Eden didn't like scavenging in the city, she never had liked it. In some way it still felt wrong, like stealing despite it being the means of survival now. Ben and Cade, they were better at this. Cade as brilliant at this actually. Eden had one benefit in being petite, she could get in places most people couldn't.
You'd never think at the end of the world, when it'd all gone bad.. that a baker could be so valuable but Eden had a rare knowledge on how to make food go further, what would last, what was and wasn't safe and it was a great skill to have. She'd started writing it down for the community Ben set up. When it all started going bad she rounded the local shopkeepers and Ben arranged it all, the means of securing an area, putting up barriers that they'd further solidified as time went on, blocking of certain roads, making a safe space and then that was their community. Their community that needed food, medical supplies, clothing... and that'd quickly meant venturing out and in that came territory. They weren't the only people smart enough to make safe zones but not everyone was good.
There were a few kids in their community so when she'd come into an old book shop she hadn't expected to hear a soft crying when she looked through some colouring books, noting the crayons rolling on the floor. She leaned down, picking up some of the crayons. "Are these yours?" she spoke in a hushed tone, one hand on her knife, the other holding out crayons to the front desk, where the little noise came from. The last thing she'd thought would peek out was a little girl, she couldn't have been much more than three years old. "Are you hungry, sweetheart?" Eden had a gentle voice, her hand slid from her knife to find a trail mix she'd brought with her and offered that out too. Slowly the girl came forward and reached for the items, she wasn't bitten and she didn't seem hurt. "Have you lost your mummy? Your daddy?" she didn't speak back, just nodded but right as she was about to try and talk more to her, she heard talking in the distant and rushed them both behind that counter. "Here- here. Shhh." she lifted a finger over her lips. "You understand me, right?" the girl nodded so Eden continued. She was sliding her jacket off, a rough military canvas and pulling it round her shoulders. "This will keep you warm and, in here? Snacks, water but you stay here and you stay quiet unless you see two men, one with curly hair, Ben and another, tough guy, he's tall he's called Cade. They'll come looking, they'll help you, okay? I have to go see who is out there so if I don't come back, you wait for them, okay sweetheart?" Eden was making sure her jacket was tucked nice and tightly around the little girl who nodded to every word she'd said.
Eden wasn't about to let Santino's thugs find that girl, which is why she made such a loud commotion of pretending to stumble out of a different store, a pharmacy, they wouldn't even bother looking in the bookshop that way. "Well well, what do we have here." Eden didn't realise a gun was held at her until she looked up but her hands quickly held up defencelessly. There were two of them and the free handed one reached to take her knife from her belt, running the top of it teasingly through a few fallen strands of her hair. "Well if she won't talk, then she doesn't need her tongue does she." the threat rolled lowly from his tongue and she quickly spluttered her name out. "Your boss, whoever he is, won't be happy if you cause a whole war by killing me in the street." Eden quipped and despite the laughter they did flash each other a concerned look. "He wouldn't give a fuck who you are-" they started but she made sure to interrupt quickly. "Eden O'Connor." They knew who Ben was, that much she knew.. but up until now, they hadn't known about her. She was his weakness.
Two seconds later all she saw was a swift motion and a searing and sudden blow to her head, right above her eye on her front temple. Everything spun until it was.. nothing. Darkness. They'd used the gun to knock her unconscious and when she was coming round she was being pulled, being forced to put one foot in front of the other, each arm held, her hands bound at her front with a rope that cut into her wrists and though Eden couldn't see herself, she felt the blood that'd dried down the side of her face from the cut created above her brow. A tender bruise had started to form around her outer eye socket. There'd been no need for it, she would've gone willingly enough. God she hoped that little girl understood her, that she'd be safe and that Ben and Cade would find her. She must have been so frightened.
"Head up bitch, you're meeting the boss as you put it." They were squeezing her arms and all she wanted to say was that they were hurting her but Eden was practically half concussed. She'd heard enough about this man to know she didn't want to meet him, she didn't want to be here or be anywhere near them, she had people looking for her, waiting for her. Ben would be going out of his mind by now. All she knew was she'd lost time to being unconscious because it was later in the day, the sun setting, darkness was on the brink of taking over. Suddenly she seemed more alive, starting to pull and fight against the two men dragging her and it truly became a drag because she refused to walk.
They threw her to her knee's on the ground, a few feet from a shadow that loomed over her. "Found this one in the street boss, says she's an O'Connor, the South Side leaders little sister it seems." there was a scoff to his tone that Eden turned her head and spat at. The same man was enraged by her act of defiance and reached a hand down to snatch up a handful of her hair and snap her head towards him. Towards the man she'd heard everything about. Cruel, relentless, vindictive.. that he'd stop at no lengths to get the things he wanted from people, anything to benefit himself. Her jaw was tight, tears in her eyes that she refused to cry at the hand pulling her hair, at the throbbing in her head. How absurd, that they'd hurt someone who clearly wasn't a threat to them. Eden right then, growled the words "I'm not scared of your piggish henchmen and I'm certainly not scared of you." If there was anything in the world to be scared of, it was the eerie noise of a clicker hunting you out. @wiinestories !
