Slowly, they converged on Alex, rushing forward to snatch the energy core away.
Their grubby hands grasped into the air, eager to get hold of it.
Alex shook his head before snarling at the others, warning them to back off or face the consequences.
Some of the timid backed off initially, but their confidence was bolstered by their numbers advantage.
So their hunched-over figures lingered at the edges of the fight, seeing if they could swoop in a seize a chance to snatch it up.
A brawl ensued, and kids beat each other within an inch of their lives for the core.
Fists flew, and blood was spilled. Some teeth were knocked loose and flew across the air.
The noises they made were unintelligible, the ravings of madmen as they crashed against one another.
In desperation, Alex tried to claw out of the throbbing mass of limbs but several hands flung out and dragged him back.
However, whatever he did, Alex made sure to keep a hand gripped tightly to the core.
For the core represented further survival, and if the enforcers took a liking to him then maybe they'll get do him a solid.
Then suddenly, Alex was blindsided as someone manage to sneak around and throw a right hook that connected to his temple.
With a loud thud, Alex collapsed and the core loosely fell out of his grip.
Quickly, the kid who blindsided Alex scooped it up before making his way out of the chaos clutching it to his chest.
In the chaos of the scuffle, he managed to slip out unnoticed, well, excluding Ambitan who was peeking over the trash heaps.
While the rest of the kids continued to slug it out, the thieving opportunist slinked away and tried to obscure himself in a trash heap similar to what Ambitan had done.
But the enforcers saw this, as they too were following the journey that the energy core was taking, a find like that would earn them a pretty penny after all.
However, they still wanted to keep things interesting, if the core wasn't to swap hands multiple times then where was the entertainment value? The aspect of the competition they had arranged?
Therefore, they sent a controlled shock through the chips, causing the kids to collapse and writhe on the ground.
"Now listen up! That kid over there," the enforcer pointed, "has the goddamn energy core. You lot aren't showing enough motivation for them rations, so how bout it Jasper? What say we set a time limit of uhhh…, let's say half an hour."
"You have the energy core and you might just obtain those rations. Unless you find another piece that is," Martin said as he rubbed his fingers together, pantomiming the action of leafing through bills.
With that said, he flipped the switch once more, letting the shock make its way through their bodies before finally petering out as their wild flailing came to a close.
Slowly the children gathered themselves together and picked themselves up before singling out the one who had stolen the core from Alex.
Alex in particular was wild, his eyes practically bloodshot from how intense his stare was.
Then suddenly, as if a silent command had been issued the group charged.
The kids snarled and screamed, and they set upon the lone wolf as if crows to a slaughter.
Viciously they consumed the loner before turning on themselves once more, gone was their unwritten alliance.
Some of them used their chipped, broken nails to rip through flesh in order to claw forward. Others used their fists to hammer those who opposed them.
About 7 different battles were occurring simultaneously, occasionally these battles would be disrupted as they collided and opponents changed.
One of them, Mikael, Ambitan believed fled from his opponent, dodging through another ongoing fight to get his pursuer entangled in another conflict. Then he refocused his attention on the one currently holding the core, Charles.
Charles raked his nails across the opponent's back after grappling with him, causing red streaks to appear as they began to rapidly pour blood.
In a roar of anger, his opponent threw out a clearly telegraphed right hook that Charles barely managed to dodge, however, after backing away his balance was shaky as his footwork was unsteady.
He stumbled, but recovered back up and dodged the next hit again before pushing him down to the ground where he crouched over on top, sitting on the downed opponent's chest before hammering his face in with blows.
However, as Charles' fist grew increasingly bloody, Mikael snuck up behind, wielding a pipe he had picked up from a trash heap.
"Oh shit!" exclaimed Jasper.
Quickly the two enforcers withdrew their weapons, aiming at Mikael, but by then it was already too late.
The pipe crashed down swiftly, impacting upon Charles' skull, caving it in as his corpse fell limply to the ground. His face bathed a crimson red as his eyes rolled back in a glossy trance, completely unaware of how he had died.
"Shit. Fuck," the enforcers cursed. The clips in their guns were rapidly unloaded, peppering Mikael with several bullets. Their business was labor. And the children were their merchandise. They couldn't exactly keep someone who would actually kill the others. There was a shaky line.
"Goddamn it. You think we're getting axed for this Martin?" Jasper panicked.
"Nah… we'll be fine. I'm sure of it. It'll be okay trust me. These kids are replaceable. Don't think too much about it. It's a minor slip-up, we'll get punished for doing some manual work but nothing serious like losing a finger."
As they talked about the consequences of their actions, the brawl was still going on and the competition was slowly being weeded out.
Some chose to back out of the conflict to lick their wounds, knowing that in their condition they wouldn't be able to actually obtain the core.
Others were raving mad, and ignore their injuries, desperate to receive the extra rations.
Meanwhile Ambitan, in the enforcer's brief moment of distractedness, had snuck around behind them as they refocused their attention back to the fighting kids.
The kids avoided the two dead corpses, but some of the ones licking their wounds off on the sides sent uneasy glances toward them, with a messed up twinkle evident in their eyes.