Never Close Your Eyes

DTM 🐊 : C. 15

|| Chapter Fifteen ||

"Let's check it out." Warren stepped into the conversation for the first time since the exploration started, knowing everyone would listen to her direct order without the disobedience.

Warren knew these people just as well as Doc did, so she knew the intentions weren't foul.

"Mistake." Vasquez grumbled his objection, but released the hold over the man.

He stuffed one of his deadly weapons back into the proper holster, just waiting to be able to tell Warren 'I told you so' later on. He doesn't really have hope in anyone here.

"Never get off the boat." Murphy muttered to himself, knowing tradegy was bound to follow shortly after.

Slowly but surely, we began to drift closer to the two old friends of ours, who I knew would be overly dramatic about being wore out from their recent adventure.

I'm sure they've got a tale to tell, which probably meant they danced with death a little bit. I can't remember a time where I've met them and they're not exploiting a story of their own.

"Doc!" Sketchy greeted with wide arms out stretched as he stood in his seat while Skeezy was to keep paddling with his feet, "Well, I'll be damned!"

"Well, if it ain't Tweedlee and Tweedle-Dumbass." Doc welcomed them in their own humor, grin becoming larger as the life of the party became more present.

It's nice to see people you thought you'd never see again. The last time we saw them, they were hosting a community gathering that ended in zombies and death.

"Oh, man. You guys' timing is perfect." Skeezy grinned from ear-to-ear at the thought of not having to continue the paddle.

Our boat bumped theirs mildly hard, inviting a merge to happen between us and them.

"What happened to him?" I asked, noticing how only half of their team was covered in feathers and the other as clean as the apocalypse would let them.

I also knew these two don't kiss and tell the actual backstory. No, they got to go through loops and trail and error. They've got to make it so they look like the hero. Sketchy leaned over to look at me with wide eyes.

"Well, if it ain't the darlin' princess. How you been, sugar?" His sucking up wouldn't get rid of my question as quickly as he had hoped.

"Hey, Sketch." I smiled at the sweet talker, "Don't try to wiggle your way out of the question."

He scratched his burly beard, still grinning up at me with quick eyes, "Straight to the point like your brother. Well, if you must know, your highness, he fell into the wrong crowd."

Before anyone could ask questions that crossed their boundaries, he moved to the man behind me, "Hey, kid! You still shooting out the lights?"

"Yeah." 10K made light responses, still not speaking to them much on their second encounter.

The thing I learned about these two, they never meet a stranger. They meet people for a reason, and whether they're the lesson those people learn from is entirely up to what Sketchy wants.

"Great. Help us with this gear, will ya?"

This is where Vasquez took steps closer to the entrance, his unholstered gun being the jewel of the show, "You're not bringing that aboard."

For a moment, Sketchy seemed like he was debating if Vasquez was the kind of alpha to tussle with until he learned Warren was letting Vasquez do as he wished.