The night intervals to a bright night sky. The moon hangs light beneath the ground, a sight not often seen by either living in a city, light pollution is a mask over the moonlight. Hideki was searching for an opening, a moment in time where the people inside the shanty would come out to make a delivery. His patience is fruitful the moment three men carrying cargo marked as ‘Apples’ step out.
Loading the crates into the back of the pickup Hideki pays attention, seeing if there’s any information he can spot to help out. Kazue could careless, she fiddles with her fingernails, spending time seeing that the black hue she went with today didn’t chip.
“This is taking too long, we only got, two days left, right? We should hurry this little side mission of yours up.” She speaks in hush.
“Don’t worry yourself, looks like we got an opening in the next minute. Are you ready?” he asks.
The truck is filled with the last crate and the passengers board. Two in the front and one in the back on top of a crate, is that legal in this time? They both wondered as the old rust bucket patters off on the verge of an engine failure.
“Yeah, guess I am.” She answers.
“I estimate we have plenty of time, an hour or so. These deliveries aren’t the fastest thing.” Sneaking to the door he checks the building one more time. There is no entrance other then a broken window, glass shards fresh on the seal, safest bet is the front. There is unlikely to be anyone in there, or at the least, one person? Hideki gathers his breathe hoping this is the right decision letting the door open.
The inside is no better looking, in fact it’s cluttered and stunted like a warehouse with chemistry sets, so appears the large boiler sat in the middle, the factory efficient contraption. The lid was open and a fire brews inside. This sets Hideki off and he notices that there is one person left, a man who was taking a break in a rickety chair. His eyes closed and his mouth agape, he settled down for a nap, hands tied onto his big belly. Surely, this guy wouldn’t be a problem even if he were awake.
“Look at that man, he’s sickening, close your mouth.” Kazue keeps her voice low.
“We have a free ticket to find the shine, come on, look around with me, and don’t trip while you do you klutz.”
“I’m not a klutz!” she pouts. She knew she was, she just hated hearing him say it.
They go separate directions rummaging through the crates that were open, most held empty bottles and debris from the falling of the roofs droppings. Disgusting, thought Kazue, Hideki indifferent as always went to the next and next until something came up. A bottle half-full, someone was drinking from it.
“Psst, Kazue.” He shakes the bottle swishing what’s inside.
“Good, let’s get out of here, this place is fit for a rat.” Strutting herself in a silent step they met side by side. There is a strange scent in this place, it leads her eyes to a map on the corner of a grime covered wall. It seems to be like any other map at first, but there is one thing she noticed on the far corner of the upper right of it.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Uh, weren’t we supposed to be in New York? Why does that map say Chicago?” she says.
“What? Chicago?” following her pointed finger, he sees the truth.
“C-chicago!? What the hell, why did she send us back here that’s too far from New York!” The fear set into him and it spread to her. This was a huge problem, and with no way to contact HQ would have to be something they have to overcome. There is a hint of Kazue that wants to curse her for doing this, in this time it’ll be nearly impossible to get there in the next three days, cars didn’t travel as fast and planes were in their infancy, all roads lead to a terrible tardiness.
“Chicago, Chicago. There’s got to be a reason that we’re not seeing, she’s not that careless.”
“Maybe she just hates us that much and wants us to fail that badly.” Sighs Kazue.
“No, no, you can’t forget that our mess ups look bad on her record too and can lead to her own firing. There’s definitely something more to this.” Them being lost in their thoughts, they hadn’t noticed the grunting of the man in the chair. He was waking up. A creaking of the floorboards of the rickety house, it made them realize when one shifted at them, both their heads turning and gasps.
“Let’s get out of here!” Hideki and Kazue shuffle out the door, bottle in hand to afid being detected. The man goes throughout the house, aimless and really makes them wonder if this moonshine is a brain killer. Sure, most alcohol is, but this one seems to have a strong effect, one that almost rips away reason beyond the basic mother function of a tipsy tumble.
“This stuff is bonkers!” Kazue sees Hideki open the bottle, starting to sniff it. “What are you doing!? That stuff is going to run right through you! That and probably cause a genocide in your brain, just look at that lumber Neanderthal in there.”
The bottle has a fume of gas, blueberries, bleach, and old tomato. There is no way of telling if those were the ingredients, but it’s all he could smell as it made his head woozy.
“Oh, I feel like I’m going to hurl up my protein filled lunch.”
“You don’t need to specify that, I already know you’re a meathead.” She scoffs.
“I hate you sometimes. Anyway, this is pure vomit. I can’t imagine anyone drinking this, much less ordering a whole ton of it.” A gutter rain water such as this was setting alarms off in his head. To which avail, he hasn’t figured out yet, but he plans to take this information and bottle with him as he actives his remote and points it at the ground, a duffel bag appears to which he shoves the bottle in.
“Yet we’re keeping it, sure, sure, logical man you are.”
“You know why I’m keeping this. Anyway. We have to figure out why we’re in Chicago and fast. If we don’t, we won’t have enough time to make it to New York so let’s get going.” He puffs his chest ready to move.
“Yeah, one problem with that. Where!?”
“I’m not that dense, I read the map and remembered it. Five miles that way we’ll hit the city, got any other smart remarks to make before we head out?”
“Gods I hate your academic brain, makes you less fun, if only we had time to explore more. Bleh, let’s gooooo.” She says in a soft defeated voice.
“Careful, don’t let him see you while you pass by the window, I would prefer not to stun anyone else because of you.” He treks forward.
“Hush! It was an accident that time for real.” She mumbles. The time where she stumped right over a carpet while replacing a jewel of a king in the medieval period. A guard caught them, yelled at them, went to ready his sword and zap, he was turned into frozen shocked meat.
She takes care to swoop under the window as the two get out of sight away from the drunk man’s prying eyes.
“No accidents this time, let’s find all this out and get the mission done.”