Chapter 9: Sanctuary

Kassix put the bed back together and sat down on it, waiting for Dr. Guy to return with his things. It didn't take him but a few minutes to return with a small box that held his belongings.

"I took it upon myself to toss out that dreadfully blood soaked jacket of yours, I very much hope that you don't mind." The doctor placed the box on the bed next to Kassix, which was immediately checked over by him. Nothing, besides the mentioned jacket, was missing, he retrieved the A.I. pet and his chimera box and quickly put them into his pant's pockets.

"Where's Dahr?" Kassix looked over at the doctor who was just standing there, waiting for words of thanks for bringing his stuff over.

"Immediately to question this question that, no hey doctor, am I gonna live? Or what did you do to me? Except for the fact, those two are questions too, I suppose." The doctor stopped to consider a better route for the conversation path he picked. "I suppose it'd only be natural to question things in a situation such as this, huh?" The doctor was now fully engrossed in a conversation with himself, and had already forgotten about Kassix's question before.

"I'm trapped with a madman, this is fantastic." Kassix stood up at that and put a hand on the doctor's shoulder. "Dr. Guy, Can you please tell me where Dahr is?"

"Oh, right, of course! I almost even forgot to mention that I had a message for you from the young lad!" The quack doctor fished around in his white coat, and then his pants until he found a letter and held it out towards Kassix. "Here ya go, is that all ya needed?"

Kassix just sighed and took the letter from him and quickly opened it.

"Hey Kas, I don't know when you'll wake, you were really messed up. Don't mind Dr. Guy too much he's a bit strange but he is a good man. Anyway, I was able to sell the arm and spare parts and decided to use my portion to rent a room for a month. If you'd like to come by you can pick up your portion as well! -Dahr" The address was attached at the bottom, which Kas quickly made note of before folding the letter back.

"Hey doc, would you happen to be willing to give me an old shirt you don't want anymore? It'd be rather hard to get around with only a pair of pants."

The doctor just looked him up and down at that, and nodded. "I should have a shirt that'll fit you nice and snug. Does that mean you'll be leaving already? Is your strength up enough to leave?"

"I'm afraid it may strain my strength to stay too long." Strain his mental strength trying to keep the doctor on topic that is.

The doctor agreed quickly then, and retrieved a shirt for him. As soon as Kassix had the shirt on he gave a wave and departed, finding himself on the the first floor.

"At least I don't have to find an elevator to go up, I'm surprised that a back-alley doctor doesn't operate in the pit." Kassix thought this while trying to figure out how to find the location of this address.

Walking around did little to help with his situation, places were named but not in a way where he could just intuitively find the area he was looking for. Wandering aimlessly was clearly not going to get him anywhere, so he opted to begin asking people for directions.

People were quick to tell him they had no clue where the location was for the most part, it seemed they didn't want to deal with someone who looked and smelled like a hobo. Some people even outright ignored him, opting to treat him like a street worker passing out brochures. Eventually after asking around enough people, a girl who looked like they had an academy uniform on stopped and took a proper look at the address.

"This is a rental living apartment right?" She said, a bit surprised seeing the address.

"I suppose so, how did you know?" Kassix tilted his head slightly at her, happy that he finally got someone to answer with more than just a small phrase of denial.

"It turns out that I am heading in the same direction, shall I take you there?" She gave him a small smile and motioned her head for him to come with her.

"That'd be great, thanks. I suppose you are from this area then?" He asked, not wanting the walk there to be an awkward silence.

"Not quite." She reached into the small bag that hung at her side and took out a slip of paper, and showed it to him. "This is my housing allotment pass, I'm going to the academy in this section for the Peacekeepers squads, and it turns out my allotment is the same building that you are headed towards."

"Oh, I'd say that's convenient, but I've been asking people for directions to this place for about an hour now, I guess running into someone that actually lives there would be bound to happen." He laughed a bit while saying this. "I'm Kassix by the way."

"Kathryne, but people just call me Kate. So Kassix, with the risk of me sounding rude, could I ask what's up with the get-up? You look like someone that lives in the pit, but you don't sound or act like one." She was peering to the side at him while saying this, gauging whether or not he was getting upset at her questioning.

