Ashes

Part Twelve

The town was overcrowded which seemed strange because the town looked like a gigantic building project that had gone wrong. Most of the buildings in town wasn't even halfway built and the town in general seemed unlivable.

"What is this place?" asked Rubie as she looked around, noticing the townsfolks unusual attire. "They are wearing trash?" asked Janice and covered her nose from the stench of old warm and rotten trash, "Don't draw any attention towards us!" snapped James and pushed us all aside down an empty alleyway.

"What are you doing?" asked Rubie in anger as Sam almost fell off of her back, "We need to be careful!" replied James "Look over there!" he continued and pointed out a group of three teenagers around the same age as us, but they were heavily armed and seemed to look out for something? Or someone?

"Bounty-hunters?" asked Janice and took a quick look at the teens aiming their guns around, clearly showing the power they had over the people.

"Yep, they are bounty-hunters" said James and started looking around in the trash, "What are you doing?" asked Rubie and seriously questioned what went through James's mind for him to start digging in the old and foul-smelling trash.

"We need something that hides us" replied James and created as little sound as possible to not avert any attention towards us, "Janice keep an eye out" he snapped as he grabbed three trash bags and emptied them in the middle of the alleyway.

"Here" said James and gave Rubie, Sam and I our trash bags which we were going to use over our clothes as a disguise. "What about you guys?" asked Sam and almost gagged at the stench of his trash bag, "We'll be right behind you" said James assuringly and started emptying two new trash bags as we left the alleyway.

"Where do we go?" I asked as I grabbed one of the loose corners of the trash bags and used it as a hood to not draw any attention towards my flaming orange locks.

Rubie kept walking in the same direction as the rest of the people in the streets. Although she didn't try hide her hair like I did, she kept as far away from the three bounty-hunters as she possibly could.

Her plan didn't work though, one of the bounty hunter guys pointed out the peculiarity of Rubie's hair color and got the other guys' attention by hitting them and then he pointed her out. The three guys cut line of people and walked straight over to Rubie and took her aside for examination.

I grabbed Sam as quickly as possible and walked over to another alleyway and watched as the three guys walked away with Rubie at gunpoint.

"Why did they take her?" asked Sam horrified and watched as the four of them disappeared down a single road, "I don't know, but we're not safe here" I replied and watched as James and Janice came running towards us.

"Where's Rubie? What happened?" asked James and grabbed Sam from my arms, "The bounty hunters grabbed her" I replied and quickly followed the bounty-hunters down the road where they took Rubie.

"Woah calm down!" Yelled James as he started running after me to try and stop me, but I had to try to catch up to them. "We can't just waltz our way into where they're staying and ask to get her back" said James and tried to reason with me, but again I had to try to catch up to them.

"Hey, are you guys looking for something?" asked a hooded figure from deep down an alleyway, "No we're not!" yelled Janice and pushed us all away from the strange hooded figure and kept pushing us as he started calling out to us once more.

We kept walking until more and more hooded figures started appearing from the depths of the shadows of the many alleyways the town had. "Guys, we don't need a fight, do we?" asked James as he kept his hands in the air to surrender, as the hooded figures got closer and closer.

Janice calmly placed Sam on the ground and hid him behind the three of us as we all got ready to fight. "Hey, we're not going to fight you guys" said the first hooded figure we met and slowly walked closer to us.

"We genuinely are asking if you are looking for someone" said the hooded figure and removed his hood to reveal a partially scared face and the unique dual colored eyes he had. "We are the enemy of your enemy" he spoke with a serpent tongue and caught the interest of both Janice and James.

"The bounty hunters?" asked James and adjusted his glasses, "Ha! So, that is what they call themselves" said the scarred boy and chuckled as he circled around us. "Who are you guys?" asked Janice and kept Sam hidden behind us, just in case if a fight were to erupt.

"You guys have many questions, but I can't answer them here" replied the scarred boy and led the way down the street and down one of the darkest alleyways I had seen in town.

The rest of the hooded people circled us as we walked, further and further down the alleyway where we almost couldn't see anything. "Here" said the scarred teen and opened up a door, filling the alleyway with a slight glow of light. Janice was the first one to go inside, then James and Sam, and lastly me.

The door led to a large staircase, which led further down into the underground of the city. The underground was large, larger than the main part of the city upstairs. The underground was most likely made as a bomb bunker, but the only use it had for now was to keep a large group of teens wearing hoods hidden from the upstairs-world.

"What is this?" I asked as we were welcomed by some small kids around the same age as Sam. "Is it safe here?" asked James as he tried not to lose his glasses as he looked around the underground.

"It's safer down here than up there" replied the scarred teen further led us to a small hut lit up by some candles. "Go and play with the other kids, just stay safe and stay close" said James, as Janice and I walked into the small hut where the scarred boy sat down by a circle of candles.

"Do you know where the bounty hunters took our friend?" I impatiently asked as I sat down by the circle of candles, "Of course I know" said the scarred boy and fiddled with the flame of one of the candles.

"Can you help us?" I asked as I was about to light the place up with my ability, when he somehow made the small flame dance... like he somehow could control it?