Melissa thought thing's could get better. Until she smelt it. The beagle's family wasn't as rich as most she knew about but they lived a pretty decent life in the suburb's. Then one night, with the window open, the preteen girl smelled smoke. From outside, she could she the early morning light and a pileup. She could sleep through most anything, but if something smelt off, she'd wake up fast. And what she learned is that her parent's were coming back with some early morning shopping and got in a crash with a drunk driver.

She was an orphan now and couldn't go home, but her aunt and uncle took her in and thing's could get better. Then she felt it. Not long when her relative's took her in, they treated her like a slave. Making her cook, clean, forcing her to drop out from school and scaring most of her friend's away. One day, she heard them speak about getting money from her when she turned eighteen. Her parent's did have a great life insurance policy and they hoped they could cash in on it when she turned into an adult, they just have to make her feel worthless enough to give it all to them and they'll toss her out after that. She was so angry and called them out on it and threatened to go the cop's until they hit her until she was unconscious. They tried to lock her in the attic, but she got out, took what she needed, and ran off. Ran and got to a bus and got to the city, next state over.

All she had was the cloth's on her, the few bucks she still had for food, her mother's playing card's and her father's utility knife, but she did make some friend's among the homeless in the alley's and they helped teach her to survive, scrounge, pick pocket, be patient, and read situation's. She thought, hopefully, thing's could get better. And then, she saw it. A clearly dead bum rabbit tearing into the feather's and flesh of an old owl she liked.

Chaos erupted as animal's tried to get to their home's, away or just to a shelter. Her companion's either get killed different ways or escaped with the crowd. Amid various thing's getting dropped, she saw a SWAT officer's assault rifle and radio and scooped them up and hid in an alley and waited, dropping her card's on the ground. She was scared beyond anything, but kept quiet and waited. When it was finally clear, she turned on the radio and learned of a large shelter housing survivor's. She had some skills to survive and live, and in time, find a new family and the will to become stronger in this harsher world. She picked up her bag and card's and walked on. In time, thing's will get better. And she believed it.

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