Survival of the Fittest

Chapter One

Evelyn didn't know when the last time she had eaten something, nor did she want to fight that cat again. She knew it had been awhile, it was the only reason she would risk walking down one of the busiest streets in her large city.

　　But she had to, since the pain in her stomach was making it hard to sleep. The aroma of pizza and other take-away meals wasn't helping her any. If it wasn't for these factors, she would have tried to go another night without anything to eat.

　　Slowly making her way past a sleeping man, his face was scared and his clothes were baggier then hers. She could almost count his ribs, would have if his shirt had been any lower then it was. Putting her hand on his neck, she only sighed when she couldn't feel anything, through it meant he wasn't going to hurt her.

　　"Sorry mister," she whispered to him patting his head, before making her way to her favourite route. She had found it was the best place to find left overs, with the number of restraints and cafes that lined the busy street. Even so, there was always something that made her second guess herself before trying to find anything to eat.

　　She had found that while Japanese restraints, while throwing out perfectly good rich, also threw out fish guts. Which would attract the neighbourhoods stray cats and dogs, along with any rats that happen to be in the area. Evelyn didn't feel like getting bitten, she had almost died the last winter from a rat's bite.

　　Evelyn had also learnt to avoid alleyways with bars along them, a handful of peanuts wasn't worth the handful of glass she had gotten along with them. At first she had thought there'd be food, but learnt it was mostly broken glass from beer bottles.

　　Still this alleyway was her heaven, even with the odd noise that made her jump in terror, the couple who fought in a near-by house and the rare dead body. It was her heaven, because she always found food in one of the bins, she remembered once finding a whole perfectly good pizza, along with an entire tube of pasta covered in red stuff.

　　After that, she didn't have to worry about food for a week, she never would understand what people thought when they sent their meals back, only to get another one and an apology.

　　Evelyn only sighed as she pushed a large black box in front of a bin, carefully lifting the lid so it wouldn't land on her head. She smiled at the sight of black plastic bags, since it meant neither the large brown rats, nor the scared cat had gotten to any of it. Gently poking the black plastic, she stopped when she poked something that felt like food, but before she could do anything a large man ran out of the back door, a large knife in his hands.

　　She only stared at him with wide eyes as he continued to scream at her, words in a language that she didn't understand. Evelyn might not have understood what he was saying, but that didn't make his words any less harsh. His tone made it clear what he wanted to do with the knife in his hands, she had seen it before and she knew what the result would be. If she didn't leave, she would end up like that man.

　　Muttering apologies, she ran as fast as she could along the alley way. Away from the annoyed man, away from the large knife that could take away her life so easily.

　　Running didn't help her, she could already feel her legs burning and it was all she could do to keep her knees from buckling. Her chest was tightening and it felt like she couldn't breath, she was small and weak. She had been from when she was smaller, blurred memories gave her reason to continue. A women with a kind smile, bright greens almost fading as she grew older.

　　Evelyn could remember the women's scent, one she preferred over the smalls she generally found in alleyways, a cat running in front of her snapped her out of precious memory, along with the pain of claws going across her leg.

　　Only looking at the bleeding scratch, she went to the first bin she saw, smiling when she crawled in and found a pizza box. Without thinking about it, she slowly started to eat around the burnt parts. She had learnt to eat slowly, since she didn't want to get sick. It was the reason she almost died at the start of the year, along with around Thanksgiving. Either she ate her food to quickly, or it had been off.

　　"What the fuck!"she heard a man shout, she dropped what was in her hand in favour of pushing herself into a dirty corner. She tried to make herself look smaller, it wasn't like she hadn't heard swearing before, but it reminded her of things she didn't want to think about. "I didn't take. Mate, I value my life."

　　"Look dickhead, we know you took it. We have more then three people who claimed you have it," another voice said. She wanted to scream and cry, he sounded like her daddy when she was drunk. Cold, calculating and angry. "Now you can admit it, tell us where you hide. Or we can go to your slut of a girlfriend, along withever fucked up family you have left."

　　"I already told you, I didn't take anything," the first voice said, Evelyn could almost hear the begging in his tone, but she knew it wasn't going to work. It never worked. "Nor would I lie about anything like that -"

　　"I hate lying pieces of shit."

　　Evelyn only froze when she heard someone being shot, her daddy used to go hunting and thought it was funny to show her how quickly she could be killed. She wanted to leave, she wanted them to leave. She could pretend nothing happened, she was good at pretending nothing bad happened, that no one was killed in her hearing range. That no one was hurt.

　　"Make sure this piece of shit gets cleaned up. You two, go find the fucker's slut," the second man said. She didn't want to hear anymore, lifting her hands over her head she lifted herself up, hands placed on the heavy lid. She didn't remember it closing, but it didn't matter, she had to leave. Her daddy would find her, he would show her how quickly she could be hurt.

"What the fuck!" a voice shouted above her, she only blinked as she could only feel anything above her hands. Slowly turning her head, she looked at large, shocked brown eyes surrounded by dark skin. She could feel her own arms shacking as black dots danced around her vision, she fainted as the man went to open his mouth.