escape though. Billy didn't need to climb the wall. When Billy got big enough, Billy pushed the wall away and left. Now no grown up will ever hurt Billy again."

Marny smiled up at Billy then. She imagined herself getting strong like Billy someday and being able to protect herself from everyone who ever tried to hurt her too. She could tell Billy understood, at least on some level, what it was like to be small and scared. For some reason, that made her like him more.

That night the gang came in after a long day of playing in the trash. They didn't find much out there, but were happy with what they did manage to bring home.

Arturo found a pair of baby shoes in his size that didn't look too bad. They were black and shiny, yet they also used Velcro. Perfect. Billy brought back some pizza crusts and bags of expired meat he found from a restaurant downtown. They would have to cook the meat until it was practically jerky, but they could eat it. Ace found a mouse trap. It wasn't much, but it still worked so he kept it. Snake found a sack of used pens. Surely one of them still had ink, right?

"Hey, anyone seen Grubber?" Ace asked the others.

"He'ss ssstill playing in the trash," Snake replied.

"Of course he is," Ace sighed, "Okay, let's start a fire and start grillin' this junk."

Billy went to get some sticks, and Arturo pulled out a lighter. Marny watched as the boys worked together to make a fire, the gears in her mind still turning from earlier. Billy was a big strong man, but Marny had only recently figured out that he wasn't always that way. He used to be a kid like her. A kid that was scared, neglected, and probably hurt. He didn't stay that way though. He got big, and he got strong. That was when Marny came to the conclusion that if she did things the way Billy did them, then she could be big and strong too.

A few minutes later Grubber came back, sporting a black feather boa that had been deprived of feathers and adorned with mud. The ensemble made him look even wilder than usual, and Marny turned away so he wouldn't see her looking at him. Grubber paid no mind to anyone and sat down next to Snake, who in turn paid no attention to Grubber's impromptu fashion statement.

While the rancid meat cooked the gang just sat around watching the fire. The place smelled even worse than before, which seemed impossible until it happened. Marny looked up at Billy to see what he was doing, and saw that he was picking around in his belly button. Well, when in Rome…

Marny unbuttoned her overalls so she could get to her belly button too, but when she lifted up her shirt Grubber saw that something was wrong.

"Pfft?" Grubber addressed Snake.

"What isss it?" Snake asked, relieved to have something to do besides watch meat burn.

"Pfft pfft, prrft pft," Grubber explained quietly despite the girl not being able to understand him.

"What are you talking abouts?" Snake whispered.

Grubber pointed to Marny, who was copying Big Billy by picking at her belly button, and Snake covered his face with his hands when he saw what Grubber saw.

"That looksss…infected," Snake commented softly.

"Pfft," Grubber added.

"Yeah…that kinda makesss sssense," Snake nodded, dumbfounded, "How isss she ssstill…you know, not ssscreaming?"

Marny meanwhile didn't hear the gangsters talking about her. She was too busy trying to imitate Big Billy. When he scratched his head, she scratched her head. When he shifted in place, she shifted in place. When he looked down at her, she looked away so he wouldn't notice she had been staring at him. She knew grown ups didn't like to be looked at unless they were talking to her.

"Don't worry Fluffy, dinner will be ready soon," Billy smiled warmly.

Marny just nodded but didn't make eye contact. She wondered if he would get mad at her for copying him. She always got mad when her brother copied her. Of course, he was making fun of her then. Would Billy know she wasn't making fun of him, but just trying to get stronger like he was?

"I've never seen Billy so patient around dinner time," Ace remarked to Arturo, "Normally he asks every two minutes if dinner's ready yet. Who knew a kid could take his mind off food?"

"Si, maybe Billy would be a good papi someday," Arturo shrugged, "I dunno."

"I doubt it," Ace replied nonchalantly, "He'll probably be dead soon. Dude's as big as a house and can't dodge a punch to save his life."

"Ace?" Arturo's voice took on a more somber tone, "Do you think this gang can survive without Billy? He's the muscle, you know."

"No, but I don't think it'll matter," Ace replied, "We'll just take our jail time then, and the government will have to keep us alive."

"Wow, you think of everything," Arturo replied, impressed.

"Acce?" Snake suddenly interjected, "We needs to talk."

"Why you whisperin'?" Ace asked, annoyed, "You get somethin' stuck in your throat?"

"No," Snake replied, and then leaned in closer to say, "The kid'sss hurt. She lifted up her shirt, and we sssaw a big wound. It looked like a burn, but could be sssomething elssse. It looked old, but not too old."

"You think she got hurt in the trash?" Ace inquired.

"No. Thisss looksss too old to have happened here," Snake clarified, "Bosss, what do we do?"

"What else?" Ace shrugged, "We eat."

With those words Ace poked a two pronged fork into the fire and pulled out a piece of charred meat. One by one he served the food to everyone, and most of the gang forgot their troubles while they ate. Ace looked at Marny for a moment, just to see if he could see what Snake and Grubber saw. She looked content as she tried to rip the meat away with her teeth. He noticed she kept looking up at Big Billy to see how he ate, and she would eat the same way. It was kind of cute, if a little odd.

Her face didn't show off that she was in pain, but when Ace started looking for signs of distress he began to see the pattern. She winced every now and then, she rarely touched her upper abdomen, and her teeth clenched more than they should. So, she really was hurt and trying to hide it from the gang. Ace didn't really know what to do about that. They couldn't go to a hospital, as they couldn't afford it. He could pour alcohol on a wound, but they didn't have any at the moment.

Ace tried to just eat and forget about it. When he looked around he could see Snake was also watching her, and was also having trouble eating. If this kid died in their care they would probably go to death row. They had to figure out a way to make her better, and soon.