Vaeri’s eyes went from overwhelmed to hard in an instant, they were far enough apart Jeff didn’t fear an attack, but she was clearly angry now.

  “Yeah sure, it’s sooo easy to make a new plan, sorry for being such a crybaby!”, her voice was loaded with venom, probably all the anger at the situation, but Jeff was bad at social interactions at the best of time so he wouldn’t bet it was due to that. Probably both his stupid mouth and the situation. He should just leave and let her be, buuut he felt bad. So, he should probably say something, right?

  “Hey, I just tried to help you, crying won’t solve the issue, that’s all. I just can’t leave while you are like this”, stupid mouth again.

  “Oh, sorry you have to see me like this, must be a real burden! Just leave and go die somewhere in the wilds, I will be fucking fine!”

  “Are you sure? I mean the Esher connection is probably being watched by these Mercenaries”, and he didn’t take the exit, damn. Well he would feel bad if he didn’t mention it but still.

  “Oh fuck you! Are you just saying that to mess with me? You can’t be serious?”, exacerbation it was better than if she cried so that was a relief in a way.

  “I am not lying and I am serious. They mentioned watching the connection, it’s fizzling anyway you wouldn’t get through regardless.”

  “Wonderful, so I am fucked. Stuck in this damn zone, with it’s stupid pink sun, it’s stupid crabs and the stupid maniac’s who kidnap people. Fucking wonderful! Next you are telling me this whole zone will blow up and we are all as good as dead!”

  “I mean they are working for a Professor so … who knows if we will all blow up but I don’t plan on finding out.”

  “Ah yes a Professor is apparently also here, so we are doomed if they are one of the crazies. Yay! How the fuck do you plan on leaving?”, Vaeries voice made a whole circle from exacerbation, to simple anger, back again, all while Jeff tried to stay calm and more importantly to think before talking, he didn’t think she was angry enough to attack him, but still better not risk it.

  “Well I am not certain but my plan is to get to Brindgap, get a crawler, and escape through the Greylands, from there I will see”, now he had to make a choice, she would probably not ask herself, at least while she was this angry, if he left now he had a good chance at leaving her behind and she didn’t quite look like a experienced traveler so she probably wouldn’t go after him or catch him. But could he just leave her here alone? Well, he could but, ah fuck it.

  “You can come with me if you want.”

  Vaeri just looked at him, clearly considering his offer,” Why are you offering to help me? You left last night without even talking to me and now you offer your help?”

  “Well, first off last night I thought you could just wait until the connection was stable again, my help wouldn’t be needed. Second Abandoning you now would be the same as killing you”, not his best phrasing but surely it could’ve been worse.

  “You think I will die without you?”, anger blossomed again in her voice but she was clearly holding back.

  “Well not necessarily, but I think so, you are overwhelmed, don’t know what to do and if my fears are correct this whole zone will be gripped in a disaster not too long from now. That and the Mercenaries might find you and then it’s also over. That all and you don’t look like most travelers, your clothes are too nice, you are too put together and were asking for someone to help you get to Esher. If you were in this alone for any amount of time, you would probably try to do it solo and look less clean. My guess is you traveled mostly in caravans or with larger groups?”

  Vaeri brow wrinkled as she considered his statement, Jeff had tried to not insult her, but he probably had failed. Before he could say something to try and cover his tracks, Vaeri wiped away the remains of her tears and sighed.

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  “You pretty pierced the bullseye”, she said defeated, like admitting how hopeless her situation was hurting her in some way. Though what it had to do with bullseyes Jeff didn’t know. Reluctantly she continued to talk, still seeming not very enthusiastic about it.

  “It would be a great help if you could assist me. As long as you don’t try anything funny. I need to get to Esher however is there really no way?”, that last part was delivered in an icy tone and though Jeff didn’t know what she meant, he could hazard multiple guesses all of which were nothing he would have considered. He would, however, endeavor to making extra sure she wouldn’t get the wrong idea.

