The Journey of Momo Part 3: Money by Day, Blood by Night
Momo, Alex, and Conny were seen walking up a hill before they arrived at the top of it as they stopped and took a moment to rest.
Alex was panting as he leaned on his knees and Momo turned to him.
"Are you alright, Alex?" Momo asked before he stood up and wiped his hand on his forehead.
"I'm fine…Just not used to traveling on foot." Alex said.
"Sorry, I know I'm the reason you don't want to fly." Momo said.
Vampires like Alex can change their arms into bat wings to fly in the air, but Alex chooses not to because he wants to travel on foot with Momo.
"Don't worry about it. I just said I'm fine." Alex said before something caught his attention as he turned to it. "But at least we found something."
Momo turns to what her vampire company was looking at, and sees it was a mid-sized settlement that resembles an old town with spotlights on the roofs of the buildings.
"We've found a town!" Momo said in relief because they were starting to run low on supplies. "Now we can resupply some things we've been low on. Maybe if we're lucky we can even find a car."
"Well, you might but I definitely won't." Alex said, and Momo turned to him.
"What do you mean?" She asked, and the vampire artist gave her a narrow look.
"In case it's not clear, but that's a human settlement. And given how fortified it is, I doubt that they're very welcoming to vampires like me." Alex told her.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that." Momo said.
"It's alright." Alex said before he looked around the area and pointed to a certain spot that's close to the town that was filled with trees. "See that spot in the east? I'll wait over there while you head into that town and get the stuff that we need."
"I guess we can do that. But I hate to leave you all alone by yourself." Momo said.
"Don't worry, it's fine. Besides, I'm used to being all by myself." Alex told her.
"I know, but still…" Momo said in some sadness.
They then heard barking beneath and saw that Conny was rubbing onto Alex's leg, while the vampire artist was confused by this Momo chuckles as she smiles.
"I guess Conny wants to keep you company for me." Momo concluded.
"What? Then what about you? I hate to leave you by yourself." Alex said in worry.
"Don't worry, I'll be just fine. I may not look it, but I'm a lot stronger than I look." Momo said as she placed a hand on her bicep.
While he had his doubts, he then hears Conny barking at him which was the dog's way of saying 'to just go with it'.
Alex sighed and spoke.
"Fine. Just be careful." Alex said as he headed to the trees from the east side of the town with Conny following him.
"Alright. Let's go." Momo said as she moved to the town.
At the entrance to the town, the armed guards were on lookout for any vampires or hostile humans.
That is when they saw Momo was approaching the entrance and they were on guard before she waves at them.
"Hello there!" Momo said before she stopped.
One of the guards then approached her.
"Who are you and what do you want?" He asked.
"I'm just a traveler who needs some supplies. I'm not here to cause any trouble." Momo said.
"Are you alone?" The guard asked.
"Yeah. Plus, my car broke down, so I'm hoping to find a replacement here." Momo told him.
While he had his suspicions about this girl, he nodded and reached out his hand.
"It's 100 per entry." He told her.
"Got it." Momo said as she brought out the said money and handed it to him.
"You may enter. But I strongly suggest you don't cause any trouble." He told her.
"Of course." Momo said before she walked through the entrance as the guards let her into the town.
Momo soon arrived at an old gas station that had some old cars for sale. She was looking at each one of the cars before she found one that really got her eye.
It was an old van that looked a little beat up, but it was big enough for herself, Alex, and Conny to travel with.
She then turns to the owner of the station and the seller of these cars, who was a middle-age man who was napping on his chair.
"Hey, mister!" Momo calls out which woke the owner from his nap. "How much for this car?"
"What? That thing? Are you sure you want it?" He asked. "It's a little beat up, and it might not take you that far."
"It's alright. Just as long as it's drivable I can use it. So, how much will you sell it for?" Momo asked, and he simply hummed while stroking his beard before he sighed.
"Fine, I'll give it to you for 200, and I'll even throw in two gas tanks for you." He offered and Momo smiled to hear that.
"Really? Thank you!" Momo said.
After paying for the van and making sure it was drivable, Momo soon arrived in a small store to gather some supplies for herself, Conny, and Alex.
"Let's see…" Momo said as she eyed the items on the shelves and picked out some of the things that might be useful. "Instant soup stock…Oh, this can fruit looks nice. These water tanks might be useful."
