He's All I Have Now... (AMITA ROUTE)

VI

Previously...
"It's dangerous, and a very tricky climb. It's not heavily guarded but be careful..." Sabal sighed. "Promise me you won't fall."
"I won't. I promise." Taro walked out, closing the door. He went back to the house and grabbed his bag, beginning to head out. Shouldn't be too hard, it's old.

Taro made his way to the tower, looking for a way up to it. "Huh. Pretty difficult just to get to it." He looked around for anything. Then he saw it. A grappling hook. "Hell yeah!" He picked it up. "I shall channel my inner Mabel Pines." He smiled and looked around for a clear shot to hook on to. However, he quickly hid as he heard a couple of Royal Army soldiers. "Shit!" I thought Sabal said this place was old. Shouldn't they, y'know, not be here? He did say it wasn't heavily guarded... but that doesn't mean abandoned. Shit, what have I gotten myself into?!
Taro noticed a few bushes near where the two soldiers were walking. He smirked, picked up a rock, and threw it in a different direction. The two soldiers, startled, start to walk that way. Taro makes a run for the bushes, sliding into them as the guards turn back around. He watches as they inch closer to the bushes, and he thought he was dead. Until he heard a Kyrati man speak through the walkies on them. They answered, and began to leave. Taro slowly made his way from the bushes inside...
To find two Pit Vipers staring him down.
"Uh... don't bite me?"
They hiss and slither to him fast.
"Uh oh," Taro quickly grabbed an abandoned silenced pistol and shot at them. Once they were both dead, he sighed. "Phew. Thank god." He kicked their corpses aside and began to climb.
Sabal had been right, the climb was tricky. A lot of it had to do with balancing on thin boards to get to the next floor. Eventually he made it to the second to last floor near the top. To make it, he had to walk across a bunch of thin, barely-staying-together boards that were made into a sorry looking bridge. He took it a step at a time, however squeaked multiple times when a board creaked or cracked. When he was on his last couple of steps, the boards underneath him broke. "Shit!" He barely grabbed on to the other side of the landing, daring to look down. "Oh Jesus Christ I'm screwed," he looked down to see the Royal Army soldiers had returned, and just so happened to be standing at the bottom of the bell tower, directly under Taro. "Shit shit shit," Taro tried to pull himself up, but every time he did, a board creaked and he was afraid the guards would see him and kill him.
He heard something going on at the top floor of the tower. The sound of something dropping, and someone breaking something metal. Taro still held on for dear life. "Is this really how I die? To some loser who managed to get up here before I did? And then either fall to my death, or be shot down?"
"I don't know, is it?"
Taro looked down and saw a familiar man staring up at him from the third floor landing. "What the—Ajay?"
"Yeah, you didn't think it'd take me that long to skin some wolves, did you?" He sighed. "C'mere."
"Are you kidding?! I am hanging on by a thread here, man—"
"Trust me. I've got you."
Taro looked at Ajay, and then at the ground below. He was reminded of Jason. He sighed shakily. "If you don't catch me, you better spread my dad's ashes."
Ajay rolled his eyes, but held his arms out to catch him. "Swing over to me."
"Oh yeah, cuz that's easy," Taro said sarcastically. He started swinging his body, and eventually let go. He landed on the railing, and Ajay pulled him back from it before he either fell or the soldiers noticed them. He waited a few minutes before checking to see if they had noticed.
"How did you get to the top before I did?" Taro whispered.
"Something named 'The Whirlybird.' Kinda just a gyrocopter."
Taro blinked. "... you flew it up to the top?"
"Shh."
Taro stuck his tongue out. Eventually the guards left, not after becoming fairly suspicious at what was happening. They walked away, but not far enough. Taro hummed. "... is that a bow?" He grabs it from Ajay, taking a couple arrows.
"What're you doing?"
"Patience, Ajay. Patience." He aimed one soldier down, the second arrow ready in his hand. He fired at the first soldier, and then immediately fired at the other.
"Where did you learn this stuff?" Ajay blinked in amazement.
"Easy. I got a lot of training on my last vacation outside the states," he gave the bow back to Ajay, starting to head down the tower. Ajay sighed and followed.
Once they were at the bottom, the radio Ajay picked up crackled.
"Ajay, are you with Taro?"
"Yeah."
"Good work, brother! I heard from a nearby camp that you liberated the tower. When you're ready, you two should go talk to Longinus. He's a weapons dealer, and a priest, if you can believe that."
"Weapons dealer? A priest?" Taro blinked. "Those... those don't sound like they should be in the same sentence."
Sabal's laugh crackled through the phone. "I know Brother, but he's got good weapons. I'll put his location on your map, go stop by." And the phone went dead. Taro looked up at Ajay. "Well... I guess we can pay this... priest-weapon-guy a visit."
Ajay nodded.

When they made it to the location Sabal put on their maps, there were golden path soldiers testing some of the weapons. "Uh... where's the door to this thing?" Taro looked around the house... until he found the door right in front of his face. "... oh."
Ajay rolled his eyes and chuckled a bit. "You're really oblivious, you know that?"
"Hey! Don't judge me, it blended in with the wall!"
"Yeah, everything except the door knob."
"Shuddup!" They entered the small building to be greeted by a man, reading a book and holding a gun in his other hand. Before they even got the chance to say something, the man spoke in a deep voice and a thick accent.
"Welcome. I am Longinus."