Chapter 5: Sand, Stones, and Killing Sprees
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It looked like a gigantic bowl, except that the sides were crumbling in with sand and debris, much like the city’s outskirts. It was an immense crater, produced from a source of power very strong and very mysterious to the planet of Gunsmoke. Lost technology was always a mysterious subject among the inhabitants of the planet. Exactly where had it come from? Scraps of it were left on Gunsmoke, like a puzzle missing pieces. Was it part of the moment of when life began on the desert? Or remains of an old civilization that had disappeared? Plenty of this lost technology was used to survive since before humans remembered; plants were needed to make anything useful here, but still with the struggles and research, even the most intelligent people were unable to understand anymore than half the aspects.
“But why? Why would they just collapse? Die?” Meryl asked, peering down the steep side of the crater, it was so deep that she couldn’t even glimpse the bottom. “Vash?” She turned.
It had been along time since she had taken the time to ponder, and now that her job and pondering were crossed, she wondered exactly what had happened here.
Blowing grains of sand against their feet and shins, the wind persuaded them to leave, as if the last thing it wanted was four adults and a teenager in its way.
Clint was sitting near the edge, his knees wrapped up in his arms and was watching Meryl question Vash cautiously. Unfortunately, Vash was too absorbed in his own thoughts to answer right away.
“They say nothing like it has ever happened,” Millie spoke when Vash didn’t. “They’ve had troubles with plants, but nothing as destructive as this.”
“It killed lots of people, nearly half the population of December,” Clint added.
“But the strange thing is all of them, all the plants, had the same problem… all but one.” Millie continued. “And now there’s only one alive for the whole city, and we have to decrease our use of power.”
Knives turned away from them, and started walking back the direction they had come.
Vash hesitated before calling to him. “Where are you going?”
Knives stopped and stretched his neck to stare into Vash’s crystal eyes…/Away/ He answered, not out loud, but in Vash’s head, as plants have the ability to do, and continued walking away from them.
‘Good radiance to that creep…’ Meryl thought in the back of her mind as she watched Knives leave in silence.
Vash hesitated again, and then turned back to the pit. “It doesn’t make sense to me either…”
“Maybe he just needs alone time,” Millie suggested, obviously thinking Vash was referring to Knives. This only confused Meryl, who had assumed Vash had been referring to the disastrous pit, not Knives. ‘Then again, Knives is a disaster,’ she thought to herself.
“No one knows what caused it?” Meryl asked again.
There was a pause and then Vash asked, “Will you excuse us?” after eyeing Meryl.
“Gladly,” Clint answered.
‘He is much too keen,’ Vash thought as he led Meryl away. ‘He just better keep it to himself if I’m not so obvious.’
Once they were out of earshot, he stopped, and turned to face Meryl.
She had rarely seen him look so serious, and it startled her to see the expression etched into his face.
“It’s an awful thing, Meryl. It’s terrible, and frankly, I haven’t seen anything like it.” He stared towards the crater again. “The closest thing I can relate to it is when a plant is very angry, but…” He paused, even if Meryl knew what Vash was, he was still hesitant. “They weren’t angry, they were afraid.”
“Afraid?” Meryl asked. “But why would they be scared? Of what? Were they running out of power? Were they afraid to die?”
“No, they obviously had plenty of energy. I don’t know what it was, but it’s not normal.”
Meryl felt her skin prickle at the tone of his voice, and the look in his eyes. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but this wasn’t right, actually it seemed it was all very wrong.
“You can tell Millie, I just didn’t want to leave Clint alone…” Vash drew Meryl to a less important matter. He looked into Meryl’s deep lavender eyes. “He doesn’t know much about me.” He looked away from them, moving his eyes downward, but where ever he looked, he was being strangled. Her eyes were too much, and as he looked down, her ring had fashionably caught the sunlight and turned it into a gleam. “...but he reads me very well.”
‘That kid again…’ she thought. ‘His kid?’
“He’s very brave…” Meryl found her mouth forming the words without her consent.
“He is…”
‘I was afraid…’ Meryl suddenly remembered the accident on the Sandsteamer. Where had her bravery gone then? She used to be brave. ‘Why was I afraid?’
