49 Joining The Gang 1

They speed into Warts with a couple minutes to spare before the gates are locked down. The armored vehicle is a wreck. The roof has been peeled back, there are dents in several parts of the metal, and bullet holes have damaged every wall.

The people within the vehicle are worn in mind and body. The newcomer feels shell-shocked after the series of events that occurred not even ten minutes ago.

Two mercenaries burst the back door open and rush to grab something to carry their injured comrade on.

"Over here! We dragged over a medical cabinet and a bed for him," a male voice comments from outside the truck.

"Careful now!" Pheno shouts as he follows the group.

The stranger sits still on a bench inside the truck as everyone evacuates the filthy space. The remains of a red and yellow night hornet are sitting against the back of the truck. The doors remain open.

The newcomer sighs and slides along the bench before hopping out of the truck.

The young man's uncovered brown eye observes the area he is in.

'So, this is the vehicle depot that was mentioned,' he thinks.

A door slams shut from behind the newcomer. A short pale man in black fatigues stomps by and pauses to look back at the new guy. The young man tilts his head down guiltily and glances up at the stern fellow. He flinches when he sees the heated stare the guy is giving him.

'Dammit. Dammit. Does he think I'm to blame?' the young man thinks.

The other man glares for several moments at the new guy before waving a hand and continuing in the direction he was primarily going.

"Uuuh," the young man turns around and looks around himself.

His thick soiled jacket is uncomfortable in the warm underground parking garage, but he's afraid to unzip it.

'Was he waving at me?' he wonders while fiddling with the zipper of his jacket.

"Let's go!" the short male shouts.

The young man runs to catch up to the quick-footed guide. They pass by vans, cars, and groups of people setting up tents. The area appears to be an underground parking lot. Some people have small grills set up to heat up food, and others are boiling water. There are not many children, but the young man can hear tiny voices conversing somewhere. His vision isn't as perfect as he'd prefer, but his hearing is flawless.

He hears several people speaking in different languages as well. A high pitched voice was loudly speaking Spanish before he heard it gasp and fast footsteps approach from behind.

"Hermano!!" a female yells from behind the newcomer.

His guide stops walking and turns to the speaker.

"Hermano, did you just get in? ¿Que pasó? The mission went to shi* and your men got messed up?" the woman says while marching toward the guide.

She is a bit taller than the guide. She is wearing an open jean jacket, a black crop top that shows off her light brown toned stomach, and tan khaki shorts with additional pockets stitched into the fabric.

The man stays silent until the woman is within arms reach of him.

"Anita," the man whispers while deeply frowning.

She ignores the dirt and blood on him to hold him close to her. He remains still in her embrace as she whispers things to him. Her black curly hair hides most of her face from sight. The young man steps away from them in order not to intrude, but before he steps out of hearing range he hears her whisper, "No es tu culpa. It's not your fault. Esta bien, cariño. It's okay."

The young man blows his breath to make it harder for himself to hear anything else. He looks away from the couple and dodges past several people rushing by. Everyone is setting up for the sandstorm, and it doesn't look like a new arrangement. There isn't any confusion or panicked faces.

"Move out the way!" a man holding a heavy pot of water shouts.

The young man hops back and out of the way.

"Sorry, man. My bad," the newcomer apologizes.

He looks back to see the couple have pulled away from each other and the guide is looking his way.

"Let's go, new guy!" the guide yells.

'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.