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Tsurai groaned softly when he was put on the ground. An eye opened, and he looked up. "Isiah...?"

Realizing that they were no longer in rancid desert, he sat up quickly, but gave a frown of disapproval at the dizziness it caused him.

"Where... We're at the town, right?" He looked around once more, opening his other eye, only to see an awkwardly skinny kid - like from one of those Africa "help feed this kid" ads on TV- staring at him.

The eighteen year old scowled and the boy ran off in the other direction. "I don't like the place, already."

He ran his fingers through his hair and gave a sigh, looking at the exausted Isiah.
"You go to sleep. I'll.. " Keep watch, he wanted to say, but that didn't sound right for some reason. Isiah usually said that type of stuff. Tsurai wasn't one to change roles so drastically. "I'm not tired. And I can't walk so, you don't have to worry about me killing anybody." He gave a shallow, curt laugh in a bad joke.

Tsurai scratched the back of his neck as he heaved a sigh. "You should drink the rest of the water, too."

A shiver went up the boy's spine. "Cold already?" He was starting to get a little used to it, but not enough that he wouldn't complain every second he didn't have a jacket.
But still. Isiah had been so nice already that Tsurai would just complain to himself, in his mind, and not say anything to Isiah about it.

Only five minutes had passed before Tsurai was complaining about not complaining about being cold.

He brought his knees to his chest, wrapped his good arm around his legs and rocked boredly, closing his eyes.

Then he felt like someone was watching him, so stopped rocking. The feeling got worse, so he finally just opened his eyes to see the boy who had run off before in his face.
"Ahh!" He immediately clamped his hand over his mouth as he fell on his back, trying not to wake anyone - especially not Isiah. Although it was probably moreso an effort to keep his already hurt pride about being surprized and afraid for that brief moment.

"Didn't mean to scare you," the skinny kid said. "But I heard you say you couldn't walk, so I was waiting for the other guy to fall asleep."

Tsurai growled at himself and sat back up, hands on the ground at his sides.
"I can walk just fine," he reputed, standing up with much less problems than usual.
"See?"

Of course, he didn't walk anywhere.

Tsurai, being as short as he was, was actually just as tall as the child before him, who couldn't be more than fifteen years old.

"That's not walking," he stated, hands crossed over his chest.
Tsurai did the same(minus one arm) and hmphed, replying with, "Regardless, what do you want? Don't you have some.. begging to do somewhere?"

The black kid scowled, but reached a hand out to Tsurai's upper arm. Tsurai, seeing this and distrusting the boy, immediately sidestepped and grabbed the other's reaching arm. His knees buckled in the process, however, so they ended up on the ground, the stranger ontop of Tsurai.

Tsurai, not wanting anyone to see this awkward situation, pushed the kid off himself with little effort, letting go of his arm while sitting up. "Uch, don't touch me," he said, wincing from the fall.

The boy rolled once and sat cross-legged, staring at Tsurai. He didn't say anything for a while. The constant staring was driving Tsurai insane.
Did the guy ever blink?

"Quit staring at me!" the eighteen year old finally mustered, looking over to Isiah.

"If I fix your legs, will you do something for me?" The kid finally said something, as he blinked. It was a miracle, the blinking.

Begrudgingly, Tsurai looked over to the starving child again. "As long as it doesn't involve anything remotely sexual," he huffed, still reeling from the last few times that had happened. He must've been hot or something.
Tsurai really didn't understand why people were so into taking advantage of him.

"It doesn't." The boy said. "My name's Rob, by the way." He began to crawl toward Tsurai, who had an uneasy look on his face.

"What are you going to do?" Rob. What a dumb name for a poster child who was starving.

"Fix your legs," Rob stated, sitting at Tsurai's feet.

Tsurai didn't like this. He didn't like it when the kid was near him, he didn't like it when the kid started touching him, and he definately didn't like it when some sort of massage thing was going on at his knees, because it made his legs twitch.

Although there was relief in it, buried under all the uneasiness, it was taken away when Rob- or so he called himself- moved up from the knees to his thighs. That's when Tsurai just about lost it, pulled his leg up and reached over, grabbing the boy's neck.

"What the hell are you doing?" he growled.

The boy answered, "Fixing your legs. I won't do anything else." He shook his head, and since Tsurai had not been choking the kid, but rather just holding him, the grip loosened at the shake and Tsurai finally, begrudgingly, let go of Rob, looking over to Isiah again.

