Chapter 17

On the third-floor landing, Kiari took a deep breath. The bedroom door loomed behind him; the grooves in the wood resembled a sneering face, mocking him for his thoughts.

Marlin noted the look of dark determination that crossed Kiari's face. He opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it. Kiari turned to a woman leaning against the wall. She was a bespectacled woman wearing a headdress of teal color and floral design, a dress of the same shade and of conservative length, reaching a bit past her knees.

"Take care of her," Ordered Kiari as he marched past her down the stairs, Marlin following behind him, wiping the dripping water from his eyes and leaving wet footprints on the carpet with every step.

She nodded, "Of course, sir," opening the bedroom door and gliding inside, shutting and locking it behind her.

"Marlin, finding the angel's ring and the water is more crucial than ever, understand? I see these guys walking around, not doing anything half the time; if they were, we could've found it by now!"

"Understood, I'll make sure to 'crack the whip,' they shall stay on track." They reached the main floor, walking through the library, pages of books scattered everywhere, people sitting flipping through books, scouring the pages for any helpful information.

"Maybe we needa do a lil' door kicking!" grinned Kurt-Adam, his deep gruff voice filling the quiet library hall.

"I concur with Kurt-Adam; if we are getting that desperate, we may have to kick things up a notch."

"Me and the rest of the gang can do all the fun stuff!" Kurt-Adam gave a disgusted look to the men in the room with them, "We ain't gonna find anything useful in some dusty old books anyways. Like, if the location of that stuff is so secret, they ain't gonna have it lying around here."

"For once, the numbskull makes a good point; I fear we're wasting our resources here. It may prove more useful for our group to scour this whole village, inch by inch if we have to."

A weary smile crossed Kiari's face, "You may be right, I'll have to think about it, and…" he yawned, "I'll need to— has anyone been in contact with Geier?"

Both Kurt-Adam and Marlin looked at each other.

"Haven't seen him, boss," Kurt-Adam said.

"Well, if you do, tell him to find me. Anyways, Marlin, you're in charge of what to do next, have our people go wherever you see fit."

"Okay."

"I'm gonna rest for a bit." He yawned again and walked off towards a side room of the library.

"On a scale of one to ten, I'd say that potential is a solid ten! That girl is a monster...but in a good way," Silas said, talking to two of the four Hounds, Neph and Amelia. They both sat in the meeting room in the oval building, sat in their chairs at the oval table.

"I mean, it's hard to deny, ya know, she is pretty talented. Kinda like that Reiza girl. Maybe this one won't squander it," Amelia scoffed. She was a pale, slim woman with shoulder-length black hair curled upwards at its ends. She wore all black—always matching her two Tibetan mastiffs, that were almost as tall as Silas, who eyed them wearily. He never feared large animals or dogs, but for some reason, these things, in particular, made him nervous.

"Every time I've seen her, she's always eager to learn and grow stronger. Hell, she actually shows up early even before I do. Then there's other kids that you'd need a forklift to get em' to come to class."

Neph got to his feet—his head almost touching the ceiling—pacing back and forth across the room before finally stopping and looking out at the window on the back wall that overlooked the colony.

"I think we have done a good job keeping this fortune tight…." He muttered, "But still people are talking, and rumors are stirring."

"Well, we could always just tell em', ya know, save us the trouble of keeping this thing hush-hush," Amelia said.

"If we tell them, it will just cause panic. Telling a crowd of people that someone may be dangerous would lead to disastrous consequences."

"Hmm, okay. So we lie. Just rewrite the fortune a bit, ya know, just kinda flub it."

Silas gave Amelia an odd look; she sneered back at him. "People will notice, don't you think? Also, when Aye finds out, he'll be livid."

Amelia rolled her eyes, "I COULDN'T GIVE A SINGLE FLYING F-"

"Amelia!" Neph interjected, "Crater prides itself on its honesty. I wish you would do the same."

"Tch, whatever," Amelia deadpanned, rolling her eyes once more. "Excuse me for trying to be helpful," she grumbled. Her two dogs barked in agreement. "In all seriousness, there really isn't anything we can do without getting involved."

"I know," sighed Neph, "Silas, what's your opinion on this?" He asked, turning around to face him.

Silas shrugged, "Well, changing subjects real quick, are we still studying that creature from the flag game? Whatever happened with that?"

