It's getting dark. Not much further.
Exhaustion is kicking in, legs burn.
Can't think about it. Keep walking. Keep her safe.
Don't stop. Don't fucking stop you are so close, damn it.
Keep walking. Not much further.
I finally make it to the first group of "tents". Thick black garbage bags stretched across wreckage and pegged into the ground. Vagrants are wrapped in sleeping bags, passed out around a small fire. One sits by the fire, eyes wide and staring as the father grows near. He kicks someone awake, never breaking eye contact.
I hold my baby close to the chest, wrapped tightly in a blanket. Picking up my pace, I try to blow past the first group.
The vagrant calls out,
"Where you going, friend? Come join us by the fire!"
He's too eager, and the other guy is moving way too fast for someone who just woke up.
No time. I pull out the pistol, pointing it at the man approaching.
The vagrant puts his hands up.
"Ooh, fancy. Cop killer."
Annoyingly flippant for someone with a gun in their face.
"Cop killer? Or ex-cop?" Asks the one by the fire with a staring problem. His eyes are still as wide as his grin.
"Go back to bed, idiot." I put the gun closer to the man's face.
"Oooooh!" Arms still raised, the vagrant takes steps back towards his camp. " I reckon he might actually last the night with that attitude"
The two begin cackling with laughter. The one by the fire finally stops staring, now that he's clinking bottles with his friend and snickering, taking a hefty swig from his jug.
I ignore them and keep walking, gun in hand. Might as well get the point across early if anyone else decides to chirp up.
Just keep walking.
Keep her safe.
It's gonna be at least another hour to get through the outskirts, the random makeshift tents further up start forming into fully fledged campsites… With more vagrants to fit.
I weave my way through camps and tents, the paths between getting thinner and thinner as we get deeper into the slums. We need to get deep enough to disappear, lost in the middle of this disgusting jungle where we can never be found. Find a path through, don't stop for anything.
The baby begins to cry. Why now? You were being so good.
"Shhh…shhh" Please go back to sleep.
My voice isn't soothing, she begins to wail even louder.
Around the nearby campsites, people begin murmuring. Angry voices cry out for peace and quiet, a thin door is slammed.
A door…
I turn on my heels. Not too far off, an overweight man relieves himself outside his burned out caravan, still groggy after being roused by the commotion nearby.
It will have to do for now.
One can of baby food is all it took for Barry Potter to give up his caravan home, a fortress by the standards of the outskirts. Right in the heart of "The blender", that blurry line where the outskirts become the slums.
As far as Barry was concerned, He was walking away with a million dollars. That can of baby food could take him straight to the top of the slums. Or get him killed. This deep in, real food (even baby food) is worth its weight in gold. It's worth even more if they didn't have to dig it out of a pallet of compacted trash.
Either way I have a place I can call home, for now. A burned out caravan with a thin metal screen door. Barry had done well for himself. There were pizza boxes taped over the holes in the exterior and the walls were insulated with a layer of garbage bags taped up between on the inside. No cold air crept in. There must have been a small kitchen space at some point in this caravan's life, complete with a sink and a countertop. It has long since been ripped out for space, in its stead we have a small fire pit, including a makeshift chimney using… what looks like the sink pipe, taped to a bucket. He's cut holes in both the roof and the bucket that snugly fits the pipe and sealed it all up tight with plenty of tape; smoke from the fire goes straight up into the hanging bucket, through the pipe and outside.
God damn it, you're a wizard Barry.
I finally drop the heavy gym bag from my shoulder and begin to rifle through it, holding my daughter in the other arm. I quickly fish out the thickest blanket I can find and create a little bed. It's more like a crude bird's nest, but it should work.
I lay her down and give her a kiss good night, before preparing for my watch.
Gun. Caffeine tablets. Water… hide the water. Can't waste it anyway.
It's gonna be a long night.
No one can know about her. People nearby will have definitely heard her cry, but someone arriving in the slums with a baby isn't that uncommon. Fresh unfortunate souls wander in everyday, it's the only place you can really go if you don't have money. Whole country is way too barren and remote for anyone to survive on foot. It's either starve here, or starve out there. And here has a city of 3 million people throwing their unwanted scraps and out of date food over a wall. Sometimes it's even okay to eat.
No, as long as no one sees her eyes, they should think we're just another family down on their luck. Hopefully they see me out here all night, at this point I want the neighbours to think I'm a dangerous man who they shouldn't mess with. A cold-blooded "Cop-killer". That should keep most of the vagrants far away from me. If anything those loudmouths earlier did me a favour. Won't have to worry as much about the government either, we're too deep in, there's no way they could find us here. Best of all, people around here wouldn't be caught dead anywhere near the police. Most being either criminals and lowlives who were exiled from the city, or poor families who couldn't afford to live in the safety of the wall. The people of the slums see everything, being a snitch is social suicide. Literally. You'll be dead that night.
The location couldn't be better. The blender was always the plan, too easy to get caught further out, too dangerous to go further in.
Besides food, the only thing I'll have to worry about here are wannabe gangsters and big shots. Someone's gonna grow the balls to try and take this gun, soon enough.
Can't waste a single round. Who knows how long this magazine will have to last me.
For now, I'll plant my flag here at Fort Barry.
I'll keep her safe.