Chpt. 18) The next town over

Ford’s dream was restless. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, her heart beating heavily in her chest. Then Wrath came into her view, her eyes blank and lifeless. Wrath walked up to her and plunged her hand into Ford’s chest. Ford couldn’t scream, couldn’t do anything, as Wrath pulled and tugged. Ripping out Ford’s heart and slowly beginning to eat it, she felt each bite in her still-beating heart till Wrath finished eating. She no longer felt her heart beating in her chest, no longer feeling the familiar badum badum in her chest; she felt…empty.

Wrath leaned in, blood dripping down her chin, and whispered, “I’m in control now.”

Ford woke with a start, sweat pouring down her face and back as she breathed heavily. Then she heard a tapping on her tent, and Lilly spoke, “Oi, Ford. Ye awake?”

“Yeah,” she said, still breathing heavily. A notification appeared in her vision. Natural skill acquired. Skill: sleep paralysis. ‘Great, I have sleep paralysis as a skill,’ Ford thought.

“Not my fault,” Wrath blurted out.

“It’s time for yer watch, Ford. I’m goin’ back to sleep,” Lilly said.

“Heard that,” Ford answered as she put her boots and fedora on. She exited the tent and saw Lilly duck into her tent, clearly ready to sleep. Ford summoned her versatile launcher MKII and shifted it into a small-caliber sniper rifle with a silencer. Then she mumbled, “Sunny, come on out.” The little sun fly floated out of her left ear as bright as a mini sun, “Turn off the light,” Ford said.

Sunny did so, and she looked more like a firefly as she floated next to Ford. “Fly around the camp at a higher altitude and look out for any danger. If you spot anything, fly down and get as bright as possible.” Sunny flew in a circle and then shot up into the sky and out of sight. Then Ford began walking around the camp, keeping an eye out for any movement, the campfire had gone out, and there was no moon in the sky, so she relied heavily on her perception to see, and she couldn’t see very far.

After ten minutes of walking in a circle, Ford sat in the middle of the camp and looked at the skill: sleep paralysis. Skill: sleep paralysis; sleep is not as necessary, and you can stay awake for a total of ninety-six hours; if you stay awake for this long, you will have a sleep paralysis nightmare; if you often sleep, sleep paralysis will not take effect.

‘So I can stay awake for four days with no consequences, but doing so will give me nightmares when I do sleep. Interesting,' Ford thought.

“Don’t stay up that long. When you have a nightmare, so do I.”

Ford ignored her and began to hum to herself as she looked up at the stars. One of which was moving in fast, erratic circles in the sky. It took Ford a minute to realize that it was Sunny that she saw flying erratically. She chuckled a little at it and stood back up to continue her patrol around the camp.

An hour passed, and Ford felt insanely bored and decided to experiment with her rifle. If she could make weapons from her world, why not make a weapon from a fictional world. She shifted through the fictional weapons she knew of and settled on a sniper scythe from a show she liked. It formed until it was about to make the scythe’s blade and stopped; it looked like a misshapen sniper instead of a sniper scythe.

Then she tried to make a shotgun gauntlet but only made the shotgun part, and the gauntlet wouldn’t form. Ford sighed and tried one last time to make something. Searching the depths of her mind, she finally came up with something; a big something. The shotgun elongated and widened till it was thirty centimeters wide at the end, four centimeters at the butt, and ten centimeters tall, with blocky circuit-like lines running along the body to the handle. The gun barrel was transparent down the middle and glowed with an eery blue light.

Ford couldn’t help but smile like an idiot on Christmas day as she handled her big gun. She put it away because it felt way too heavy and summoned her six swords as a replacement and practiced with them for a long while. Until she finally got the hang of using them without conscious commands an hour later. The trick was to use her body to direct the swords as if she was fighting hand to hand using taichi, which she learned as a hobby in her younger days…till she got bored and stopped practicing within two weeks. But she remembered the basic steps at least.

Sunny shone brightly overhead, darted down two hundred meters away, and hovered two meters above the ground. Ford watched and saw two people fall to the dirt hiding in the taller grass, and one dive behind a mosey rock. Ford pulled out her versatile weapon MKI, shifted it into the small-caliber sniper rifle with a silencer, and looked down the scope at the two in the dirt.

