I try to sleep, but someone wakes me up.

“Warren,” a voice stirs you awake, but it is quiet enough that you think you’re just hearing things. Then, the same voice calls you again. It’s too deep to be any of the girls or even Astrid. “Oi, wake up.”

You flip and meet darkness. A soft glint came from the hatch, indicating it was open. “Kenji?”

“Yeah, let’s take a walk.”

Hopefully, this walk doesn’t end up with how it did with Scarlet, but you suppose Kenji didn’t seem like the type. You grab your rifle and dig yourself out of the covers. The coolness of the night swarms over you, and your body resists and misses the warmth of the sheets immediately.

It’s snowing outside, but you're close enough to Billings that the lights ignite the world with a weird glow in a soft orange color. Puffs of steam exit your mouth as you bundle close to yourself. Kenji steps off on a trail, barely covered in snow.

You’re about 5 minutes away from the shelter when Kenji breaks the silence by asking for your opinion about returning to Tiny’s Tavern. He explains he knows a little bit of your background but wants to know your thoughts. You didn’t consider yourself transparent, but with nearly everyone questioning you about going, you wondered if everything you did was evident.

“I mean,” you think for a second. “I’d like it if we’d just stay out of the area. But, as a contractor, I know I can’t get everything I want.”

“Why don’t you want to go back?”

“I’ve got some loose strings back there, nothing major, though.”

“A girl?”

“Ugh… yeah, it’s a girl.”

Kenji is silent for a couple of moments before he continues down. The snow around him sticks and peppers his character in a vague silhouette. The world itself has itself in vague shapes. Trees, shrubs, mounds, and rocks— everything is a dream state as the snow falls and reflects the light shining from Billings.

“I had some girl problems at one point. Before I left Japan.” Kenji says suddenly. He stops where the trees break, and a field is all there is to see. An endless sea of nothing. Orange in tint, but white in color. “But, honestly… my lifestyle doesn’t exactly vibe with everyone's. It’s dangerous for companions and cruel for relationships.”

You think about Delilah and then Flora. All considering, life was pretty simple, even after finding yourself in Tiny’s Tavern. But, how dangerous was it now that you’re with the ARS? Was Delilah in danger now because of you? Could Flora ever return to a decent life after this? You wanted to ask a lot of this, but you didn’t trust Kenji enough to do it.

“I guess my point is,” Kenji continues. “Don’t cross paths with anyone outside this circle now. It’ll be easier than you think.”

“Where are we staying then?”

“Not Tiny’s Tavern. It would be foolish to get us all trapped in a place like that. So I spoke with Amara and agreed to stay with the government body.”

“Isn’t that dangerous too? Government bodies don’t like the ARS. You make and break communities to keep the flow of money going into your pockets.”

“The government over that area is corrupt and deeply invested with the ARS. It’s a hub of **** and weapons, used by you-know-who. Much of the upper class has involvement in our trades to the other cities around Montana. It’s why the locals haven’t united fully with each other.” Kenji exhales. “There’s a lot of politics involved in the story, and with Billings getting stirred up, it’s likely we’ll get caught out here.”

“The team in Bozeman is likely to be wiped out too, so our survival is dire to the company.” Kenji ends.

“That’s wonderful,” you say. “Sure glad I climbed aboard the sinking ship.”

As soon as you say it, you think that maybe you shouldn’t have. You expected Kenji to either defend the ARS or scold you for being disrespectful. Instead, he snickers and stuffs a hand into his breast pocket. From there, he materializes a pack of cigarettes. “It’s in human nature to unite. In every conflict, there are alliances. ARS will survive for the time being, but once the Russians come, there’ll be no stopping the unification that’ll follow against the common foe.”

“Are the Russians coming down into America?”

Kenji shrugs, lighting the tip of his nicotine treat. “They think they can escape the Canadians. They’ve been a thorn on their side for hundreds of years, and now they’re too weak to defend what land their ancestors invaded. They should have made peace with the Canucks. Now they’ve united against them and are forcing them to act out of desperation.”

Kenji’s education makes you feel a little embarrassed. You wished you could offer more input on the border situation, but you couldn’t. You always knew there was tension here, but border tension was everywhere. Texas and Mexico. Pre-war states against the Japanese— how was Europe? Asia? You felt small in the world this big, so you forgot about the details and returned to your bubble with Kenji.

