Stealing Apples

"Do you call your wife by her last name?" Seth asks, slightly drowsy, covered in pelts.

Tsuki looks over at Seth, "What?"

"You called her Minami before."

"Ah..., yeah. Her full name is Hinata Minami."

"Don't you call lovers in Japan by their first name?"

Tsuki sighs, "Well, we aren't actually lovers, I'm just helping her. That's all you need to know."

"Right..." Seth rolls onto his side, his hand caressing his injured leg. "We'll be coming down the mountain to get our injuries treated. Can Hinata carry heavy things, like, a human?"

"What?"

"We'll have her carry the sniper girl over there." Seth points at the woman from before, Half-Native American. Hinata, sitting a few meters away from their campfire, knees to her chest, nods. "Looks like she can."

***

"How much longer will it take?" A man drenched in sweat asks behind another, hair matted and black, eyebrows rigid, a cut going through both. "We've been walking across Nevada for a few days now, when will we get to Vegas?"

In front of him, a man wearing think clothes layered, blonde hair slicked back, stubble on his chin. "Almost."

"What are we going there for anyway?"

The blond man turns to him, "Gold."

"Gold?"

"We're going to meet up with John and get our gold, he stole it from a train and another group following under him gave him some more and our job is turning that gold into paper and hiding it somewhere."

"How much, in cash?"

"One million dollars, it's a miracle that they managed to get it to Vegas without getting caught."

"One mil... we could..."

"Exactly, we could buy out an entire city with that sort of money."

"Is it ours?"

"We can make it ours."

"Are you planning...?"

"Yeah, if we have that sort of money, I'll do it. I'll finally do what I've always wanted."

The black-haired man sighs, "Well, wherever you go, I'll follow."

"I hope you do."

The black-haired man presses his lips together, "Why're we taking a detour by the way? Shouldn't we just take the roads to Vegas?"

"No, it's better this way, one, it'll help us get used to walking back and forth here since once we get the money, we'll be booking it across the Mojave. Taking the roads would only make us suspicious, especially if we're carrying a big ass bag of cash, especially since the robberies had only just happened recently - there are going to be connections, blah, blah, blah, you get the point. Plus, the guy we're getting the money from, John - he and his gang betrayed the guy who was actually heading the operation was some Mafioso from Cicily."

"So we're risking our lives here?"

"Yeah, but it'll be worth it, we're gonna run with the money. The problem is that John will also be on our ass, including the bounty hunters that - that mafia bastard could be hiring at any minute now. Lucky for us, John won't suspect a thing until months after since the spot he will request to hide the money in will be empty."

"How do you know he'll want us to hide it?"

"It's the best way to get away with robbery, laying low by keeping a large sum of money hidden. Including disguises and such."

The black-haired man shakes his head, sweat dripping from his brow and wetting the ground. "Fuckin' 'ell."

"Don't go off-topic, nor stutter, if you do either of those things they'll suspect us, okay?"

The black-haired man nods.

"We're almost there."

***

John, a young, naive looking man wearing casual clothes sitting next to the window of a bar, leaning against the wall nearest to him, eyes surrounded with dark circles. The doors to the bar clack open, both the blond man from before and the black-haired man following him enter. John rises from his seat with a smile on his face - a fake smile, but an effective one. The black-haired one immediately buys into John's innocent attitude, going for a handshake, whole the blond one ignores both of them, sitting directly across from John.

"Are you gonna lead us?" The blond one asks, tapping his index finger against the wooden table between them, his Aryan blue eyes staring into John's hazel eyes.

John's eyes dilating, he smiles, "Follow me."

John leaves the bar and the blond man follows, the black-haired one following behind the blond one. As they leave the bar, two men whose faces are covered in tattoos follow behind them, carefully watching out, checking buildings frequently. The blond one takes note of this as they head closer to their destination. A massive carriage.

John swings the door open and shows the gold, "How will you turn it into cash?"

"We'll bring this to the smithy and have Barney here," The blond one points to the black-haired man, Barney. "Melt the gold down, and what we'll do is continue thinning out this gold until it becomes as thin as paper money. After we do all of that, we'll create some counterfeits and stick the thin gold sheets onto them, transparent, barely able to be seen unless you ask either us or a jeweler or something. That gold can then be peeled off of the counterfeits and melted again, layering it on top of one another, boiling it so it actually melts, then forming it together to make the gold once again so then you can exchange that gold for actual cash."

"Quite complicated."

"Complicated measures are needed when you've gotten this lucky." The blond one points to the gold and sighs, "We'll take care of doing the process and such and we'll hide it... wherever you desire. Where is it you want the gold to be hidden anyway?"

"Montana."

"Got it, we'll bring it to Montana then. How long will it take for you to pick up the baggage?"

"About a month."

The blond one nods, "Alright," He turns to Barney, "Shall we start?"

Barney nods.

The blond one looks to the animals they used to pull the carriage and notices that they used Oxes. The blond one looks back over at John, "Don't use an Ox next time please."

John nods.