She activated the linchpin skill and read their levels and classes. Name: Jax; Class: Knight; level: two. Name: Greg; Class: Knight; level: two. ‘Level two?!’ Ford thought, ‘That’s-’

“Pathetic. Let’s kill them now,” Wrath suggested.

Ford rolled her eyes and looked around the horizon. She could barely see the sun’s light start to come over the horizon, and she said, “No, let’s wake everyone and get ready to move out. Those three aren’t much of a threat, so we will just knock them out.”

“What if they tell somebody?!”

“What? That we’re going north? I’m pretty sure that most people will already know that,” Ford spoke over comms next so everyone could hear, “Hey, time to wake up. We have people heading our way, and it’s almost morning.”

Max’s groggy voice responded first, “Hmm, alright. Do you need help with them?”

“No, they’re level two, and I don’t know what level the third person is. I should be fine, though.”

“We’ll provide some overwatch just in case,” one of the Twins said.

“Heard, thanks,” Ford said as she de-summoned the MKI and her swords, then summoned the MKII as she made her way to the three children.

***

Once she made it to the light Sunny made, she stood in the very center of the three children. One of the kids lying on the ground had Ginger hair, and the other blonde. They both had their hands over their heads and eyes down as if they thought that if they couldn’t see Ford, Ford couldn’t see them. Then she looked at the large rock to her right and saw a patch of charcoal-colored hair peeking out behind it; Ford used linchpin again and read the level and class. Name: Cole; Class: Knight; level: three. ‘Well, at least they aren’t all level two.’

“Still weak, though.”

Ford turned and walked out of the ring of light for five paces, turned again, and aimed her Big gun at the group’s center, “Let’s see if this works,” Ford mumbled.

“If it does, you’ll kill them. I thought you said no killing.”

“That was then. This is now,” She mumbled in response, then fired a shot at the group. A ball of mana launched out of the end of the barrel like a grenade hit the ground a meter away and shattered like a water balloon, doing nothing. “Aww, it doesn’t work,” Ford said, disappointed, and shifted the gun into a ranger shotgun. She walked back to the center and spoke, “Alright, listen up. Cole, Greg, and Jax with an ex, you three are about as stealthy as the sun and not as bright. So, why don’t you three go home already and save everyone some trouble.”

Once she finished, the three of them shot up and drew their swords as if they got the drop on her. “How do you know our names,” the blond kid said.

Ford looked into his brown eyes and saw that he was Jax, “I have a skill that allows me to do that. Now, seriously go home.”

“Not till we kill you,” the Ginger kid said.

Ford looked into his blue eyes and saw he was Greg, “You will have to try very hard to accomplish that. Good luck, though.”

“What makes you so confident you can win!?” Cole yelled from behind her.

Ford chuckled and de-summoned her MKII and drew her Willful dagger, “Come and find out.”

When she said this, she felt a knife enter the side of her throat then cut, severing her jugular veins and windpipe. Ford doubled over and coughed up blood. “Do you need help?” one of the Twins asked over comms.

Ford looked at the person who stabbed her; there had been a fourth person who she didn’t see. Name: Jackson; Class: Spy; level: ten. “No, I’m good,” Ford answered over comms and pretended to be still bleeding and dying as she dropped to her knees.

“I expected this to be more difficult,” Jackson said, in a condescending tone, “I guess we’re both disappointed.”

That hit a button in Ford’s mind, and she stood, “Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint you,” she said as she got the first good look at Jackson. He was older than the other three by a year at least, he wore a black cloak, and he had no hair on his head. He whorled on Ford, his green eyes wide with shock.

“How did you survive? I severed your jugular and windpipe. There is no way you could have survived without a healer right next to you,” Jackson exclaimed.

“Who said I couldn’t survive something like that?” Ford retorted, then she felt a sword run her through on her left side, piercing her heart and lung. She coughed up more blood and turned to look Cole in his pale and spotted face. “I was talking,” she said, coughing up more blood.

She activated, embracing pain, and grabbed the sword blade in front of her; ten seconds. She snapped it in half, reached behind, and pulled the sword out; nine seconds. She then through the two halves of the blade as far and hard as she could, sending them flying into the distance; eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.

Cole stumbled backward and tripped on a clump of grass. He looked at Ford in absolute horror. “Fine,” Ford said, “Let’s do it your way.” She summoned her swords instantly and swung her dagger down in a slash at Jackson. Six swords came down and broke the blades the other two held, and the dagger gave Jackson a nasty cut down the right side of his face.

