Perhaps it was because of the building's location, but it gave her
an amazing view of this world she was in.
Wanting to comntemplate her life, she climbed one of the buildings
and looked toward the world.
In the distance, it looked like another stranger was snatching a
drink from Julius's hands.
'Maybe I'll catch up to him later.. I've got contemplating to do..'
"Uh. Your back? Thought yall hated me." Julius jumped and snatched
the drink out of her hands. "And what do you mean live? I'm already
dead. Wait? Did you say fight."
"Fair enough, but people do seem to find ways to die twice. And I
don't think you want to experience getting your arm sliced off,
alive or dead. I don't hate anyone. Why would I hate you? Sure, I
don't appreciate the comments, and I will gladly give you the
experience of having your arm sliced off as mentioned before if you
make another one, but that isn't exactly enough to warrent my
hating you. You'd have to do a lot worse for that. And yes, of
course I said fight! Is it surprising that people get into brawls
around here?"
"Trust me, you do not want to get into a real fight. And Kaori is
the kebab girl, not me. You shouldn't trust me." She let that
linger there for a moment. Then added in a much more cheerful tone,
"But isn't it a bit early to talk about stuff like that? You don't
need to trust me on anything right now."
"So what are you doing here?" Julius leaned down on there floor and
looked up at Athena. He watched her eyes and tried to see something
but it seemed blank. He smiled and took a swig. "You said you were
older than me once right?" He held up the bottle. "Wanna sip?"
"I'll pass, thanks." He really needed to get a control on his
drinking. "There isn't really much else to do, is there? This place
is boring, to say the least. Ever thought of leaving?" She could
easily search his mind, but she wanted to hear it from him. The
problem with getting all your answers from minds, was that minds
were confusing, they twisted and turned, and hid things, even from
themselves.
"Course I want to leave. This place is kind of boring to be honest
and I don't feel the joy of life in here. Probably because everyone
is dead but..." He sighed. He stood up, looking down into her eyes.
He gave a weak smile and shook his head. "How are we s'posed to do
that? To leave. To escape."
"That's for me to know and you to find out. Quite simple actually,
if you've broken into the government offices before. Folllow these
instructions next Friday if you truly will make good on your
words." She handed him a piece of scrap paper, a rare thing around
here. But pretty much the only durable thing you could write on.
Julius smiled and he looked at the paper. He looked back up and
hugged Athena. He jumped back and stared at her. "Oops. Uh. I'm
sorry. You just remind me of my little sister." He laughed
nervously and backed away. He took a big swig of his beer and
smacked his forehead. He sat down and closed his eyes. "You should
probably go."
"And again, beer is my saviour." He took a big drink and let it
flow through his brain, erasing almost everything that happened in
the last few minutes. "Ahhhh." He sighed happily.
Athena was still hissing at the thought that she'd let someone hug
her. Why? Why!? He did seem like someone she'd known so long ago,
someone she'd looked up to, like an older brother almost, but
still.
Trying to take her mind off it, she decided to start on her next
task - finding some government official who'd help her. She had a
few in mind...
“Do you? Well if you do I’m coming. My sister will definitely
help us, unless you are meeting my sister?” Lucinda found Sewer
15 and jumped in, turning into a black cat to see better in the
dark.
"Hmm... Maybe a few, your sister being one of them. I would prefer
to go alone, actually, if you don't mind." Athena had quite a few
reasons for this, one of them being the fact that she didn't want
Lucinda caught in the middle of it if something went wrong. Also,
she normally worked alone. On important things, at least. Athena
followed Lucinda, carefully avoiding the parts of the floor sticky
from something she didn't want to know about.
“You know that I would follow you even if you said I can’t go, Or I
can turn into an animal and be your pet? Or I can just talk to
Olivia alone. But note this: any official of the government who
isn’t dead cannot go beyond the northern border of the offices.”
Lucinda said, dodging some skeletons and rats until they reached a
patch in the sewers that had many tunnels connecting it. It felt
like the centre of a maze