Fears 3 - Journeys

Chapter 14 - Lightning

For the first time in his life, Pen wasn't lying. There wasn't anybody there. They had just tackled the guy, and he was on the ground. How the fuck did he disappear without a trace that fast?

"Okay, that had to be the entity," I squinted.

"That's... rather abnormal..." Jinn smiled and let out a chuckle.

"Wow, I thought you'd be freaking out right now," I laughed.

"Eh, I'm used to stupid shit happening all the time," Jinn shrugged.

"I could say the same about myself."

"That's cool and all, but now what? We have the map and shit. What's the new plan?" Pen asked,

"I guess we're ready to continue on the journey," I shrugged.

Jinn nodded and led us back through the city. Although we had run through the town and gotten lost along the way, Jinn treated this like any other day.

Jinn was a nice guy, but deep down, something wasn't right about him. He doesn't break a sweat in 100-degree heat, he can run the same speed as the entity, and he seems to know everything there is to know. The likelihood of this guy being better than all of us was high, but there was a chance that he was something else, which I thought of before going.

We arrived back at the front of town where Jinn had parked the camels. He unhooked the camels from their stalls and packed his backpack, preparing himself for the journey up ahead.

"You guys need anything?" Jinn asked.

"I guess just some hats or something just so we don't get sunburnt," Bottle suggested.

"It's getting dark. Are you sure you'd still need them?"

"Yeah, it's still 90 out here."

Jinn reluctantly got off his camel and gave us all our hats. We continued into the desert on the backs of our camels, not anticipating what would happen next.

The sun was setting, and it was becoming nighttime, meaning there was less visibility. I felt bad for Tree, as he could barely see over the camel's head. The fact that the sky was darkening made it nearly impossible for him to see where he was going.

"It's getting dark. Good thing I came prepared," I chuckled, pulling some flashlights out of my bag,

"I see you came prepared yourself. I was going to offer some lanterns to you guys, but it looks as if you don't need them," Jinn observed,

"Yeah, thank you anyway. We're lucky as hell to have you as our guide through the desert."

"Eh, it's nothing much. I should be thanking you guys for not giving me a hard time. This job sucks if your client is rude or doesn't know what they're doing. Usually, I may have to ride the camel with someone since their brain is the size of a peanut." Jinn rolled his eyes.

"Yeah," I agreed with Jinn.

"Say, where do you work?"

"Oh, I work as a detective in Goiky. I've been off the job for a long time now, so there's a good chance I may be fired by the time I go back."

"That sounds sick," Jinn said, praising my job. Hold on a second. Isn't Goiky at least a couple of hours away? Man, you guys traveled far."

"Yeah, we have a requirement we must fulfill."

"Shut the fuck up, Lightning. You forced us into this," Tree called from behind.

"Someone's unhappy they can't see over the camel's head."