Fatespun - Not a Chance

Part 2 - B

When he returned from his apartment a few minutes later, comfortably back in his regular clothes and hands washed clean of the blood, Sibby was sitting back on the dumpster, waiting for him.

“Took you long enough,” she scolded, though Nick saw a flash of relief cross her face as she checked his hands. He had also thrown the Runner’s small satchel in a larger bag which he had over his shoulder, just so she wouldn’t have to see the blood again. He couldn’t simply transfer the contents of the satchel to another because it was part of his deal to bring it back untampered with.

“Shall we go then?” Nick asked, and turned up the alley to head towards the Hand’s central building. He stopped after a only few steps when he noticed that Sibby wasn’t following him.

“We probably shouldn’t go that way,” she said, actually a few steps in the opposite direction. “There is a town meeting planned a few blocks down, to discuss things like food and the coming winter. It’s going be super crowded.”

Nick looked briefly in the direction he had planned to go, as if his concentrated stare would be enough to pierce stone and steel to see through the buildings. He wasn’t that lucky. He also wanted to get the package delivered and out of his hands as quickly as possible, which wouldn’t happen if he was delayed by a large crowd of people asking him about the next night’s movie.

He shrugged, nothing to do about it, and turned to follow Sibby. The back-alleys would be a little more round-about, but would likely be faster than trying to navigate the throng of people.

They didn’t talk much as they walked, only occasionally chatting about the latest gossip from the few days Nick had been away working. A few more people had left the Hand’s protection, likely heading to one of the other gangs. That happened every month, people coming and going in hopes of finding a better life. Sandra had a new boyfriend, her third that month. Stuff like that. Even those things were nothing more than a passing interest though, and were fully discussed in only a few sentences. The back-alleys were likewise uninteresting.

With the Hand’s territory being relatively peaceful, Nick felt the need to be only moderately on-guard. Sure, there was a small chance that somebody might try to use the ruckus of the meeting to commit a crime, but with his luck, he wasn’t over-concerned.

Needless to say, he was more than a little surprised when the ground beneath his feet gave way and he was suddenly engulfed by darkness and dust.

“Hoi, you okay? Nick, answer me!”

He could hear Sibby’s voice calling from somewhere up above him. The drop had rattled his head pretty efficiently though, and it took him a moment to unscramble his brain enough to respond.

“Stop shouting,” he said. “I’m fine. I think.”

“That wasn’t very lucky,” she said snidely.

“I don’t know about that,” Nick answered slowly, his eyes beginning to adapt to the pseudo-darkness. “Do you have a flashlight on you?”

“How hard did you hit your head? I haven’t had a working flashlight in years. We can’t even find batteries let alone…” she trailed off and Nick could hear the sound of her moving something around on the ground above. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she mumbled. “There’s no way this could… sonuvabitch, it does.”

“What are you going on about Sibby?” Nick asked, getting more intrigued by his surroundings by the second.

“Your luck never ceases to amaze me,” she said. “Heads up.”

Nick looked up just in time to see a beam of light dropping down from the hole. His reflexes, or his luck, had his hand snap out in time to catch the flashlight before it smacked on the hard stone floor.