Fahd and Val had all four of the 'kids' going through their paces in the morning.
Marin and Danny were on their second cup of coffee. They had spent half the night, debating whether or not they would do this very thing. If the four of them were safer to go their own way. Or go through with Marin's plan to learn under Fahd and Val.
Marin and Danny agreed, that anyone not willing to help a stranded driver were no friend of theirs. Ultimately, Between the six of them, there was one working car.
Shawn and Jamie had been part of the conversation for the first hour, in the room the four of them shared. It quickly became a debate between Danny and Marin, with Jamie and Shawn mostly listening.
Danny and Marin hammered out what the final plan was, what they agreed on, what they didn't agree on. And what the four of them were desperate for.
Fahd and Val were not-nice-people, they couldn't be trusted to the very end. But Danny, Jamie, Shawn and Marin desperately needed help. They needed Gil, skills, materia, jobs, more equipment. And more Gil would get them there.
They would stay by Fahd and Val, up until they could afford to break off on their own.
Danny agreed in the end, to break it off in a way that wouldn't upset Fahd and Val. No one would abandon the mercenaries. Nor did the four of them trust the mercenaries deeply.
Their poverty was making them desperate. Even Marin could admit that this was foolish. But they didn't have enough Gil to go more than a days, maybe a week, on their own. They didn't have a car any more. And this rest stop 'Mel's Diner' wasn't hiring.
So now they all stood in a field close to the Rest Stop. Fahd and Val were figuring out what Danny and Jamie were capable of. While Marin showed Shawn how to use Materia. They were taking turns. Everyone needed to know how to activate the magic Materia, as well as how competent they were at anything.
Which wasn't much. AVALANCHE and field experience had put Danny's feet to the fire. He was alive because he had picked things up quickly. His life had depended on it.
Shawn had skills, he had a great many skills. But many were book-ish or slinging coffee. And some of his book smarts were tied to the geological history of another planet. What kept him going, was the fore knowledge he had of the video games this world was from. Or the game was from this world?
Jamie actually impressed Fahd the most. She was fast, faster than the others. She could kick, flip and jump the highest. And her fast hands translated to slipping things out of Fahd's pockets, which impressed Fahd more than Val.
Marin was not jealous of what Jamie could do that Marin couldn't. Marin knew the hours of practice that Jamie put into those skills. A couple of which she had been teaching Marin, so they could practice with each other. Marin wasn't as good as Jamie, but that was just a different in time invested in practice.
They ended up being paired off. Val had Jamie going through some paces, Fahd was over there with Danny. And Marin attempted to teach Shawn what Marin had a natural talent for, magic.
"But I did do that, Marin." Shawn complained, as she failed to teach him to pull his will through the healing Materia, again.
"I didn't say I was a good teacher, I said I would try." She snapped back, she couldn't tell if it was her teaching or Shawn's inability to learn. And it was bothering Marin. Shaking her head, she noticed Val watching the two of them while the pink-haired woman was running Jamie through some drills.
The older woman, whose gray-ish roots under the pink dye, showed expression and mirth on her face. But Val was just as closed to being read as Fahd. She just showed sardonic mirth most of the time.
Marin couldn't tell what went through Val's head most of the time.
Whatever Shawn had said next, another failure to make it work. Marin growled in frustration with herself. "It's so easy. I'm sorry Shawn. I just don't know what you're doing wrong."
That's when Val stepped in and made the necessary corrections. The laugh lines that crinkled at her eyes made her the oldest of all of them. Even as she deferred to Fahd.
Marin was more disappointed in herself, than angry, when Shawn threw a small ball of fire at a nearby empty hill. She griped with herself for being a bad teacher instead. 'I couldn't get Shawn to cast even one spell?'
She did the math, when Shawn tapped himself out. Noting what his starting capability was with between breaks, with magic.
"You should know your own limits." Val told them both.
Which was nearly twice what Marin could cast in one sitting. Yet Shawn wasn't blooded, as Marin had been between here and Icicle Inn. And she had nothing on Danny for fighting experience.
