Past Bites (The Helsing Society Book 2) by Bradford Bates & Michael Anderle

Author:Bradford Bates & Michael Anderle [Bates, Bradford]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2022-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Saul called it an overpass, but it was a homeless community built against the wall separating the freeway from the business and neighborhood.

It was sad how many people got left behind in this new economy. There was enough wealth in our city that everyone should have been able to have a bed of their own. The real problem that kept people from going to the shelters was they always put all kinds of stipulations on staying. If the choice was between conforming to the shelter’s rules or staying on the street, it was easy for them to decide. They’d rather stay put than deal with the bullshit.

The funny thing was there had been plenty of studies showing once a person found stability in their living situation, they tended to drink and do drugs less often. The flip side to a program like that was that some would relapse. How to handle the situation was a gamble either way. I was all for getting as many people off the streets as possible, no strings attached.

What they did with the chance from there was their choice.

I parked my truck on the side of the road. The people here would trust me even less if I arrived in a fancy-ass vehicle looking like a pampered tourist who wanted to make herself feel better about being rich. My clothes and appearance already marked me as someone who didn’t belong.

A gun was strapped to my right hip and a knife on my left. The gun holster was enchanted to make it invisible so people wouldn’t run away from me on sight. The blade wouldn’t spark much interest. Almost everyone out here had one.

Being homeless wasn’t much different than being a vampire. Life on the streets could be brutal.

The smell hit me before I made it to the camp. I knew it would probably be a losing battle, but you’d think the city could foot the bill for a couple of porta-johns. I understood they didn’t want to condone the actions of the homeless campsites, but by not doing anything the city had created a public health situation. All those nasty diseases from the past might come back if we had enough people shitting in the streets.

Places like that tended to break my heart. I knew some people were there by choice, and some due to an addiction, but there were others whose lives had taken a wrong turn.

It wasn’t easy to claw your way back up from living on the street. You would be surprised how hard it was to get a job when you didn’t have simple things like access to a phone or an address. Even applying for jobs online meant getting clean enough to go to the library without getting kicked out. Some libraries even charged for computer time.

Any person who went from living on the street to being a productive member of society had my undying respect. It was a fight I never had to experience and one that took more grit than hunting down a fledgling or two.

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