Winter was getting old, he was already middle age... since nobody really makes it past their late twenty's around here. So to celebrate his sixteenth birthday, he was going to indulge himself in some "proper" food.
But, like everything in the Ruins, that too, was scarce.
But there was a constant flow of it... the trash. Outside of the huge cement and alloy walls of the human bastions, the inhabitants throw out their trash for the people of the Ruins to feast upon.
An apple core? To us, it's a luxury item, even worth killing for.
'One man's trash is another man's treasure'
But getting a piece of the... "treasure" is never easy, since the gangs of bandits are always hogging all the loot, there is no room for the weak. But...
'If I want some, I'll just have to steal it'
Which was an extremely risky move. Stealing from the bandits had ended many lives here in the Ruins and Winter had seen it happen. Winter was not really a daredevil, but he was cunning. If he could distract the bandits for long enough, he would get a window of time to get the loot, and escape before anyone noticed.
But, from whom should he steal? There were a few bandit bands in the Ruins and some more protective than others. But Winter had a score to settle with one of bandit gangs.
'The bastards!' Winter thought, gritting his teeth in anger.
'The assholes who shot me with an arrow...' He thought, while taking off his "clothes".
He sighed and tore a long piece of cloth off his clothes and wrapped it around his wounded leg, barely big enough to fit, he had to strap it extra tight to make it work.
'This should do for now, I'll take better care of it later'
After making a very well considered and well-judged decision on whom he should rob, he lowered his body to the ground and laid down. He was ready to go to sleep.
'Finally...'
He closed his eyes and started thinking about his life so far. It had been a struggle for survival in every single moment up until now. He was dead tired. Mostly because he had not slept for days.
Winter could'nt sleep while hunting. If he was caught sleeping, no matter by who or what, it would most likely end up in his death. He might get robbed and lose his stuff, food and... maybe even his clothes. Not that they are valuable or anything but still, the tattered rags he wore were all he had. In any case, getting a setback like that, in the Ruins, meant death.
The moment his head touched the pillow, he fell into a deep sleep.
***
Waking up, Winter looked around, seemingly looking for something in the room. As his eyes landed on some rags of cloth, he got up and started dressing up. Today was going to be a long day...
After dressing up he quickly glanced at his reflection in a broken piece of glass, his face was mostly inscathed but his body had scars and cuts all over, not to mention the fresh wound in his left leg.
Remembering the goal he had set for himself today, his expression turned grim and started planning his heist.
'Time to settle the score.'
With blood.
The rules were simple really, if someone made you bleed... you made them bleed, if someone stole from you, you stole from them.
And the bandits in question had made him bleed and stolen from him countless times. Winter just had no real reason to risk his life to get revenge. But now was not the time for revenge, Winter might have held a grudge against this particular group of bandits but he wasn't crazy.
'I'll get revenge, just not now...'
After getting ready, Winter was heading out, walking to the ladder and climbing up he stopped and lingered for a while, his gaze fixated on the broken glass littered on the floor. Winter suddenly climbed down and tore another strip of cloth, picked up a large piece of glass and wrapped it around the glass making a shank.
'Just in case.'
After opening the hatch and climbing out of the collapsed remains of the clock tower he looked around and started making his way to the city square.
'I'm sixteen now, so I guess I might be infected by the Soul Curse if I'm lucky... or unlucky???'