The Untouchables

Chapter Eleven: Luke

 "What do you mean you're leaving?" Lynn shouted. "Take me with you."

"I'm not taking you with me." I told her again. "I'm only picking up a few things from one of the nearby towns. Nothing special."

Technically, I was picking up something.

Just not something for us.

Informer had asked me to steal an artifact that is supposedly in one of the abandoned lumber sites nearby. Apparently, it contained important information that could be useful to dethroning the Monarch.

"Please." She begged. She didn't ask as a question, but as a plea.

I could see where she was coming from though. Lynn had finally told me what led me to find her yesterday. I couldn't believe what she'd gone through in her home sector, and the love she had to have for her family to keep them safe even though it would mean leaving them. I had to admire her courage and determination to keep her loved ones safe and out of harm's way.

We've stayed together for a little over a week.

Unseparated.

She didn't want to be alone again.

She didn't want to even take the chance that she might have to be alone again.

And I can't blame her.

"I'm not taking you." I said again, not only to tell her, but also to make myself not take her along. "Plus, you're not in any state to walk around town." I gestured to her torn pants, shirt sleeves, and missing boots from the past week.

Embarrassed, she moved her injured ankle behind her leg, in an attempt to hide it from me.

I was pleased with how it was healing, especially since I bandaged it in the middle of the forest with nothing but what I had in my bag. She started putting weight on it a couple of days ago, and she's been walking around with only a slight limp.

"Tell you what," I started. "While I'm in town, I'll get you new boots, deal?"

"Fine." She sighed, reluctantly accepting my offer, and walked away in a huff.

"I'll be back soon." I told her.

I grabbed my backpack, checked that I had my knife on my belt, and walked into the brush. Thankfully, the town wasn't far, only about an hour walk from camp.

The wet pine needles squashed beneath my boots as I walked through the forest. The gray clouds were starting to part, and the freshly fallen rain made small puddles of water and mud on the forest floor, making the air smell fresh and clean.

A little fanged rabbit scurried through the bushes in front of me, the wolves howled ominously in the distance.

After a little while of walking, a raven started flying overhead, weaving in and out of the tree canopy.

The raven was here to collect the artifact once I had collected it, and I was currently nearing the town it was supposedly in.

I knew I was getting close.

The eerie silence of the abandoned town was suffocating.

Every footstep on the loose gravel of the road was deafening.

No children ran in the streets, wild and at play. No merchants were selling their wares on the side of the road, even the smell of a meal being cooked in each of the homes was entirely absent.

But even though the town was deserted, I couldn't help but feel like something was watching me.

Stalking even.