Guns & Roses

Chapter 5: Begrudged alliance

                                  [Sanford]

"Got a lighter?" Deimos asked him, slightly shaking the pack of cigarettes which he'd found during their last raid.
"Those aren't good for you." Sanford replied, attempting to snatch them away, to which Deimos leaned away to keep Sanford from reaching them.
"Matches, then?" Deimos asked, harbouring a mischievous smile he knew all too well, Sanford didn't bother replying and reached further, finally managing to grab onto the box and pull it from Deimos's grip.
"If you wanted one you could've just told me." Deimos grumbled, smile falling into an annoyed frown, while Sanford stuffed them into his back pocket.

"Cmon, just one?" Deimos suggested,
'he doesn't give up, does he?'
He sighed,
"Seriously dude, that stuff is bad for you." Sanford told him, keeping his tone serious as he could make it. Deimos tilted his head, to which Sanford sighed while he waited for another terrible excuse.
"Yeah, well.." Deimos began, looking back to Sanford,
"They're good for me in a different way." Both stayed silent, Sanford trying to process the uncanny truth, yet stupidity that came with the sentence.
"Deimos, that's an addiction." He said, still puzzled.
"I know." Was the reply he received, still confused at how the conversation came to this point, he decided to end the argument there. "I'm not giving you the cigarettes." He stated, "Geez, not even a pity cig?" Deimos asked him, a subtle signal that they too were done arguing.

Sanford looked around the dead landscape, trying to come up with another talking point. He looked into the red sky, noticing how it seems to shift and move, despite being still 'good enough'.
He nudged Deimos and gestured to the space above them,
"You ever notice how-"

"Hey, fellas!" A familiar, yet unknown voice called out from behind them. Both had roughly the same immediate reaction, Sanford grabbing onto his hook and jumping up to his feet to face the stranger, while he heard Deimos's rifle's safety click, signalling that Deimos was ready to take a shot.

Sanford took his first proper look at the stranger... to find it was The Sheriff..? He looked at Deimos, to see Deimos had looked over to him, most likely to confirm a mutual confusion. Sanford just shrugged and turned back to The Sheriff, who had raised his hands in a seeming gesture of peace.
"What're ya here for, cowboy?" Deimos asked to The Sheriff, pulling off a terrible Southern accent. Both looked back to each other, and after a second of silence both fell into a fit of laughter.

After both had finally calmed themselves and resist the urge to laugh again after looking back at each other, Sanford finally decided it was time to start questioning The Sheriff.
"Alright." He said,

"So, what're you here for?" He asked, retightening his grip on his hook. A silence birthed after the question, to which he heard Deimos start to crack up again next to him, Sanford nudged him, knowing that he too would start laughing if Deimos did. The Sheriff seemed to process that the question wasn't another joke, and swiftly replied.
"I'm here to join you." Sanford almost cracked up again, not at the statement itself, but rather the absurdity of it.
"You're here because you want to join us?" Deimos asked him,
'Good to know I'm not the only one confused by that'
He thought, The Sheriff answered quickly again, almost too quickly..
"Yeah" A simple answer came from the man, to which threads of suspicious started to appear.

"What's your reason for joining us, then?" Deimos asked after another second had passed, this one seemed to stump The Sheriff, if only for a couple seconds.
"Well.. I'm here 'cause Auditor's been extra pissy lately." Sanford raised his brow
'just for that reason?'
The Sheriff continued,
"I've a better chance surviving out here than workin' for him... besides he's been..." The Sheriff stopped.
'No more to the story?'
Sanford thought.
'so he's either lying or he has a different reason for being here..'
"The auditor has been.. refusin' to tell us when he's gonna let us all go home, he's been uh.. threatenin' us a lot lately too." The Sheriff finished, to which Sanford gestured for Deimos and him to talk privately.

