Carmine woke with the sun. He showered and got dressed. He worked on getting his eye more-or-less normal looking and sort of arranged the pieces of his skull that were poking out back into place. He packed a bag with two extra changes of clothes. He had been through a lot of clothes the last few days. Momma would be mad he'd lost one bag already.
He went downstairs and found some Pop-tarts in the cupboard. Then as he sat in the kitchen eating them dry he saw the pattern on the walls. "NWB" New West Berlin. He knew that tag very well growing up in Hell's Kitchen. They were a group of German and Russian thugs who ran the west-side from 42nd street to the Lincoln Tunnel. He hadn't really paid a lot of attention last night. He'd been more in shock than anything else. But if they had done this... If they had been in this house and broken all of Momma's puppies...
The Pop Tarts tasted like ash and he spit them out. He reached up to the top shelf of the cupboard and pulled down the tin tea-box that Momma said was for "bad times". This was the worst time that Carmine could ever remember so he figured Momma would understand.
Inside there was a roll of bills. It was a lot of money, but Carmine carefully counted out the money and wrote a note to put in the can, just like Momma had showed him. He then replaced the can and put the bills in his pocket. Carmine threw some crackers and Pop-tarts and some Fruit Roll-ups into his bag for later and left the townhouse quietly. He was careful to look around in case there was Bloods watching the house because he didn't want to get caught just yet.
He hustled down the street. He had to get over to the the Lucky Strike Lanes bowling alley before they opened.