Pushing Daises

One

"Hey, wake up."

Says a deep voice that echoes throughout the entire space. The voices owner sticks out a leg and kicks the small bundle of blankets in front of him. They give a slight shake, like it had suddenly gotten a chill. He hops out onto the cement ground and bangs on the van.

"I said wake up!"

The bundle shoots apart leaving only a girl sitting on the ground. Her eyes are now open in panic as she quickly searches the area. After several seconds of confusion, it soon dawns on her as to where she is.

She focuses on the men in front of her. She soon recognizes one of them, the one that had been yelling, as the one who taken her. She stands up quickly and backs herself as far as she could, her back presses against cold metal. The man scoffs and says,

"Please just come out. I won't hurt you."

He says this almost jokingly and the girl eyes him wearily, not moving an inch.

"I promise." Continues the man, reaching out a hand. He squints his eyes at her and beckons her out. She glances at him and for a moment almost doesn't take it. But, given the circumstances, she takes it anyways. He helps her down and she lands on the ground, some fallen leaves cracking underneath her shoes.

"This way." The man grunts, shoving his thumb to their left towards a bunch of trees: where if you were to look over you could see the walls of a very large sanctuary.

The girl wraps her jacket around her more tightly and shivers in the cool air. The sky is a light shade of red and the trees are almost bare. Winter is soon to come. She follows the four men and hopes that wherever they're taking her it would be better than where she was. They follow a road that had several abandoned cars on the side. The only sounds were that of jingling metal from the backpacks the group carried and the sing-song of birds in the trees.

"Almost there!" One of the younger guys spoke. "Ah, I can't wait to sleep in my own bed tonight." He smiles so broadly that his eyes squint. Another man hits him upside the head. "Just be glad you have a bed." He glances at the small girl that is trailing behind them. "Some people haven't had the luxury of that in a long time." The younger one nods and shuffles away, probably to escape further embarrassment.

After almost fifteen minutes of walking an enormous cement wall comes into view. It's at least sixty feet tall and the girl could still easily see the ends of it to her left and right. As they get closer she sees the giant metal poles that are reinforcing it. She stares in awe at the structure and quickly wonders what lay inside.

She gulps and turns to the man who had kicked her awake and notices that he has a faint scar that runs from his right eyebrow to the top of his upper lip. They near the wall and he reaches out and knocks on a door three times, the noise eerie in the quiet forest. The girl glances at the way they came, searching for any movement. All she sees is the breeze moving the trees and bushes. She looks back and the door slowly opens to reveal a mans tanned wrinkly face.

"Ahhh~" Was all he said, nodding and flashing a toothless grin. He opens the door with a loud creak and the group pushes through, making it inside. You can tell just how exhausted everyone is just by the way they carry their gear so tiredly and make a small sighing noise every once in a while. Inside the walls was just a neighborhood. Houses lined them on the right and left, some looking occupied while others fell to ruin.

"C'mon kid." The man with the scar mutters. He nudges her forward with his hand. She hardly notices his touch because she's so enthralled by where they are. As they walk they pass more houses. It looks like a common neighborhood but because it's so messy it looks more medieval looking. The girl realizes that it is just a neighborhood that has been bordered so no one else can enter.

She must have been walking too slow, because Scarface grabs her arm and drags her along. Being too little to fight back, she just let him do it. She was so busy looking at all the people; the skinny ones, some fat ones, and even other kids, that she didn't notice that the group had gotten smaller with every step. As they kept walking, someone would say their goodbye and then head off in another direction and she decided that they were heading home. She suddenly wondered where she was going-where is this stranger taking her? She looks up at him. He's staring straight ahead, his dirty face worn from the cold wind.

He pulled her into a driveway and then into a two-story house. It looked nicely furnished on the outside but on the inside it was quite messy and smelt of damp cloth.

"Here," the man said, letting go of her arm. He knelt down to look the girl in her eyes. "It's not much, I know. But it's still more than what you had." His eyes looked sad as he showed her upstairs. "This is where your bedroom will be." He pushes open a creaking door to reveal what used to be (presumably) a boys room. She gasped in delight. The walls were a light shade of blue, and all the furniture painted a shade of black. After happily walking around the room, she turned to Scarface, who was leaning in the doorway, and smiled.

"Thank you." She said and he gave a slight smirk.

"Of course." He said and then he stood a little straighter, now realizing that he has someone to care for. He racked his brain for something to ask her. She looked at him expectantly with curious brown eyes. Finally he decided to tell her his name and finally ask hers. "You can call me Ben. What's your name?"

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