"What happens to the people that get infected by rat rabies?" I asked after so ti.
We had left the dirt road and were now driving over proper asphalt, and I could see the buildings coming closer as we neared the city.
"I don’t know," the staff sergeant answered.
Henry laughed mockingly.
"Sir. You know. How about simply speaking it out?"
"Kid," the staff sergeant started sternly, his whole deanor changing from that of a stern old man to that of a soldier as he looked back through the rearview mirror, first at and then at Henry.
"’Staff Sergeant’ may sound like a very high position to you, but it isn’t as prestigious as you think. What I did my whole life was train soldiers. Every blackened docunt I received and decoded, every hint and information snippet I acquired through my contacts inside the military. But there are things that even my contacts wouldn’t tell , especially if it concerns a current situation." He went back to concentrating on driving; until now, we hadn’t seen another car or person on the street.
Henry didn’t say anything to the old man while I humd.
"Thanks for doing so much. I hope my grandma will like you back."
The staff sergeant broke into a coughing fit, and the car steered unsafely before he regained control.
"Boy... you don’t mince your words."
I laughed.
"Shouldn’t you say that to Henry and not ?" I looked at my dog and found him looking back at with a proud smile.
The old man chuckled as well.
"You both are direct, that’s true."
Henry nudged my arm until I put my hand down on the seat so he could touch my little finger with his, away from the view of the staff sergeant’s rearview mirror.
He is so fucking corny.
But nevertheless, I found my reflection in the shiny car window smiling brightly.
Ahhh... fuck! I have turned corny myself.
We were still a good part away from the city when the staff sergeant stopped the car.
"Here we are; I can’t bring you closer because it wouldn’t be good if we were seen together." He leaned over to the co-pilot seat and grabbed two sunglasses and two black masks that would cover the lower side of our faces.
"Ethan gave this for you," he added while I took them from his hand.
"Do you have your phones?"
Confused, I looked from the old man to Henry, who pulled two smartphones out of his cargo pants.
"Yes."
"Good. Here, also from Ethan. He said it would be better for you to use this instead of a gun if possible. He looked through the deal, and because you have no gun permit and are a convict, it could give the governnt sothing to nitpick if you used a firearm."
He this ti had reached under the co-pilot seat and pulled out sothing silver. It was a mini crossbow, looking awfully similar to a gun.
When I held it in my hands, I found it was a small crossbow.
How adorable. It had three arrows in there, which loaded automatically.
"Also, he told to let you touch this." He wanted to give sothing that looked like a hand grenade when Henry intercepted.
"And what is that?" he asked sharply, grabbing it before I could touch it.
"The safety pin is inside; it is safe. It’s tear gas, and it can immobilize the rats for a few seconds," the staff sergeant explained with a sigh, already having enough of Henry.
But Henry wasn’t one of his soldiers; he was the best friend of his crush’s grandson, so he had to suck it up. I laughed at the thought.
I took over the tear gas and touched it before giving it back to the sergeant.
As Ethan had said, I only needed to touch it. I also gave him the crossbow back so that I wasn’t running around with weapons on .
"Then get out. Don’t be back too late, don’t get into trouble, and make sure your grandmother can always reach you two," the staff sergeant implored us as if it was our first day at school.
"Thanks for the ride." I opened the car door and stepped out, spotting not far away a bus station.
Henry also stepped out and ca to my side; he put his arm around my neck, watching with as the staff sergeant left.
"So... did we just get kicked out a few kiloters away from the city?" I asked while giving Henry his sunglasses and mask.
He handed over one of the smartphones in return, and I put it into the pocket of my black shorts that went over my knee.
I put the sunglasses on while Henry slid his up his forehead to use it to hold his hair back; we both put the masks away for now.
We started to walk over to the bus station.
"Yes, but we have been kicked out together~" He laughed and smooched my cheek.
"Stop the gay... shit..." In the midst of saying it, I rembered when I swatted his hand away in the bathroom yesterday. He didn’t co out for a long ti, and when he did, he looked like a kicked puppy.
"...outside." I made a beeline while turning to Henry to see if he was hurt or sothing.
