Soto's Bizarre Adventure? I don't fuckin know

Chapter 1: Escape

Soto finally lowered his hands as Little watched him fiddle with the lock on her cage for the last half an hour. She left the cramped space and helped him remove her shackles. This was their time to go. It seemed to be roughly midnight, and the darkness would be essential to shroud their leave from Rebirth. Little wasn't a warrior, but she still felt her pride as a Shek be hurt by having to flee like such. It was necessary, Soto told her many times, and her barely fed body had to agree, but leaving this wretched place still in the hands of the filthy okranites, to continue to work other Shek to death over a pointless statue made her guts wench.
As Soto gave her one of the foodcubes he had skillfully stolen from the barracks yesterday, her eyes fell on his. The yellow irises of the scorchlander were tired and cynical. He didn't speak much of his past, but his skills as a thief and lack of fighting ability told her all she needed to know.
She swallowed down the pitiful mixture of bread, meat and plant with vigour, nodding to Soto as she finished. He nodded back as they began their careful trek in the night. Among the few advantages they held over the guards was that Little was relatively dark-skinned for a Shek, and that Soto was particularly proud of his night vision, so remaining hidden would hopefully be a breeze on anywhere that wasn't well lit. Unfortunately for them, all he gates and exits they had seem before were very well lit… and guarded.
As they walked directly below the statue of a false prophet, Little saw another Shek woman, beaten and tied to a prisoner pole. A defiant warrior.
Soto urged her to come on, but she called him back. He walked towards her, clearly aggravated.

"What is it? We don't have time to look around!" Soto whispered angrily.
"She's a warrior." Little stated matter-of-factly.
"And? What does that make?" He replied, still hostile.
"I won't leave her here." She narrowed her eyes at the older woman, who merely eyed the both of them.
"You know we can't do that! We don't know her, we don't have time to pick the locks, we won't have food to reach a city! You're sabotaging our whole escape!" He countered, barely keeping his voice down in desperation.
"I can't leave her. Help me here." Little simply ordered.
Soto let out a defeated sigh, intent to try and unlock her shackles as fast as he could. He knew how stubborn his new companion could be.
Luckily, the shackles were new and well oiled, so Soto managed to quickly operate the mechanism using a small iron nail and pin and unlock them in roughly a fifteen minutes. Pulling her hands back from the pole, the warrior woman stared at the couple before her.
"What do you intend to do?" She finally spoke, a little too loud for Soto's liking.
"We're leaving." Little answered.
"You're fleeing? As a Shek, you're running away from your foes?" The woman chastised the younger one.
"I'm leaving to regain my strength. To die working by their hands like this would be an ever bigger insult." The darker Shek replied angrily. "Besides, you're here, which means you lost and survived. Your honor is not any more sullied than ours, warrior."

The warrior narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists, but said nothing more. Finally crouching down beside them, the other two nodded to each other, once again on the move as the warrior followed them close behind.
They spent the next two hours carefully navigating the treacherous paths and ramps that surrounded the place, narrowly avoiding patrols and guard switches. They now rested behind a large tree near one of the upper gates.
Soto pulled another foodcube from the inside of his robes, and handed it to the warrior. She eyed it carefully before taking it and biting a large chunk out of it.

"Don't fill yourself. Running with a-"
"I know. I was a warrior…" The woman cut him off with a frown. "I… thank you. I am Gecko." She looked away from the scorchlander.
"I am Soto. The one watching the gates is Little." He cracked a small, cynical grin. "But you must not yet thank us. We have not left. They have paladins at the gates, and I believe crossbows are set on the walls."
"You doubt we'll leave?" She asked him, eyeing the other Shek laying down on the crest of a small hill.
"Rather, I doubt you'll leave. Shek warriors aren't known for running fast." His grin widened. "Scorchlanders are another story. If well fed, we are almost capable of outrunning a Hiver."
"So you expect the other one will die too?" The warrior plastered an angry expression on her features.
"I'm not sure. For what I've seen, she runs fast… for a bonehead." He looked at Little, taking a small bite off a piece of dried meat he held.

