Mal stood like a deer in the head lights, they hadn’t been called that name in at least a decade. Like that wasn’t weird enough, mal had no idea who this man is.

deciding to play along since the guy had a gun, and guns hurt, mal responded with the grace of a roach drowning in a kiddie pool “I-Uh-yea-uh that me, is the syn- um I mean group still around and all” (beautiful)

the man gave a hearty laugh, “HA! 20 years and you’re still a klutz, that’s our stikbug alright!” Laughing faded the man continued “nah dude, ol’ holiday got busted a few years before the happening, im just here because it’s probably the safest place for an old coot like me. Anyways have ya heard about the safe haven that got overrun by leapfroggers, i heard there were no survivors.”

leapfroggers? What were those? Did he mean those zombie things, depraved, wasn’t it? Mal decide to feign ignorance, “wait- uh a settlement got attacked? Are the leapfroggers a new gang or something?”

the man looked surprised, “you ‘aven’t seen em? Those zombie guys, you got to be careful, they’re bad news, anyways why are you taking all those explosives?”

shit. “Uh eh well better safe than sorry?” Mal awkwardly responded as they began to accent the ladder.

“Hey where ya going” the man asked

“erm.. home?” Mal responded

”well, where’s that?” The man asked, but it was to late mal was already gone.

——————————————————

Mal caught their breath, they had ran straight back to their base. A loud boom could be heard in the distance, one of Mal’s traps had been activated, tired from being forced into social interaction and running, mal placed their stuff down and called it a night.

—————————————————

at a human settlement nearby

Mike sat at the business end of a desk “yeah, I told her be careful, that approaching strangers is bad. But nooooo, she decides to go anyways”

”uh huh, continue” the man sitting across from mike nodded.

“so she calls out to the guy, and must’ve spooked them, cause they ran away leaving behind an object” mike continued

”alright,” the man affirmed

“And what did that idiot do? She approached the thing, with out taking any caution, and next thing I know, there’s a explosion, and bits of her were everywhere, i got the fuck out after that.” Mike ranted on,

”ok, so can you describe this figure to me ?” The man questioned

mike put their hand to their temple, straining their memory, “shit, they looked like they were trying to cosplay a ninja, sure weren’t sneaky like one, the had some bright patch on one of their sleeves, hard to miss it. was to far to see what it was, but looks like an insignia of some sort”

”anything else?” The man inquired

”no, thats all” mike answered

The man sighed, this was going to be a long night “alright, you can go back to your quarters, you’re dismissed”

The man shook his head as mike left the room, muttering to themself “first the gangs, then the zombies, and now a terrorist, whats next? A laser clown.”

the man slumped in defeat, he had to call the other settlements about this, he hated those asshats.