Chapter 9: Reunited

Again, I wake up. But it feels like I'm still asleep because I'm living in such a nightmare. My back was killing me, for we slept on concrete. I sat up, rubbing my eyes and looking around. To my left, the pub wall. To my right, the liberty bell memorial building. It sounded like I was the only one awake, but as I looked over I saw Raymir's eyes wide open. I pushed on his arm, snapping him to attention.

"Oh, hey. You finally woke up." He sat up next to me. We just sat there, saying nothing, doing nothing. I rubbed my head and got up. I'm glad I didn't drink too much last night, I could tell Raymir was hungover. I walked around looking for someplace to go to the bathroom and eventually found an outhouse. I went to the bathroom and walked out.

I looked up from my hands as I saw someone in front of me. When I looked up I gasped and nearly froze. Josh stood in front of me and gasped as well. A smirk spread across my face and looked at Josh.

"Go ahead, leave. I'm not going to follow you." I said, mocking his voice and quoting him from a few days ago. He tried to act angry but I could hear him chuckling under his breath.

"Shut up Xander. You're lucky I'm here to save your ass." He grinned with me and we fist bumped.

"Yeah, go fuck yourself." I walked away from him and waved for him to follow me. "Come on, Raymir will be happy to see you."

He hurried up next to me and when we got to where we slept last night I caught Raymir with my whisky in his hand. "Hey! That's mine ye fuck!" He looked up at us and put my drink down.

"Well I'll be damned. I knew you'd follow us. You just can't survive without us." Josh scoffed and put his hand to him and helped him up.

Raymir stood up and there was an awkward moment of silence until I broke it. "So!... Are we going to speak the 'mayor' today?" I let out a little chuckle when I called Lance a mayor. This place only had about 13 people in it, so it was more of a settlement than a town or as he called it "city."

We spoke a bit longer and agreed that we would ask him for work. It was easy to find his house since it was the actual memorial which I didn't agree with since this place is supposed to preserve history, not people. Although people probably are going to be history soon.

"So Lance, what kind of work are you offering?" I asked when he let us in the memorial. The condition this place was in was amazing. No windows were broken. He must have been sweeping as well since there was very little dust or ash.

"Well you see, there's this group of people harassing the town. I'd say about sixteen people there to ahem, take care of." Lance was obviously poking towards killing the thugs there. Now all we had to do is hope these two gangs are connected. Just before I spoke, Lance finished off his sentence. "And if you clear them out, I will allow you three to have property in this wonderful town. You will always be welcome here in the city."

I made sure he was finished and began talking. "So where will we be heading?" Lance thought for a second and finally gave me an answer.

"We don't exactly know but you should look around north of here about a block or so." I nodded and looked at Josh and Raymir. They nodded as well so I stood up, Josh and Raymir following.

"We'll be on our way then. We'll bring back one of their fingers back as proof." Lance nodded and we walked out of the memorial.

I shook my head and looked back at the memorial. "It's a disgrace how he uses the home to a piece of history as an "office". I looked at Josh and Raymir and they were nodding in agreement.

We stood at the gate as it rose slowly. When it finally opened we walked out and got a view of the sunset beaming through the holes of the destroyed buildings. I never thought chaos could be so beautiful.

I took my gun from my back and propped it against my shoulder. "Come on guys, we gotta get some work done." I sigh and start walking forward, Josh and Raymir following.