"Idiot!" I heard someone inside the hollow wall murmur.

The voice sounded feminine but you could never be certain in modern times. I had half a mind to attack whoever gave me the fake grenade before Karl had the opportunity to kill me.

It was more disconcerting to feel hopeful before you die than to just die outright.

However, now was not the time to begin second-guessing myself. A second ago, I thought I was going to die, and now I had a chance at life.

I was never someone to waste an opportunity, but I had to be equally cautious of whoever was within the hollow wall.

I would hate to be the mantis stalking the cicada unaware of the oriole behind. It would be even worse if an enormous shoe came out of nowhere and killed everyone in the end.

Things were just that unpredictable in the slums. You could be walking the streets like any other day, and a lightning bolt would just strike you from the heavens.

I am pretty sure that God just liked to f*ck with the slums.

1% of the time someone was unlucky, but it was all fun and jokes until you become the 1%.

With my unsteady legs shaking, I inched away from the hollow wall, but I didn't make it far before Karl also mimicked my action.

Karl could probably also guess that someone was hiding in the wall, and neither of us knew if the person was a friend or foe.

Giving me a fake grenade meant that the person was more in favor of my victory.

This realization made Karl even more cautious, so the hollow wall turned out to be the safest place for me in this situation.

It was like Chinese-Go, the first thing you learn is that corners are easier to defend.

I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I had to be wary of Karl in the front, and whoever resided in the wall at the back.

I didn't like the feeling of being sandwiched between a potential enemy and a guaranteed enemy. Luckily, one of my expertise laid in the ability to turn friends into foes and vice versa.

Karl made sure to watch my movements carefully while simultaneously being wary of the Hollow Wall.

I am pretty sure that doing so was too much attention for his 'basic' brain.

This stalemate continued for about half a minute while I racked my brain to come up with a feasible plan to survive.

Things weren't looking good for me, but I knew that Karl was just a head-bump away from a coma.

Karl was already pretty stupid, so I was hoping that given enough time he would forget how to breathe and just die.

As unrealistic as that may sound, I had seen it happen numerous times before.

I was already surprised that Karl could take so many bludgeoning impacts to the head and remain conscious.

After all, I was one swing short of breaking the plank on his skull, and Rose-Wood wasn't an easy material to break.

My mind wasn't exactly peak material at the moment, but I had enough brain cells remaining to get me by.

Seeing Karl's bloodshot eyes, I could tell that something had indeed snapped inside his head. His eyes were red enough to indicate an internal hemorrhaging of some kind.

I wouldn't be surprised if he cried blood at any moment now.

I was about to open my mouth to speak soothing words, maybe even sing a song to break the tension of the moment.

Doing unexpected things in a moment of life and death was the primary reason I was still alive today.

I had many strategies circulating in my mind, but my number one strategy always remained the same…

I was hoping I could talk long enough for Karl to just drop dead.

"I know that we…"

However, another panic attack disrupted my plan before it could be realized.

My chest felt heavy, my head spun, my knees buckled, breathing became a challenge, and paranoia encompassed my mind.

My eyes darted around looking for anything that was amiss – a grain of sand where it didn't belong, a piece of rock too large for comfort, or maybe even a pocket of air that didn't taste like asbestos.

I looked for any and everything as my paranoia intensified.

Most crazy people would hear little voices inside their heads, but mine was different. The voices were also there but they didn't speak… they 'felt'!

The voices 'felt' so intensely and detailed that I could hear the feelings. And right now those feelings were all yelling one thing – HIDE!

And that's when a strange sound became apparent to both me and Karl. It was slow and steady at first, but the sound soon blared with a frequency unmatched by any pendulum on Earth.

*beep - beep - beep*

*beep - beep*

*beep*

Both our eyes widened as we stared at Slim's corpse with shock on our faces.

We were both severely injured and tired, but only one of us was near Slim (Karl), and only one of us had a hollow wall to jump into (me).

I dove into the wall without a second thought. I knew Karl could not make it far enough from the epicenter unless he picked up his battered legs and somehow ran without them.

This was the slums so nothing would surprise me anymore.

