Me here. In a sudden burst of inspiration I have uploaded this chapter in record timing.
Anyway, I apologize for the slow pace with which the story has been progressing up to this point. Things speed up considerably in this chapter. I hope you enjoy it!
Eerie moonlight lit the path leading up towards the mountains. It had been sometime since they had left the village now, and the path climbed on, higher and higher into the rocks.
"Dammit, we should've found it already!" Reno cursed. It was obvious he was getting agitated. They had been following the path for a good hour or so now, and they were still no closer to finding this abandoned farm the village people had talked about. Rude was still focusing hard on the path, an intent look on his face. Astrid yawned.
"Did it ever occur to either of you that they gave you false information?" She'd had about enough of this pointless stroll as the other two had. In fact, she was pretty sick of the whole journey. They'd asked her to steal something for the company. Well the only thing she'd stolen since leaving home had been half a loaf of bread, and that had been stale anyway. Reno ignored her.
"Huh. Ignore the thief," Astrid muttered. She was beginning to lose track of how many times they had blatantly ignored what she had to say. She fell back from the other two. Even Reno wasn't chatting at the moment, and the air around them grew thick with silence.
Something caught Astrid's eye off to the side of the road. It was...what was it exactly? Something moving...she squinted, trying to spot it more clearly. Whatever it was was about 100 meters to her right. It was following them along the path, walking almost directly in line with Astrid herself. She blinked. If she wasn't mistaken, that was—
A hand reached out from behind and smothered her mouth with a cloth. She opened her eyes wide and tried to yell out, but her mouth wasn't behaving itself. Her vision blurred around the edges and went black.
"Hey!" Someone snapped their fingers in front of Astrid's still closed eyes. Her head throbbed. Her eyelids felt glued together. Whoever this was was going to have to wait.
Splash! Icy water poured over Astrid's head. Gasping, her eyes opened. She coughed and spluttered. She tried to move a hand up to her face to wipe away the water, but she couldn't lift her arms. They felt wobbly and heavy. One of them throbbed hard, matching the rhythm of her head.
"What was that?!" the thief shouted indignantly. She let out a stream of courses. Someone stepped forward out of the darkness of the musty room.
"Be quiet!" they barked. Astrid looked up. She saw a young frowning face staring down at her. She peered past him, trying to see into the gloom, but she still wasn't herself. Whatever had made her faint was still working on her. She would just have to rest it off. She settled back against whatever she was propped up against.
"Listen," the person began saying. "We don't want to hurt you. But...you'll have to cooperate and answer some questions first. Those people you were with—they're from Shinra, aren't they?" As he spoke Astrid began to recognize his voice. It was the younger speaker from the house she had broken into earlier that afternoon. He sounded far more hostile now, though.
"Well?" the person asked again, a little more impatiently. Astrid sighed. There was nothing to stop her from selling the other two out. After all, it could mean the difference between escape and staying in this room for a while. The person in front of her was glaring into her face. She opened her mouth to tell them, but something stopped her. Instead she said, "How should I know? I followed them out there."
"She's lying. I saw her with them yesterday," someone else from further back in the room called out. Their voice was shaky. The man in front of her grabbed Astrid's wrist hard.
"I meant it, we don't want to hurt you..." he warned.
"Fine, I'll tell you the truth," Astrid said quickly. She paused and bit her lip, surely there was some way to buy some time. The man twisted her wrist.
"Ugh! Hold on! I said I'd tell you, I'm getting to it, ok? If it weren't for you knocking me out I'd be able to think a little clearer," Astrid yelled.
Several other figures stepped out of the darkness behind the first man.
"You've had plenty of time," one of them said. The others grumbled their agreement. The man twisted her wrist again, much harder. Pain shot up through Astrid's arm. Her mind raced.
"Those two are..." she began. She looked at the men around her. They had tough, weathered faces. Some of them were quite burly, but even the burly ones looked nervous. Nervous and tense. Most of them didn't look like the kind of people who were really out Her mind worked like clockwork. These people were completely out of their element. She just had to tell them something to get rid of them for a few minutes. She took a deep breath and readied herself.
"Yeah, they're from the company. But if I were you, I wouldn't be standing around asking me about it. They've got reinforcements nearby," she lied gruffly. The man in front of her looked to the others in the circle. Apparently he thought it was even slightly feasible. The moment his back was turned, Astrid took her opportunity. She used her elbows and legs to jump into a standing position. She gave a feeble kick at the man who was crouched in front of her, his back turned. It did nothing more than make him stumble forward a little. She never had been good at self-defense. The room suddenly came alive. Several people made movements to grab her all at once. Astrid ducked out of the way and slid her skinny frame between the people. Someone grabbed her ankle. She kicked them off, and stumbled blindly forward into the darkness, running straight ahead and hoping there was nothing in front of her. People behind her were yelling, asking each other where she was, how she had gotten away. Astrid's heart raced. She still felt woozy from being knocked out, and she stumbled blindly forward into the darkness. Her hands groped at blank, thick air in front of her. Footsteps behind her told her people were coming. She could tell these people at least had a better idea of where they were going than she was.
