Episode 3

She instantly had her Viper pulled. Her lips pressed tightly together, she began to breathe through her nose as she peeked down the hall. There was no one.

'Should I go check it out or just stay in here for a few minutes?' she asked herself.

Just then, she heard a bunch of racket that sounded like someone pilfering through the store's goods, followed by a pair of voices. Though she couldn't make out what they were saying, she could tell they were men and weren't scavengers.

'At this point, I don't know which would be worse,' she considered.

"I gotta use the toilet," came a third voice.

"If it works," another chuckled.

She gave a swallow as her eyes darted about.

'There is no place for me to hide in here.'

She quickly pushed the door to and backed up against the far wall of the small bathroom. Within seconds, the door swung open to reveal a man that looked slightly older than her, whose black hair hung down into his eyes. His dark grey eyes fixated on her instantly. He simply stood there staring at her, saying nothing, doing nothing. Not knowing quite what to do, she simply stared down the barrel of her viper back at him.

"Everything alright?" came one of the voices.

"No, someone beat me to it. The thing's filled to the brim with crap and it won't flush." With that, the black-headed man turned and went back out with the other men. "Yeah, that was nasty and rancid. I wouldn't recommend going back there," he continued.

"We'll take your word for it."

"We got everything we need?" The black-headed man asked.

"It looks like it."

"Then let's get going before we wear out our welcome."

She could hear them leave the store. She leaned up against the wall as she took a sigh of relief.

'I'm getting out of here before someone else shows up. The next person I run into may not just go on their way.'

She snatched up the nail from the bathroom counter, grabbed her bag, and slipped from the shop into the street. It was well into the afternoon. Her mission now was to find a safe place to spend the night.

'Maybe I can make it out of the scavenger lands.'

She walked for all that day through the destroyed heap that marked the territory between the Scavenger Lands and what was called Junker's Brim. The sun sunk into the horizon as though it were being chased by the moon.

Taking off her pack, she took a seat on the dirty ground surrounded by scrap. Taking a deep breath, she simply stared off toward the direction she'd come from. Her thoughts began to wander and then all at once, her attention was directed back to her chest wounds. Her mind then drifted to the night she had been shot.

'That man's eyes were not at all natural. That was supposed to be a simple in-and-out job. I can steal just about anything. Wonder what it really was and why they so desperately guarded it. Somebody didn't tell me something. Going to have a chat with my client when I get out of here. I need to know what I died for.'

Looking at the rubble around her, she sunk down and dozed off.

She woke up to a raven calling out. Her eyes opened to see the blackbird perched on a downed light pole before it flew off.

'What's a raven doing here?' she thought, slightly vexed.

Just then, she heard a crunching sound behind her. Her brow scrunched as she peeked over the slab of concrete that blocked her view to see several men in prison uniforms running through the ruins and shortly behind them a matter of machines that looked like massive dogs. She rolled her eyes as she sunk silently back down out of sight.

'Looks like the army has new equipment to test out and on inmates no less. They couldn't have found a different place to do their slaughter.'

She gave a slight huff.

'This is simply not my week. Maybe I can slip out from under their noses without being noticed...'

She tapped her head against the concrete wall at her back.

'Yeah, and with those odds, I might sprout wings and fly,' she mocked herself. She took in a deep breath. 'Well, time to fly.'