Fake It Til You Make It

Chapter 12

Mix of content from Stampede episodes 9 & 10 hehehe
Also, hints as reader having a shoulder tattoo (very vague, could be interpreted as string from the shirt being confused for a mark), and CW for gsw and blood :)
Also also, I wrote this over the course of three days, so if you see any inconsistencies, no you don't.

Oh Fuck, Not Again!

Vash was quick to locate thomases from a lower section of the ship for each of you. He knew you and Wolfwood would follow him, so it wasn't like he really had a choice. You weren't about to give him the choice, anyway.

Vash had no words for her, Brad, or even you and Wolfwood; the only thing he wanted was to find Nai and get Roberto, Meryl, and Milly back. He knew if your trio wasn't fast, Nai could very well kill them if they had even breathed in his direction. He was guilt-ridden. This is was comes from traveling with him, for being associated with him. Would the same happen to Wolfwood? To you?

With the wired headphones in his ears (it made you wonder why they were so baffled about your Bluetooth ones), Vash listened in to a radio station. The host mentioned that the red plants were being taken to JuLai, which thankfully wasn't too far from where ship three was.

Having a thomas was nice, as it was certainly a faster mode of transportation than going on foot, but you had only ever ridden a horse a minimal amount of times in your childhood. It's been years since the last time you had even seen a horse in real life. You were struggling to keep up with Vash, seemingly an expert in horseback (birdback?) riding.

Still doing better than Wolfwood though, you thought to yourself in amusement. By the time the sandstorm and the ship were well out of view, Vash had pulled ahead while you stuck close to Wolfwood.

You were nervous. You could tell that Vash was too, but Wolfwood seemed more concerned with not falling off the bird or dropping his cross-like firearm. You knew you were all tense, but not sharing any words the entire hour it took to even just see JuLai in the distance was driving you crazy. You had attempted to ask for a plan or crack a joke every now and then, but it was no use.

You could tell that Vash was upset, and undeniably so. Even without seeing his face, you could tell that he was trying to withdraw himself from the two of you behind him.

Just outside the perimeter of the city, Vash made the three of you ditch the birds. They likely wouldn't be used in your escape.

Unfortunately, episode nine was the last episode you had seen before being sent here. You had absolutely no clue what was about to happen. All you knew was that Zazie and Dr. Conrad were talking to the reporters about Knives' plans for the planet and the plants. Of which, you knew very little about.

The three of you successfully snuck into the city without detection. Vash took the lead, followed by Wolfwood, and you trailed behind them. The webbing of skin between your pointer and thumb pressed firmly into the handle of your gun strapped to your side; your fingers wrapped around the bulky handle, and your pointer twitched at every small noise you could hear. You didn't want to take any chances. You were going in blind here. You're luck had gotten you this far, but now without any future knowledge, you asked yourself how long it would last.

"So this is JuLai..."

You glanced at Vash from next to Wolfwood. He looked around at the surrounding city. To you, it was similar in appearance to a dystopian version of Tokyo. Honestly, that's probably what it was modeled after. It even had huge, holographic billboards!

"It's.. changed, quite a bit," he commented.

"JuLai, the third city," Wolfwood began responding. "It's a fortified metropolis, largest of the seven cities. Thanks to her monopoly on water-producing plants. She can buy up all the bullets she wants."