Black Market Merchant

Lisa was about to head for the next group of people to discuss her future plans when Lane, one of the Mineral Mover Mech pilots, came up to her. “Hey, Lisa, there is a situation on the other side of the river. The Skull and Sun People are asking to speak with you about something. Gillian thought it might be best to avoid a conflict and get you to find out what they want.”

“The Skull and Sun People are asking about me?” Lisa repeated curiously. “Whatever for?”

Lane shrugged. “Don’t know. Max also went to get the woman that piloted that Hunter Mech too.”

Hearing this Lisa grew even more curious. “Alright, I’ll be there right away.”

Lisa and Lane were about to start crossing the dam when Max and a sleepy looking Tammy joined them. Tammy’s brown curly hair was pressed in on one side as she yawned heavily and shuffled her feet. Whereas Max was rubbing his chin and looked rather glum.

“What’s going on with you two?” Lane asked.

“She backhanded me just a moment ago.” Max grumbled.

Tammy finished her yawn and said, “You startled me when I was napping. What else was I supposed to do?”

Lane laughed while Lisa stifled a smile and spoke. “Well try to wake up some. Those guys that drove off the Hoard Mother want to talk with us for some reason.”

Tammy rolled her eyes. “We can just ignore them. I want to go back to sleep.”

“You can go back to sleep once we figure out what they want.” Lisa replied. “Come on it won’t be long.”

…

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Garth whispered to Alan as he gazed at Gillian who was standing nearby keeping a watchful eye on them. Behind Gillian were a dozen of ERM militia that looked tired but capable enough to shoot the rifles in their hands.

Alan and the rest of the Skull were present while Garth was only here out of curiosity. He too was interested to meet someone outside of the Sun People that handled the Darkness’s minions so well by killing countless monsters. Even if one of them was from a rival group like the Hunters Clan.

“We are not here to fight, just to ask questions.” Alan replied casually. “You’ll be back gathering that black blood in no time with the rest of the Sun People.”

Just then Alan spotted Lisa and the others crossing the dam and he pointed them out to Gillian. “They are crossing now; can I move past this point?”

Gillian glanced over his shoulder, and he let out an agitated sigh. “Fine, but just you.”

Alan gave a curt nod and walked cautiously past the highly skeptical Gillian with a confident smile on his lips. Then turning towards the four coming his way he gave a wave. “Hello there, ladies. Sorry for calling you all the way here but I have some questions I would like to ask.”

Lisa and Tammy kept coming closer to the Skull gangster while Lane and Max joined up with Gillian. Tammy let out another yawn and pulled at her hair to straighten it back out into its normal frizzy, rounded shape. Lisa looked Allan over for a moment before replying and recognized him as the one that broke the grappling chains off from the Hoard Mother.

Lisa stopped walking and crossed her arms. “Go ahead then and ask them. I don’t have much time to spare now.”

Alan nodded understandably. “Ok, I hear you. My name is Bone Flayer, and I am a Hand of the Skull. I was sent to get the help of the Sun People to fight off the Twisted, but it almost seems like you two had it handled before we got here. What I wanted to ask was what is your relationship with this town?”

“Relationship?” Lisa said cocking her head to one side.

“Yes, you both fought against insurmountable odds and saved the town. Why?” Alan reiterated.

Tammy spoke up first. “Because its my job. The Hunters Clan has a big bounty placed on the Hoard Mothers and killing the rest of the hoard pays good too. I only just showed up yesterday.”

Lisa then followed up with her own answer. “I am trying to get this town’s dam working again and help the people here out in the process. If the hoard had killed everyone, then what was the point? The couple of months I’d been here would have been wasted.”

Hearing their answers Alans real question was basically answered. His thoughts were excited, but his face remained placid. “This tall woman has to be the one from Lady Cassandra’s prophecy! Let me just ask the other questions, just to be sure.”

“So, you want to rebuild this town I take it? Like maybe rebuilding it from the ashes?” Alana asked trying to remain cryptid and truthful to what the prophecy mentioned.

Lisa raised an eyebrow hearing his odd reply. “Not exactly the original plan I had, but if the town ends up burning all the way down then I’ll have too. That’s why I want to hurry up and check out the rest of town to see if its safe so we can go put out the town fire.”

Alan pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “We from the Skull would be glad to help you with that too. After all, where we live is on the far end of town and can’t get there with the fires burning. Just one more thing, are you trying to avenge the lives of any traitors?”

“What kind of question is that?” Lisa said giving a quick laugh. “No, there is no one I know that was a traitor to anyone.”

