Check the homeless camp

Just because these people don’t have a home doesn’t mean they are automatically dangerous or hostile. Eric is a nice guy, but he probably is not free from prejudice. You are going to try your luck. Carefully you enter the homeless camp and look around, the area smells rotten and sour, but you can ignore this. Some of the tents and improvised huts are quite tidy, others are a total mess.

Most people seem to be not around. It takes a while until you meet a resident. A woman in her late fiftieth sits on a broken chair in front of a small open fire in a metal barrel. Despite the summer temperatures, she wears two jackets and the upper one is ripped at several spots. She also looks very exhausted and barely moves when you appear. Next to her, a man with slightly grey hair shows up. He wears an old but clean shirt and slightly damaged jeans. He also has an impressive beard and some muscles. But you notice he only has three fingers at one hand and one of his legs moves strange.

“Who are you?” the man asks suspicious, “you are not one from our camp. Are you with a gang?”

“No, no, I’m not a gang member,” you answer quickly, “I don’t mean you any harm.”

“For real?” the man asks still sceptic, “well, then what are you doing here? Are you probably one of us? Are you looking for a place to stay? Are you a runaway? I don’t blame you. None of us does. We all have been in difficult situations before we just lost our homes.”

“Oh, no, I have a home,” you reply a little embarrassed, “Actually I’m on my way back. I just saw your camp and wanted to talk to you.”

“Are you some kind of street worker?” the woman asks and her voice is a mix of scratchy and smoky, “We haven’t seen one of you in ages. The gangs chased everyone away.”

“I’m not,” you answer calm and notice a few more homeless people show up, now that you made clear you are not here to hurt them, “I was on the street and I noticed someone watched me from this building over there. I thought you might know something.”

“Oh, this,” another homeless man with a terrible dirty jeans jacked mumbles, “don’t worry, that’s just Eddie. At least we call him that. He is dangerous but never leaves this building. Just keep you distance and everything is fine.”

“Why is he dangerous?” you ask not sure if you should.

“He is a madman,” a very old homeless woman explains and spits on the ground, “stay away from him. Not everyone who enters this building comes out again. He's constantly babbling about how someone is after him and that he knows some truth. But he's just crazy. I have no idea what made him like that. He was here before us.”

“I see,” you mumble and notice that there are now around ten homeless people around you, “well, thanks for telling me this. I don’t want to disturb you any further. I guess I will leave you now.”

“I’m afraid we cannot allow this, little one,” the first homeless guy, you assume he is some kind of leader, says and tries to sound calming, “you can’t just leave. We need something from you first.”

“What do you want from me?” you ask tense and try to keep as many of the guys as possible in your view “let me go! I’m not your enemy.”

“Listen, girl, this is nothing personal,” the first man explains carefully, “we don’t mean you any harm. But we are starving here. We need some cash. You are not a runaway and not a gang member. If you are not from here, you must have some bucks. We don’t even want everything. With little money, we can buy enough food for the entire camp. So please, don’t cause trouble and just give it to me!”

You can’t say this comes completely unexpected. Eric warned you that the people in the slums are ****. And the homeless people have it for sure even worse. Still, what they do here is a robbery. They threaten you to get your money. And you don’t have that much either.

Your situation is difficult. You are circled and these guys are ****. Some of them have likely no problem with taking your money by ****. Still, they are tired from their harsh life. And they are no fighters or armed like the gang members. Maybe you could try to overpower one and run. They also only want your money. If you give them some, they probably leave you alone. Or maybe there is another way to solve this.