Chapter 8:
Knives groaned as he forcefully shifted the car's gear stick. With a stalwart grunt he pushed it forward and car shifted up a gear with an awful groan. He didn't like cars that much, but Vash had insisted he take it, Walking a short three iles the desert sun would not normally phase him, but his teenager charge who was currently sitting in the back of the car had objected to walking. Rather loudly in fact. In the end he had given in when Vash had interrupted. For some reason he had been in a hurry to make sure both of them left quickly. He pondered this for a moment before returning to keeping his eyes on the road, if you could call the dirt track ahead of him a road.
"Where we goin'" Eliana's voice came above the engine noise.
"To see a plant."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"That depends."
"On?"
"The circumstances." She rolled her eyes and decided to end the convocation there. It was pretty obvious that he wasn't going to tell her anymore. The rest of the ride went in silence till a small cliff edge came into view. Knives slowed the car down and brought it too a stop. Opening it the side door he hopped down to the ground and mentioned for Eliana to follow. She got out and looked down into the valley below, it was a steep forty five degree angle down a rocky cliff to a small flat piece of land at the bottom. In the centre of this was a plant bulb, it looked huge even from this distance. There was a small metal building surrounding the base of the plant. Covering the lower half of the bulb and a tower with a gantry going up to the upper workings. A series of cables ran from the buildings base to near the top of the cliff where they disappeared into the ground, in the direction of the house.
"Wow."
"Hurry up." He called to her having already begun the speedy decent down the slope. It required either a fast walk or a slow careful decent. He knew the route down well and went it down it fast. Eliana clumsily followed behind stumbling every few meters occasionally falling. Every time she fell he would stop and start again when she was on her feet, despite this there was still a good ten meters between them. When they reached the bottom after fifteen minutes he shot her a quick glance. She Her jeans were ripped and the frayed ends of the rip were stained with a little blood from the cut on her knee from a bad fall in addition to this she had a few scrapes on her arms, but nothing serious.
"Owie." She moaned pouring some water from her canteen into her hand and washing her knee clean.
"You'll learn to ignore it."
"But it hurts."
"If you can't ignore a little scrape then how are you going to handle getting shot?" She didn't answer.
"Come on, She's waiting."
"Huh? Who's waiting?"
He nodded his towards the large plant and then started walking towards it, brushing the dust of his slacks and shirt as he did.
"Her."
"What do you mean her?" She asked running after him. "And you could have the decency to wait for me, after dragging me out here."
"It was you who wanted to come with me." He began climbing the short fight of steps up to the think metal door which led into the plant proper. The door itself was made of thick metal, scorched by the sun. A large wheel, used for turning the thick deadlocks in the door, was set in the centre of the door. He gripped it and turned it around twice, before a heavy thud was heard. He gave the door a hard push and it swing open. As it did so Eliana saw it was at least twelve inches thick. The musty, over powering smell of sale air emanated from the inside of the building. Indicating that it hadn't been used for a while anyway. She coughed upon breathing it in as she stepped inside. Looking around she saw cobwebs, dust, discarded pieces of metal and a few tools, this place had obviously been abandoned not long after its construction. Knives to the lead dictating the pace despite the fact that she was following rather slowly, favoring her leg a little. He led her down the single corridor in the building there were seem to be no others, but they did pass several doors on the way but all of them were padlocked shut. After a short while the corridor opened up into large room with a walkway which surrounded the base of the plant bulb that rose up out of the roof. Outside the bulb had looked big, but up close it was huge. Knives strode into the room approaching the bulb. He put one hand on it and looked up at the object in the centre.
"Hello again sister."
'Sister?'
She curiously approached keeping her eyes fixed for any movement from the bulb. An eerie chill ran up her spine, and her head seemed to buzz, yet it was not an uncomfortable. Maybe this was what everyone felt like when they entered a plant. Out of everyone she knew she was the only person to have entered a plant. As she joined Knives she turned around leaned her back, lifting her leg a little on the handrail of the walkway the edge happy to take the weight off her bleeding knee. Knives reached up and put and hand on the bulb.
"How are you today?" He asked.
'Who the heck is he talking too?'
"Good, did the equipment cause you any pain?"
'Okay this just freaky now.'
"Who the heck are you talking too?"
"Tane."
"Who's Tane?"
"Look into the bulb, she'll show herself if she wants to." Came the nonchalant answer. She turned and peered up into the bulb. At fist nothing seemed to be there, then something seemed to appear from the mist inside two glowing orbs, that seemed to be getting closer to her. It was only when they got close to glass could she could begin to make out what they were and when they blinked she screamed.
"Do de do do doop de de do do." Vash sang to himself as he swept the floor of Brightridge general store. It was a smallish shop, with two racks of shelves that stretched almost from floor to room on either wall stocked with various items, there was also a counter with a till, and the weekly town paper stacked on it, beside the counter He was currently working one of his two jobs in Brightridge, as a shop keeper. He worked in the store three days a week, and the other two he spent working as barman in the evening's neither paid all that well, but it was better than backbreaking labor working in a mine. And he enjoyed both jobs, he got to talk to people and enjoy company.
