I Am Fictional Real

Chapter 7: Bandits

        We returned when the sun was coming up on the horizon line. No one was worried about us or asking where we had been, so Alinak and I made a silent agreement not to talk about it. We separated for a moment before actually getting back together to go to work, which was a walk through the woods to a white building. Everyone was gathering from all around, and we mingled in like strangers to a crowd.
       There was some people discussing what happened with the power outage last night, others taking the time to relish in this morning warmth, and I talked to Alinak about the guy in charge. I never did learn that man's name. Alinak explained people in the guard didn't go by their names because it was dangerous to be recognized by the other People, so they all went by letters or numbers. Alinak was different. Of course, because you can't target a dead man.
The guy in charge, who went by Del, gathered everyone together in a huddle, and he addressed us.
       "Yesterday was an interesting one, people," he said. "Our new recruit has the ability to decrypt the broken machines, but sadly the woman who was inside passed away in an accident. They said her name was Bellieka." I grimaced at her name. "And we had a power outage for a moment just before that."
      Everyone murmured about LACEI like it was a plague.
      "Discuss your trivial matters elsewhere!" Del spat. "I've come to discuss a mission that has become critical to us. Most of you know exactly what I'm referring to."
       Alinak stepped forward. "Are we splitting for this? I heard you were putting us in two teams so we didn't fail like last time."
       "Yes. Good question. We are splitting, but you'll be with Esinna since you're her guide."
        Alinak and I nodded at each other. Del kept talking about who went where and what team was  doing versus the other, and it took Del a minute to even whisper the point of the mission. We were supposed to be confronting bandits who stole from us our canned food and a few weapons, and Alinak and I were a part of the confrontation team. Great.
        Alinak and I took his car, and I was certain everyone had taken their own cars, too. We put on gas masks, Alinak briefly explaining these people lived in the city. They were sick in the city, breathing in fumes all day like it was air, but they didn't know any better. We went on our familiar path out. The city looked large and expansive as it always had been, though everything now was covered in vines and growth. You could even see the fumes.
        Alinak stopped the car with all of the others just outside of the wall.
        "Before we get out, I have a question," Alinak started.
       "Yeah?" I asked.
       "What's it like living in the city? My parents used to be quite wary of this place because of Attin."
        "It's nothing, really. Everyone, except people like Attin, were all socially and economically the same. By day, I was a stranger, and I made alibis wherever I went. People did that to survive."
         "We didn't have augments in my town. It was frowned upon to attach things non-human to you." 
         I smiled. "That explains why you look like you're from this time."
        We stepped out into the air with gas masks on like everyone else, but you could smell the stench of it regardless. It was like a skunk's odor that seeped in regardless of your protection. We met up with the others, people I barely knew, and we waited. The other team was scoping out where we needed to go to get the best advantage. I knew that meant we had to kill these people, but I had to think of the alternative. These people were suffering.
         "You're Esi, right?" one of the men said, walking up to me with a waltz in his step. "It's nice to meet you."
          I glared at him. "To you, too. I guess." He leaned on Alinak, though he was a lot shorter than Alinak and made it look awkward.
          "I'm Alinak's closest friend. They call me Two around here."
          "Cool." I couldn't care less.
          "Hey." He stood in front of us. "What are you guys doing after all this? We could hang out."
          "Or, we could not," I growled. "I don't like hanging out with anyone."
          "Harsh." Two looked at Alinak. "And what about you?"
          "Me?" Alinak pondered for a moment. "Can't, bud. I got some paperwork to catch up on."
          Two, feeling dejected, didn't even mutter a goodbye as he went to mingle with someone else who probably didn't want him. I would look for a time at him, but then one of us got a call on our radios to head in. Two was now just a part of the crowd, and everyone else tried to mimic that forgetfulness of themselves.
          We all walked into the city with eyes forward and hangs on our guns. I didn't hold a gun because the one in my arm was practically more effective than anything they could give us, so I just kept myself in the middle of all of them. We were on an unfamiliar street where the roads had rusted to hell and a skyscraper had collapsed across the road, and our group stopped right there before the crossroad. I heard a wisping sound in the air. Everyone did.
          "Man down!" I heard on the radio. "Be careful! Send him back, send him back!"
           Suddenly, a body. It growled at us with growth bulging its eye out and its lips sagged. A monster. Another came sagged lip and a growth coming from their neck. It hissed. It's nails, never cut, looked almost like claws that were reaching out and out to us. We all huddled together as more monsters grouped around us.
          "Halt, all of you!"
          I heard a voice, and another person jumped down in the center of the monsters. They were different. They looked human up and down, and they had crystal green eyes and brown locks at their shoulders. The familiarity of them irked my being, but I readied my gun at them. Alinak moved to the front of all of us.
         "Immortal one," the man greeted Alinak. "I should have expected this encounter."
         "Bandits get punished," Alinak spat. "We've come to take you out, or you can repay us for the items you stole."
          "Hmph. I do value my life, I do. Fine, I will pay you what I owe."
          "You could trade with us, you realize." Alinak jostled his gun. "It would be less of a confrontation, less hassle."
           "It was an immediate need, I'm afraid." The man turned. All of you are quite upset with me, I see."
           Two stomped his foot. "You work with monsters."
           The man did not respond, only kept his feet straight and pointed as he guided us. Someone shouted on the radio that the monsters were backing down and fleeing, and Alinak responded with a few words about attending to the wounded. We kept walking for some time before the man stopped at an old, sturdy building. The letters on it had long faded, but you could make out the words law offices. This was place was probably square and blank inside.
           "You must be new," I heard the man say. He pushed himself away from the monsters and started walked into our group. Everyone, too afraid to counter, let him cut through them until he got to me. His eyes scanned me up and down. "I am Sokilin Rashin. In a previous life, one might call me Rantorm."
          I tried not to show any remembrance. "I'm Lanien."
          "A pleasure."
​​​​​​​           It wasn't.