The Messengers of Sanctuary

58 - Chicory

Chicory rode in the back of a truck packed with people. Vincent sat beside her, having been delegated as her Spanish teacher for the day. Fen and Song had also taken turns, apparently both of them being fluent in basically every language that Chicory had ever heard of.

Ephriam, as expected, had decided to stay back at Ironwind, so he was absent. But the other two pyros were there, still not at all alright with each other's company. Chicory would have to do something about that at one point, but it wasn't hurting anybody at the moment so she let it persist.

Song sat in the cab with Nina and the terror, Daniel.

The scientist had mentioned at one point being worried about leaving the stronghold mostly unguarded for so long, but she'd asked a...friend(?) from relatively nearby to check in every couple of weeks to be sure things were going alright.

Sitting against the cab was an annoyed Nightstalker, and beside her was an energetic Nicky who kept prodding the woman's side and generally making a nuisance of herself. Chicory knew now that most of what Nicky did was intentional, so she tried keeping track of it. Without heartfire she wouldn't have noticed half the stuff she saw, but as far as Chicory could tell, Nicky was mostly just trying to show Chicory how to annoy a nightstalker without dying.

Their group had been on the move for roughly two weeks at this point, and to Chicory's dismay, she was the reason they weren't already there. They had to stop for an hour or so at least four times a day, and driving through the night wasn't really possible for that same reason.

There were also a lot of non-viable roads that they had to go around, and once again Chicory was reminded of why the sanctuary traders and messengers were so useful. They could get places that most humans would completely overlook.

---

Chicory wasn't sure what she was expecting to find when they got there.

They'd passed under another one of those airplanes, but this time didn't see any sign of a demon box. Song was kind of mad that they weren't trying to track those things, but she seemed relatively content to wait for them to get back to their hesitant base. Where hopefully River would be waiting for them with those pyros and messengers, ready to start up this branch of their postage empire.

What Chicory didn't expect to find as they rolled into that clearing by the riverbend was for them to just be gone.

Chicory leapt out of the vehicle, looking around madly for the camp that had been right there just two months back.

Trinity got out next, following behind with her nostrils flaring as she scented for the missing camp. She growled, "It's rained since anyones been here last. Any trail is gone." She glanced sideways at Fen, who had also lept from the truck bed and was probably the one who knew this area the best, "Were there any strongholds nearby who might know where they went?"

Fen was clearly worried, he kept glancing between the empty area and some point off to the west, frowning, "I...I don't know. I don't think anyone would want to talk with me, that's for sure. We had quite a reputation."

The truck had stopped and Nicky stood up in the back, "What? None of you can find them?"

Chicory shrugged, "Working on it. Fen, is there any strongholds nearby?"

The guy growled in frustration, "Well yeah, but the closest one is Wakefield."

Nicky hopped out of the truck, giving Fen an incredulous stare, "And that's a problem why? It can't possibly be worse than those places I exploded."

Daniel growled, "We are not exploding another stronghold."

Nicky glanced at Chicory and then back at Daniel, "What? I have to teach my apprentice something! Besides, it wasn't even the entire stronghold, just like...a few buildings probably." Nicky shook her head and glanced at Fen, "But really is this place that bad?"

Fen seemed kind of lost, but he mostly just shrugged, "That's where the Viviendo live. They probably won't even agree to talk to us, even if it's not their fault everyone's gone."

Everyone glanced at Nina for some reason. The Scientist was lost in thought, frowning contemplatively at the sky, "Well, it can't hurt to talk to them, they won't shoot us on sight right?"

Vincent shuddered at that thought, "They do have at least one gun. They don't use it unless they need to though."

Nicky snorted, "if they wanted to stop a group like this, they'd need a lot more explosives. That and soap, lot's of soap." She glanced at the pyros with an intrigued look, "Oooo does the soap work on demons?"

Song tilted her head, "Soap? Isn't that for washing? Is it some kind of slang that I never learned?"

Nicky chuckled ominously but didn't answer, and no one bothered to correct Song.

Nina sighed, "Alright, if everyone could please get back into the truck, that would be great, we aren't getting anywhere just standing here."

---

They approached the stronghold, most of the group getting steadily more uneasy as it came into view. They were downwind, so they'd know fairly soon if the locals were hostile. Trinity perked up, her nostrils flaring, which was the first indication they had that something was out of the ordinary.

"As far as I can tell, they're inside. I never met most of the group, but there are several of the pyros inside and River's scent is everywhere."

Chicory relaxed slightly at that, until Trinity jerked her head up, eyes wide, "There's also a aane terror, several regular zombies, a tunneler, and another scent that I don't recognise, but it smells kind of like some of those unranked zombies."

Chicory un-relaxed. "What! Are they being overrun?"

The terror in the driver's seat growled, "No, I don't think so, it looks like a regular stronghold, no one's freaking out."

Trinity nodded at that, "I can't smell anything that would suggest they're not sane. But we're a bit far off and there's a lot of scents between here and there. No blood though, which is very telling."

Chicory examined the palisade as they approached the area, frowning in thought as the group silently waited for more information.

They stopped outside the gates and someone peeked out of the watchtower. "¿quién eres?"

Nina poked her head out of the window, "We're looking for some people! Somebody by the name of 'River' and the group that was with him! We were hoping you knew where they got to or could point us in the right direction?"

The guard scowled, "Oh, you're those people."

Chicory didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but Nina nodded, "Are they here?"

The guard sighed, "Yeah yeah, come on in, grandma will want to talk to you..."

------

Vote to throw Nina at all those sane zombies (Seriously, that's an unusual amount of sanity down here!)