"It's fine, they're probably just nervous and can't think straight'" Deimos reassured.
"I get that, but I still don't buy it.. something about it just seems made up to me." Sanford replied, trying his best to come up with how to explain it to Deimos.
"Alright but hear me out on this." Deimos said, taking a second to put it into words,
"If we let them in, we could learn Auditor's plans, we might even get to find out where the improbability drive is and get outta here!" Deimos exclaimed, Sanford considered this, 'finding out where the drive is would be great..'

"Besides, if they try anything we can just shoot em, not like they have much chance against all three of us." Deimos continued. As much as Sanford didn't want to agree, he had a point. "Fine, but if it goes to shit it was your idea, got it?" Deimos gave a smug smile,
"loud and clear."

———————————————————————
[Hank]

Hank walked slowly back toward their temporary camp, he kept his eyes locked onto the ground, despite there being nothing to look at. He trailed the cracks in the dirt, following along one while he walked. It was a somewhat peaceful day, the raid went well and none of them got hurt, they had managed to salvage a large array of food, they had also gotten enough water to last them a good couple days. 'Might as well make the most of it, knowing our luck, things will start getting hard to deal with soon.'

When he arrived back, he looked up to see what the duo were doing, to his surprise Deimos came up to him.
"Hey, Hank, now, don't freak out or anything but-"
Hank spotted the man, instantly recognising the apparel which The Sheriff had always wore. In a second he'd had his gun in hand, aiming it toward the man, to which both Deimos and Sanford attempted to stop him.
"Hang on, just listen for a sec!" Deimos practically yelled while wrestling with him for the gun, he looked back over to see that Sanford had blocked his line of fire, so he couldn't get a good shot without being certain he wouldn't hit Sanford instead. He sighed, and clicked the safety of his gun back on, stopping his struggle with Deimos by letting them take it.

Deimos took his time taking a breather,
"Holy fuck man, I told you to not freak out." Deimos managed to say in between heavy breaths. Hank decided to stay quiet, only walking over to where Sheriff stood with Deimos walking after him. He looked down at them, they seemed spooked,
'Of course they're spooked, you almost shot them.'
He turned to face the duo, Deimos taking his place next to Sanford. He tilted his head, his own non-verbal way of questioning them. After a second Sanford understood,
"He came up to us, asked to join and well... now we're here." Sanford explained. Hank turned back to The Sheriff,
'He wanted to join? No, he's smarter than that. He knows given the chance I would have shot him, so why is he here?' He turned his attention back to the duo,
'Seems i'll have to ask them to be more specific.'.

"What made you let him join." Hank stated. Deimos spoke this time,
"Well, having four of us gives us more fire power, and they could tell us where the importability drive is." Deimos stopped for a second, and turned to The Sheriff,
"You... do know where it is, don't you?" Deimos asked them.
'They didn't check until now?'
He thought, letting his attention fall back to The Sheriff.
"I'm pretty sure I do" The Sheriff replied.
'Pretty sure is not certain, this is a waste of time.'
Hank was ready to wrestle Deimos for his gun back, when he thought on the other point Deimos had brought up.
'More fire power could be good for us though, and he may know more about the buildings than we do.'
Hank decided to entertain their notion, 'keeping them around might help us... I'll let it slide under a condition.'

Hank turned back to The Sheriff, putting out his hand,
"Gun." He demanded, keeping his eyes locked onto the man. The Sheriff took longer to process than he expected, finally The Sheriff did something, though it wasn't the action Hank hoped for.
"My gun?" The Sheriff asked,
"What do you need my gun for?" He asked, Hank signed.
'I swear I should just kill him now.'
"Gun." He repeated, putting more force behind the word. The Sheriff finally decided to comply, slowly taking the gun from their holster and handing it over to Hank. He examined it, it was fully loaded which means he hadn't attempted to shoot the duo before he came back, the gun itself was shiny, still in near-mint condition other than a couple small scratches around the handle. He backed away slightly, giving himself enough space to tuck it away in one of the inside pockets of his jacket without having to worry about The Sheriff deciding to make an attempt to steal it back. After seeing The Sheriff hadn't made any moved to try taking it back, he let himself relax. He felt certain that they weren't a threat.