"That's yours now. I'll be seeing you in awhile I hope"

The man smiled at me with a chilling grin. there was no backing out anymore

"That dagger now officially belongs to you. Use it as you see fit, but make sure you take good care of it"

Just as I was about to retort a new person came up next to us

"Excuse me sir. May I have a word?"

Turning towards the person I saw a six foot tall man with tan brown skin and long locks of black hair that were as thick as fingers almost covering his entire face except for his right green eye

He bowed slightly towards the man I had just made a deal with before turning back to us

"Could you please give us sometime buyers. I would like to talk to the leader for a few minutes to discuss business agendas"

"Leader?!"

"Do you mean this man right here is the leader of your merchant party?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, the very man I just made a deal with was the man that owned everyone and everything around us

"That is indeed true. This man is our leader"

Turning towards the mysterious man I was so shocked I started talking without a filter letting my true thoughts out

"If your the boss what are you doing selling this stuff?"

"I've got to entertain myself somehow. This is at least better than sitting around in an office, don't you think?"

'You'd prefer to be out here in a dangerous place than be in a safe area knowing nothing can hurt you? He's really insane'

"If you'd excuse us"

Standing up his merchandise and laid out items all flew up into the storage cube in his hand before he walked off with the other man and started what seemed to be a very important conversation

"You idiot!"

I felt a sharp pain slam into the back of my head as I almost completely fell forwards, luckily I caught myself and regained my balance before anything worse happened

"Why would you make a deal with him over a stupid dagger!?"

I turned to her. She looked like she was about to breakdown

'Was it really that much of a stupid thing to do? Should I have not done it? Should I have reconsidered it? Why am I so dumb? Why did I make her this worried about me?'

My mind was in turmoil, my thoughts were everywhere and I couldn't organize them

All I could do was softly mutter out her name as I reached out to wipe the tears that hadn't fallen down yet

"Charlotte"

"Ctshh"

My hand was thrown to the side by her slap

"Don't touch me. You ignored me, I warned you and you didn't listen to me"

Before I could do anything she was walking off far out of reach

'Was this all my fault? Why did I do this?'

I looked down at my new weapon, I felt the rough handle and looked at the daggers sharp blade

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I talked so quietly I could barely hear myself

"Is this really worth it? Should I have not even looked at this stupid thing?"

My emotions started to get out of control as I kept staring at the very thing I had risked so much for

"Phewww"

'Calm. Tranquil. Calm. Tranquil. Calm.'

I kept repeating the words like a mantra as my emotions slowly died down leaving me standing there calmly

I had finally calmed down, I had nothing rampaging out of control and I no longer was in conflict with myself

'What should I do now?'

I was confused. Lost. I had become peaceful and calculative but I had nothing to think about, nothing to ponder or try to understand

I was hyper focused without anything to focus on

So I did the one thing that made sense. The one thing I was most used to

I walked into the base and grabbed all of my scavenging equipment, everything I would

need

I grabbed my small satchel and tied it around my waist, checking if everything I needed was in there

'Water skin, jerky, tablet, small dagger, bandages, all essentials are check'

After gathering everything I needed I left the base and went into the city to search for parts and anything else that could get me a better income and make me richer

I had to have enough to support myself. I could only rely on myself in this world after all

...

As I was passing through the backstreets I reached into my satchel and pulled out a half mask that only covered my mouth and nose leaving my eyes exposed to the elements, I tightly secured it and made sure the filters were attached properly before proceeding into one of the dilapidated parts of the city

I pulled out a tablet after I entered a large warehouse, it was one of the items

invented by the geniuses at the base, it took me months of saving to buy it but it was definitely worth it

I turned it on and extended its small antenna as the screen switched to a radar format allowing me to see most mutated creature within a fifty meter radius preventing most unexpected events from happening leading to my death

As I was walking through the warehouse I made sure to keep the tablet in my left hand

Coming around a corner I stumbled upon a mass of machinery that had collapsed in on itself resulting in a large pile of rusted metal

'And here be treasure'

Crouching down I placed the tablet next to me freeing up my left hand so I could pick up and throw the rusted metal sheets out of the way, I dug my way through the broken pieces and useless scraps

I carefully maneuvered my hands around the sharp parts with the most rust making sure I wouldn't harm myself with any lingering viruses

"Creakk, Cashhh"

Small metal parts broke off as I continued my dig through the useless parts of machinery

A shining fresh part of metal caught my eye, it didn't look as rusted or damaged as all the other parts in the pile, it looked much fresher

Reaching into the pile I pulled out a medium sized piece that resembled a gear as it was spherical with ridges on the side

I had no clue what it did but my gut that I had honed for years told me that it was definitely worth quite a bit

Tossing it up in my hand I caught it and put it into my satchel before I began digging through the pile again causing dust to start floating up obscuring my vision

"Ah"

My eyes hurt from the dust that floated into my eyes causing me to back away and start rubbing them

"Eep. beep"

Flinching I quickly cast my gaze down at the tablet

There was a single red dot moving towards the center

There was a mutant heading right for me, luckily it wasn't traveling too fast to cause any extreme danger

I quickly picked up everything that was small and might be of value before quickly grabbing the tablet and checking the red dot which was a couple meters away from me

Glancing around the room I looked for a place I could potentially hide to avoid coming face to face with a creature I probably couldn't out run

"Beep. Beep"

The dot was getting closer and I was running out of time to hide

At least that was until I spotted a broken, rusted and barely functional cat walk that led to the second floor of the warehouse

I quickly sprinted towards it while avoiding the large and small piles of rubble that had built up on the old and dirty floor

While I was darting back and forth I shoved the tablet into my leather satchel

After darting around the different piles of rocks and rebar I jumped up onto the rusted catwalk that had fallen into a vertical position almost like a ramp

I slammed into the metal causing it to bend before I started pulling myself up using the railings

I was almost halfway up the railing when I heard a large sound pierce through the creaking and warping of the old metal

"Reeaaa"

Turning around I saw a large rat making its way into the warehouse, it was as big as a regular dog but it had sharp spines protruding from its back as it bent over sniffing the ground moving carefully

"You're still following me! Do you ever give up?"

It suddenly came to a stop and looked up locking eyes with me

For a few minutes neither of us moved, we were locked in a stand off and neither of us were brave enough to be the first to move

"Arrruuaaa. Craaaa"

The walkway creaked and collapsed further causing my footing to slip and me to almost fall down a couple meters to the ground

This caused the rat to make his move as well

It started sprinting towards me as fast as it possibly could as I quickly regained my grasp on the railings

I let one of them go and started hoisting myself up using a single one instead of clinging onto both of them uselessly

I desperately pulled myself up with every ounce of strength I could muster, I had to escape from this monster or I'd die