Mrs. Gunn's Orphanage was located near Crime Alley. It had another name as well: the Center for Troubled Youth Management. It took in homeless children from the streets, combining both problems into one.
Mrs. Gunn was an old woman dressed in a nun's habit, with a cigar clenched between her teeth. The children at the orphanage called her Grandma Gunn, and they could stay there until they turned sixteen.
After that, they had to leave. The orphanage looked somewhat run-down, and perhaps because it was winter, the courtyard was especially desolate.
Only a few younger children were playing on the faded slide. Even the cold winter could not stop the simple joy and smiles on their faces.
The cracks in the windowpanes had been tightly sealed with tape. The yellow tape looked like ugly patches.
Sitting in the crowded room beside the radiator against the wall, Edward Nashton looked enviously at the children outside. The radiator was warm, but his hands were still covered in frostbite.
A sleeping teenager on the floor beside him suddenly woke with a start, clutching his foot and screaming. Nashton turned to look. The boy was holding his toes, blood still flowing from them.
A string of squeaks rang out, frightening all the teenagers sitting or lying on the floor into scrambling to their feet.
Screams and curses threw the room into chaos. Old blankets spread across the floor and dirty clothes were tossed everywhere, yet they still failed to catch the biting rat.
Nashton leaned helplessly against the wall. In Gotham... rats ate people. Having his toes gnawed off by rats was not the first time, and it definitely would not be the last.
"Edward!" someone called from the hallway.
Nashton turned and saw several older boys waving at the doorway. Compared to boys,