Chương 1: (Ch1) The Storm

It was pouring rain on the sidewalks of New York City. The sidewalks were clear, except if you looked closely, you could see a dark figure walking on the desolate sidewalk, heading towards the back alley of a store. In a flash of lightning the dark figure disappeared as of it dissolved into nothingness. Ivan looked at the flash of lightning that had just struck. In just a few seconds Ivan went back to scavenging for anything useful in the dumpster he was searching. Ivan usually comes to the back alley of this bakery, because he could sometimes find scraps of bread that was thrown away. While searching, Ivan started to reminisce about how he ended up like this. Three years ago, Ivan ran away from his orphanage, he did this because he heard they were going to sell the children off as laborers to factories for extra money. When Ivan heard this he ran away the next night. He only brought along food, water, extra clothes, money, and a blank book with leather casing. The reason Ivan brought along this useless book, was because he felt attached to it, he didn't know who his parents were, nor did he care, he just felt this book was special because his parents left it behind, and if it's indeed useless he can just sell it off for money. The thing Ivan didn't know at the time was that the supplies he brought along were only enough for three months. And so he ended up here, scavenging for food and is on the edge of death everyday. Ivan was just about to leave the back alley because he couldn't afford to get a cold, 'another night without a full stomach' Ivan thought to himself. Before Ivan could leave he saw a full, intact piece of bread in the corner of his eye. Ivan heard his stomach growl, he had not eaten since yesterday because of the rain. Ivan walked quickly towards the loaf of bread, until he saw a raccoon near the loaf already, 'no you don't!' said Ivan in his mind, Ivan rushed forward towards the loaf of bread. The raccoon and Ivan made it to the loaf of bread at the same time, the two were cautiously watching each other, until the raccoon hurriedly picked up the bread. Ivan reacted quickly, and jumped on the raccoon, snapping its neck. It may seem gruesome to others, but Ivan had to learn how to protect his food from animals, and it just so happened raccoons were Ivan's most common enemy. Ivan stuffed his mouth with the soggy bread, and picked up the raccoon corpse to cook tomorrow morning. Ivan was just walking out of the back alley when he heard footsteps near him, Ivan looked around and found a dark figure in front of him. Ivan confused asked "what do you want?" The dark figure just stood there as if frozen. When Ivan was about to ask again, the dark figure pulled out what looked to be a gun, as a explosion sounded, Ivan saw a bright flash of light which cause Ivan to fall to the ground motionless.