He screamed and stumbled backward; Greg and Jax dropped the hilts of their swords and ran; Cole stood and followed soon after. Jackson held the gash on his face staring at Ford with a murderous rage. He pointed his dagger at her and said, “This-this isn’t over. When my father hears about this, he’ll-”

Ford cut him off by activating her essence enforcement, grabbing him by the collar and pinning him against a rock. She stared him down with her hair dancing like flames and said, “Your father. You sound rich. Very rich. I’m going to assume that your Father lives in a town close by?” Jackson said nothing and stuck his chin out in defiance. Ford grew impatient and placed the tip of her dagger on his brachial plexus, just above his collar bone, “I would like an answer to my question,” she said and applied pressure to his nerves, “Is there a town close by?”

Jackson began to scream and said, “YES! THERE IS!”

Ford released the pressure, “Good. Which way?”

“West. It’s west.”

She smiled and booped his nose, “See how easy that was,” she said and released him, “You can go now.”

Jackson looked at her dumbfounded, “Wh-why?”

“You’re seriously asking why I’m sparing you?” Ford snapped. Then Jackson realized his mistake and ran west as fast as possible. As he ran, Ford’s linchpin skill activated automatically and highlighted Jackson. ‘Hmm, must be a significant fault or weakness,’ she thought, then went back to the camp with Sunny lighting her way.

***

By the time she made it back to camp, the sun had come over the horizon at seven-thirty, and everyone was up and about, packing up the camp. “So, wha’ did ye find?” Lilly asked as Ford approached.

Ford sighed and sat in the center of camp, “A few kids with fresh shiny Grimoires stumbled upon us on purpose. However, what is important is that there’s a town near here.”

“Well then, let’s go before they come and find us,” Benet said.

“Not so fast,” Ford said, then turned to Ee, “How far is the next dungeon?”

“We traveled twenty-five kilometers between yesterday and the day before; there is about,” Ee did some quick mental math, “five-thousand four-hundred seventy-five kilometers to go. Give or take.”

Ford gaped at her and then continued, “Well, based on that insanely long number, I don’t know about the rest of you. I don’t want to walk that far.”

“What does that have to do with the town?” Gimble asked.

Ford smiled, “Towns mean people. People mean food, horses, and wagons. We get that, and we’ll be just fine.”

“There’s just one problem with your plan Ford,” Max interjected.

“And what’s that.”

“Everyone wants to kill you!” Max said loudly and slowly.

Ford frowned and nodded, “True, but you seem to be forgetting something important.”

“What might that be?”

“Everyone doesn’t want you. Other than me, of course,” Ford said, pointing at her.

Max opened her mouth to argue but stopped as she realized that she didn’t have an argument against it. Then she said, “Fine. You have a point but are you really going to send me in there alone?”

“Of course not,” Ford said, waving a hand, “Benet, Kii, Mizu, and I will go with you.”

Benet raised a hand, “Why is Benet doing this?” He asked.

“Because you’re our stealth assassin affliction expert person.”

“That train got away from you, didn’t it?” Mizu pointed out.

“Yeah, a little bit.”

“Hold on. Hold on. Why are you going?” Max asked Ford, “Aren’t you like the number one target?”

Ford shrugged, “I’m in case shit hits the fan going a hundred and ten, and you need someone to catch it with their face mid-yawn. Don’t worry, though. I can be stealthy.”

“You’re about as stealthy as a Giant,” Morgan countered, then added, “No offense Gimble.”

“No, that’s accurate,” Gimble agreed.

“Hey, I can be stealthy when I want,” Ford defended.

“Not likely. Yer eyes are too unique,” Lilly countered.

Ford thought a second, “True. I do have beautiful eyes.”

“Not the point, but yes,” Max said, “You would stand out, and so would I with this robe,” Max gestured to her red robe.

“Not to mention that there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to stay in contact,” Farah said.

“Not to mention paying for things. Unless we steal everything,” Kii and Mizu added.

Ford rubbed the back of her head in frustration, trying to untangle her ponytail, then finally, she began to counter everything, “Well, we either go to town and get food, a wagon, horses, and clothes. Or we walk to the next dungeon eating disgusting Tortoise and Wolpertinger stew every day while covered in dirt and grime. As for money, I’m sure that the Twins got something from the last dungeon.” After that, everyone was silent, then they relented and got up, ready to go to the nearest town.

