The following morning.
‘Actually, that wasn’t so bad, I’m not feeling cold anywhere.’ Unwrapping himself and standing up, Max does a large stretch and flexes his tiny muscles before examining his surroundings.
Without a single cloud in the sky it appears that it would be another warm, sunny day. It’s already beginning to warm up even in the early hours in the morning to the point where Max wouldn’t be feeling cold if he were naked.
‘I should have listened to see if there was anyone near me first before exposing myself, who knows what kind of a person could have been standing next to me. ’
Folding the blanket he lays it down beside him. He takes the bag filled with rice and vegetables from yesterday and looks inside.
‘Actually, this is pretty good. By the looks of it they aren’t mushy or malformed.’ He takes the spoon that comes with the ration and scoops up a bit of his breakfast.
‘Could use some heat though...’
While eating Max thinks about his plans for the rest of the day.
‘Let's hope that my mother and father have gotten it out of their system. It’ll be absolutely dreadful if this is my new routine from now on. Forced to spend the nights outside. Maybe I can craft a key to the house. How hard can it be? I bet that I can find some conveniently shaped pieces of metal or plastic in the garbage here and there, all I need is to file them into shape and voila... or I can just steal a key and make them think that they lost it’
‘Actually. Why even bother with a key. I can just learn how to pick the lock, lockpicking sounds like an invaluable skill in this place. Then I can just sneak in and go hide in the closet’
All the while, Max keeps an eye on his surroundings.
His meal quickly finished, Maximillian leaves his hiding spot, making his way to the apartment block where he lives.
Even this early in the morning the streets are slowly beginning to get filled up with people. It's a city filled with millions after all.
' And this is one of the nicer areas so even more come to gather here.’
One thing most interesting about Meteor City is the difference between all that have found their way to it. The place just seems to attract people from all over the world like it’s the most interesting tourist attraction to ever exist.
And, as it turns out, humans aren’t the only ones attracted to the City. Sentient beasts could from time to time be seen on the city’s streets. A part of life that everyone around Maximillian seems to accept.
The area Max had been born in is relatively clean with somewhat regular ‘police’ patrols. That is, patrols consisting of people wearing black suits armed with handguns and more often that not, rifles.
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‘… they’ve really been tightening up their control on the area. There’s way more of them now, several times more compared to last year, let’s not speak of the raid on the exchange building.’
Max locks his eyes onto the passing patrol, he covers up his features with a rag so that they would be able to tell that he’s a kid, there are many adults that are his size or even smaller so nobody spares him anything more than a passing glance. He hides behind the crowd to pass the security patrol.
‘What do they even want? They must be bleeding money like crazy in order to remain here.’
‘I better keep my distance, for all I know I might end up accidentally stumbling into an organ harvesting operation, with me as the donor.’
----------------------------------------
Finally entering the apartment block Max climbs up the stairs to the third floor where he lives.
Only to stop upon taking the final step and taking in the scene in front of him.
‘Why is the front door smashed into pieces?’
Alarmed, he hugs the wall.
‘Did they get robbed? What kind of a thief would break into a house like that, in the middle of the night when the owners are most likely to be home.’
Putting his ear against the wall he listens for any kind of sound coming from inside, closing his eyes in the process to help him focus.
*click*
The sound produced when the neighbors door is unlocked causes Max to flinch backwards in fear. Turning to face that door he is ready to bolt down the stairs at a moment's notice.
“Oh, if it isn’t young Maximillian.”
An elderly man, not even a foot taller than the two year old boy shows himself.
‘He was named.. Frederik if I’m remembering correctly?’ Max relaxes a bit at the sight of the elder but remains vigilant nevertheless. ‘Mother has spent some time with him, he seems to be quite mild mannered and friendly.’
“Well this sure is a surprise isn’t it, I’d been expecting you to have disappeared along with your parents.”
An awkward silence fills the place, Max not moving an inch and the elder remaining in place, leaning lightly on his cane.
“Hoh, I apologize. I forget that you’re still too young to understand what I’m saying. I swear, your eyes hide so much intelligence behind them sometimes that I forget it’s a toddler standing in front of me.”
Glancing at the broken down door for a brief second he continues.
“About an hour after sundown I happened to hear a commotion in the corridor. The distinct sound of wood breaking and your parents being dragged out against their will not long after.’ Believing that Maximillian could not understand him the old man continues talking, more to recollect the night's events in his head than anything else.
“If I had to guess, your parents have gotten themselves caught up in the fight between the mafia families. After all, we live right on the border between two of those families. This is a contested area with high value and both of your parents happen to be working important jobs.’
Walking past the shattered remains of the door the man turns to face Maximillian.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Come on, those people are long gone.”
Max is close behind the elder as they make their way in. Outwardly Maximillian was calm, on the inside however he was anything but.
‘Shit. Shit. Shit. Are you kidding me? Couldn’t those idiots have waited at least two or three more years until they got spirited away. You’ve got to be kidding me, I can’t survive in this dumpster fire of a city by myself.’
‘I need to nick all of the money my parents have hidden around the house, I’ve at least been observant enough to know all of the hiding spots. They will provide me enough time to figure out how to survive…’
“What a mess” Frederik comments as he lays his eyes down on the obvious signs of struggle. Items randomly scattered on the ground, bits of dried blood, most notably a table that’s in an even worse state than the front door. Shattered into a thousand shards of wood.
If Maximillian hadn’t been as distressed as he is he would have joked internally about how the thing had finally crumbled to pieces.
Moving to the next room they find the bedroom. Sheets have been thrown all over the place and even the mattress has been torn, it’s insides spilling out.
“Well, it could be worse. I don’t see any large bloodstains and judging by the destruction and the sounds I heard last night your parents are still alive.”
He gives Maximillian a pat on the head before walking past him, turning to leave the destroyed apartment.
“A shame. A kid this young probably won't last the week. My family has its own problems to deal with so we can’t afford to feed another mouth.”