Chapter 4

As the police car drove away, Ruby said "Great. I'm stranded on the wrong side of the bridge in the middle of an alien invasion and I just pissed-off the only person willing to help me out. Go me."

She started to walk pass the crowds to get back to the bridge, as a goat bleated at her. "My feeling exactly…" As she kept walking, she contacted her mother on her Chatter. "Mom?"

"Ruby!?" Ruby was relieved when she heard her mother's voice again. "Thank god! Vergil couldn't find you anywhere!"

"Yeah, you can thank Torchwick for that," Ruby said.

Police Commissioner Torchwick? What do you mean?"

"I don't want to talk about it…"

"Get your kebabs here!"

Ruby turned by the yelling and whispered "Oh my God!"

"What? What is it, Ruby," Summer asked.

"The biggest man I've ever seen!"

"Where are you?"

"The Old Town market. A butcher is giving away his food." And there really was a man giving away food. He was near a shop called 'Peter Port's Kebab Shop.' Ruby guessed that the man was named Peter Port. "Too bad it won't keep the Covenant from glassing the city," Ruby muttered.

"They won't glass the city," Summer responded.

"Hang on, mom…" Ruby started walking towards the butcher, as her mother continued.

"I'm in contact with an ONI officer. She thinks these Covenant are just a reconnaissance force. And I think they're looking for the same thing Vergil found in his seismic survey!"

"Mom, I'll call you back." As she turned off her Chatter, she started to hear a honking car.

"Move, you oaf," the driver of the car yelled. "Get that table out of the road!"

"Calm yourself, friend," Peter calmly said. "Stop honking…" he started to laugh. "And have a kebab."

"For the last time, move your fat ass-!" The car creaked loudly when Peter leaned on the car's hood. "Hey! Get off my car!"

"My friend, I am an eight hundred pound man with a large cleaver who kills animals every day and chops them into pieces." Peter laughed again. "Do you really want us to be enemies? Or would you rather have a nice kebab?"

The driver started to honk angrily, as everyone in the market wanted him to stop. He started to yell again. "For the last time, you blimp! Get out of the road!" Peter then lifted his cleaver up high, and smashed it into the hood. "Y-you put your cleaver through the head of my car!"

"Oh, a thousand pardons," Peter said. "But it was either that or smash your windshield, pull up you out, and make you into kebabs."

"What? No! No-no! Hey wait!"

"Then please. Stop honking your horn. It frightens the children. As he said this, he started to give food to a lone child.

The car backed up quickly, as Ruby spoke to her mother again. "Sorry, mom. There's was sort of a…thing here. What were you saying?"

"Ruby," Summer started. "New Mombasa is the only place on Earth the Covenant is attacking!"

"What? Why?"

"Vergil's survey! He detected some very unusual seismic activity all along the Great Rift."

Peter went up to Ruby and said "Would you like a kebab, young lady? Chicken, mutton, beef! One free for every refugee!"

"I'm not a refugee," Ruby shouted. "I'm going…there!" She pointed to the ONI building.

"Across the bridge," Peter asked. "To where the aliens are landing? Take two kebabs…"

Ruby, stay out of the city center," Summer ordered. "I don't want you coming anywhere near the security zone!"

"Sorry, Mom. Gotta go. I'll call you back."

"Ruby-!" The red-haired girl disconnected before Summer went further.

Peter spoke again. "Come, my friends! Don't be shy! Free food for the journey!" A woman, with a baby, took the food, and thanked the heroic man. He turned his attention towards Ruby once more, saying "Now, young lady…if you are heading into the war zone, you must eat! Curried lamb? Roast chicken?"

"They look delicious," Ruby explained. "Really, but I'm not hungry."

As an explosion is heard near the market, Peter, who started to eat a kebab, said "My dear… the end of the world is nothing to face…on an empty stomach." He burped loudly, as more explosions were heard.

Peter ignored the explosions and continued to eat the kebab.

"Listen," Ruby started. "What you're doing? Feeding all these hungry people? It's really a noble thing, but you can't stay here! The fighting is going to spread-across the water, into the old city!"

Peter swallowed the kebab, and said "Would you be a dear and run to the wine merchant? This lamb would be perfect with a twenty-three Ida Sirah…"

"I understand you're… too heavy to walk very far, but there are other options!"

Peter laughed loudly. "You could carry me, perhaps?"

Ruby then spoke to her helper. "Vergil, you listening?" She was met with a chime. "I need you to divert a city vehicle to my current location. A forklift or maybe an Olifant…"

"A garbage truck," Peter said loudly as Ruby turned off her Chatter. "I think I am insulted."

"If you stay here, you'll die! You need to get to the train station. Or the waterfront-it's much closer!"

"Look at me, nobody will give me a place on a boat, or a bus, or a train. I would take five seats. I am not worth five people."

"You can't just give up-throw away your life," Ruby shouted.

"And what about your life? You seem determined to go to the one place you are most likely to die."

"I'm going to find my mother. She needs me. Just like all your customers need you!"

"Very well, young lady. I am convinced! I too will leave Mombasa…"

"Good!"

"As soon as you do," the butcher added.

"No!"

"First make your mother safe. Then you come back and rescue me! My brave warrior princess, riding her fearless fork-lift!" He laughed again.

"Deal," Ruby said, hesitating to say it. "Just…don't give up."

"Well if I run out of hope? I will still have kebabs!"

A plasma shot slammed near the markets, causing everyone to panic.

Ruby pushed through the crowd. "Excuse me! Ow! Sorry!" She then turned to Peter and shouted "I'll be back soon!"

"Of course you will," he shouted back, grinning, and eating a kebab.

As she pushed through, Ruby said "Please, let me through.

Vergil shouted into the microphone. "CAUTION! ONE WAY STREET!"

"Stop it, Vergil," Ruby muttered.

"WARNING! NO U-TURN ALLOWED!"

"I'll find Mom, then I'll come back."

As Vergil used the puppy noise, Ruby muttered "I'm not crying…I'm not."