Sugar Coated

>>chapter one<<

Running.

That was all Riley knew.

Ever since the brutal death of her mother and father she's been running from death.

They had found a perfect place, so they thought. They camped on top of an old  store roof when a few men came up and killed her parents right in front of her eyes. It was frightening and scared her for probably, the rest of her life. Nothing is worse than watching your parents get murder right before you.

Riley escaped and ran... Ran and ran and ran but somehow she found herself back on top of the roof where her family was killed. Staring at the now dried blood stains of where her parents once laid. The blood wasn't the bright red it once was, but now a nasty brown, slowly fading away from the hot Georgia heat n

Her saddened thoughts were disrupted when she heard the desperate pleas for help from a man near her. It sounded near, very close.

Riley looked all around for the source of the ruckus, finding a man cuffed to a metal pipe on the building beside her. He was screaming and pulling hard on the handcuffs that held him in place.

The man hadn't noticed Riley's presence yet and was still screaming obscenities into the air. Every curse word known to man was spit out in one sentence. Some words Riley didn't even recognize but she knew they couldn't mean anything good.

She noticed a group of biters shoving their arms through the small opening in the door, that was clearly chained shut from the inside, trying to break their way onto the roof to get themselves a nice meal.

Riley was only 13 but she was strong and tough for her age. Knowing the guilt she would feel if she didn't atleast try to help, she crossed over to the building the man was on by a wooden plank that was conveniently placed to connect the buildings. God forbid another man die before her. She had already witnessed enough death.

"Please God help me" the man plead into the air, pulling and yanking at the cuffs, causing his wrist to blister and bleed.

Riley cautiously approached the man, trying to stay hidden for as long as should could. Who knows what kind of man he is and why he's cuffed in the first place. He could be a psychopath who tried to murder a group of people.  

Riley accidentally stepped on a broken piece of glass, causing a loud crunching sound from beneath her feet. The man stopped his pleas for help and snapped his head in her direction.

The two shared an awkward silent glance before he decided to break the silence. "Hey kid, ye' gonna stare or ya gonna help me out?!" He shouts at her, causing her to jump from his sudden loudness. He was definitely blunt and to the point. 

Riley nods and walks over to the man, not sure what, or how to get him out of the cuffs. "Is there a key?" She timidly asks.

The man scoffs and rolls his eyes. "If there was a key don' ye' think I woulda used it by now?" He says sarcastically.

Riley took a step back and glared at the man. She took notice of his baby blue eyes and short, almost bald, hair. There wasn't much of an appearance too him beside those two factors.. He was pretty dull in her eyes.

"I'm trying to help you asshole! Least you could do is be nice" Riley snaps at the man angrily.

The man chuckles and rubs his chin with his free hand. "Ye' gotta mouth on ye' fer a 10 year old"