CHAPTER 4: SHIRE

In the icy mountains of the inhospitable wastenland known as Ohio slept a woman known to her friends as Shire. Shire had lived in this wasteland her entire life, an icy landscape wrought with danger and methheads, if one were to not keep their wits about them they could easily be led down the wrong path, one of chaos and depravity... However Shire who had been born and raised here has since a child, known her way around Ohio, one could even say she knew it like the back of her hand.

"Damn it's cold, i really need to have Enju work more to buy me some warmer clothes"

Said Shire as she quickly made her way down the snowy mountain she called home. Shire was on her way to visit her boyfriend Streaker, Shire was in a hurry as Streaker was most likely waiting outside for her in the cold, something like waiting outside in the cold for her was no big deal but for Streaker who isn't originally from Ohio this could be a huge deal, Streaker after all was from California which when compared to Ohio is equivalent to a scorching desert. She ran down the mountain as fast as her feet could take her making sure to avoid any ice as not to slip and hurt herself.

"This is taking too long... maybe i should sell Luna's Funtendo change and all his rations for the month and try to buy a bike..."

Shire thought to herself as she reached the halfway point of the mountain. The previously mentioned person was Luna her most recent adopted child. Despite adopting him Shire still made him sleep outside in the cold and wouldnt let him into her home as to not show any weakness nor to instill it into Luna himself. Shire in fact had adopted quite a few children within her life, close to almost 19 if counted. Shire despite adopting 19 chilrden only speaks to/knows the whereabouts of only 2 of her children, those two being Enju, and Luna. Shire grimaced and then made a rather dark and nasty looking face

"Damn how could i have let so many of them go"

Shire exclaimed aloud as she continued running down the mountain. You might think "Why would somebody adopt 19 children?! That's insane!" and you'd be right, adopting 19 children WOULD be insane... that is if you actually treated them as children. Shire was born as the only child to a wonderful and loving couple, they were incredibly kind and gentle people and if that wasn't enough they were also fabulously wealthy to boot. Shire's parents actually owned their own Snow boot manufacturing company "Elite beat snow cleats" their shoes were considered the best on the market, not only were they comfy and warm but they moved through snow like a dream. Shire's parents did their best to provide the best for their sweet little angel, Whatever Shire wanted she got it. At a young age Shire became unsatisfied and bored with life, so she started to act up. Shire would make messes get into fights and just be an all around nuisance to anyone she came across. Shire parents tried whatever they could to stop this behavior but couldnt find a way to make it end, one day when Shire was 14 she decided enough was enough and decided to strike out on her own. That night when her parents went to bed she packed her bag and snuck out into the night, it took not even a single day for Shire to be found by hired men and brought back to her family's mansion. Shire knew she had to take more drastic measures and planned and plotted. About a month later She put her plan into action, one afternoon while her parents were reading in the leisure room shire exclaimed "I'm taking the family car for a joy ride!" as she sprinted past the room and to the door. Shire booked it to the car and reversed through the semi open gates as she watched her mother and father cry in dismay on the front porch. She drove to the nearest cliffside in the bitterly cold weather and did her magic. She pulled out the brick she had been carrying with her and laid it on the gas pedal. The car sped off towards the edge of the cliff and...

The only thing her parents could find of her in the wreckage of the burned out and utterly demolished car was her purse and her favorite switchblade. Her entire family thinking she was now dead, Shire could finally make her own way in the world, nothing was gonna get in her way... or so she thought. A 14 year old girl living on her own in a wasteland such as this was an incredibly difficult task, Shire struggled to find shelter most of the time and had many sleepless nights due to hunger and fatigue. Shire had barely been gone from her home and parents for less than a month and she already doubted whether or not she could continue on and whether or not she should return home. She wandered the wasteland until she came upon a small strip mall and walked around until she saw something great, a group of rough and tumble teens with a penchant for crime. She watched as a teen boy in a leather jacket pickpocketed a store owner who was outside shoveling snow off the pathway to his store entrance. She continued to watch in awe as the shitty little teens kept stealing and taking anything they could get their fucking GROSS UGLY DISGUSTING CRIMINAL THIEVING SHITTY FUCKIN hands on. When it had appeared they had finished making her rounds she watched them leave with their large haul. She stared wide eyed until a thought popped into her head...

