Heading out of the small tent the two of them found the whole camp in turmoil. Whatever had happened earlier had been drastic enough that there was absolutely no sense of calm or normalcy to be found. Jack didn’t let himself worry about what the camp had gone through. If it was something that would affect them, they would learn of it soon enough.
Seeing the state of the camp Jack turned to Charise “Doesn’t really look like we are going to find that someone does it? Care to join me in looking for her ourselves then?”
Charise gave him a sideways look “I get the feeling that I don’t have much option here. Yes, obviously we should go look for her. I mean, really, it’s interrupting my relaxation time in the middle of this wonderful camp. But I suppose I can spare a few minutes to help if need be.”
While her sarcasm was obvious Jack couldn’t help himself, he just had to needle her a little more. With as straight a face as he could manage, he said in all seriousness, “Oh, don’t worry about it. There’s no rush. Give me a moment and I’ll see if I can wrangle you up a chair. I think I saw one just back there.” He waved his hand behind his back toward the tent they had just exited.
She looked at him in surprise, objections falling from her lips. “What? No!”
Jack couldn’t keep his straight face and burst out laughing. As he did Charise scowled briefly and punched him in the arm before laughing herself.
They found themselves laughing hysterically. Far longer and more than either the joke or response called for or deserved. Holding their sides and wheezing they finally stopped when one of the people working in the makeshift headquarters came up to them shouting. “What the hell are you two doing? We need everyone helping out as much as possible. Get your asses moving. If you can heal help with the triage and if you can’t help with getting tools cleaned and the injured moved! Come on! Move it!”
Wiping tears from their eyes and gasping for breath, the two slowly brought their bodies upright. After a bit Jack managed to get out while still wheezing slightly. “Sorry but neither of us works for your group. If you don’t mind, could you point us to the director? We had some business that we needed to finish with her.”
In between having found them laughing and their stated desire to see the person who was in charge the woman who found them jolted at a thought and turned to run as fast as she was able yelling for help.
Looking in the direction that that she had run off in Jack just asked in a puzzled voice, “Was it something I said?”
It took her a moment, but Charise realized that he was actually puzzled. Which meant he was still not fully recovered. She should have realized as much considering that he had only been out for a few minutes at most, but he had been acting much more cognizant following his short unplanned nap. “We should really try and hurry up finding Mrs. Blue and getting the signatures done on the contract. The sooner we have that over and done with the sooner we have a level of insurance for our safety here.”
“You’re right. Well, that lady was no help...” Jack was nodding along and ready to continue their search when the two of them were interrupted by some of the security guards surrounding them and shouting.
“Drop anything you’re holding and place your hands above your heads where we can see them! Who are you and what do you want with the director?”
The two looked at each other and nodded, their best choice was to comply with the demands. Both of them spread their hands out wide trying to show that they held nothing and they weren’t casting any type of magic. As they did Jack spoke up. “Hey there! We were just looking for her because we need to finish the business that we were doing earlier. I had a bit of an accident and took a bit of an unexpected rest.”
One of the guards sneered at Jack’s words and in a tone of voice matching their face asked, “Really… and just what kind of business would two more escapees like you have with our boss? Planning on trying to take care of her like you lot did our wounded are we?”
Shaking his head Jack replied calmly trying to not accidently provoke the guards into attacking. “Nah, we just need to finalize the contract that we had been setting up. If you don’t believe me, send someone to go ask her yourselves. Just let her know you have Jack Bertrand and Charise… Riverock was it?” He turned toward Charise as he asked for conformation on her last name.
“Close. Riverstone.” She corrected trying to keep her breath even. Glad that Jack’s mind was present enough that even in his current state he was trying to keep things peaceful.
“Right, Jack Bertrand and Charise Riverstone. She knows who we are.” Jack turned back to the guard, correcting his earlier statement.
“How are we supposed to believe their words? I think this is some kind of trick. I bet we send someone off and next thing we know we’ll be coming back to at least one of our group being dead.” The same guard that had sneered at them asked their neighbor, loud enough that both Cherise and Jack could hear them clearly.
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Jack couldn’t help himself. He knew that he shouldn’t as it could easily make things worse but even as he as he had that thought the words were already out of his mouth. “That’s because you are an idiot. Neither my companion or I have any mana at the moment. If we wanted to stir up trouble here, having you send off just one of your group or even, hell, someone wandering past to go grab Madam Blue is probably the least effective way to do it. If we really wanted to cause a scene, we wouldn’t be calmly complying with your demands. Instead, we would have fled when you lot first approached.”
The one who had spoken earlier began to turn red in a combination of embarrassment and anger. Jack continued regardless of the possible consequences. “I mean I can understand vigilance. I’m sure this whole night has been a shitshow, but really. You have a group of two people obviously being calm and doing as you ask. They are letting you know that they had an agreement with your superior that you can easily verify. Yet, here you are choosing to think that the choice of verifying information is a trap. I can’t think of any way to describe you other then as an absolute fucking moron.”
