The Exile

The Waiting Game

The helicopter stayed by the nighttime clouds, avoiding unwanted eyes. Kearney didn't want to stop staring below him. Everything looked like specks of sand from their height.

"Sure looks nice up here." Kearney spat from the helicopter to see where it lands.

"Yup," Amy wiped her cheek of the residue Kearney left for her, "I'm glad you're having fun."

"Sorry." Kearney's smirk slowly turned to an expression of discomfort. The helicopter decreased its altitude slowly to get better stability as they reached closer to their destination. The lights of the city began to glow through the clouds. The nightlife was prosperous with countless of people enjoying their night out. This proved challenging for the Exorcists as they couldn't land discreetly. The pilot would have to change his landing zone to the nearest skyscraper that wouldn't be suspicious.

"This spot here will be the rendezvous," The pilot shouted over the loud chopper, "So be here in the next seventy-two hours."

"How are we supposed to get back here?" Kearney was puzzled—the building wasn't exactly abandoned, in fact, it was one of the eventful buildings out there.

"Don't worry about that," Amy chimed in, "We just need to find Kayden first."

"How are we supposed to find him in this hell?" Kearney stared below him where possibly thousands of people scurried through the streets.

"Are you finished?" Amy mocked.

"For now." Kearney replied without thinking about the sarcasm behind the question.

The twosome jumped down on the roof of the building with their equipment in tow. The helicopter lifted up and flew off back to the mountains.

"Do you have a lead on this Hell Walker?" Kearney turned to Amy, his eyes peered to hers, ready for any response.

"All I have is a photo of him ordering something called yakisoba." Amy pulled out a snapshot from her pocket. One of the Second Elder's scouts was tasked with recon around the city to locate a possible location where the exile was based in. They found him by a food truck among other patrons trying to get their orders placed. He looked like one of them, easy to disguise himself from his friends or foes.

"That's it?" Her partner responded with a sign of bewilderment, "Not exactly devil-like." He expected Kayden to be torturing innocents or causing destruction along the city, but instead he's ordering Asian cuisine from a food truck.

The pair located a fire escape and jumped down to it. Their training granted them agility and acrobatics that were on par, or even better, than the parkour experts seen on the internet. The elegance of their jumping while accurately descending the building showed just a minimum of their aptitude as Exorcists. No one saw them climb down or even heard them land onto the ground below. They skillfully blended in the shadows of the alleys, ready to scope the area for their target. The crowds of people walked throughout the sidewalks, standing in line to the hottest clubs, or trying not to vomit onto the asphalt. This was expected, but the amount of crudeness wasn't what they anticipated.

Amy was stared down with ill intent while Kearney tried not to create a disturbance with the sinners. Women dressed in an exposing fashion while the men were like Neanderthals trying to answer the night's mating call. The cars struggled to move an inch down the road thanks to the various people limping to the next street. The loud sounds of honking horns blared through the air. The pair couldn't adapt quick enough with the drunks lumbering over them and shuffling between them.

"Where did they get there manners?" Kearney grunted trying to squeeze through the inebriated crowd.

"Scope through them," Amy peered over the throng, "Kayden can be hiding here for all we know."

"And if he isn't?" Kearney advocated.

"He has to be here." Amy kept her calm demeanor. She was convinced that he was hiding out in the area. The only question was where he was taking cover. The night quickly passed and the streets was soon being cleared out of its patrons. Amy and Kearney kept cover in an alley by the hobos and other lowlifes of the city.

---

"How long has it been since we got here?" Kearney kicked cans out of boredom. Each can bounced back to him causing some noise to echo out in the alley. This didn't annoy Amy, but she couldn't speak for the people residing in the backstreet.

"Four hours," Amy stared out to the buildings, hoping to locate the Hell Walker in one of the windows,

"And could you stop kicking those damn things."

"Sorry." Kearney whispered.

Amy noticed nothing out of the ordinary except for a carpool full of impressionists of former Presidents of the United States. Other than that, no sign of Kayden.

"Maybe that was just a lucky shot," Kearney said, "For all we know, he could've just came to this city to visit."

"Visit what or who?" Amy questioned, "It's not like he has family or even interests besides death or destruction."

"I'm not saying that," Kearney gave Amy a look of confusion, "We're looking at this wrong."

"Do you have any better ideas?" Amy scoffed. They only have the next three days to find him, and the last thing she wanted to do was go on a cross-country adventure for one person. She prayed to pinpoint him in one location close to her.

"I'm thinking that he can be a recluse," The medic thought long and hard about it, "I mean, he was nowhere outside in the streets, not even the crowded areas. So maybe he's a private person, you know, like a hermit."

"That is a..." Amy's eyes widened in clarity, "Good observation."

"Thanks?" Kearney couldn't distinguish if she was serious or sarcastic. The new information changed the entire plan of investigation. They had to look at the least active areas of the city, like outside of the university, library, and isolated small towns. They began their search at a hotel to locate a map of the surrounding areas.

"Okay," Kearney scanned the paper eager to find an answer to their dilemma, "If I was a devil-possessed, combat-trained killing machine bent on chaos and the downfall of humanity, where would I be?"

"It wouldn't be the metropolitan areas," Amy continued to analyze the streets, "That's too obvious."

"Obviously." Kearney blankly stared at the map.

The hotel was soon packed with tourists and the like while they continued looking through the map. Their presumptions allowed them to remove a large area of the map, only focusing on the small towns a few miles away from their current location.

"I guess we should start now." Kearney sighed.

"The sooner, the better." Amy sighed as well.