The light fills Jorge’s eyes as he wakes up. He looks around and finds himself being hit by the bright rays of the desert sun as he is on the streets of the desert capital. This confuses Jorge, thinking that the last thing he remembers he was down in an underground civilization he and the lads discovered after falling through the sands.

He doesn’t think much of it, assuming it was a dream he had after a drunken bender that found him ending up in the streets. He reaches for his bag to drink some more, but he doesn’t find it there.

This doesn’t bother Jorge much; he gets on his feet and heads back towards his home to satiate his need for a drink. When he gets home and opens his cupboards he finds them bare. The sight shocks him, expecting them to be fully stocked with bottles of different types of liquor.

“What the hell? Who took all of my drink?” He asks himself as he takes a second look, thinking he might be hallucinating. He storms off towards the citadel, planning to report this theft to his superiors to find the culprit that mercilessly took the one thing he loved from him.

As Jorge walks inside the citadel he sees Xander sitting alone at one of the tables. The kid doesn’t come around here much, Jorge thinks to himself before joining him.

“It’s good to see a familiar face lad,” Jorge comments as he sits down.

Xander looks up at him lifelessly; barely realizing someone had just joined him.

“Ya okay lad?” Jorge asks him, trying to get his attention. Xander’s eyes finally register the one who sat down with him is Jorge.

“Yeah,” he responds in a dull tone.

“Look alive lad, someone has stolen my stache, all of my alcohol has gone missing. Ya willing to help me get it back?” Jorge tries to recruit Xander thinking that will help put some life back into him.

All he gets is a confused look in return.

“What are you talking about Jorge? Of course, you don’t have any alcohol, it was banned,” Xander gives Jorge a puzzled look, not sure how he could have forgotten that very major detail.

“I’m sorry what now?” Jorge gets scared, unable to believe such a thing has happened and how he could have forgotten it if it did.

“Alcohol is prohibited, the women of the desert got together and passed a law that banned the consumption of alcohol. Apparently, they were tired of how we were treating them or something,” Xander tries to catch Jorge up on everything.

“And how do I not remember all of this?” Jorge asks him, his story not adding up.

“Because you were unconscious due to withdrawal for so long. We thought you were going to die, but it looks like you ended up okay,” Xander notes, Jorge being on his feet again.

“I’m not okay lad,” Jorge tells him as he shows Xander his hands that have been shaking since he woke up.

“Well, that su…” Xander stops his head darting to the side.

“What is going on?” Jorge asks, confused by his sudden movement.

Xander whispers back to him, “We can’t talk Gwendolyn is here”. Jorge turns around and sees Gwendolyn striding towards the two of them.

She stands tall over the two of them as she extends Jorge the slightest curtsey of greeting him, “Hello Jorge, how do you do?”

Jorge looks up at the woman who is almost sneering at him and responds, “To be frank kind of shitty”.

“Serves you right, you buffoon. Xander! Let’s get out of here,” Gwendolyn sternly orders after rubbing it in.

Xander hopelessly gets up and follows his wife a miserable and frightened look on his face as he does so. Jorge gets up from the table after he watches the two of them exit through the front doors, overhearing Gwendolyn berate Xander for merely associating with Jorge.

He heads to the back room and finds both Kayde and Drakthar standing back there.

“Hey lads, ya know anything about this alcohol ban, and why Gwendolyn was so harsh to me earlier?” Jorge greets the two of them.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You really don’t know? Alcohol was banned months ago. The women all worked together to get it done. Gwendolyn was one of the ones that spearheaded the whole thing. How can you not remember when you and she would fight over it all of the time, back when she was trying to get it enacted,” Kayde tries to remind him, thinking he was already well aware.

Jorge can only think to himself what in the world is going on here. This wasn’t anything like he remembered… he should be able to remember these things if they were true.

“Gwendolyn’s been treating him badly for while now,” Drakthar notes, worried about his closest friend.

“All the women have been different since the ban. It’s like they are all power-hungry after things started going their way,” Kayde chimes in.

“Your women as well, lads?” Jorge asks, not getting the controlling vibe from either Kali or Lunette before.

“Yeah, they all banded together, we didn’t stand a chance,” Kayde admits.

As Jorge starts to further question why he doesn’t remember any of this Kayde leans forward and whispers to him, “Listen, Jorge, there are places we can go. Gentlemen like us can go there to get some of what we need if you know what I mean”.