"Put your leg down," Rob whispered.
A wary green eye looked over to Rob's face, trying to read his intentions, but failing, laid his leg down anyway.

More massaging, and more involuntary twitching that felt weird. And finally, Rob announced that he was done, and Tsurai stood up, dusting himself off, and walked in a circle.

Smiling, and feeling no pain from walking at all, he looked down at Rob, who was just now standing up, and said "Thanks. And.. Uh. I'm sorry, about the whole. Almost-choking thing."

Rob shook his head and said it was fine. Then he asked if Tsurai would follow him for the favor.

The eighteen year old did, and was led to a large hole, some ways away from Isiah.

"What is this?" He asked, looking down into the black abyss. The hole was about as wide around as a well, and too dark to tell how deep it was. There weren't any shovels around or anything, so the hole looked rather awkward in the middle of a crumbled room's exterior. No one was living near it either; this had to be the only empty place in this joint.

"We were digging for water. The hole's pretty deep. It's got a big room-thing under it. There used to be a river here, so we were hoping we could find something. Or maybe hit a water pipe from the building. But we paid the workers with food, and we ran out so quickly.. Everybody stopped working.. And now the whole town has no food."

Tsurai wasn't really understanding what Rob was getting at, so he looked over to the boy and asked, "Why don't you go to the town just a day's walk from here? They seem like they're doing okay."

Rob shook his head again. "Everyone from there knows us here, and refuses to help us. They banished us for what we became. before we started looking for their help."

What they became? This was sounding like a horror movie. A really bad, stupid horror movie.

"What do you mean, what you 'became'?" he frowned.

"Most of us are invalids from being so weak from hunger. Nobody wants to help anyone else by using up supplies, so we kill the sickly."

Tsurai arched a brow, still not getting it. "How does killing them accomplish anything ?"

"We eat them." Rob replied, seeming not to be phased from this conversation.

The eighteen year old's brow twitched, and he just froze. He'd never been in this position before. Ever since the damn bomb hit, he'd always been in positions he'd never been in before.

"Well... I.. " His shaking from the cold stopped, but from insecurity began anew.
".. Understand where. Er. Why.. Uh. Why that would help, I guess, but.. Uh..." He hit himself mentally. C'mon Tsurai, stop acting like a twit!

"What's this have to do with me giving you a favor? You're not gonna... Eat me, are you..?" Oh, how stupid that sounded.

Rob shook his head once more. All he ever did. Shook his head. "No. You and your friend. I want you two to keep digging for the water. Your friend is obviously sick so-" Tsurai cut him off.

"He'll be better by tomorrow. It's only Heat Stroke. We have plenty of-" He cut himself off. He didn't want a whole town raiding them for supplies.

"He'll be fine tomorrow," he repeated.

"Alright. But if you two promise to work in the tunnel, we will give you food and shelter, and we won't throw you out of town."

Tsurai coughed, almost gagged at the 'food' part.
"Well, I'm sure we'll survive without your... Food... Help, but, if you don't kick us out... Why would you kick us out, anyway?"

"Your reputation from the other town. You're the DuPloy, right? Travelling with the Denzien. All you've done is stolen supplies and houses and killed people. DuPloys and Denziens don't mix. Everyone knows who you are, you're such an awkward couple."

Tsurai let out a loud groan and sat down. "I thought you said your 'people' were too weak to travel," Tsurai grumbled. And, adding on later, "We're not a couple."

Rob chuckled slightly. Or maybe it wasn't a chuckle. Tsurai couldn't really tell. "We still have a few moles. If they come to our town first instead of the other one. Yesterday someone ran all the way here to tell us that a Denzien was coming, and he was a bleeding heart, so he might cause trouble for us. He also wanted to know if we had found any water, yet. Everyone wants to know if we found water. I'm sure they will raid us when we finally do. We really do care about everyone. It's just that they're dying, and so this way.. Is the only way to help eachother."

"Yeah.. Right. So some guy ran around crying Denzien. Where'd the DuPloy come from? How did the guy know I was travelling with Isiah?" Tsurai's scowl was apparent. He wasn't liking this.

"He said he was friends with a very trustworthy nurse there, who said you two were together, and that you both were kind of sick. She also said that she helped Tsurai DuPloy, but you might be paralyzed temporarily from what she gave you. And also that you had both killed Simon." Rob answered.