There’s plenty of banter that follows that lightens the mood. And that’s all that happens until Kenji finishes smoking. And by that time, the snow had slowed and nearly stopped by the time you reached the shelter for the rest of the night.

…

…

Everyone gathers the equipment and loads the horses with packs and boxes in the morning. Within just a few minutes, all that was underground was brought up and ready to get moving. Amara double… perhaps triple checks what is being brought. Alexandra confirms what is and isn’t there. Idly, Scarlet converses with Kenji quietly. Flora makes no approaches to you, so you keep to yourself, waiting for Amara’s word to leave.

Once you begin the journey back, no one talks to each other. There’s nothing to admire either, so you feel every hour that passes. It takes a long time for you to spot anything that looks familiar. It doesn’t help that all the details are now covered in snow,

When you’re in the same town as Tiny’s Tavern, you notice that the traffic is at an all-time low. All the stores have clerks inside but no shoppers. The workers chat without worry but give you no more than a single glance when they spot you through the windows. The law enforcement regards you with smiles and a few questions, but they are nowhere as intense as the police in Billings. They shadow you for some time but break off when you’re allowed into the upper-class area. You remember seeing this gated part of town a few times, but none of your contracts brought you this close.

There’s a shift in the mood. The guards look paid and sterner, but they also look at you with some form of solid respect. You’re a little displeased with yourself for letting this part of town go unnoticed. Delilah also failed to mention the upper-class here. However, you don’t recall ever seeing them either. The houses here overlook the town below; they’re modest, you suppose, and it doesn’t scream “**** hubs” like you assumed these places would have.

Kenji rides beside Amara and talks to her. It’s the first interaction you’ve seen since you’ve hit the road. Your column of weighted horses takes a pause, and you make a circle. Amara looks at everyone and sniffs, her nose slightly red against the cold air. “We’ll be right back. No one move.”

Alexandra slouches. “No, we won’t…”

Amara and Kenji ride off, clopping down the street before taking a lazy right turn.

Scarlet taps her thumb rapidly on the saddle of her horse. Her expression is lazy, but she’s tuned in to every sound around you if you had to guess. Flora lets out a loud yawn and stretches as far as she can. Alexandra finds a bag of trail mix in her gear and plucks it out, now eating quietly while you wait.

In the meantime, you’re looking around. You aren’t too surprised this is in the same area as Tiny’s Tavern despite never being here. It’s isolated here, and there’s no one around; like much of the other places in town, there’s just no foot traffic. You remember that Spring and Summer were busy, but it didn’t take long for all of that to fade. You have never guessed that it played as a cog in the ARS’s gunrunning machine.

Kenji mentioned that the provisional government was corrupt and helped them move everything from hardware to narcotics. The locals were in on it, but about Delilah? Did she know about this? She mentioned not getting along with the others, and maybe this was why.

You yawned and slumped forward, dispersing the thoughts in your head. Now wasn’t the time to get distracted. You glance up and see Scarlet staring at you. Instead of looking away, she moistens her lips and then exhales. “It’s nothing,” she says before you can ask anything.”

“Oookay?” You reply. Scarlet looked angry, but you didn’t know why.

The others return. They looked chipper, unable to fight the grins on their mouths. Amara gallops to the center and tells the group that you’re right next to where you’ll be staying for the time being. The building to the right, maybe the cleanest out of the other buildings, will be your new home.

Flora straightens her back and looks at it. “Not bad.”

Aside from the backyard and large windows facing the street, you can’t see anything else that sticks out from the other buildings. It was brown and brick. There were trimmed bushes along the sides and trees guarding the pathway to the front door. On the sides were tan rocks under the trees guarding the same path. They complimented the house's color and added to the home's exterior.

The living room was spacious. There’s a TV set and a VHS player beneath it. The large window allows natural lighting. Brown carpets make the floor, and dark leather couches surround the coffee table in front of the entertainment center. There are fake plants inside here, too, and pictures along the walls. A kitchen with wood flooring is near the living room. There is a black Microwave, an empty refrigerator, and a stove ready for use. A dining table with six chairs is decorated with a nice red tablecloth is erected near a door that leads to a deck.

There are other features you’d expect in a home too. A ceiling fan and a small chandelier too, but there is nothing sticking out to that speaks evil or corrupt. You only wonder who’s house this is.

You bring everything in, and Kenji takes the horses somewhere. This leaves you and all the girls alone in the house. Under some fantasy, this would have been ideal, but the circumstances are dangerous and questionable.