Andrew was sitting up against the wall in his sleeping bag, opening and closing his new knife. Wiseguy, Dragon, Sam, and Sylph all found their own corners to doze off in. Andrew had woken up before the rest of them, but hadn’t moved from his spot. While everyone else was asleep, he did a quick rewiring job on the timer, removing the vibrator and setting the wires so that they’d create a spark when the counter ran out. After a while Andrew got bored of playing with the blade. He put it in his jacket pocket and slipped out of the sleeping bag. He glanced at his shoes, then decided against changing into them. He paced around the room barefoot in an almost rhythmic fashion. At the far end of the counter Sylph had a small pile of blankets and pillows.

Every second a different worry tried to push itself into his head, but he kept them out. Fear wouldn’t help him, though a gun might. He looked over to Sam, who had fallen asleep sitting up in a booth. His hat was tilted down over his eyes. If anyone was going to help him, it would be Cowboy. Andrew walked over to him and lightly shook his shoulder. Sam slowly came to, tilting his hat up.

“Andy?”

“You gotta help me Sam, if I go in like this I’m gonna die.”

“What do you want me to do? It’s not like I can get you out of the mission.”

“Lend me a gun.”

“There’s no way I can do that.” Sam shook his head. “Firearms are strictly controlled. I can’t just make one go missing for you.”

“Is there nothing you can do to help me?”

“Not really man. It’s a shit job. You either come back alive or you don’t.”

“Well if you can’t help me avoid death, can you do something else for me?”

“What’s that?”

“Keep Yui in your room so Wiseguy and Dragon don’t get too friendly with her.”

“I’d really prefer not to keep a woman for four days.”

“I’d really prefer to have a gun, or better yet go on a less suicidal mission. Just tell me man, will you help me or not?”

“I’ll do it,” He paused, “For you.”

“Thanks.”

“If you really want to be thankful, bring me back some liquor. Shush now, looks like Sylph is waking up.” She stirred under the covers, starting to clumsily push them off. Andrew sat down on the edge of the booth, whipped out his phone, and pretended to be reading it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her get up and look around. She walked over to him and he pretended not to notice.

“What are you doing? It’s like five AM.” He didn’t look at her for a second, acting as if he was scrolling through something.

“Hmm?” He looked up at her. “Sorry I was reading something.”

“What’re you doing on your phone? It’s not like you’re checking Facebook.”

“Oh, just reading some Hitler. I’ve got all his works on here as PDFs.”

“Hitler as in… Adolph?”

“Yeah. You know, Mein Kampf? His style could use a bit of work but the content is pretty insightful.” Sylph giggled, thinking it was a joke. Her smile quickly faded from her face when Andrew didn’t join her.

“Sam,” She looked over his shoulder to the cowboy, “He’s just joking right?” Sam shook his head at her. She looked back to Andrew. “So you’re not one of those ironic Nazis, you’re actually...”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“But I mean...”

“If it makes you feel better, I’m just a meme.”

“Alright, I guess it doesn’t really matter then.” Andrew gave her a thumbs up, then noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye. The Merchant walked out from the back room holding his stick. Andrew broke eye contact with Sylph and trotted over to receive it.

“Good luck Andrew. Hopefully this mission will only be your first.”

“I hope the others aren’t as suicidal as this one.”

“They won’t be. Now do us both a favor and don’t get yourself killed. Once the gun safe is open don’t worry too much about keeping Sylph alive.” Andrew contained his disgust and nodded at him. He grabbed their bags, motioned for Sylph to follow him, then exited The Diner. Outside the normally bustling village was surprisingly still, with only a few sentries patrolling. Sylph tried to walk ahead of Andrew to lead him, but he sped up so that they were walking side by side. She turned to him and opened her mouth as if to say something, then turned away. They exited the cavern through a guarded tunnel, almost completely opposite the one that lead to his room. Andrew looked to Sylph and tilted his head.

“So if there’s no sun or daylight for people to align their schedules with, why is everyone sleeping right now?”

“All the food for the day is distributed in the ‘morning’, so there’s a strong incentive to wake up on time.”

“When does this food thing happen?”

“About two hours from now. In an hour the hired help will come into The Diner to start prepping.”

“So what’s the deal with food for the… commoners? Do they pay for it? Get it for free?”

“Everyone here has to pay for their bread, but there’s no shortage of work. Food needs to be cooked, chamber pots need to be taken to the dumping grounds, and for the more adventurous folks there’s a lot to be done with scavenging.”

“So not everyone works for the Merchant huh. It’s like a mini economy.”

“A mini economy that’s not doing too well. New rooms have been appearing farther apart, which means less resources and trade for scavenging. This in turn means less wealth for The Merchant to take a cut of, so...”

“So our suicide mission is a kind of stimulus package?”

“Basically. We’ll grab the guns and stuff our pockets with whatever other loot there is, but the rest should put everyone else in a good place for a while.”

“But won’t there just be the same issue later once all the resources are taken from the Frogman’s territory?”

“Well, new areas kinda just appear sometimes out of nowhere. Hopefully by the time that place is exhausted a new one will pop up.”

“That whole model seems really unsustainable.”

