Issue #2-Chapter 3: Another Day of Survival

"No, help me!" A young woman's voice echoed around me. She sounded like she was around my age.

"Huh?!" I opened my eyes and took a look around the room. I realized it was the same room that I dreamed of yesterday. Once my eyes spotted something, I gasped and widened my eyes when I saw the same monster holding onto a woman with a crown on her head. It was getting ready to disappear from my sight, laughing viciously.

"No!" I shouted while I charge after her with my hand out forward, trying to rescue her. Yet the monster was disappearing at a much faster rate. Saying the same word a second time, I was getting desperate to save her and see who that woman really was. But I was too late-that monster disappeared with her, causing my eyes to widen even further.

I shouted the same exact word one last time. I took another look around and panted. I saw myself in the same place where Gideon and I slept in.

Oh, it was just a dream.

It was too bad my shout already woke up the same people inside and Gideon. I quickly turned to the wall and gazed at it in caution, hoping those people inside weren't alerted. I didn't even bother turning to Gideon until he sat up from the floor and turned to me.

"Good morning, Mi-" Gideon was going to say something to me until I shushed him.

"Be quiet!" I added with my finger placed in front of my mouth, "I'm trying not to alert those people inside."

"Oh..." Gideon turned to the wall and me back and forth, having the same mentality as me.

We were relieved to hear them awake unalerted, sighing.

"That was a close one," Gideon whispered.

"I know, right?"

Those people's chatter and movements had already echoed in the house with one another, as soon as they got ready for the day. I turned to Gideon and frowned at him, feeling guilty about waking him up and putting us in danger.

"Look, Gideon. Sorry I woke you up and the guys inside. I was having a bad dream, that's all," I apologized.

Gideon turned to me and gave me a grin on my face. "Oh, that's alright, Mike. It's not your fault. Those things happen sometimes."

"Yeah...I guess you're right..." After I smiled back at Gideon, I took a look around and saw the sunlight somewhat lighting up the hole inside. Then my eyes spotted a couple bugs roaming around on the wall, and I started squashing them with my bare hands.

Not seeing the bugs in sight, Gideon turned to me with his eyebrow raised. "Uh, what are you doing, Mike?"

"Killin' all 'em damn bugs," I responded and turned to Gideon.

"Oh, thank you, young man," Gideon exclaimed with his eyes closed and a smile.

I grinned back at Gideon. "No problem, Gideon. No problem." I wiped the bug guts off of my hands on my dirty ass shirt.

Hearing the footsteps inside, Gideon stood by the plank and creaked it open a little, peeking from it. I sat there still and waited patiently with Gideon for those people to leave the building, while we fixed our sleepy, messy hair. We didn't have time for anything else besides that.

We sighed when they left the building. Gideon turned around and fetched two wooden bowls in here.

Walking towards the plank, Gideon turned to me. "Looks like we can open the 'door' now."

As soon as Gideon removed the plank from the hole, more sunlight entered the hole. Only a third of sunlight was visible on the right wall; everything else in here was hidden in the shadow.

My stomach growled at me and I looked down at it with a frown. Hungry already?!

Gideon swung his hand backwards while he looked at me inside. "Come with me, Mike. Let's go beg for money and get some breakfast."

I shook my head in agreement and smiled at him. "Yea…right…"

Oh, great…We're beggin' again…I'm not hopeful it'll be better this time.

Once I exited the hole, Gideon closed the hole. He and I took a look around. We saw the poorly dressed housewives chatting with one another and a couple children playing with one another-no one else was around but them.

The buildings in the alleyway looked somewhat old and decayed. People's voices echoed around here and the warm smell was pleasant enough for our noses.

Gideon handed me a wooden bowl. "Here."

I took the bowl from his hand. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Okay, so which way do we go?"

Gideon scanned his surroundings and pointed left. "This way. Follow me."

"Got it."