"Ahh-Haa, yeah, to be honest with you, these are all borrowed clothes. I just went through a pretty rough time, and I'm in the process of picking myself out of the dirt. Most people assumed I was another guy trying to cause trouble so no one really even looked past the clothes. I don't take any offense, you actually asked instead of making your own decisions about who I was." Kassix didn't plan on telling her his short life story, but she seemed sharp enough that avoiding the question probably would have raised questions. She said she was a student at an academy for Peacekeepers, revealing too much around her could be dangerous given what he's been told so far.

"Hmm, I guess as much. Well, if you are staying here, I suppose we will see each other at some point." Kate stopped in front of the building that was both of their destinations. She turned back to Kassix and gave him a smile, "Well Kassix, good luck picking yourself up out of the dirt, I'll see you later." At that she walked in, and approached the desk, who immediately stood and gave them a slight bow. The clerk took out a packet and handed it to them and directed them to a side room.

Kassix continued in, and went to the buzzers to ring Dahr's room and pressed the correct room number. A moment later the device's light flicked to green and Dahr's voice could be heard from the speaker, "Can I assume that's my good friend Kas finally showing up?"

"Yeah, I'm alive, can I come up?" He released the button and a moment later the door buzzed and opened a few meters away from him. "I'll take that as a yes."

Kassix entered, and promptly entered the elevator to ride up to Dahr's room and after a few moments arrived at the door and knocked. A mere moment after he knocked the door flew open and Dahr threw up his arms and hugged him tight. "You're alive! I'm glad the good doctor could help you! What happened down there?"

Kassix put his hands on Dahr's arms and slowly peeled them off of him, "Let's talk inside, its been quite a time." With that Dahr stepped out of the way to let him in. Inside there was a small kitchen connected to a small room with a bathroom on the side. It was a horribly tiny living space, but the thing that stuck out as odd to Kassix was the presence of two beds.

"Are you bunking with someone?" Kassix turned back to Dahr after seeing the extra bed.

"Actually, I figured you wouldn't have had a place to stay, so- uh- if you're okay with this tiny place you can stay here. If you'd like, you don't have to though if you don't want to of course!" Dahr fumbled over his words, he had prepared two beds before even knowing if Kassix was going to live through his injuries.

Kassix just looked at the spare bed and shrugged, "I'd love to stay here, but can I ask a question first?"

"Of course my friend!" Dahr nodded vigorously, "anything you need!"

"This is a weird question to ask, but... Why are you so different from everyone else in the pit? I mean, you knew so much about those things we found and you also don't talk in the same way they do. You also had people you knew outside of the pit that don't seem like they'd be associated with a normal scavenger."

"Guh- That- That's quite a question, that I wasn't really expecting. Uh-" Dahr scratched the back of his head, it was obvious that he didn't want to answer the question but it seemed like it was more out of embarrassment. "If you are thinking I'm someone suspicious I'm really not. I'm just a guy who wasted the opportunities given to him and got punished by the world for it. I'd rather not go too much into detail, just like I assume you don't want to go into too much detail about yourself, right? I mean, you don't seem like a regular scavenger either, and you don't seem knowledgeable about anything common in the city. I didn't intend on digging into your past, so could we leave it at that with my past?"

Kassix was quite taken aback at that response, he wasn't quite sure what he expected, but that wasn't it. "You've, uh- got a point about myself as well, I guess. Yeah, I won't dig further. I'll go ahead and say I don't think I'm anyone suspicious either, but if you change your mind feel free to kick me out. I won't ask any questions if you want me to leave." Seeing Dahr being strangely serious made Kassix more comfortable, feeling like there was something completely off with the guy was keeping him on edge. He hadn't even considered how Dahr would have felt about himself. Despite the mystery surrounding each of them, they both decided in that moment that they could trust each other to this point.

"Well, we are in agreement then! I don't think I'll need to kick you out, nor do I think I have the right to. Technically this place was payed for with the arm that you risked life and limb for, while I hid in the alley. If you are cool with it, I'd be okay with just giving you the rest of the money for the arm. I'll continue scavenging and living off of the other parts you grabbed then." Dahr seemed happy to give his share of the money back, cutting the cost of the room and the treatment of course.

"Nah, we agreed on the split, but from now on we can split it more evenly based on what we do if you'd like." Kassix thought that was fair, since he didn't know the areas to look or the areas to sell it but was willing to make the risks.

"Sure, here let me transfer your cut to you then and then we can get some rest!" Dahr came over and scanned Dahr's arm before he realized what Dahr was doing.

"Hey- Wai-"

*Buzzzz*

"Scan not accepted. Please try again."