Hungry

Pushing back the heavy iron manhole cover, I prepared my eyes for the blinding daylight.  As the glow behind my eyelids grew brighter and brighter, I felt the gentle caresses of fresh air on my clammy skin. Slowly opening my eyes, I realized that the source of light was not in fact the sun but a lone street light right above me.  Recognizing the faded awning of the entrance to Castle Apartments, I turned and saw the familiar cobbled steps leading up to the orphanage.  My stomach rumbled- reminding me of the last...how long was I down there?  By the absence of a single other person on the streets I knew that it had been hours since the sun had turned in for the night.  This meant that everyone in the orphanage would be asleep.  Hopefully one of the volunteers was staying overnight with the kids.  Rather that wake everyone up and heat up leftovers from dinner, I started walking to the Sushi place on Sobchak.  The owner helped out in the orphanage a lot and, since I had left my wallet on my bedside table, I would need to pay with an IOU.  
While it was plenty dark outside, my eyes were still sensitive to the light of the sparse streetlights.  Squinching my face to try and let only the minimal amount of light in, I breathed in the fresh air of the night.  The humming of the streetlights and occasional bump in the night were a relief to my ears after my time in the deafening silence of the underground. Passing Isabella’s cafe, I thought of the two girls I saw in the tunnel and wondered if I would see them there.  Having already lost all sense of direction by the time I had met them, I couldn’t even estimate what direction they were going if above ground.
Quickening my stride as I smelled the 24-hour coffee being brewed at Casa de Waffles, I turned onto Sobchak.  A loud clanging noise drew my attention as I turned to go into the sushi restaurant.  My thoughts about whether to eat sushi or kenyan suddenly turned to curiosity as I tried to locate the origin of the sudden noise. Ignoring my aching stomach for a split second, I jogged across the street.  Peering into the alley, I saw two figures.  Since my pupils were still dilated from trying to see in complete dark for the past several hours, I could make out a girl and someone in a hoodie.  It didn’t look good for the girl.  As soon as all of this dawned upon me as a bad situation, the hoodied person pushed the girl down and ran in my direction.  Slamming me to the side, all I could do was hope that the sun would rise soon and shed light on the man passed out in the alley- too weak from hunger to do anything else