Chapter 65 (1/2)

Alana glared up at the man in front of her, her hands handcuffed behind her back. Although she wasn’t quite sure whether she could break out on her own, she was positive that Devan, and the rest of the squad could.

But they all just sat silently, looking at her. Sighing inwardly, she kept a stern face to hide her indecision.

“Let me ask again.” The blonde man asked, stepped back away from them. “Where did you come from? How did you survive out there, with the monsters?”

“Like I said, we came from a town to the North. We’ve already established a Newbie Village, and so we have classes-”

The man made a disgusted face. “Bah. Don’t play dumb with me. You sound like the Freedom Fighters. Guns, where are your guns! The only way to beat back these monsters is with bullets. If you survived, it was due to guns. Did you hide them before you came close, looking to fool me?!?! As if, ahhahahaha!”

Alana rolled her eyes, and the man leapt forward and slapped her.

It felt like a child’s slap to her enhanced body, but still her eyes narrowed.

The man stood, straightening his jacket. Then he said, “Fine, keep lying. We will let you starve a bit in your cells, see if you change your tune. If by the end of the week, you still refuse…”

The man’s smile turned sinister. “Well then, don’t blame me for being impolite. Men, take them away.”

****

Randidly, to his own amusement, was sewing. Apparently there was a big event tomorrow night, and they needed costumes. Lots of costumes. Sam had whined about Randidly learning more basic skills recently, for PP, but Randidly had been so frustrated these past few weeks with the tribulation, and Lyra… He just was disgusted by the thought.

But strangely, after leaving the village, traveling around, seeing so many people, running into Tessa, feeling close to finding clues about Sydney and Ace… Randidly relaxed. So Randidly sat hunched over in a dimly lit warehouse, stitching clothing together.

It was oddly soothing. He also activated Root Manipulation, making the small plants in the area dance. It wasn’t quite as efficient as he normally would want to be, but Randidly supposed that this was something of a break anyway.

He had initially asked if anyone had known if anyone knew someone named Sydney, or Ace, from Rawlands University, but he had just received blank stares. Shrugging, he focused on the knitting. Randidly supposed it wasn’t surprising that they didn’t know anything. There were a lot of people in the city, and only a few dozen people here sewing. This would take time.

Mostly, he listened to the people around him talked, as they stood, walked around and stretched their sore hands, and then sat back down to continue to work.

Randidly continued to stitch, his moves becoming more natural, his loops tighter.

“I heard they are leaving tomorrow morning,” One woman said, but another sighed in response.

“They always say that. The Senator can’t work up enough balls to actually do it, and the fire department isn’t going to volunteer to do it on their own.”

Another woman chimed in. “The Freedom Fighters would do it, if they got enough volunteers.”

The second woman fixed the first with a long stare. “And do you know what volunteering means? Being a meat shield for the gunners. The mortality rate for which… is very, very high. No amount of food is going to make people leap to their deaths. Not when easy work like this is available.”

The woman gestured to the piles of finished clothes next to them all. Her own pile was rather large. Every other nearby person had about 70% of her pile. Except for one.

Randidly’s was about double the size of the woman’s.

They glanced at him, but then ignored him. He was just one of those weird, shut in types who would come out at night to work, and then return to their room to eat. It was disgusting, to the second woman. People like that were exactly the reason why the city stayed bottled up, while monsters ran rampant around them.

Randidly ignored their stares and waited for the talk to continue, intent on his stitching. A notification popped up, and he smiled. His Sewing skill was already Lvl 5. It seemed his increased stats let him grind these finesse tasks relatively quickly.

Time passed, and Randidly stack of clothes continued to grow. After a while, a portly man and a taller woman walked around, picking people. About 1 out of every dozen were chosen. The 2nd woman was chosen and also Randidly, to his own surprise.