Chapter 3 Allies

Sarah was nervous, but then again, she was beside the man that had threatened her a few minutes before, so no one could really blame her. Although he had put down the gun and wasn't doing anything weird (if you didn't count the unnerving piercing look he kept giving her) she was still uncomfortable and without a clue of what to do next.

"So… how are you?" The most stupid question that could be asked was asked. When it was clear that he wasn't going to answer she continued. "I mean, your wounds. I did my best but, well, I didn't know what I was doing… is the bandage okay?"

The man nodded, progress.

"Sweet, then, we need to do something. You are injured, and I have no idea how to help you so, how about we take you to the hospital and…"

"No."

It was said with such authority and finality that Sarah immediately started thinking on a new plan.

"I could go to the store to get you something? Is there anyone that can help you? "He shook his head. "Right, then you should rest, and I will go tomorrow to the store. We should make a list of what do we need to treat your wounds."

Sarah paused and looked at him and what she saw wasn't good. He was barely awake and was very pale, she wasn't an expert, but she had the suspicion that he could die at any minute. What could she possibly do to make it better? Should she let him die? She took a deep breath and spoke with all the confidence she could muster in a situation like this.

"You won't last long if we don't get help and patch you up in some way. Help me out. If you don't want to go to the hospital and you don't want to die you must have some sort of plan. Or at least a better idea than mine."

The man just kept staring at her, Sarah didn't know if it was tiredness or simply a refusal to have an actual conversation like human beings.

"Do you have any more supplies?" She asked without expecting a full answer, and she was right, he nodded. "Where?"

"I ditched them." His first sentence, the words got out in a very hoarse voice.

"Excellent, I'll search for them, are they far from here?" He shook his head. "Was anyone following you?"

His stare turned more intense and he seemed to be evaluating her. He took his time to decide if she was worthy of such information or no.

"Not now."

Fantastic, that didn't tell her anything. What if there were more people after him and she found them? She needed more information and he was starting to irk her.

"Do you want to live or not?" She finally asked annoyed at the lack of emotion of the man. "Because I do and if I go out there for that kit I want it to be for a reason."

For a terrifying moment he seemed lost, but it passed so quickly that she wondered if she imagined it.

"Take the Dog."

Sarah let out the breath that she was holding and sprung to action. The more time she let pass, the more chances that someone would get closer to where they were.

"C'mon boy," she said, and the dog followed her.

"Should I go right or left?"

"East"

Right, then. She was sure she could manage it, after all she just needed to find the trail of blood till the first aid kit was on sight. Surely, she would return before it got dark. Sarah walked through the forest as fast and carefully as she could and kept an eye on the dog in case he got a sense of anything.

Surprisingly there wasn't a lot of blood, but it was enough to follow the trail easily. Apparently, the man got farther than she thought in his condition, she had been walking for about a mile. She had found the kit behind a tree and she was glad the sun was still up… And a big cabin appeared on her way.

Sarah stopped and hid when she noticed there was a car with the trunk open, maybe someone else was there. She waited ten minutes, but no one came out, it seemed safe to abandon her hiding place and approach the car, so she did. There were guns, knifes and a freaking assault rifle in there. She calmed herself down, telling herself that of course, the man had threatened her with a gun and was badly injured after all, it shouldn't surprise her.

However, she wasn't prepared for the two dead bodies that where inside the cabin.


John Wick closed his eyes, he needed to rest if he wanted to do a proper assessment to his condition. He was very careful not to fall deeply asleep, just to rest and focus his mind on the task ahead. Once he felt ready, he opened his eyes and stripped himself to inspect his injuries.

If the bullet got out of his body (which he didn't know because of the bandage) it wouldn't be as bad as he feared, he could even survive with first aid, a shit ton of water and painkillers. Bruises covered almost every part of his body, but he discarded the internal bleeding, otherwise he would already been death.