Gecko let hear face return to neutral, pondering on the man's words. Not long after, Little signaled for them to come. Both responded and soon laid beside the smaller woman on the dirt.

"Two of them are leaving. Now's our chance." She said.

No other words were spoken. They watched as the pair of paladins walked down the winding path to the closest barracks, leaving two other paladins and a high paladin guarding the gate. Soto was the first to act. Running surprisingly fast, he made little noise as he dove in the least lit parts of the gate, waiting for a singular moment of distraction before professionally bolting to the outside darkness.
Gecko couldn't help but admire the skill of the scorchlander's craft, but she recognized the need for following him soon after. While Little hesitated, Gecko tried her best to follow the steps the scorchlander laid out, running to hide behind the steps of the stairs. As she listened to the inane conversation the guards were having about the "humanity" of hivers, she saw her opportunity and ran over to the outside.
To her dismay, she was seen.

"You there, servant! Halt!" The high paladin screamed.

And gecko ran, looking behind her to see Little bolting past the gate too as the armored guards ran after them. A few seconds later, little ran past her. Gecko wasn't as fed as the other two. They were probably stealing food for the past few days or weeks, while she just had the latest foodcube, and her malnourished body couldn't keep up with them. She almost panicked as a blade grazed over her shoulder. Resigning herself to run as far as she could, she used all the strength she had on her legs, but it wasn't enough.
A paladin tackled her to the ground. He failed to keep hold of her but she was on the ground. She pushed herself up just to see the paladin now sending his blade straight at her torso- until an arrow landed directly on his neck. He didn't die, but the impact was enough to have him fall on the ground and drop his blade.
Gecko looked over her shoulder- Soto was standing on the wall with the crossbows, and now ran down the stairs. Her eyes widened as she saw Little also run down behind him. She looked back to see the high paladin was shot directly on the leg as the only paladin that wasn't shot ran after her. In a trained response, gecko picked up and readied the combat cleaver that was dropped to defend against the swing the okranite threw at her. Once again, her strength failed her as his blade glided on hers and slid to her right shoulder, cutting dangerously thick into her muscle. With a grunt of pain, gecko put her strength on her left arm, catching the paladin by surprise as she threw a high swing, destroying his clavicle and cutting into his chest armor. Leaving the blade there, gecko ran after the other two ex-slaves as they ran down the tiny path. The paladins tried to follow them, but their wounds made it a futile effort. Through the adrenaline filled Sprint down the path, Gecko almost didn't feel the blood leaving her shoulder and running down her arm. After almost an hour of running, the trio hid behind some minor shrubbery, panting wildly.
The scorchlander was the first to notice- mainly thanks to the smell.

"You're bleeding." He stated.
She stared at the wound. Blood poured from it and covered her chest, staining her orange tunic a deep red.
"Yes. I reckon you were right, flatskin. I won't live through this." She gave a half-hearted smile to the man.
"Actually, I think you might." He replied, pulling a roll of bandages from his robes as he walked towards her.
Her eyes widened at the man, and even the darker Shek raised an eyebrow.
"Where... did you get that?" Little asked the thief in between gasps for breath.
"The barracks. I was mainly keeping it to myself." He stated, ignoring the bad eye Little gave him, as he unrolled the piece of cloth and quickly applied it to the warrior's shoulder.
Gecko watched as he torn the end of the bandage with with teeth and tied a small knot to keep it right on her shoulder, storing the bandage back in his robes, leaving a well-applied, if bloodied bandage on her left shoulder.
"Were you a field medic?" Gecko questioned, staring in mild disbelief at her shoulder.
Soto chuckled. "No. Not at all. But it's best for you to sleep now. Eat the rest of the foodcube. You're malnourished, exhausted and lost a lot of blood, so we won't be able to run much now. I'll take the first turn on watch, then Little."
"Not even a discussion?" Little pointed out.
"Do you not need to sleep now?" Soto gave her a side-eye look, rolling his eyes.
"I- uh, nevermind." She answered, patting down on some dirt and laying down on it.

