INFO: Magnis is traveling by foot to a town on an information gathering mission for Nowhere by pretending to be a traveler. After being covertly taken out of Nowhere via a 50-gallon drum to a dump, he figures out that he is going to use a fake name while in the town, Sinbad. (Explains why he says his name is different without copy/paste'ing the previous scene with him premeditating things.)
The walk was extremely boring. He muttered some of the songs he knew for a while, but soon exhausted the list of ones he knew the words to. It wasn’t long before he just zoned out and didn’t think of anything except what the road looked like.
Dirt. Rocks. More dirt. Oh hey look… more rocks with a hundred percent chance of dirt.
Unexpectedly Magnis realized headlights appeared behind him. They were already too close for him to duck into the ditch and go unnoticed. No problem, I’ll just act natural, if the wrong sorts of people happen to be in whatever type of vehicle that is, I need to not seem like a threat. If worse case happens, I can fight. With the training Nowhere has given me I’m certain I can fight even a few normal people if I have to. Unless… unless they are the people I’m looking for. In that case it might be very bad… or very good, I’m not sure.
Magnis stepped to the side of the road to let the vehicle pass if it chose to. Maybe it will just pass by and pay no attention to me, it’s very unlikely they didn’t see me anyways.
“Shit,” Magnis said hearing the vehicle slow to a stop. He stopped walking and looked over his shoulder to be sure.
The engine hummed in the night and the headlights shone brightly in the dark. Magnis scared himself enough to be uneasy about it. He shifted his weight from side to side, and a thought popped into his head. If I’m a traveler, wouldn’t I want a ride to the nearest town? That would be the natural thing to do.
He trotted up to the vehicle; a small and old looking pickup.
The window rolled down as he approached the driver’s door. The face inside was hard to see in the darkness.
The driver spoke to him sounding old and friendly, “You need a ride somewhere stranger?”
Play it natural. Don’t say anything strange or odd. Be normal. Magnis pointed down the road, “I’m just heading to the closest town in that direction.”
“Well. You’re in luck. Siren’s where I’m headed. Hop into the truck, I’ll get you there.”
Magnis hoisted his pack further onto his shoulder and walked around the truck.
He reached for the handle of the truck, the man called out to him. “Give it a good yank, that door has been hard to open as of late.”
Magnis didn’t think a man in his shape needed to give any extra effort and pulled it open just fine. He jumped up into the truck and closed the door with a loud screech.
“So what are you doing walking at night?” The driver asked as he shifted the truck and jerked them forward.
Shoot, I didn’t really thought of an answer to a question like that. I have to think quickly, I don’t want to hesitate and seem suspicions.
“I was camping out in the wild for a good few months now at least I think it has been months. The days really just melt together after a while.” That sounded so dumb after it had left his lips.
“Camping? For so long with so little gear?”
He had to think up another fib. “I got robbed a few nights ago; couple of raiders took most of my stuff. Seemed they only did it for kicks, left me alive and with a few things after getting a good rise out of me. The damn bastards. I just found a road and started walking thinking a town would be close, guess I picked the wrong direction.” He thought it sounded believable enough.
“Yah, probably some young bucks out for a cheap thrill. Sorry to hear that mister.”
Yes, he bought it! I hope I am able to come up with good stuff when it gets to be a situation that really calls for some smooth talking.
I better introduce myself. “The name is Sinbad. Thanks for picking me up by the way.”
“No trouble really. The old gal and I got in a fight. I’ve always found that the best way to handle it was to take off down this road till I cooled off, by the time I got back to her, I’d have a good apology worked up,” he chuckled and Magnis smiled knowing exactly what he meant. “Twenty-eight years of doing it, and hasn’t failed me yet.” He sighed happily. “I’m Scott by the way. I guess you’re lucky I happened by, Siren is something close to twenty miles away.” He reached up and scratched his brow while keeping one hand on the wheel of the truck. “Siren doesn’t get many visitors and those we get don’t hang around long.”
Sounds normal enough. As normal as it is not to stick around long, I need to be here as long as I can until I find out what Dan and Roland want me to know.
“If possible, I would just like to do some odd jobs or something to get some money and restock my gear and supplies. I don’t intent to stay much longer than that. I’d rather be alone out with nature.”
Scott nodded. “Sounds like a solid plan Sinbad.”
I am doing well with lies so far. I hope I don’t forget what I was saying from one person to the next.
They stopped talking and rod in silence.
After a while, Magnis could see the lights of civilization up ahead. A gas station, looks about the same size as the one in Lastville, just a handful of pumps as far as I can tell, and next to it a tall lit up sign. He tried to make out what it said but from that far away it appeared as only a red neon cluster. Looks like the town is a block off the main road and continues east.
Scott took a right pulling into Siren, as far as Magnis could tell in the dark the road they were driving on continued an unknown distance. He stopped the truck half a block into town and put it in park at the edge of town. “I’m going to drop you off here at the Siren Motel. Those punks leave you with any money?”
Magnis looked out his window reading the sign while he thought. Roland said he would give me money, I don’t know how much though. “Let me check my pack.”
Scott flipped on the truck’s inside light so Magnis could look. Typical looking old guy, Magnis thought as he searched through his pack. You have to be kidding me! Nothing, not a single click. Wonderful. At least my being robbed story accidently fits with why I’m broke. “Looks like I’m dry,” Magnis said genuinely sighing.
“Hmm, well Sinbad, I’ve always lived my life working hard for everything I got. It’s the way an honest man should be.”
Magnis listened partially confused. He wasn’t really in the mood for an old person’s lecture.
Scott kept on with his speech. “But when a fellow is in need, a man should also know when to accept help. The problem is, I don’t know you and you don’t know me.”
That’s pretty obvious, Magnis thought, we just met fifteen minutes ago. What was he getting at?
“Tell you what, I’ll give you ten clicks. You can pay for a room for the night and it should be enough to get you something to eat tomorrow before you go hunting for work.”
What? Wow! I wouldn’t have thought a random stranger would show such kindness to me. There had to be a catch, there is always a catch. “I can’t accept that,” Magnis said humbly trying to come off as a nicer guy that he was while still hoping Scott would give him the clicks.
“You can and will.” He reached in his pocket and counted out some coins. He grabbed what he wanted to donate and held them over Magnis’ lap. Magnis reacted holding his hand out; Scott dropped the coins into his open hand and put the remaining change back into his pocket.
A five click coin and five one click coins.
“Only thing I ask in return is to spread the kindness to someone else in need someday. You got it Sinbad?”
Dang Scott is nice. Magnis was flabbergasted on how good of a person he was turning out to be, he gave him a smile of gratitude. “I can definitely do that Scott. Thank you.”
Scott put his hand on the seat behind Magnis and returned the smile. “Now get the hell out of my truck.”
“I, um… yah. I’ll be going. Thanks again for the ride and coins.” Magnis closed his hand around the money, shut his pack, and did as he was told. No sooner than he shut the door then Scott sped off leaving a trail of dust behind him. Magnis backed away from the resulting cloud and grinned as he watched the truck’s lights disappear around the next block.
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