***
“All I want to do is take a hot bath!” Meryl sighed, when she and Millie entered their hotel room. They had so many hotels for such a good price (now that there was little power) that she had voted for the most decent looking one on the street, which happened to be the best looking one she had every stayed in. There were two rather well-sized beds- sheets free of wrinkles- a separate room to bathe, and two sinks in front of a large mirror just outside it, the floor was soft to walk on, and the wood furniture was beautiful, some of which already supplied books and music to listen to.
“With hot water and bath salts and bubbles…” Meryl continued.
“But Meryl, you can’t take a bath, we don’t have the power,” Millie reminded.
Suddenly, Meryl growled in annoyance. “Millie! I was on a Sandsteamer that exploded, road in a hot crowded car, been in the sand and wind, and I still haven’t the slightest idea what caused the plants to create such havoc and destruction!” She said this as if it was Millie’s fault, although she knew it was nothing of the sort. “What am I supposed to do on our report!”
“You could blame it on Vash,” Millie said, simply.
“Vash is our friend; we can’t blame it on him!”
“Even after he blew you off?”
“He blew you off too, and anyway, it’s been along time.” Meryl held up her left hand where the ring seemed to glow, even in the dim room. “Remember? I did exactly what he told me to, I ‘moved on’!”
“You’re getting married? That’s wonderful!” She clasped her own hands together.
“Didn’t we go through this at the hospital?” A sweat-dropped Meryl asked.
“I don’t know, I was on some odd medication,” She answered thoughtfully.
“Charles Glenning,” Meryl felt like life had just been given to her again, and she grew calm again. She wondered what he was doing, and sighed, letting her hand drop back to her side.
“Do you miss him?” Millie asked.
“Yes…” Meryl frowned.
***
Sunset came, and left the city darker then ever before, the only light allowed was the moons’ gaze over the city. Now-a-days in December, people went home very early to avoid the darkness, all except a straggling few.
Knives skulked down the sidewalk in the cold night. His soft hands tucked away in his pockets. It was windy, but really rather quiet.
It wasn’t normal for a plant to act like that…just…explode. And to Knives, that meant one thing: He was still alive.
Knives stopped at the sound of a riot just around the corner.
Cussing erupted, and seconds later a man ran passed Knives. He was holding something, but it was to dark to tell what it was.
Pausing for a moment, Knives recalled the darkness and wondered how many children were afraid of it. Were they crying right now? He let the idea satisfy him until another voice was sounded around the corner.
“My money! Please, I need it for food!” It was another man, and he came rushing around the corner.
Whatever encouraged Knives (crying children or not) he did something disgusting. As the targeted man ran after the criminal, he pulled out the black gun, and shot the innocent.
The foodless man fell to the ground in a matter of seconds. Dead.
Knives didn’t budge, didn’t even blink.
“Hey!” The criminal brightened in his raspy voice. “Thanks sir!”
Knives pointed the gun at him.
The man looked at him in disbelief, and then fright. “Here! Take it, just don’t kill me!” He threw the wallet which slide across the sidewalk, it stopped at Knives’ feet.
“I don’t want the money, and I don’t want your thanks. It’s not for you, it’s for me.”
Bang!
Thud.
Dead.
Knives cold lifeless eyes scanned over the scene. Two bodies shadowed in the dark, dead.
“It’s easy, isn’t it?” He asked the bodies. “ISN’T IT?” He yelled louder.
Obviously, there wasn’t an answer.
He turned away from them, the dead, and began to simply walk away from it. After a few yards, he broke into a run…running into the darkness.
***
“He sounds wonderful, Meryl, I’m really happy for you! Are you sure you’re over Vash?” Millie asked, after just listening to all the positive qualities of Charles Glenning.
“Oh, of course! I hardly know the man anymore!” Meryl said. “And did he ever write us? No! I’m not sure he even really cared. You know… outlaws…”
“I’m sure he ca-“
Millie was interrupted by a knock on their door.
“Hello?” Clint’s voice sounded.
Clenching her teeth, Meryl wondered how long he had been there.
“Hello!” Millie called back.
“Er- can we come-“
“The door’s unlocked,” Meryl said, with a deep disappointment she hadn’t been able to vent on Vash more.
Clint opened it and revealed Vash and himself in the moonlight.
“We brought Sand and Stones!” Clint held up a box.
“Sand and stones?” Meryl repeated, quietly wondering how the teenager had found his way to their room in the dark with sunglasses on. The scene was imagined in her head for a split second.
