Society

Chapter 37

I walked out into the streets and was almost blinded by the sunlight which I hadn't seen much of lately. I looked around as my eyes adjusted to my scenery, there were lines and lines of houses with cars whizzing by, I felt my heart sink as I looked at the labyrinth ahead of me. I shrugged off my concerns and quickly shot across the road slipping now a side alley. I assumed that if I was to find anyone it would be somewhere like here. I walked through the alleys and passed a few groups of homeless people all of whom ran at the mere sight of me.

As I was ready to resign myself to being unable to find anyone I noticed a small girl, who looked like she was only ten or so years old. I walked up to her and crouched down next to her. She looked up at me with doe like eyes surrounded by dirt and dishevelled hair.

"Hi there honey, could you help me out?"

She looked at me, slowly scanning my appearance before opening her mouth to speak. I noticed that she was missing a lot of teeth most likely not due to simply growing up.

"Mummy said not to talk to the people who carry guns."

She raised her small, callused hand and pointed to the gun that poked out from underneath my shirt. I smiled at her and quickly detached my gun and placed it at her feet.

"Can you help me now?"

She took a second to think about her answer before giving me a toothless grin and nodding her head. I smiled as I finally had a chance to find this guy. I took out my mission paper and opened it up between us.

"Have you ever seen this man?"

She screwed up her face for a moment and was lost deep in thought before her face lit up and she went to answer me.

"Casey!"

Both of our heads shot up as a woman rounded the corner and a look of horror filled her face. I turned to Casey who began to walk towards the woman but I grabbed her and held her against me, drawing my knife against her throat. Casey let out a somewhat confused cry and the woman went to run forwards.

"I wouldn't do that, I have some unfortunate reflexes."

The woman froze and Casey looked up at me from beneath my blade.

"OK, what do you want?"

I looked up at the woman who was hesitantly edging closer to us.

"I don't want to harm you, plus Casey here has been helping me. I need information on a man, care to help?"

The woman looked between me and Casey incredulously.

"Fine, just let my baby go."

I slowly lowered my knife and Casey turned round fear in her eyes. I smiled at her, trying to reassure her but my still drawn knife didn't help much.

"Hey, it's ok, I won't hurt you. Now where did you see the man?"

She obviously didn't trust me like she had a few minutes ago but fear made her smart enough to answer my question.

"Mummy was talking to him yesterday."

I looked up at the mother and motioned for her to come closer, she quickly walked up behind Casey, gripping her tight. I opened up my mission paper and showed her the man.

"Seen him?"

She nodded her head almost instantly, a quiet anger seemed to brew in her eyes.

"Yeah, that bastard likes selling us out to save his own hide."

I raised my eyebrow, this must be what they meant when they said that he wouldn't be protected by others.

"Any idea where I can find him?"