Chapter 1: A Ruined City (EDITED)

In a large ruined city layered with sand and dust and filled to the brim with crumbling buildings, largely uninhabited for decades, a person walked through the streets. The girl wore an old set of pale sun-bleached green fatigues complete with a military vest in poor condition and a medium sized backpack. One could only see a pair of scarlet eyes peeking out from under a patrol cap and bandana that were constantly scanning the surroundings for anything valuable.

She was quite short, only 5ft 1in(155cm), but the very real pistols on her hip and the back of her waist showed that she wasn't to be taken lightly.

As she walked down the street she saw a wide and long building with a sign half-buried on the ground in front. Walking over she dusted it off to see the sign read "Al's Supermarket", at least that's what she thought it said, as a quarter of the letters were missing. She went into a supermarket and looked around. The building was in quite good shape, at least compared to nearby buildings. With the roof collapsed in a few places and a thin layer of sand seemingly leaving no object untouched, the market luckily looked like no one had been there in many years.

"Hmm, maybe I can find something here.." Sophie thought to herself.

She walked through a few aisles, some had fallen in a domino effect while others were still somewhat standing, and looked for signs for anything worth noting. After walking through a few aisles she saw a glint in the sand at the base of a shelf.

"Something good this time?" she mumbled aloud.

Reaching down she brushed the sand off the glinting metal to see a short cylinder with an indecipherable logo on it. Picking it up she noticed it still had a bit of weight to it and the seal was unbroken. Looking at it with hopeful eyes she carefully put it into her pack and continued on.

Walking through most of the aisles she found a few things that may be useful and 3 more cans, although one had cracked open and its contents gone, she still took it, good metal has value. Hard-pressed to find anything else of value in the aisles she looked around the rest of the store. Seeing some wires of acceptable condition sticking out of the wall she pulled out some wire cutters and a few snips later her pack was a bit more full. She continued throughout the store, finding a few bits and pieces until she suddenly heard a few voices outside.

A deep male voice sounded out, "I told ya that merchant sold us a bullsh*t map! There's nothing worth even batting an eye at here!" as he kicked a bit of scrap metal on the ground, sending it skidding across the sandy pavement.

A different voice spoke out in return, this one slightly lighter, "We haven't even looked around that much, ther.." his voice trailed off as he saw the recent tracks in the sand caused by Sophie. In a hushed tone, he said, "Look someone's been here recently, it's only one pair of tracks too, maybe we can rob 'em?"

Despite the man's quieter tone Sophie still heard him. Her eyes darkened a bit but this with pretty expected, people go missing seemingly every moment in the borderlands, thievery was as common as the sand. Sophie hovered her hand on her holster and shrunk down, readying herself for an ambush. She hid behind a register booth that was close to the door and listened carefully for when she would spring her trap.

The deeper-voiced man whispered back, "If they're good quality and we get 'em alive we can definitely make our money back, be careful where ya shoot." As he and the other man quietly inched closer to the door the tracks led to.

"Dirty slavers, already thinking of me as a product." Sophie thought to herself. She decided she wouldn't make their death swift.

The men after inching up to the door decided on their next action. They hid their weapons behind their back and called out as they walked through the door, "Hey is someone there? We have a camp nearby with some extra space, and when we saw your tracks we figured you might be interested in joining us."

"What kind of excuse is that? Do they not know they have no ability to whisper?" Sophie screamed internally.

The two men intact did not know, as when they were in a market they had "quietly" talked about going scavenging but were unsure where. A nearby merchant heard this and smelled profit, then convinced them to take a map off his hands he had been unable to sell.

After a minute or two of no response the men got slightly impatient and fidgety as the lighter pitched of the two called out, "We can't wait forever, if you wanna join us pipe up quickly okay?". As he said this they both were glancing around this store, hardly masking their true intent.

Sophie continued to return their lies with silence.

After waiting another minute the two men began to go deeper into the store and became much closer to where Sophie was waiting.

"Are you sure you want to decline? It's a very good offer and we won't say it again."

"Just a little further.." Sophie waited patiently, she wasn't planning to mess this up.

With a nod from the deep-voiced man, they both held their hands firm and ready on their gun and made a move towards the aisles.

*BAM BAM*

Sophie darted out from her hiding place and from behind the men shot the hands which held their guns.

They both cried out as blood flowed freely from their hands. "Why you little b*tch!" They spun around as fast they could to see a short girl in light green clothing pointing a gun at them. Of course, they don't get a long look. Four more shots rang out as they saw the girl shoot one bullet into each of theirs knees as their world started to turn.

As they both hit the ground with a dull thud and groan Sophie gives a small sadistic smile behind her bandana. She walks up to one of them, leans down, and whispers, "How rude of you of you to interrupt my business, but you'll get your punishment." The men had goosebumps and tried to plead with her, but Sophie just took out a knife and spun it in her fingers.