The Six Guns

"She left, headed west" the man told them. "She asked a few people around here about the Dead Crater after spending a few days in these parts inspecting the plants or something".

"Thanks!" Rose says to the man as they leave and walk towards the west.

"Ah hell" Siran says as they walk.

"What's wrong?" Zia asks.

"Dead Crater" Siran responds.

"You know where that is?" Rose asks, excitedly.

"It's where I'm from" Siran replies. The whole group was silent for a while. They couldn't tell if this was a good thing or a bad thing. Except for Alex. Alex was interested in learning more about Siran.

"So we finally get to see your home then?" Alex asks.

"Unfortunately" Siran replies. "There isn't a whole lot there though, so don't get your hopes up".

"Isn't Dead Crater really far away though?" Zia asks.

"Yeah" Siran says, "it's right in the middle of this country. The crater is actually more of like a pit or an abyss. It's just a dark hole, with nothing in it or around it really. It's in the north eastern corner of the state, Oklahoma. So unless someone can give us a ride, be prepared for a really long walk"

"It'd be convenient if we did find a ride" Rose says, "because if we don't, we'll likely miss Holly. She'll probably be gone by the time we get there".

"That'd be too convenient" Siran says. "My luck is never that good".

Just a minute or so later, a bus comes driving by and stops next to Siran and the rest.

"You folks need a ride?" The man driving asks.

"You've gotta be kidding me" Siran says out loud in a disappointed tone.

After they all get on the bus, the driver asks them "where y'all headed?"

"Oklahoma" Siran responds. "We need to get to Dead Crater".

"That's quite the trip" the driver says.

"Can you take us all the way there?" Rose asks.

The driver laughs, then says "No, I'm 'fraid not, but I can take you to the nearest airport. You should be able to catch a ride to Kansas and make the journey by foot. I don't reckon anyone in their right mind is gon' drive all the way to Dead Crater".

"Thanks!" Rose says to the driver, then leans in close to whisper to Siran "What the hell is a Kansas?".

"Oh" Rose responds, "so we can get there super fast then..."

"Umm... yeah, sounds like it" Siran says to Rose. "Unless you consider how big of a hole Dead Crater is and how we have to walk a quarter of the way around it".

"Why do we gotta do that?" Rose asks.

"Because" Siran explains, "Holly is approaching from the east. Which means she'll likely arrive on the east side of Dead Crater".

"So?" Rose says, "Once we get there, we can look for her there!".

"Dead Crater is really REALLY big" Siran explains further, "and we won't be able to see anyone on the east side of the crater. So we will have to walk all the way around to look for her on the eastern side of the crater".

"It's not THAT big.... is it?" Rose asks.

"Can you just..." Alex interrupts, "... not ask anymore dumb questions. The more I realize how much work this is going to take, the more annoying the journey becomes".

"Okay..." Rose responds with a pouting face. "But what about-"

"No more dumb questions on ANY journey" Alex interrupts. "Ever".

Rose then crosses her arms and pouts quietly to herself. The rest of the ride went along quietly, and they arrived at the airport as promised. As they get off, Finn pays for the trip in the money he exchanged upon entering Jameson in Florida. They wait in the airport for several hours, making small talk here and there. Mostly Alex reminding Rose to not ask dumb questions.

"But how come-" Rose would ask.

"Nope" Alex interrupts. "Not having it".

Rose then leans in close to Finn and asks "Did working in The Ly'Lum make him this much of an asshole?"

Finn then shrugs as Alex complains "I heard that!". Rose sticks her tongue out to taunt Alex and then pouts again.

"By the way" Zia says to Rose, "I've been meaning to ask. You're from Egypt but you spoke better English than anyone else we encountered in Cairo. Why is that?"

"Ah" Rose replies, "when I grew up with the rebels, they spoke mostly in English. They did this because not everyone spoke English well in Cairo so it was less likely to be overheard when we spoke about anything. They made it a practice to speak almost only in English, so I guess you could say English is my primary language. One of the rebels also said they learned proper English so they could properly insult The Ly'Lum to their face".

"That's hilarious" Finn said.

"He died" Rose said, "pretty quickly too"

"That's... not funny anymore" Finn says.

"He was kinda an asshole though" Rose says.

"I'm having very mixed emotions about this conversation" Finn says.

"Well why would you speak English to not be overheard when The Ly'Lum soldiers speak English?" Alex asks.

"We didn't wanna be heard by the citizens" Rose replies. "If they reported us, then we'd be in trouble. It's not like we were dumb enough to discuss our plans in front of The Ly'Lum".

"I beg to differ" Alex responds.