"hey if those cool kids can do it, why cant i? I just need some kids to follow me then i could make my own runaway family"

Shire at first tried to approach those street rats and it went about as well as you would think.

"Why should we follow you girly? i bet you ain't got no finesse or accuracy, you couldn't hit a house with a pickup truck"

Shire slinked away defeated, "No that wont work, they're too old... but what if i were to kidnap young children from their loving families and claim them as my own and force them into a life of crime? Oh delightfuly devilish Shire" She said to herself as she went about putting her plan into motion. She would follow around happy families with young children then in the night take the children when the parents least expected it. After stealing away the children she would warp their mindset and teach them how to steal and make distractions. What at first started as Shire and her family of 2-3 little hellions soon evolved into 6 then to 9 then to 12 then eventually to 17 little criminals and their adoptive mother. It might have taken a while but eventually the kids skills in commiting crimes both planned and spontaneous grew to crazy high levels, what started as stealing wallets and credit cards soon grew to stealing large vending machines in the blink of an eye right under the owners noses. Shire put together a small shanty town but with time it evolved into a thriving crime den, its walls composed of barricaded vending machines and its roof extra durable tarps and carpeting. Shire ran this crime den with a fist of steel, she constituted a set of rules or as they saw it a code by which her and her crime family lived by...

1. All stolen items brought into the den must be documented, any failure to do so would result in a paddling
2. No cheating the system and seperating your own cut, a persons cut will be deemed and handed out by Shire herself. Failure to adhere is a paddling
3. Shire recieves a 70% cut of all items stolen, speaking out against this will result in a paddling

4. And what is considered the most vital and important rule... NO WEAKNESS. FAILURE TO ADHERE TO THIS RULE RESULTS IN PERMANENT EXILE FROM THE FAMILY.

Shire took weakness as a detrimental flaw, in fact in order to be truly initiated into the family she required each child to not only prove their skill in pickpocketing... but they must also mug their own parents and cut all ties afterwards. Failure to accomplish this would result in a sever and painful paddling followed by permanent exile from the family. Through-out her tenure as mother she only saw 1 or 2 new recruits fail the initiation, and the amount of times she had to enact punishments was very little, therefore Shire assumed that her "children" truly loved and adored their "mother". However this could not be farther from the truth, the children she brought on were not as warped as she might have believed them to be and secretly they all plotted and planned against her from the very beginning. When they recieved the 17th child into the group they briefed the child and put their plan into action. Shire liked many things and would be quite happy if she recieved them from her children, these being frere jacques chocolates and strawberry lemonade, any children to bring her these would earn brownie points. So one day the children decided to bring her both, Shire was delighted and began to eat and drink her gifts happily but what she didn't know was that her strawberry lemonade had been spiked with quite a large quantity of sleeping pills. After gulping down her drink and gobbling up her chocolates Shire was out like a light. When she awoke everything but the empty vending machines and tarps where gone. Her stash of valuables completely gone and her children along with it. This devestated Shire as she had spent many years with these children some of which she watched blossom from children into young adults. Shire searched for them for about 2 years until she finally gave up. She put her criminal past behind her and in her grief promised to be a better person.

The last 5 years of her life she has lived extremely clean, she got a job at the fast food vendor Kylie's and bought a decently sized house up in the mountains. Along the way she adopted two children who she swore she would raise the right way, Luna and Enju. She thought back and smiled having told herself she did a good job (she didn't she leaves her adopted son out in the cold and actively has Enju work and spend her hard earned money on her mother, but she herself is convinced she is a wonderful adoptive mother). She stopped and caught her breath as she saw her boyfriend waiting outside the local Darby's. She and her boyfriend had a nice dinner together as they chatted and checked their phones to see what was happening in the chat. Shire sighed as she saw a fight break out in the chat and fixed her eyes on the avatar of the one person who would always be behind every incident...

**CHAPTER 5: RED**