Mercenaries—the name spoke for itself: Anointed who had abandoned their duty to slay monsters as heroes, choosing instead to attack Monster Gates only when payment was involved. Detective Rhyner hated involving himself with this sort, as their loyalty revolved around cash, yet he had to. The case he was compiling led him to the Wasteland and he needed protection.
“Bad idea going out to the Wasteland during this time,” warned his hired mercenary, the wind blasting into the car through his open window, his voice barely audible over the gusts. Lower half of his face darkened by a 5 o’clock shadow, facial features pinched, gut hanging out from his belt – he seemed an unreliable sort, but sure enough, he was an Anointed mercenary.
“What?” Detective Rhyner screamed from the passenger seat, his hand holding down his fedora, wishing the hairy Anointed would just roll up his window.
“It’s slaver season! Nasty sorts of scumbags are scrambling to fill their stock to make it in time for the slave auction at the bazaar.”
“What did you say?” the detective still couldn’t hear him clearly.
“Hey, as long as you pay me,” the mercenary grunted with a shrug, snorting up a loogie to spit it out, “I’ll be with you all the way. Still, remember what I said.”
The wind whipped at the loogie and turned it around to hit Detective Rhyner square in the face. Wiping off the snot, he grimaced. He hated mercenaries.
***
As soon as Lucian jumped through the Monster Gate, he collapsed. With widened eyes, panic coursing through him, he spun around to face the swirling energies of the gate, its spinning lights dancing upon him and those in his arms. If the gate broke now, they were dead.
Suddenly, the Monster Gate began to spin in reverse, losing its power, spiraling inward as if it were water going down a drain. It had been closed. In Two Tap’s shivering hands were the shattered remnants of the Boss Key. Fear had caused her to move on instinct and shut the gate as soon as they escaped it, crushing the blue spherical key. Relief washed over the others, easing their stuttering hearts.
“Jesus H. Christ,” William rasped in disbelief. “Are we living in the end times?” It only seemed as if tragedy and drastic, dramatic events were taking place—one after the other. He shifted uncomfortably where he was in Lucian’s grasp, unused to having no legs. Penelope came into his view, tucked away in Lucian’s other arm, her body emaciated and lacking color. At that moment, the mercenary felt defeated by life.
Lucian staggered, lowering his burdens—lifeless bodies and all—to the ground. He then sank to his knees, hands gripping the gaping wound in his chest. The monster's razor-sharp beak had pierced through him entirely.
"Was that thing after me…?" he mused aloud, teeth clenched against the pain. Vivid green, vaporizing herbs unexpectedly flashed into lights in his face, prompting a surprised flinch. The magical herbs seeped into his chest, mending his wounds and restoring both his strength and vitality. Two Tap, still trembling from the encounter with the fearsome monster, stood by him, having healed him by instinct.
“Uh, thanks, Two Tap,” he mumbled. His fingers glided across his face, finding it had become smooth. The once-melted mess it was before had been erased, courtesy of Two Tap's healing. It was as if he’d never been poisoned.
The Wastelander girl didn’t respond and instead went to lie next to Dougy’s body on the concrete, bringing out her pipe to smoke more crystal. “D-dougy…!” she stammered, her voice mousy and weak. “Gate closed. N-now D-dougy take Two Tap to eat food…”
"Lucian," William said, catching Lucian’s attention. "Thanks for getting all of us out of there." He fished out his phone from his vest pocket, beginning to flip through apps. “Listen, I’ll still give you your cut as per our contract, don’t you worry about that. If you help me take Penelope back to the city, I’ll double it.”
“I don’t want it,” Lucian denied. “I want Penelope to get a good funeral. She was,” he focused on the withered young woman, “one of a kind.” He felt sorrow bubble up. Such potential wasted. Her future would’ve been something worth witnessing.
Against the backdrop of the crumbled skyline of Old DC in the distance, William nodded resolutely, then shifted his focus to Two Tap, gesturing with a nod toward her. "And her? What're we going to do?"
“I don’t know…”
“Well, I don’t know shit about drugs,” William admitted, shaking his round head. “Maybe we take her back to New DC with us and put her in a shelter?”
Apparently, William didn’t know about shelters. Lucian was from Hellside, where slave trading had been prevalent, and they received a good amount of stock from those so-called “shelters.” Yet, he didn’t know what he would do with her either. He couldn’t afford his own life currently, let alone the life of another person.
Two Tap pushed strands of her dry blond hair behind her ear, her tulip tattoo on full display for Lucian to see on her neck.
From a distant memory, a voice came to his mind, “Madkids never give up! As long as we have each other, no one can stop us!”