It was still good to know that Shawn could be depended on to step up even more than Marin could, when it came to magic. Though she had a few days more experience with a gun, or even her own fist, over Shawn. She chalked it up to the years Shawn had on Marin. All that book learning really had made him a Mage.
Whatever the reason it mattered more that they could step up to back each other up.
'Maybe he really will be a mage.' She thought. 'But what does that make me?'
It didn't matter to her much. She was alive, they were alive. As long as that continued. Whatever edge they used to remain that way was all right by her.
"Break!" Fahd called.
"He told me he was bored." Jamie said.
Danny volunteered his answer, "He told me that something Marin had said had earned his respect."
"Huh, Fahd never told me a reason." Shawn said. "Val only 'tsked' and huffed off. Like I was a moron for not figuring out why they would teach us."
"What about you Marin" Jamie asked. "What reason's Fahd given you for taking us under their wing?"
Marin shrugged, "Ultimately, does it matter?"
"Don't you want his respect?" Danny asked her
"I don't know him." Marin told the other three. "I don't know if I want his respect. But I know we need the two of them. And our desperation is no secret."
"They're also being inconsistent with why," Shawn said.
"So they made a mystery for us to solve." Jamie said. "Isn't that what we're doing right now? Trying to figure them out?"
"The thing is," Marin continued, "Does it really matter who they are?"
"I'd like to know why they are doing what they're doing." Shawn said, scratching his chest. "Who it is we're putting a certain amount of trust in." He put out his hand at Marin's look of disbelief. "they're teaching us, that requires some trust."
Marin nodded at Shawn's words.
"So what does that make us?" Danny said. "There are four of us, with four different reasons why Fahd and Val are doing what they're doing."
"And I'm saying it doesn't matter." Marin told him. "Just as long as the why doesn't lead to us getting hurt, because we're under their wing."
Jamie looked shocked, "Are you saying they might be planning to hurt us?"
Marin shook her head. "No, not that. It's more, uh." she searched for the right word. "causality. Maybe we put ourselves at risk because we're with them. Or something bad happens because of something they don't do. Not anything nefarious."
Shawn studied the dirt under his nails. "Or on purpose."
Jamie looked more worried.
Danny reassured her, "I get what Marin's trying to say. they're helping us, but that doesn't mean we're safe."
"They're not safe?" Jamie asked.
Marin's face hardened, she tried to keep it blank. "I don't see a point to be having this discussion. We don't know anything. Just because we're with capable people. Doesn't mean we're safe from all the dangers out there." Marin waved at the window, with closed curtains.
Shawn picked up the thought "There are many things out there, some are only sleeping right now, that're dangerous to everyone. Even with Fahd and Val helping us. That doesn't mean we're immune to getting hurt by something. that's what Marin means."
Marin lay down on her side of the hard bed. "Yeah. It's a dangerous world out there. And there is still a war going on." She yawned. She'd been dealing with the garbage in her own head for months. She didn't like having so many problems in front of her, but it was a break from the garbage in her mind. It was a relief in it's own way.
Jamie still looked crushed. Marin had no idea what else she could say to reassure her girlfriend.
Jamie's brother tried.
"We need sleep," Shawn started. "Val said that it'd be another early morning tomorrow. And we haven't gotten back on the road yet." Marin rolled over to face the wall.
"Marin..." Jamie asked.
Marin shifted to face Jamie again and held and arm up, in that way that invited touch.
Jamie lay on top of the blankets and curled up in Marin's arms, for comfort.
"I can't cure your worries." Marin whispered into Jamie's ear, "But we can be here, now."
"I wish you could." Jamie said back. "Cure them I mean."
"Mmm." Marin said, disagreeing with that sentiment. "Maybe, but. It's better if we go over this so we can learn how to live with it." Marin felt like a hypocrite for saying that. She worried too much about everything.
Danny and Shawn looked awkwardly around, and busied themselves, getting ready for bed.
