Forever Untitled

     “Silas.”

     “Just passin’ by.”

“And your sure you didn’t see anyone else come outta there?” 

   “Probably.” The two students moved out of the way. The two agents stepped forward, and Kolton waited for Kip to order first.

“Yeah I can get a number five, with extra sauce and no green stuff please. Thanks.” 

    “Dead, permanently incapacitated, I’m not picky.  Whatever gets you out of my life for good is fine with me.”

“You know some people would think the fact you have to keep dealing with me like this would be fate.” 

   “I wanna survive. That’s about it.” They came to a stop in front of the food truck they’d been heading for, stepping into the line behind what appeared to be a pair of students. Kolton fell silent, studying the menu on the side of the truck.

“I think that seems to be the majority’s end game,” Kip responds as they stop and he looks over the menu before his eyes wander across the area subtly. 

     Silas’ features became stiff, his brow dipping with suspicion as he searched the stranger’s face, “Are you hurt?”

It takes Kip another minute to register what he’s asked, having to pull his gaze away from the building again and back to Silas. “Hurt? Oh uh-” Kip takes a minute to look down at himself, hands patting for a moment to see if anything in particular was hurt.

   “Giving Avalon my best.” His response came with no thought, picked from a list of others that rung with the same approved sentiment — a simple phrase with no emotion behind it.

“Ohh. The academy would be proud.”

     “Uh,” Silas glanced up at the street, not noticing any real movement except for the drones, “No. Just you.”

“Ahh fuck that’s not good,” Kip mumbles as his eyes go back to the building. Should he go in and save them? No there were already fire fighters on scene it looked like. They would go in and find any survivors...

     Deep plumes of smoke climbed off of the burning building, darkening the cloudless sky above and Silas could hear the sirens down the street, building in volume the closer they got. Drones zoomed on to the scene, over his head and ahead of the fire trucks, a larger pair spouting water while another smaller one darted around, scanning for people, alive or dead. 

     The sound of loud, dry hacking pulled him out of his daze, mesmerized by flames that peeked out of windows to lick the charred stucco, a form moving in his peripheral as they cupped their face, cutting their coughs with a sharp wheeze. Trails of smoke had followed them out, wisps clinging to the fabric of their shirt before a breeze carried them away, though did little to improve the haze that blanketed the entrance, only serving to feed the fire.       Silas grabbed them by the arm, tugging them away from the building as he tore his gaze away to look at them, “Y’alright?”

Kip had been working with this particular target about a week or so now. He was a paranoid thing, he had noted. He had recently become obsessed with the thought that one of the women in his crew was an agent, sent to seduce him and take all of his information back to the government to put him down. Too bad she wasn’t, and he didn’t believe her. It was almost hard for Kip to watch the man be so stupid. If he wasn’t an asshole, it might have been harder. 

He was an asshole though, so Kip could have cared less. 

What Kip hadn’t expected the crazy son of a bitch to do was to burn down his one of his entire houses, with a lot of his crew still inside. 

The rest had been a whirlwind of Kip trying to find his way out of smoke filled hallways until he stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

Kip then found himself stumbling behind someone who had gotten him up by his arm, barely making out his words between some coughs. 

    “Better for who, exactly?”

    “It seems to me that the citizens of Battery City would be safer without you on the streets trying and failing to protect them.”

“What a creative way to tell me you would rather me be dead.” 

   “Some ambition.”

   “You don’t wanna aim a little higher?”

“I think that’s about as high as my ambition will go for my career right now. Keep my head down, get my work good again. That sort of thing.” 

    “Or, perhaps, I’ve witnessed you being a blundering, incompetent idiot and heard even more stories about your less than impressive work.”

    “How is that little wound of yours, by the way?  Not infected from the dumpster you allowed yourself to fall in, I hope.”

“Nothing a triple shot of antibiotics in the hospital couldn’t cure. The dumpster  was also a better alternative to, ya know, the concrete alley floor.”

   “Sure.”

“At least I live another day to annoy you.”

   “Leat you’re alive, right?”

“Yeah, at least that. Live to die another day and what not.” 

“Lucas Suraez…” she pauses making a face “that name doesn’t ring a bell hun.” She said turning her head to check on one of the ovens that was slowly rotating in the back. 

“But if I ever hear about it I’ll be sure to let ya know” she said with a wink toward him.

“I appreciate that. Hopefully, I’ll find him first though.”

   “Definitely behind your back.”

“Thought so.” 

Daphne turned her attention toward the voice. She tilted her head with a smile.

“Why yes I am darlin’ what can I do for ya?”

“I was uh-looking for Lucas Suraez. He normally comes around here. Have ya seen ‘im?” 

Daphne pulled the trashcan close to her as she bent down to clean up the bits and pieces of glass that had broken last night. The upstairs bakery was closed off for a “inventory” day but in reality she just needed to get the lower levels cleaned up and things back in shape. She tied the bag closed and then lifted the bag from it’s container and groaned as she hoisted it up the stairs. Stepping out the back door she flung the bag into the large dumpster.

“I really should just invest in using plastic cups now” she said with a deep sigh.

Kip was spending the night out trying to put together another trail that lead to the person who he had been assigned for his field work.. He frequented this...establishment, which for all intents and purposes Kip was going to try and pretend it was just a bakery. 

He turns the corner just in time to watch the woman through her bag into the dumpster. 

“Hey do you uh, work here?”