Gecko slowly ate the rest of the food, and watched her surroundings for a few minutes before laying down on the dirt beside Little, grunting as she unintentionally put weight on her wounded side.
Laying her head down, she stared at the starry night sky until her mind slipped away.

It was early morning when gecko woke up. Feeling better than any other night of sleep at Rebirth felt, she raised her body to find the scorchlander laying a few meters away from her. His eyes were closed and his breathing almost made no sound. His feet were covered in dust and scratches, and his upper robes were slightly torn on the left arm. Getting up, Gecko looked at Little, who was standing up on a large rock that was behind them. Little looked back at her.

"Good morning." Gecko said, brushing off most of the dirt on her robes.
"Morning." Little replied, staring at a distant spot.
The warrior enjoyed the silence for a second, as she cleaned herself and adjusted her clothes.
"So what now? The Shek kingdom won't have us back." Gecko stated, thinking about their predicament.
"We need to survive first… Then payback."
Gecko raised an eyebrow at the determination of the worker. "Say, where do you hail from, worker?" Gecko asked.
Little looked at the warrior. "Squin. I mined copper and traded a bit for a living. Got caught in one of my trips. You?"
"I was part of the garrison in Admag. In one of our patrols we went too far out. A Holy Nation squad found us. We fought bravely…"
"But lost." Little completed.
"Yes. I don't even recall how long ago this was now." Gecko lowered her gaze to the floor.
"We'll kill them. Make them pay. I may be a worker, but I won't stop fighting until I am able to take on an Inquisitor on my own. Then we'll come back to the kingdom, with our honour restored."
Gecko didn't respond. She didn't even meet the younger woman's gaze.
"Anyone tell you both that you talk too loud?" Soto pointed out, raising up from the ground. "Or is being obnoxious just a shek thing?"
The women ignored the comment.
"So where to now?" Little asked the man.
"I walked around yesterday. There's a house in the distance. Whoever owns it, won't have much left when we're done with it." He declared, looking at the two women.
The Shek women glanced at each other.
"Isn't it a trap?" Gecko asked.
"I don't think the Holy Nation expected anyone to leave Rebirth. There were barely any patrols outside."
"Then out we go." Little ordered.

The trio walked together, following the guidance of Soto. After roughly three hours of jogging, they came across a lone house. Soto made a 'silence' gesture as he walked up to the walls. He touched his head on it, putting his ear directly in the irregular surface for a few minutes as the shek watched. He gestured for them to follow him as he went ahead towards the entrance. Examining the door and floor, he put his hand on the handle, pushing it open.

"Well. This is unexpected." He commented as his companions arrived behind him.

Before the ex-slaves was a small house, much like any you'd find in a city, littered as if it was occupied just yesterday. On the tables and open shelves, water jugs and pots are open. Soto walked in and opened one of the closed barrels. He couldn't help himself as he cursed.

"Oh, what the fuck?" He sounded more bewildered than angry.

Little and Gecko walked over to him. Inside the barrel was enough meatwraps and vegetables to feed the three of them for a good dinner. They didn't even react as Soto took a bowl of vegetables from it and opened it. It wasn't warm, but it was smoked greenfruit, cut into cubes and lightly salted. He took a bit of it on his hands as he continued to walk around the place.

"Are you sure this place isn't occupied, flatskin?" Gecko questioned the man as she handled carefully a peace of meatwrap, taking a minor bite off it.
"Not a soul, I'm sure. For now, at least."