“Tulip…” Lucian muttered, remembering that was what Dougy had called his sister when he died, when he had begged for someone to take care of her.
Two Tap turned to Lucian, hearing her name. “Two Tap…?” she murmured, unsure why Lucian was calling her name.
“Shit,” Lucian cursed, unsure if he was making the right call or not. “I’ll take her.”
“She’s really far gone on crystal…” William commented, the thin, baggy-eyed Wastelander girl reflecting in his brown eyes. He wasn’t suggesting that Lucian should abandon her in the street, but there had to be a better way. Neither he nor Lucian were social workers.
Lucian heaved a deep sigh, reminded of Camelia's love for tulips. He couldn't help but see it as fate that he crossed paths with Two Tap. Regardless, Camelia would've wanted him to take her. With another prolonged sigh, he relented to the old memory of his orphan friend. Considering his recent actions that would have brought Camelia to tears, he might as well do something she would've approved of. Two Tap would go with him. To where, he had no idea.
They loaded up into Lucian’s black Chevy and drove back to New DC.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
William lived in the Workers’ Ring, occupying a room in one of the plain gray buildings, equipped with the latest Gatetech computers. Using his tech expertise and contacting people through his network, he delved into Penelope’s information, facilitating the arrangement for her body to be sent to her family.
In the following week, William attended the funeral and offered a heartfelt eulogy, emphasizing Penelope's bravery and competence as an Anointed. Her family, who pitied Penelope at first, began to respect what was being said about the girl they had once looked down upon.
Lucian had three funerals to attend. The first was for Penelope.
The second, he had to go say his final farewells to Gabriel. They laid his friend to rest in a relatively decent gravesite in the Workers’ Ring, where Gabriel's family had relocated. Gabriel’s wife, Maria Flores, struggled to see her kids consistently since she joined the tireless labor force of the Workers’ Ring in their endless toiling, but at least they were safe and no longer in the slums.
At the funeral, Maria took Lucian aside, warning him about a certain “Detective Rhyner” who was investigating him, adding to Lucian’s mounting worries.
One of those worries was the young woman named Tulip, who pronounced her own name as Two Tap. An awkward funeral took place for her brother Dougy, with only Lucian and her in attendance. To make matters worse, Two Tap only smoked Elysium crystal, never uttering a word even as her brother was buried, six feet deep in the graveyard where Gabriel’s body had been placed.
Lucian managed to retrieve his gym bag of monster materials from that Wild Gate—his instincts as an MHS worker had allowed him to secure it during their escape. A part of the payment he received in exchange for the materials went towards Dougy’s funeral. He had been the only one to speak parting words on behalf of Dougy. Two Tap stood silently, her eyes glazed over, lost in the haze of drugs.
Now, they were roommates in his black Chevy—him and Two Tap, always together in the car wherever they went. He couldn’t figure out what to do with her. Being a Wastelander, she technically didn’t belong in New DC. Also, she wouldn’t stop smoking. He drove around with her as if she were a dog he fed.
She hardly ever spoke a word.
However, that soon changed when Lucian was out at a bank in the Workers’ Ring, putting his money into an account he’d opened. When he returned to his Chevy Impala, he was met with the cold, unblinking gaze of Two Tap staring at him through his car window.
“Jesus,” Lucian exclaimed as he got into the driver's seat, “You look scary as hell sometimes. You know that, right?”
“Two Tap needs to go to the fields,” Two Tap grunted, scratching sporadically around her body. Lucian hadn't thought he’d regret buying Two Tap new clothes to replace her chitin armor. Yet, the sight of the angry red scratch marks she had inflicted on herself made him reconsider.
“Damn. You’re tweaking. Listen, we’re going to wean you off that stuff, alright? We go to a dealer now and get a gram of crystal. But that’s going to be it for a while, okay?” Two Tap suddenly tried to bite him. “No, Two Tap! Don’t do that.”
“Fields,” she hissed, “Take Two Tap to the fields!” She began to rage, rocking the driver's seat with kicks, repeatedly shouting over and over again, “Two Tap want to go! Two Tap want to go!”
An hour later, she smoked and evened out. But it didn’t last long before she was staring at Lucian again, like a cannibal wanting to feed.
Lucian cradled his head in his hands, contemplating his current predicament. Though he had some money, he also had a living person with him, a person addicted to Elysium crystal. A long, drawn-out sigh escaped his lips as he stared at his phone. “Her” could make it all better, as she always did. Despite the lies and manipulations that tangled his emotions into a mess, she somehow always managed to bring a sense of ease to Lucian.
His thumb flicked through contacts on his phone but slipped past “Her” by accident and landed on “Melly.” Lucian remembered something about Melly—she had been useful and willing to help the last time he met her. He nodded and dialed her number.