But Momo stops for a moment as she realizes that she hasn't considered what Alex needs. He might be able to eat food, but he needs human blood most of all to survive and to help heal from any injuries. Sure, she might give him some of her blood but there was a limit of how much she could give him.
Momo then shook the thought out of her head as she'll have to worry about that later and focus on getting the supplies they'll need for their journey.
But that's when she spotted a certain box that really caught her eye, she looked inside the box and she smiled to see what was inside.
"Hey, mister!" Momo calls out to the shopkeeper who was leaning on his counter.
"Yeah, what is it?" He asked, and Momo pointed at the box.
"How much for this whole box?" Momo asked, and the shopkeeper looked at it.
"Oh, that old thing. Are you sure you want it? It's not exactly useful for anything." He told her.
"I'm sure, and I really like to have it." Momo said with an excited smile.
He thought about it before he waved his hand.
"Alright, I'll give it to you for free." Momo was surprised by that.
"Really? Are you sure?" Momo asked, and he nodded.
"Yeah. It's not like I have any use for that junk. It's just been standing there collecting dust, so it's no loss on me." He told her.
Momo smiles when she hears that.
After paying for all the supplies she had gathered, Momo loaded it all in the back of the van with some help from the shopkeeper.
"Thank you, but you really didn't have to help me load all of this in." Momo told him.
"It's fine. I hate to see a girl like you overwork yourself, especially since you look like my son's age." He told her.
After putting all the supplies in the van, she closed the back door and was about to enter the car to leave, but Momo stopped as she spotted a clinic that was closed by.
"A clinic?" Momo said before the shopkeeper called out to her.
"What's wrong?" He asked before he turned to what she was looking at. "Are you planning on going to the clinic?"
"Oh…Yes." Momo said.
"Well, if you're planning on getting some medical supplies, you shouldn't." He told her and Momo turned to him. "The supplies they have are expensive, not to mention we're pretty low on some things. So that place will have nothing to spare for you, sorry."
"I see. It's alright, thank you for telling me though." Momo said before she asked him a question. "If you don't mind me asking, does that clinic have any blood?"
The shopkeeper turns to her in confusion.
"Why would you ask that?" He asked, and Momo waved her hands.
"Oh, nothing. I was just curious." Momo said.
While he was still confused, he answered her question.
"Well, yeah, we do have some blood in there, a lot of it actually." Momo was surprised by this.
"Really?" She asked, and the shopkeeper nodded.
"Yeah." He said before he looked around the area and whispered to the girl. "Believe it or not, we often make some trades with vampires."
"What? Really?" Momo asked.
"Yeah, sometimes groups of vampires would often come by our town and that's when we traded some blood with them for money or other goods. But most of the time those damn blood suckers would give us junk, like that box you wanted. But hey, as long as we have the blood, we'll get a lot of valuables for free." He said before he laughed.
While she didn't agree with that last part, that gave Momo an idea.
In his waiting spot, Alex was seated on the ground and leaning on a tree as he was doing some sketches on his sketchbook while Conny was lying next to him.
He then paused for a moment as he scratched his pencil on his head.
"I'm still missing something about this. But what?" He asked himself.
"Hey, Alex!"
Alex flinches as he quickly closes his sketchbook and Conny stood up as they both saw Momo had arrived in her new van.
Conny barks as he runs to her, and Alex quickly puts his book back on his bag as he stands up and walks to her.
Momo had got out of the van to pet Conny while Alex was looking at the old van.
"Seriously? You've bought this thing?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, and in a fair deal too." Momo nodded, and Alex sighed.
"Well, it may look old but it's better than walking all the time." Alex said before he turned to her. "So, I guess we're ready to move on?"
"Not exactly." Momo said, and Alex blinked in confusion. "There's one more thing we're gonna need."
"And that would be?" Alex asked.
(Later, at night)
It was now the dawn of night, and the town's spotlights were turned on and pointed at the sky above and the guards that were on the rooftops were on lookout for any vampires.
Climbing over the fence around the town was Momo and Alex as they landed on the ground.
They quickly moved to the alleyway to hide from the guards who were patrolling on the ground.
They soon made their way to the clinic and stopped at the back door entrance.
Momo soon begins to pick the lock while Alex was looking for any guards. As he was on look out, Alex couldn't help but show his unease about this.
"Honestly…I still can't believe I let you talk me into doing this. I mean this is beyond insane." Alex grumbles.
