"Nope, it's something important. They will be gone in a few days" Marie says as a snowflake hits her nose. "Forget about that, it doesn't concern you at all."
"Well, Ashly told me that recently she doesn't have money. I presume that she is sleeping in random places at the moment" Lucas asks as he pulls out a few coins "If that's the truth then how much will it cost to cover for her. It's getting worse, the weather as I heard." Lucas hands her the coins
"It's not much, but I can't accept that" Marie says as she refuses the money. "Listen Lucas, there no saying if she will return. She might die during this job, it's not something we can guess" she tells Lucas as she places the coins back into his palms
"I know Ashly more than anyone, she will definitely come back. She is tough and she will be back soon, just keep the money. I hope it's enough for a few days" Lucas says as he hands her more money
Marie hesitates but accepts the money "Listen, this is more than enough for three days, if she doesn't come back then I'll keep it. I don't do refuns, remember this if she doesn't return" Marie says
"I understand that very well, but may I ask how long have you worked here? I mean, why did you chose to work this job and in such a place like here?" Lucas asked, Marie looks away for a while. She begins to think on how to respond to this. Lucas feels a bit embarrassed asking this question "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ask" Lucas face is all red now, his face is warm even with the cold weather outside
Marie with her index finger taps it against her chin for a few seconds "Well I worked here for just a few years, four to be exact. I never wanted to work here, but I had no other choice" Marie said in a softer voice "It may not look like it but I got lucky, I got a place to stay and be safe. Never wanted this at all, but with all the other options, this was all I could accept" Marie says
"That's awful, I didn't know. I'm sorry that I asked, didn't mean to get into your business at all" Lucas says lowering his head a bit
"That doesn't matter anymore, it all happened and it can't be changed. Desperate people do anything to survive, I was desperate enough to want to live. Don't feel pity or anything for me because if you do I'l-" Lucas the gives her a hug "What are you doing?" Marie says to Lucas confused
"I can't believe what you been through, this is terrible. You have to do this daily because of unfair circumstances." Lucas says as he pulls out more money "Please, I know I can't help you, but please accept the money" Lucas hand it to her, Marie looks confused.
Marie stays still, she is speechless. Why would somebody who doesn't know her act like this. "That's enough, don't be over dramatic" Marie says as she pushes Lucas "I appreciate your concern, but don't just don't worry about those who aren't part of your business" Marie says and Lucas nods
Lucas begins to leave, Marie grows a little smile on her face. Another prostitute asks why is she smiling "Well, I guess some people are still stupid enough to be kind to others" she holds the coins tightly "Probably more stupid than anything"
——-
Ashly and Daniel arrive to a familiar location, it's mostly destroyed buildings "Well, here we are, this is point Rouge. The place you failed to do your job at" Daniel then realizes what he said "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude right there" he tries to apologize
Ashly gets off the horse and walks to a specific location. There she finds the frozen corpse of a man "It's been a while Joseph, we should have introduced ourselves properly" Ashly then steps on the nice blue colored skin head. It's hard and seems preserved, she then kicks the body "You're not so tough now aren't you" she smirks as she kicks his head again
Daniel gets off his horse and ties him to a nearby building "Stay here boy, don't worry I'll check on you in a bit." He pats Dusty and then begins to follow where Ashly went. He finds her kicking a corpse "That's disgusting, don't touch that" Daniel says with a face full of disgust
"Don't worry, he deserved it anyways. That piece of garbage" she kicks it one last time, it seems to be leaking a bit of blood "Still has blood, didn't know that" Ashly turns around and walks to Daniel "So, do you have any idea where the guns could be?" She asks him
"Well, not exactly but that's why we are here. Our job is to locate where they are and retrieve them. It's simple enough for us and honestly pretty easy" Daniel begins to search in the building on the left. It's mostly been eroded and doesn't have a second floor. He enters the building, it's full of snow, the roof is gone. Daniel begins to push through and makes way to a bigger room, there's a rundown door which he manages to break open "Nothings here, this might take a while" he continues to search around
Ashly starts looking around, she kicks some snow and finally looks into a building that doesn't seem damaged. She enters and it's quite warm for not having any windows. She searches the first floor and most fo the doors are gone. A few of them are mostly broken "I could live here if it wasn't so abandoned. It's a shame, this place isn't half bad" she notices a door that seems to still be untouched, she runs at it and with a swift kick breaks it "Ow" she says as it was much sturdier than she expected. She enters the room and finds nothing.