He dressed up again, trying not to move much and put the blanket on again, as he waited for the girl and Dog. He took his gun and checked how many rounds did he had left, unsurprisingly not enough. In his situation nothing was enough or good.

Sleep claimed him, and he fully rested, when he opened his eyes again the girl still was missing. He probably shouldn't have given her Dog, but then again it was probably for the best. He thought of what to do once (if) she arrived with the supplies.

First, they should treat his wounds. She could probably help him if he gave her instructions, the bandage that she put was decent, which indicated some sort of talent. After that, he should probably get out and steal a car to continue and leave the girl in peace. It didn't make much sense to plan after that, plans didn't survive that much, and he would have to improvise anyways. He listed all his secret stashes and draw the optimum route to all of them from his approximate location. When he was done he slept more, still no signs of her. John really hoped they hadn't killed her.

A blunt sound woke him up. The first thing he saw and felt was Dog's face and his breath, respectively. He petted him and tilted his head just so he could see her, he lowered the gun he instinctively aimed at her. She surprised him again.

"It was farther than I imagined," She said panting and looking tired. The emergency kit was in her right hand and another satchel was on her left, she put both on the floor. "I'll be right back."

And just like that he was alone again without further explanation. John reached for the kit and opened it. Terrance and Clayton were well equipped, they had the good painkillers and almost everything he needed. The other satchel wasn't familiar to him, but before he could inspect it she returned. His brows rose just a bit, he tensed and had his gun aimed at her in seconds.

The honey-eyed girl had a rifle fund on her back and seemed annoyed at his actions.

"Really?" She asked, disbelief clear in her voice. "I just went wandering into the forest for the first aid kit for you, searched the car and the cabin with two dead men inside and THIS is what I get?"

John internally admitted that she had a point. However, he couldn't lower his gun, every fiber of his being screamed that under no circumstance he should do so.

Sarah noticed the shift in his demeanor and dropped the attitude, put her hands up in the air just like a couple of hours before and spoke in a calm, soothing voice.

"I'm going to turn around, so you can see I don't have anything else on me, OK?" She didn't expect him to answer and turned slowly. "I'm going to put the case on the floor." She announced, he kept looking at her. Once she successfully dropped the case, she continued talking. "One more turn, I'm going to put my shirt slightly up, don't shoot."

Another turn and she hoped he would lower his gun. Seriously, the annoyance-induced bravado was fading, and she could feel a knot on her stomach as fear rose. He didn't lower his gun but gestured towards her feet. She kneeled slowly and raised her pants and gave another turn. She spoke as she did so.

"I covered the trail of blood when I came back, and I took as much things I could from the cabin and what I couldn't carry all the way here I hid along the way, so I could retrieve them later without going to the cabin again."

Sarah could swear he was impressed but couldn't be sure, she would be impressed at herself in that situation, though. The sun was setting and that made it harder to see his face and read his expressions… not that he had many to begin with. She needed to offer something more.

"In that satchel are all the knifes, ammunitions and hand guns the men had." She waited a little. "My name is Sarah, by the way. Could you lower the gun? Please? It makes me nervous."

Surprisingly, after processing her words he complied, and she relaxed.

"Thanks." She awkwardly said.

She sat down on the floor and took of her boots to rub her feet. It had been a long walk indeed. The man moved, and Sarah tensed until she saw he was removing his bandages. It seemed that the wound stopped bleeding although to her eyes it was still bad. She looked at him and he seemed unconcerned about it.

He started nursing himself slowly and efficiently, she hesitated to offer her help, he would probably choke her should she came close.

"Do you want help?" Sarah asked nonetheless.

The man assessed her and nodded. She approached him carefully and didn't make a move that he didn't approve. For the tenth time in ten minutes she asked herself, Why I am even here?

"Do you see any bullet hole on my back?" He asked with a hoarse voice.

