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Voyager: Chapter 8

It was morning now. The sun was just beginning to peak over the ruins and light up Times Square. The four people had taken shelter right below me on the first floor. The collectors hadn't put up much of an effort to get these people and soon backed off. They had more than that one gun I saw last night, I heard several unique shots when the collector had first tried to get to them.

I was starting to get tired again. Sleeping during the day had screwed up my internal clock, but I kept myself occupied by looking out into the square for any more activity. A few collectors had snuck in to drag off the bodies of their fallen comrades as per the usual, but it was mostly quiet. Soothing almost, I would have enjoyed it as much as I could if my mind didn't keep wandering to the people below me.

I was sure that they were here to investigate all of the shooting Crane did before he disappeared. Why would other survivors be so interested and come here during the night? It wasn't smart at all, I would understand more if they came during the day when it was safer. There was the possibility that they were just desperate to find others with weapons, there was also the possibility that they were here to make sure other people with weapons weren't a threat to them. There were too many unknown variables, all I had seen was that there were four of them and they had several guns. Nowhere near enough information to make any final judgments. I would need to try and learn more before I made any decisions.

Some rustling noises woke me up. I must have dozed off. It wasn't that much brighter than before; not much time had passed. I opened my eyes slowly and rubbed the crust off of my eye lids. I was about to stretch and yawn, but the sound of talking got my attention.

"Why are we still here?" A gruff voice of a man who had smoked for some time spoke up. It was coming from inside the room. I couldn't tell where exactly, the walls of the cubicles were blocking my view, but it was blocking theirs as well.

"We're here because of the gunshots." A woman snapped back. "Now stop complaining, it's all you do. It's all you did yesterday." I slowly reached for my crowbar, its top end was smattered in dried blood form the collector I had beaten.

Would I kill again? I asked myself. I don't know, the collector almost felt like a mistake to me, something foreign and that was a collector. How would I be able to bring myself to kill another human if it did turn out they weren't friendly? I guess I would find out if they did find me.

I got onto my hands and knees and slowly, very slowly, crawled on all fours towards the nearest cubicle. With walls on three sides and most of the fourth, it would provide me with the best amount of cover I could get.

"There's so many places to check. The chances of actually finding the source of the shots are so slim." The man whined again and coughed some. He spat out what I could only imagine to be black tar from his lungs.

I managed to get myself into the cubicle without making any noticeable noise and put myself under the desk with the chair in front of me. I could only see a small part of the aisle just outside of the cubicle. They would have to be looking real hard to see me and by the sound of the man, they weren't.

"Can't you be quite for once?" The woman moaned to herself. "I swear for someone your size, you are quite the pussy." I could hear the woman walking. She was getting close to where I was now. I tried to slow down my breath like how I had seen Crane do before he shot. My heart was pounding, making it hard to slow anything down. My hands were shaking, every muscle in my body quivered with anticipation.

"There's no one here anyways." The man pouted. "We should go and check up with the others." The man's voice wasn't getting any louder. He must be hanging out on the other side of the room, letting the woman do all of the searching.

"There may not be people, but there could always be supplies." The woman countered. Supplies! I had left my backpack over by the window. Any progress I had made in calming myself down evaporated. I was such an idiot. All that caution to get here quietly just to leave behind my food and water right there in the open. The woman was so intent on finding something, she would find it once she got over there.

"In an office?" The man didn't sound convinced.

"Yes, there are back rooms. Once of them could be the break room, there could be food dispensaries." She began to walk away from me and towards the back where I had fallen asleep the day before. Somehow she had not seen my backpack, but that was only for now. "Now stop standing around and make yourself useful."

The man grumbled a bit and started moving. I heard a door open from the back as the woman got to the first set of room.

"Nothing." She mumbled and moved on to the next room. I had also left the bloody rags that I had used to clean myself off. They would be dry by now, but it was still a sign that I had been there. Why not just put up a sign that clearly showed I was hiding right here in a damn cubicle.

"Wasting time." I saw the man's feet walk by my cubicle and stop so I could see the back of his heels. "Maybe the others found something on the third floor." He turned around, I could see the front of his shoes. They were black combat boots, grimy from extended use.

"Found some bloody rags." The woman called out from the office I had been at. "Someone was definitely here at some point, possible injured too."

The man suddenly stormed away. "Got a bag here." He shouted in excitement. "Someone may still be here."

