Carter swung the chopping knife down mercilessly on the dead fish, cleanly removing it's head. It was currently 13:15 on a busy market day, prime time for buyers and civilians to venture out of their dusty, old houses and huts for food. Whilst most days Carter caught his own fish and sold them to market sellers, he had a part-time job of selling them himself when he was especially lucky with stock.

Dropping the last fish into the rest of the pile, he headed to the front of his stall where he spent the next hour selling his hard-earned fish. What an interesting life.

The dampness in the foggy air was nicely complimented by the urgent and overwhelming shouting of market owners, along with the bustle of the midday crowd.

"Rare fish sold only here!"

"Sale! Sale!"

"Half price today only! You won't want to miss this deal!"

Carter's mind began to wonder, in the dull existence that he was currently living in it was becoming a regular occurrence. It had been 4 days since his Captain's visit, 4 days and he still had no idea where he was going to get 40,000 gold from. His payment was still 3 weeks away, but he barely earnt 10,000 a month, and only had around 7,000 gold left in his savings which he used to ration and make up for what he lacked in the market place. In honesty, Carter would pay half of his monthly debt with his savings and half with his income unless he earnt significant more, meaning he managed to pay double on his last debt and used most of his savings doing so. Losing 20,000 gold meant he lost more than half of his savings, so he couldn't rely on that to help him through. 

"Hello?" 

Carter was yanked out of his voice by the voice of presumably his next customer. 

"Sorry, we've got a 2 for 3 sale over here," he replied uninterested without even looking up from where his eyes were seemingly mesmerised by the dead fish staring back at him. 

"We're not here for the fish." Stated the voice, which Carter's mind had only just registered was a woman's.

With the dreaded feeling that someone form the mercenary group had changed their minds, coming early to pick up his payment, Carter's eyes shot up to his visitors. 

There were three of them, a woman in the middle who was, presumably, who was speaking to him. She had braided ginger hair and whose pale skin was dotted with freckles across her nose, and piercing blue eyes which bore onto his. Her and the woman next to her both wore black hoodies, the smaller woman was probably only a few inches over 5-foot, she was Asian with black silky hair that went to her waist, and black eyes that held a killer look despite her short stature, she held a backpack on her shoulders. The third was a boy with another backpack, with similar features to the first woman including short ginger hair and a few more freckles all over his face. The two must've been siblings; the only difference between them was the boy who was slightly shorter and with softer features, although he still had the piercing blue eyes.

Carter could tell these people weren't mercenaries, however they carried an unique air about them that spelled mystery and danger. Exactly what Carter wanted to avoid.

"If you're not here to buy then leave." Carter spat harshly, turning his back to them to begin to pack up his stall. He was getting really pissed off with people bothering him all day every day, so much so that he couldn't bring himself to care that he was loosing money by packing up early. 

"Wait!" The boy called from behind him, "If you could just lend us some of your time-"

"Piss off." He retorted, his voice laced with venom, "I'm not interested!" 

He started to turn and walk down the streets. The shouts from the boy had drowned out in the crowd and for a second Carter thought he'd lost them. He took a turn to an empty alleyway, that thought cutting short as he felt a hand on his wrist.

"Wait!" Damn, the boy had caught up to him, clearly the shorter boy was faster and more persistent than he looked. "Listen, we heard from people around town that you used to do dangerous work! I don't know the details but I know that you know your way around the hellscape!" 

Carter turned to scowl at the shorter boy. Just who in this tiny village had been snitching on him? He didn't even speak to anyone enough for them to know anything about his past or private life. Could the guards have some information on him that he wasn't aware of? 

The boy continued as the other two women appeared behind him, "Listen, we need a guide. Someone who knows there way around the hellscape enough to give us passage through it and to Eskar."

Eskar. 

It was a large city to the north of here, full of smugglers and criminals in one part, then luxury and government officials in the other. It was a perfect place to disappear. Find a new identity. There were plenty of guides there who could take you to any village or town you wanted. If these people were desperate to get to Eskar, it could only mean that they were running away from something or someone. Carter had been in that business and knew what it was like. He wasn't going to go back.

Never.

Nope.

No way.

"I don't do that kind of work. Go find someone else who's got a death wish and leave me alone." 

He started to pull his wrist away, but the boy persisted, "Please! Hear us out at least, we'll pay you!"

"Yeah? How much money would three people clearly on the run in Zostrar have?" Carter scoffed, "No amount of money would make me want to get my self killed by the undead."

'40,000 gold would.' He said in his head.

As if they were reading his mind, the ginger woman spoke up, "We can pay you 50,000 gold."

Carter's gaze snapped to the woman. 

Did he hear her right?

"What?"

"I said we have 50,000 we can pay you."

