You tilted your head this way, then that as you did your best to gauge what threat the town ahead would pose in all the most probable situations. You knew that if the people of the city remained, that they would likely have been set upon, beleaguered by the things that you had encountered in the gorge. If the towns people had left, there was always the chance that the bandits that you had encountered earlier that day had moved in and now used it as their base of operations. If the people had entirely been turned into those things, then you knew that they would attack on sight, and that you'd have to fight your way through them, that you'd need a good reason to even justify that risk.
You knew that ideally you should scout this place out, that you should see what you were up against, see what was there for you in that place. Once you knew what was there, you'd know what was the best course of actions, if you were better off avoiding the town or not. The problem here however, was that you were injured, that you couldn't carry out such a task yourself to a satisfactory level at this moment.
You loathed the idea of sending somebody else in your place, though you knew you would have to. You knew that somebody would have to go there, scout the place out, ensure that it was either safe, or worth the risk to go there.
The problem was, who did you send?
You briefly considered the bursar, knowing that if people were there, if they were towns people or bandits, that he would potentially be able to negotiate with them, though the odds were that if they were bandits that they wouldn't care for negotiations. Joy on the other hand, was a bad choice you knew from the start, given how bandits and towns people would be hard for her to differentiate between initially, given how she would attempt to take the entire town on alone if it was full of corrupted humans. Anne on the other hand, initially struck you as a poor choice given her nature, yet you knew deep down that she was a far better choice than the others. Maybe you didn't wish to endanger her, knowing that she was far from the most able of the group, yet...
Yet, you knew that towns people would take a shine to her, that bandits would grudgingly be forced to respect her, that if the town was overrun with corrupted creatures, that she would potentially be tainted enough in their eyes to walk amongst them. You didn't want to send her away, you didn't want to send away the only person here that you felt any real connection with, yet you knew that it was for the best.
"I'll get Anne to scout the place," you started, while the bursar glanced between you and the distant town. You knew what he was about to say, what he was thinking. You knew you could easily convince him otherwise.
"Honestly, you're going to send a woman out there alone, to do a task better suited to a man?"
"Did Joy handle her duty to assist you and to rescue survivors inadequately?" you asked, settling down on the top of the hill as you held your ribs. "Do you doubt that Anne is anything less than as brilliant as Joy, in her own way?"
There was a long moments silence, one that was finally broken as he spoke. "If anything, you should send Joy," he grumbled, while you found yourself picking up on a certain awkwardness he was exibiting, the fact that he found himself threatened by the concept of women being more suited to tasks that he associated with his own gender.
"This is the problem with society today," you sighed, shaking your head as you did so. "You seem to have this deep rooted social structure for keeping the so called weaker gender out of trouble, so you can play the part of the big strong man. I'm sure it hurts to admit that Joy's stronger than you, that Anne's more adaptable than you, but face it-"
"They're the inferior gender," he snorted, prompting you to climb to your feet, dusting yourself off as you started back down the hill towards Anne, towards Joy and the survivors.
"Refer to women in that way again, and I shall order Joy to kill you."
You didn't need to see the mans face to know that he had turned pale, that Joy had no doubt shown once you had inadvertantly drawn attention away from the survivors, that she was fully capable of feats that put strong men to shame. You'd leave it to him to find out if you had been serious or not, if you would actually carry out a threat like that, or if it was merely to keep his misogynistic opinions to himself. You still felt unsteady on your feet, you noted as you stumbled on the way down the hill, catching yourself before you fell. You were more stable than you had been when you had initially come too, at least, even if your ribs hurt like hell still.
"Anne, with me, we need to talk," you called out as you neared the group, leading her aside as you settled down on a dry looking rock out of earshot of the group. You could see her looking down at you expectantly as you did your best to keep straight, to avoid agitating your ribs further before they could heal. You knew that she was likely going to be just as awkward as the bursar had been over this matter of her scouting. "I need your help here Anne, I need you because nobody else is quite as able to adapt to the situations that may be involved here as you."
Anne tilted her head slightly, no doubt anticipating that what you were going to ask was something that she didn't wish to do, but would have to. "The fact you lead me aside, tells me that you don't want the others to hear you ordering me to do this," she started, tapping a finger against her lips as she did so. "That means, you suspect the town is dangerous, and-"
"It's that obvious, is it?"