“Oh I love that game!” Millie clapped her hands together.
‘Of course, sand and stones the board game,’ Meryl thought.
Sand and Stones was a very simple game that children played; very adolescent for adults. The goal was simple: Be the first to reach the Sandsteamer. Players rolled the dice, moved their game piece that many spaces, and then drew a card that was either “sand” or “stones” (depending on what space the player’s game piece had landed on). “Sand” gave the person bonuses, and “Stones” disrupted his/her journey.
Because Clint insisted it wasn’t right to play any kind of poker with women, especially Meryl and Millie, Vash was forced to buy the only other game in the gift shop Sand and Stones. In reality, Vash didn’t want to come and play games one bit, his mind was too preoccupied with Knives and what he could possibly be doing, but Clint insisted they play the game before beginning to worry.
“But we can’t play in the dark,” Meryl pointed out. “We don’t have any light.”
“That’s why we brought candles!” Clint answered.
Meryl watched the others set up the game on the table, and light the candles, feeling anything but interested in the idea.
“Come on Meryl, it’s fun this way,” Clint invited. “My mom and I would always play this way.”
Of course it was nice Clint was so close to his mother that they enjoyed playing Sand and Stones with candles, but Meryl had no good memories with the board game, and had no desire to play.
“Please?” Clint asked, the fire of the candles reflecting in his sunglasses.
Reluctantly, she joined them at the table. She still didn’t know exactly why, but somehow the “Son of Vash” had talked it into her.
….
“Yes! Another turn!” Millie squealed, placing the Sand card in the discard pile.
Meryl always believed it was a game of luck, but Millie was so far ahead on the board that she had gotten the idea there was a strategy involved.
Looking down at the board, Meryl reached for the dice until she felt a rough something else…
She looked up. It was Vash’s hand, and just that caught her off guard. It was so different compare to Charles’. The shape, the texture, the temperature…
Vash couldn’t stand it.
“Oh, sorry.” He moved it from under hers and definitely appreciated the dim room in hopes it would hide his soft blush.
Meryl stopped and studied the board. “Oh, I’m sorry; I thought it was my turn, go ahead.”
“You can go if you want.”
What was he talking about? It was his turn, not hers. Why didn’t he just go?
“It’s your turn.”
“Thank you.”
What’s this ‘thank you’ stuff? She wondered.
Clint watched, and felt disappointment sweep into him. That was it? He sighed inside himself.
***
After telling the girls goodnight, Vash and Clint returned to their room several doors away.
“It was fun, right?” Clint asked, holding the box again, walking beside Vash. “Millie’s pretty good at games, huh? Vash?”
He gave him a small smile. “I’ve heard she’s legend.”
“Yeah…” Clint agreed, feeling rather content and happy at the moment.
Finally, Vash opened the door, and to his relief, Knives was staring up at the ceiling, laying on the bed furthest away from the door.
“See Vash?” Clint asked. “Told you not to worry.”
“I’m glad you found the room,” Vash said. “We were playing a game with Mer- the girls.”
“Don’t say ‘the girls’!” Clint ordered, offended. “They’re not just ‘the girls’…”
‘If only he knew why…or maybe he does…’ Vash thought, but was too tired and relieved to think on it anymore.
Knives rolled over in silence. He wanted to tell Vash. Tell him that a hungry boy’s father wasn’t coming home that night, because he killed him, the innocent. It would almost be comical to see his reaction, wouldn’t it? But he couldn’t…no, of course he could, he was Knives. He could tell Vash, he just didn’t want to.
***
In the other hotel room, Meryl and Millie were in their beds, absorbing the last few moments that came before falling asleep.
“Meryl?”
“Huh?” Meryl answered, half asleep.
“Did you notice Vash tonight?”
“What do you mean ‘noticed’? “
“Do you… think he likes you?”
“What are you talking about, Millie?”
“The way he reacted… his eyes…”
“Vash doesn’t like me that way,” she said matter-of-factly.
“But did you see his eyes?”
“It was dark!”
“Well, do you remember them?”
“…no…”
“You taught me to know his feelings from his eyes, because he tries to keep them to himself. That’s how we could tell what he really wanted.”
“I highly doubt Vash likes me, and even if he does, I’m engaged.” What did it take to get it into Millie’s head? “It’s too late.”
It was quiet for a long time as Meryl thought. She stared into the still darkness, pondering again.