Marin had spent months and months worrying and stewing in her worries. She done nothing for months. She had shut Jamie out on Earth.
"I don't have to like it though. "Jamie said.
"I don't either. But I had to learn how to live with it."
"Did you though? Did you learn to live with it?" Jamie asked, sounding like an innocent question.
"Not really," Marin said honestly, "But I'm trying to learn how right now." Marin's whole metaphor about 'yesterday, today, and tomorrow problems' was all about choosing to think on things that were right in front of her face. And put aside things that could wait for later. It didn't work most of the time Marin tried it. But it was something she could attempt. To compartmentalize things that were done, or had yet to come. So that she would only over think what was right in front of her.
Such as how the whole problem with Fahd and Val had melted away. The four of them didn't have to get up until the dawn tomorrow. But Jamie needed Marin right now, in this moment. So they spooned, front to back. With just the blankets between them.
Shawn, as Jamie's older brother, was the outlier that had been forced to reach a level of livable comfort with Danny and Marin. Whereas Jamie, Danny, and Marin had already been there a while. It was only awkward where there were 'other people' around. Though everything was awkward right now. With long hours on the road, with no one having a chance to be alone in the bathroom.
At least the friendships lay in such a way that, when Shawn needed to change in the bathroom. He wasn't holding anyone else up. Danny, Jamie, and Marin had already reached a point in the false summer, a year ago. Where they had been down to bathing suits in the heat. Shawn just needed time.
Between Marin, Danny, and Jamie knowing each other for years. The three of them had felt as prepared as they could for living together, on Earth. Until Danny's funeral. Shawn needed more than the week he had had so far.
No one said anything. While Jamie was held by Marin. Danny was on the other side of his bed, getting ready to sleep. Shawn was in the bathroom, doing the same.
Marin wanted to make everyone as comfortable as she could manage, given the confines of their road trip, and being cut off from home. There was only so much she could do. At least there was little that needed to be said. And Shawn being Jamie's older sibling, made her want to try harder. She really did want his respect. Though Marin wanted to go the distance for anyone remotely resembling Shawn's circumstances. Marin also didn't like anyone seeing her changing, ever. She wasn't ashamed of how she looked, she just didn't like being that vulnerable around anyone she didn't also trust implicitly. That had made gum class in school complicated.
Even a minor, offhand comment about such a habit, could be one of the tiny cuts that could rip them apart. Given the stresses they were all under now.
So the debate over Fahd's deal had dribbled away, to be picked up again who-knows-when. It was better than picking on each little habit or tick that bothered someone. Once that started happening, things could go badly.
Marin hugged Jamie tightly for a moment and let go. Jamie squeezed Marin's hands in return. Shawn was a member of their little group by default. But that wouldn't be enough to prevent problems. Not in the long run. But Marin had no idea what to do, other than not push him away. It was something to think about, after Marin had gotten more sleep.
Marin didn't want the group to drift apart. They had no one else. No home to go back to, no other friends to talk to, email, or text. They only had each other.
Whatever was really going on with Fahd and Val, in the end didn't matter. As long as the four of them stuck together. Eventually trust each other more. Really, they needed to integrate Shawn. Then it wouldn't matter what Fahd and Val's real deal was.
Marin continued to hold Jamie, "Are you going to sleep that way?"
"No," to Marin's disappointment, Jamie pulled away. "I'm tired."
Marin brought her arms to herself, for sleep, and opened and closed her left hand. Her Materia bracelet was elsewhere. The final let down of her day was that Jamie's hand wasn't in her own, not now or for the rest of the night.
Marin grumbled to herself, internally, as Val bandaged Shawn.
They were two days into their routine. Of the six of them driving down the road a ways, then stopping for most of the day to practice. Except Fahd and Val didn't have practice spears, dull knives or a practice sword. They only had real weapons. Which meant when Marin had slipped with one of Val's spears, she had really nearly gutted Shawn and skipped the tip along his rib cage.
Danny was sewing up the shirt, now that the blood was washed out. And Marin was under orders to not heal Shawn, while Val stitched him up.
