Enough (Loud House Fanfic)

To Survive

(Shoutout to KenB3nz123 for suggesting the name of this chapter)

Was Lincoln dead? Well, he almost was. He, himself wasn't...but his phone was. He never packed a phone charger, so his phone died within the first 2-3 days of his farewell. That's why he never responded to the text from Lori.

Now it was 4 weeks after he left home. It was basically a miracle that Lincoln was still alive at this point. He had lost multiple pounds due to starvation, almost gotten murdered multiple times, and countless other incidents had occurred.

The good news was that Lincoln's ankle was almost fully recovered. He had already taken off his boot and was able to walk normally, but he still hadn't risked running and sprinting. 

That was the least of his concerns, though, because he was on track to die. He had been out of money for multiple days now and was forced to be restricted to dumpster-diving and finding whatever he can eat to survive.

His conditions were horrible. Lincoln even knew that if his sisters saw him like that, they would feel bad. He missed them a little bit but he still didn't want to live with people who hated him like that, so he viewed this as a partial benefit.

Lincoln kind of bounced back and forth between areas of Austin and West Garfield Park (both were incredibly dangerous areas on the Southwest side of Chicago), and he had witnessed just about everything, ranging from gang wars to police arrests. Now he was about to witness something even worse...something that would leave him trembled forever.

He was chilling out in an alleyway in West Garfield Park when he saw another man walking through the street. Suddenly, a black minivan pulled up, and about three other men exited the van to confront the man.

"Oh, god," Lincoln murmured to himself.

"We had a deal, [censored], so where's the [censored]?!" One of the minivan punks asked the other man. They had obviously known each other.

"I...I don't have it. I'm sorry, Lamar," the pedestrian answered. 

"You better be playing around, otherwise I'm gonna blow your [censored] brains out," Lamar threatened as he pulled out a pistol and pressed it against the man's head, "Now, Deandre, where are my narcotics and money?!" 

"I told you, I don't have it, homie," Deandre replied, nervous. Lincoln overheard the whole conversation.

"Well, you know what that means..." one of Lamar's goons said. Suddenly Lamar pulled the trigger, and Deandre's head was obliterated. Lincoln began to cry just at the sight of witnessing somebody being murdered in front of him like that.

Lamar overheard Lincoln's cries and took a peek to see Lincoln hiding behind a dumpster.

"Well, well, well...looks like we have a witness," Lamar called out to his goons, as they all faced Lincoln. Lincoln was filled with so much fear he didn't even think of escaping.

"Look, kid, we don't like having witnesses, so we gotta do something that you might not like," one of Lamar's toadies shouted. Lamar raised the pistol and aimed it towards Lincoln.

"[Censored], Lamar, cops!" The third man yelled, and Lamar ushered his gang into the van they arrived in.

"If you ever snitch, you'll be joining Deandre over here...we'll know if you talk, [censored]," Lamar insisted towards Lincoln before leaving.

"Great, now I have enemies, too," Lincoln said to himself, worried. He had to retreat somewhere else, otherwise, Lamar's gang might not take any chances and just kill Lincoln regardless.

Lincoln left the neighborhood before the police questioned him because as Lamar said, they would know if he snitched on them.

Another thing that was bad for Lincoln was that he never packed his walkie-talkie device to communicate with Clyde, and even if he did, it too would've run out of batteries, just like his phone. He hadn't talked to any of his friends in weeks

The lifestyle Lincoln had to endure in the ghetto was terrible. He started becoming grumpy and crazy, and his habits changed, too. He never cared about hygiene now, and he started listening to super explicit music, like hip-hop, making his attitude even more different. He still had one quality that he had before he left; his love for basketball, and now, he was going to [try to] play.

He traveled to Austin where he started out and found the same basketball court he saw when he moved here, with one kid at it, who surprisingly looked the same age as Lincoln. Lincoln didn't want to ask the kid if he could borrow his basketball, so Lincoln had to get one, somewhere and somehow.

Lincoln had an idea...a very makeshift one. There was a local arcade nearby, and it contained a few basketball games, so he could try to steal one of the basketballs from the game.

He sneakily succeeded in the plan. He brought it back to the court, and the kid was still there. Little did Lincoln know at the time, but this kid would end up saving his life.