The Lantern Bearers

chapter 11: a new face

I walked into Sullivan's bunker and walked up to his desk.

"Pockets running dry?" He asked.

"Yeah, whatcha got for me, chief?" I asked, passing my PDA to him.

"A teenager, no older than sixteen, ran from home. Said she took her father's gun, lantern, and bolted into the night. I doubt she's alive, but at least confirm she's dead at least.....its tragic that someone so young perishes." Sullivan said, passing back my PDA and me receiving it.

I looked at the info given, and it was gonna pay five thousand if she's found. She looked like a mechanic's daughter with a get-up consisting of mechanic goggles, gloves, sleeveless vest, baggy cargo pants with kneepads over it, and boots. She had long black hair with red eyes, and the complexion of a typical rebellious teenager. She definitely looked like she would be a pain to deal with if she's alive.

The location wasn't too far from the haven, seemingly just up the road a few miles north. I would do this one in like an hour at best and be back.

I would leave the bunker and zeus would run up to me.

"San! Are you heading ou??" He said excitedly.

"Yes, and you're not." I said plainly.

"What??"

"Your arm is messed up."

"It's fine! Look!" He said as he tried to move it, but stopped short and winced.

"Yui, make sure he babies his arm and doesn't do anything stupid..." i said bluntly.

"Affirmative." Yui said with a nod.

"Awwwww!" Zeus groaned.

"You heard me. You can't be of any use with a messed up arm." I said bluntly.

He huffed and walked back to the shed.

"Keep an eye on him yui, make sure he takes his pain medicine and works that arm." I said to yui.

"Affirmative, master." She said with a nod.

As i turned to leave, she grabbed by wrist. I turned to look at her to see what's up. She was wearing her usual emotionless face, but i felt something coming from her. Was it concern? I didn't think she had emotions, unless she's evolving.

I gave her a small smile.

"I'll be fine yui, focus on zeus!" I said.

She nodded and went to the shed.

I would turn on my lantern, and followed my PDA to her last seen destination by scouts.

Scouts have reported of a young woman fitting the image i received. Scouts normally go out, scavenging for supplies like we lanter bearers do, but they don't touch artifacts and tend to go for safer areas. They also go out and strictly gather information as well, but not do anything further. Their information usually goes towards PDA missions and such or to information brokers, depending on the information severity.

With lantern bearers like me, we're the ones that answer the PDA requests and utilize the information given by the scouts. When our jobs are done, we get paid.

I would soon arrive at my destination, with my anomaly detector beeping faintly in a particular direction. I just had it fine tuned this morning by old man Nathan, making it detect anomalies a bit farther than before, not by far, just maybe an extra foot.

I knelt down and investigated the ground, looking for any sort of disturbances. I would come across a faint set of foot prints that lead from what appears to be an anomaly field, through here, and off the trail.