Shawn had a dark look for the horizon, while he winced at the stitches.
Fahd and Val didn't have pain killers either.
Shawn didn't complain, not here. At least he didn't glare at Marin. He was only the most recent 'training injury.'
Marin was lucky that she had managed to scrape a rib, instead of penetrating his torso.
"Here." Fahd held out a hand for the weapon in Marin's hand. It had a surprisingly little amount of blood on it. The cut had happened so fast.
Marin handed over the spear.
She watched as Fahd wrapped some rags and duct tape over the sharpened edges.
Marin stared a moment while he worked deftly to soften the most lethal parts of the long spear. "Why didn't we start that way?!"
He gave her a blank look.
"Sorry sir." She managed to spit out.
He held her gaze a few more moments, until she looked away abashed, then he continued. "It was a test."
Marin bit the inside of her lip, holding back her next retort. It would have negated her honest apology for being rude.
Jamie yelled at Fahd instead of Marin. Defending her brother, "Marin could have killed him!"
"But she didn't." Fahd said. "And now you've all been bloodied."
Marin silently agreed with Jamie, she had almost impaled one of his kidneys. Except for her cure Materia, he could have bled to death from a worse stab. In the wilds below the highway.
Four people, with one or two or three bandages of their own, looked sullenly at anything but who they had hurt. They also didn't glare at the abusiveness of their two teachers.
Marin looked at her hands, and remembered the scrapes from Danny dueling her. They had both been using Fahd's knives.
'It's either abuse or it isn't. These are not nice people, this was a mistake.' Marin thought, as she questioned going this far. Except for their lack of more Gil, this wasn't worth it.
All four of them had also been barred from using cure Materia, they had to work with their cuts and scrapes. Marin no longer cared for the rules that had been imposed by their instructors. Shawn was one extension or lunge away from ripping his stitches open. He was the worst off so far, just from how he moved.
So far they had all been expected to follow instruction, weapon drills, all of it while bandaged. Unless they were so disabled it was impossible. No one wanted to test how far Fahd or Val would push that.
After lunch, they went a little further down the highway before setting up a camp just before dark. The ground was cold and Shawn was in for a rough night of sleep, and potentially popping stitches if he wasn't careful. Marin volunteered for the first watch, while everyone tried to rest around the low campfire.
They were at the bottom of another set of access stairs, the car up on the highway. Nibelheim was further down the road. But since he had been stitched up, Shawn had been silent about going there. He hadn't talked at all since his injury.
An hour in, everyone was asleep and snoring, or sleeping silently.
Fahd and Val left the other four to go in two-hour shifts. The 'kids' did the grunt work in return for lessons that nearly killed them. At least the Nibel wolves didn't pester a group so large.
Marin sidled to Shawn and Jamie, sleeping in one of the tents. Jamie was breathing slower and deeper than Shawn was, each in their own sleeping bag. Shawn always inserted himself between Marin and his sister given a chance to.
Marin put a hand over Shawn's mouth and tried to slowly wake him. Arms grabbed her hand immediately to struggle. "Shhh!" She hissed right into his ear. "It's Marin." In the dark of the tent, her hand could have been anyone's.
Shawn kept a hold of Marin, but loosened his grip.
"I need that hand back." she whispered.
Inside the confines of the tent. Marin couldn't have fit between the other two. As it was, Jamie rolled over in her sleep, nearly elbowing Marin.
The cure spell was only gestures, and it lit up the tent with the streams of magic.
"Wh-" Jamie's voice was cut off by Marin's hand.
Marin's right hand continued to cast a cure spell. On her knees next to Shawn. She could barely keep control of the spell. Divided as her hands were, propping herself up in the tiny tent. She had to recast, once Jamie was fully awake and quiet.
When the lights of the second spell went out, Marin bent back low to Shawn's ear. "You'll have to cut out the stitches when it's light out."
"Thanks." He whispered back.
"Shh!" Marin told him, "Go back to sleep."
