“I think the restaurant was this way,” Rei said as he gestured to his side.

Joss nodded as both of them went in the direction Rei had designated. Soon Rei noticed the familiar building.

“It’s that building over there,” Rei pointed out, receiving another nod in response. They reached the building and Rei opened the door to look inside. Sure enough his bag was there, right where he’d thought he’d left it. He felt a little bit of warm relief as he walked over to his bag while Joss stood at the doorway.

“What kinda stuff’ve ya got in your bag?”

“Oh, lots of stuff. I’ve got some food, my tablet, blankets… lots of useful resources,” Rei replied cheerily as he walked back to the doorway to join Joss. Finding his bag had lifted a small weight from his shoulders. That was one less thing to worry about.

“Cool.”

“I was kind of scared those Exterminators that were here earlier would’ve taken it. Relief they didn’t.”

“Yep! Resources are hard to come by these days,” said Joss. “I don’t work a job, and I doubt you do either, running from the Exterminators an’ all, so no financial help from the government for us. I’ve got a bit of money from my old job; I used to be a bus driver, you know, before NET was even introduced. But prices on the most basic things are so high these days my money’s practically useless.”

“Same situation here.” Rei let out a dry laugh. “I used to do cleanup duty in Selvin.”

Joss gave Rei a look of sympathy.

“Yeah. I’ve got a decent amount’a food, though, and I get all the water I need from my plants. So things ain’t too bad,” Joss said with a slight shrug.

“Hm,” Rei sounded. “I’ve got a ton of nutrient cubes and some bread. I’ll eat the nutrient cubes when I need to, but they’re the most disgusting thing someone could ever taste.”

“Ah. Never had ‘em. I’ll give you some food when we get back to the apartment; maybe I can get you enough to last a coupla weeks at least.”

“Thanks, Joss,” Rei said gratefully. “That’s a big help.”

“Don’t mention it, Rei. I’ve got a lot as is, and I doubt I’d even eat all o’it,” Joss answered pleasantly.

Rei gave a brief smile before speaking again. “Should we head to the apartment?”

“Yeah, sure. You’ve got ev’rything you came for, right?”

Rei nodded as he swung his bag over his shoulders. He stepped out the door and looked around. He quickly spotted the faint image of their apartment building in the distance despite the cloudy haze; the height of the structure’s fifteen stories soared above all the other buildings in the vicinity. Joss tracked Rei’s gaze to the apartment, and the two silently took the first couple of steps forward to begin their short journey back.

They had barely made it a couple feet when Rei froze. The people who’d attacked him earlier. Those Exterminators were still here.

“Shoot,” he mumbled and turned to Joss. “Those Exterminators are here,” he whispered.

Joss’s eyes widened and he shifted to see what Rei had been looking at earlier. The two people were there, talking to each other and leaning against the wall of a building not too far from theirs. One of them was eating something.

Rei quickly realized they needed to hide, but not soon enough. Just as he grabbed Joss’s wrist and began to back into the restaurant, one of the Exterminators turned to face him.

“The kid’s back,” the man said with an obnoxious grin.

“Told you he’d come back for his bag,” the other Exterminator replied with a smirk, swinging out the shock gun from behind her back and resting it on her palms.

“Joss, run! They’re not good shooters!” Rei yelled out as he quickly sprinted from the area in some random direction, swerving around randomly in case it would help him avoid getting shot. He could hear Joss’s footsteps trailing behind him, slowly growing quieter. He twisted his head around to see that his friend was falling behind.

“Hurry!”

Joss sped up a little and nearly caught up with Rei before lagging behind again, visibly out of breath. He slumped over for a moment and clutched his knees, taking a moment to breathe. Rei looked behind worriedly.

“Joss! Come on!” Rei shouted again.

Joss attempted to pick up his pace once more but seemed to be about to collapse at any given moment.

The shots grew louder and more frequent, and Rei heard a loud yell from behind him. He quickly turned his head to see his companion fallen on the ground and tightly clutching his leg, eyes shut tight and a pained look prevalent on his face.

Rei didn’t know what to do. If he were to go back to help Joss the Exterminators would probably get him as well. He couldn’t risk trying to make such a narrow escape this time. He felt he had no choice but to keep on running, leaving Joss behind. Rei could hear the Exterminators’ footsteps grow louder as they headed towards Joss.

Rei ran for a while before looking back to see that he was now quite far from the whole thing; the three people now appeared as tiny dark smudges far away, well-hidden amongst the backdrop of the now-distant cityscape.

He’d escaped again. But Joss hadn’t.

Rei knew he had to do something about this; he couldn’t just abandon his friend. He never should’ve kept on running away in the first place when Joss got shot. He definitely didn’t want a repeat of what happened when he and Marc had been confronted by that Exterminator. He tensed up just thinking about it. No, he wasn’t going to make the mistake twice and go on regretting it.

After making up his mind Rei hastily switched direction and darted toward the faraway silhouettes, hoping he’d be able to do something to help Joss. He couldn’t stop wishing he’d just waited a little longer to collect his dumb bag. Then neither he nor Joss would be in this situation. It was always his ignorance that led him and his companions to trouble with the Exterminators.

Rei kept on moving until he was close enough to the three people to clearly make out the identity of each individual. Hiding himself behind a tattered old building, he quickly formed a plan to keep a low profile and then help Joss to safety whenever some sort of opportunity came. If it didn’t, well, he’d just have to improvise. And he had no idea how exactly he’d help Joss. Yeah, on second thought, he didn’t really have any plan whatsoever.

He stayed in place, silently watching. The two Exterminators were roughly holding onto Joss’s arms, sneering as they dragged him with them. Joss didn’t seem to be trying to fight back at all, just staring at the ground motionless all the while.

Rei really hated these two people who’d attacked him and his friend. All Exterminators, to be exact. They’d done a pretty good job of making his life miserable for the past couple of days.

When he was sure the Exterminators weren’t looking his way Rei moved closer again, using another building as a cover. One of the Exterminators still had her gun and seemed ready to shoot at any moment, so he couldn’t just run at them. The other Exterminator still had the food from earlier in his free hand. Rei recognized it as the loaf of bread he had gotten from Afton. At this point though, he didn’t really care.

Rei still didn’t have much of a plan for what to do; all he knew was that he had to do something. He nervously attempted to think up some sort of idea to help Joss get out of this situation; just spying on the Exterminators as they took his friend away wasn’t any help. He heaved out a sigh as he failed to come up with a single idea that made any sense.

Then it came to him. The Exterminators had to be taking Joss somewhere, right? And he was pretty sure that at this point they didn’t plan on killing him. Once they’d reached their destination he’d be much more likely to find a chance to jump in.

Maybe he could somehow signal to Joss to get his attention, and he could serve as a distraction while Joss got away on cue. Rei felt a bit better now that he had a rough plan. Now he just had to wait for a chance to execute his plan. And a good way to do so.