It was still early and still quiet. So he'd taken the opportunity to do some cleaning as it looked like Ms. Fitzgerald, his boss, hadn't gotten around to it over the weekend. Vash smiled. He was mildly content for once. It finally seemed as though things were starting to look up.
"Alex. Is that you?" Came a call from the backroom of the shop. Vash looked up and called back.
"Yeah it me Ms. Fitzgerald." He called back, answering to his alias.
"Oh, I didn't expect y'all to be in today." She called back.
"I thought I'd work off some of my holiday time." He replied cheerily.
"That's okay hon." He resumed sweeping and his song. After a few minutes the bell above the door rung as it opened.
"Good mornin'" He greeted the person automatically without looking up.
"Hello, oh Mr.Vash." His head shot up, he breathed a mild sigh of relief to see the smiling face of Mille.
"Millie! you've gotta call me Alex."
"Oops, I'm sorry Mr. Alex." She giggled. "I wasn't expecting you to be here."
"Is that a customer Alex?"
"No Ms. Fitzgerald."
"Who is it then?"
"A friend of mine."
"Okay Hon." Millie stifled a laugh, while he rolled his eyes and groaned.
"She calls everyone that okay."
"Of course 'Alex'." came the smiling reply, she walked over to the shelves on his left, and began browsing through some of them items.
"Lookin' for anything in particular?" He asked.
"Well I was looking for some pudding for me and Sophie." She suddenly sounded downhearted. "Aww you've sold out." He smiled, walking to the counter, he reached over it and felt around for something after a few seconds his hand grasped it. He pulled it up and held it before Millie.
"I saved you a pack." He presented her with a box containing ten cans of pudding.
"OH! thanks you very much!." She as hopped up and down clapping her hands. Just as she always did when she was happy.
"Heh, heh don't worry about it Millie, besides I think I still owe you a few anyway."
"Oh that's okay Alex. What with having helped each other out a ton of times I stopped counting." He shrugged. And resumed sweeping
"So is this where you work Alex?"
"Yeah, I work nights in bar sometimes too."
"Its nice, Alex do you think you could get a break anytime soon?"
"Yeah sure." He turned slightly and cupping one hand around his mouth called out "Ms. Fitzgerald I'm taking my break early today okay?"
"Yeah sure Hon, whenever you want."
"Thanks, I'll be back in around an fifteen minutes, is that okay?"
"Sure Hon." He unfastened his apron at the waist, pulled it off and tossed it behind the counter, propping the broom against the counter. Leading the way out he and Millie crossed the main high street to the small cafe opposite the shop. As he opened the door and stepped inside Vash waved to the young woman behind serving tea to an old couple.
"Mornin' Jezebel. Two coffee's please." He called. She nodded to him and resumed her work. They took a seat by the door Vash sitting opposite Millie.
"Thank you for taking care of her."
"Her?"
"Eliana. I'm glad someone good like you is looking after her." The woman Vash had said hello too placed two cups of coffee in front of him and Millie.
"She asked me if she could come along, beside if I might be her father, then I couldn't really say no could I."
"Do you think she's your daughter?"
"I'm not sure, I was kind of hoping you'd know. I haven't really talked to Meryl for a long while, since we broke up really." He looked down into his cup coffee, as if its empty blackness would contain the answers he needed.
"Meryl never really told me much about her, I didn't hear from her, for a while, then one day I just got a letter from her out of the blue saying she was coming to stay and she something very important to tell me." She poured three packets of sugar into her cup and stirred it.
"And then around a week later she turns up, at the orphanage and she has Eliana with her, she was about one at the time."
"Hmm, so you've no idea?"
"Meryl would never talk about it."
"Oh."
"She only told me bits about Eliana, like her birthday, and things about her."
"What was she like as a kid?"
"She didn't have a very happy childhood, Meryl tired to be a good mom, but she was always busy with work and they moved around a lot. She can be handful sometimes too."
"Really?" He sipped his coffee. "I've hardly heard a peep out of her since she arrived."
"She must be upset about Meryl. I think she blames herself."
"Yeah." He downed the rest of the cup quickly. "She does."
"I brought some of her things, as she took of so quickly, I thought she could do with them."
"Thanks Millie, are you gonna wait around till I get off work, or just drop them by the house on your way back?"
"I'll wait."
"He won't be there."
"He?"
"Knives, he's out working with a plant."
"Oh don't be silly Alex, I wouldn't avoid your brother, I just don't like intruding into other peoples homes. Plus I'm not too sure on the route." He smiled and nodded.
"Well I should get back to work, I can get offer early if I go back now."
"Sure Alex." She smiled, she still wasn't used to calling him that. They both got up and left the shop, Vash crossing the street, calling out to Millie as he did so.
"I'll meet you at noon."