Daxter, gray slop dripping from his fur, got to his feet and started to wipe himself off. Suddenly he was lying face-down on the floor, a great weight pinning him down. Veger had dropped from the cage and landed on him.
"Ow! You bastard!" Daxter yelled. "Get your fat ass offa me!"
"Well, perhaps you should have gotten out of the way," Veger retorted. He stood up and looked down at his now-stained shirt. "Ugh, disgusting."
"Hey, we're out, okay, so stop complaining," Daxter said. He got up and walked over to the door. He reached up and grabbed the handle. He opened the door a crack, peeked out, and almost immediately slammed the door shut. "Someone's coming! Hide!"
Thankfully, the shack they were imprisoned in was used for storage, so there were many nooks and crannies to hide in. Veger ducked behind a wooden crate and Daxter crawled into a barrel. A Marauder entered, carrying a bucket, this one filled with water. When he saw that the ottsels had escaped, he dropped the bucket and rushed out, probably to raise an alarm.
"Why do they want us here so badly?" Veger wondered aloud.
"No time to figure it out," Daxter said, popping out of the barrel, a fish on his head. "Let's go!" He dropped onto the ground, tossed the fish away, and joined Veger by the door.
The two ottsels peeked cautiously outside. No one in the immediate vicinity. They slipped out and walked down the dirt path quietly. The Marauder stronghold was made up of a bunch of mud and stone shacks built close together. Veger and Daxter reached the end of the road and made it to a T intersection. They peeked around the corner. No one. However, around the other corner…
A bullet struck the side of the building, barely missing Daxter's head. The two ottsels looked in the direction the shot came from. The Marauders were there en masse, and they didn't look happy.
"Run!" Daxter and Veger took off down the road and the Marauders unloaded their guns. Thankfully, they had terrible aim. The ottsels ducked down a narrow alley and pressed their backs against the wall, huffing and puffing. The Marauders ran past them, having failed to notice their evasive maneuvers. Veger poked his head out, searching intently for anyone.
A shot rang out, and suddenly the ottsels were on the run again. They reached the end of the alley and climbed up the rough stone wall. Daxter looked around the compound. The straw roofs of the huts all looked the same, but beyond the wall that enclosed the stronghold was the unforgiving desert. If Jak didn't show up soon…
"Move!" Veger grabbed Daxter's arm and pulled him out of the way just as another shower of bullets was unleashed. They ran across the roofs, safe from the Marauders… at least, until they fell through the roof on one of the shacks. They landed in a heap in the center of the hut… awakening the snoozing Marauder inside.
The feral man grabbed his gun and began to fire indiscriminately. Veger ducked underneath the man's bed as Daxter leapt onto the lamp hanging from the ceiling. The Marauder paused to reload, allowing Daxter the chance to jump to the open window. Veger followed the younger ottsel and they started to run down the street.
Daxter sighed in relief as the gates came into view. "We made it! We're home fr--"
"Aagh!"
Daxter skidded to a halt and spun around. Veger was lying behind him, leaning on his elbow and clutching his chest. Red liquid oozed from between his fingers. The older ottsel looked at him, weakness and desperation in his eyes. Suddenly he collapsed as he lost consciousness. Daxter could see a dark red hole in his back.
Behind Veger, the Marauder was reloading his gun and advancing towards them. Daxter looked back and forth between Veger and the gate. His mind and his heart were racing, panic surging through him. He had a choice; risk his life and try to save Veger, who was mortally wounded, or escape and let him die, which would probably happen anyway.
The click of the gun signaled to Daxter that his time was up. He had to make a choice now.