  “I won’t do any funny business, that much I can guarantee. As for Esher, nope bad idea. I was happy to look at the connection before and just try it if it seemed stable enough, but now the greylands are our only real shot, with a crawler we should get through any blockades and from there we might find a route to Esher, maybe. I will try to get there too but if it’s not happening, I am fine with wherever we land as long as I can survive there. Why do you need to get to Esher anyway?”

  “Well, it seems this is my best option. How do you plan on getting a crawler, I know there aren’t many in this zone and the few there are belong to some rich dude. As for why I need to go to Esher, I need to meet someone there.”

  “Let’s worry about the crawler business later, I have an idea, there are also a few people I want to take with me. They should be helpful and with them we should be able to get out even without a crawler, though it will be much more dangerous.”

  Vaeri looked like she reconsidered her options again, but just sighed in defeat. It looked like this was her best option and Jeff felt kind of disappointed he didn’t want her to die but now he was stuck with her, for a while at least. Well it’s not like she might come in handy, she must have some skills to get this far.

  “So what can you do? Don’t think you came just by paying someone, you must have traveled with a greyland caravan here right?”

  “I am decent with medicine, not a real doctor like my mom but she taught me enough that I can fix most people. I also know how to take care off myself and I know enough about sewing to fix most clothes, turns out that skill was nearly as popular as my medicine. Otherwise I paid.”

  “Well that should be enough, just listen to me when I tell you to do something, even if it sounds sketchy, it’s important, some TO’s or TA’s are extremely dangerous and we might need to do some weird things to survive.”

  Suspicion was clearly visible on Vaeris face, before she could even ask, Jeff continued.

  “Look I don’t know what you all encountered, but I once encountered a flame that was attracted to the color blue, don’t ask me why. The guy I traveled with at the time had to leave behind his pants, another time I had to only walk sideways, because if you walked normally, you got cut into tiny pieces by that weird orb. And then there was the incident with the loving ooze. Well, I think it liked hair it tried to eat mine at least, that one I just ran away from. But running away might not always be possible. I have read a lot of books on TO’s as a child, so I know a lot of them, not all but I have been pretty good at guessing until now so, you gotta trust me in the heat of the moment, ok?”

  Still suspicious Vaeri sighed again in defeat,” Fine but if you try something”

  “Yeah, I won’t, if I do you can kill me after the danger is over ok? Do you need help getting your stuff together?”

  “I will be fine, I don’t have much left anyway”, thinking she looked at the clothes next to Jeff, then whinced,” I should probably check if there is stuff for me too. I thought I would be in Esher soon but now I probably need more than I have left.”

  Answering the slightly confused look from Jeff she continued,” I sold a lot of stuff to get by, some things got stolen, some damaged.”

  “Ah before you start, do you have any TO’s with you?”

  “I had one, I had to sell it to get out of a sticky situation a few weeks back so not at the time? Yourself?”,

  Jeff didn’t believe her but it was not important, keeping an ace hidden so it didn’t get stolen was completely normal. He did the same after all.

  “Yeah I have one a rock that is constantly nice and warm, helps when it gets colder.”

  “Good to know I will go and get my stuff.”

  Vaeri went into one of the caves and came back with a shockingly small backpack.

  “Is that all you have? It can’t be more than a few clothes”, Jeff tried to keep his shock in check, this girl was not prepared at all. Sure she had traveled mostly with caravans and maybe she had started out with a lot more, but still.

  “Yes, it’s mostly clothes and a few utensils, I did tell you I had to sell most things besides my backpack”, Vaeri seemed quite embarrassed admitting it, but it seemed she really didn’t have much left, which probably also meant she had no TO, which was a shame, they always came in handy, well unless they were highly dangerous. Though now that Jeff was thinking, he had heard of clothing TO’s so maybe one of her remaining clothing items was a TO in reality. Though that would be hard to prove so better assume she had none.

  “Well then we need to get you more stuff, the camp won’t need the supplies anyway, unless a miracle happens”, Jeff already started to regret his decision, he always did. Though an hour or two coming through the stuff so Vaeri had everything she needed wouldn’t be too bad. One could hope.