style="font-size:15px;"> “Always ready to help, Hunter.” the AI said.
The man ate without appetite, lost in his troubling thoughts about Serena. He didn’t know what else to do – other than the constant scanning and hailing, there was nothing he could really do. If he were to leave the rendezvous point, Serena might come back with no one to greet her.
He kept trying to calm himself that the reason they have lost communication was due to the heavy sandstorms that continued to whirl around. Perhaps, Serena was staying somewhere to wait out the storms?
“Hunter.” Lyssa’s voice sounded, making the man jump to his feet.
“Serena?”
“No. SS Growler is approaching. Hailing failed due to the interferences in the atmosphere.”
Hunter gritted his teeth, forcing down his anger at the whole situation.
“How close are they?” he ruffled his hair, trying to calm down again.
“Landing in fifteen seconds.”
“Why didn’t you notify me earlier?”
“I couldn’t detect a clear signal through the storm.”
“Great. Just great!” Hunter headed towards the cargo bay, where, as he thought, his friends would want to enter Lyssa to debrief.
He saw Cipher and Pher approaching the bay door just as he stepped up, opening it. The wind roared – though, not as hard as the previous days – and threw red sand inside the cargo bay. Cipher and Pher hurried up into the ship, patting themselves from the sand.
“Any news?” Cipher coughed, spitting to the floor from all the sand that he caught while running from his ship to Serena’s.
“None.” Hunter grimaced. “You?”
“Our informant hadn’t heard anything yet. But he promised to keep his eyes peeled.”
Hunter couldn’t contain his anger anymore and kicked a box with provisions:
“Fuck!”
“Look, we’ve done what we can for the moment. Right now the best thing is to sit out the storm. Perhaps, as soon as it calms, Serena would be able to send word.” Pher slapped his friend on the shoulder. “Let’s have a drink and rest a while?”
“A drink…” Hunter growled. “A fucking drink…”
He turned and walked off, heading towards the dining area and thinking how much alcohol would be able to knock him out – just for him to stop thinking about Serena’s disappearance.
Chapter 5. Truth
Serena felt herself better with each passing day, though the worry she felt for her friends was greater than her sense of self-preservation. She found out that Wolfin smashed the earpiece she had when he found her, so there was no way to contact her ship or her friends, unless they will find the remnants of her hover bike. She did understand that her hover bike could have been buried by the sandstorm. Or grabbed by wandering scrappers for spare parts, as she didn’t dare hope that it was intact after the terrible crash she experienced.
Finally, the aching in her body began to feel bearable and Serena got out of bed, still irritated at Wolfin for having her stay for so long.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the man saw her heading to the exit.
“I need to contact my friends.” Serena approached the boulder Wolfin used to close the passage and grasped at the edges, straining to try and move it away.
Though, recovered from most of her injuries, she was nowhere as strong as the man, so she failed to even make the rock budge. She froze, breathing heavily and feeling herself trapped, and heard Wolfin approaching.
“It’s still night out there. Too dangerous for you to be stumbling in search of your friends.” he said. “Let’s eat. If you’re so keen on finding them, I’ll help you first thing in the morning. But you have to do something for me.”
Serena pressed her forehead to the rock and sighed:
“What?”
“Take a bath, alright? You stink like a weefer.” he gestured to the water basin.
“What the fuck is a weefer?” Serena growled, straightening.
“It’s a creature that hunts every night. They’re stinky. And dangerous.”
Serena glanced at the basin and thought for a moment, before agreeing that she really could use a bath, since she spent so many days recovering from her wounds.
“Fine.” the woman headed to the basin, still feeling the aching in her ribs and knee that were injured worse than everything else.
Wolfin followed her with his eyes and shook his head, returning to the kitchen to finish up preparing some meat. When he heard her throwing off her clothes, he didn’t even look, but as soon as she submerged herself in the water and a faint groan escaped her throat, he glanced her way, seeing her massaging her shoulder.
“Serena?” Wolfin turned to face her, noticing how lean and beautiful her body was.
“What?” the woman opened her eyes and met the man’s gaze.
“You still hadn’t told me who you were looking for around here. And how you got to where I found you.”
Serena looked at the water, gathering her thoughts, and noticed the faint streaks of dirt and blood that was washing off her skin being carried by a slow current, which meant there was an underground creek, leaving the cavern.
“I was… scouting out one of the campsites I’ve found.” she said a few long moments later. “When I saw Ellax, a creature jumped at me, and this made the Red Lanyards uncover my position.”
The woman heard Wolfin drop something.
“You’re after the Red Lanyards…” he gritted his teeth. “Figures.”
“You know them?” she glanced his way and saw him approaching with a bowl, where two steaming steaks lay, sprinkled by some herbs.
“We’ve ran into each other before.” he put the bowl next to Serena. “Mind if I join you?”
“I’m in your…” Serena glanced around. “Home? Do as you wish.”
The man smirked and undressed, walking into the basin as well to clean himself from whatever sand and grime he could have collected through the past few days. He tore a piece of meat off one of the steaks and took a bite, studying Serena with a very strange expression.
“Why are you after them?” the man asked, licking his fingers.
“My team was contacted by one of the mayors and we were offered a reward if we would take care of the gang.”
“And… how big is your team?”
“Does