Marin whispered to Jamie to leave the bandages on, to hide what Marin had done. Before backing out of the tent on her hands and knees.
Marin went back to the fire, banking it before it got any lower from ignoring it for those few minutes. She was still learning how to keep a fire going. But once someone else started it, it was simple enough to maintain.
Inching towards the lightest sleeper of them all, Marin had saved Danny for last.
"Is it my turn yet?" Danny murmured, half-asleep.
"Shhh," Marin lulled him as she crawled closer. "I need something from my bag."
Danny mumbled something nonsensical and tried to go back to sleep, until Marin touched his face.
Danny's reaction was harsher than Shawn's had been. Danny's grip on Marin's wrist was iron. Firelight flickered through a crack in the tent door. One dark eye in a dark face flickered to life in the firelight, staring at Marin. The other eye was in Marin's shadow.
"It's me." Marin whispered.
Danny threw his hand away. He had always been stronger than her. Marin had been catching up in the last few weeks. But that grip, compared to Shawn's was frightening. Marin wasn't strong enough, yet, to twist out of that grip.
She then did for Danny what she had already done for the others. A simple spell for a tiny wound.
Danny's face nodded in thanks in the light. He did rip the bandages off his arm and head though, leaving it in a pile beside his sleeping bag.
Marin left him and went back to tend the fire. Someone was waiting for her.
"That took longer than I expected." Fahd said. He sat in the folding chair that Marin had been using for the last hour.
"Longer to what?" Out of context, Marin's question was innocent enough. While her own cut hands and arm itched. She had saved herself for last, but was caught before she could cast one last spell.
Fahd gave Marin an unreadable look. Full of meaning that she couldn't parse yet. He took that lecturing tone he had used back in the diner, when he had complained about not teaching babies. "Until one of you broke the rules."
Marin was full of fear for getting caught, about what the consequences would be. She also convinced herself not to apologize for doing right by her own people.
Marin swallowed. The only available chair was occupied.
Fahd sat in that chair. That made Marin feel judged by the man.
She asked him. "What happens now?"
He waved his hand for her to move along, "Usually when the rules are broken, that person is allowed to defend themselves. Give an excuse."
Marin set her shoulders, thinking of a defense. She notice Fahd's eyebrow twitch in the momentary silence. "I'm not apologizing," she concluded.
"Are you saying you won't defend yourself?"
"I'm saying I'm not going to excuse myself for doing the right thing."
His stony gaze somehow got harder. "Explain."
Marin imagined Shawn ripping his stitches, she imagined gutting Shawn. It made her angry enough to stare down that stonier-than-ever stare. She took on a slowly-explaining-to-a-child tone. "People were hurt, so I healed them."
She swallowed despite herself, hoping that it was not noticed in the flickering light. 'Fuck you, not just any people were hurt,' she thought to herself. Letting her anger grow a little, so that she could keep her eyes on Fahd's.
After several long moments, Fahd dismissed her with a hand gesture.
Marin flickered her eyes to his hand, expecting an attack. It was only a dismissal.
Fahd changed the subject. "How much longer is your watch?"
"Just under and hour, sir."
"Go to bed, and no more magic." He waved her back to her tent. "Don't glare at me. You've broken enough rules tonight."
She asked, "What about the next-"
"I'll wake the next person. No more magic." his tone was so flat it had to be angry, but in a Fahd way.
Marin turned her back on the seated man. Out of his sight she could squeeze and un-squeeze her hands into fists. The cuts and scrapes stung from the movement.
She slipped in beside Danny. The arrangements were at Shawn's request. Jamie apparently gave him the space he needed. Marin would give a lot to switch with Shawn. But not at the price of an argument. She had to pick her battles.
Shawn had been reticent to share with anyone else. Danny and Marin had napped in hang outs before, just not while camping.
One eye, lit by the fire, watched Marin enter the tent.
"Shh." Was all she said as she pulled off her boots and crawled into her own sleeping bag. The fabric was cold and freezing, compared to the heat from the fire. Only one end of the tent was warm at all, nearest the fire pit.
