He is waiting

Druuna emerged from the water on the other side to find that the short, squat man was still there, standing on the stairs, holding his long knife in his right hand.

?Ah, you?re back already!? He said as he spotted Druuna walking up out of the water.

?Who was that?? Druuna asked him.

?Who was who??

?That man I talked to down there.?

?A guy? What guy?? The man answered, staring at her with a confused look on his face.

Suddenly, his eyes widened as he screamed out ?Careful!?

Before Druuna could respond, she felt several rubbery limbs grab hold of her legs.

Looking back over her shoulder, Druuna could see how several thick, orange tentacles had reached out of the water, now starting to **** her back into the water.

?Ahhh! It?s pulling me back in!? She screamed in horror, noting that at least two of the tentacles ended with an eye.

The short man raised his knife and charged into the water, slashing at the tentacle-equipped creature.

?Go back to the hell you came from, you cursed monster!? He screamed as the tentacles let go of Druuna to grab him instead.

Having been able to crawl out of the water before becoming paralyzed with fear, Druuna watched the man being dragged down into the water, disappearing under the surface.

The last thing she heard him say before his head disappeared into the murky water was a stout: ?So, you want a real fight, eh!??

For a few seconds, air bubbled up out of the water, but soon they ceased, a sure sign that the fight was over.

Druuna clenched her hands in horror, having watched the strange man be dragged down to a certain without being able to intervene.

Suddenly, with a loud splash, the man appeared again, triumphantly holding something in his right hand that looked as though it had been a vital organ to the creature.

?Yippee! What a fight! And here?s his heart!? The man yelled out, before wading out of the water.

Druuna stood still in shock as she saw how the short man sat down on the stairs, and went on to eat the obese heart raw!

Too disgusted to resume her questioning of the man, she hurriedly got dressed, not caring about drying off first.

?You sure that you don?t want some? It?s a bit rough on your teeth, but it tastes good.? The man said in-between biting down on the bloody, yuck-oozing organ.

?No, no! You?re just crazy!? Druuna nearly screamed at him as she tied her cloak and then stormed up the stairs.

Without looking back, Druuna yelled Goodbye to the old man, and was off.

Storming back up to the surface, once there she stopped to catch her breath.

She knew that she had to cure Shastar, but how?

Should she head for the medical centre and hope to get some of the serum there, or would it be better to head for the black market, situated in another abandoned block not far from where she was?

The medical centre was controlled by the priests and the soldiers, which meant that the risk of being attacked by mutants or thugs was lower, but the priests were a haughty bunch, and easy to rub in the wrong way.

The black market on the other hand was in some ways riskier, but also more free, and the chance of getting hold of larger quantities of the serum, which was what Druuna would need if she was to make sure that Shastar would be restored to his normal form for more than a few hours, was bigger.

Wherever Druuna was to go, she knew that she would have to barter for the serum, and she had very little to trade by her body.