Story [Issue 27] From One To Another

[Fen-Harel 1,176]

Part 1:

Rising of an Underdog

 

 

64. It makes me sick, makes me weak. I only want to wake up. Every single night it's the same. I always see that number. A man woke up gasping for breath. Visibly terrified. His heart was racing. He turned on the side of his bed where a large bowl was placed and puked in it. After that he was shaking, and he tried to relax. This has to stop.

He got up and walked through his apartment. It was a comfortable living space, equipped with modern appliances. But still it had a strange feeling to it. As if it were corrupted. As the man walked he was moving a bit side to side. He entered the bathroom and washed his face. He looked into the mirror. His eyes were tired, slightly red. His face was clean, but his expression worried. He removed his clothing and threw them onto the floor tiles, afterwards he stepped into the shower. He felt refreshed when he go out, wiping the water of his skin and his sand colored hair. He put on his clothing, it wasn't anything special, trousers and a shirt. As he was leaving the apartment, he took a name tag and put it on the pocket of the shirt. Greg, store manager.

The store he worked in was medium sized. It had some modern equipment, but most of the shelves were empty. And the store was rather silent, hardly anyone visited. If a person would look more widely, the entire town was like that.

However, when a customer would enter he was moving around the shop easily, knowing where all the things are and happily selling them. He had clear experience in this store, probably worked in it for years.

Night fell when he finished his work. He decided to go to a tavern and relax his mind a bit. The tavern was in rough shape, cool wind was passing through the cracks in the windows and the wood was old and crumbling. Still the tavern was stable enough to walk around in and relax. The room was filled with tables, along with a few columns giving extra support. There were musicians in the background, singing folk songs with their old and worn out instruments. There was less than a dozen people there, they were sitting and drinking. Some were friends and chatted about daily life. But pretty much the only sound was the music.

Greg waved at the waitress to bring him a drink and sat down at the nearest empty table. The chair screeched as he sat. He started drinking when new people entering the tavern caught his eye. Two women, one blonde and long haired, the other with short red hair. After them came four more men. They were all in military outfit and armed. He felt unease seeing them. While they were entering the musicians made a slight mistake in the song, but continued  hoping no one would notice. The group sat in a free table while the blonde woman walked towards the worker. Greg finished his drink and decided to leave. His head was starting to hurt and he felt sick. Leaving he turned one more glance at the group, they seemed interesting to him. Finally he closed the door behind him.

 

 

"What can I do for you?" the worker asked Fiona while cleaning his hands with a rag.      
"Do you have any rooms me and my colleagues can rent for the night?" Fiona asked flatly.
The worker put down the rag and twisted his hands around nervously:
"I'm afraid everything's occupied already, there might..."
Fiona placed a stack of dollar bills on the table. The worker was visibly surprised to see such an amount of money.
"I don't have time to negotiate. Get me six rooms, now." Her eyes were locked on the worker.
"Alright, but we only have two free rooms. Both have three beds however. Would that suffice? The rooms are upstairs one across from each other." His hand was slowly reaching to the money.
"Very well, it'll have to do. I do not wish anyone to disturb us, we'll probably be out in the morning."
 After the worker nodded she turned around to her team. Walking towards the table everyone paid attention to her.
"I managed to get us two separate rooms. Let's go, we should all rest while we can."
Everyone stood up and followed Fiona upstairs.
"Margaret, James and I will take one room." Fiona explained pointing at one of the rooms. "The Richard, Scott and Mark will have the second."
"Why does James get to be with you two?" Richard rebelled.
"Because I don't trust you can behave. Do you have any more complaints?" Fiona's eyes narrowed at him. Margaret chuckled next to her and entered her room.
Richard rolled his eyes.
"Fine, you two girls are always so picky."
"I'm glad we have an understanding."

The group split up into the rooms and quickly fell asleep. However, for Mark, trying to fall asleep proved quite a challenge since Scott was snoring loudly. Just as he fell asleep he heard something that sounded like a clap and woke up again. He could barely see anything in the dark, but noticed that Richard's bed was empty. Before he could think about what happened, the room door opened and he saw a silhouette of a man slowly rubbing his cheek. When his eyes adjusted to the sudden light coming from the hallway he recognized that it was Richard.
"Sorry for waking you up." He said. Mark was staring at him.
"Oh, and this would be Margaret" he explained pointing at his cheek and then winking.
"You're a persistent one aren't you?" Mark smiled.
"I do my best."
"Well, since I'm not going to sleep anymore anyway because of Scott's snoring, can I ask you a few questions about the group?"
"Ask away, but I can't guarantee I'll answer them all." Richard laid on his bed and looked at the ceiling.
"Well for starters, who are you people? And why are you doing all of this?"
Richard sighed.
"That's really not a simple question to answer. Basically we're a capable group of people with motivation to do a job. And we happen to take this one because it gives us a prize that we want."
"That doesn't really explain anything." Mark replied with a slightly annoyed tone.
"I guess that was partially my point." Richard added, staring upwards like he was daydreaming.
"Come on now, you brought me to another country, the least you can do is tell me why." Mark said firmly.
"You already know why. There's this thingy inside you that will lead us to an important object that Sebastian wants. What more is there?"
"You tell me. All this is obviously not for the money. You have enough of it already. Tell me why you're doing all of this. There has to be a more important reason."

