Ch 11. A leg for a stare

Like a pair of curious rodents, Eury and Diaz popped out their heads from a vent with a cut off grate. Once they were sure that everything was clear, uneasiness latched on to them both did a second sweep to the right, left, up and down, " and diagonaly", as Eury surmised. Still unsure, they jumped out and brought the kids out, one after another.

Diaz- " How you feeling now?", the boy asked very swiftly, even though he knew that his voice would crack around the last word. Luckily for him, Eury wasn't paying that much attention to anything besides the kids and was caught off-guard by the sudden question.

Eury- "Me?", she asked, pointing a towards her blushing cheeks. " Me! Right. Fine…is this about my mistake earlier?"

Diaz- " I was a bit worried about how quiet you were during the whole run. Thought you might still be eating yourself over it."

Sammy-" That's true, you're usually a lot louder", the little boy added with naivete.

-" Great, now even Sammy is getting worried for me." The girl huffed, stretching her hands over the head and finished with a puff. " I'm better now. Really."

Diaz squinted his eyes and wanted to interject, but couldn't find the right words. " Fine", he replied and lead the group to a dampened tunnel. " If we take the next right, we could climb up a -", but instead of a rickety old ladder, there were 4 men standing in front of them, each more menacing than the other.

Once the boy noticed Zuwa, though, his racing heart slowed down its drive to relief. " If the old man is here, then everything should be ok ", he thought, a fleeting one though, as the next moment two bounty hunters who hid in the shadows grabbed the two orphans and took them towards the rest of the group.

-" Let them go", cried out Diaz and Eury, with both trying desperate swings that barely did any damage to the roided out bodies of the kidnappers. In dire need of a win, Diaz hold out his arms toward Eury, palms face up. She didn't guess what his plan was, but decided to put her trust in him, and when he dragged her three steps in a starting circle, she imediately understood him.

-" My left leg is the heaviest", she pointed out with a smirk, to which he nodded back. Using his upper strength, he dragged the girl with all his might and she helped out by running in synch. After the third rotation, Eury was flying in the air and she sticked out her left leg, preparing for take off.

Before the kick launched, though, the two felt like time stopped; enough for the two share a reassuring stare and once that moment ended, Eury's entire metalic weight striked one of the bounty hunter, launching him right into his colleague and putting them to the ground as they were domino pieces.

Zuwa- " Kids, kids, calm down. Nothing's gonna happen to the them, we're just making sure they get out the way safe and sound", explained the old man, after giving his new lackey a signal, which was then sent further down the line. Even though the first two bounty hunters were out cold, the next bunch recaptured the orphans with ease. Zuwa held to his word though, and Mercius and Pelium were pushed to take the stairs and "get a starting leg already!"

The boys couldn't stop shaking, and only after Diaz gave them the "it's alright to leave" nod, did the two climbed all way until they were out of earshot.

Diaz was relieved that at least the two were out of the fire-range, but now he had to deal with something he never expected to have to handle. " So, Zuwa, what's this all about?", he asked, capturing a image of the gang with a wide swing of his arm. " You…you know these guys?"

Zuwa- " Them? Just met. But don't worry, they are mostly bark, they don't bite. Unless my buddy here, Dimotelo tells them to." He then pats a visibly shaking 1.9 meters of a man, jolting after each palm.

Eury- " Oh, how cool of you. Do you think you could tell them to let us climb out of here as well?" The girl only played coy, as she could guess that something was wrong with the old man. His demeanor was way too playful while his tone was much colder than usual. Another thing that worried her was Diaz. His teeth could fire sparks with how they grind to one another, and his palms were shaking out of the mix of emotions he felt.

Zuwa- " Maybe. I want to talk with you a bit though. Girl…you ever heard of the Noble Metal?"

Suddenly, Eury took a few steps backward out of impulse. " The Cardinal who split the faith in two? You heard the preaches, that's the malev-", but then she stopped herself. Way too much of her former 'teaching' and language was starting to spill out. " The Inclusive sect was formed by one called Noble Metal and since they left the middle level, nobody has heard anything from them. All that the orig- other sect told was were stories. Except that- "

Zuwa- " Except the demonic prophecies and such about how the inclusive sect will bring forth the end of the Commune, ya da ya da. Same old boring stories, yap. Totally bogus by the way, Noble's Metal teachings are just a realistic point of view. We need to shed the parts that bring us down and replace them with better materials. "

Before a second theological schism could erupt on the spot, Diaz barged in with his own questions. " Old man, what is this all about? Since when are you part of some group?" The boy lingered on his real question, though, one he was too afraid to put out. " Why are you here…truthfully?"

-" Truthfully? You say that like you lost trust in me boy. What, you think I'm betraying now or something…Well, I guess from your perspective I kinda do." The old man searched his pockets and threw in front of the trio a rectangular device with a small screen that could carry only written messages from left to right.

It landed in front of Sammy, who picked it up immediately and he started reading the repeated phrase. " …Understood. Target A and B should go sleep, while A is tuckered in. B can be also tuckered or left to fall out of the bed. Accidents do happen."

Diaz- " I- well- are these babysitting instructions?"

Eury knitted her brows deep, almost reaching the starting lines of her nose and after a second she left out a squeak. " Am I B? One of those options was to leave me dead?"

Zuwa neither denied or confirmed, only raised his palms. " Fuck me man, and it's even my first mission after such a long time. But yeah, I got to hide Sammy by forging his death. And I advise you to do the same girlie, if you wish to not be hunted anymore.

A daring and quite shocking proposal, which left the three speechless; for a moment, but the more they thought about it, it was probably their best shoot at getting Sammy and Eury from the prey list. The heat the bounty brought on their head was a clear sign that neither could ever hope for a normal life, even down here.

Sammy was the first to give up on thinking it over, not even sure what there was to ponder. " I don't really like spending my time running from guys like those", he said pointing at Zuwa's new entourage.

Zuwa- " Yeah, I kinda agree with him, you guys aren't exactly a ray of sunshine or the first thing I would want to see in the morning."

Eury- " Sure, but"- but there wasn't anything she could actually do anymore. She turned, with a glint of hope in her eyes, towards Diaz; which vanished the moment it was clear that even the boy was on a path of eating past his nails from the stress.

The girl sighted and gently grabbed the nervous worker's hand, holding in her own. "I know it's selfish of me to ask even more of you. But…could you at least come with us?"

Diaz- " Wha- Of course. I wasn't planning on leaving you by yoursel-selves", he replied, words shaking. Zuwa's sudden shift in…everything…left his head spinning, but now wasn't the time to deal on them. Priority one now were these two strangers, of which he felt a bit of attachement.

Diaz- " This entire situation is weird, but I want to do good by you guys. Which, I guess, it's time for you guys to meet the trash compactor?"

Eury smirked, even though the rest of her face still held a grimace filled with anything but joy. Knowing that Diaz would be there, with them, did eleviate a bit of the burden though. She then turned to Zuwa and let him know that they agreed. On a few conditions.

Zuwa- " Conditions? Even though I brought these fridges with me?", he pointed at Dimotelo's gang. " Well…fine, it's not like I mind it. So hit me, what are these conditions?"