"What?" Tsurai smacked his hand onto his face. "Alex's creepy lube hurt me?" How could he have trusted her? Again! What a joke. Tsurai the Trusting. The stupid insult was so true, it really hurt.

"She said she didn't like it, but it was probably the only way you'd ever have a chance at getting better." Rob frowned a little.

"She never told me that."

"Maybe it didn't come up." Rob shrugged. "Anyway, it was just passing conversation, she doesn't know you're here."

Mighty convient, leaving paralyzation out of a conversation. Alex did things like that. Made things convient for her. She probably had something in mind to do with him while he was down, but he'd left before that had happened.

"Well, if we're so dangerous, why ask us for help? What makes you think we won't just kill all of you?"

Rob shrugged again. "You couldn't walk and the Denzien's not even concious. Do you think we would have asked were you both in fine health? We know you can't hurt us the way you are right now." Rob replied.

Tsurai scoffed, standing up. "Maybe Isiah can't, but nothing's stopping me from-"

Rob cut the older kid off, "We also know Duploys pay off their debts. You won't hurt me."

"That's a load of s**t! I'm not falling into any of my family's niches! Not ever! Even if I didn't kill you, I could go for the rest of this place. I mean... Look at you! You're ******** cannibals!" Tsurai's shaking now were from anger.
Another position he hadn't been in, before.

During the whole conversation, the sun had set fully, and now it was hard for Tsurai to see Rob at all. That uneasy feeling could be blamed for the most part of telling the eighteen year old where who he was talking to was standing.

"We thought you might say that, so it's why we waited until the Denzien was asleep. He probably not even asleep, so much as unconcious. The man who came to us the other day also saw what happened with Simon. He gave us his body, so we wouldn't eat the messenger, and perhaps give him water if we had it, and he told us that because of what Simon did to Isiah... He was out cold, and couldn't help you when you screamed."

Tsurai's face went pale in the night. His able hand went to his head. Someone was watching? What kind of sick mind would do that and not help? What kind of sick mind...
"Leave him out of this!" Tsurai finally reputed, shaking his head, trying to get the ugly images- and smells- out of his head. "What makes you think you have any chance at beating me, anyway? You're just a kid! Who's starving, no less!"

"Can't you see us? Everyone's here, watching you, waiting to gang up on you should you try and attack. Besides. It couldn't be that hard. You're starving and you can only use one arm" Rob said with great certainty.

Tsurai admitted that he was outmatched and outnumbered. If Rob screamed, or died, they'd know who it was, and would gang up on Isiah and Tsurai. He only had one choice if he wanted to live awhile. Besides, he didn't even know how far along it was until the next town. And if there was water, they could replenish their own supply and move along.

"Fine," Tsurai whispered, trying not to let Cyrus' face and extremities haunt him more than they already were, "I'll do it," he rasped.

"What?" Rob questioned. "I can't hear you."

"I'll do it!" Tsurai called out. Then, he added on a weary, "Just don't hurt Isiah."

"Good doggy," Some voice other than Rob's had said. Sounded like an adult, but Tsurai didn't recognize the voice from anywhere.

"Can I go now?" Tsurai asked, sardonically.

Rob left, and a match was struck, lighting up a candle. The other man who had been there lifted up the candle and walked over to the eighteen year old. "I'll lead you back. Dog."

Tsurai graoned inwardly and asked that he not be called a dog. The man, who didn't answer and was only lit partially by the small amount of light, grabbed Tsurai's arm and pulled him toward where Isiah was still asleep.

All Tsurai could see was a dimly lit wrist on his useless arm. It had a spiraling tattoo on it that krept up the man's arm, but wasn't illuminated.

Tsurai didn't give it too much thought until he was dumped next to Isiah, whom he could hear breathing, and then the candle went out. "Rob will be waiting for you at the tunnel tomorrow. Don't make me tell him to come get you."

And then he could hear faint footsteps walking off. Tsurai watched what he thought was the man in total darkness, but then laid on his stomach, worrying himself to sleep about what would happen tomorrow.

He'd tell Isiah the whole ordeal, if the man was any better than today, and maybe he could give the kid some insight on this. Tsurai was never one to be good at weighing options.

Tsurai flinched at Isiah's sudden touch, but otherwise, didn't move of his own accord. A shake went up him, probably from the cold he had been laying in, and he felt like he was sick.

