Red Poppy (3)

"Should I know you?" The woman asked.

"No."

"You spying on us?"

"I wasn't spying."

Her eyes scanned him up and down. "You hurt one of our men." She said, although with little concern.

"Self-defense."

"So, you say..." Her head tilted to the side, staring into Hope's eyes as if to grasp some secret from them. There was a pause before she spoke again. "Hm. You have the eyes of someone who knows me almost familiarly. Not quite common in this city."

Quick and sharp.

But Hope restrained himself from letting out an annoyed sigh in front of the Master. 'You mean not common in the slum of the slums.'

"Didn't think a cohort was invited this week either." Hope shrugged. "Guess we're both in for surprises."

"Oh? Surprise me." She played a smile.

"...I'm just a simple nobody is all."

The woman stood between him and the collapsed pitiful man on the floor who still cradled his ribs in pain. Although she stood with a heroic poise—especially without a gas mask of her own—the man was of little importance in both of their eyes.

Her brandished blade was a slender straight sword, patterned with long fire-forged bronze feathers wrapped around its handle and swimming long bird-necks down the blade's middle.

Leda.

Master Leda. Age 27. Also known as the Red Queen with how she dominates her battlefields with her aspect of speed. A well-known Special Force Master in the Army. Even if Hope didn't bother knowing most of the Awakened in that division, there were some he inevitably had to overhear about from their overwhelming prowess.

But her hair was a startling red that fell beneath her shoulders. Not the color red from the river of flowers that banked behind, but the color of burnt rust. Even the cloak she was clad with was near of the same color, only desaturated as if age had worn out its spirit.

Hope slightly narrowed his eyes as another thought crossed his mind.

He had casually slipped in the mentioning of a cohort. That somewhat confirmed his suspicions that back in the wasteland—after he fought that ridiculous Grieve Crawler—the cohort carrier that drove on by while he was down the cliff belonged to her cohort. At least, it seemed highly likely it was hers.

Most likely the same cohort vehicle that stood also outside the city's gate at this moment.

'Mm...' Hope felt a question tease in his mind. A few more started to line up and perch on his tongue to ask.

But right now...

He was hungry.

Questions could wait.

"Just need a roof and some food really." Hope said. His hands began feeling more conscious of the light bones and weak body he carried before speaking his next words. "And sometime now would be nice."

Master Leda finally glanced at the boy, her eyes scrutinizing as if making sure it was a sickly person and not someone hiding behind an act.

She then flickered her eyes towards the old man.

"Jeevan." She continued to play her smile, not exactly forced, but a naturally sly one. "Care to explain the situation?"

A nervous gulp sounded before words choked out of him. "A Sleeper...He and the boy are strays we think. But Kurt- Oh. He acted mad all of a sudden and almost shot the boy."

A painful groan responded on the floor, and a voice tightly spoke through gritted teeth. "It's a monster I tell you. He's a monster!"

"A monster?" Master Leda went silent and looked at Hope differently as if he were a sign on a road that had arrows pointing left and right. She seemed to have decided on which direction as a soft laugh rasped out of her. "Seems human enough to me. Besides, he's not a mundane human anymore, but not a true Awakened either. Tools of the trade."

She finally lowered her sword. "Don't mind Kurt. One of those loose screws if you know what I mean."

Hope blinked as she opened her hand, letting her sword sizzle and flake into thin air like wisps of whirling ember.

'Huh. That's a lot fancier than a small damn shield.'

"Jeevan?" She called.

"Y-yes, m'lady!"

"..." Hope almost frowned at the address from the old man. 

"You and Kurt done your duty. I shall do mine and say I admit these two strays. Seems like you and the boy had seen better days. You're practically famished!"

She opened her arms, mimicking a welcome embrace as if the ruined world didn't exist around them or how the pathetic man still curled on the floor.

"Welcome to Sector Two!"

***

After slipping past the metal gates, after the guy called Kurt recovered from the blow to his ribs, after climbing up the marble steps towards the tall arched doors into the mouth of the loomed stone building, Hope heard the great hall before he even saw it.

A myriad of voices that were muted from the outside now ricocheted into one loud buzzing noise.

As Hope walked in, with the boy still resting in his arms, the first thing he noticed were the lights. A tangle of electrical wires with small glass orbs webbed several feet above like ropes of black vines crossing the whole space, knotting around several immense pillars that paired down the great hall.

The ceiling stretched high up and arched like a skeletal vault above their heads; beneath their feet was a pavement of dusted black and white marble laid in alternate blocks. 

But cluttered throughout the great hall were rows and rows of tents. Tents of varying sizes with tarps as frames sheltered crowds of people with little campfires of their own; all ages from twenty to sixty it seemed with a few young faces poked here and there.

As if it weren't condensed enough, along the sides were overgrowth of flowers trailing up the walls and windows. Flowers Hope had never seen before were thick and closed into fists; peeled with thin tongues out its crowned center; heads folded and hung like upside down cups. A nature that didn't seem forced but encouraged as if it were a long-lost secret liberated to flourish extensively, its variety sprouting and maturing like those of the crowds throughout the space.

A number of people lifted their heads and stared at the newcomers. And as if regarding Master Leda's presence, finding comfort in a powerful figure, they returned back to their business and conversations, laughter and a few mean squabbles slipped in the air but nothing that roused mad chaos of the sort.

Hope blinked.

'The hell.'

His eyes continued roaming around.

'Am I in the same world?'

"Hahaha!" Master Leda's voice burst next to him. "You should see your face! Haha! Jeevan! Take him to your tent and do what you must to keep him comfortable. I'll send someone else to replace the rest of your outside shift."

"Yes, m'lady." Jeevan bowed, already having taken off his gas mask. And Kurt had already returned back to his post. The stubborn man refused to back down even when his face seemed blue.

As Leda was about to leave, Hope quickly interrupted. "Master Leda-"

The woman stopped as she turned and looked at him with an arched brow. 

"Where can I meet you again?" Hope paused. "Is there a passcode or something that I should know?"

"Pft! No. Just ask one of the guards at their post and they'll lead you along."

'Guards...?'

Hope turned and looked around at the 'guards' that stood against the pillars wearing tattered clothes, a mix of them wielding guns and swords between their hands. Not exactly professional security but guards, nonetheless.

Hope looked back but already was she gone, like a red flame that kindled bright and immediately swept away into the air without so much of a trace.

Hope felt a tug on his sleeve, and he turned to see the old man pointing to the crowded midst. "Come with me, boy. I'll set up a fire for us both."