Following Gideon's lead, I took a look around at my surroundings and saw nothing but building walls leading me and Gideon to the street. People at the end of it were minding their own business either walking pass by, or even buying or selling products. No guard was in sight so far.

As soon as Gideon and I got there, we took a look around for a place to beg under the hot sunlight. Gideon pointed at a certain spot in the area on the left and announced, "Over there!"

Gideon and I headed our way towards another alleyway and sat down on the ground, placing the bowls right in front of them. With people passing by, we both waited to get enough money to eat some breakfast from people donating money.

As time went by, neither Gideon nor I received money from people passing by us. Not even the guards. The sun's heat scorched our skins.

Our stomachs growled. I looked down at it with a frown while Gideon just simply ignored his.

My eyes scanned my surroundings and saw a few street vendors selling some food; a man selling green apples interested me. Then I looked down at my bowl with a glare.

Oh, screw it!

Waving down at it, I stood up from the ground and clenched my fist. Gideon noticed and gave me his puzzled face.

I gotta go get some breakfast my own way! My foot slid the bowl towards Gideon.

"Is there something wrong, Mike?" Gideon asked.

I turned to Gideon. "I'm gonna go get some breakfast. I'll be right back." I turned to the street vendor selling green apples and was about heading there.

Gideon stood up from the ground and put his hand out forward. "Wait!"

I stopped moving and turned around for Gideon's attention. "Yeah, well, what is it?"

"Let me go with you."

But I wasn't so sure about that. Gideon's old and he could slow me down when I steal something. "Uh, no thank you. You can stay here and watch the bowls while I go get some breakfast. I'll be right back, Gideon."

"But I can assist you."

I gave Gideon my puzzled look. "Oh, yea? How, old man?"

Gideon walked towards me and whispered in my ear, "I'll help you in your food theft, Mike. I've done it before and I sometimes do it."

I leaned back for a second and looked Gideon in the eye. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. Let me go with you to prove my worth."

"Alright." My stomach growled again. "Let's get goin' then. I'm starvin'."

Gideon grinned at me for a moment. "Got it."

Gideon and I headed our way towards the street vendor with green apples. Once we got there, the majority of people walked past the street vendor.

"Apples! Apples! Come and get your apples all for five copper coins each!" The street vendor shouted while a few people in clean clothing just stood there and examined the apples.

Gideon leaned his head towards my ear. "You do the talking and I'll do the stealing," he whispered.

I turned to Gideon and shook my head. "Alright, you show me what you got."

Gideon shook his head back at me. "Got it."

I swallowed my saliva and my body was starting to be shaky for a moment there. Alright, Mike. Here we go buddy.

I walked towards the man repeating the same exact lines as before, and Gideon followed suit. "U-U-Uh, excuse me, sir," I said, raising my hand up a bit like I was in school back in my old world.

But the man didn't hear me, nor even noticed me. So I shouted "Excuse me" a couple more times before he finally answered my call.

"Yes? And what can I get you for today?" The man said while I examined the green apples.

Pretending to decide which apple was I going to get, since they were all similar to one another-clean with no holes on them, my eyes spotted Gideon standing near the apple stand, shaking his head, signaling me to go on. I returned to the apples and picked up one to closely examine it under the sunlight. Its luster was amazing to look at.

"This one looks pretty tasty, doesn't it?" I questioned, handing the apple over to the man.

The man grabbed it and grinned at me with his eyes closed, cackling a bit. "I know, right? It actually looks good to eat."

Although Gideon managed to steal a couple apples without being detected by the man in front of me though, a boy standing near his mother pointed his finger at Gideon and declared, "Thief!"

I widened my eyes out of shock. Oh, shit! I better do somethin' to help Gideon or we don't get some breakfast. Ever.

Angrily turning to Gideon, the man chased after him in the alleyway, yelling, "Stop! Thief!"

People around him stopped moving and gazed at the chase scene, chattering with one another. I ran after him to catch up with the man.

Looks like I was wrong about Gideon bein' slow all along. He can actually run fast.

