"They were here before the Hive. They will be here after." No one leads The Scratching. They follow the scripture, scratched into salvaged bone and rusted scrap-plate, and every member carries a piece of it. To hold a fragment is to hold the truth entire. They go where the scripture sends them. Outsiders see a gang staking turf. The Scratching sees a reading. The first act on any new ground is always the same: a single verse, scratched into the dirt or the steel. If the verse takes, the ground belongs to the word. And what is written must be held.