Guns & Roses

Chapter 4: Lurking spy

[Sheriff]

'Nevada is too hot for this.' Sheriff thought to himself as he wiped away the sweat on his face for the fifth time in a minute. It had been 6 days since he'd left and he was almost already out of water, despite bringing more than he originally thought he'd need.

He walked with a consistently fast pace, determined to find another shelter before he ran out of water. The wind picked up and he turned his face away from it, closing his eyes and bringing his hat down lower to keep the dust from getting into his eyes. He was taken off guard when the wind got stronger, almost knocking him over before he could brace for it. 'Even the damn wind is hot, why the hell did I agree to this?'
His annoyance turned into a mix of fear and sadness, as he remembered the meeting and the hopelessness he felt while in that room. The wind slowed, eventually coming to a stop, in which Sheriff raised his hat enough to scan the surroundings ahead of him. 'Rocks...rocks... empty space... more rocks..'
He stopped when his eyes laid upon a distant building, almost hidden just behind one of the larger rock mounds. In that moment sheriff let himself laugh with relief as he began his way toward it, a new energy in his pace.

The building had... already had visitors, this became immediately apparent by the red speckled outside the door. Sheriff felt he shouldn't be there, and briefly considered his options.
'If I go in there's a chance they'll still be in there... but if I don't go in I'll run out of water soon.. ah screw it.' He told himself, as he stepped carefully past the metal door, which had been held ajar barely wide enough for Sheriff to fit into the building without making a sound. He slowly crept through the corridor, freezing whenever he accidentally stepped too hard and his doorstep echoed around the building. Each time he held his breath, hand just above the magnum in his holster as he expected the three to come out and ambush him at any moment.

The journey to the bathrooms was long and Sheriff had almost lost his cool with each corner he'd had to turn getting there, anticipating them to be around every one of them. He pushed the wooden door open slowly, relief setting in when it didn't creak as he opened it. He stepped in, careful to minimise the chance of making any noise, as he took in the surroundings. Mirrors had been smashed and the shards were caked with red, he stopped trailing his eyes along the ground to avoid seeing the bodies he knew were present. He slowly crept toward the sink, carefully slipping the bag off his shoulders and onto the floor next to him. He cringed at the noise that the zipper made each time he moved it further open, deciding he had opened it enough he reached into the bag, digging around until he felt plastic. Sheriff pulled out the first bottle, and moved to turn on the sink, but stopped,
'if they were to come in here... where could I hide?'
He slowly turned and scanned the room more closely, keeping in mind the secret compartments Auditor had decided to design into the buildings,
'And here I'd never thought they'd come in handy.'
He slowly moved to the wall opposite himself and began putting gently knocking against the wall, stopping when he heard the wall turn hollow.

He pried the entrance open, enough for him to get in and moved back to his bag, digging out more bottles. He listened carefully to the building, no noises could be heard, other than the wind outside attempting an assault on the concrete fortress. Confident he was safe, he turned on the tap, and began filling his bottles, doing all he could to finish his task in swift time. At the second-last bottle, he filled it to half before he heard a light thump from the hall outside, he slowly retrieved the bottle from under the tap, twisting on the cap and shoving it into the bag. He let himself relax when nothing followed immediately after, until he heard another thump 'shit' he thought, before forcing his bag into his grip and moving quietly as he could into the compartment.

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[Hank]

Hank approached closer to the slightly opened door, the tap from inside making a consistent flow of noise,
'that should be enough to cover my footsteps.' He thought, as he focused harder on the door ahead of him. He closed the gap in a sudden bound, keeping his head low he slowly reached his hand to his gun, ready to ambush whoever was inside. He slammed the door open, pushing his gun forward to shoot whoever was in there... but nobody was there.

He raised his gun and looked around at the bodies he swore he killed before,
'Did I not kill one straight away?' He moved over to the tap, shutting it off and watching as the water stopped streaming from the silver appliance. He listened to the room intently, all he needed was one shuffle, one breath taken too loud. Nothing happened, only silence greeted him. He moved back, slowly scanning the room,
'am I mistaken?'
He felt the room was cleared, until he saw an empty bottle on the floor, he picked it up, examining it.
'No, I'm not. This was never here when i first cleared the room.' He turned to his left, focusing on the red-tinted stalls, he slowly crouched down, looking for anything to give them away.
'Can't see any feet... are they standing on top of the toilet?'
He let out a small laugh at the thought, this was ridiculous.

He stood back up, as much as this was amusing, it was annoying that whoever was here had to drag it out. He pointed his gun towards the stalls, shooting once dead middle of the stalls, and one slightly lower than he'd shot before, they both rang out in a deafening boom, reverberated by the small stature of the room,
'At least the concrete quietened it a little'
He thought as he let the ringing in his ears fade. Still, nothing happened,
'Did I miss?'
He examined where the bullets had entered the stall, confused.
'No, unless this person is 1 foot tall I wouldn't have missed.'
He scanned the room again, even considering checking the bin tucked into the back corner of the room, before reasoning it was too small for anyone to fit. He scratched the gun to the side of his head
'Maybe they kept quiet enough for me to not hear if I hit them?' He was utterly confused. Somebody was here, yet there was no evidence of them being currently present.

"Hey Hank! You comin'?" A familiar voice rang through the hallway behind him. Deimos. He sighed,
'Well, if whoever is here is that good at hiding, I may as well not waste my time.' He clicked the safety on his gun back on, and stuffed it back into his holster as he walked back into the halls.

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[Sheriff]

'Holy fuck I almost died.' Sheriff kept himself tucked into the corner of the small compartment he was in. He focused solely on the wall he'd entered from. He heard them leave ages ago, but he was somehow convinced it was a trick. He didn't bother trying to keep his breath from shaking, as he slowly reached over to his bag. He quietly zipped it back up and put it over his shoulders, before slowly pushing at the wall, letting it slowly slide open with his force.

He made a quick scan around the room, whichever one had come in was gone now, he let out a sigh of relief as he slowly left and made his way to the door, pleading for his legs to stop violently shaking so he could keep steady. He walked through the halls, doing his best to trace their steps and eventually found his way to the back door which had been opened wide. He poked his head out and looked around, his eyes landing on the three figures in the distance.
'How in the hell am I going to do this..'
He questioned himself, pulling himself back inside and collapsing against the wall next to the door.
'Alright... if I want to do this and live, what do I do?'
He let his mind work by itself, letting the incoherent thoughts pass as he slowly calmed himself down.

'If I want to get in their group, which should I approach first..' he thought through this question fully, before deciding he would try to interact with the other two first,
'What were their names again.. Sanford and Deimos? Was it?'

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He'd followed the trio through the day, thanking any gods he knew for not getting himself caught. He peeked around the rock, and noticed Hank had left their temporary camp,
'Shit, where is he?' He briefly panicked as he looked around, before spotting them out walking in the distance.
"Alright.. it's just those two, and they're facing away from me.... this'll be my only chance to approach them..'

Sheriff took a long breath, forcing his nerves back,
'You can do this... just.. walk up to them and explain yourself before they shoot you.'
Letting himself take another breath, he forced himself to release his grip from the rock and begin walking towards the campsite.