'Slim kills people even from beyond the grave!' I cursed inside my mind 'The shota-loving bastard just couldn't go quietly!'

Fortunately, Slim's explosion tendencies worked to my advantage this time, and it also taught me a thing or two about back-up plans.

I knew Slim was a rat that could escape almost any situation, but I didn't consider what happened when a rat died … the simple answer was – it stank.

Slim didn't stink, but he did carry an artificial pacemaker that was rigged to explode upon his death.

*Boooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmm*

*Boooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmm*

The explosion shattered the flooring and briefly shook the foundations of the building.

The explosion was not strong enough to topple the entire building, but a section of the floor was permanently missing.

Luckily, the hollow wall remained mostly untouched, only the airwave causing a few rocks to dislodge onto my fragile back.

I crawled out of the hollow wall, pulling along a reluctant fat girl that was constantly sneezing. She wheezed and coughed like it was the first time that she breathed the tainted air of the slums.

I had little doubt that it was the late Rodge's sister – Erin.

I could tell from her chubby appearance because Rodge often bought more food than necessary in the past.

Now I know it was because he was raising a little piglet at home. A luxury piglet with a foul mouth to be precise.

It wasn't long after that her allergies faded and what followed made me wish that I could toss her back into the wall.

"You ******, *********, *********, ********, and your mother is a **********. Your dog is a ********, *********…. Grandma, granny, uncle, friend…." Erin began screaming profanities that would put most adults to shame.

I had been in the slums for years and even I couldn't understand some of the words she used. I made out a couple of words like 'cheese', 'face', and 'sit', before opting to shut her up.

I grabbed the dust from the floor and tossed it into her face. If she could not keep quiet, I preferred if she spent the rest of the time suffering from an asthma attack.

It wasn't long after that she began wheezing and coughing once more, but this time her jiggly cheeks were much more tightened, not even letting a single word leak from her poisonous tongue.

Still, her stare remained defiant. I was about to take away the bag of snacks she held in her hands, but as if reading my thoughts, she immediately became well-behaved and amiable.

"You're Rodge's sister I assume?" I asked, finally relaxing my body from the earlier events.

The moment I did so, all the injuries suffered came ramming back into my mind.

"Omari?" Erin asked wearily.

I nodded at the chunky girl and wanted to continue our conversation, but I knew that we could not remain at this location for much longer.

I pulled Erin along as we crawled through the debris. I coincidentally caught sight of a small necklace I had seen Karl wearing and picked it up.

The least I could do was return something to Eliza because she was a close friend and an extremely kind-hearted woman.

∞∞∞

In a luxury room on top of the Gang Hangout, A woman sat tapping her fingers on the smart-fabric of the chair she sat on.

"Very interesting show!" The woman said as she watched Omari pulling Erin and walking down the stairs of the building.

Every moment of the fight, from beginning to end, left her in a state of suspense. Everything was being broadcasted to the room by a drone that monitored all slum-dwellers for the Corporation.

Sum-Dwellers thought that they were free of the Corporation, but it was quite the opposite.

"I trust it was to your liking?" Laz, sitting in the next chair, asked.

Laz's chair was much less flashy, which denoted his status in comparison to the woman. Laz was the current head of the organization known as 'Adults'.

Of course, Laz was once a member of the Corporation Council but committed a great blunder that sent him spiraling down the chain of command until he hit rock bottom in the slums.

The room was filled with luxury goods and materials, but it might as well have been trash to Laz.

'Compared to all the goods in the cities, this stuff is trash,' Laz thought, slightly grimacing but quickly hiding it behind a wide smile as he gazed at the beautiful woman with fervor.

"If you are pleased with the boy, we can pick him up for you," Laz replied.

"Oh! You know where he lives?" The woman asked nonchalantly, but a ruthless gleam flashed through her eyes for a second.

Laz was a bit embarrassed to answer but he still did "No mam, he is very secretive about the location, but we can find it given enough time,"

"The boy is fine but something is holding him back… find what it is and bring it to me unharmed. I need him a bit more heartless before I can recruit him," The woman replied, waving her hand dismissively at Laz as if he was trash that could no longer be in her presence.