***

After a couple of hours of walking, the town came into sight; the only thing she could tell about the town was that it had a massive wall around it. “There it is,” Ford said, pointing it out, “Kii, Mizu, Benet, go around to the right and find a way over the wall. Benet, you’re in charge.”

“Heard,” Benet said as both Twins began complaining.

“Max, you and I will go through the front,” Ford explained, ignoring Kii and Mizu’s complaints.

“Alright,” Max said, “But what are you going to do about your clothes?”

Ford spent a hundred mana to shift her clothes into a black cloak and robes, then turned her hat into a black helmet that didn’t reveal her eyes but that she could still see-through. “Let’s go. We’ll try and get back here by nightfall. If we’re not back by morning, go on without us. Or save us. I’d rather be saved,” Ford said as she got moving.

Kii, Mizu, and Benet ran off to her right while Ford and Max went straight to the town. They made it to the city’s front gates within another two hours. It stood significantly smaller than Banzzap’el’s palisades but still big enough to ward off most invasions. There was a line of people trying to go into the town, at least twenty people. Some had damaged wagons with a meager amount of supplies, and others were in perfect condition with a mountain of supplies.

Max and Ford waited in line as it slowly moved forward, and Ford quickly became impatient, “Isn’t there a line for people to go through? You know, for those of us who don’t have wagons?”

“Nope,” Max said.

“Why not?” Ford complained.

“Because by making us go through only one gate, it becomes easier for guards to check wagons and people. Especially if there’s a manhunt happening.”

Ford froze a second, “So, you’re saying they’re going to check to see if we’re the people they’re hunting?”

“Yup.”

Ford sighed, “Oh, great plan Ford. Thanks, I worked really hard on it. No problem; hey, how are you going to get past the guards and not get caught? Oh, yeah, I forgot about that part,” Ford said to herself.

“Relax,” Max chortled, “so long as no one can identify you, you’ll be fine.” She ran her arm through Ford’s and leaned against her to reinforce what she had just said.

Ford took a deep breath and nodded, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Do more than guess believe I’m right!”

That got Ford laughing, and she said, “Fine, fine. You’re right.”

“See, you’re more optimistic when you laugh.”

“Probably right,” Ford added.

Max slapped Ford in the abs, then shook her hand to relieve some pain, “Your abs are too hard.”

“Nonsense, my abs are beautiful.”

“They’re like Iron,” Max said, feeling them.

“Thanks. They’re natural.”

Max rolled her eyes and said, “I know.”

The banter between them continued until they finally reached the gates, where a guard stopped them. He was clad in light chainmail armor and wielded a spear; he had a bored demeanor and leaned against his spear, propping himself up. “Grimoires, please,” he said, holding out his hand. Max summoned her violate and brown Grimoire, and Ford did the same. The man looked at them and placed a hand on Max’s. “Creation mage, age sixteen, level sixteen. You’re good, miss,” then he put a hand on Ford’s Grimoire. After a second, he raised an eyebrow and asked, more alive than before, “The hell’s a Sin Berserker class?”

Ford shrugged, “It’s a new class, apparently.”

The Guard shrugged, “That’s interesting. Age sixteen, level eighteen. So, you two got a Grimoire less than a week ago, and you’re already in the high teens, and you’re an antarcticite. How did you two get that high? And what are the requirements for the Berserker class?”

Ford looked down and said, “The monster spawn in Banzzap’el was brutal, to say the least, and you’d need a high endurance for my class.”

“What do you mean, high endurance?”

“I mean, you need a high endurance just to survive casting any of the spells or using any skills,” Ford pulled up her left sleeve revealing the scar that went up her forearm and the scar that wrapped around her bicep and tricep, “it’s excruciating losing a limb.”

The guard’s eyes widened, and he said, “I see. The last question, then you can go. What business do you have in Mammoth?”

“Getting food and supplies,” Max answered.

“Also, a few horses and a wagon if possible.”

The guard nodded, “Alright, check the merchant’s quarter on the left then. Move along,” he said, waving Max and Ford through the gates.

