Chapter 5

Rise and shine, old man!" Jesse said as he shook Pilot awake. "The plane is finished!" "We can leave now!" Pilot was done trying to warn Jesse about the dangers. What would happen to Jesse in the future? Especially if Pilot were to be gone, how would Jesse survive? Yeah, he's a proficient hunter, and has a mind like no other boy his age, but his lack of filter and his patriotism would be his demise. He thought about it, looked at Jesse, then nodded , forcing a giant grin on his face. "We can really go?!" Jesse exclaimed, "I knew you'd change your mind!" Pilot didn't want Jesse to live in this dreadful place, he had enough time to think about it the night before. Hopefully he isn't wrong about this. They had to go into town to get some supplies for their trip.

They both walked into town, which looked like something out of medieval times. No, it wasn't magical and had princesses as residents. It was absolutely filthy, and the residents weren't any better. As usual, everyone was staring at them. Their grimy faces looked away when Jesse and Pilot came near. Everyone had heard about or even witnessed Pilot's punishment. It seemed as if the punishment were a plague and no one wanted to catch it.

Jesse already knew what they needed, and it couldn't be found just anywhere. They needed a stronger fuel, and old vodka wasn't going to cut it if they wanted to get far away from there.

He and Pilot wandered in town for a little while, admiring the view of the town. Yes, it wasn't much, but at least there was human contact. Then they went to the cluster of booths at the center of town. They walked past booths that were selling people from other settlements, exotic animals, and half-rotten fruit. There were also women providing "services", and children playing (they had a run in with them a while back, and it ended up with Jesse missing a few toes).

The children bumped into Pilot, and since he knew that most of them were thieves, he checked his backpack. The scrap metal was gone! He was going to use that to trade for the moonshine to fuel the plane. The chase was on!