Jeff waited for about half an hour after the last two Jeeps had left the camp and then sneaked into it. Well sneaked as much as just walked in as there was really no way for him to hide. That and if there was someone to see him he probably would’ve been shot at already.

  Entering the camp was weirdly at once devastating and kind of funny. What was so funny? Jeff really had no clue. There just was something morbidly comical for him in entering this camp trying to be stealthy and utterly failing, by his own assessment. It felt like trying to steal sweets as a child, just well with larger stakes. Thinking about it, no it really wasn’t like that, maybe it was his nerves? Well didn’t really matter.

  The devastating part was the chaos, the camp had many tents, but most people lived in carved out houses in the walls of the ravine. Cloth had replaced walls for privacy. Now they were torn down, ripped up. On some was blood. Chairs, tables, furniture of all kind really, had been tossed around, even outside of the caves. A whole pile of what Jeff assumed was considered trash by the mercenaries lay where once had been the Organizational Tent, the table and chair at which Diego had always worked thrown onto the pile. The tent itself was ripped but Diego had made sure it was sturdy and the people responsible for the chaos clearly didn’t care whether it stood or was thrown over. They just didn’t care at all.

  It was weird, they even had left behind the big Pot in which Olivia had made her stew. Some of it was still in there. Even if they were after the people … why leave behind good stuff? It’s not like Jeff could take most things with him, but a nice tent, a large metal Pot, it was good stuff if you could getz it away. Where they really just after people? But why? What for? It was crazy, well they did work for one of the oldest most terrifying class of people, so they had to be crazy, still though.

  Jeff wracked his brain for a reason, why would they not take the good stuff, they had space for things on the jeeps … Did they think they wouldn’t need it? That was the only reasonable explanation, but why wouldn’t they need it? After a few minutes of sitting and thinking Jeff gave up, for one the Mercenaries could come back at any moment to grab the stuff even though they left it, still better safe than sorry and dead. For the second he figured that he wouldn’t get it anyway. This wouldn’t matter once he left the zone and even if it did he was missing information.

  So he started to go through what was left in the tent, a better Backpack, a few new utensils, a new pot, the main tent held most things that were used quickly. The main storage cave was further down, Jeff had gotten his payment there yesterday before leaving. It was quite dark, not much power for light so Jeff would need some sort of torch or batteries, ah there was a flashlight, good to have so take it too. He started filling his new backpack with a few other nicknacks, stuff to trade until he found a locked rectangular chest, it was not especially large but had a thick lock. From the size it must hold some rectangular stuff, ah probably Sheets, so better take that box too. After looking through most things in the tent the Backpack was a quarter full, without the box, though Jeff would try to break it open here so he could make sure it held sheets.

  Then he moved over to the storage cave. Jeff felt kind of bad rummaging through all this stuff, it wasn’t his and the people were nice to him, it felt like stealing even if most would probably be dead or never come back. Still not a great feeling, but he swallowed it. He would go through the private caves, that was enough. That and he didn’t take anything he didn’t need, if they all came back, there would be more than enough for them to survive and rebuild, unless other came but that wasn’t of Jeffs concern.

  In the storage cave he found crates of Shell, bound together by the local variety off hemp rope. The were filled with stuff, mostly clothes, utensils, food and the likes, well mostly food. The kind that was good for a long time. Jeff took a few new clothes, not that he needed them but having more rather than fewer would be good, he took some clothes and went outside to change and try them on, no need to carry non fitting clothes around and he didn’t want to waste battery power for the flashlight, if he was lucky they had some recharge station or some charged batteries laying around.

  It was of course then as he was in the process of changing in the humid weather, currently trying on a new set of underwear it happened. Jeff had read enough books and lived long enough to know stuff like this didn’t really happen in reality, but of course they happened in his reality, figures. A surprised, scream? More like a squeal, started him while pulling the underwear up, he fell on his naked ass and looked frantically around and was even more startled by seeing a girl squatting and hiding her face, her hair, for which he still didn’t remember the correct name, was it pink? Gave her away. Vaeri, well at least he wouldn’t get shot in his underwear, the small things make life great. Hastily finishing pulling up the underwear, he grabbed a set off pants that he found fit him, and started to pull them up.

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  “Sorry, I thought everyone was gone”, came a clearly embarrassed excuse form the girl, or was she a woman? Jeff couldn’t quite assess her age, which meant she was probably around his age.