"Yea, I've been busy, so I haven't had time to update myself on any new findings, if there are any at all, that is. We've had our scientists run some tests recently; they should be coming back with some news."

"So cruel," Amelia lamented, "to keep that thing tied up all day and experimenting on it." She looked at one of her dogs, squeezing its face and in a babying voice said, "I won't ever let them torture you like that! No, I won't! No, I won't!"

"Shoot me now," grumbled Silas, looking back at Neph. "Well, I'll leave you to it. I have to get back." He walked out of the room.

"I don't know all the ins and outs of how Aca's fortune ability works, but the future is malleable, right? We aren't doomed? If the interpretation of her being dangerous instead of the other way around is correct; ya think we've done enough to prevent it?"

"Like I said earlier, Amelia, we won't know for sure; we just have to keep an eye on her once she gets back. If all has gone well, they should be arriving back any day now. I don't think it would be right to treat anyone differently for something they 'might' do."

"Well, do what you think is best, I guess," Amelia stood from her chair and stretched her arms, "Anyways, see ya!" She waltzed out of the room, her two dogs bounding after her.

They stood on the roof of a farming house on a hill that overlooked most of the village. The sun beat down on all four of them and the thin metal roof as if they were being broiled on a baking sheet.

Jashin pointed towards the massive hill a bit outside the village, "It's behind that waterfall over there."

"So, we just walk behind the waterfall, and we're there?" Colson asked.

"Not at this point. That used to be the main entrance, but it was sealed off. And don't ask to go inside, as it's off-limits to anyone who doesn't live here."

"Hold on!" Ivy said, turning to Jashin. "We know where they are. They're in that library. We should just go in there and take them out!"

"Ivy, do you think that we haven't thought about doing that? Or that no one has tried to do that?"

"Yea, but with us here-"

"No. We will think of something, but an attack like that will never work and would be borderline suicide." Jashin sighed and looked out over the fields of fruits and vegetables in the distance; they seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.

Zoe pulled on one of Jashin's sleeves to get his attention and pointed to a small grove of bright orange trees near the hill. The trunks, as well as the leaves, were the same shade of orange.

"What are they doing?"

Jashin squinted, using his hand to cover his eyes from the sunlight. He saw a group of people, no larger than five, circling around the base of the trees holding buckets.

"That is odd...It looks like they're collecting the sap. I think those are the trees that hold the sap of vitality, too," he mused, scratching his chin. "I'm not too worried about it, but it's something interesting to tell the others in the village. I'm going to meet with them now. You all need to stay out of the way until then." He slid down the side of the roof, landing on the ground, then walked down the hill towards the village.

"Well, what do we do now?" Colson asked.

"Have you guys noticed how they seem to know where everyone is?" Zoe mused.

"What do you mean?"

"From what Cahya has told us, how they seem to be able to appear whenever they try anything, they have some kind of method to see everything at once. I doubt Cassius is a big fan of using security cameras." Zoe turned and squinted, looking into the distance. "That over there," she pointed, "The cell tower." Several miles away, a large rickety metal column stood tall.

"Ohh," Colson said, "so you're saying they have some kind of camera, or someone is on there relaying everything?"

Zoe shook her head, "No, not at all. The tower has limited vision. One could only really see the east side of Cassius when standing on top. Even if they had an omnidirectional camera, it wouldn't be able to see much, either. They must have some other way." She looked into the sky. Above her, barely visible, the silhouette of two hawks circled Cassius. "Hmmm," she hummed, staring at them.

Colson thought for a moment, "We should get a list of our main objectives. First is to keep the angel's ring hidden, which shouldn't be difficult. Secondly, we gotta find a way to get the gang out of here."

"Oh! I have an idea!" Ivy said, "We should probably see how many there are, right? So, like, we should find walkie-talkies and split up to get an idea of what they're doing."

"Hmm, yea, that's not a bad idea, but I doubt they have walkie-talkies lying around here."

"So we just go get them," Ivy said nonchalantly.

"Where?" Colson threw his hands up, theatrically turning around as if he were searching for something. "There's nothing around here for miles!"

"Say, Zoe, do you still have the map in your bag?"

"Yea," Zoe said, unzipping her backpack and taking out the map.

"Look! We'd be right around this area here," Ivy said, pointing to a blank spot on the map, "And there's a town a few inches over here."

"Those 'few inches' are like twenty miles," said Colson.

"So we just sprint there."

