Lobo Malo

Chapter 3 - Into The Woods

The Theater
1734 EST

"State your business!" cried the sentry as Gregory approached the gate.

"I'm looking for Alani Kelso. She's a Division agent like me." Gregory held up his arm to show the watch to the sentry.

"Open up the gate!" A low growling sound echoed through the barricade as an electric winch pulled it to the side, opening a path into the settlement. Gregory slung his rifle and walked inside, hearing an electric winch beginning to pull the barricade back into place. A passageway had been rigged with UV lights, unusually thoughtful for any civilian settlement outside of JTF bases, which made Gregory incredibly curious. He approached a woman at a desk on the far side of the UV array.

"Where can I find Alani Kelso?"

"I'm not sure," said the woman. "Your best bet would be to talk to Odessa. She'd know where Kelso's run off to."

"Thank you." Gregory moved on down an alleyway, seeing how construction scaffolding had been arranged into ascending ramps leading up to the roof of one of the buildings, and across the alleyway to the roof of the adjacent building. Making his way up, Gregory was struck by the organization of this settlement. It wasn't bustling, but there was definitely potential here. Just as clearly, the residents were working hard to realize that potential. He stopped at the top of the ramps, asking for directions to wherever Odessa was located. One of the residents pointed to what had probably been a maintenance office before the Dollar Flu. Thanking the resident, Gregory moved over to the office and knocked on the door.

"Who's that?" came a slightly slurred voice from the other side of the door.

"My name's Paxton Gregory. I'm an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division, Analytics Branch. I was sent here by Manny Ortega, looking for Alani Kelso. May I come in?"

There was dead silence for several seconds, then the sound of a deadbolt being thrown back and a drawbar being removed. "Come on in." Gregory did so, closing the door behind him.

Along one wall sat an Army issue single bed, a tattered American flag tacked up above it, a few pictures tacked over to the side. On the bed sat a woman in an olive green tank top and fatigue pants, the right leg below the knee clearly a prosthetic. Gregory noticed the redness in her eyes and wondered if it was because of the cheap whiskey sitting on the bedside table or something else.

"Odessa Sawyer," the woman said, introducing herself curtly. "So Manny sent me another damned hero, huh?" she asked truculently.

"No, ma'am. I try not to make the kind of mistakes that make heroes."

A scowl crossed Sawyer's face. "Don't 'ma'am' me. I work for a living."

Gregory nodded politely. "As I said, I'm looking for Alani Kelso. Do you know where I might find her?"

Sawyer's eyes began to tear up and she bit her lip. "She's out there somewhere. Said she was going to go find Eleanor, wouldn't stop till she brought her home. Kelso will do it, I know that, but I'm not a hundred percent certain she'll bring my girl home alive. Hell, last time I went out with Kelso, I lost half my leg. I know how crazy she is, and how stone cold she can be." Sawyer shuddered and looked at Gregory, a rainbow of pain in her eyes. "You want to get in good with me? You go track down Kelso, help her bring Eleanor home alive. I know you're Analytics, which means you generally have to be inside the barn to hit the broad side of it. But you're all I've got. Find her, and find Eleanor, and I'll owe you big." Sawyer reached over, picking up a half full tumbler of whiskey and knocking it back in a single gulp. "You want to maybe fatten that debt up, you can deal with the thief."