“Millie, do you think I’ve forgotten him?” She asked softly. “Not as in love, but Vash in general?”
Millie let out a big snore.
Sweat-drop.
Meryl heaved a sigh.
***
“We’ll just have to ask around town,” Millie suggested the next morning.
“City,” Meryl corrected, putting her dirty hair up in front of the mirror.
“I’m sure we can get a lot of testimonies on what happened.”
“Yes, we need something for our report…guess we will have to ask around.” Meryl said with disappointment.
“You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”
Meryl jumped at Vash’s voice and his sudden appearance in the mirror. Turning, she saw all the blonds in Millie and hers room.
“How did you get in here?”
“Millie let us in,” Clint explained with a smile breaking through. “Didn’t you hear us?”
“I suppose not…” She put in another bobby pin and sighed. “I wish there was running water.”
“What’s for breakfast?” Vash asked, peering around the room.
“I am hungry…” Millie frowned. “Meryl, do we have anything to eat?”
Vash perked up, awaiting the answer. His stomach growled.
It was only morning and Meryl was already feeling very irritated. What? Was she their mother or something? Everyone in her room (except Clint) was full grown adults, if they were hungry, why don’t they do something about it?
“No, Millie, I was busy playing board games last night.” Meryl answered with a tone.
“Oh yeah, that was fun!” Millie chirped.
“Yeah,” Clint agreed. “Maybe you should come next time, Knives.”
He didn’t answer, unlike Meryl, when Knives was in a bitter mood, he generally remained silent, until pushed too far with the right prick.
“So no one has had any food?” Vash asked again.
“No, we don’t have any food,” Meryl answered. “If you’re hungry-“
“But everyone is hungry,” Vash pointed out the dilemma. “They have a pancake house down the street, I’ll treat everyone.” He volunteered.
It was either a very delicious pancake house or everyone was so hungry, that it made it delicious as it filled their stomach.
Meryl thought she would never meet anyone who could eat as much as Vash, but her jaw almost fell watching Knives nearly out beat the outlaw. Neither Vash nor Knives took it as a contest, but she was counting long after everyone else was done.
“Well, now that I have a full stomach,” Vash exclaimed as he pushed away the rest of his 13th pancake. “Let’s go investigate, and then maybe we can do something fun.”
“Ooh! Like what?” Millie asked, obviously wishing to switch the order.
“Let’s worry about that when we’re done with out report, Millie,” Meryl said, struggling to sound calm.
Vash paid for the large amount of food, and they all left.
“Where should we start?” Clint asked. He peered up and down the street.
“The plant that wasn’t destroyed was supporting power for the eastern outskirts of the city and an orphanage about 20 iles away.” Millie informed.
“An orphanage?” Meryl asked. “Out there? You sure? Who in the right mind would put one there?”
“A priest,” Vash answered.
“A priest?” Meryl repeated.
“Wolfwood’s.” Knives said, gazing his cold eyes on a little boy and his father. They were arguing about something, and Knives was seeking to enjoy it.
Uneasily, Meryl shuffled a little.
“Wolfwood?” Millie asked. “We should stop by… are we going to?”
Still watching the boy, Knives asked. “Why? So we can tell them the news?”
“Don’t talk like that,” Vash cautiously said.
“Well, it’s true, he is dead.” He answered simply.
The boy started crying and his father hugged him.
Neither Vash nor Meryl dared look at Millie, but if they had, they would have seen that Millie was fine, she was just a little eager. Clint saw this, but he had no idea what everyone was acting so eccentric about.
“And you know what?” Knives continued. “I don’t care…I don’t care anymore.” He turned to Vash. “He’s dead, and you overate it. You overate all of it.”
Before he would have to listen to Vash’s annoying lines of how horrible death was, he left them again, his pace quickening in anger.
Vash apologized. “Yes, we’ll go, Millie, and I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be Vash, you have done a wonderful job!”
Questioning, Vash stared at her.
“Maybe I’m wrong…” Her expression changed at Vash’s look. “But didn’t he say ‘anymore’? Doesn’t that mean he cared once?”
Clint watched, still confused in everything.
Vash noted Millie’s answer, and also noted it took only someone like Millie to recognize the good in everything.
***
The orphanage, I am sorry to say, was in very poor condition. White walls were cracked and dirty, and so were the windows that had glass remaining. It was the oddest place Vash had ever seen for an orphanage, but that didn’t matter.
