Spoils

Other than the cards, Mia was also able to fumble around to get the knife from the middle-aged man along with a small roll of bandages. She handed the knife to Jess, who tucked it away.

As for Jack, he had gotten the pack of cards from the man with dreadlocks and got a little extra utility knife along with that. He then made his way back with ease, despite the fact it was nearly pitch-black. When he did get back, he sniffed the air.

"Mm... something smells good. But there's no food around."

Jessica and Mia didn't clear up Jack's confusion, as the answer was that the smell came from a dead person's burning body. They also didn't clarify that the middle-aged man was dead either.

Mia cleared her throat.

"Anyway, hold onto that and go back to the hub."

Jack frowned.

"Eh? But I thought we were going out to play games?"

Mia clicked her tongue.

"We already played plenty enough, didn't we? Besides, you said there's no food around, we might as well get some back there. Also I kinda broke your lantern, which means we don't exactly have any light source left. It would be hard to go any further without it."

Jack tilted his head to the side, a bit disappointed. However, he nodded in the end.

"Oh... ok."

After taking a small rest, the three of them proceeded to head back. It was a little rough around the edges, especially because of how dark it was, but Jack corrected their path several times.

Though Mia was unsure of whether or not to trust him, she decided it was better than relying on almost nothing.

The trip back took a while longer as the lack of light made Mia and Jessica go slower, while Jack slowed down to match their pace. However, they were able to see the light at the end of the tunnel before long.

The blue portal was within their vision.

However, there were also other lights. After getting a bit closer, the three of them were all able to make out a group that was camping out at the entrance of the portal. There were five of them, two with razor blades in their hands and others with sharpened wooden sticks.

From the looks of things, they were near the end of their rope.

As they got closer, they were able to make out the conversation.

"How long do you think we're going to have to wait here, man?"

"They didn't go out for that long, be patient asshole."

"It's not my fault someone bet that they'd be running back with their tails between their legs in ten minutes!"

"Well, sorry idiot. It was a guess, alright?"

The group of five was waiting to ambush them. However, they were not expecting them to come back without even a torch out, thus they let their guards down. Mia was thinking of taking advantage of this and using a different entrance while they were still unaware, but...

"Hi there! Do you guys want to play tag?"

Jack called out, even opting to run up to them. This immediately made all five of them shoot up and hold out their weapons.

"What? They're here!"

"Stop right there, you aren't getting through unless you give us all of your cards!"

"Don't try to hide any of them, there's more of us than you!"

As they were all saying that, Jack walked into the light, but with a confused expression.

"Eh? You guys want to make a trade first?"

The five of them flinched when they saw Jack. That was because he still had blood plastered over his face from when he stabbed the woman. While initially scared, they quickly regained his bearings.

"He's injured! Hey, if you want to get through then you also have to give up any belongings you still have!"

Jack tilted his head to the side.

"Um... I don't know, that trade doesn't sound really nice."

Jessica ran up to him right after.

"Jack, stop going off on your own!"

When she came into the light, her bloody hand was shown. She did use a razor to cut a man's wrist after all. In fact, Jessica was still holding onto that same razor even now, which intimidated a few of them.

However, the leader stood strong.

"Hmph, so you killed someone... we still have more people!"

Mia also walked into view with a frown.

"What the hell are you guys doing? We could've just gone through a different entrance."

And when she did, all five of those holding out from outside found themselves unable to say anything. Unlike Jessica and Jack, Mia and her clothes were all covered in blood, especially so for her stabbing hand.

After all, she was the only one that stabbed multiple times, and she did so a lot. If it was a good guess that Jessica killed someone, it was almost a certainty for Mia. In the end, one person from the group chickened out, going back into the hub, and promptly after the rest of the group went back in as well.

Mia took a deep breath.

"Well, I guess that's convenient. Let's use the light from the blue portal to split the cards we got from them between us."

When Mia took out the cards, Jack pointed at them and spoke out.

"Wait, did you steal it from that man? Stealing isn't a good thing!"

Mia's eyelid twitched as she put on an awkward smile.

"No, no, he just gave it to us as an apology for almost killing us."

Jack tilted his head to the side, thinking for a while before accepting it.

"Ah, but why are you splitting it with me?"

Mia smiled bitterly, feeling a light headache coming on.

"Well... we're a team now. If we work together to get things, then we naturally split the profits between us."

Jack let out a soft gasp.

"Oooh, a team? That sounds nice!"

Mia let out a sigh.

"Since I was the one that used the lantern, then I'll use my cut to pay for another one."

Jessica smiled a little.

"That's not something you can be blamed for. Besides, it worked out surprisingly well."

Mia shrugged.

"Still, it's only fair."

In total, the spoils from the two of them only came from their playing decks. Both of their black decks were empty, probably all with the woman that ran away. However, it still wasn't a bad haul anyway.

Both of them had a full set from 2's to 4's, and even a couple 5's. Jack stated that he wanted the higher numbers more. Jessica didn't mind while Mia felt like it was fair since he dealt with two people, even if it wasn't the most direct way.

As such, Jack didn't take any 2's or 3's. However, he did get four 4's and a 5.

He now had quite a large amount of cards. In total, he had one 6, two 5's, nine 4's, ten 3's, and thirteen 2's.

After sorting everything out, they all went back into the hub. Their appearances attracted a decent amount of attention. However, everyone soon turned away after, almost like there was a silent agreement between them.

Jessica got a good look at Jack's face and bent down in concern.

"Ah, your face is so... messy. We should clean that."

Mia looked at Jessica with a raised eyebrow. There were things she wanted to say but didn't mention them.

"But what are you going to use to clean him?"

Jessica blinked a few times, suddenly realizing the issue. She looked at her own clothes and saw that they were pretty muddy already. The only thing they would do is make things dirtier if used as a cloth.

"...How do we clean ourselves?"

A nearby man that was currently playing a blackjack hand spoke up.

"There's a small section next to the solitaire booths where you can use a two to enter and wash up. One per person."

Jessica blinked a few times.

"Ah... thank you."

The man responded promptly.

"Just hurry up. I don't fancy the smell of blood."

The three of them went to where the man said, and there was indeed a small slit with the washroom symbol above it. Even though Jack and Jessica didn't really need to get washed up as much as Mia, they could still use a bit of freshening up.

In the end, they all decided to use it.

Jack then suddenly found himself in a rather large bathroom, one that looked very clean and high quality. He walked around, a bit confused by what he saw. For baths, usually his father would end up getting him a change of clothes, a bucket of water and a little bit of soap. As such, the sinks, showers, and even toilets confused him a lot.

Still, his father had described those things to him before, so he was able to get a good grip on what they probably were.

There was a section that appeared to be a trash chute. Overtop, was a sign.

"Discard old clothes here. New clothes will be provided."

Jack let out a hum before taking off his shirt and tossing it in. Roughly ten seconds later, a nearly identical shirt popped out another end, but it wasn't damaged and was also clean.

He had quite a bit of fun, figuring out how to turn the nozzle of the sink and letting out gasps of awe when he saw the water run out. After playing around a bit, he did figure everything out and got himself washed up.

When he did end up finishing, he teleported back out feeling a lot nicer. Jack looked around trying to see if Mia and Jessica were around, but they were both still washing up.

Jack scratched the side of his head, before eventually, his eyes set on the big sign that said, "Poker".

"I have more cards now, right? That means I can play poker!"

A big smile formed on his face as he rushed on over.