"Look," he switched to a sitting position and stared at Mark narrowing his eyes, "every person has their own story, and in each story there's a goal. What each of us is doing is trying to reach that goal and our paths happened to align. Right not you want to get that thing out of you so you don't die." he pointed his finger at Mark's chest. "Now, James wants to find that artifact as well, because he thinks it can be used in medical purposes. Perhaps even some kind of material that repairs different materials. So his motivation is curiosity." Mark nodded. "Scott was a colonel in the army. However he got dismissed because he made a... tactical mistake. He lost three squads in a battle. Now he wants to do something to redeem himself, trying to find help the country in any way he can. Even if it means finding a deadly weapon." Richard laid down again.
"And what about the others? And your motives?" Mark's curiosity was increasing with every word.
"You don't need to know about that. At least not yet, go ask the others if you want them to tell you their stories." He closed his eyes and ignored the rest of Mark's comments.

The next morning everyone came down the stairs to the tables and had breakfast. Richard complained about the food for a bit, but then Margaret gave him a serious look so he stopped. As always Fiona looked deep in thought and focus. Her blonde hair was falling around her face as she leaned rested her head on her hands. Then she stood up and adjusted her hair.
"Here's the plan for today," she said formally "we'll need information about this city. Information about any shady people and suspicious location. To get that information we'll need to blend in with the people who know the most about the city and its streets." Everyone was closely listening expecting the rest of the plan. Fiona made a slight smile and continued:
"We go to the underground and find where the thieves live" she said flatly. Margaret smiled enthusiastically while James was nervously moving around in his chair. Richard was slightly more worried and Scott only nodded. Mark stared at Fiona baffled by her request.
"You expect me to go through the roughest parts of the city in search of criminals?" He stood up to give more impact to his words "Are you people insane? Do you have any idea what the authorities might do if they see us doing crime? We're not even allowed to be in this country!"
"Sit down, kid" Richard said quietly. Margaret smirked and looked at Mark.
"You'd be surprised how helpful thieves and criminals can be." she told Mark. "Especially if you know how to get their trust. So how about you show a little trust too, and just listen to the plan and follow it. We're not insane, we're not stupid. We're the best." She said cheerfully making a cute pose with her hips and arm.
"But, you can't just expect me to do this, I..."
"You'll do as we say, since we're the ones saving your life from what's inside you." Fiona interrupted in a serious tone. Mark got more nervous seeing her stare at him.
"You're doing this because you have your own motives, not to save my life." Mark answered while glancing at Richard. Richard just shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. Fiona touched the bandage on her right arm, in her eyes you could see anger.
"Listen, you little brat. You have no idea what you're talking about, you're like a dog barking without reason. We share the same goal and I'm not going to let you slow me down. And if you do, you better beg that the poison inside you kills before I get my hands on you." her voice was like steel. Clear, serious and strong. Mark now showed fear. His hands started to shake a bit, so he just nodded and sat down.
"Now that we've got that covered," Fiona continued looking around the group "We can be on our way."

They got out of the tavern and into the street. The street was almost abandoned with only a few people walking around. The group walked closely together with Margaret in the lead. She took a sudden turn into a small alley that led to a dead-end. She then turned around and smiled, pointing at the sewage entrance. Richard made a gesture of small disgust along with Mark. The rest just nodded. Mark would've complained about this particular decision, but his last conversation taught him to keep his mouth shut. Scott approached and opened the entrance showing large amount of strength. Margaret looked at Fiona:
"This is where we find the thieves reside. Or at least I think they do." she put her hand on her chin as if she was thinking.
"It is." Fiona replied quickly. "Let's move." Margaret went down first, Fiona followed. Scott and James quickly got down too, while Richard and Mark had some trouble with the smell. The sewer had a lot of hallways and corridors. It was like a maze although one that smells like a hundred people died and rotted out. Small rivers of who knows what filth were going through each of the hallways. Margaret was taking turns at certain intersections, while on others she went straight ahead. She obviously knew where she was going. Then she slowed down allowing Fiona to catch up to her.
"We're being followed." Margaret whispered.
"I know. We'll have to catch our little stalker, he might be one of the thieves." Fiona replied.
"Indeed. We'll split up at the next intersection and wait for him to follow one group, then grab him.  Simple plan but effective considering there's only one person following us." Margaret questionably looked at Fiona.
"Agreed. I'll tell the commands to the others. I'm wondering why anyone would follow us however."
"The thieves probably? We're in their territory after all." Margaret arched a brow.
"No. If it were thieves there would be more than one. Whoever this is he's been following us since we were topside." Fiona worryingly looked at Margaret. "We'll need to capture him. If he's working for someone... well, I don't want anyone to know we're here."

Edited July 31, 2017 by Hexed

[lordmostafa 3,821]

I read it all (I really did), and I have to say, you have done an amazing job putting this together, tho I have just a few comments.

I found only 1 mistake, tho I don't think anyone will notice, also, this:

 

"It is." Fiona replied quickly. "Let's move." Margaret went down first, Fiona followed. Scott and James quickly got down too, while Richard and Mark had some trouble with the smell. The sewer had a lot of hallways and corridors. It was like a maze although one that smells like a hundred people died and rotted out. Small rivers of who knows what filth were going through each of the hallways. Margaret was taking turns at certain intersections, while on others she went straight ahead. She obviously knew where she was going. Then she slowed down allowing Fiona to catch up to her.

Is just a bit rough, a slight down-grade will sound much better :)

 

The whole article is amazing tho, I especially liked how much detailed it is, I can't wait for the next part, once again, great work m8. 

[UAA619 97]

An interesting read and a good way to finish off the chapter. Makes the reader eager to read the next chapter...

 

I found 2 small mistakes, tho:

 

He felt refreshed when he got out, wiping the water of his skin and his sand colored hair.

 

Right not(should be now) you want to get that thing out of you so you don't die.

And in the first article you've changed Richard's name to Rodger in the middle of the story...(I read it today, so I couldn't tell earlier.) 

 

That's all, and looking forward to the next episode. 

:)

Edited October 7, 2014 by UAA619

[prajwalkandel 71]

nice :)

[jazz20 1,181]

Nice work :)