TRENCH

True East - Chapter Two

After returning to Dema and giving himself a month to recuperate. Delroy had a burning passion to get out and this time, stay out. He managed to find a vulture that traveled back and forth between the city and the valley. He even managed to get close enough to it to put a tag on its ankle and hoped that it would find its way into Bandito hands.

He named the vulture Raphael Naphtali, which was a message itself. "To heal my struggle, my strife."

He fed Raphael and sent him on his way with the message. A very simple one that told them everything.

||-//

On the other side of the wall, there were the group of Banditos. Most would stay at camp with their own duties to perform. Others would go out, typically to hunt to keep the camp fed. Among them was Clancy, a typical hunter that would go out by early dawn for breakfast to give the camp. He didn't speak much, he saw no reason to and he even seemed to avoid it. The way he saw it, he had his job, and his job required him to be near silent.

When people would ask, he told them that he considered it a form of practice.

During tonight's ending hours, he prepared for a week-long expedition with four other people. The camp was starting to get low on food, so what the week on expedition would do is split into two groups. The smaller group of two people would spend their time catching decently sized fish, and the bigger group would hunt for animals in the forest.

That's when the vulture came in and landed right on the back of the chair for the map table. He had a chunk of ham in his mouth and he gave everybody that looked at him a tilted stare. Clancy was the first to notice the strap around the bird's ankle.

He stepped up and the bird didn't do a single thing. So he had him step up on his covered arm where he could read the note.

"West wall is blocked, East is up." The note said.

Clancy looked at the map table and grabbed a paper from it. Tearing it to size, he wrote back and attached it to the vulture's ankle.

||-//

Delroy watched out his window as he waited for Raphael to return. The small water droplets of rain making curved reflections of themselves as they landed on the glass. The only thing he could truly make out of them was his face. How it warped and distorted his figure and made him look like something that could only be described as "otherworldly".

Soon, Raphael would land on the gutter just outside the window. Scaring Delroy for a second before the appropriate reaction was reached. Opening the window and letting the bird in.

A torn bit of paper was attached to his ankle. Delroy took it and unrolled it as he let Raphael stand on his chair.

"We are the Banditos. You will head true East. We denounce vialism."

By the time the note got to him, the Banditos were surely on their way.

He couldn't stop himself from grinning at it. He pocketed the note and then let Raphael back outside. He dug under his bed for the beaten rucksack to begin filling it with the things he needed. His favorite story was second-hand, but he could spare taking it with him.

He put the rucksack over his shoulder and headed out the door of the housing units that resembled a rugged hotel. Maybe a hospital. He just had to hide his face from the fact that his stomach was turning with joy, and with fear.

All of the dwelling room numbers barked at him, and he used it to distract himself from what he was doing. Counting down until he'd reach the exit. 23... 22... 21...