They urgently left the house, an irritated and curious Maaka reluctantly following.
"Kia ora, Kauri." Marama called to an unknown male, boredly sitting by a fire with a handgun resting in his lap,
"Who's the new girl?" He asked with a friendly grin.
"Really no time to explain just yet. Get as many fighters as you can armed and alert, and we need one person to take Maako to safety. I need to contact Dennis, where is he?"
Kauri stood up his grin quickly fading to a combination of worry and confusion as he called over a few more soldiers.
"He's over at Citra's" Kauri replied "I can try and get a message out to him."
Marama sighed aggravated
"It's going to take him ages to get all the way over here! We might not have that much time. I'll send a radio message." Marama sauntered off, a deep determination burning in her eyes. Atsuko saw a new side to Marama that she hadn't realised, someone brave and powerful who was capable of winning this war. She hadn't even realised until now that she also had Tatau brandishing her wrist.
Atsuko was bought out of her thoughts by a chuckling from beside her
"You're so much in awe of her. Like a kid who just met their hero." She wasn't even sure she could honestly deny it, instead she laughed back a little embarrassed, tucking her hair nervously behind her ear and waited for Marama to come back.
"Fancy a road trip?" She grinned as she sauntered back.
After some fairly severe whiplash and being forced to kill a cassowary that had taken a worrying interested in them, by shooting it with a handgun, Atsuko was beginning to regret agreeing to follow Marama, they ripped through the jungle in a rusty old scavenger car, Atsuko fearfully gripping the frame as they tore over hard rocky surfaces the merciless jolt that followed them punishing them the whole way.
"Marama you're crazy!" Atsuko laughed as the already beaten and battered truck sustained even further injuries. "How far have we got to go?"
"A long way, I couldn't reach Dennis, if there is going to be a fight going down, he's going to want to know about it at the very least, even if he can't fight himself." She explained "I hope we can all get back in time, then we can see where your loyalties really lie." Suddenly her voice darkened and Atsuko felt a small shiver go down her spine, apparently she wasn't to be trusted just yet.
"With you, I promise." Atsuko replied seriously. Hating that her betrayal couldn't just go away because she knew in her heart that she would never do it again, the hard part was proving it.
Although she can't distrust me that much if she gave me a handgun, Atsuko thought as she looked at the M1911 pistol sitting heavily in her lap. The first time she had ever even touched a gun was today, a present from Marama in case Atsuko wandered off and had to protect herself, and it didn't go well, everything had to be explained to her in a way you would expect a small child would need, and her accuracy was horrific, it made her realise that if she was going to survive any longer, she'd need to rely on more than clever lies to talk her way out of trouble, and the watchful eyes of her comrades, she'd need to be strong, she needed to become a warrior, like Marama, or even Vaas, he might be evil, but he's powerful and respected.
"Hey Atsuko! Concentrate." Marama drew her out her thoughts with a desperate whisper in her ear "You think you can just zone out whenever you feel like?" Another car was slowly coming into view across the horizon, a red truck similar to the one she had been in much earlier, red with a messy white skull painted on the bonnet. One of the pirates' trucks.
"Out the car." Marama demanded quietly but sternly, slipping into the jungle and just leaving the car parked on the road, they ran into the thick of the woods, out of sight, but still able to spy on the two pirates quickly getting ever closer to them.
"Oi there's someone here." One of the pirates said, a taller one with a dirty bandage wrapped around his wrist. Atsuko grimaced once again; did no one care about infections?
They got out of their truck to investigate, kicking the blue truck as they did.
"Marama they're going to see us, what do we do?" Atsuko muttered worriedly.
"There doesn't seem to be anymore coming." She whispered back, looking back at the road the pirates had come up. "And it's two versus two. I say we take them out." Marama suggested, Atsuko's heart sunk to her stomach, despite her previous eagerness to kill, things were different now she was actually facing the people who would soon lose their lives because of her, it was easy to think about killing a nameless faceless enemy, but the ones who stood in front of her, armed and dangerous, made it not so easy to consider. Moreover what would their family think if she did? Could her brother still love her knowing she had murdered someone? On the other hand would she ever be able to see him again if she didn't?
At this point the pirates were facing away from them, searching through the thicket boredly, all it would need was two well aimed shots to the back of the head, shame then that she didn't do 'well aimed.' She felt a hand on her arm, soft and light.
"Relax hoa, I will take the shots, I just need to know you won't freak out about it." Marama whispered soothingly as if she could read Atsuko's mind.
"Do it." Atsuko closed her eyes on instinct as a loud bang attacked her ears, followed by some desperate shouting, one more bang, and then silence; signalling it was all over. The Pirates were dead. Atsuko peered nervously over the thicket, the men were lying on the ground, one bullet hole in each of their heads. Blood flowed liberally from the open wounds and soaked into the dirt,
Marama climbed over the thicket and patted their clothes quickly, she picked out some notes and a pack of cigarettes, tattered and crumbled, but still she was grinning triumphantly, proud with her find.
A/N thanks for reading, I would appreciate any reviews just as a general indicator if people actually like this, or thing there's things it could improve on