Unexpected Encounter

"How did you know that I was hiding in there?" Amber stepped out of the tent prepared for the worst case.

When looking around she noticed that the camp was a shadow of its former self; with break opened crates and their content being emptied around the campfire and the bike lying on the dusty floor with broken pieces spread around it on the dusty floor.

"I don't think that the big gorilla -man that was just here a moment ago, was in search of water or that he would leave such small footsteps all over the place." His finger pointed to the emptied bottle on the floor and the just mentioned footsteps around the camp.

"So what now do you want to hand me over to them?" Her hands were put up high towards the sky.

"First of all please put your hands down you let me look like a robber who's threatening you besides that why would I do that? I mean I could've easily sold you out when he was here so there is no reason for me to do that, especially given the fact that he looks like the stereotypical gangster from any Mafia movies. It looks like he put you through a lot of trouble." His eyes were locked on the blood-soaked pants and shirt.

She followed his advice and carefully put her hands down and observed every movement of his while doing so.

"Not exactly, my 'trouble' with those thugs, how you called it, is actually someone else's fault, well maybe also a bit of my own and a lot of bad luck and timing. Well and the blood you are staring at that is entirely my own fault but I would..."

"Wait a minute before you tell me the whole story, let us pack everything up and get out of here, I don't want that stupid piece of shit to come up here again and get us in some real trouble."

She helped him packing up all the gear lying around the camp leaving behind only the branches and stones.

"Down there, on the other side of the hill is a small group of teenagers who got stuck out here with a small bus that they apparently modified to some kind of camper. Since there is no signal out here and given that no one passes through these empty lands they came to me for help. Well, there was not much I could do, the engine was completely overheated since the cooler was absolute wasted. I came back here and wanted to go to the nearest place where there is a signal to ask for help, but I was interrupted by that guy snooping around in my camp, who even broke my bike which would've been our last ticket out of here. Now we are all stuck here in the middle of the Mojave desert with no way to escape, except you want to walk for miles in the scorching heat of a desert."

His sudden talk let her take a closer look at the man. He was probably in his early thirties with a large muscular back, he obviously exercised a lot but other than his well-maintained body was his wild and messy appearance with hair pointing in every direction.

"I don't know why you told me this but I'm glad to have found someone here in the middle of nowhere that could help me, even if just a little bit. I'm Amber nice to meet you."

He paused in the middle of the movement.

"Matthew nice to meet you too and sorry if I don't give you my hand right now." He pointed towards the crate in his hand.

"And where are we going now, I mean we need to push your bike with all the equipment on it so we won't be able to go too far."

"Oh, didn't I say that we are going to the camp of those teenies? Why would I even tell you that story otherwise?"

"That was exactly my thought, that's why I asked you without getting any response but you probably just overheated it. So now it is a group of teenagers huh, well I guess more people means more help I guess."

"Exactly, but I warn you they are quite an eccentric and wild bunch, I just hope they'll be at least reasonable to some extent."

They continued the conversation with some insignificant chit chat making her notice that Matthew seemed to be quite the talkative type, given the fact that he was basically making the whole conversation by himself.

It didn't take her too long to see their camp in the distance given the wide plain view of the Mojave desert without a single tree blocking her sight. Loud laughter came from what seemed to be a fireplace in front of a bus.

"Yo, ol' man what are ya doing here again, did ya find a fix for the problem we have?" A guy, probably in his eighties came running towards them.

"Nope, a man came into my camp, ravaging and destroying everything around, amongst other things my bike, saing that that was his property and I should scram. So I decided that I would rather stay with company for the night if you guys let me that is."

"Of course, of course, he also came to ya? A big guy came to us and did't give a dam 'bout our situation he just asked if we saw a wo..." Only now he noticed Amber standing beside him "...man about this height" he finished his sentence.