It was a rare day off for Cane.
Once a week, one of the members could go take a break - laze around, go outside and eat food, whatever.
This time, considering Cane's diligence in work and fast pace in assimilating with the team, it'd become his turn to relax.
And Cane knew exactly what he wanted to do today. He'd been anticipating it for days - no, weeks.
Today was the day that he'd finally buy a cake from the bakery. No stealing, no cheating. No guards blocking his path, no more begging on the streets. He had the money, and he looked respectable - nothing like the homeless youth from a month ago.
As he moved through the streets, passing people turned and whispered to each other, staring at his impressive Border Control uniform.
"See that? Now that's a real man. We want citizens like this, not like those dirty, uneducated poor people polluting our streets." A man's voice sounded out through the streets. Cane turned his head to face the sound.
There, a man standing on a podium pointed at Cane as he spoke. Written at the base of the podium, in large lettering, was the words "REMOVE THE POOR FROM OUR CITY!". Yes, it was written in full capitalisation as well.
Remove the poor? Cane's brows furrowed. But I was once poor. My friends, no, my family was poor.
Without knowing this, the man continued to preach his ideologies to the crowd. While some shook their heads and turned away, most people were nodding along with his words and had a strange light in their eyes.
"Crime! Theft, robbery, those damned gangs who continuously take organs from innocent people? ALL done by the filth of our city." The man's voice boomed through his microphone. "It's high time we take our city back from these rats plaguing it!"
Cane slowly made his way through the crowd to the podium. Seeing this, the man was delighted.
"Howdy there sir! It's nice to see someone who truly works for the city come up and support us! The name's Callistan! Callistan Dones!" His excited voice reached Cane, and Cane lifted his head up.
"Let me up on the podium. I have something to say as well."
"Why, with great pleasure, sir!" Callistan was pleased to see his campaign work so well. He knew in his heart that he fought for good and justice - to cleanse the city and make it great again.
The only thing stopping our Central Cities from becoming as great as it once was is those filthy, uneducated homeless beggars. They don't deserve to live - leeching off of hardworking citizens instead of getting jobs, and also taking all the jobs from hardworking citizens by accepting lower pay.
As Callistan watched the man get up on stage, his heart grew excited in anticipation. The message will work better if a man of the people speaks to the people.
He took the chance to continue talking as Cane walked to the microphone.
"Now everyone, let's hear it from one of ours - a hardworking citizen who defends our city walls. Do you think he is pleased with the constant presence of beggars, leeching money from him through welfare? Or taking all of the jobs from this man by accepting lower pay, leading him to fight for his life on the Border just to survive?"
Cane knew he couldn't let the man who called himself Callistan continue talking.
"No. I'm not pleased." Cane leaned forward to speak into the microphone better. "I'm not pleased at the words and ideologies which have been shared today."
"I was once poor. A beggar, you could say. Only, beggars don't get enough per day to survive. Welfare?" Cane laughed. "when you're an orphan, when you don't even exist on government records, what kind of welfare can you receive?"
"I don't know how it is in other districts. I don't know how it is in the rest of the world. But I know that not once could I get a job. No guard allowed me to get close - no establishment or business would have me." He continued. "And I also know that most poor people are good people too."
He looked around at the crowd. Callistan was whispering in his ear, saying, "Hey, what are you doing, man? Stop saying this nonsense."
"Just who do you count as a citizen? Because I count humans, born in our city, as a citizen. Since when did we divide ourselves by our economic status? Since when did a government paper make one life more valuable than another?"
"And look at you all! Who doesn't know that they too, could be just ONE bad day away from living on the streets?" He turned to point at Callistan, who was now sweating. "Look at this man's clothes. They are dirty and cheap. How different is this man from a beggar?"
Cane's voice grew in volume. "You FOOLISH crowd, who live paycheck to paycheck. How many of you are in a position to brag superiority?" Cane took a moment to face the skies. "When can there be a day, when we realise that people are all human! When can there be a day when we realise that no one is too different from each other?"
"Don't you know? I knew so many people, good people, who tried to fix their lives. They NEVER stole, NEVER robbed, certainly weren't a part of any gangs!" Cane grew louder.
"And yet! Though we were not so different, we never had the same life as yours."