“Well, the next plan is to expand into bandit territory to gain access to their resources, but the way things stand it’d be suicidal for us.”

“What about this settlement I hear about?”

“The Settlement? It’s no place for you or me, or anybody that you’ll find here. Basically you travel a ways to get there and it’s a police state. They don’t allow anyone who’s done anything ‘questionable’ inside or outside the tunnels to stay with them. They have some kind of renewable food source like The Diner, but instead of selling it they have a council that distributes it.”

“So they’re commies basically?”

“Well, they send parties here a lot to trade for luxury goods. Somehow they have a steady supply of alcohol and cloth.”

“That’s oddly specific.”

“One of the things the Merchant wants to do eventually is figure out where they get the cloth from.”

“Well that’s a later problem, right now the issue is whether or not we survive.”

“We did everything we could, didn’t we?”

“We have knives and he has a gun. I don’t think our odds are very good right now.”

“We have more than just blades. We have our skills, right?”

“Sure, you can open something that’s locked and I can synthesize aspirin. That’ll get us real far.”

“Why are you being so negative?”

“We have no plan, no guns, no idea where the hell this guy is, and no other options. I’m not feeling all that hopeful about the whole not dying thing.”

“Well...” She looked down at the floor.

“What’s your name?”

“Huh? It’s Sylph. Did you already forget?”

“No your real name, the one from the outside.”

“Why do you want to know that?”

“Well, Sylph’s your code-name, I’m interested in your real name.”

“Are you-”

“Yeah, I think you’re really cute and I’d like to get to know you better.”

“This really isn’t a good time for this.”

“If we’re going to die we might as well get some last comforts out of each other.”

“You’re going into this expecting to die. That’s how you die. You can’t do that, okay?”

“Look, chances are we’re not coming back. I don’t want to be bleeding out on the floor thinking that I could’ve got a little more out of life before it ended.”

“How about instead of getting ready to die you plan to live?” Andrew tilted his head at her. “We can do your whole ‘get to know me’ after the Frogman’s dead. Until then, no touching, no ogling, and no comments.”

“Can I at least get your real name?”

“Nope. I don’t want to be distracted by feelings before this.”

“Come on please? Call it an advance payment, just a name.”

“Fine. I’m Amelia.”

“Such a pretty name for such a pretty girl.”

“Cut it out! I told you to save that shit for later.”

“Sorry, sorry.”

“How about some useful talk? Like why don’t you tell me what else you bought last night?”

“What else? I only bought a knife.”

“The vendor told me you got it for four MP then visited a junk stall. Since you only said you bought a knife, it must be something worth hiding.”

“You got me, I’m hiding something.”

“What?”

“Sorry, did you think I’d tell you just because you asked?”

“Andrew, we can’t play games here. If it’s something we can use against the Frogman you have to tell me. If we want to live we have to fight as a team, and we can’t do that if we’re keeping secrets.”

“Okay fine, but you have to promise not to tell anybody back at The Diner.”

“Alright I promise.”

“I made a timed detonator, it’s not hooked up to any explosives yet.”

“What good does that do us?”

“Well, I happen to know a thing or two about chemistry, and I have some ideas about what to do with cleaning supplies.”

“You want me to not tell anybody that you know how to make bombs!? I’m sorry but that won’t -.”

“Are you a vegetarian?” Andrew interrupted her.

“What?”

“Well, are you?”

“I am when I can be. There’s not exactly a large selection at The Diner.”

“And you’re what, twenty one? Twenty two?”

“Twenty one.”

“So, we have a twenty one year old white female of below average weight and good diet. I’m assuming you get more than your fair share of cardio, with all the walking and running.”

“What’s your point?”

“And the life and death situations, you must really get your heart going for those.”

“Once again, what’s your point?”

“I donno, you seem too healthy to have a cardiac condition. It would just make much more sense for you to have an anxiety disorder. The same medications they use for heart issues treat them too, but you already knew that.”

“You don’t have any proof.”

“But just the thought would be enough to cause problems. I’m sure you have enough issues, being the only female retainer.”

“Fine, I won’t say a word about your bomb making.”

“Hey, now we both know a secret about each other!”

“I never said that you were right.”

“It’s okay, I know I am.”

“You can be a real pain in the ass sometimes. You know that?”

“Only when provoked.” He paused for a beat. “Or bored.”

“Hmph. You have a detonator, duly noted. Anything else useful you’d like to say?”

“Well, it seems we both know the basics of firearms, and lots of guys with guns died trying to kill this dude. I think it’d be a good idea to try and arm ourselves ASAP.” She nodded without looking at him and kept walking. Every once in a while Sylph glanced at her watch. After doing that five or so times she stopped.

“It’s only half an hour to the Frogman’s territory from here. We’ll set up camp and sleep so we can face him well rested.”

“Sure Amelia.”

“Don’t call me that now.”

“Sorry Sylph.” She set down her pack and laid down her sleeping bag near the tunnel wall. Andrew set his bag next to hers, but then moved away when she glared at him. Andrew took off his jacket then slipped into the bag. He pushed tomorrow’s task out of his head and tried to go to sleep.