With an odd sense of butterflies in the adults’ stomachs, Millie reached her hand up and knocked on the door.
They waited a long few minutes before someone finally opened it; a woman that looked about 19 with sky blue hair, and several freckles that was holding a bowl in her right hand, stared at them in slight surprise from the doorway.
“Wolfwood,” Millie started. “Did he work here?”
“Wolfwood? No, I don’t, we don’t know a Wolfwood.”
“Are you sure? We were good friend with him.”
The woman’s hand slipped, and the bowl clanked to the ground.
“Friends?” She repeated in her small voice.
“Yes,” Millie answered.
Clint picked up the bowl and handed it back.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said, “he died…”
“Yes,” Millie said sadly. “We were there.”
Taking a sudden step back, the woman took a moment to regain herself. “Well, he’s not here obviously, so if you’re not going to adopt, maybe you should leave.”
“Actually,” Vash started. “Do you know anything about the plant disruption?”
“Just because we got our power from the one plant that didn’t explode doesn’t mean we had anything to do with it!” She said sharply. “Now please.”
Vash noted the reaction.
“Please, we just need some information for a report,” Meryl said.
“Nothing happened here, we’re not by the city.”
“But you’re not very far.” Meryl insisted.
“Nothing, now please, I’m very busy.”
“Are you sure?” Meryl asked.
“Of course I’m sure!” She yelled.
It went quiet.
“Please leave,” She said in a shaky voice. “Now.”
“Can we play with the children?” Millie asked in a small hopeful voice.
“Just please leave us alone, it’s hard enough already.”
Vash studied her.
“Go.”
She shut the door.
“I’m sorry, Millie,” Vash said as they began to make their way away from the orphanage.
“Yeah, and I need this report done by tomorrow morning.” Meryl frowned in distress. “If that woman just answered some questions-! What are we going to do!”
“Maybe we can go play tomorrow,” Clint told Millie hopefully.
“No…it’s not right…” She frowned.
“Nothing’s right and life is heck!” Meryl growled, and kicked a rock.
“I know! Donuts!” Vash cried. “The always cheer me up!”
“I don’t eat donuts,” Meryl and Clint both said.
“Clint!” Vash gasped as if he had just strangled an innocent kitty.
“Now I know you’re not his son,” Meryl said to Clint.
Clint gave her a timid smile.
***
That night Vash and Clint brought some snacks into Meryl’s and Millie’s room, and munched on them, listening to Meryl’s typewriter create a song filled with little noise and plenty of writer’s block. She didn’t have much to work with, but she had to get something out.
“Maybe I can help,” Vash suggested, as her typewriter came to another silent part of the song.
“Vash did you even go to school?” Meryl asked.
Popping in another piece of candy in his mouth he answered. “That doesn’t mean I can’t write.” He came to her side, peering down at the typewriter.
Meryl moved it away. “I think I’ll be able to do it just fine, thank you very much.” By this she meant “better than any outlaw can with this little information”, but only females would ever catch on to the idea.
“Well, if you change your mind…” was all he said in return, and sat back down with Clint, Millie, and a pile of junk food.
***
Knives, on the other hand was wandering the very dark streets of December again. His mind worked vigorously.
Flashback
Pondering the dark scene, he was absorbing the outline of the girl’s face.
“You helped him escape,” Knives had said to her.
“No, I-“ She stammered. “I didn’t mea-“
“You’re lying to me,” Knives said calmly, and then erupted. “Don’t lie to me!”
The female shook in fear, and Knives smirked.
I didn’t want to have trouble with you two, Janell. Did you think you could hide it?” He almost laughed.
“It’s not true,” she shook.
Knives’ eyes narrowed.
“It’s not true!” She was crying.
“Legato.”
“Master,” he bowed and moved to the curled up female.
“No! It’s not true!” She sobbed as Legato neared.
The shriek echoed and cut through the darkness. Then silence filled the black.
End flashback
When crying reached Knives’ ears, he followed it.
The noise was coming from a child, huddled on the sidewalk.
He stopped at her. Her skin had Goosebumps from the cold, and her brown hair hung from her scalp in chunks. Her hands were wet from crying.
***
Meryl’s eyes grew heavier and heaver as the night wore on and on. She smacked herself several times in hopes of staying awake.
