Don't Feed the Freaks (character x reader style)

Chapter 2

My head hurt. A lot. And my vision was kind of blurry but I could hear just fine.

"...useful to any of the attacks the Citizens unleash on us!"

"Rose, stop it. We don't even know what their power is! Plus who knows if-"

As I was listening to their interesting conversation I sat up and accidentally knocked over an empty can.

The two Freaks locked their eyes on me, one had an average height, black hair and a Citizen armband. The other was short, their long black hair tied into a ponytail that whacked her face when she turned her head and a Freak armband. Both were wearing the signature Kinetown camouflage t-shirt and looks of shock on their faces.

The male spoke. "How... much did you hear...?"

The girl frowned. "Was our conversation THAT secret?"

"To a Citizen? YES!" The male cried, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

I cleared my throat. "I'm not a Citizen. I'm a Freak. Also, aren't you a Citizen? Why are you helping us Freaks?" I was shocked at what I just said. 'us Freaks'. I'm acknowledging my sorry fate already!

"I don't support the way you all are being treated, I'm helping some Freaks escape from those horrible, ever-present walls." The male crossed his arms.

I was shocked. "That's possible??"

The girl nodded enthusiastically. "Only if you're super committed!" She paused, then gasped. "Oh! We're so rude, do you need anything to eat or drink?"

"Rose, we have a ration system. It goes for everybody. Why should they get extra?" The male motioned to me.

"Shut up, John. They're new, and probably famished."

Rose and John continued the argument for a while until a voice said behind me, "Rose, John, why is there a Citizen in our claimed area?"

"Oh, hi Page! How was the hunt?" Rose smiled and waved as if the previous argument never happened.

"I got some more cans of Cup O Noodles. The store was mostly empty since previous groups of Freaks already trashed the place..." I heard the rustling of plastic and the sharp clack of metal hitting the hard, cement ground. The sounds echoed through the cement alleyways, it only reminded me more of how I was going to be stuck here for the rest of my life.

"Also, they're not a Citizen," Rose pointed out, motioning towards me. "They're a Freak. Although, we haven't figured out their abilities yet."

"Must be a late-bloomer." Page scoffed, sitting down with a can of chicken noodle soup.

"Hey," John cried, snatching the can out of Page's hands. "You've already had your ration today. Rose, could you sort out the cans Page brought? We need to figure out who gets what."

"You just read my mind. Hey um," Rose looked at me. "Could you help me? These are an awful lot of cans."

"Sure."

"By the way," The rustling of plastic and clink of cans filled the silent alleyways. "What's your name? You most likely know mine."

"[your name]."

"That's a nice name! Mine's typical, just plain old Rose."

I smiled. At least it's not as boring as that guy's." I motioned towards Page.

Her face lit up and she giggled. "True, true." She led me down a few feet before entering an old, cement, square-ish building.

"Weren't these... the apartments that got leveled in the war?"

"A few of them survived, we found some left-over cement and patched the remaining up the best we could. Eventually we built new ones, you can tell by the differences in texture. You're lucky to have arrived after that, it was a bloodbath. Other Freaks that formed groups like us killed unaware Freaks and claimed their apartment."

"Oh..."

After setting the cans down we put them in different boxes labeled with names. I recognized a few of them like 'ROSE, PAGE, JOHN' and others like 'CATHAL and TIMMY'.

"Who are they?" I motioned to two boxes named CATHAL and TIMMY.

"Oh, those are our other members! They're out hunting for more members to join our group. If they didn't get caught by the-"

A distant boom interrupted her.

"Oh no. Ohnonononononono. Not now..." she groaned, tensing up.

"What...?"

"Hide." Her voice was cold and stern, she lifted up a rug, revealing a trapdoor. After opening it, she instructed me to get in.

"What's going on...?"

Before closing the door she smiled. "Something that happens almost every night. I would normally say 'don't worry' but there's so much to worry about." She waved and shut the door. I felt my way around, it was pitch dark. There was no light switch, but I could feel that it was a small room, that was also made out of cement. The air felt stuffy and I felt a small fan that you could turn on and off.

After a few minutes I heard footfalls and I switched off the fan.

"...grab the food." The voice was husky, it wasn't like Rose, Page's or John. Was this the one of the other group's members?

The rustling of plastic and cans was faint through the thick cement, but it was noticeable enough since it was the only sound other than my panicked breathing.

"Please don't..." Rose's voice filtered through the cracks, she was probably wounded since her voice was strained.

"Shut up!" Another voice said, and I heard Rose grunt in pain. The group left, and I found my way to the trapdoor. I opened it after a few more minutes, scrambling to Rose.

"You okay?"

"For now, but we won't be in a couple days."

I noticed how empty the room was, without having all the boxes of cans labeled with names.

"Oh no..."

"Exactly. Now we have two more things to worry about. Starving to death and the other groups." She paused, standing up. "But we won't let them run away with our food, right?" She extended her arm, offering her hand. I took it, not knowing what I just got myself into.