With the help of a hand lamp she could see there was a small hole on his left side, it was approximately half an inch into his body, under the ribs. She informed him this and he nodded (such an expressive guy) and asked her to wash her hands. She used the bottle of water that she had left and faced him. He was biting down a piece of the blanket, Sarah knew the real job was about to begin.


Sarah woke the next morning and rubbed her eyes, something was lying by her side. It was the dog, he was warm and looked at her, stood up, stretched and licked her face as saying, "good morning". She petted him and smiled, a meter from her was the man still sleeping with the good blanket.

Sarah stood and walked towards her backpack, trying no to wake him up as he would probably try to shoot her again. She searched for the trinkets the man from the store gave her yesterday and ate them quietly outside the food. The man was still asleep, Sarah was bored and decided to go to the town. As she walked out the cave the dog followed her.

"Stay!" She commanded in a whisper, the dog didn't look happy about it. "Stay here!"

She turned, and this time made her way to the town alone. It was still early, and she walked fast so she wouldn't encounter any more people than necessary. This time she avoided all homeless and, walked to the street where the store was hopefully she could start with her job right away.

"Hello?" She said when she entered.

A woman was behind the counter and eyed her with distrust.

"May I help you?"

"Yes, yesterday the man that works here told me that there would be an opening for a job and that I could take it." Sarah explained confidently.

"What was the man's name?"

"Glenn." Sarah said confidently as she recalled the name on the tag.

"Right, well the opening is for the night shift, but I think you could start learning now."

After the woman introduced herself as Paty, she explained to her everything, the work hours, payment, etc. She stopped when she took in her completely, made a face of disgust and said to her bluntly.

"You should clean yourself, use the bathroom, you'll scare the costumers."

After Paty left Sarah alone for twenty minutes and gave her a t-shirt of the store, the day turned out uneventful. Although she ate a hot dog, it was delicious and Paty's treat. At the end of the shift Paty surprised her and gave her a plastic bag with a bottle of water and some more of junk food.

"This will come off you pay so don't get too excited." She said gruffly.

Sarah smiled, said thanks and made her way towards the cave. She took a detour and grabbed one of the packages that she hid yesterday. When she arrived, the man was awake, and the dog received her wiggling his tail.

"Hey," she said. "How are you?" Again, no answer but she figured he was better by the way his eyes seemed clearer and more focused than the day before. "I see you're better, I brought this for you." She lifted the bag de shook it playfully. "I got this from my new work and thought that you needed it more than I do though it would be better if it wasn't junk food is the best I can do for now." She gave it to him, but he didn't take it. "Is there something wrong?"

"Eat it." He stated simply.

She opened the twinkys bag and took a small bite, she was trying to let him have as much as possible. He stared at her intently swallow the food (it seemed it was the only thing he could do). She looked at him confused, what was all that about? He extended his hand and took the food slowly and ate it still staring at her. As how it was now normal, the situation turned awkward and Sarah started babbling.

"They will pay me for week, I'm going to save for a bus ticket to the next city, I don't care which, and keep moving. Also, I brought another bag of the items I found in the car, apparently, they didn't eat or something, but they had water. I thought about going back and take the wheels or something, so we could sell it and have money… But it's a bad idea anyways, we will have to wait until the end of the week to buy a bus ticket or something. Also, you need new clothes, I only found a T-shirt and some pants, but you'll need also underwear…" She could feel herself blushing, this time she was sure he was amused. She cleared her throat and continued. "Even so, it's better than being covered in blood don't you think? And we must find another place to hide, your wound could get infected. Do you think you can walk if I find somewhere near?"

He nodded and for the longest time both remained silent.

"Does the dog have a name?" Sarah asked while she petted him and looked at the man, he shook his head. "Hum, I'll think of something, what's your name?"


John woke up in the middle of the night, the girl -he refused to call her by her name- was in a deep sleep. He took advantage of that and inspected every bag she brought from the cabin, at the end of his inspection he knew there weren't any trackers in the items. By checking her belongings, he confirmed that she was a regular civilian. Now the only thing that worried him was that the belongings that she planted on the way had trackers, but he couldn't do anything about those for the time being.

