49 Joining The Gang 1 (2/2)
'I'm right here. No need to yell,' the young man thinks before following along.
As he passes by the woman, he glances at her face. Her hazel eyes make contact with his brown eye. He sucks in a breath and averts his gaze.
'Caught being nosy. Gosh,' he thinks while blushing.
His hand runs through his black hair and bumps the knot that keeps the cloth over his eye tightly wound around his head. When they get to the other end of the main floor of the vehicle depot, they come upon a stairwell that goes even lower underground. The young man pauses at the top of the staircase.
”Where are we going?” he asks.
The guide taps his palm on the peeling yellow paint of the staircase railing.
”This leads you down to where our boss usually is during these storms,” his guide explains.
”Why do I need to meet him?” the young man asks.
”Look, Ki--hmm, what's your name?” his guide asks the taller man while lifting his chin and scanning his larger form.
”My...Marcus,” the young man lies.
”Mymarcus?” the shorter male suspiciously questions.
”Marcus. Just Marcus..,” the taller man says with a nervous smile.
”Well, Marcus..,” his guide continues.
”What's your name?” Marcus interrupts to ask.
”Ika. Marcus. Look. We're low on men right now. Usually, we don't just take in merchants from the wastes, but we'll be low on a lot of things without the manpower to protect our current routes. We already have to deal with one group of Savages...I can't even think about how f**king irritating it will be to deal with any other groups. Anyway, what do you have to offer us for your protection?”
”I..uh..well...I have bouillon cubes, rice, and some other things. Uh I can probably get more if I got a chance,” Marcus says.
”Got a chance?” Ika asks.
”I just really need help getting a new vehicle to transport my things back there,” Marcus says.
”Well, vehicles we have a lot of. Rice...those cubes are useful. Very useful. I think maybe this might be good for you. Us coming across you,” Ika says.
They start down the stairs again. Marcus hears Ika mutter under his breath.
”At least for now,”
Marcus pauses. He waits for Ika to start down the next staircase before voicing his concern.
”Excuse me?”
Ika stops walking down the steps.
”What?” Ika asks.
”What do you mean ”At least for now”?” Marcus asks.
Ika raises an eyebrow and huffs.
”If you haven't noticed - people don't last very long out here. We're all bound to die before we're ready. Get used to it,” Ika grumbles before rushing down the rest of the steps.
Ika opens the door at the bottom of the stairwell and exits into the next area. Marcus doesn't follow right away. He waits several moments to gather himself and meditate on the situation.
The faster this storm passes the faster he...No, SHE can escape these people. This is the worst possible outcome she could think of. Who would have thought that Sia would run right into the same mercenaries she'd been with at the start? The only thing that could make this even more of a disaster is if she ran into the Wanderer pair as well.
'God. I'm screwed.' she thinks before contacting the device in her mind.