Outlive (The Baggers Trilogy, #1) by Chad Leito

sympathy.
                  A whisper: “Please, Julie.”
                  Julie shook her head. “I’m sorry, but there are only so many people we can take each season.”
                  Baggs took a step forward and tore his arm free from the officer’s grip. He didn’t mean it as an aggressive move, but that’s how it was taken. The officer stepped forward and pushed Baggs into the wall. Baggs’s hit the wall, but didn’t take his eyes off of Julie.
                  “C’mon, buddy, Let’s go.” The officer grabbed Baggs by the arm and started to pull him towards the door.
                  “Julie, can I talk to someone else? Is there anyone else?” Baggs asked as he was dragged towards the door.
                  Julie shook her head.
                  When Baggs heard the officer open the door and get ready to push him out on the street, he grew frantic. A moment ago, he was sad because he wouldn’t ever be allowed to walk freely again, and now he was terrified of being pushed out there.
                  Baggs ripped his arm out of the officer’s hand and ran back towards the desk. The officer muttered something, and then Baggs heard a metallic click.
                  “Julie! Look at me! My family will die if you don’t do something. Think! Is there anything you can do?”
                  Julie shook her head tersely. Her green eyes seemed to understand the gravity of the situation, though, which was good. She’ll help me, Baggs thought. She can let me talk to someone else, and maybe they’ll see a way to help me out.
                  Julie’s eyes shifted from Baggs to behind him, and she let out a little shriek.
                  Baggs turned, but he was too slow, and a nightstick came down upon his back.
                  “Get out.”
                  The blow sent pain radiating around the site of impact, which was right between his shoulder blades. Baggs howled with pain and rage. Without thinking, he balled his right hand into a fist and reared back. The officer had a gun holstered to his hip, but didn’t have time to reach for it. Baggs shifted his weight like a lumberjack does when chopping into a tree and punched the policeman through his eyeglasses. Shards of glass lacerated his face and eyelid and he screamed in surprise. Julie was screaming too.
    The officer reached for his gun, but Baggs grabbed it first and threw it to the floor. Distantly, he heard more screaming, and feet shuffling, but he didn’t care. He was going to hurt this man.
                  Baggs wasn’t normally a violent person, but he was snapping like a bloodthirsty junkyard dog. It had happened before. A lot of things brought on the storm of adrenaline in his brain. He was going to starve. Maggie, Tessa, and Olive were going to starve. And then, he was still mad at how the female officer had kicked him in the stomach, and then insinuated that Baggs was a lazy drain on society for not having a job when he would have loved the opportunity to work. He looked at the bloody face of the man he had just punched. The man was blond, and tall, but shorter than Baggs. He had wide shoulders, but they weren’t as wide as Baggs’s. He had big hands, but they weren’t as big as Baggs’s. He had blond, short hair, and even as he was bleeding, he wore a smug expression like he thought he was better than Baggs.
                  I’ll show him! I’ll show him that he can’t just hit people! And you can’t point a gun at me for trying to get a cake out of the garbage bin, trying to feed my family! And you can’t ignore the dead kid in the alleyway as an officer, or the eleven-year-old prostitute! You can’t kick me while I’m sleeping! And you can’t steal my damned shoes!
                  Baggs planted his bare feet on the tile and brought