When Spider-Man woke up, he found himself lying at the end of a dark alley. The light of a flashlight was faintly swaying in front of him. Fierce screams echoed in his ears. Spider-Man blurted out: "Stop..."
But the voice he made was not as powerful as before. Most of his voice was breathy, and it didn't sound like he was shouting, but like he was pleading.
Spider-Man found himself unable to move.
The moment he made a sound, the flashlight shined in this direction. When his field of vision lit up, Spider-Man could barely see that there were several half-year-old children standing by the wall. The older one looked to be around thirteen or fourteen years old.
Years old, the youngest is probably only about ten years old.
They were beating a child who was much younger than them.
Spider-Man originally thought this was just a fight between ordinary children, or at worst a group bullying, until he saw the oldest child holding a crowbar stained with blood.
The sticky cold liquid flowed down from his forehead, and Spider-Man realized that he had changed his body. After the initial tension dissipated, he realized that one of his eyes was invisible, and the vision of the other eye was also constantly changing.
Shake.
"boom!"
The crowbar hit the beaten child on the head, and after the last scream, he died.
The other people walked towards Spider-Man, and fear spread in Spider-Man's heart. He struggled with all his strength, but there were not many limbs he could control, and most of his body was in a state where he could not feel anything at all.
Down.
Spider-Man opened his mouth to make a sound, but he couldn't utter a complete sentence. He only heard the big kid in the lead say: "If you don't want to die in the next life, don't steal anything!"
"boom!"
Spider-Man lost consciousness. After a long period of darkness, he found himself in a dimly lit room. His right leg hurt badly, but at least he was no longer dizzy.
A girl's face appeared in the hazy field of vision. Her waving fingers were bony, but her face had a little baby fat. Her words with a Gotham accent rang in Spider-Man's ears.
"Jayne, are you okay? You were beaten up by Johnny and hit your head. I thought you were dead."
Spider-Man reluctantly sat up, shook his head and said, "I'm not... I'm not..."
"I know, I know, don't worry. We were very full in the past two days. It doesn't matter if we skip a meal today. Even the most powerful golden hand in the alley will miss it sometimes."
"Yes, yes, Jayne, don't worry, we can work now." A more childish voice came from behind the girl.
The girl turned around and scolded: "Jimmy, I told you a long time ago. You and your sister are too young and not tall enough to steal anything. You are not allowed to go out."
"But Jayne is injured. If we don't go out to work, everyone will have nothing to eat." The childish voice protested: "Besides, my brother and I will be eight years old next year."
Spider-Man took a deep breath and shouted: "Stop, can someone tell me what's going on? I'm not on Apokolips..."
"Jayne, what's wrong with you? Do you have a fever?"
Suddenly several children gathered around. In addition to the girl named Lan, there were also a brother and sister who looked like twins, two skinny boys, a girl with braids, and a girl who looked like she was only three or four years old.
little girl.
Spider-Man held back a lot of his words.
Because these children look so embarrassed.
The older girl in the lead is better, with a bit of flesh on her face, but judging from the exposed wrists and fingers, her body must be skinny and skinny. The twin brothers and sisters are completely thin and small, and the rest
Several children are not only thin, but also have sallow complexion, sunken eye sockets, and are also wearing shabby clothes.
From Spider-Man's point of view, the Queens neighborhood where he lives and the neighboring Bronx neighborhood are already considered poor settlements, and he has never seen such children there. This is simply like the kind of child survivors photographed in battlefield reports.
By.
No, it's actually worse than that, Spider-Man thought. The child survivors were just in ragged clothes, with the ashes of artillery fire on their faces, but it could be seen from their body shapes and faces that they had lived a good life before. But at first glance, this group of children
It means that if you don't eat enough for many years, your body will not develop at all.
Spider-Man recalled that the sister of the twins had just said that they would be eight years old next year, but these two children did not look like they were in second grade. The five-year-old children in the kindergarten next to his home were much stronger than them.
Spider-Man was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say.
He struggled to sit up and gently pushed away Lan's hand that touched his forehead and said, "I don't have a fever. Can you tell me where I am now and who you are?"
"Oh my God, you didn't break your head, did you?"
"I'm fine, but I really can't remember." Spider-Man made up a lie as he was afraid that telling the truth would scare these children. He could clearly feel their concern and expectations from their eyes.
Hope, if Spider-Man tells them that the Jayne they are counting on is likely to be dead, they will probably cry in fear.
Immediately, the children began to explain to Spider-Man in a flurry. After hearing this, Spider-Man summarized it. Simply put, this is a gang of thieves.
They used to steal things in groups led by their parents. Later, they were kicked out or ran away due to various incidents. In order to survive, they formed a small gang of their own and worked in several large gangs.
The gang of thieves earn a living by doing odd jobs in the border area.
This boy named Jayne is the organizer of the group and the eldest child. He is eleven years old this year. He took the initiative to escape from a certain group of thieves. Before he came out, he was the most powerful child in the group because of his relationship with the group.
The mother inside had an argument and ran out.
