A few scattered stalls lined the sides of the street. He walked over, curious to see what they were selling, but the stall owners suddenly snatched up their cloth mats and packed up their wares.
"Hey! You guys again! Don't run!" Suddenly, several men in police uniforms rushed out of the police station, shouting at the fleeing stall owners with their cloth bags. "You want to set up shop without paying the stall fee? Next time we catch you, we'll break your legs!"
It was the same before the apocalypse with these pop-up street vendors. These men in police uniforms weren't real cops; they seemed more like enforcers, meant to stop the freeloaders who tried to hawk their wares without paying the fees.
Neal Wallace thought, 'Life is hard for everyone in the apocalypse. They're just trying to sell a few things to make a living. Do these guys really need to chase them a hundred meters and threaten to break their legs?'