After more arguing, they decided on this plan: Ivy and Colson would sprint to the town, buy three walkie-talkies, and run back. Zoe would stay and observe the village to come up with a plan for all of them.

A group of four carefully crept through the forest, avoiding the bushes and sticks on the ground, making as little noise as possible. The closer they got, the louder the hum was.

They saw Geier sitting cross-legged on the grass in a small clearing, eyes closed, a slight yellow glow surrounding him. His body swayed absently as he sat there.

A villager in the group turned and nodded toward the rest of the group. They had their weapons ready.

Exploding from the tree line, they ran at Geier. He opened his eyes, dodging a downward swing from a sword. Sweeping his leg, Geier caught one off guard, and they stumbled backward. With a broad sweep of his hand, Geier's nails caught the throat of another.

A cocky smile crossed Geier's face, "You gonna give me what I want?"

"Leave!" One yelled, taking a step forwards.

"Just give me the Angel's ring, and we will," a bored tone in his voice.

The man gritted his teeth. Rushing forwards with an uppercut swing from one dagger. Geier sidestepped it and blocked the swing from the second dagger with his hand, the blade not leaving a mark on his skin.

Another man came from behind Geier, aiming at his head with more sharp farm equipment. He turned and shot his hand out towards the man's chest, his clawlike fingernails slipping between his ribs. The man dropped the shovel and fell onto his back, clutching the wound.

Geier turned back to the man with the daggers, "There's just you left."

Instinctively, the man hopped backward, opening up his jacket, revealing rows of throwing knives. He reached his hand inside and flung them at Geier with a desperate fervor. Geier's eyes widened when noticing the slight glow around each blade being thrown.

His eyes flashed to the body of a man at his feet—the one who had his throat slashed by his fingernails—he had one hand around his throat to slow the bleeding. Geier grabbed the man and held him in front of himself. The impact of the blades sounded like someone punching a watermelon. Moving from behind the body, Geier strolled towards the man who was now out of throwing knives. Geier stood next to the man and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not gonna kill you. But I want you to tell everyone you know that if you try something like that again, I'll burn this whole farm down and salt the earth behind it, okay?" He shoved the man in the direction of the village.

He didn't need to be told twice as he scampered away. Geier smiled as he watched him go, he knew that none of them would ever give up the location of the Angel's Ring, so it would have been better to leave them with a warning. He sat back down, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes.

"Eagle Eye!" He said as the reverberating hum returned.

"We're almost there," Colson said, pointing to a sign. 'Grand Canzone 2 miles.'

After a few minutes of running at a dead sprint, they arrived. The town was small, with the population possibly being less than ten thousand.

"If I was an electronics store, where would I be?" Ivy hummed, walking down the main road of the town.

"Excuse me, mister," Colson said, walking up to a tired-looking man with a low-hanging hat, sitting on a street bench. "Do you know where an electronics store is?"

"Over 'der." he muttered, nodding in a direction behind him.

"Hold on," Colson said, "Where are you—"

The man let out a long exasperated sigh, "Good gosh, kid! Beat it!"

"Wow, okay," Colson rolled his eyes, walking back to Ivy.

They walked in the general direction the man pointed them in. The city looked as if it were stuck in a time capsule several decades ago.

"Cassius is more advanced than this dump," Colson muttered, scowling at a nearby cracked concrete building.

"Look down there," Ivy pointed. In the distance, a row of large, flashy buildings on either side of the road stood tall. A dense group of people crowded the sidewalks and bled into the street. "Those don't look so bad."

"I guess that's what they put all their money into. Probably some tourist trap."

They continued to wander for almost thirty minutes before finding the electronic store. Inside, the bored-looking employee at the desk lazily clicked through his phone, only giving a tired, "Welcome to Z-Electronics."

Colson made his way to the back, walking down every aisle until he found what he was looking for at the very end.

Ivy picked up a small pair of bright plastic walkie-talkies. "These are pretty cheap."

Colson took them, studying them briefly, "Yeah, fat chance that these would help. If you look at the label here, it says that it only has a range of a few hundred feet. I'm guessing these are kids' toys."

"We can't afford anything else," Ivy noted, pointing to the other price tags. She looked at the shelf behind her. They displayed several types of phones, each one more expensive than the last. "What's this?" Ivy grabbed one of the devices.

"You've never seen a phone before?"

"That's what these are? Are they a new?"

