Taking her home

The muscles in her legs jolted, and she darted between two buildings beside her, dropping her backpack behind her. Just as she reached the end of the alley, a hand fell on her and pulled her back. She released a sob as he forced her to turn and face him, locking both arms around her. She tugged at him with all her weight. Had his grip been less secure, she would have fallen to the ground. Instead, he held her up against him, her arm brushing against the leather holster alongside his torso, just under his arm.

"I said I'd be comin' back for you," he said gruffly.

Her lips parted as she fought for breath between quiet sobs. He'd always been so strong, and now, with proper meals, healthcare, all of it afforded him by his position, he had become even more solid. 

As she stopped struggling, his hug tightened. "Fuck," he said softly. "I been looking for you for months."

"I didn't want you to," she whispered.

"Too fuckin' bad. I said you wouldn't have a choice. I'm not leaving you on the streets."

His grip relaxed some, and he pulled her away to look closely at her, his blue eyes sharply taking in all the details of her appearance. It had been five years. The last time they'd seen one another had been right after Ray died when he told her that he was going to take the security job he'd been offered. She'd wanted none of that and refused to go with him.

He looked the same and yet so different that she wasn't sure it was really who she thought. With his lithe form, accentuated by nice clothing which fit well, a new hair cut-- cropped close on the back and sides, but a little long on top-- and some stubble, he looked like a grown man. He had to be around 25 or 26, the same as Ray would have been. And yet, there were still familiar tells, such as his scowl and his piercing eyes so similar to the first time they met when he showed up one day next to her little brother.

"You can't make me go, Eddie," she said softly.

They both knew it for a bluff. He wasted no time derisively scoffing at her. "Who's gonna fuckin' stop me?" He barely hesitated before yanking her along by the arm back the way they came.

"Where are we going?" She tried to pull against him, but it was useless. Once they neared her backpack, he swiped it off the ground by the loop and continued dragging her along behind him.

"I'm taking you back to the complex," he said, dragging her down the bright sidewalk towards the factory.

At the mention of that, her legs got weak. "Like the complex you said would be guarded?"

"Yup."

Her steps slowed, but the march continued. "You're still there."

But of course, he would be. The gun had been enough of a tip off to her let alone his clothing and general healthiness.

He gave her a tug and came to a stop under one of the lights. "Yup, and now you're comin' with me. No fuckin' arguments."

The two started again, making their way towards the factory as her mind raced. At what point would it be too late for her to escape? She pictured the factory gate with the guards though she felt certain that it was already too late. One look at Ed, and they would know from his clothes and his physique that he was part of the system that kicked the shit out of them on a daily basis. Not a soul would approach. For the first time ever, the two of them were completely alone without the buffer of her brother to balance them out.

"Ed, wait!" She said, trying one last time to stop him before they made it past the factory gate with the guards.

"No."

"No?"

"You heard me." He stopped to pull her forward and put a heavy hand on the back of her neck. Quietly, he spoke to her. "What've you been doing out here, Gus? How did you even manage to survive without a job?"

She pressed her lips together, the broken front teeth poking into the back of her upper lip. Being security, of course he knew that she wasn't working. Had he been keeping tabs on her? How much did he know of what happened before she left? And now he wanted to know how she'd been living on the streets. Her mind raced to find an answer to that question that would explain, but he'd know if she lied. He'd always been able to tell.

He started them moving again, giving her a shove in front of him. "Yeah, I thought so. I know what you were supposed to be doing tonight. Soon as he gave me your description, I knew it was you he met with."

Her stomach clenched painfully. So far, only one person from the factory knew that she was involved. And if Eddie knew her involvement, then that meant something terrible had likely happened to the worker at her old friend's hands. "Ed, what did you do?"

"I did my job. What else have you been up to out here?"

He paused again. She just shook her head. It would be foolish to admit anything to him. Clearly, he took his job seriously, and she had no idea how he would react upon finding out about her business in the dumping ground trying to help people using her knowledge and the confiscated tools from her old job.

"If you tell me," He said, "I can help. They respect me up there. When they know we're connected, they'll leave you alone.”

She held her lips together, the corners weighed down by her own guilt. Just like that, because of what Ed did and his willingness to drag her along with him, most of her troubles would disappear. She'd be secure in a home and have regular meals again, but she worried about what the cost would be.

"What would you want from me?" She asked him.

The opening reworked

 Augustine hurried along the darkened streets to the meeting point to warn her contact that security was onto them. She shivered as she ran, having dropped her hoodie on the ground next to her pod when she went to grab her stuff. Without her hoodie, she felt so exposed, but she had no time to waste. Every moment left them all in danger.

Light from apartment windows stayed close to the buildings as though it knew better than to be on the streets of the Dump at this hour. Few streetlights worked anymore, and while Augustine kept close to them, she avoided scurrying directly through the light.

