43. In Search of the Forlorn

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(A/N: I've been getting some confused comments, so to clear everything up: I recently rewrote Bo and the Beast and changed the ending so that Bo and Adam only are apart for 2 years. If you read the old version, you may be expecting them to have been apart for 11. But it is only 2 now. This chapter reflects that change because I wrote this chapter after the B&B rewrite. I haven't had time to change all the rest of We The Forlorn to match with the new rewrite, but hopefully one day soon I will! Thanks for your time, and enjoy the rest of the story!)

It was four days before they were ready to leave. Lan and her people were given instructions on how to reach the abandoned settlement that Bo and the rest had start out to find before they were betrayed by Silver. The nomads were also told where to find the Forlorn, and they left before anyone else with a promise to Esme to do their best to locate her tribe.

Since the Forlorn couldn't turn to TerraVictoria to stay, they'd have to make the abandoned settlement their new base. But without the militia in the city anymore, it wouldn't be hard to at least claim the supplies they'd left behind. In fact, Bo and Adam traveled the tunnels, along with Helga, Esme, and Khan, to retrieve the five hoppers they'd promised the smugglers who were holding their friends. They grabbed some food as well, but left most of the supplies for when they could come back with more hands. They'd need most of this to set up the new camp, and they couldn't spare much.

Bo and the others piled into the airship and headed back to the smuggler's camp. Bo hoped that nothing had happened to those they'd left behind, and Adam shared her anxiety. To try and assuage any fury over their late return, they stopped by the abandoned militia base and gathered as much of the ammunition and guns as they could. After that, it was smooth sailing until the smuggler camp came into view on the horizon.

"All right, slow down, Khan," Bo said, peering through a pair of binoculars at the wall that surrounded the base. "We don't want to spook them."

Khan raised an eyebrow. "I don't think anything we could do would spook them." But he slowed down anyway.

Before they could get much further, a voice came over the radio.

"State your business."

Bo picked up the radio to reply, still looking out her binoculars at the wall. Men and women appeared, leveling guns and canons at the airship. "It's the leaders of the Forlorn. We've come back to get our people."

The voice took a few seconds to respond. "You've been gone an awful long time. Suppose we've already killed all the parasites? We only have so many supplies, and your bunch has been sucking us dry while you've been out galivanting."

Though Bo's hand clenched at the thought of them murdering all the people they'd left behind, she knew she couldn't let them hear her fear. "Well, I guess you won't get this shipload of arms and ammunition then. We were going to trade our people for them, but if you've already gotten rid of them..."

Another brief pause followed, and then a different voice came over the radio. This one was familiar. It was the man who had done business with them the last time they'd been in Silver's airship, wanting access.

"We're allowing you in, but if there's any kind of trickery, you and the rest of your people are as good as rat food. Understand?"

"Perfectly," Bo responded, and through her binoculars, she saw the smugglers slowly lowering their weapons. A moment later, the gate opened and Khan steered the ship through and landed in the same place as before.

The smuggler's leader stepped forward as Bo and Adam disembarked.

"Where's the loot?" he asked, eyeing them suspiciously.

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