"Not sure. But I've seen some people with these at Crater. But, this type of design has been around for almost ten years. Where have you been?"

"I dunno. Around?" Ivy shrugged, putting the phone back in its holder. "Why don't you or Zoe have one?"

"I don't have anyone to call."

"Oh."

"Huh," Colson shook his head in disapproval. "Anyway, this will have to do," he lamented, grabbing the plastic walkie-talkies.

"Wait," Ivy said, looking back at the price tags. She held up her hands, looking at her fingers to count. "If we use our entire mission budget, we can get these three right here," she pointed to a set of sturdy walkie-talkies. "They have a two-mile distance."

"Well, I'm not gonna spend our whole budget on these."

"Are we just going to steal them?"

"Of course not. I'm not some Godless heathen, Ivy. We're gonna earn it, not take it... Somehow."

"We can just make some money real quick."

Colson's brow furrowed; suddenly his face lit up, "Oh yeah," he dug in his pocket, taking out the wedding rings. "I completely forgot about this! This'll give us so much more than what we need! I'll be set for months with this!" A hungry look developed in his eye. "Ivy, you're a genius! Let's go get rich!" He turned, marching out the front door.

"We'll be back, mister!" Ivy called out, running out the door.

"Have fun," he muttered.

"How do we sell it?" Ivy asked.

"To be honest, I don't know. But it can't be too hard, right? We just walk to a street merchant or some store, and say we're selling it. And they buy it. Easy."

"Okay!" Ivy said eagerly. "I bet near those buildings; someone's gonna wanna buy it!"

Sounds of running footsteps, distant yelling, and the general white noise echoed between the buildings.

"I can't see anything!" Ivy complained, yelling over the crowd.

Since Colson was taller, he could peek over shoulders, and shove people aside. "We gotta get to the side! That's where all the market stuff is!" He grabbed onto Ivy's wrist, pushing through the crowd. 'It honestly feels like I'm gonna be suffocated and devoured by this thing.' He was never one to get claustrophobic, but he'd never seen so many people in such a small area. "Move it!" he yelled.

Seeing a relatively empty merchant stall, Colson made a B-Line straight towards it, pulling Ivy along with him.

He reached into his pocket, dug out the wedding rings, and handed them to the owner. "How much are you willing to pay for two perfectly good wedding rings?"

The merchant studied them in his hand, putting a loupe—a simple device used to study gems—over his right eye. 'Ain't no way a couple of kids legitimately have rings like these. Probably stole it off of some poor woman or maybe took it from their parents,' he thought. He looked up, "I can't in good faith buy a stolen item," he said, shaking his head, and handing the rings back to Colson.

"It's not stolen," Ivy said confidently. "We're married."

"Married? You two?" His eyes lazily swayed back and forth between both of them. "You kids are in elementary school."

"Not true! I'm not a baby!"

'Dang it Ivy! Why in the world would you say that?' Colson cleared his throat. "It's true, sir. We aren't native to this country, yeah. In our home, it's tradition for people of our age to get married and travel around the world together. But," Colson looked down, imitating his favorite actor, "We ran into some trouble. A terrible accident occurred, and we're short on money. All we have to sell that's worth anything are these rings." He put his hand over his eyes, pretending to hide his fake tears. "I just worked so hard to buy this ring for my beautiful wife, but alas..." he peeked through the cracks in his fingers, checking to see if the man was buying his story, "But our love has only grown through this hardship. That's how I know it was meant to be." He looked up, wiping fake tears from his cheek. Reaching down, he intertwined his fingers with Ivy's. 'Nailed it!'

"Interesting…So where you from, kid?"

"Uhh," Colson's eyes shifted away; he glanced to Ivy. "Dodola Isle!" He said, finally, his confident grin returning, remembering her place of birth.

"Dodola Isle, you say?" the man scratched his chin. "Never heard of it."

"Yeah, lots of people don't know what it is." He thought, 'He's totally buying this. Is everyone from outside Crater this much of a midwit? It definitely helps that our accents are distinctly different. Even in the short time that Ivy's been around, her accent has adapted to ours.'

'Hmm, they don't look to be from around here,' the merchant thought. "Oh, what the hell," he shrugged, "I'll give ya five hundred for this one!"

Ivy counted on her fingers, "One CraterCoin is 35.76. Then five hundred divided by…that's almost fourteen CC! That's a lot!"