50,000?! Who the hell were these people? In this day and age, there were the lucky government officials and higher ups and ciminals who earnt that kind of money. The rest were living at the bottom of the barrel earning that kind of money every few months if they were lucky. So these people were either criminals or rich-although they didn't seem like either.

With that kind of money, Carter could pay off his debt in one go! Making it to Eskar and disappearing to some remote cabin in the woods, accompanied by the lake. Although he was mainly forced into fishing for a living, Carter had got quite the knack for it.

"You three there!" 

Carter and the others snapped around the see who had joined them. A group of 5 guards were at the other end of the alleyway, holding their guns pointed toward the four of them.

Carter raised an eyebrow at what the guards said next, "Do you know that you're aiding fugitives of the government?! You're all under arrest!" 

It was at that moment when Carter's gaze fell to what the guard had been pointing at. On the wall next to them were three posters. Each of them with a mugshot of his new acquaintances, the two girls posters read, "Wanted. Dead or Alive. 40,000 gold reward."

But Carter's eyes really got drawn to the boys poster.

"Wanted. Alive. 70,000 gold."

40,000 gold.

40,000 gold.

70,000 gold.

Holy- 

Carter smirked down at the now petrified boy's face. Suddenly, the dream of the cabin and lake were looking a lot more realistic. 

"Oi! Shortie." He said to the boy, who clearly had not noticed the wanted posters.

The boy, clearly not amused by being called, 'shortie' stared at him blankly.

"I'll be your guide, so if you wanna stay alive you better keep up." The next moment, Carter was sprinting away down the alleyway and away from the guards. 

The sound of bullet followed them throughout the streets and disrupted the weary village shrouded in mist.  Carter turned his head to see if the three runaways had caught on and followed him. To his pleasant surprise, the three were only a few steps behind him and keeping up. Hearing the now closer sounds of gunfire, Carter took a sharp turn, through the window of someone's house. 

A woman screamed and was instantly met with a hand to her mouth by the ginger woman, who had followed in swiftly after Carter. The second woman now held a crossbow in her hands pointed at the owner of the house, it had been well hidden under her backpack so Carter hadn't noticed.

"Wait Naoko!" Exclaimed the boy, thinking she was about to permanently silence the fear-stricken woman.

Naoko, apparently, lowered the crossbow and looked at Carter fiercely, "We need to leave Zostrar now."

"Not without my payment." Carter said with finality. 

The ginger woman chimed in, "We can pay you 20,000 gold now, then the rest when we reach Eskar. Think of it as insurance."

Carter thought in over for no more then a few seconds in his head, before sharply nodding. After all, he'd be getting much more than 40,000 gold after he had reached Eskar. 

"We'll get back to my cabin first, I've got weapons and supplies there so we can leave straight after."

After saying a few warning words to the woman who was uncontrollably shaking to never speak of this, the three headed out the house with cautious eyes, but not before Naoki grabbed the collar of Carter (which was a very difficult thing to do considering their massive height difference).

She glared at him with murderous intent, "Try anything funny, and I'll shoot you through your eyes without a second thought."

Carter nodded as if he was considering it, replying with an equal glare, "Sure, you can have fun on your own in the middle of the Hellscape without me... the undead would really enjoy it." 

Turning away, he started to lead the way to his cabin, not missing the warning stares of both women now, as the boy chatted along happily to them in what seemed like a one-sided conversation.

Not that Carter cared, he would've handed all three of them over in a millisecond had he seen the poster a second earlier, but when the guards arrived it had become clear that they intended to arrest all four of them, including himself for conspiring with fugitives, and took the reward for themselves. 

No, that wouldn't happen. Carter had contemplated that his best option was to lead them to Eskar. Filled with criminals as well as politicians, Eskar was home to the base of the mercenary group he had belonged to, handing the three over to his old captain would ensure that his debt was paid off, along with the money he had got from the unsuspecting passengers and the reward money.

He could finally be free.

Arriving at the hut, Carter took at look around before ordering the group, "Stay outside. I won't be long."

Despite the mistrusting glances he received, they stayed put.

Carter went inside and started to pack, throwing in some rare tinned food, water sachets and blankets. Next he moved to his mini armory, Carter had kept his weapons from his mercenary days as there was always a chance his past could come back to end him. Strapping himself up with hand knives, handguns and his favourite machine gun, Carter began to feel a dreading lot familiar feeling of Deja Vu. Reminiscing shortly of the days where this was a daily occurrence: getting ready for battle. 

Once he had stocked up and was ready to go, he stepped back outside to the three awaiting guests, who had expressions that told him that some part of them didn't expect him to come back out.

"Ready?" The boy said cheerfully, in a voice that was the exact antithesis of Carter's usually gloomy mood. 

"Sure." Carter replied uninterested.