A finger poked Marin's shoulder.
"Are you cold?" Marin asked Danny, as quietly as she could manage.
"I've been here for over an hour, what do you think?" Danny whispered back. His bag rustled in the dark.
"Not how I wanted to go camping for the first time."
"Me either."
A shadow crossed between the fire and the opening of the tent. "Go to sleep." Fahd hissed from outside the tent.
Marin twisted her mouth shut, realizing that Danny wouldn't see her face. She put out a hand towards Danny.
With the silent communication, in the dark, Marin told Danny what she wanted. They had known each other long enough to know she only wanted to be warm.
Danny shuffled over those few inches that were needed. Until their sleeping bags were squeezed between them. The two of them huddled together for warmth on the cold ground. Only the floor of the tent and a mat was between them and the cold ground. They clung together for warmth until Danny was pulled for his shift.
Shawn and Marin were cleaning up the remnants of their campsite when Shawn started up a conversation.
"Which character's your favorite?"
Marin looked up at the stairs to the highway. Danny stood there with a rifle, watching for any wandering monsters. Everyone else was packing the car. Shawn was the only person close enough to hear.
"Favorite character from what?" She asked, preoccupied with obliterating any traces of their campsite.
"Of this game, silly." Shawn said. "you know, the one we're trapped in." He glanced up at the highway. "Neither of the others have played it. My roommate has, but Mikhail's not here."
Marin shrugged, "I don't see why it matters. We're here now." She thought that, 'they're real now, the people from the game. It's all too real and too dangerous to be here.' Here eyes flickered to the north, under those mountains was a forest road to the town of Nibelheim. She didn't know the origin of the word 'Nibel'. Used to name the mountains, the wolves, and the town north of her. Two characters from the FF7 game lived in that village, or were there now.
"I don't see why Val cares that we clean this spot like we've never been. So call me bored, and curious."
Marin finally answered the question. "Aerith."
Shawn laughed.
Marin started getting cross with him, "what? So I know she's popular. I don't care. I like her."
Shawn wiped a tear and shook his head, "No, that's not it. Aerith's fine."
Marin glared at Shawn, she saw Danny look down on them and go back to watching the hills for wolves. "Then why would you laugh?"
"Because mines Cloud."
"Oh" She said awkwardly. Marin gave Shawn the side eye, "Don't think that means we might ever date here too."
Shawn only smiled and shook his head, "Don't worry, I have no interest in getting between you and my sister."
Marin stuck her tongue out. He had done exactly that the night before, but she still joked with him about it. She kept poking at last nights coals, to make sure they really were out. "Why Cloud?"
Shawn gave Marin a momentary side eye, "How far did you get through the game."
"All of it," she was getting annoyed by all this lecturing, "a couple times. Don't look at me that way Shawn, I was bored."
Shawn wiped the grin off of his face and said "Oh, so you remember Wall Market."
Marin had also been to Jamie's family house, where they had pictures of Jamie's older sibling as a child. Marin reminded herself that Shawn was the person that stood in front of her now. She tried not to think about that, to avoid saying something Shawn didn't deserve. "Yeah, I remember Wall Market. With all the dress shopping." She put her tongue out in disgust. "If we ever get to Midgar. I'll only wear a dress if I want to. And I never want to." Marin had to be in the right mood for dresses or skirts. Which was almost never.
"I must have been seven, or eight? When I first played that game. It took a few tries before I could finish Wall Market." Shawn mused, "I prefer Cloud in his SOLDIER uniform, but." He shrugged.
Marin guessed, "Is that why you want to get to Nibelheim so bad?" That was were Cloud is or used to live, depending on when they had appeared.
Shawn shrugged, "You caught me. But we need to know where we are in the time line too."
Marin shook her head, "And what do you think will happen when you meet someone that significant to the time line?"
"What do you mean?"
"I might be stuck here, but that doesn't mean I want to risk wrecking the future." Marin intoned. "Without us they can win."