A deep frown crossed Colson's face. "That's it?" He turned to Ivy, "This guy doesn't know anything. Let's go."

As they disappeared back into the crowd, Ivy turned to him, a confused look on her face, "That would've been more than enough, right?"

"Maybe, but rings like these would be worth ten times that amount. We just need to find someone who doesn't have a two-digit IQ."

"Okay!" Ivy grinned, bounding along beside him. "What about the buildings? The people in there are wearing suits and stuff; they probably have money."

"Yeah, not a bad idea," Colson agreed, looking through an enormous glass window. One of the fancier buildings had a sign above its door reading 'Hotel & Pawn!' "Perfect!"

It was a quant fancy little place. Stepping inside was like stepping through a portal. A small coffee bar was‌ in the middle of the room. Hanging from the ceiling were potted plants, speakers which played upbeat jazz, and abstract light fixtures. The lobby area was well populated. Men in fancy grey business suits standing, sitting, talking, not seeming to be doing anything important; as if they were actors and the only direction given was to mingle.

Marching to the front desk, Colson placed the rings on the table, sliding them across, making eye contact with the woman working there. "We've got some pretty expensive rings here. We're here to sell em'."

"Okay," the woman behind the front desk took the rings and placed them in a machine one after the other. It whirred and creaked, finally spitting out a small slip of paper. "It says here it's worth three thousand for the engagement ring, and two for the husband ring."

"Five thousand?" Ivy noted how Colson sounded absolutely defeated. 'That's a bit better, but I thought for sure this would be worth a helluva lot more.' He was about to agree with it, but a man with a swirly blue coat walked up behind them.

"It's a ripoff, my guy."

Colson and Ivy both turned, staring at the man. He was tall and slender, with very tanned skin with long shaggy blond hair that covered his eyes that had a glint of mischievousness to them.

"Huh?"

The man shook his head, "Sorry for jumping in, but I can tell just from here—that ring is worth a lot more than two grand."

"Oh really?" Colson said, a vindicated tone in his voice. He turned to the lady, a smug grin on his face. "I knew it! Suck it, bi—"

"That's preposterous!" The woman said. "Who even are you?"

"My name's Tibur. I travel around the world trading, collecting, and selling rare gems, and kid, I promise you, that diamond's worth more than what you'll be getting from these scam artists."

"Sir, unlike you, we are professionals." She huffed. "Our reputation is all we have. Quick cash now would cost us a lot more in the long run."

Both Ivy and Colson looked back and forth between the two, not sure what to say.

From his bag, Tibur took out a scale. Placing both the rings on it, one after the other. "Right here," he flipped the device around, showing the woman the screen. "The carat on both of these are around 1.5." He reached around his neck, taking out a solid gold loupe on a diamond chain from under his shirt.

"Wow," Colson's eyes grew as large as plates.

"The color grade is D," he explained, turning the wedding ring in his fingers. "A Round Brilliant cut...that'll help it sell strongly to the average buyer. Twenty-three thousand. It's completely flawless!"

"What is happening?" Ivy asked.

"I have no idea," Colson said, "But I think this guy is our ticket to pushing some serious cash."

"Now for the other one," he examined the silver husband ring. "You were right about this one. Good Carat, poor quality cut, no opaque rating…But, despite everything going against it, the diamonds encrusted in this are rare, even for gem standards. Another thing, the design of this suggests that it's from a different culture, maybe a small, heavily spiritual village, based on the markings. Ten thousand. That's what you could reasonably get from most who," he turned to the woman, "actually are real professionals. The best case scenario, your machine is broken. Worst case, you people are scammers!"

"Wow," Colson's eyes glimmered, "Man, this guy's amazing."

"Tibur…my guy, you're an absolute legend!" Colson said, following the man out of the store.

"Hey, no problem-o. Just helping out a newbie," he shrugged.

"How'd you know that stuff?" Ivy asked, holding the man's loupe to her eye, pointing it at the wedding ring.

"Years of experience. How'd you come across these anyway?"

Colson gave him the same marriage story as earlier.

"Dodola Isle. Interesting. Can't say I'm familiar." He pointed to an alleyway up ahead, "Through there is an… you could say an 'underground' shop. I've been there a few times; they'll set you right. They should believe your story as well," he flashed them a knowing smile.

"I—" Colon was about to protest but didn't want to talk his way out of thirty-three thousand dollars.