She still couldn't believe it. Someone had seen her working on the software exploit that the factory workers could use to bring down the system for a few hours. Augustine's work would have given them some control over the machine production so that any one of them could grind things to a halt with no one person standing out over the others. It would make it harder for security to figure out the culprits and make them disappear like they'd done to Ray's dad. Her heart ached. Their whole life had changed that day he didn't come home. 

For a moment, she paused on the edge of shadows next to one of the block apartment buildings, leaning against the cheap material of its exterior wall. At the internet café, her only place for computer access, there had been a big guy sitting among the regulars. Focused on getting out the last of the code she'd memorized before she had her meeting with her second contact, she hadn't noticed the massive frame sitting on the far side of the room watching her until she'd paid for her time and sat down to work.

A warning tingle had made her glance up, and that had been when she noticed him, so tall his head peered over the monitors with ease. He appeared too comfortable among the tossed-away denizens of the Dump, lacking the pallor of desperation and depression so common among the natives. And he'd been much too interested in her. Either he'd seen a weak, homeless girl he could have some fun with or he'd come looking specifically for her. With her light hazel eyes, practically golden with green on the edges, her short hair, curly and light brown against her tanned skin, she stood out even in the Dump.

She'd had to think quickly as fear crept up from her toes, sticking her in place. For a quick minute, part of her wished she had someone who could help her, but there was no one. In her old job, no one could risk pissing off the managers to stick their necks out for someone who brought in as little value to the company as she did. Out here it was the same. People had become desensitized to common cruelties and injustices because they couldn't risk whatever meager livelihood they'd managed to make for themselves to help a complete stranger.  

Augustine had been forced to end her session early. She removed the small drive she used to keep her work and then calmly made her way to the front door. Her first full glimpse of the man made her heart hurt. He seemed even larger from her vantage point above the computers. She caught his dark, deep-set eyes set against pale skin as he observed her with some interest. How she had missed him before disturbed her. Clearly, she had not been not nearly as careful as she believed.

Except he let her go. That surprised her. Still suspecting a trick, and knowing that he would be able to move much faster than her, she'd turned sharply to head behind the building, catching sight of his large form like a shadow on the edge of her vision. With him so close behind, she'd ducked behind an overflowing trash can and found a recently deceased homeless man-- not an uncommon sight deeper in the territory. No one would expect her to wriggle into his blankets and hold her breath with a prayer. When that man came past not even a minute later, she'd felt the body being moved, but he'd overlooked her thin body among the smelly blankets, reeking of death.

Muffled through the fabric, she'd heard him call out to her from the middle of the alley. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to talk."

She stayed still and waited for him to get further away before untangling herself and quietly tiptoeing down the street. Then she ran off again into the darkness.

Thinking on the incident made her hands shake. It would have been better if he was just looking for a good time because the other option meant that her clients had possibly been compromised. Her immediate thought jumped to the factory worker she was meant to meet with the drive containing her work. After she warned them, she would hit the streets and lay low for a while. Already security was blind to her as she no longer working and she had no home. If they were looking for her specifically, she would make it near impossible.

As she neared the factory, she slowed down, keeping an eye out for her contact. There were more lights on the street leading up to the factory, but less people milling around. With security using the factory as a base in the area, people didn't like to be too close or else they might be stopped leaving them at the mercy of security, especially if they couldn't provide proof of employment which not many likely could-- either because they weren't working for a variety of reasons or they were working unofficially under the table.

She chomped on her cheek with her pointier teeth, the broken front ones sharply prodding her inside lip. Her thoughts being elsewhere had been her exact problem at the internet café. She needed to stay present and watch for danger. If someone was onto her, she might have accidentally led them to her factory contact.

But no one waited for her. She hoped it was because they had figured out on their own that danger lurked nearby and not that they'd been caught. If they were, they'd be used to make an example for the other workers depending on how the higher ups felt that day. It could just be they were fired and black listed, left to fend for themselves completely in the Dump, or they could be disappeared if they really wanted to send a message. Augustine knew about that all too well.

The unjustness in the world weighed heavily on the people in the Dump. It made their desperation dangerous. The cruelty and violence that was part and parcel of living here was never personal. It was just people acting out to maintain some control over their lives. Meanwhile, she lived within the same parameters as the others in the Dump, yet had the odd dichotomy of both being looked down upon and being given the benefit of the doubt more often than most. She both belonged here and also didn't, but there was no escape for her either. She would never be able to get out. 

With a silent prayer, a compulsory offer more than a purposeful one to an imagined higher power, she continued walking, making ready to head towards the center of the Dump where the market lay. There would be more people, especially at this time of night. It was one of the few areas that had lights and felt safe.

A sound made her stop and look back, and there he stood, right under the street light. His thin lips in their natural scowl automatically set her heart to racing. He had his arms crossed over his chest as he watched her.

His deep voice, dark and stern, reached her. "Don't run, Gus."

Next: Taking her home