"It will be fine. You need blood to survive, plus we might use some extras to trade with other vampires." Momo told him.
"I can understand the logic in that. But still, if we end up getting caught we'll either end up dead or worse." Alex stated.
"You shouldn't worry too much about it. Besides, what could be worse than death." Momo said before she finally unlocked the door. "Alright, let's go."
Momo and Alex entered through the backdoor.
They quietly and sneakily moved in the hallways of the clinic looking out for any guards who might be inside, with Momo leading Alex.
"I'm surprised at how good you are at this." Alex said, and Momo chuckles.
"Well, believe it or not but this is my second time stealing blood like this." Momo told him before she spotted something as she stopped. "Wait."
They finally found the room where they were keeping jars of blood in a storage unit.
"There it is." Momo said as she and Alex entered the room.
After getting a medical cooler bag, they soon placed the glass jars in it along with any empty jars and equipment to fill them up with blood.
"Do we really need all this?" Alex asked as he put the stuff in his bag.
"Yeah, we might use these to make more blood jars." Momo said.
"And how were we going to do that?" Alex asked before he realized something. "Wait…Are you planning on using your own blood?"
"Yeah. Is there something wrong with that?" Momo asked, and Alex turned away from her.
"No, it's just a bit surprising." Alex said.
After getting what they needed, they soon left the room and were about to head back to the back entrance, but then a guard pointed his flashlight at them.
"Hey! Who are you?! What are you doing here?!" He asked as he pointed his gun at them.
Alex gritted his teeth before he charged at him, the guard fired at him, and Alex dodged his bullets with ease before he kicked him to the ground.
That's when they heard the alarms were going off.
"Come on! We need to move!" Alex said, and Momo nodded.
"Right!"
After escaping the clinic and were now outside, Momo and Alex were running in the alleyways while narrowly avoiding the guards who were searching for them.
Then the pair were now cornered as they were forced to hide behind a wall as two armed guards were approaching them to look for them.
"This isn't good. They'll find us at this rate." Alex said.
Momo thought back on the day how she first stole some blood for Fine to help her, and how they escaped from that split settlement of humans and vampires.
Momo nodded before she turned to Alex.
"Alex, take this." Momo said as she handed him the bag, much to his confusion. "I'll draw their attention while you get back to the car."
Alex was surprised by this.
"What? No! I'm not going to abandon you here." Alex protested.
"I'm not telling you to." Momo said as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I promise you; I'll catch up to you as soon as I can. So just wait until then, okay?"
"But Momo…" Alex said.
But before he could say anything else, Momo run out of the hiding and called out to the two guards.
"Hey, I'm over here!" Momo said before she ran away from Alex as the guards fired at her and soon chased after her as they didn't notice Alex who was still in hiding.
Alex grits his teeth to see this.
"Dammit!" Alex said before he runs in a different direction.
Momo was able to lose the guards who were chasing her and made her way to the spot where she and Alex sneak into town.
She was about to climb over the fence but stopped as someone fired at her.
"Stop right there. Turned around, slowly." Her shooter told her.
Momo slowly turned around and saw it was the same guard she encountered from the town entrance.
"So, it was you. I should've known." He said as he pointed his gun at Momo. "I knew that you're lying about being alone. But to think you were traveling with a vampire…disgusting!"
"Well, I'm sorry for disgusting you like that. But you're too late. My friend already got away with the supplies we took. So just let me go and you'll never see me again." Momo requested.
"Afraid I can't do that." He said as he pulled the gun's hammer down. "You see, we make it a habit of selling thieves like you to vampires as blood bags. But you'll probably love that, won't you? Which is why I'm going to kill you here and now."
Momo looks around and spotted a trash can lid on the ground, he then fires at her and Momo quickly rolls on the ground and grabs onto the lid and throws it at the guard.
The guard knocks it away and that's when Momo was running at her and grabs onto his gun to pull it out of his hand, but he punches her on the face forcing Momo to stumble back before he grabs onto her hair and throws her to the ground, and he soon pointed his gun in front of her face.
"Nice try! But it's my win." The guard said as he was ready to shoot her. "This is what you got for being a damn vampire lover."
As Momo glares at him, she soon closes her eyes to brace herself.
'Fine…Alex…Conny…I'm sorry.' Momo thought.
That is when she heard someone roaring, she soon opened her eyes to see Alex, with his arms as bat wings, had come to her aid as he flew to the guard and threw him away from Momo.