As they walked through the alleyway, the surrounding buildings changed, becoming more dilapidated and colorful—smashed together to become one long, large mega-complex.

"We're being watched," Ivy mentioned casually, too quiet for Tibur to hear. Colson glanced over, noticing her odd stiff posture; her hands in her pockets. He could tell they were wrapped around the brass knuckles.

"Yeah," he muttered. The greedy gleam in his eye had faded. "Good looking out, though. I'd rather not get robbed in this favela."

"Tibur's pretty strong. I can tell."

"You can?"

"Mhm," Ivy nodded. "I'm not worried."

"Me neither."

After a few minutes of walking, Tibur turned down a dead-end alleyway. At the far end, a metal door. He knocked on the door, five taps in rhythmic succession.

Ivy flinched, looking at a building behind her, hearing someone talk through one of the windows.

The metal door squeaked and swung open; loud music from a foreign nation echoed from the dark hallway inside.

"Are you sure about this?" Colson asked wearily.

"I go here every time I visit this city," Tibur assured, walking through the doorway.

Down the long corridor, the music got louder as they approached.

A crowd had formed in the middle of the room; they jeered and hollered as two shirtless men fought each other in the middle of a metal cage.

Colson looked at the concrete floor. His stomach did a mini flip as he saw a bloody tooth fly from the cage and bounce off his shoe.

On the right side of the room was a mahogany table; a teenage girl sat next to a large man in a suit, slicked-back brown hair, perfect teeth that seemed to shine, and gold rings around his fingers.

Tibur moved towards them. Colson couldn't make out what he was saying but kept noticing him gesturing back toward the two of them. Eventually, beckoning them over.

"This here is Lawyer Kev; he runs this place."

"Howdy, you two," Kev grinned; he had a thick country accent. "I hear you're tryna sell some rings, that correct?"

"Yessir," Colson yelled over the noise, placing the rings on the table.

"How much you say this was worth?" He asked, taking the loupe from Tibur, and examining the rings."

"Thirty-three for both."

"What a mighty find these kids have here," he turned to the bored girl sitting next to him, "Get the 'M' case for me, sweetheart."

She nodded, got up from her chair, and walked to a back room. A minute later, she returned with a bag, a red letter 'M' painted crudely on the front and dropped it on the table.

Lawyer Kev reached inside, taking out a large stack of bills in one hand, and a money-counting device in the other.

"Um," Colson said, flipping through the stack of bills. "It's not all here." He handed the stack to Ivy for a second opinion. Looking through it, she nodded in agreement.

"Is there a problem?" Kev asked innocently.

"Yeah," Ivy said, stepping forward with her brass knuckles in her hands. "There is."

Colson looked at her in amazement, 'she is bold as heck,' he thought.

Lawyer Kev's innocent smile didn't falter, but several men in the surrounding area took note, slowly removing pistols from their jacket pockets.

Colson reached back behind him, grabbing onto the bokken strapped to his back. His eyes widened, watching people around them with guns in their hands. "Hey, Ivy," he muttered.

"Hey, yo, calm down there," Tibur said, trying to dispel the tension. "You kids haven't been doing this long, so I guess it's my fault for not warning you sooner. There's something called a finder's fee."

"Huh?" Ivy said.

"Thirty-five percent," he shrugged, grabbing a small stack of cash in Kev's outstretched hand. "It's only fair, I'd say."

"Okay, that's fine," Colson said quickly, shoving the wad of cash in his pocket. "Let's go, 'wife,'" he said, turning towards the door.

They sprinted down the alleyway, back towards the electronics store.

"We could've been shot," Colson said, looking behind him, checking if anyone was following him.

"You think so?"

"You didn't see them? They were ready."

"Yeah, I saw them," Ivy laughed.

They burst through the door, almost tripping over themselves. Colson stomped to the back, grabbing three of the most expensive walkie-talkies with the longest ranges. Thinking for a few seconds, he walked back and grabbed two pairs of night-vision binoculars—just in case.

"Are we gonna try and get the rest of our money back?"

"I don't care anymore," Colson said, walking to the front desk. "I'd rather be scammed than dead. Let's just get outta here."

At the edge of town, he stopped, looking back at the way they came. Ivy did the same once she noticed Colson hadn't moved.

The dry breeze wafted through the dusty city, sending their hair into a mini frenzy.

"You know, Ivy," Colson said. "You're alright."