"Go get the others. Tom was right, he did see someone in the window." The man began to run and soon his steps were just echoes in the stairwell.

There was just one other person now, the woman. IF I wanted a confrontation, it would have to be now when I had the element of surprise. I tensed up a bit. A part of me wanted to fight, but another wanted me to stay and keep hiding. They knew I was here, but they didn't know where. Plus, they had guns.

I heard the ruffling of my bag as it was picked up and inspected. She unzipped it and dumped its contents onto the floor. All of the cans, bags and bottles that I had came out and clattered onto the floor. There was also my flashlight, a cooking pot, even a book that I had found, but never gotten around to reading. I was suddenly mad that this person was rummaging through my stuff, the stuff that I had gone out and collected.

"Not much. Only food and water." She murmured.

If I wanted to do anything, my chance was gone now. I heard several people walk in and begin to head towards where the woman was.

"Found a bag huh." A younger man called out. "Knew I saw something." This must have been Tom.

"Yeah, just lying there abandoned." The smoking man replied proudly. "People don't just do that unless they get spooked. Probably come back looking for it soon. If we stick around, might come back looking for it." Now that he had found something, all signs of his old whiny self was gone.

"You think it belongs to him?" A quiet feminine voice squeaked. I barely heard her, she must have just been a child. Bad people wouldn't keep a kid around, would they? Unless they were some kind of sick people who like that kind of stuff, but I wasn't getting that kind of vibe. Also, "him", they were looking for someone specific. Would they care if I wasn't that person? It couldn't be me, I didn't know anyone that would go through this kind of trouble to find me.

"Possibly." Tom answered. "Though it could belong to anyone."

"We should wait and see." Smoker proposed.

"Just a few minutes ago you were almost begging to leave." The woman laughed.

"That was before." He tried to defend his pride.

"We don't have a choice really." Tom spoke before the two could begin to argue again. "We were told to find him and we will. They said that there was no way he would let something like an alien invasion kill him."

"So we wait?" The girl asked.

"Yeah, we'll wait a bit and try to figure out who this stuff belongs to."

"What if it isn't him?" Smoker asked. I was starting to get to get very anxious. They were just standing around talking. My legs were cramping up from being pulled up against my chest so tightly. The area under an office worker's desk was small and not at all comfortable.

"We'll see."

They all left soon afterwards. Some went down, some went up, but I was left alone. I waited for a good half an hour before I crawled out of my hiding spot. They had taken my bag of supplies with them as well. I hadn't eaten today and the empty feeling of hunger was already creeping into my stomach.

I had the feeling that these weren't bad people, or atleast they wouldn't kill me outright since they were looking for someone specific. No point in shooting everyone you came across and risk shooting their man. It would give me a chance to...

"Hello."

I jumped and turned around with my crowbar raised and ready. It was the girl? She was like Crane. I dug into my memory to remember the technical term. She was a Canis. She was a small Husky and wore a purple flower print shirt that was two sizes too big and some jeans that were held up with a tattered belt.

"Hello." She repeated.

I lowered my shaking crowbar slowly. How did she get there? I thought everyone had left. "Hello." I answered back.

"You didn't have to hide. We wouldn't have hurt you." She spoke innocently.

"How did you know I was hiding?" I asked her confused. The others hadn't seen or noticed me, how did she.

"I just knew." She shrugged and stepped closer to me. I took a step back, unsure of how to handle the situation. Was I about to bludgeon a child? No, I could never bring myself to do that.

"Don't worry." She reached out and took my free hand. I hesitated, but let her. The pads of her paw were rough and scratchy on my own palms. She didn't lead me anywhere, just held my hand.

"I was just afraid." I admitted to her.

"I know." She spoke as if she really did know. It wouldn't have been hard to guess I suppose. Why else would someone hide like I did?

"Who are you?"

"I'm Dana. What's yours?"

"Liam."

"Hi Liam!"

"Hi Dana." It was all very awkward, but innocent. It was almost normal. I could see this happening anywhere in the normal world, just a friendly conversation.

"I know you don't want to, but I should introduce you to the others so they don't get mad." She tugged on my arm, but I didn't budge. She turned around and made a pouty face at me. "If you're with me they won't hurt you."

"I just have one quick question."

She tilted her head to the side. I had to admit, it was one of the cutest things I had ever seen. "What do you want to know?"

"Who were you looking for?"

"We came here to look for some kind of soldier. Some admiral said his name was Crane."