Jorge’s interest is piqued, looking for anything that can take the edge off right now.

“Meet us at this address in one hour,” Kayde slips him a piece of paper before he and Drakthar walk out of the room inconspicuously.

Jorge waits around, trembling in the back room of the citadel, as his symptoms get worse. The only thing that gets him through this is the thought of getting a drink with Drakthar and Kayde in an hour.

Once it is time, he stumbles his way to the location Kayde told him about. He knocks on the door and a slit slides open, a set of eyes examining who is there. The one behind it sees that it is only Jorge and opens up.

They share a nod before Jorge heads downstairs. Underneath the house Jorge finds a sanctuary it’s a bar, men lining the edges of it including Drakthar, Kayde, and Xander, who is sporting a new bruise under his eye.

“It’s good to see you again lads, but more importantly barkeep, your finest whiskey,” Jorge greets all of them. The man behind the bar starts to pour Jorge a glass, drawing Jorge’s anxious eyes towards it. He watches as every drop falls into the glass, the sweet smell of it filling the air immediately around it.

Just as the man hands Jorge the glass a loud crash is heard behind them. Suddenly a group of mostly women storm into the basement and start to arrest the patrons. Jorge finds himself slammed against the counter right before he can down the glass of nirvana that he was so looking forward to.

Jorge can only look to the side, his head forced so it is flat against the bar as he is handcuffed. He watches as Xander’s head is smashed against the counter right next to him as Gwendolyn handcuffs him herself.

Jorge is pushed into line and led out of the basement with everyone else.

“How did you guys find this place anyway?” Kayde asks as he walks up the stairs. Lunette joyfully pulls a mechanism out of her pocket and it is beeping rapidly.

“I created this device that can detect alcohol, it was too easy catching you miscreants,” she explains in an almost joking way.

As they get out the door, Jorge collapses not able to keep going like this anymore. When he wakes up he finds himself in a cell, his hands no longer bound.

He slams on the bars screaming, “Let me out of here! You can’t do this to me!” The lack of alcohol now causing him physical pain.

His screams cause Gwendolyn to enter the room; she is accompanied by a battered Xander. She opens up the cell and throws him inside of it.

Gwendolyn glares down at Jorge before threatening him, “Go ahead, keep yelling like that. That is if you want to end up like my good for nothing husband”.

Jorge looks down at Xander, his bruises numerous, the pain at a point that he can barely stand anymore. This causes Jorge to use his better judgment and stay quiet.

“That’s what I thought,” Gwendolyn declares confidently before turning her back on them and strutting out of the room.

“What happened?” Jorge asks Xander who is on the ground, wincing from the pain.

“He tried to warp out, but he got caught,” Kayde explains from the cell over.

“Poor lad,” Jorge comments as he looks down at the beaten man on the floor.

It is then that Xander looks at the three of them, Jorge, Kayde, and Drakthar, who are in the next cell over. His eyes travel up to the window and then back at the group of them. Drakthar, who has a telepathic link to Xander at this point reaches out his arm for Kayde and Jorge to grab onto it. They do so and Xander nods.

Xander warps them out of there, switching them with a blade of grass outside the cell window. Once they are outside the three of them run into the city… desperately trying to slip away from those who start to pursue them.

They make it deep into the city, hiding out in an alleyway until things settle down.

“We need to leave this place, maybe Melusarej, it isn’t technically part of the desert so they should still sell alcohol there,” Kayde suggests, whispering softly so no one discovers them.

Under the cover of night, the three of them exit the city, making their way to the port city of Melusarej. When they arrive they head directly to O’Malley’s tavern. They find O’Malley inside packing up an abandoned tavern.

“What is going on? You’re closing down?” Kayde asks, confused as to why he would be shutting down his successful shop.

“Yeah, the desert ban extended to here, even I’m affected by it now. But don’t worry friends I plan on traveling to the Sacrosanct Empire and continuing my business there… would you like to join me?” He asks all of them, knowing they will probably need the drink just as much as he needs the income from selling it.

Jorge takes a hold of his hand, shaking it as he agrees, “Let’s travel there together, to a land where there is alcohol”. The three of them and O’Malley find themselves on a boat headed towards the Sacrosanct Empire, the one place left in the world where a man can find a drink.