Ford smiled under her helmet and walked through the gates. The town of Mammoth wasn’t as impressive as Banzzap’el. The houses were built of granite and wood, and the streets were made of cobblestone, giving the town a gloomy feeling. All the streets, Max and Ford, walked past led to a large mansion atop a hill. The estate looked like it had been made of marble and cement, making it stand out from the rest of the town and giving it an overbearing feeling. The townspeople looked to be composed of humans and Dwarves, and they all seemed as gloomy as the town looked.

Ford looked up at the roofs and spoke over comms, “Kii, Mizu, Benet, where are you?”

“Why do you always address us with Kii first, then me?” Mizu asked.

“Force of habit, are you here?”

“Yeah, we’re here,” Benet said, “We only just got in.”

“We’re on the far,” Ford looked up at her compass a second, “The far north side of Mammoth. Meet us there.”

“Heard,” was their unified response.

Ford looked ahead and spotted the market, “Here’s the plan. I’ll get the food and such; you get the wagon and horses. Find something big enough for a giant.”

“You want to try and fit Gimble I a wagon?” Max asked.

“Well, I can’t let him be the only one walking. I’d feel guilty if we did that.”

“I wouldn’t feel bad,” Wrath chimed in.

Max sighed, “Alright, I’ll look at what they have, if any, but no promises.”

Ford nodded, “That’s fine. When you reach wherever it is, get Kii or Mizu to watch over you.” Max nodded, ran down the street, and weaved her way through the crowd. Then a thought occurred to her, ‘I should have given her some money so she could buy the wagon, huh.’

“That would have been helpful, dipshit,” Wrath answered.

‘Oh, shut up.’

Ford walked up to the first stall on the street and looked at the assortment of fruits. Bananas, pineapples, apples, grapes, and so on. “Excuse me, ma’am,” Ford said as she walked up to the red-haired lady wearing overalls, operating the stand, “How much for…um…all of the fruits?”

The lady laughed, “More than you can afford, kid. Besides, I don’t make bulk sales. Try Teri’s stand down the way a little.”

“Okay, thanks,” Ford said and started walking away, but stopped and grabbed an apple, “how about just this?”

“Two copper.”

Ford reached into a pocket, opened up her void warehouse, and pulled out two copper coins. Handing it to the fruit lady, she said, “Thanks.”

“No, thank you.”

Ford waved and walked away, shifting her helmet enough to reveal her mouth and start eating the apple. She walked by several stands like the Fruit ladies, but with cruciferous vegetables and assorted meats. Both stands said they don’t make bulk sales and sent Ford further down. Before leaving either, Ford bought some smoked jerky and carrots to snack on while she walked.

Eventually, the crowd thinned, and she made it to a few rows of stands that just had wood boxes with labels on them. Ford walked up to one of them and asked, “What do you sell here?”

A man with a bushy beard popped out from behind a pile of boxes and said, “We sell bulk fruits. What would you like?”

“How much fruit is in each box?”

The man thought for a moment, “They weigh out to about twenty-five kilograms on average, with the box being five kilos. So, each box has about twenty kilos of fruit, give or take.”

Ford nodded and asked, “Okay, how much for three boxes of each fruit you have?”

The man’s eyes widened, then thought for a moment, “I think it’s about five gold total; let me check with my father,” he said, then walked into the building behind the stand. Ford looked around at the rest of the stands and spotted a stack of boxes with vegetables sticking out of gaps in the wood.

Soon after, an older man with white stubble walked out and looked Ford up and down, “Three boxes of each are five gold per set, and there are five sets you’re asking for.”

“I take it a set is three boxes?”

“That’s right.”

“Kii or Mizu, could one of you meet me at the western end of the market to keep an eye out?” Max said over comms.

“I’ll go,” Benet said.

“No,” Ford interjected, “Mizu, you go.”

“Is there something wrong?” the older gentleman asked, crossing his arms.

Ford looked up at the man and said, “No, no. Nothing’s wrong. Just doing some math. So, that would be… fifteen gold, right?” the man nodded, and she reached into her pocket again and pulled out fifteen gold five coins at a time.

The man counted the coins out and pocketed the money, “Alright, we’ll have the boxes brought up within a few minutes if you’d like to wait inside?”

“No, I have more to gather, so I’ll swing back around and pick everything up,” Ford answered quickly and waved at the man as she walked to the next stand. She did the same thing with the vegetable stand vender but with four boxes of veggies, costing fifty gold. One extra box of each for Lilly, she may eat meat, but Ford could tell she never liked the taste of venison or other typical meats.

