Back at the place where Asher and Scrap are at, they sit around and they spent the time making small talk and resting. As of now it was extremely quiet and Asher speaks up to break up the silence.
"You know, she really seems to like you", Asher said, leaning back against the wall with his arm up on his face covering his eyes.
"What?", Scrap said, not quite understanding what he meant.
"Ace. She seems really attached to you. I'm pretty sure she cares about you more than she does me, to be honest. She wouldn't let me or Kor kill you, she's never been so protective over another human like that. I've noticed how comfortable she acts when your near her. She's also a lot happier around you too, normally she gots that constant pissy and angry mood. You know that "I don't give a shit about anything" mood? she doesn't act like that around you. It's so weird, well not weird but you know what I mean.", Asher said casually. Scrap who was now interested in what he was saying. Scrap didn't say anything, still taking in the information that someone legitimately I cares about him. He didn't know that's why she kept him alive, to be honest he didn't understand why she did that at all. He always felt like such an irrelevant person, someone who could just disappear from the world and no one would notice. A burden. It was a nice feeing, knowing that.
Asher speaks up again, "I just want to know what she saw in you, I know you saved her life but still. No offense but if I was her, I wouldn't of kept you around. You're still considered dangerous to me, save my life or not I wouldn't let you live. I would kill you right now but I know Ace would be devastated and probably kill me for doing it so oh well," he says shrugging the last part off.
"Yeah I understand", said Scrap.
A few hours passed and the two haven't made much chat since. Scrap slept most of the time while Asher just kept throwing small rocks at the wall for no specific reason. Asher hears noises outside and assumes it's Ace. He we correct as he meets her at the door and as she walks in she notices Scrap asleep and quietly starts speaking to wake him up.
"Sorry I took so long I had to go get my bow back.", she says lifting up her bow to show. Asher stiffens realizing that she went outside the zone and gets angry at the fact that she didn't tell them, she could've gotten killed if one of them saw her.
"You left the zone?!", Asher shouts. Ace panics and quickly hushes Asher down to avoid waking Scrap but it's already too late. He sits up and runs his hand through hair. He notices the two by the door and how angry Asher seems to be.
"What's going on?", asks standing up to walk over to the two, stumbling a bit from just waking up.
"Ace thought it would be smart for her to just leave the zone perimeter without telling us", Asher tells him. Scrap looks at Ace with a look asking her "why?". Ace points to her weapon that's leaning against the wall.
"I needed to get my bow, it's kind of important you know.", she said defending herself. She had a point, it IS important. She doesn't know how to wield any other type of weapon so without the bow she can't fight for herself. Speaking of that reminds her. Can Scrap even fight with a weapon? Sure he's good with fighting with just his general strength but that means he's only useful at melee. This makes Ace wonder if he's any good with a ranged weapon like a gun or something.
"Hey Asher.", Ace says grabbing his attention, "do you think the weapon vault on the top level is still intact?". Asher ponders that question for a moment.
"Maybe. Surprisingly that level didn't collapse so everything should be okay, that is if it didn't get raided.", he replied. Once she heard that first word she immediately gathered her things and grabbed Scrap by his arm, leading him up to the top level, which wasn't far away.
"Where are you taking me?", he says while trying to get out her grasp. But she wasn't going to let go so he gave up and let her lead him to the level.
Eventually they reach the top and Ace walks up the the small weapon vault and opens it up hoping for the best. Luckily most of the guns are still here which brought joy to Ace. Scrap stood behind her confused on why she brought him here. She contemplates which one to choose but decides on a simple combat pistols and puts it in Scraps hands and points to one of the pillars on the opposite of them.
"I want you to try and shoot that over there", she tells him while showing him the basics of handling a gun. She backs away to give him some space. He hesitates for a moment but then begins to aim for the pillar. Ace can tell from where she's standing that he's not going to hit it, but she stays silent. He shoots and of course, misses, Scrap stands there disheartened.
"I can't do it.", he says quietly. Ace doesn't say anything but begins to show him how to reload the gun and she tells him to do it again. He protests against it fearing that he'll miss it again. Ace helps him get into a good stance and shows him the correct way to aim. He aims again but this time using the tips that his friend shown him. With a bit more confidence this time he pulls the trigger. The bullet hits the pillar and little pieces of stone fly off of it.
Ace walks up to Scrap and puts a hand on his shoulder, "Hah! And you said you couldn't do it .", she says. He just smiles still amazed over the simple fact that managed to hit a pillar. He holds the pistol in his hand, inspecting it. He asks Ace if he can keep it and she obviously lets him.
"You can pick a bigger gun from the vault if you want", she suggests to Scrap who, as expected, liked the idea and got himself a sniper.
"Are you sure you want to use that? They are kind of hard to get the hang of", she says. He still decides on the sniper. Oh well, it's his choice.
After some time Asher comes up to the top level and joins Ace in teaching Scrap how to use his gun of choice. He's a quick learner so learning how to quickly aim and shoot came very easily to him. He seems so happy every time he hits one of the makeshift rock targets. Ace should probably try practicing to but she knows that it's not necessary, besides she found more interest in watching Scrap and seeing the joy he has when he hits for what he's aiming for.
Over the short period of time inside the zone ruins they haven't had a problem with them following them in. In all honesty Ace didn't know what to do now. The place is abandoned and empty, just another stone ruin to be forgotten in this world. The people who probably survived probably reached one of the other still-standing zones. From the looks of it, the "war" ended surprisingly equal as in deaths. In the beginning we had more on the force, outnumbering them. But they were obviously more stronger and in some cases quicker. The corpses of the fallen aren't even visible anymore, they're all covered over in the dust. Which is a good thing because seeing all those bodies wouldn't go down well with Ace, she already feels as if this war was her fault and seeing all those deaths in result of that war just would be too much. Oh well.
Asher hasn't been talking to Ace a lot since they found each other again, he just doesn't seem to want to be around her as much as he used to. But she doesn't blame him for it either, Ace has done something stupid and took a dangerous choice. It's fair for her old friend to lose trust in her. She would do the same thing if Asher did what she did.
She's decided it would be best to just stay in the zone, theirs still enough of it not it ruins for it to livable in. Not like they have much of a choice anyways with them still wondering around. It's like they're looking for something or someone, but what? Do they know that they're are people still around like Ace and Asher? Do they know about how Scrap isn't following their kind anymore? It's probably best not to try and find out.
Ace went ahead and told the other two that they are going to be staying here, as expected neither of them tried to protest against it. Asher walks off for no said reason and Scrap continues to go back to what he was doing. As that happens Ace walks over to the one part of the top level where the massive hole on the ledge is, the spot where the floor collapsed that caused her to fall during the beginning of the war. She sits on the edge of the gap and looks out over, seeing them mindlessly wondering around. Hoping that it's safe to stay.
