Follow Kenji

Kenji comes to a stop in front of the stone building and jogs up the steps to the entrance. From there, he looks back and points at you. “Just follow the armory - you’re bound to find her in there tinkering with their equipment.”

“I have no idea what she looks like,” you sigh. "Can't we go in together?"

“Scarlet is probably hurt. I need Flora’s assistance in patching her up.” Kenji argued. “It won’t be hard. You’ll know her when you see her.”

Flora shifted legs and looked down the street. "Are you sure that's a good idea though? I- I don't want to be with Warren, but he does have a point. He's never seen her before!"

"Was anyone fucking talking to you, princess?" Kenji grabbed and yanked her towards him. "Do I need to remind you who pulled your sorry ass out of the fire when Amari took a little detour when we went through Bozeman?"

Flora's eyes narrowed. "I didn't ask for help! If Scarlet didn't do that damn contract in the first place-"

The two of them started to argue with each other. What a horrible, pointless time this was to do this... You tried to pry the two apart, but Flora was starting to become physical. You stepped in between and pushed them away from each other. "Would you two knock it off?! We're wasting valuable time doing this!"

Suddenly, all three of you froze. There was patrol closing in on your position. There was no time running for cover or to make up a story. Kenji cursed and snapped "Good job, Flora! You dumb bitch!"

Flora didn't harness a pained expression this time. Instead she glared back. "This is your fault, you stubborn Jap!"

"Shut it!" You hissed. "Kenji what do we do?"

He stepped forward and approached the column. "I need the two of you two shut the hell up and let me do the talking..."

Kenji opened his hands to open dialog, but before he could say a single word, one of the soldiers breaks formation and shoots Kenji, announcing that he was "the traitor that let the girl get away". "

Kenji, who was squared to the entire squad, stood no chance. The shot breaks and the bullets tears into Kenji, making you scream and reach for your rifle as he crumples to the floor gasping. Flora shouts too - this doesn't do a whole lot besides stir chaos in your mind...

The column of soldiers starts breaking into subgroups as they approach you. A man wearing an officer's hat towers over Kenji and pulls out his sidearm. You think he's going to kill him, but he doesn't. Instead he orders the others to give aid to Kenji and to arrest the rest of you. There's no use in resisting, so you don't. Of course, it isn't that simple. They thoroughly beat you as they escort and parade you around town. The public throws everything from garbage to snow balls. They seem to treat Flora with a little more respect as they shield her from the crowd.

You haven't been captured and paraded like this before, so you feel an overwhelming sense of fear, but you do a decent job of hiding it, despite being pelted with every god damn item these people have until you inside of a dark and damp holding cell. They separate you and Flora. You don't dare wonder what they are doing to Kenji's body. Perhaps they'll have mercy on you as a private contractor? As you look around your cell, you see faint smudges of blood alone the concrete walls. The floor looks dirty, unwashed even though it's had remnants of...something from before. It smells bad and there's a lingering feeling of hopelessness from the last occupier. A majority of the cell is just a cube, but on the right hand side of the cell, the material is different. It's metal. It's thick and is solid, but when you look above, you see a faint light bleeding through the cracks - this used to be one room! You try pushing against it and kicking at the corners, but it doesn't even move an inch.

I'm in a storm of fuck.

You sit and stay silent on the bed which is provided. It stinks too, and it stained with every kind bodily fluid. Shit, piss, blood, and...whatever else that color is supposed to be. They took everything you had besides your clothes, but even then they stole a bit of your dignity with how hard they groped you before shoving you in here.

After about 20 minutes of silence, you hear Flora being **** inside of a cell there. There is a lot of arguing. Flora sounds like she's putting up a fearsome fight until there's a loud, deafening slap. There's a hollow thud and feminine grunt. You wish it ended there, but it sounds like they just beating the hell out of her now. You cringe and coil, she was supposed to be under your protection. Luckily, they don't **** her long, they just leave after she finally gives out. Before talking to her, you wait for more minutes.

...

...

"Flora?" You say with a whisper. There's stirring on the other end. "How bad are you hurt?"

A few seconds of silence, but she eventually answers. "They beat the shit out of me, Warren. I'm scared."

"This isn't the greatest spot to be in. I don't suppose you heard or somehow saw any of the others?" You look around, but it's too dark to make out anything.

"I didn't hear anything about them. Neither did they. I think they said they were still looking for them...whatever that means now," she coughs and shuffles around more. You can hear her moving. Her voice becomes clearer as she presses herself against the metal wall. "I'm sorry, Warren. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have-"

"Flora, now isn't the time to get soft. We need to get the fuck out of here before they start torturing us." It's then you realize how fast your heart is beating. "We can talk about how sorry you are and how badly we screwed the pooch, but right now we need to focus on escaping. Can you do that?"

"Yeah," she stammers. "Do you think I got Kenji killed?"

"We don't have time to think about that... Do you see anything on your end? I have nothing besides the gate, the bed, a shitter, and a sink. They took everything off of me."

"Same. There's a table here though. There's...a bunch of blood on it. Oh, my God." Her voice cracks.

"No, no, no!" You try to calm her, but honestly, you're glad you're in here instead now - who knows what they have planned for her now. "Don't think about it right now. Just look around and tell me what you find. I'm going to look around too. They could return any minute."

"I'll try. Warren...Again...I'm so sorry."

What the hell do I do now?