“Stay awake, awake,” she told herself in the candle light.
Before she knew it, she was typing the same words over and had to concentrate as hard as she could to keep it sounding professional, but her eyelids kept shutting, and it felt like a struggle every time she had to open them.
“Apparently the damages… the damages…”
Millie snored softly, wrapped in wonderful cotton warm blankets and a soft feather pillow, so comfortable she could have been sleeping in a warm cloud.
Talking had died down between Vash and Clint, but with so much junk food, they were hardly tired at all.
“The damages…” Meryl repeated, but her fingers didn’t move. “The- T-H-E, the da- dama- damages- D-A-M-A-G-“ She struggled. “Have to stay awake,” she whispered, before falling asleep once and for all.
***
“I’m lost,” the child cried. “It’s too dark.”
Knives looked down at her.
“Please help me find mommy.”
His smooth hand found the gun.
It’s easy to shoot a gun. Just pull the trigger. Anyone can do it; you could teach a monkey to do it, maybe even a dog.
It’s easy, isn’t it?
***
Meryl gasped and jerked awake as light came through the window. Being struck with an electric shock, she jolted up in bed.
“The report!”
She scrambled out of the warm covers and rushed to the table.
What was she going to do? It needed to be in now and she didn’t finish it! She must have fallen asleep writing it!
She hurried through the pages.
She didn’t even remember falling asleep.
“Oh no! It’s- it’s,” she flipped through the pages. “It’s done?” She blinked. “But…” She thought hard, trying to remember last night, but it was a blur of a dream.
“Millie…” She said slowly. “Did you finish the report?
Yawning, Millie answered leisurely “I thought you were. Was I supposed to?”
Meryl skimmed through it.
***
“Donuts!” Vash gasped hours later.
Meryl shoved the box into his hand before he could tackle her to the ground in excitement.
As Vash’s mouth watered, he opened the box. The donuts practically glowed. Squealing, he grabbed one, biting into it.
“How come he gets food?” Millie said with awe and a hint of envy.
“Because he saved my life!”
“But you’ve never bought donuts for him before…”
“But this was serious!”
Silence interrupted, and everyone blinked at her.
“If we didn’t get that report in who knows what would have happened? Millie, you should take our job more seriously.” Meryl chastised.
“Yes ma’am!”
Meryl glanced at Vash as he bit into another donut and watched her.
“What?” Meryl asked.
“No-ffin,” he said with a full mouth.
***
At the end of another day, Knives, Clint, and Vash were sleeping quite peacefully until a sudden sensation woke them up in an instant.
“Knives? Knives?” Vash said with panic in the dark.
“Yes…”
“Again? Is it happening again?”
He didn’t answer.
Vash’s body felt heavy. “Why? What’s going on?” he asked, feeling the despair of some plant presence far off, the power from it, (or them) rising at a dangerous rate. “Who or what can do such a thing?” He sighed. “They’re afraid and more people are going to die!”
Clint stirred and found a candle to light. “Is it another plant?” He asked.
“Yes,” Vash said sadly. “Yes, the same thing that happened here, it’s happening again.” He moved out of the bed, and feeling very anxious, began to pace in the very dim room.
Knives watched both of them, Vash pace, and Clint dig through his small bag until he found his medication which he gulped down.
Finally, he rose from his bed, grabbed the lit candle, and began searching through the drawers of the hotel dressers. When he found a large folded up piece of paper, he pulled it out and flattened it on the table. It was a map. He began to search it, pausing for moments to sense the destruction.
“I can’t take it!” Vash hit his fist on the table. “Just standing here, unable to do anything!”
“I’m sorry,” Clint told him.
“It’s not your fault,” Vash said.
He could sense the fear of the plants. What was going on?
“There.” Knives pointed on the map.
Vash looked at the small dot, Clint followed his lead. It was labeled Delta.
“Delta?” Clint asked. “It’s happening in Delta?”
Just second later, Vash felt his senses burst with the sudden explosion of power that was far away from here.
“No…no…they’re gone,” he said, feeling the power decrease in his spirit.
“They’re dead.” Knives announced.
Clint stared at the dot, wondering if it would ever appear on future maps.
“Dead,” Knives repeated, moving away from the table.
Frustrated, Vash began to pace again. There was nothing to be done with Delta, when he was stuck in December City in a hotel room.