Rangers Apprentice AU-Police Force

Episode 8 Part 2: The Other City

Will sucked in his breath sharply as he viewed the building that had once been home to countless orphans. Seeming to doze in the sun that filtered weakly through the cluster of ramshackle dwellings, it reminded him of a very tired person who had sat down for a rest, only to never rise again. Shutters on the windows hung loose, the brick crumbled and cracked in sections, and the tiny walkway that they had ran up and down with, was now littered and weed choked. 

"I didn't realize.." he trailed off as a part of him inside suddenly hollowed out. It hadn't been much, but it was home. Had been home. He could still see many of their faces in his minds eye, and the feeling of kinship that they'd shared coming from nothing but having everything, with each other as family. Closing his eyes, Will imagined he could still heard the voices of the other children as they ran out the door. Horace interrupted his melancholy thoughts as he cleared his throat loudly.

"I didn't know how to break it to you, pal. The place has been shut up for a year or more now."

 "But why?"

Horace gestured around them. "Take a look. This place is ran by gangs, more often than not. And even though they tried, the sisters eventually had to relocate. It's just a bad place for kids."

 Will nodded his head, knowing in his heart that he should have expected this. Yet another part of his life was being erased. "Do you mind if I look around briefly?" He asked, feeling foolish even as he spoke the question aloud. They should just make tracks. Halt would say he was taking unnecessary risks, and being just plain stupid. But while he was here... He couldn't just leave.

"Knock yourself out." Shifting, Horace glanced about them, his blue eyes narrowing. "But let's make it snappy."

 There were small, dank alleyways on either side of the building, and Will skirted his way through one of them, stopping to take a look inside the window at the back. Inside everything looked tossed about and he didn't doubt but what the place was a meeting house some nights. He kept the tour brief, coming back to where Horace stood with increasing agitation, in under five minutes.

"Now, let's beat it," His friend said with undisguised relief. Will nodded, but they hadn't take more than a few steps when he grabbed Horace's arm, halting their progress.

"What's eating you now?" The tall young man grumbled but Will cut him off with an urgent wave of his hand, head cocked to the side.

"Listen."

They waited, their straining ears picking up the creaks and shifts of the buildings shifting in their states of decay, the sound of a shutter banging as the wind came swooping down the alley. Will had begun to think he had imagined it when it came again. The sound of someone in trouble.

"This way." 

He barely noted Horace's protest as he darted away, keeping to the shadows and slipping into a side ally as if he were one of the many cats slinking along it. He knew Horace was behind him without turning around; as stealthy as he tried to be, Horace had never mastered control over his feet. For a moment Will considered asking him to stay behind but that would only take more time involving an argument that he, Will, would ultimately loose at. 

Just keep your head, Treaty, he admonished himself. That should be easy enough. They were only investigating, after all.

Easing along in the dimmer light, Will felt part of him resurface. His senses tingled with recognition. He knew these streets. And he knew the dead end that they suddenly came upon very well indeed; only this time the dread he felt from the recognition happened to be because it was filled with several toughs, their attention from a figure huddled against the wall broken as the young reporter and officer suddenly appeared, crunching to a halt on broken glass and trash.

 They were just teens, but Will counted five in a glance, armed while he and Horace stood empty handed. Sharp faces pinched by hunger and hard living turned their way, cold eyes flickering and lips curled in disdain as they took in the new arrivals to their back alley meeting. Some grasped wooden ball bats, others held what Will recognized as switchblades. His stomach clenched. What had he drug them into?

 "Well, this is just swell," Horace muttered from behind.