"That you want to get me killed?"
You felt shocked that she would accuse you of such, your expression betraying how clearly she had caught you offguard with that, how horrified you were that she would suggest it. She burst out laughing however, kneeling down before you as she reached over to take one of your hands in her own.
"No, you don't want to get me killed, I know better than that, but it was so worth it to see that look on your face."
"That wasn't funny."
"Oh, please, that was nothing compared to some of the things I could have said."
You sighed, shaking your head slowly as you did so. "I need you to scout the town Anne, as you're probably the best suited person here to carry out such a task," you paused, glancing over at the group of people huddled together, many of them leaning towards Joy, betraying how they felt safe with her. They felt safe with the strange woman who felt nothing, with the woman who had protected them, lead them to safety. You couldn't blame them in a way for feeling like that. "I won't lie however, I believe that this will be dangerous, but I can't trust anybody else to do it."
"So, you want me to do what exactly?"
"Check the town out, I'm willing to bet that in order of most to least likely, what you'll find there are corrupted humans, bandits, or towns people. The thing we need most is transport, if there's a train in the station or something of the sort, we might be able to justify the risk of going there. Supplies, especially medical ones would be good, too. Keep your eyes open for anything else of note, too, I don't know what they may have there, but I'm certain that you'll know something noteworthy when you see it."
"So, if it's more of those things, you want me to do what, sneak around?"
"Ideally, yes. If they discover you, try and pass off your nature as close to their own, if you can't fool them, don't lead them back here until you've shaken enough of them that we can deal with them without being overwhelmed."
Anne nodded slightly, neither of you liked this that much was certain, yet you knew that she knew that you were right when you said that she was the most suited to this task. You would have gone yourself if you knew that you could have handled this, that you could have evaded monsters, outwitted bandits and dealt with towns people. "I guess," she started, glancing back at the group as she fell silent for a brief moment. "I guess I should go see to that now, as the sooner we're we're out of here, the sooner-"
She paused, narrowing her eyes briefly as she did so.
"Wait, did you mean cake, when you said noteworthy things?" she asked, narrowing her eyes as she did so. "As, if that was what you meant, I swear I'll break the rest of your ribs for you."
"That's not funny, either."
"You're no fun when you're hurt," Anne sighed, squeezing your hands softly before she stood. "I'll try to wait until you're better before I torment you further. I'll be back just as soon as I'm able, you'll see," she stated while pushing herself to her feet, straightening her dress and huffing slightly. With that she turned, starting up the hill and towards the town, leaving you feeling as if you had forgotten something.
Something important.
You slowly struggled to your feet, doing your best to ignore the twinges of pain as your body protested, hurting all the more now you had come to a rest, settled down and ceased motion. While Anne made her way towards the town, you made your way back towards the group, almost dragging your feet as you vaguely recalled the bandit, the figure that you had captured, a person who likely knew more about this area. Just what you needed right now, somebody with answers, somebody who could fill you in on the details you were missing.
You approached a woman dressed in what had been a maids outfit, one of the train's staff, a woman who trembled, a woman who's attire was stained with blood, ichor and what you could only assume was tea. "May I ask you something, ma'am?" you started, waiting to make sure you had her attention as you shifted your weight from one foot to the other. "I'm looking for a man, who doesn't seem to be amongst you, a man with short brown hair, a braided beard-"
The woman turned pale, attempting to stammer a response before she burst into tears, most of what she said unintelligable, though you did catch enough to hear that she had witnessed his death. A death that had been apparently none too pleasant to witness. It didn't suprise you that this man had died, that there had been so many people killed in the the crash itself, though it was inconvenient to know, as this man could have given you answers. He could have helped you make sense of what had happened to lead to this.
You walked around the outside of the group, moving to Joy's side, sinking down as you sat down near where she stood. You were starting to feel the situation getting to you, the hopelessness of it sinking in, though you knew you couldn't afford to show it. You had to remain strong, you had to remain positive, you had to make the people here feel like everything was going to be okay, when deep down you were feeling like things would be anything but.
There were things out here that shouldn't have been found so far away from London.
Deep down, you felt that things were only going to get worse.
End of Part Five
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Topic: They told me I could be anything... (Read 78948 times)