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Day 3

After a short night of uncomfortable, disturbed sleep, Bill and M got up in the middle of the night and ate a breakfast of survival rations outside. Surely, yesterday’s events contributed more to the sleepless nature of their night than Roady’s snoring, but sharing a bedroom was just no way to sleep. They would soon have to build separate bedrooms for some peace, quiet, and privacy. It will be good for morale.

Now, however, they had more pressing issues to discuss. More precisely, one huge ass issue currently occupying the makeshift prison-shed a few feet away.

“I can’t believe she gets to sleep in her own room, and I have to listen to Roady snore, or wake up every time one of you goes for a piss”, M grumpily remarked. “What do you reckon we should do with her once she wakes up?”

Bill took some time to respond. He had been thinking about that question ever since he decided to try to save her life, despite her having tried to end his. He still had no answer. “I figure we have four main options. We could keep her as a prisoner indefinitely, let her go, or try to sell her as a slave if we ever find other criminal, but not quite as murderous people here. Obviously we aren’t alone.”

M nodded. “Obviously, slavery is off the table. But you said you thought about four options?”

The door opened a few inches, pried apart by a black nose, followed by red and white fur, yellow eyes, then pointy ears. Osamu trotted over to them and settled on Bill’s feet. He absent mindedly scratched the now happily panting fox behind the ears while he answered.

“I agree. And yes. We could try to talk to her and convince her to join us. We could certainly use another pair of hands around here, but I don’t think I want her near me unchained. And she is probably not very fond of us either. Plus, I saw some scars on her back, cuts spelling the word “Slicers”. Maybe it’s the name of her gang?”

M’s facial expression told Bill he thought trying to recruit that beast was even less of an option than selling her into slavery, and then his mouth did. “…but if these slicers are a gang, we must expect to see more of them sooner or later. By releasing her, we are risking her coming back with her friends and we just aren’t ready for a big fight. Yet.”

Bill agreed. They would keep her in chains for the time being, even though that would put additional strain on their food stocks. Maybe they would come up with a better plan later.

As the sun rose, the door opened again to reveal a well-rested and content looking Roady. Seemingly unphased by almost being killed and almost killing someone mere hours ago, he grabbed a survival meal and sat next to Bill and M.

They had already made their decision about what was to be done with the raider for the time being, but asked Roady for his opinion. Maybe he had a new idea.

He did not, and agreed with their reasoning. Though he did not fail to remark that they forgot the fifth option – killing her. It would be the most logical solution to their predicament, but if they were going let her die, they would have done it before patching her up.

Thus, the discussion ended and they got on with their respective tasks. There was still much work to be done. Roady checked in on their special guest, then went back to the house to resume his research. Bill continued sowing the field, accompanied by Osamu, who helped by hunting butterflies and occasionally digging up snails and disposing of them. M got to work on expanding the stockpile area for all the extra wood they got from clearing the field, making a proper bed for the woman who tried to rip out his windpipe, and later clearing more land for more fields and house expansions.

Over lunch, they discussed the fact that they were not alone on this planet, and the possibility of meeting friendly neighbors with spaceships. Though from what they had seen so far, that was not a likely option. Of course, daydreaming about happy endings keeps hope going, which keeps motivation alive.

At sunset, Bill finally finished planting the field. He noticed that at the other side of the field, where he had begun planting two days ago, the first rice plants were already growing. At this rate, they would mature in just a few days. Hah, the miracles of genetic engineering.

M and Roady had made some good progress too. Roady was even “close to a breakthrough”, as he let them know. Their prisoner on the other hand seemed to have improved vital signs, but hadn’t woken up yet. Which was just as well. At least she wasn’t making trouble this way.

Just as Roady and M wanted to turn in, Bill came storming in, waving and shouting: “VISITORS”. He had stayed outside after dinner, playing fetch with Osamu, when he spotted a small group of three approaching the camp. They were wearing big, heavy looking backpacks and didn’t look hostile, but they were armed, so Bill, Roady, and M picked up their weapons and got ready for the worst.

“Actually, Bill, would you mind switching with me?” M proposed. “I really like the feeling of a knife in my hands, but I’m a rather good marksman and I think yesterday has proven you can in fact hit a barn door from ten feet away, but not much else.”

Bill’s face got red, but he knew M was right and he handed over the rifle without hesitation.

Outside, the other group had now come within yelling distance.

“Halt! Who goes there?” Roady shouted in a surprisingly booming and authoritative voice, before turning to the other two with a big grin. “I always wanted to say that. Don’t ask me why.” They didn’t.

“I’m Lumi, these are Skye and Kyle” She pointed at her companions, a young blue haired girl, and a scruffy looking teenager with a huge club over his shoulder and a green hat. “We are traders and always on the lookout for new customers. So when we saw your ship go down here a couple of days ago, we set out to offer you some great deals on essential wares.” “…to rip them off you mean”, snickered Kyle barely quiet enough, which was rewarded by a not very subtle smack over the head curtesy of Skye.

They got their act back together and approached the camp.

M was still aiming at them, but they didn’t seem like a threat, so he lowered his gun and signaled Roady to do the same.

Once the tension wore off a bit, they greeted their visitors and introduced themselves, telling them a bit about their story. But Lumi seemed only interested in trade, and evaded all questions they had about this world, its inhabitants, or really about anything other than her wares.

Unfortunately, those wares consisted of ridiculously overpriced survival meals and med kits. Survival meals and med kits that seemed suspiciously familiar. It appeared these three rascals found and collected more of the Zodiac’s cargo somewhere nearby and were now trying to sell it back to them for shameless prices: 74 pieces of silver for one of their own survival meals. But that wasn’t all. Lumi also offered to buy their remaining stock for 12 silver pieces a pop.

Clearly, there would be no deal. They were not desperate enough for food to give up all their silver for just eleven more rations. Disappointed, and more than a little angry, M told Lumi they would not trade with them, followed by some unpleasant suggestions as to what they could do with the meals they “found”.

As if they hadn’t heard him, the three traders just stayed near the house and withstood all attempts to shoo them, now remaining completely quiet.

“Come, maybe they’ll get the message if we just go inside and ignore them.”, Roady suggested. So they went inside and exhausted as they were, climbed into their beds. It had been a long day with a disappointing ending. But at least they now knew there were other inhabitants on this uncharted rock than vicious gang members. There were also utterly unhelpful thieves disguised as traders, now creepily standing around in their back yard, completely quiet. At least they weren’t violent.

“Do you think we should go outside and fire a few warning shots at them? I don’t think I will be able to sleep while they’re out there. And what’s to stop them stealing our food?” Bill asked.

“I think we really don’t need any more enemies. Do you really wanna kill those kids, if they don’t take kindly to being shot at and fight back? Because I reckon our other option is to just wait them out. I’m sure they’ll go away.” M responded. He saw Bill was not entirely convinced. “But you’re right about our stuff. We’ll take turns standing guard at the stockpile. I’ll take the first shift.”

Roady and Bill agreed, and so began a long night of silence and creepy stares.