He had woken up a few hours a go, from the cold, and was cursing himself for just not stealing the jacket from Isiah. But he figured the cold would keep him alert enough to know if anyone came close to them, and that was really all he cared about.
Despite what the other child said about him starving himself, he still wasn't that hungry. He had an awful stomachache and an ache in his head to match.

"The real question is if you're okay," he said, his annoyance apparent, but his voice wavering from other emotions plus the cold.

"So are you?"

When the jacket fell near to him, Tsurai sat up with a grumble. It was a little late for the jacket now, but he wrapped himself up in it, anyway.

"I walked around last night," he said, bringing his knees to his chest again.

"Turns out we've got a bad reputation already." He swallowed. "They know who we are, what we do... And they want to take advantage of how unhealthy we are. So if you're lying about being okay... Which you probably are... Now's a good time to let me know."

He looked up at the sky, trying to figure out where the sun was going to rise and when. Despite how ugly the situation was, he wanted to see the colors of the sun. They were pretty, he thought.

It irked him that Isiah hadn't mentioned something like "You walked around?! Whoah, you can walk?" Somehow, a joke from Isiah would've lightened up the mood, but it didn't happen, and he doubted it would.

With a sigh, Tsurai put down one leg and rested his good arm on the other, bent leg. "They told me that it's because you're a bleeding heart and I'm a DuPloy. They said it was such an awkward coup-" he corrected himself, ".. Combination... that we stuck out. They also said we killed and plundered. I don't see how we could be stealing anything when it's from dead people, but whatever." He cracked his neck, looking at the sun break the sky. Ah, sunrise.

He wasn't sure when he needed to be at that tunnel, so he guessed he'd wait a while. He wasn't too keen on putting himself in a tiny hole that could easily be covered. It made it feel like he was going in prison. He'd only been there once, and was quickly bailed out, but it was still a cold and.. Horrible place. He shivered at the memory.

"Anyway... They just want us to dig in this hole to see if we can find some water. And if we do that for them, they'll give us shelter and fo-" he had to correct himself again, almost gagging at eating human flesh. "Well, they'll give us shelter. You're better at weighing options than I am, so I figured maybe you would know if we're better off here with the free shelter and hard labor or just running off with no idea of where to go."

"No. Some stupid guy with nothing better to do decided to peep in on you saving my from Simon slash Cyrus... And then have a really long chat with Alex about how we were. And then ran over here to tell everybody about it." He hmphed.

Stupid Alex.

"Anyway. I think the shelter is more like a tent. They didn't give me specifics."

Tsurai stood up, running his hand through his hair as a small quirk of a smile formed while he watched the sun rise. He didn't know why he liked watching the sun so much. The colors just made it pretty to look at, he guessed.

"Changing the subject..." He frowned and looked at the ground, able hand rubbing his unuseable one. ".. Do you think I'll ever be able to use my arm again?"

Tsurai scratched the back of his neck.
"You kind of dislocated my shoulder, but then I kept using it anyway, and then it just.. Stopped working. And I can't feel it anymore."

He rolled his neck on his shoulders, looking around.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me." The sun had risen enough to make Tsurai want to go to the tunnel. He didn't want some Denzien after him. He still didn't know a lot about Denziens, but Tsurai happened to like his arms.. er.. Arm.. being useable. And Isiah made it seem that the other Denziens were a lot stronger and unforgiving than himself.

"They take good care of their dead, and they look after one another, I guess. We should get going, if you want to help dig that hole. Although," he was rambling now, because he disliked the idea of digging the more he thought about it. "I don't understand why they call it the tunnel if it's basically a well they're digging..."

He began to slowly walk toward the object of his conversation.

Tsurai chuckled.
"I know what excretement is, heh. They have the place squared off. Nobody even lives within, like, 20 feet of the thing. And by dead, I mean. They don't just let the bodies sit around and fume... But they don't bury them either, ebcause that'd mess up the ground... But they actually, you know, take care of it."

He really didn't want to go out and say "Oh yeah, they're cannibals, it's great!"
In some weird way this fascinated him, but the other half of him was screaming to run away. Tsurai was never good with controlling curiousity.

"I guess they'd have shovels.. I don't know.. I didn't think that far ahead. Blame Rob! He's the one that was all like, 'Isiah's sick and you need to dig for us!' Jesus. Not fair. I'm ******** handicapped and people are demanding things of me but you just poke fun at it."