Hunter's Redemption Chapter 1 - Life in London It was dark in the lonely, concrete wilderness that was central London as the rain fell mercilessly from the sky, covering all of the large city in the harsh, cold liquid. Most people had either turned in for the night but a few others had run under shelters and various other forms of protection from the bitterly cold rain. A small boy was running through the rain, panting heavily and constantly looking over his shoulder. He was being followed. The boy was small and looked more average than any other, absolutely no feature of him made him look special and that's what made him unique. He sported only a thin jacket that was ragged and frayed and some well-worn jeans that hung just over the tops of his tatty dull blue canvas high-tops that had a small hole in the place of the right big toe from numerous hours of football in the street. He didn't consider himself to be very good at it, it was just a hobby for him. He humbly accepted his average state, never the one to cause or continue arguments. Suddenly a voice called out from behind him, it startled him from daydreaming and he continued to run. The voice had a very heavy Scottish accent and spoke harshly. "Joe!" It called out loudly. "Gotta lose those guys!" The boy told himself over and over as he sprinted through the rain and down the street in no specific direction. "Damn it Joe!" The man said again to himself as he let his colleague catch up to him. The first man, standing under a dim street light, was very tall, at least 6'4". He had a full beard, a dull orange in colour and mid-long hair that matched. He had a full dark navy-blue jacket that sported a gold badge pinned to it and long smart blue trousers that matched in colour. Also smart, recently polished shoes and a hat with a similar badge to the one pinned to his jacket. "That boy's gonna do 'imself a mischief" He said as his colleague got up from his crouched position but was still panting heavily. He had the same clothing as the Scot but had a plastic cover on his hat and short brown hair and a clean-shaven face. "Well... I... think... if... he wants to... run... then let im!" The other man said angrily as he caught his breath. "There he is!" The Scottish man exclaimed as he began to pursue the figure through the rain. His colleague sighed heavily and began to run reluctantly after his friend. "Those officers are relentless!" Joe said angrily catching his breath whilst under the cover of a small bus shelter. He sat down heavily expecting himself to be caught and taken back to his prison by the name of 'Greater London Orphanage'. God how he hated it there. It was bad enough to never know your parents but to go though endless torture afterwards? "Child refuge my left butt cheek!" Joe said to himself as he stood up again grumbling slightly as he hit his head on the low curved roof of the bus shelter. He heard the calls of the two police officers becoming louder in the distance and their footsteps were also audible through the loud splashing. He prepared to be caught when an idea popped into his head, he quickly spied around the street, looking for a suitable place to hide. He then noticed a fence surrounding a rather large building with a sign that read 'keep out'. School legend said the place was haunted by a mutant-dog thing that attacked trespassers but Joe never believed in such urban legend. Ignoring a small voice in the back of his head telling him that this was a bad idea, he leapt over the 5' fence with a great deal of difficulty and sprinted for the large hole in the wall that should have held a door. He crept inside nervously and sat in one of the corners in the large room and waited apprehensively for any sign of a sound amongst the humming of the rain. He was startled into getting up when the two officer's voices sounded from outside the building. "Kyle, this is pointless!" The shorter man with brown hair announced angrily and out of breath. "I must find him! He doesn't know what he's gettin' into!" The Scottish officer responded. "And anyway, if your kiddie was wanderin' the streets of London by 'imself in the rain, how'd you react!?" He said harshly in his thick Scottish accent. "You know i'd not like it" The other man responded sadly. Kyle (the ginger cop) looked at the other with a cheerless expression. "Sorry Matt, I shouldn't have…" Kyle began to say before Matt (the other cop) put his hands up. "It's ok, he died for his country" Matt said cutting off anything Kyle was about to say. He took in a deep breath and turned to face his partner. "He was brave. I only wish I saw him grow up" He said sorrowfully remembering his son's face when he left for the Iraq war. Meanwhile, inside the building, Joe was cowering both from the cold and the fear of being caught. The wind began to pick up wildly blowing the heavy rain in a mini tempest around the street. "This is suicide Kyle!" Matt said trying to keep his hat on his head. Reluctantly Kyle reached for his walkie-talkie. He pressed a button and spoke clearly into it. "Officer Macintosh reporting, please respond" "We hear you officer, any news of the boy?" The small device responded. "Negative, returning to the station" Kyle said solemnly. And with that he returned the device to his belt. "Cheer up man, it's not like you have to tell his parents or anything" Matt said trying to comfort Kyle. Kyle just shrugged and the two men began to walk back to an un-marked BMW police interceptor. Joe had heard the conversation and began to cry from that same sentence playing over and over in his head. 'It's not like you have to tell his parents…' With a heavy, sad sigh he wept silently in his loneliness.