I made it to ground level, without being noticed. I was satisfied, but that was short-lived. Fifty Soldiers surrounded hundreds of men and women, wearing dirtied denim, and fatigued shirts.

A few of them had cybernetics, but not the advanced kind. The ones they had were simply made to assist an amputee. Sad I thought, watching an old man sitting on the ground because his cybernetics stopped functioning. Is this really how they came into The Waste? They could’ve kept themselves in the city.

The rippling effect of sound waves fluttered towards me warlike and brisk. I turned a corner within the building, hiding behind an old concrete slab tilted to the side beneath a broken staircase.

Eight men flooded through the door like ants, as if they were on a mission to ensure their colony’s survival, which left me annoyed. What the hell is this now?

“Keep it down,” The leader said quietly, then spoke with his hands, telling them to watch their steps. The men hand white cloth tied around their arms which left me confused.

I took note that they weren’t eight men, but fifteen after more of them came flooding through. “I’ll ask all of you more. Did anyone of you kill those guards?” The leader asked. They all shook their heads, answering his question but the leader held a tempered gaze in this very dark spot as if he could see in the night.

“Groni,” He said sharply, despite it being a whisper.

“Foreman.” The man said coldly. “It wasn’t me. I told you…I was looking for Jez and Frad!” Groni spat.

“Keep your voice down.” The leader said, tone sharp as a knife. “Do you want to see us slaughtered?” The two stared at each other, having a mental battle it was interesting to see, two innocent men, fight each other over something they couldn’t prove.

Until their leader’s eyes drifted towards me.

I slipped my hand in front of my lips, telling him to sshh. My submachine gun was trained on his men, and he complied with a blink. “Foreman?” a man asked, confused by his surprised expression. “You have two options here,” I said coldly. “I can take all of you down…or you can help me.

Groni the biggest of them all, jumped towards me, but I shifted out of way, leaving my foot extended, tripping him in the process. I fired two shots at the ground, halting anyone from approaching, then knelt into Groni’s neck. “Big mistake Groni.” I said coldly “big mistake.”

“I’m here to help, if I wanted you dead, I would’ve laid fire the minute you walked in here, can’t you tell?” I said, keeping my submachine gun trained on the fifteen men.

“I’m not here for either of you, I’m here to help, but believing me is up to you now choose. Anyone here wants to die before seeing their family?”?

“No one wants to die in this godforsaken place stranger.” The foreman said cutting off his men before they uttered something stupid. …good…he’s smart. “Good,” I said, pressing my knee further into Groni’s neck. “Careful their lad, you look fidgety,” I said, allowing my eyes to drift towards the closest man to me.

“What do you want?” The foreman asked, calmly.

“Help.”

“Help?”

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“Yes…I need help breaking into the armoury.”

“Why?”

“Why else? How are your men to fight back against Rikor’s men without weapons?”

The entire posse eyed me with confused faces. It was as if they were sure not to trust me. I understood why they were sceptical. Rikor treated them like shit by the looks of them.

To control an animal a thinking animal such as a man, you to show who had power...and who didn’t. He was in control and dictated the terms of power in the camp.

I on the other hand, still had my submachine gun still trained on them, ensuring they knew I was in control here, but I wasn’t Rikor, despite the submachine gun. “I’m not one of Rikor’s men.” I said gruffly, “I’m Elhisia’s man, I’ve been shadowing her ever since The Broken Sphere.”

“Elhisia’s man?” A man scoffed.

“Quiet!” The foreman said. It was a whisper, but I could hear the bark in his tone. Some of these men aren’t fans of the heiress. Again. That's understandable. But shortsighted. However, this ‘foreman’ is a true leader…good. It might not be a loss.

I took my cybernetic hand off the submachine gun, then removed the newly taken comm from my earbud. I tossed it at the foreman who caught it perfectly in the dark, strange. “You have cybernetic eyes,” I said.

“Yes…lost them in a factory accident.” He replied. “So that’s how you guided your men through this desolate place so easily.”

“What am I supposed to do with this?” He asked. I tapped my ear and watched his surprise paint itself across his face. “Don’t worry, I muted it, they won’t be able to hear you.”

“You took this from one of Rikor’s men?”

“Yes.”

“You aren’t with Rikor?”

“I told you...I’ve been working for Elhisia since she was “kidnapped” from Broken Sphere.”

The foreman went silent, eyeing his men. I could see the hesitation in them, but I needed help getting to the armoury because working alone in hostile territory could only get me so far. This was a golden opportunity. An opportunity to make things a lot smoother than anything I'd experienced in the last eight hours.

I relieved my knee from Groni’s throat and heard the relief flood through his lungs with a loud gasp. I placed my submachine gun next to his temple and quelled what further rebellion he could have in his mind.

“...decide foreman,” I said coldly. “I don’t think Elhisia or the Old man would come to new terms unless Elhisia is successful in what she’s doing.”

“...and what in the Imbibe’s is that!?” Groni snarled next to me. I pressed my submachine gun into his temple. “Keep it down Groni...we don’t need to be discovered, not yet anyway.”

I turned to the foreman, whose eyes had a grey glimmer emanating from my night vision. It was as if his eyes had no soul and the only way form of humanity I could gauge, was from his robotic expressions as I eyed him pensively. “she’s wrestling the company from her father.” I said, “didn’t you know, why else would she send yall here?”

“Sent? We had no choice but to come here. It was here...or die!” Another said.

The Foreman turned to that man and silenced him with his gaze, then turned back to me. “...I’m sure you thought of the consequences before protesting!” I said, firmly “your resolve has gotten you this far...let’s see how further it can get you. I’m still waiting on your answer foreman” I said, eyeing each of them.

“Let’s go.” He said, walking in the opposing direction.

“no...not you, Groni. He seems to understand the predicament first hand.”

“Groni will lead my men, and await my signal, are you sure you can take out Rikor’s men before they come?”

“They won’t be many men guarding the Armory” I answered. I felt like time was getting away. “Fine.” I said, “let’s go. Groni, take care of the men”

The foreman sped down the dark pathway as if it was his backyard. He made some turns, that even I struggled with because of my excess weight. Eventually, he brought to me a Y junction split by one building, he made a right, jumped in a window and trotted up to the eighth floor.

The crunching noise of the large tarpaulin flapped vigorously above us. I even forget that it was there, due to my adjusting my cybernetic ear to cancel out the sounds from that specific wavelength.

The camp was four hundred meters in diameter, with dozens of lights, spread across the main camping site. On the left, were eight trailers of varying lengths. I assumed that’s where they store the food and water.

On the right side, the was a more structured tent layout, compared to the rest that was just built haphazardly. They were no fences to separate the tents, but I could sense the invisible line drawn between the two. Closer to me, but still a good fifty meters, was a partitioned section that had a huge cistern attached to three smaller tanks, set up in a filtration system with three smaller tanks.