At this point Charise spoke up. “Knock it off, you ass. They are just doing their jobs. You don’t need to be fucking asshole.”
The person’s face got redder and redder as Jack continued to heave words of insult their way. Even as Charise scolded Jack, their breath became heavier and heavier as they slowly lost control of their temper. The same guard that he had spoken to earlier about his concerns noticed that his hands had tightened on the steel rod and he had pulled out a glowing crystal from a pouch on his waist. “Hey. Man, I know he’s being a dick. Take breath and think about it. Relax.”
There was a moment where it looked like the furious guard would ignore what he was being told. Then it passed. The simmering fury in his eyes died down slightly and he slipped the crystal back into the bag it had come out of. “You’re right. Thanks.”
Even as he accepted what his companion had to say there was a level of resentment still clearly evident in his voice. If Jack really wanted to, he could say anything and it would almost certainly set the man off. Seeing this Charise stepped on Jack’s toes and spoke up even as he cried out in pain. “I’m sorry about his behavior. If you could though, please do send someone to let the director know about us. She had said earlier to let her know as soon as this jerk woke up.”
The group surrounding the two glanced at each other before the one who had first called out to them nodded. “Alright, it seems easy enough to check. Who wants to go do the run?”
There was a brief moment of silence before the insulted guard raised a hand. “I’ll go and prove these two as the liars that they are.”
Just as the one who clearly seemed to be in charge of the squad was about to aquacise Jack called out. “Hell no. Anyone but him can go. That dumbass is probably thinking that instead of going and checking in with the director he will just go and find some more of you lot and tell them that you all captured people who were threatening to kill your boss. What? Do you think I’m a fucking moron like he is or something? My name might be Jack but that doesn’t make me an agier bedamned imbecile.”
There was another flash of anger across the man’s face as he screamed out. “That does it. I’m done with you. You’re right. I don’t need to go check with the director for scum like you. I’ll just take care of you right now!”
With that statement he reached back into his pouch. Once more pulling out the crystal he leapt forward. As he shot toward Jack the steel rod began to shimmer and sharpen, going from a heavy metal weapon that would bruise or break bones into one that would shear straight through someone’s flesh.
As the man approached Jack attempted to jump backward to avoid the blow. He had forgotten however that Charise was still standing on one of his feet and promptly went crashing down to the ground. The fall took him out of the range of the blow that had been screaming toward his neck but it put him in a terrible follow-up position as the enraged man stood over him weapon raised.
Jack swiftly rolled to one side, his foot coming free as he did so. At the same time the maddened guard tried to bring the weapon down upon him. He swung it toward Jack’s prone body with all of his might. The weapon began to spark and hum as electricity ran through it.
The weapon hurtled downward, adjusted to compensate for Jack moving along the ground to escape. Just as it was about to slam into him and cleave his head in twain, the arm swinging it down was pushed off to the side. The blade cut a deep gouge into the earth passing right by Jack’s head and shoulder, thrown off just enough to miss him.
Jack tried to continue rolling but was stopped by the legs of the man now standing on top of him. Quickly looking around he attempted to figure out where the best place to go was. Making a decision he sat up and went to dive forward through the guard’s legs.
As Jack was struggling to keep moving so that the blade would not find purchase on his body, the man’s attention was pulled off of him. Charise had moved to shove the man’s arm so that it would miss Jack. Eyes burning in rage the security officer yanked the weapon out of the ground and swung wildly at her.
Stepping back to avoid the strike Charise reached forward and pushed the man’s arm further along the path of his attack forcing him to overreach. As he moved forward slightly in order to not lose his weapon his leg caught on Jack was was attempting to dive through at that very moment.
The guard let out a hoarse shout at he fell forward onto his face, suddenly enough that he was unable to even get his arm under him to help break his fall. He landed face first with a soft thump into the lush grass covering the ground.
It was at this moment that the rest of the security officers had managed to break their stupor. Running forward to restrain everyone and end the fighting they grabbed all three of the people involved and tried to hold them still. All the while shouting for them to stop.
The whole scuffle only took a few seconds. As Jack lay there pinned on the ground by three people the only thing he could think of, was that he really needed to work on not letting his mouth get away from him.
Charise, Jack and the guard who’s name the two did not know all were pulled apart. There was a small whispered conversation that Jack couldn’t overhear and one of the security staff ran off.
The person that Jack was fairly certain was the highest-ranking guard walked into the middle of where the three were being held and spoke loudly. “I have sent someone else to go double check with the director. We’ll have confirmation soon enough on whether you two were telling the truth or not. Now then… Kenisten what am I to do with you?”