Alan felt his expectations drop some but thinking quickly he encouraged himself. “Hold on now, don’t give up just yet. Perhaps this part of the prophecy hasn’t happened yet, or she is not the one. I’ll just need to stick close to this woman and figure out if she is the one.”

Alan cleared his throat. “I see. Well, thank you for answering me. May I ask your name?”

“My name is Lisa, but I also go by Queen.” Lisa replied. “Now, if that is all you wanted, we need to get the search underway.” Lisa then called out to Gillian. “Hey, these guys are going to help us with the search and the fire. Go ahead and start gathering any volunteers that want to put out the fire and get them to muster at the Powerhouse building.”

Gillian seemed taken back by her words. “But they are Skull, they are the enemies of everyone in town. We can’t just let them do as they please.”

“They might be at odds with everyone, but not with me, not yet.” Lisa replied but when she said ‘yet’ her voice hardened. “I’ll deal with them if it comes to it.”

Alan took notice of her voice’s change right away. Though he had only just met Lisa and barely seen her fight, his Eagle spirit instincts were on high alert. They were telling him that the vibe Lisa was giving off was liken to an apex predator that even an eagle feared. The felling was equally similar to how he felt in the Undertaker’s presence, and he knew it would be best if he didn’t do anything risky for now.

“Oh, you will have no trouble from us.” Alan said trying to sound reassuring. “Getting home is all we are interested in.”

“I hope so.” Lisa replied turning to go back across the dam. “Come on let’s go.”

…

“Is this everyone?” Lisa asked as she looked over the large group of townspeople, ERM, and Skull gangsters gathered around her.

Standing next to her Nathan gave a nod. “For now. We only have enough weapons with compatible ammo for these people to survey the town for any Twisted remnants. The rest will follow after we come back to give the go ahead.”

“Alright, I guess I will explain what the plan is then.” Lisa said stepping forward to address the group. “As you all know we need to check out the town for any Twisted left and since this side of town is where most of you all are from, we will check it out first. The second part of this mission is the fire needs to be stopped before its spreads further. Of course, this is obvious. To do both of these tasks we will go along the river and secure routes to start a bucket brigade to handle the fires. This will be handled and organized by Nathan. Additionally, those with weapons will work inwards with Gillian and I to see if the Twisted are all gone. Any questions?”

No one spoke up and Lisa nodded. “Good, now let’s hurry and get the river checked out quickly before the sun starts to set. I don’t want anyone getting attacked and lost in the night.”

The large group of people made their way down the steep hill from the dam and towards the river as the rest of the townspeople looked on hopefully. Beyond was the towering black smoke of the raging fire that edged slowly closer. Many of them wished to go help right away but Lisa, Nathan, Mr. Flanagan, and Gillian all emphasized that until they knew the Twisted were gone, no one was to venture into town.

Still, earlier several people had ignored these warnings and tried venturing into town. If not for Bell and Anthony keeping a watchful eye on them and having the rest of the ERM helping too, they might have done so. There was a lot of protesting and distrust when they were confronted but eventually things settled down and reason won the townspeople over.

Lisa led the way along with Gillian, John, Nathan, and Bone Flayer while everyone else followed warily behind them. Everyone was staying close together while staying silent and at every road, alley, or gap in between building was met with anxious gun barrels pointing into them. Though nothing happened even when they made it to the river, they came across nothing dangerous.

There was plenty of destruction though. All around them building walls, doors, roofs, and windows were clearly slashed by claws or horns from monsters. There was also the occasional bloody patch from where an unlucky human was killed and fully devoured. This creepy silent destroyed town was making everyone nervous.

Bone Flayer let out a low whistle. “Wow, I guess we were wrong about being able to fight off the Twisted, eh Hemlock?”

Hemlock bobbed his head wordlessly as he tightened his grip on his weapon. He didn’t want to tell Bone Flayer what everyone else was thinking and to shut up. But Gillian did that for him.

“Hush and keep your eyes peeled.” Gillian’s gruff voice said lowly.

Bone Flayer raised a hand apologetically and stayed quiet.

They continued along the river until they came within sight of the Ulster’s Shop. Beyond here they only needed to go a few more blocks before reaching the closest of the dock fires. From there the front line of fires were angled further back and closer to downtown. The smoke was already getting hazy in the air and some people were already covering their mouths with cloths to filter the smoke.

They were about to pass the shop when a board covering the shop’s door collapsed with a bang right in front of them. Everyone instantly took up arms and braced themselves for what was about to happen. In the swirling smoke it was hard to get a proper view of the entrance, but something was indeed there.