He and Lan are the only ones who can go out to work now, but Lan's apprenticeship is short and his skills are not good. He can't steal much even if he goes out for a whole day. The whole gang basically relies on the things stolen by Jayne.
Spider-Man opened his mouth. He was very righteous, but his conscience prevented him from saying "stealing is wrong" when facing such a group of children.
He clenched his fists in anger. He wanted to scold these parents for not raising their children, and he also wanted to scold the welfare institutions and community personnel, but now the only thing that was lingering in his mind was what Lan said before, and what they would do in the next few days.
Maybe there is no food to eat.
Spider-Man took a deep breath and tried his best to ignore the pain in his body and wanted to stand up, but in the process he thought that it was useless to stand up. He was not Jayne at all. He couldn't steal things, and he didn't want to steal things.
, is there no other way to get something to eat?
Spider-Man explained his point of view to several children, but what made him feel uncomfortable was that after listening, the children neither agreed nor refuted, but just stared blankly with a look that Spider-Man could not understand.
staring at him.
"...It's just food." Spider-Man said: "As long as it can fill your stomach, right? Or, maybe you don't have to consider the taste?"
Lan sat down in silence, lowered her head and repeated: "Yes, that's just food."
Suddenly, the younger sister of the twins screamed and shouted to Lan: "You can't go back! You can't go back to that inhumane old woman, those men will kill you!!!"
Lan was silent for a while and said with a cry: "That's just food."
Spider-Man suddenly understood what they were talking about, and he stared at the little girl in front of him dumbfounded. Although she was considered older among children, she was still a child at all.
Spider-Man took a deep breath. The angry flames almost burned his heart. He instinctively slammed the floor and was stunned for a moment.
He looked down at the floor. There was nothing there, no trace left at all.
He is no longer Spider-Man.
The angry flame went out with a roar, leaving Spider-Man only in cold sweat and a vague sense of fear.
He is no longer Spider-Man, he has no great strength, no agility, no sense of danger, no advanced equipment given to him by Mr. Stark, and no Uncle Ben who will always prepare steaming meals waiting for him.
With Aunt May.
Spider-Man felt tears welling up in his eyes, but he held them back, not because he didn't want to cry, but because his kindness made him know that he couldn't cry, because when he cried, these children would cry.
And they didn't even have food to eat after crying.
Find food, find food, find food...
Spider-Man gritted his teeth, stretched out his hand to push Lan who was distracted, and asked: "I really can't steal anything now, but we can't live without food. Apart from stealing, you don't know what else to do."
Any way to get food?”
"If there were, we wouldn't steal anything anymore. The life of a thief is the least valuable. If caught, he can be beaten to death."
Spider-Man thought about the last death he experienced. It seemed that he was also a thief last time, but unfortunately he was caught.
Thinking of this, Spider-Man felt his heart sinking heavily, and a chill crawled down his spine to his neck, which meant that the living people in front of him were very likely to be killed because of a mistake.
If you reluctantly steal, you will be beaten to death, if you don't steal, you will starve to death. Spider-Man found that he was not so anxious when facing Thanos snapping his fingers and destroying half of all life in the universe.
Because at that time, he only had one option to fight to the death. Even if the end was a dead end, he could still say that he had tried his best. But now he knows that both are dead ends, so he still has to choose one. The moment of choice means certain
Someone will die.
It was impossible for all of these children to survive.
Spider-Man's rationality told him that Jayne's collapse was too sudden. They had no preparations. There were not many capable people in the group, and they would not be able to find another way to make a living within three days. The youngest girl would definitely not be able to survive it.
.
Where is the way out?
"What about digging through the trash can?" Spider-Man suddenly said: "If you just want to fill your stomach, discarded food is not a problem."
"Children help take care of the garbage bins. They will guard it before the garbage truck is dumped." Lan shook her head and said, "Their bodies are much stronger than ours, and we can't overtake them."
The elder brother of the twins winced and said, "And if you get close to them, you might get beaten. They especially hate thieves."
Seeing the disappointed expression on Spider-Man's face, Lan gritted her teeth and said, "Jayne, your craftsmanship is notoriously good. The parents nearby know it. You will definitely not starve to death when you go back to their place. As for us,
We can figure it out ourselves."
"Lan! You just want to go back to that old woman. Have you forgotten how Jayne rescued you back then?!"
"I would have died anyway!" Lan gritted her teeth and said fiercely, "It's just food!"
Spider-Man took a deep breath and said: "Stop talking, I will find a way, I will find a way to let you all survive."
Spider-Man failed.
Long-term malnutrition has caused the youngest girl's resistance to hunger to be almost zero. Her body does not have the nutrients to allow her to cope with hunger temporarily, or she may have been hungry for a long time before that.
But in short, she starved to death in front of Spider-Man.
And Spider-Man hasn't spoken for a whole day.
Until that evening, he saw a smiling boy under the lamppost at the entrance of the base, walking towards him with a bag of bread in his hand.
"Long time no see, my good neighborhood Spider-Man in Gotham."
Spider-Man was stunned for a moment, and looking at the familiar smile on his face, Spider-Man instinctively shouted: "Joker?!!!"