I couldn’t get a close look at his eyes as he buried his face in my hair, and I felt his body shaking.
Fuck.
"Hey... don’t cry, I’m sorry." Eventually, I heard Henry laugh out loud, and I pushed him away angrily and cursed.
We had arrived at the bus station, and I took a look at the plan that said there were no buses for an unknown amount of ti.
"I’m sorry, you are just so..." Henry ca to hug from behind, but I held his body away from by placing my hand on his face.
"Fuck you; if you call cute or sothing to my face, I’ll beat you up." I looked at the buildings far away and then at the coin inside my mind.
The woman covered by the hands lay there quietly, so I took the coin inside my hand.
Sowhere there must be a nest. I want to see said nest.
I flipped the coin not with the intention of getting a vision, but for her to show the way as my personal compass.
Looking at the city, I saw a few arms moving away from her, but when I turned in other directions, that wasn’t the case.
Well, I figured rats are where humans are.
"Kenny, co on, give a kiss." Henry whined.
I grabbed his jaw with my hand forcefully and squeezed his cheeks before I pulled him to to peck his lips.
"Stop and behave like a good boy. We are on a mission." Looking into his eyes, I saw him go from a silly dog to a sly perpetrator.
"What do I get if I behave?" He asked provocatively, and I was already short of sending him ho again.
I was already impatient to face these things alive to estimate how long it would take to touch a few hundred of them, and he was constantly distracting .
"What do you want?" I know he was waiting for the question, so let’s speed that up at least.
"If you get angry at in the future, I an really angry, I want you not to resort to violence first and give ti to explain." See? He was already prepared.
That... that didn’t sound so bad?
I tightened my hold on his cheeks again.
"What have you planned to do that will make angry?" I asked suspiciously.
But he was looking back, absolutely relaxed with his humanly blue contact lenses, seeming like your absolute normal, innocent supermodel from next door.
"Hmmm... alright. But why does this make it sound like I have fucking anger issues?" I tightened my grip again.
"You do not. I know you have the most patience of us all. You are a saint." He said it so genuinely that I let go of him, although I perceived a bit of sarcasm there.
"We will teleport to the side street near the city outskirts." I pointed at the place that was far away but easy for our eyesight to spot, even though we wore contact lenses and I had my sunglasses on.
"I’ll use the coin as a compass, and we’ll take a look at a rat’s nest—" I was interrupted by Henry clinging to because of the teleporting thing again.
I bet he asked the staff sergeant to drive us because he wanted to prevent exactly that.
"We can walk or run instead of teleporting." He offered.
"Henry, I know you are scared that I will disappear, but teleporting will be a big part of us fighting monsters in the future, side by side, back to back... as partners." Sothing sounded wrong about this, but I figured he liked hearing that.
And he did.
He stepped in front of with neither a cute nor sly expression this ti, but just somber earnestness.
"...You are right. I won’t stop you. Promise again that even if you are stranded in another world, the first thing you will do is co back or contact ."
"I promise." Can we fucking go now??
"Good. A promise between p~a~r~t~n~e~r~s can’t be broken. P~a~r~t~n~e~r~s wouldn’t do that."
... At least he was earnest for a second before... well, doing what he was doing now.
I looked away and pressed my lips together uncomfortably.
"Well... threetwoone." I rattled down in one breath and teleported to the street I pointed at.
I was just taking a look at my surroundings when Henry was next to again, putting his arm around my neck.
"That wasn’t a warning..." He grumbled but also looked around for either people or caras.
Neither was in the imdiate vicinity.
"Let’s follow the compass." I said and flipped the coin in my mind as we walked from the side street to a bigger one.
There were what looked like a few abandoned small warehouses, directly beside the sidewalk, two-story buildings.
Broken windows—okay.
Kicked-in doors—alright.
Trash all around—mhm.
All what you expect not only from a not very good part of the city, but also for a pre-apocalyptic setting.
But there were so ssed-up symbols I hadn’t seen before on the dirty-white walls of dilapidated buildings.
And they were all drawn in blood.
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