The sun has moved, and it's been an hour. Ashly and Daniel have searched about six building each, yet they find nothing "How long is this going to take?" Ashly asks Daniel, her voice is now irritated "They sure do know how to hide important things that's for sure"
"Calms down, it's not going anywhere. Relax and have some patience, although I'm a bit hungry again. We can eat after another 30 minutes" Daniel says as he enters a different building. This one has its second floor wall's missing. Daniel for a little while looks around every room and then sees a worn down couch. Without any second thought, he pulls out John and cuts it open by its left side. Sure enough, that where the guns were "Well, its not too much of a clever hiding spot looking at it now" Daniel grabs the guns and puts them inside a bag, it's quite heavy and he leaves the building
"No way, where were they?" Ashly asks "I went to that building multiple times last time" she grabs the bag and Daniel explains where he found them "A couch? That stupid, I should of guessed that" Ashly says scoffing
"Doesn't mater any more, I'll check that building. I need to see how the weather is, it's better when I have more of a view" Daniel then walks to a taller building, it's leaning to its left at an 85 degree angle. He climbs to the second floor and looks out the window.
In the far distance on the opposite side of where Ashly and Daniel are. There are 12 men approaching the area, they look annoyed and angry. "This is the place where Joseph had died in. It makes sense that we stay here for a while" said one of the men, his name is Toby and he is balding. "We have to see what the reason was for why an enemy was in the place. No, I definitely know it already, they must be trying to have a territory advantage against us." Toby says, they all seem to be going on foot.
They look a bit tired yet are full of energy, Toby points at the destroyed area. "This area is very far away from any other town, it's one of the only points we haven't claimed yet. They know that very well, and are trying to prevent us from closing in on them." Toby says, as Daniel spots them from afar.
"Shit, Ashly they are here. The enemy is here" Daniel says as loud as he can without alerting the enemy. Ashly quickly runs and hides behind a pile of snow. "Why are they here, this is near our territory. Are they trying to attack us?" Daniel murmurs to himself, he tries to run down the building.
Ashly loads her gun and is ready for what's to come. In a second she remembers what she was told to not do. She then puts her gun away, she knows she will do something wrong if she doesn't. "Why is this happening? Why today? I don't have time for this shit" Ashly whispers to herself. She spots the men already nearby, they approach Joseph's body.
Ashly sneaks off while they are distracted and runs behind a building. She spots Daniel who is on the other side, he seems to be running to his left. She decides to go to him, she begins to check slowly if the men are looking. She takes a peak and they are distracted with Joseph's body. She takes this chance and runs to the other building to her right.
Daniel spots Ashly, and notices she is running to the Same direction as he is. He was so focused on knowing where Ashly was that he almost gets spotted. He stopped in his track and barely got off the building, the men where looking at their surroundings. "That was colse, don't get distracted. They will kill you if you're spotted" Daniel says to himself quietly
"Oh poor Joseph, he was such a…an imbecile. He didn't learn anything, we all knew his capability was going to get him killed" Toby says in a normal tone, not seeming to be emotional to seeing his body. "We promise you one thing Joseph, who ever that woman was. We will kill her in your name, just you wait and you'll be at ease in no time. Does anyone have a lighter? We have to burn his body. We can't bring him with us, this is going to be the marking of our new place" Toby says as one of the other men hands him a lighter, a few other gather wood and tallow oil. They begging to cover the wood with tallow.
Ashly and Daniel finally reunite and begin to think of something "There's no other option Ashly, we have to kill them. If not that then we have to sneak away without being seen, that is also too risky. It's one or the other, luck is not on our side so it's better to kill them." Daniel says
"Alright, but you must tell me the plan that you have" Ashly says quietly, Daniel begins to tell her the plan. She agrees and Daniel sneaks inside the building, he begins to climb to the second floor. Ashly then starts running to another position, she prepares her gun. She has it pointed at one of the men, and is waiting for the signal.