He looked at the black lump that was the girl in the darkness. He was almost sure that she had nothing to do with the Assassins, however, she couldn't be completely innocent either. After all, she had carried a rifle, looted corpses and hadn't faint when she saw his wounds. So, no, not a normal civilian but not an assassin either, and she couldn't be also a trainee because she would have been more skilled in her first aid.

What should he do with her? He wondered as he balanced a knife in his hand. She could be useful, she had proven to be smart to some extent and had stomach and good resilience. The only question that he needed to answer was, why was she on the run? He went back to sleep, there would be more time to figure everything out.

The girl's sounds woke him up again, he decided to pretend still being asleep. She didn't try to get near him, take any of the guns or killing him in general. He waited longer but she didn't seem to come back so he stood up and looked around. There wasn't a bomb or a device that could potentially kill him. Surely, she wasn't after the reward.

John started doing a quick assessment of his injuries, changed his bandage and forced himself to stan up and walk around the cave to train. He couldn't afford to be out of shape or sleeping around. Luck had been on his side this time, Terrance and Clayton were loners, so they probably didn't tell anyone that they had found him. Splitting the reward on two was enough for them, for sure. He needed to keep moving, the only thing stopping him was the girl and he was growing impatient.

He checked the time in the watch he still had and determined that he couldn't waste more time and the girl would be fine. Then, Dog stood alert, smelled the air and wiggled his tail. The girl was back. She carried two bags, one from the same store of the bag which she got the bandages last time. That was bad, people would remember her. As she spoke, things got worse.

She had gotten herself a job and she planned in staying there, at least for a week. That wouldn't do for him. Somehow between all her rambling she had the idea of taking care of the car, which wasn't bad, but he was glad she hadn't return to the cabin.

"..you'll need also underwear…" She said.

Was she real? Who cared for things like that in this situation? He was somewhat amused by her flushing and attempt at keeping it "cool". He ate the twinky she offered him and kept assessing her. That would be the perfect opportunity to test her. He let her keep babbling.

"… what's your name?" She asked looking at him intently.

"James." He said simply.

"Well, it's nice to meet you James." She said awkwardly, she paused and looked at him distrustfully. "Are you… being chased by them too?"

It wasn't necessary to specify who them were. John nodded, the girl went pale and stiff. They had something in common, they could work together.

"Why?" She asked and looked at the weapons spread thorough the cave's floor.

He decided to tell part of the truth, after all, she wasn't dumb. She had seen the corpses, the guns, his wounds, she wouldn't believe him if he told her he was a witness.

"I wanted out."

"Like Baba Yaga, right? When I was in the streets the homeless told me stories. I never thought they were real until…" She got lost on her thoughts and John knew she was, indeed, a loose end.

And a loose end that knew enough of their world to know his legend. Wrong place, wrong time.

"Anyway, we should help each other, don't you think?" She asked hopeful.

They regarded each other for a long time, taking in everything they say of each other. After a while, John nodded.

They established a plan. To Sarah's dismay, they would continue by foot after she worked a week in the store and bought enough supplies until the next town was near. She would also need to make a trip to the town to buy new clothes, specially for her. Sarah was now in charge of getting food supplies, ammunitions and medicines for the two of them and Champion -she had named the dog after all-, and for that she needed to look decent enough. As time passed she would need to disguise herself. When she asked where they would get the money he assured her it wasn't something they should worry about.

Sarah was astonished how much trust she put in this man who she just met and knew nothing about, that clearly could murder people. However, what other choices did she have? She needed to survive and so did he.


N/A: Thank you so much for the support! To the readers that had favorited, followed and commented this story, specially to FairyMaster23, who commented the last chapter. I hope you liked this one! See you in the next chapter! Happy new year!