Then I tripped the man over and he fell on the ground, causing the audience to gasp out of shock and chatting with one another more. Walking past him, I followed Gideon and shouted, "Wait for me!"

Gideon moved his head back and forth and slowed down his running speed a bit. Once we lost the man, we panted and scanned our surroundings, finding no threat in sight.

Gideon handed me the apple. "Here, take it. You should eat."

I smiled at Gideon and grabbed the apple while I watched him take a bite. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Gideon said after he chewed his food.

I looked down below and turned back to Gideon as soon as he took another bite. "And I'm sorry I underestimated you. Would you-"

Gideon raised his hand and finished chewing his food. "It's alright, no need to apologize for that one."

My stomach growled and I smiled at Gideon once more. "Gotcha."

Gideon and I ate the apples together without a problem. After that, my mind reminded me of some promise last night about stealing some clothes for job hunting.

"Alright, let's go back to begging for money," Gideon said as he turned around and was about to walk forward.

'Go back begging?' No way! Has he forgotten that we need to go get some clothes for job huntin'?!

"Uh, 'bout that…" I interrupted.

Gideon turned to my attention. "Yes? What is it, Mike?"

"Can you help me with somethin'?"

"Sure, sure. Help you with what?"

"Well, you know, we're going to steal some new clothes for job huntin', remember?"

Gideon thought about it and gasped out of realization. "Why, yes. I would most certainly help you with that," Gideon agreed. "I almost forgot about that. We need to head over to the bathhouse to steal some clothes from there. Follow me."

Gideon and I threw the skinny apples on the ground and I followed him to the bath house. Once we got there, Gideon stood behind the corridor and carefully peeked from there.

He turned to me and whispered, "We're here."

I also peeked from the corridor with Gideon and saw three young women in plain, long dresses putting dry clothes from the stringed hangers into the large, wooden baskets. They walked on the stony ground with their bare feet, chatting with one another.

The long dresses, shirts and pants, socks and nylons were moving with the wind while hanging on the stringed hangers. The voices from the chatty alleyways and the bathhouse had simply ignored them.

The wind and sun helped the clothes become cool and dry. The atmosphere's warm smell entered our nostrils.

Because we hid ourselves from the bathhouse, I assumed we were stealing those clothes from that building. And lately, I preferred that over getting the clothes from the understaffed church and buying expensive ones from the clothing stores.

Gideon and I turned to one another. "Alright, here's what we'll do," Gideon whispered, "I'll go steal a couple of pants and pairs of shoes, and you go steal a couple of shirts and pairs of socks, got it?"

I shook my head. "Got it."

"Good, now let's go."

Gideon and I snuck our way towards the clothes very slowly and quietly. The three girls stopped by and saw us heading towards the clothes, pointing at us. "Thieves!"

As soon as we immediately took the clothes off the hangers and took off, the alarmed women's eyes investigated and saw us run away with the clothes and Gideon didn't even get a chance to steal the shoes. "You there! Stop! Thieves!" One of the young women roared as they put the clothes down on the ground and dashed towards us.

We tried to find a hiding spot here but couldn't find any, so we looked back and forth and saw them speeding up their running energy. I grinned at them.

Ha! They're runnin' way too fast! Since women don't run as fast as men do, Gideon and I can definitely outrun them.

Although we searched for our hiding spot again, we still failed to find one. But on the bright side, we ran our way as fast as we could and saw the women's running speed slowing down, panting with their mouths closed.

Alright, we can definitely lose those bitches! Ya-hooo!

Then the women smirked at us, which made me raise my eyebrow at them for a second, and shouted while pointing at us. "Stop! Thieves!"

"Oh!" Gideon stopped running and stared at something afar in horror.

"Huh? What's the-" I turned to Gideon and also stopped running, widening my shocked eyes when I stared at something.

There we saw a couple guards turning towards us with a glare. They held onto their swords on their shaves and cackled a bit.

Oh, shit! The guards are here! Shit, shit, SHIIIIT!!!