"Alex?" Momo said in surprise that he's here before Alex smiles at her.
"You didn't think I was really going to abandon you?" Alex said.
The guard sits and points his gun at Alex as he turns back to him.
"Damn, vampire!" He said before he fired at him.
Alex dodges it as he flies into the air and lands on top of the guard, he then knocks the gun out the guard's hand and pins him to the ground as he glares at the guard.
The guard glares back at the vampire.
"If you think I'm going to beg for mercy, then forget it! Monster!" He exclaimed at him.
"I wasn't counting on it." Alex said as he was ready to bite on his neck to suck every blood out of his body, but…
"Alex, no!" Momo said as she grabbed onto Alex's shoulders to stop him before he turned at her.
"Why?! This man tried to kill you!" Alex reminded her.
"I know, but this isn't right. If you kill him, you'll only prove him right and you're better than that." Momo told him, and Alex flinched. "Please, let's just go."
Alex was looking at her before he glares back at the guard before he punches him in the face to knock him out.
Alex then offers his back to Momo.
"Climb on." Alex said, and Momo nodded as she grabbed onto him.
Alex then flies above the city while carrying Momo as they leave the town together.
After leaving the human settlement, they soon return to the van where Conny was waiting as he greeted them by barking.
After driving in the van for a while, they soon found shelter in an abandoned log cabin.
Momo had started a fire in the fireplace as she was seated in front of it with Conny lying beside her while Alex was standing on the wall.
"Have to say, we had a close call there, but at least we managed to succeed." Momo said.
"Yeah, but barely." Alex said. "But I still find it naive of you to let that guard live."
"I know. But I wasn't going to stand by and let you dirty your hands like that. They weren't meant to kill, but to paint." Momo told him.
Alex then looks at his hands.
"Yeah. I guess that's true." Alex said. "But do you really have any right to say that to me? I mean, you've been through a lot finding Eden only to escape from it."
Momo then remembers the hardships she went through on her quest to find Eden and was forced to fight and kill Alicia in the submarine. She then lowered her head to remember that, and Alex realized he must have taken it too far.
"Sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned it." Alex said, and Momo shook her head.
"No, it's alright. I suppose it is hypocritical to say that after everything I went through. But I'm not going to kill anyone unless I absolutely have to and I want to do the same with you." Momo said before she smiled at Alex. "It might be naive, but that's the way I want to live my life."
Alex flinches before he turns away from her.
"Whatever. Anyway, it's getting late. You should get some rest, I'll keep watch." Alex told her.
"Yeah, sounds good." Momo said.
Momo then sleeps on the bed with Conny sleeping next to her as she hugs the dog.
As he was keeping watch outside, Alex then turns to the medical bag that contains the blood that they stole.
Alex then knelt down to the bag and brought out a jar to drink the blood in it, he took a moment to breathe out and wiped on his mouth.
"Gotta be careful not to drink too much of this, who knows when this blood will last." Alex said before he turned to Momo.
He probably figured that Momo had this idea out of concern for him, Alex smiles in gratitude for Momo before he drinks the blood in his hand.
(Next day)
It was now morning, and Momo, Alex, and Conny had set out in their newly acquired van.
Momo was driving with Conny lying on the passenger seat beside her and Alex was in the back of the van to check out the supplies she had bought,
"You certainly got a lot of stuff from that town." Alex said.
"Well, we have a long journey ahead of us. Best to be prepared." Momo told him.
"I guess that's true." Alex said before one box caught his eye.
He soon looked into it and saw it was filled with records.
"Records?" Alex said before he picks one of them up.
"Yeah. I just found them while I was getting those supplies. Lucky me, right?" Momo said.
"I guess. But they're pretty much useless without a player." Alex said before he put the record back in the box.
"True, but it's better to have them than let them go to waste." Momo said, and Alex chuckles with a smirk.
"I suppose that's true." Alex said before he jumped onto the backseat.
He then brought out his sketchbook to draw on it and Momo noticed.
"What are you drawing?" Momo asked, and Alex flinched.
"N-Nothing! You just focus on driving." Alex told her.
"Alright. But I want to see it when we stop." Momo said.
"No promises." Alex said as he continued to draw.
Momo pouted as she continued to drive. Alex was drawing a picture of Momo smiling.
There you have it, I hope that you like it. Please review to tell me what you think.