Eventually they all got on the plane and made it to Kansas. After several days of walking, taking breaks, walking again and setting up a camp for the night, they made it to Dead Crater. The closer to the crater they got, the more lifeless the land looked. When they arrived at the crater, all the plants surrounding the area were dead and there was no more road. Just rubble, debris and death everywhere you looked. The crater was enormous, and you couldn't see the other side when you looked across it. No one was around and there was nothing around that looked like it could've supported life at all for the past one-hundred years. However, the crew kept moving on. All that was left was to walk to the east side of the crater to search for Holly. As their journey progressed, Rose kept expressing more and more concern about whether or not they will be able to find Holly before she leaves America. Eventually, they make it to the east side but they have found no one there and no evidence of anyone having been here in a long time. With mixed emotions in the atmosphere of worry and relief, they all decide to set up camp again and start walking east the next day. On the next day, Siran wakes up to the sound of shuffling near him. When he opens his eyes, there's something strange being held over him as he hears a click. He jumps up instinctively, and readies himself for a fight.

"Who are you?" Siran asks the strange person, "and what were you just doing?". Upon closer inspection, Siran saw that there was a woman holding some strange piece of technology, that seemed like a slab of metal with a screen on the top and the bottom was pointed at Siran. She didn't say anything for a while, but then replied "I could ask you that same thing. Don't you know where you are?".

Without much time passing, Rose suddenly jumps into action, by literally jumping on her and tackling her to the ground shouting "HOLLY!"

"Ow!" The woman says as she hits the ground.

"We weren't too late after all!" Rose says excitedly.

The rest of the crew wakes up from the loud noise and stares at Rose and Siran.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" The woman asks.

"Who's this?" Alex asks.

"This is Holly, my big sister" Rose replies.

"I'm not your sister" she replies, while prying Rose off of herself. She stands back up, dusts her pants off and then says "Yes, I'm Holly but..." her head turns to Rose, "why did you come all the way out here? Why did you leave Cairo?".

"Well" Rose begins to explain as she twiddles her fingers, "they were with me in Cairo, but then a war broke out, and some Israelis came to help out, and these people saved my life and-"

"I'd prefer the short version of the story please" Holly interrupts.

"Well, these are my friends now and I'm traveling with them" Rose says.

Holly stares at Rose, then at Siran and the rest, then back at Rose and says "So basically you still have that placement issue where you think anyone is family".

"No I-" Rose begins to say but then pauses. "... they saved my life and while the city was burning, they helped my people until more help arrived and they promised me that I could see you again"

"And you just trust them like that?" Holly asks.

"That's what I was thinking" Alex says.

"Well, I mean" Siran says, "here you are!"

Holly squints her eyes at Siran, giving him a look of disapproval. "Who are you people anyways?" She asks.

"I guess we're kinda more rebels against The Ly'Lum?" Siran says without much confidence. "But we're from different countries. Like Alex, Zia and Finn here are from Omnia".

"And you are?" Holly asks.

"I'm Siran" Siran replies.

"He's actually from here" Alex adds.

"Wait..." Holly says then pauses for a bit. "Here? As in... HERE here? Like the you grew up around the crater kind of here?".

"... Something like that, yes" Siran replies.

Holly then pulls out her metal slab and points it at Siran again, but much closer this time.

"Whoa, hold on" Siran says, "what is that?"

"It's my laptop" Holly quickly replies as she focuses on Siran through the screen. After a while of studying Siran, she then says "you look pretty average to me so far, no abnormalities, no mutations visible so far, but-" she then waves her right hand over the screen and a combination of a digital spell and debuff spell activate, leaving a bright sigil in the air and then vanishing. She picks up her laptop again and then freaks out and drops the laptop on the ground.

"Holy shit!" Holly says.

"What?" Siran asks.

"Your body is radiating Endoindustria" Holly explains, while picking up her laptop.

"Oh yeah, I know about that" Siran says.

"Endo... what?" Rose asks.

"Endoindustria" Zia says, "it's basically the scientific name of magic".

"Right" Rose says as she closes her fist onto her own open hand as if she made a discovery. "So he radiates magic.... and this means what exactly?"

"I don't know yet" Holly says. "Could just mean that he has a lot of magic, or he can reflect the magic in the atmosphere, redirecting it and making it appear as if the magic is coming from him".

"Yeah, I have no idea what that means" Rose says.

"It's means, he's not normal" Holly says. "But that's all I know. I need to figure out more about this". Holly then swipes her hand at the bottom of the screen and a hologram of a keyboard is projected out from the bottom of the laptop. She begins typing away, writing down all the information she learned onto her laptop. "I'll need to know more about you" Holly then says to Siran.

"This is a good opportunity then" Siran says, "because we could use someone analytical and good with information like you with us trying to fight back against The Ly'Lum".

"The Ly'Lum?" Holly asks. "I don't really like those people, in fact I'd rather just kill them and get it over with, but why would I go out of my way to stay with you guys?".

"Because" Siran says, "I'll help you learn whatever it is that you came here for, that way it won't be out of the way for you".