Shawn shrugged again, "It's just a look around. You said yourself you wanted to know when we are."
Marin looked down at the cleared ground, "That doesn't mean I want to risk changing anything."
Shawn tipped his head to her point. "So, you finished the game."
"Yeah," Marin started heading over to the stream to dump the coals.
"That means you've seen that scene three times."
"Which one?" Marin dumped the bucket and rinsed it out. "Except for that hidden one in the mansion. After a couple times, I wanted to see what I missed." Marin had had a lot of time, between bouts of homework, to play video game sin self-imposed isolation at home, with her PS4. "I saw the hidden Zack scene once."
"Ah, so you did find that one."
Marin shook her head, "No, a guide told me where to find it."
Shawn shook his head, "That's not the one I meant anyway." He stopped to study Marin a moment. "You said you played FF Fifteen right?"
"Yeah. I liked it."
"I've never met someone that actually liked that one." Shawn shook his head.
"Hey!" Marin flung some dried leaves at Shawn, they missed by several feet on purpose. "Fifteen was still okay."
Marin side eyed Shawn. She didn't like the way he smiled at her. She thought of Ardyn. Marin was gathering the last of the refuse in the bucket when she froze. It tickled in her head. He had asked her what he wanted.
Marin felt a flare of fear as she thought, 'but what if I'm over thinking it? It's an innocent enough question.' She looked up at the highway, looking for the faces of who was up there.
"So," Shawn continued, "what else of the Compilation have you played?"
"The what?" Marin did not understand the question.
"The other games for FF Seven."
"I didn't know it was called the Compilation."
"So..." He trailed off on his next question.
"So, none of the 'other games'. I've seen the movie?"
"So," Shawn said. "No Crisis Core?"
"Which one's Crisis Core?"
"One of the one's not on the PS Four."
"Then there's the answer to your question right there. What's it-"
"Done yet?" Danny called.
Marin shouted back, "almost!" She gave the land around them a quick scan. Her and Shawn were the only movement she could spot below the road.
Shawn and Marin were the only life she could see moving in or under the hills.
She wished she had a watch, she had to pull out the cell phone with no signal. Her and Shawn had not wasted time cleaning up.
"Get any signal?" Shawn asked her.
She shook her head, "I was just checking the time."
"Get a watch. You know what watches are right?"
Marin wanted to stick her tongue out at the man that was nearly ten years her senior. "Do you even know what a watch is?" She asked him.
Shawn looked at his wrist, "I dunno, something dinosaurs used when they didn't want to use their shadows anymore." He looked up at the highway. "Val certainly looks old enough to be a dinosaur."
Marin picked up the bucket, their job was done. "Don't let Her or Fahd hear you say that."
A car horn blared from up above.
"I like my face the way it is, thanks." He touched his cheek, "Mostly the way it is."
Marin headed over to the stairs, she had an inkling that he wanted more face than he had. But she didn't bring any additional attention to it. Any more than than Shawn already had. So she silently carried the bucket, with their human litter, towards Danny. She had her own features she wished she could wear like a hat, but that was out of her reach now.
Shawn was wiping his hands in the stream, coming up behind Marin, trying to dry his hands off as he could.
The car horn blared again, sounding even more impatient the second time.
Marin looked up the stairs, Danny was already at the top.
Fahd had never confronted her that morning. She had woken up when Danny had to take a turn for watch. From the inside of her sleeping bag, she had used the last of her mana on a sloppy heal to heal her own wounds, she figured if she was already in trouble, she wasn't going to suffer her cuts any longer.
That morning, Fahd had never confronted her with her rules breaking. Val had had no significant looks for Marin all morning.
Marin had been tasked with every little job or task. Fetching water, folding tents. Cleaning up the campsite.
No one volunteered anything about any wounds that had disappeared in the night. By the end of the day, Marin was the only one still bandaged. And that was only to hide her healing herself.
Marin carried the gear up the stairs to the car. As she wondered what chore Fahd might have planned for her to do next.