Then she made it to a butcher shop where several freshly skinned cows and pigs hung from hooks visible outside. Ford asked for three cows and four pigs, costing ten platinum, which was all the platinum Kii and Mizu had found in the dungeon. After that purchase, Ford looked at her inventory to see how much money she had. She had two-thousand five-hundred forty-eight gold, three-thousand silver, and eighty copper. She took a deep breath and helped the butcher put the carcasses into her void warehouse. Then did the same with the rest of the supplies she had bought.

“That’s a lot of food,” Benet noted.

“It is and should last us a while. I take it you’ve arrived?”

“Yep,” Kii said, “We’re above you.”

Ford resisted the urge to look up and said, “Good. Mizu, have you found Max yet?”

“Yep, just found her.”

“Take her out,” Kii said in a deep but joking voice.

“Don’t take me out; I’m trying to buy a wagon and horses,” Max said, a little panicked.

Ford shook her head as she placed the last fruit box in her inventory. Thanking the man who helped her load the boxes, she walked down the street a little further and found a cook wear store in one of the buildings. She nodded and walked into the store for an hour, buying two cutting boards, two chef knives, three different-sized saute pans, five different-sized skillets, and two wet stones. Costing two-hundred gold, and if she hadn’t stopped when she did, probably an arm and a leg as well.

She then made her way down the marketplace to meet Max when she came upon a jewelry vendor selling simple necklaces and shiny stones. The simple jewelry was not what stopped her, however. She stopped because her linchpin skill activated and highlighted a silver pocket watch with a silver chain. Next to the highlighted item floated the words, ‘buy now.’

“Excuse me, how much for the pocket watch?” Ford asked an old wrinkly woman sitting in a rocking chair behind the items.

She looked at the watch and said, “That’ll be one gold, missy.”

Ford handed the woman the coin and pocketed the watch. ‘Okay, now what do I do with it?’ Ford thought as she continued down the marketplace.

“I don’t know it’s your skill,” Wrath said unhelpfully.

“What’s the watch for?” Benet asked.

“Don’t know yet, but I needed it for something.”

“Did you just waste money on a watch when we have clocks literally downloaded into our brains?” Max said, anger in her voice.

“No, I didn’t waste money,” Ford said defensively, “One of my skills told me to buy it.”

“And that’s supposed to help how?”

“No idea. Did you find a wagon and horses?”

“Yes and no. I found a wagon that should be big enough, but the horses are the problem.”

Ford reached an area with a row of wagons and Max was there talking to a caramel-skinned man covered in dirt. She approached them and asked, “What’s the problem?”

“None of your concern,” the man said sternly.

“He has wagons, one of which is big enough for us but has no horses. Nobody does.”

“How can he,” Ford caught herself and turned to the man, “how does nobody have any horses to sell?”

The man scratched the back of his head and said, “During the monster surge, a few Beowolves got into the stables and ate all the horses before anybody could get there and kill the beasts. But those weren’t all the horses, there are about a dozen horses up at the mayor’s estate, but the bastard’s so stingy he won’t sell any.”

Ford rubbed the bridge of her mask’s nose and said, “Alright, how much is the wagon?”

“Twenty gold, and that’s for all the feed and harnesses for the horses.” The man said, then accepted the twenty gold pieces Ford produced.

Max then lead her over to a long wagon with four wheels and enough room for six horses. Ford pulled the wagon out and spun it around, then made her way to the front and pulled the wagon forward and out of the Marketplace. “Where are you going?” Max asked over comms.

“I’m going to get us those horses.”

“You heard what he said. The mayor won’t sell,” Max said, exasperated.

“Who said anything about buying?” Ford retorted.

“Can I kill the people? I want to kill all the people,” Wrath said unhelpfully.

“So, you’re going to steal the horses?!!”

“No, of course not. He’s going to give them to me willingly… or die.”

“WHAT?!!”

“Max, Kii, go back to the others and have them meet us just outside the town tonight. Mizu, Benet, I’m going to need your help getting out alive,” Ford ordered.

“But-” Max began to say, but Ford cut her off.

“Max. Go,” then she set the wagon down and looked at her, shifting the helmet to reveal her whole face, “Trust me, I’ll be fine,” she said aloud in a gentle tone.

Max wiped her eye with a sleeve and sniffed, “You’d better,” then ran off in the direction of the front gate.