It's The Little Things That Make Us Change

Lost

As Delta weaved through the bunches of people gathered around, she observed a large group of people in front of her stop what they were doing and kneel down on the ground. She looked around her and several other people had followed their actions.

"Oh god" Delta groaned and pushed through the now kneeling people. She knew exactly what was going on and didn't plan on being involved. Delta leaped to the side and took of running into the nearby brush.

Delta sort of remembered which route she had taken last night to the bar in area 20. Everything was clearer in the daytime, but not by a whole lot. Delta peered up into what little sky she could see, the tree's canopy covered most of it. There were flecks of bright blue and white here and there, but most of it was a dark flagstone blue that matched the tree's leaves and the grass on the ground.

It didn't take long until the grass was getting thinner under her feet and being replaced with concrete once again.

"Much faster when you can see" She scolded herself, remembering her ankle from last night. It turned out to be fine in the end. It had just been in an unnatural position for too long. Delta was glad Killer had come along and helped her with, it but she still wanted to be unsure about the man. She scolded herself for warming up to a complete dangerous stranger so fast

Delta pushed through a small bush and was out into the street of Area 20 once again. The streets seemed less menacing now. There were more people, but it was still quieter than her side of town which was strange. She turned her body towards the bar she forced herself into last night, remembering what Killer had told her to do. All she had to do was go in again and ask the bartender where grove 21 was. She prayed to god there was no one else in there.

A bit more confidently, she walked in to the bar and looked back to her right where the pirates had been sitting the night before. But all the tables were empty. Delta shrugged and guessed it was even too early for pirates to drown out there sorrows. She also checked the front and realized there was no bartender in sight. But soon the same man from that night came from below the counter to figure out who had just walked in.

"Oh..its you?" He sounded surprised to see Delta back so quick and early.

"Uh...yeah.. I had a question actually" Delta waved at him.

"Yeah?" He responded. He wasn't even looking at her anymore, he was busy scribbling on some small paper.

"Where is...grove...21?" Delta asked quietly. She shifted her weight nervously on to one foot.

"If you go out to your left just keep going for a bit, you'll pass a bar that has a map next to it and it should tell you if it's left or right from there." He looked up and pointed out the door.

"I can't really remember the exact directions, sorry" the bartender shrugged.

"That's okay, thank you!" Delta was already halfway out the door before the poor guy had finished his sentence. She burst out through the doors and took towards the left. She didn't want anyone questioning her actions. If the people back home got the news, she would be in some amount of trouble..

"So he said to the left and keep going" Delta repeated the words to herself. For some reason she wasn't as skittish now, maybe because the streets were a bit more occupied now . She saw a couple of people who looked to be pirates, but mostly Marines and commoners. Everyone seemed to be happy and minding their own business. A small woman ahead of her at a stand was handing out what seemed to be maps. Delta took one for herself.

"Just in case, ya know, I can read an actual map" Delta laughed while looking at the folded piece of paper. Thankfully it was just one of those simpler maps, not one of the fancy ones skilled navigators used.

"I can do that" She smiled to herself. Busy reading the map, Delta kept forward, intrigued by what was on it. An entire breakdown of Area 20. There were some curious shops, bars, and some places had stamps on them with a strange smiley symbol and some had a red cancel sign marked over them. Delta assumed they were the places to avoid.

Delta was so intrigued by this simple map, she hadn't noticed she walked herself into a restaurant till the very last minute.

"Hello, are you dining by yourself?" A male voice asked Delta.

Delta kept her face buried in her map, pretending she didn't notice a waiter was in her presence.

"Hello?" An annoyed voice asked.

Delta dared to lower the map away from her face a little to scan the room with her brown fearful eyes, not even paying attention to the waiter. She did not like what she saw and very quickly turned around to leave with her heart rate steadily rising.

"Delta, what are you doing here?"

"How do they know my name?!" She thought to herself, panicked.

"What are you doing?!" The waiter repeated and turned the poor girl around.

Delta was ready to spout some sort of nonsense from her mouth, but quickly changed her mind upon who she saw.

"Tate, what are you doing here?" She pointed a finger in the waiter's face.

"You know I work here on weekdays" Her friend groaned and slapped Delta's hand away from her face.

"Before you do or say anything I suggest you leave, it's dangerous here." Tate warned her.

"Oh I was, don't worry." Delta grabbed the young man's shoulders and stood on her tip toes to try to peek around him to the tables. Obviously this town had many well known pirates in it but, Delta hadn't expected to come face to face with so many. A well known pirate named Basil Hawkins was sitting nearby with his crew. Delta had heard of him and remembered someone telling her he wasn't too much trouble but she didn't want to be the one to induce the trouble. And he was kinda terrifying in her opinion. The strange man and Delta locked eyes for a moment. That was enough for her to bolt without explanation to her friend.

"Where are you going?" Tate tailed after Delta trying to get her to turn around.

"At least tell me why you're here anyways!"

Delta stopped at the open doors of the restaurant, fumbling with the map in her hands. She turned towards her confused co-worker but once again met eyes with the pirate.

"I think I'm lost" she choked back to Tate. And with that she tore her brown eyes away from the steely red ones and left. Delta had never wanted to be so far away from someone in her life.

"That was terrible, Delta. Just terrible" She mouthed to herself silently. She wanted to put that little incident behind her forever. She had never felt so awkward about anything else in her entire life. Choosing to ignore it, Delta fussed with the map again trying to find the particular restaurant on it. She trailed her fingers to the drawing of it and saw a tiny little print next to it that said grove 21 on a drawn sign.

Confused Delta peered around the town. She avoided eye contact with everyone and everything, just trying to find the sign.

"Oh..its there" Delta smiled. There was the sign staked into the ground that matched the drawing on the map.

Excited, Delta passed the sign into the grove, not ready for what was going to happen next as usual.