  “Ah it’s fine, didn’t think anyone was around either”, was all Jef could say, would him scavenging be an issue? Probably not she was also a lone traveler like him, probably came to do the same. Jeff came to regret dressing so quickly because he had to realize the underwear was a bit too small and started to bite into his flesh already, it would suck but it wouldn’t rip, probably. If it did this couldn’t get weirder anyway.

  “I am dressed now.”

  Vaeri looked up still red from embarrassment, she was still in the entrance to the camp. Until now Jeff had only really noticed her hair, the pink, yeah probably pink, hair was not that weird, people like him, born after the Pandemodium sometimes had weird hair, weird skin or weird eyes, something with extradimensional particles changing the natural production of pigments or so. So while pink was rare it only stood out because no one else had it in the vicinity. It was not very prevalent in this zone, the hair also looked weird in the sun, though that was more of the suns fault than that off the hair.

  The interesting part was her face and skin now that he got a more careful look at her, trying not to stare, Jeff had to admit she looked good, but more importantly, she wasn’t local like at all. She probably wasn’t even from Esher. Sure people all around the world got mixed up during the Pandemodium, but there were still local differences and she was Asian, or whatever it was called.

  Asians were rare in Esher and connected zones, you had to jump three connections for that to change drastically, though that was more due to Esher and surrounding zones being rather thinly populated. So Vari being Asian meant she was likely not from around here. That and her clothing spoke a similar language, it was well made, Brindgap and Esher had some machines from the old times used to make clothes, so it wasn’t that unusual, but her clothes did not look like the fiber used in the nearby zones and rather synthetic. However, her clothes looked practical if a bit uncomfortable, they clung to her, especially her pants, which highlighted their shape, her top was loser but nothing more than a shirt that left her smooth belly uncovered, less practical for travel but if she was just running around the camp, it was very much enough. It also hung on her in a way that while not highlighting their shape, did emphasis her breasts, which distracted Jeff for just a second. She had some scrapes on her bare harms, and a small bruise was starting to form on her left cheek as if she had hit it somewhere. Otherwise she seemed unharmed and her embarrassed look had turned inquisitive and cautious. Fair enough Jeff was a stranger and probably had stared at her a bit too long without saying anything, not that staring was a good thing even if he talked.

  “So who are you?”, Vaeri broke the suddenly tense silence, though Jeff felt more embarrassed than tense.

  “Jeff”, he answered not thinking and then kicking himself for saying his real name, ”I helped out at the cmap a few times, you should have seen me yesterday.”

  “Ah you were the guy Olivia said would help me get to Esher and just left? I thought your name was Jiff?”, there was a clear tone of reproach in her voice and suspicion. Both fair.

  “Yeah, sorry about that but I completely forgot and I usually give a fake name, it’s a bad habit”, the lie was obvious but hey, she wouldn’t become more suspicious.

  “So, do you know what happened here exactly? I just heard shouting and people in Jeeps and ran away”, a hint of sadness crept into her voice as she spoke.

  “Well, I know they were taken, I think they are alive but I don’t know. All I know is that they will likely be dead anyway.”

  “What? How would you know that? Are you working with these monsters?”

  “Calm down, no I am not working with them, I overheard some talking that they work for a professor, it’s also why I have to get supplies.”

  “And I am supposed to believe that?”

  “Well feel free to doubt me but I am saying the truth. Unless you want to stop me, I think it doesn’t matter much, does it? I wont attack you unless you attack me, ok? Just let me gather my things and we can go our separate ways I will leave through the other end and you can get safely away, is that ok?”, Jeff hoped to descalate the situation with his words but instead he got the worst kind of answer. Tears, dam it.

  “Yeah sure”, was all she said before she sank back to her squatting position, deflating not really losing her caution still having him in her field of vision. Still Jeff could see a few tears glistening in her eyes as she looked at him.

  “Damn it, what am I supposed to do now?”, the question was clearly not directed at himself, but Jeff still felt addressed, because well there was no one else here. Internally sighing Jeff rallied all his social skills and tried to offer help.

  “Maybe don’t cry? I am sure you can make a new plan, works for me all the time”, he put all his optimism in the words and still it was the wrong thing to say and he knew it the moment the words left his stupid mouth. Damn he should just keep his mouth shut sometimes.