Astrid slammed against something in front of her, knocking the wind out of her.
"Did you hear that? She's by the door!" a voice called. All at once, the footsteps all turned and began running toward her. Panicked, Astrid ran her hands down the barrier she had hit. Her hands gripped a handle. She wrenched open the door and flung herself through it, running like a bat out of hell. She was back in the open air now. She chanced a glance back over her shoulder and saw about twelve people following her out the door of a tiny shed. That was the last time she looked over her shoulder. She simply ran after that. The people were gaining on her, she could tell. Astrid felt herself slowing down. Her legs still felt wobbly and weak, and her head was pounding with every step she took. She knew she wouldn't be able to outrun them. But maybe she could disappear. Disappearing was what she did best. She looked around wildly. The path she had been traveling on earlier was nowhere in sight. Giant crags loomed to her left. To her right was nothing but open field and moonlight. She headed for the shadows cast by the mountains. As soon as she was there, she threw herself down into the long grass and lay there, waiting for the people to pass by. She was breathing fast and hard. She kept her face planted firmly in the dirt, not daring to look up in case someone see her move. Her pursuers ran by, whisper-shouting to each other furiously, presumably trying to be stealthy. She could hear that they were far closer to her hiding place than she would have liked. Sweat dripped down her face. Astrid concentrated hard on stilling her shaking knees. Just as she was sure she had lost them, someone grabbed her from behind. Astrid screamed. The person clapped a hand over her mouth and spun her around.
"What, are you crazy?! They're gonna hear you, yo!" Reno was glaring down into her face. One strong hand gripped her shoulder tightly. The other was tight over her mouth. His red hair gleamed in the moonlight. Astrid's heart skipped a beat as she realized it was only him. She breathed deeply and tried to relax. Reno took his hand away from her mouth, and supported her other arm instead. Astrid winced and swore quietly.
"Don't. I think they did something to it while I was knocked out," she snapped. She looked down at her arm. There was a deep cut in her shoulder. She pushed the pain out of her mind. It didn't hurt too badly, anyway.
"Where's Rude?"
"He's at the shack, trying to get in. There's some combination lock and it's too sturdy to break down. Guess that's where you come in, yo." Astrid took another deep breath. She felt relaxed now, but her close escape had sharpened her senses and the pain was starting to get worse. She pushed it back again. Her job here was almost done. She and Reno kept to the shadows as they made their way back to the shack that Astrid had recently escaped. Now that she was facing it, it was obvious that it was the old farm. There were remnants of various buildings around the place, and a huge silo stood on one side of the shed. She could barely make out movement near the silo, presumably Rude working at the lock. As they hurried toward it, Reno filled her in on what had happened. Apparently the weapons smugglers had been tipped off that people had been snooping around the village and had expected someone to show up. They'd used a chemical to knock out Astrid and several of them had smuggled her away while others attacked Reno and Rude. They weren't skilled fighters, and Astrid's companions had beat them fairly quickly. They'd followed them to the shack and had been working on fighting a few of them outside while Astrid was inside being questioned. They'd finished them off as Astrid made her escape, and that was where they had met up. Reno finished telling her as they reached the silo. It was a tall, metal structure. The doors looked pretty heavy.
"I got this. It's what I was hired for," Astrid said gruffly, pushing Rude aside. She still wasn't quite herself, and being saved hadn't helped either. She wasn't used to being saved. She tugged on her necklace, and a series of tools lay at her disposal. She began fitting various things into the locks, biting her lip in concentration. Twice she had to start over, but finally she made it. She pushed gently on the door. Reno whooped, and even Rude seemed slightly less stern. The door caught. Reno stopped cheering.
"What's the matter, yo? Open the door!" Astrid glared at him.
"It's stuck, ya moron. There's a chain lock on the other side...how do these people get in anyway?" She slipped her skinny arm between the door and its frame, and fumbled around for the catch. She couldn't reach. She swore.
"Do you have something that cuts metal?" she asked, facing the other two. Rude reached into his pocket and produced a knife. He flipped it around and used the hilt to smash through the rusty chain on the door. Astrid nodded approvingly. She checked back over her shoulder to make sure there weren't anymore smugglers waiting to surprise attack. Then, slowly, Astrid leaned forward and pushed open the door.
