Disguises

The camp was in Jack's sight. It was just like he and his master had seen before. It was a simple campfire with supplies and weapons surrounding it. The entire thing was in a clearing in the forest, except that the trees only surrounded the camp in a semi-circle. At the back of the camp was a large boulder. It was about 3 stories tall and even had a tunnel that was dug in its center that stretched down into the ground illuminated by torches.

Jack strained his eyes but he couldn't completely see into the tunnel, but he could hear noises in the tunnel. Nobody was at the little outpost outside the tunnel. For whatever reason, it seems that the bandits didn't leave a guard or sentry. Or perhaps the sentries were those two bandit raiders that just left. Jack really didn't know.

He counted walking to the camp, his eyes peeled for any movement. Currently, there was nothing except the faintly glowing remains of the campfire and the weapons and supplies that were caked with blood.

Again nobody was near the supplies and weapons that any normal bandit should have guarded. Jack gazed at the supplies and weapons on the ground. For the past few days, he was taught to never leave the enemy without taking its stuff.

As his master said it was a ritual for a large ground of people to loot bodies for loot. Even though Jack thought that many people in the city wouldn't like that, his masters' words were law. The problem was how he was going to get the loot.

Jack shook his head furiously to remind himself, he had a mission the loot would come after.

He cautiously walked into the tunnel, the tunnel even though it started in the boulder quickly lead underground. The torches were held by iron bands and the tunnels muddy floor had countless footprints on it.

Jack started to hide his presence as best as he could, he was taught that by his master but he still wasn't able to completely hide his presence completely. His ears, with the help of his attentive ears skill, were finally able to pick up on the chatter in the tunnel as actual conversations instead of the confusing muttering and clashes that he heard outside the tunnel.

The deeper he went into the tunnel, the more confused he got. He didn't meet any bandits walking up the tunnel and wooden beams started to appear to support the tunnel from collapsing. Occasionally on the walls, Jack could see a large hole or a small path that branched from the main one and then abruptly stopped.

Jack just kept on following the voices which he could now finally understand. A deep and menacing voice was speaking the most. With a bunch of quieter weaker sounding voices usually agreeing with him.

Jack crouched down to listen. The big menacing voice spoke again

"We now have orders to hit any merchants that we see, big or small. It doesn't even matter if it's the big companies either. Heh, our backer can take care of it for us if needed."

One of the weaker voices talked

"That's right boss and the amount of money that we are getting from this... hehehe"

The big menacing voice spoke again this time with a jovial and greedy tone.

"HAHAHA THAT'S RIGHT, WE HAVE BRIGHT FUTURES AHEAD OF US BOYS"

A few more voices joined the original weaker voiced person in cheering. And the menacing voice boomed again, yelling at somebody

"HEY YOU GO GET US SOME BOOZE AND FOOD WE NEED TO CELEBRATE OUR GOOD FORTUNE."

And a small meek voice that Jack could barely pick up answered quickly

"yes sire"

Jack's expression changed drastically. The bandits were getting food so that was good, but he still hadn't poisoned the food yet so that was bad. He started to run int the direction of the voices, making sure that his footsteps couldn't be heard.

The tunnel continued sloping down until it suddenly flattened down into a much wider path. Jack almost lost his footing at the chance of slope but quickly regained his balance and looked around.

The flat path had widened out and the cave walls had small doors installed on each side. About 5 poor wooden doors were installed on each side. At the end of the flat path was an entrance, the entrance had light spilling out of it and was the source of all of the noise that Jack was hearing.

That was definitely where the bandits were at Jack didn't even need to check. But that meant the storage room with all of the food was most likely one of these rooms.

He went to the closest one and creaked open the door. He saw a room about 5 meters big and 4 meters wide and 4 bunk beds were crammed into the room and a few mats on the ground for sleeping.

Jack went into the next one and saw the exact same thing. He went to the next one and was about to push the wooden door open again. But a small noise from the inside made him stop. He quietly pushed his ear to the wooden door and listened. The noise was heard again and Jack was able to instantly distinguish immediately what it was after his many years of hearing it in the slums.

It was a cough, whoever was in that room was definitely sick. Jack started to think furiously. Maybe that person was the person who was just sent by the bandits to get food. If so then he would have to somehow get to the food and knock him out or something. If it was just a random sick person resting in bed then he was probably screwed.

The decision weighed on his mind. But he promised his master that he would finish the mission. He regained his determined expression, he was going to do this for his master. He pushed the door open as gently as he could. Pray that it wouldn't creak open like how it did for the rest.

*creak* Sadly it did and Jack physically cringed at the noise and his brain already started to play out how he would die by the bandits.

Jack peeked through the door, again it was the small room with bunkbeds and mats on the floor. Jack saw a figure laying down on a mat. The figure laying down didn't notice Jack and the door opening, thankfully and Jack was able to focus on the person. No, wait, the boy.

Yeah, it was a boy that was lying down on the mat. He was around Jack's age and he was sweating hard judging by the smell in the room.

The boy gave off another cough and Jack could hear the boy's voice again. It was the same as the meek voice he heard before except it was just tired and Jack could hear the familiar pain and anguish in his voice.

Jack quietly closed the door and checked the next room. But before he could place his hands on the door again. He heard another cough. He slowly back away from the door and put his back the wall on the opposite side near a few of the doors. As he was calming his thumping heart he heard, even more, coughs and groans from the rooms.

Jack promptly assumed that the rooms were all little rooms for the people like him. He thanked his master inside his heart again for not treating him like that and started to head to the room where lots of light was pouring out of.

He checked his bandit bandana walked. The moment he entered the room, the bright light assaulted his eyes. It took him a few seconds to adjust and then he was able to look around. 20 or so bandit raiders were staring at him. They were seated around a shoddy wooden table with an abnormally large man at the front of the table. That was the front part of the room near where Jack entered. At the back of the room huddled against the walls were a large group of boys around Jack's age.

They all looked at Jack with fear in there eyes. But before Jack could figure out what it meant one of the bandit raiders yelled at him

"HEY YOU WHY AREN'T YOU IN THE STORAGE GETTING US FOOD HUH? STOP HANGING OUT IN YOUR BED AND GET US SOME FOOD ALREADY,"

He spit on the floor and muttered

"worthless trash"

Jack looked around again and saw an exit that was on the complete opposite side of the room. He quickly assumed that it was where the food was and quickly walked to it.

He got to the exit, under the bandit raiders many accusations of him being lazy and worthless. He turned around and looked at them all briefly. And a grin went on his face for a split second.