Cane's eyes grew bright with anger. "WHY! WAS I NOT HUMAN? WERE MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY NOT PEOPLE TOO?"
His voice dropped to a dispirited whisper, though it still swept through the stunned crowd and left a mark in their hearts.
"Shame on you. Shame on us all. Since when has the world been corrupted, so that we no longer see each other as human."
Shame.
At that moment, not a person in the crowd were without a sense of shame. Thinking back, they realised the truth too.
They were so quick to hurt others, not realising that they themselves were poor - just a little better off. They were so quick to shame others as inhuman, as strangers within the very city they were born in. What a shame.
For what? Just because they were different? Just because they were born without parents, or fell on hard times, or perhaps even, born poor?
Not one person within the crowd didn't know how difficult it was to live. For most of them, they stayed at the same level of wealth they were when they were born, not a bit of money more. If even they, who had houses, jobs, comfort, couldn't improve their economic situation, then what right did they have to shame others for being unluckier?
They looked back to the stage, hoping for more words of wisdom. But Cane had already disappeared. Callistan was already taking the microphone back again.
"People, ignore what that man said just then. You know in your hearts that the reason why your lives are so terrible is because of those filth. Don't you get it? He's the one taking your jobs. Doing the work no one else wants to, for pay that no respectable human can accept." Callistan attempted to rile the crowd up again, but they knew better.
A child in the crowd looked at Callistan with anger, thinking, I've been listening to this mister talk for so long that I became very mean.
Others in the crowd recognised it too. The reason they'd lost their humanity, their empathy, was from the heat and passion of the man's words. Once their minds cleared, they knew that he'd been inciting their hate and nothing else.
Calliston began to sweat nervously as he watched the previously agreeable crowd encroach upon him. The anger he'd incited was now directed back toward himself.
"Now hold on a minute, folks... Don't you see that I was just trying to look out for everyone? For the good people of our city!" Callistan tried to continue, but it was too late. The mob swarmed his podium, trampling his posters underfoot as he turned to run.
...
Cane was outside of the bakery, nervous. His palms were sweaty, and even though he knew logically that the guards wouldn't stop him, he couldn't help but feel dread.
Taking a deep breath, Cane stepped in through the bakery doors. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted through the air, almost healing his soul with their delightful smell.
With as bright a smile as he could, Cane headed to the register and pointed to a cake on the display.
"May I buy this cake, please? It's for some friends." Cane unknowingly put some emphasis on the word buy.
He also pointed at a few other items.
"Of course, sir. It's always a pleasure to serve you men protecting our walls." The cashier's voice was respectful. Polite. Nothing like the yells of disgust that Cane used to hear.
It was a strange feeling.
Walking out of the bakery in a daze, he found himself travelling back to the abandoned apartment complex where he used to live.
"Lunch! Lunch, everybody! Guess what!!" As Cane's voice rang out through the abandoned apartment complex, he could almost see a bunch of little heads poking out from the windows.
Immersing himself in the memories, he began to see and hear them again.
"Brother Cane is back!"
"What did you get this time!"
All the children looked excited to see Cane come back, for they knew it meant he'd brought food. And high quality food, to be exact.
"I got you guys that stuff in the bakery!" Cane was excited too - since it was the first time he'd bought instead of stealing.
Cane opened the bag and began to distribute the food. Baked apple tarts, custard rolls, soft white bread, buns with cheese and meat and all kinds of good things were placed onto the ground.
And of course... the bottom of the bag beheld that rare cake.
Cane stepped back and watched in satisfaction as they pounced on it, devouring the cake within moments. Holding nothing but the most basic bread, he smiled at the sight of them enjoying their food.
Tears began to stream down Cane's face as he turned to leave - leaving the bread alongside the other untouched food on the ground.
This... this is nice. I wish every day could be like this, Cane thought. I... I wish.
...
As Cane left, a few small heads poked out through the windows of a nearby retail shop - just across the street. After making sure he wasn't coming back, three children quietly crept toward to food, and - in a quick flash - grabbed it and ran back to their hiding place.
The children didn't know who the strange man was, nor why he was crying and smiling at the food, but they knew he was a good person.
A very, very good person.