A voice came through his phone, “Hello?”
“Melly, it’s me,” Lucian responded, trying to ignore the stare of death coming from Two Tap, the addiction demon within her rearing its ugly head.
“Lush! I was just thinking about you,” Amelia greeted cheerfully, “Hey, you know how you owe me for the health potion I gave you?”
“Can I accrue more debt?”
“No way. Don’t tell me you need me oh-so-desperately already?”
“I’ll do anything right now for a Cureall, if you got it,” Lucian begged, hoping against the odds. “Cureall” was the term used to describe what was technically named “Panacuris,” a miracle drug like the health potion made from Monster Gate herbs but instead of healing injury, revolved around curing sickness and disease.
“I’m going to own you after this,” Amelia replied, and she was right. Cureall couldn’t be found anywhere in New DC besides the innermost Heart Rings. “Rare” couldn’t begin to describe the medicine’s unavailability.
“You’re not the type.”
“Try me.”
“When you say ‘own’…?”
“I mean, like, you’re going to become my buddy that will hang with me from now on and join in everything that I do.”
“Just get a dog,” Lucian countered with exasperated breath.
“I just got one. His name is Lush,” Amelia retorted.
“Dammit, fine. I’m yours, Melly. When can you get the Cureall?”
“I have one with me. Are you still hanging around the Broken Ring?”
“How the hell do you have a Cureall just lying around like a pair of shoes? Those things cost way too much!” Lucian’s hazel eyes narrowed. “Who are you really?”
“I’m Melly, your new master. Ha ha!”
Amelia arrived in a short time wearing a sports bra and overalls, one strap hanging loosely, along with a hat-sunglasses combo that accentuated her casual yet stylish look. She opened Lucian’s car door to find Two Tap on top of him.
“Whoa,” she gawked, “I didn’t think you were the type for the casual hanky panky…” She was about to turn around and leave when Lucian called out to her.
“She’s attacking me! Help!” Lucian shouted, using a forearm as a shield to block Two Tap’s bites.
Amelia was able to pin Two Tap’s arms back and keep the Wastelander girl from leaping onto Lucian again.
“Thanks,” Lucian breathed out gratefully, “Where’s the Cureall?”
"Right pocket," Amelia answered, holding firm onto Two Tap, who was trying to escape like a wild animal that’d been caught. Lucian reached for her pocket when Amelia murmured, almost inaudibly, “He’s so much better looking than Marcus too…”
Lucian threw her a confused glance but kept focused, pulling out the Cureall, a white pill that looked like an elongated pearl. Without hesitation, he shot the medicine into Two Tap’s mouth as she tried to bite him again. In a matter of seconds, Two Tap calmed down. In the next few moments, she curled up into a ball in the backseat, her face stricken with grief. Tears began to stream from her eyes without end, accompanied by soft sobs.
Her addiction, its effects and presence, all but erased – the miracle of Cureall. That was why the medicine was hard to find. No matter what disease, Cureall could cure it.
“What’s wrong with her?” Amelia whispered, climbing into the passenger seat.
“Her brother just died in a Monster Gate, and she couldn’t heal him on time,” Lucian answered, his eyes sympathetic. “She tried to hide from the pain in Elysium.”
“Why didn’t you let her?”
“What would her brother have meant if, in death, his sister simply ignored it by covering it up with crystal?” Lucian’s gaze remained on the ball Two Tap had become, remembering Dougy dying on his knees, still looking for a way to save his sister, “He begged for anyone to take care of his sister right before he died.”
“And you were the one?”
“It’s because I’m a Madkid,” Lucian sighed, leaning back heavily against the driver seat, his words confusing to Melly. He always felt compelled to do right when it came to his friend, Camelia’s teachings. Being the one who took her words to heart the most, he got into a lot of trouble back in Gladkid because he wouldn’t stop taking on the struggles of others. He nearly died from overexertion in taking on a part of Elina’s workload in the sweatshop.
Two Tap’s anguish continued in Lucian’s rearview mirror. Doubt gnawed at him. Had he done the right thing in curing her addiction? He was only following what he felt Camelia would’ve done.
“So, we’re a team now,” Amelia announced with a wide smile, her freckles spreading on her face.
“…You were serious about us hanging out?” Lucian asked.
“Of course!”
Amelia watched as Lucian looked off into the distance with chagrin. She was sure of it. Lucian was the right one to replace Marcus. Her bright green eyes fell upon Two Tap, and she felt a sense of trust and admiration toward Lucian for taking care of someone like her just because of a dying man’s wish.
Elina needed a kind man like him.