Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Finders Keepers

Day 2

Location: Unnamed Street, Bottleneck City

Time: 9:28 AM

It took some convincing to get Engine to promise to get an eye out for the little kid. Darius was surprised, honestly, he'd had almost thought they were friends... but then Engine reminded him that she was only helping him because he was on a mission from Kin, not because she liked him.

It hurt, a little bit, but Darius tried to ignore it as he told Engine that he wouldn't finish Kin's quest without her doing this favour for him. After that, she reluctantly agreed, and Darius ended the call with a sigh.

"She agreed?" Ai prompted, even though Darius was pretty sure she had been listening in.

"Yeah, I guess," Darius said, frowning. Ai gave him a concerned look.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, tilting her head. Darius shook his head, embarrassed.

"N-Nothing," he told her, rubbing at his face. "Anyway, we better get going. I did promise her I'd actually finish this."

Ai didn't look completely convinced, but when Darius stepped bast her to get going, she didn't stop him. In fact, she started following close behind, swinging that big metal pole by her side.

"We're not far now," Darius continued, glancing at the map of his watch. He resisted the urge to zoom out on the map, to really look at the new world he apparently had found himself in. He was on a mission, after all, and he didn't want to get anymore distracted then he already was. "Another couple hours, at least. Er, maybe closer to a day, uh..."

Darius groaned. "I miss cities with public transportation."

Ai perked up. "Oh! I know a way we can go faster!"

Darius practically whipped around to look at her. "What? Where?"

"There's a settlement of people around here," she told him, looking proud of herself. She pointed to a sign that Darius hadn't noticed before. One faded and chipped away with age, other than the brightly coloured graffiti spelling out the words 'ThriFort, 2 Miles Straight Ahead'. "They have transportation."

"A town inside a city?" Darius asked, frowning. Then he shook his head, deciding that there were more important things to question. "Are they soldiers? Or gang members?"

Ai tilted her head. "Uh, just people, I think."

Darius' frown deepened at that. Did Engine lie to him, then? He wondered if it would be awkward to bring it up. "Well, if their not soldiers, that's fine. I... it's a bit out of the way, but when we have something to go faster with, I guess it won't matter."

"Right!" Ai agreed enthusiastically.

Darius shrugged, and lowered his watch, not bothering to plug the new destination into his watch. The instructions seemed easy enough. "Well, okay. To Thrifort, I guess."

They arrived to the town quickly, within the hour. The town seemed to have been a street lined with small business's once, but everything then had been faded, or torn down, and now most of the buildings had new brightly coloured graffiti on them, announcing their new purpose.

Written on one side of a white bricked building, the words: 'Welcome to ThriFort!' greeted them. It almost looked like it belonged on a postcard. On another building, the words 'Jone's Best Market' were written over a door in cursive. On the building beside it were the words 'Jawk's BETTER Market'. Across from those two was a store called 'Brewery. No WUSSIES Allowed'.