"Freeing that caged bird" WIP

The locks on the cage

"Is it still warm?" said Ronald as he looked at Derek's can of soup,
"a little" replied Derek, "wish I had a clean spoon" Derek looked around the wrecked office building they called home, same gloomy mood as always, Nickolas was sleeping, Claire was still tinkering with the broken radio she found in a broken car, and Irene was, gone.
"Did anyone see Irene" said Derek,
"She better not be outside in this rain" said Claire, " I ain't washin that short ass skirt again" Ronald noticed a black hoodie soaked to the brim and her overgrown black hair just slightly covered her shining blue eyes
"speak of the devil" said Ronald going over to give her a sturdy Ronald worthy hand shake,
"not now Ron" said Irene, "put out that fire" she went to grab a wet rag,
"what's up" said Derek he didn't need to hear an answer he saw the badly hidden holes in her wrist, "you did it again didn't you" he said, "did you steal it, cause if you stole it I can't cover you again" Irene looked around for hiding spots,
"I didn't steal it" she said "I just", Irene didn't get to finish her sentence, the sound of stopping tires on the street could be heard in the next country, "hide" said Irene, everyone ran to a place to hide, the fire was put out, and they all hid, it wasn't silent, not even close Derek could hear every sound in the neighborhood, he heard multiple footsteps, the loading of a gun, and voices of gang members, Derek heard
"do you think she's here?" from a man in the group, and
"not if that bitch knows what's good for her" from another one. he could see out of the cracks in the cramped steamer trunk he's hiding in, he saw Irene in behind a dresser in the corner, Ron was under the bed next to her. It was total silence, nothing was stirring, even the rats were hiding. Derek could feel the sweat on his pale face, on the contrary that he couldn't feel his shivering legs. He saw the gang member walk towards the dresser where Irene was hiding in, the world slowed down, it was like his eyes were a camera with only 5 pictures. The man grabbed his gun, he was about to look straight at Irene's blue hood, Ron jumped out of the bed, Ron was shot before he could say a word. The gang members ran out faster than ron's dead corpse fell on the dry, ripped-up carpet.

"Is it cold" said Derek, as he looked at Irene's soup can,
"it's damn freezing" replied Irene in an angry tone, Derek tried to comfort her
"it wasn't your fault" he said "It's been 4 months, Ron would not want us to grieve" Irene didn't even reply, she just stared at her can of soup. Irene got up and looked around
"I'm tired of living in this shithole" she said "and I'm tired of hiding" Claire went up from her room and talked to Irene
"you need a job" she said " put some trust in the government" , Irene was pissed
"What manager would hire a dirt poor heroine addict!" she said, Irene sat on the floor and started to cry.
"Look, it's dark outside so get ta bed".
"Derek", there was lights everywhere, "Derek get up" Derek slightly opened his eyes to see Nickolas' brown wild hair style and 8 o'clock shadow "Derek Irene's gone" Derek got up too fast to measure in time, "what do you mean" he said, urgently shaking Nickolas as if he would fix the problem that way "stop stop" cried Nickolas "I ain't no bobble head, your gonna snap my neck" Derek let go of the constriction he had on Nickolas
"sorry, do you know where she is" said Derek, "I thought she stopped buying that stuff, she knows how that"
"she didn't leave" said Nickolas "here", he handed Derek a note with letters on it, it wasn't Irene's hand writing

Irene felt dazed, her hands could barely move, she saw grey haze with blobs of red and yellow haze in some spots. There were sounds, lots of sounds, but she could not make any out her eyes were about to adjust to what was happening, when she was thrown onto a cold solid ground, the sound of metal hitting metal rang in her ears, she was able to use her remaining strength to look up and see two figures in hoodies walking away. she couldn't bare any more, she fell to the floor, she saw two legs behind metal bars. "Hey, wake up" said a weird voice, Irene was able to open her eyes slightly, but they just fell down again, the voice repeated "no no don't fall asleep" Irene started to fade out of reality, when got splashed with a cup of freezing liquid, and shot back up
"what the hell" said Irene "I'm up, okay" Irene saw a brown haired, huskey child that looked around 14 years old his cheeks were red and had freckles all over him, he backed up slowly and didn't seem to want to talk "sorry" Irene said "I ain't a morning person"
"ain't isn't a word" the child said "sorry, force of habit" there was an awkward silence till the small child spoke again "my name's Seth" he said "what's your name?" Irene just remembered the situation she was in,
"my names Irene" Irene replied "and I'm not a morning person" Seth chuckled a little
"they didn't treat you that well" said Seth "I guess your valuable cargo" this sentence confused Irene
"what do you mean valuable cargo" she said "and why would they treat valuable cargo" Seth got closer to the bars
"let me explain".