The Distroying, Part 2

*A Station of Strays

When morning came Inna slipped out of her basement and quietly scampered through the streets untill she reached the train station. That massive, impending building, neo classic style, even through its weary age and scars from the torment of the Distroying, it had reamined a great land mark. It was wonderful, but for Inna it was also a gold mine. Full of busy, unsuspecting people with money for travelling, it was one of her prime scavenging spots.

She slipped inside and headed to one of the large halls where climbed the wall next to a large clock. She could hear the machinery working from behind the smooth face of the piece, but was enough in the shadow so as not to be noticed by those checking the time. She looked over the crowd and scanned the floors. Dropped change, food left unfinished in the café, her eyes darted left and right to see. She noticed a café getting crowded and darted down to watch. Sometimes people left things unfinished, so just as the opportunity arose she would snatch up the left over coffee, cake, pastry or cookie for herself. Next she would scour the floor looking for dropped notes, cards, anything she could see that might be of the slightest use she would slip in and steal. If she saw it, it was hers.

She watched over the people, by now she knew the layout of the train station and the train time table by heart. She noticed a café getting busy and climbed down to watch its movement. Inna knew how to blend, she knew how to remain unseen, so she let herself become invisible as she watched the people eat and chat, and if she was really lucky, leave their bags behind. Though she was against stealing and pickpocketing from regular people, anything left behind, by her books, was a free for all.

She walked through the tables to one recently abandoned. As she came past she collected a half-eaten pasty and a tip left behind in her stride. Successful, she kept walking unhindered and back out of the café area before she was noticed.

Back on her perch she ate her pastry gratefully. It wasn’t this bad, this life, she mused, when she had enough to eat that is. She smiled and casually looked over the station then something new, but extremely familiar caught her eye. Strays. A group of them, younger than her, were in the train station. They were not obvious as strays to the common eye, they didn’t even look like a group, but from her view up so high Inna could clearly their pattern while it remained invisible to the crowd. She could see them as they sneaked out amongst them, pick pocketing and snatching things off the ground. They stole what they could then took them back behind a corner to meet with the rest of the group. Inna crouched down and singled one out. There was a little girl, maybe eight years old as Inna watched her she noticed she was in the dangerous sight of one bulky-looking security guard.

She continued to watch and follow the girl through the crowd. She saw as one of her friends, a young boy, tugged on a woman’s sleeve and asked her if she knew where the toilets were? As the woman bent down to answer the girl came in from behind and slipped her hand into the woman’s bag. She drew out a fist full of stuff then stuffed the lot into her pockets. Inna watched as she slipped away back into the crowd and eased down the wall to follow her. 
Once in the crowd, Inna had to take a moment to find the young girl again. She watched her go round a corner and followed to the edge of the wall. There she stood with her back against the paint and listened as voices became from around the corner.

“Here!” hissed one, a female and young, probably the girl she’d been following.

“Set them down,” came another, male this time and a little older. “Anything good?” whispered another voice,

“Check later” - the boy again - “we need too much to waste time now.”

Inna risked a look round the bend, it was always smart to keep track of other strays in your area for many reasons, if nothing else they could be competition. She looked at who was there and counted four, the young girl she followed, the boy who’d distracted the older woman, an older boy and an older girl.

One of them, the older boy came started walking to the bend. She backed up to the café on her right and the younger boy walked past, followed by the young girl. They walked by leaving her unnoticed. 

They seemed to work mostly in pairs, Inna watched as they went around pick pocketing and stealing. They didn’t get much really, they were actually quite lacking, it was easy to see why they would run out of money and food so fast. But she wasn’t the only one who noticed their work. Looking up she saw the same security guard that had noticed the young girl earlier was now watching them all.

She lagged behind and blended into the crowd. She needed to observe without being seen herself. She tracked the young girl’s footsteps, watching the strain of her black hair from behind and she continued, oblivious towards to burly security. Ideally she would brush past the kid and whisper the quick warning, but now she watched in horror as she saw him head towards the kids and stood in even more alarm as they still failed to notice.

She started to manoeuvre her way back through the people towards them, but already the guard was much closer to the kids than she was. She waved at the young girl, but caught her friend’s attention. The young boy looked up, but when recognised Inna as a stray went hostile. It took a moment for him to register the desperate warning in Inna’s face then he looked round, only to see the security guard, was right on top of them, barely a foot from the young girl.

The boy grabbed her by the wrist and pulled, but it was too late. The guard leaned in and snatched up her other wrist. She looked up in sheer terror.

Inna asses her stand point as the girl started to struggle. The guard held her still and leaned in, “This isn’t a free for all, rat. Come with me.” He turned to drag her away then - “Ugh!” Inna felt the contact too, her fist and his ribs. She winced, punching hurt! She didn’t waste time, she grabbed the girl and pulled her away through the crowd, trying to mingle before he could spot them again. Only now the burly man was pissed, perhaps because now his ribs hurt. Inna wondered if she'd bruised any.

He started through the people after them, navigating through the crowd. She took a fleeting glance back at the purpling face and quickened their pace, “Come on!” she urged her tag-along. She cursed under her breath and pulled the girl again, “Quick! I’m not getting locked up for you,” she hissed. She dodged and drove through the herds of people until she spotted a dark corner. She smiled, shadows always invited the strays. She took one look back, ducked down and dove to their familiar folds.

She stood up and pressed herself and the girl against the wall, wishing her flesh would disappear into the stone. Then she peered out to look for the guard. She heard the girl gasp, about to say something, and pressed her hand over her mouth. Her dark eyes looked for him, tried to single out possible peoples in the crowds. When she singled out his frame he wasn’t six meters away. He stood above everyone, scouring around above their heads, searching for the two kids he had just lost. Inna held her breath. She surveyed the space around him again and waited. Only when he’d walked completely from her sight did she breath again.

She removed her hand from the girl and she looked up at Inna. “Who are you?” was of course the first question.

“Inna.” The girl looked up at her suspiciously.

She shook her head, “Don’t worry, I won’t turn you in.” The kid didn’t replay, “Hey, I’m a stray too. I’m not going to walk you to the authorities,” she pointed out.

This seemed to settle the kid. “Well, duh. I could see that by the way you hit that guard,” her voice was amazingly condescending for one so young, “thanks, it would have been a close call without you.”

A close call? She raised an eyebrow, seemed to her like ‘close call’ would be a bit of an understatement.

“Don’t I get your name?” Inna asked.

“I guess, Yumie’s fine.”

“Yumie? That’s what, Japanese?” 

“Yeah, what's your name again?"

"Inna."

Silence.

Yumie was dirty, with ashen brown-black hair and a stubborn face which, Inna realised, did look part Asian. “Look, you’d better get back to your group,” she said.

“Well yeah, though I guess you should come meet the others.”

Inna glanced down suspiciously “For allies or competition?”

Yumi’s gaze turned hard, “Depends on circumstances."

“Well, either way, for now it’s a no, I’ve got to go, trailing after you has lost me enough time today, and I still need to eat.” She made to leave.

“But that guard knows your face now, he’ll be after you.”

Inna sighed, “Well that’ll fun.”

Yumi looked confused, whether it was because of her sarcasm or lack of major concern about the guard, Inna couldn’t pick. She sighed, “Don’t worry about it; I can take care of myself.”

Yumi shrugged, and Inna, tired of the brick wall of distrust, made again to leave.

She started up the wall shelf up to her perching point once more. She could see the security guard clearly from up here and smiled at the expression on his face. It was then that she heard a “Pist!” and turned around, “Hay! Inna.” 

The male voice came from behind her in the wall, she smiled.

“Timothy!”