They continued to silently search the place. Little opened a locker to find a horse chopper sabre. The blade was slightly rusted, but was apparently resharpened and cleaned over many years, and the handle was wrapped in a piece of cloth that was probably older than her. Picking up the weapon, below it was a note. The words looked weird, but she knew how to read, thanks to some of the time she spent trading.

"Gecko, Soto, hear this out!" Little exclaimed.
"What?" Gecko asked as she rumbled over the few contents of a chest.
"This place was made for us! Escaped slaves I mean. It says not to take too much!"
"That's not going to stop me! We need all of this!" Soto answered.
"Just don't take too much. Turns out this place is sustained by ninjas of a 'flotsam'. I don't know, but I don't like that." Little replied, closing the locker door.

They remained silent once again, searching over every inch of the house, as they sat around one of the tables, they gathered what they found;

A Horse chopper sabre, two well rusted combat cleavers, a leather shirt, two leather pants, some padded cargo pants, a black cloth shirt, three bowls of cooked vegetables, seven packs of dried meat, two meatwraps, a foodcube, three loaves of bread, two basic first aid kits and a small backpack, along with all the waterskins most people would need in a month.

They stared at the large pile of gear. Soto took a bowl of vegetables and began to eat as he pulled the horse chopper to him. Gecko and Little took the combat cleavers, as they consumed the bread loaves. Soto picked up a pair of leather pants and threw them over his shoulder. Gecko picked up the leather shirt, leaving it on her side of the table. Little grabs the other pair of leather pants, leaving it on her lap. Soto pulled the black shirt, and gecko takes the padded pants by default.
Soto looks at the two women. Then at himself. He picks up a pot of water and gets up.

"You get changed here, I'll be on the roof if you need me." He suggested, walking up the stairs, carrying his items.
Reaching the top, he stares at the forest they found themselves in. In the distance, he can see some wetlands with at least one visible ruin. Taking a swig of the water, he begins removing his prison robes.
I'm not made for this. How long am I going to last? I barely know how to hold a sword.

Gecko looks at the younger woman, then gets up and moves behind a set of internal walls, changing her clothes. As she changes her pants, she stares at the rusted edge of her 'new' cleaver.
How often will I need to use it? Am I still able hold a blade?

Little awkwardly stares at the open stairway to the upper roof. She ended up on the one place where anyone could stumble in and see her. She attempts to change her pants as quickly as she can, but only manages to almost fall, nearly hitting her head on a shelf. Despite the mistake, she finishes up before Gecko comes out to see her. The warrior looked at the darker woman and the shelf she almost took down with her with concern.

"Are you alright?" She questioned, looking at the woman who braced herself back up.
"Yes, I'm fine, I just misstepped…" The woman trails off, staring at the exposed stomach of the warrior.

Despite the malnourishment and lack of training, the abs and muscles of the warrior were still visible, if quite reduced, a testament to the conditioning of shek soldiers.

"Are you sure?" Gecko persisted, raising a hand to put on the other woman's arm.
"Yes. Don't worry about it. I mean it."

Gecko walked back to her spot as Little continued to examine her body, amazed. She stares at her own belly and stomach, which was only barely above malnourishment and was slightly bloated from eating a bit too much bread at once.
I'm not a warrior. Will I ever be able to achieve that? How should I get good like her at using weapons?




Chapter 2: Refuge

Soto twisted the large weapon around his hands for a bit as he stood on the roof of the small house. Handling such a weapon was not something he ever did, and to be forced to do so hadn't made it any easier. His hands were used to carefully handling lockpicks, coins and purses, not hefting this blade.
It was almost comical. His arms, never muscular on the first place, now looked thinner than the blade of the weapon he held, and the weight of it often reminded him of his lack of strength. He raised the weapon with both of his hands above his head, slashing it as fast as he could at a wooden pole. The weapon, beyond going awfully slow, barely hit the shaft before sliding off, nearly falling on the floor as Soto attempted to halt it.
He cursed the weapon and himself, promptly giving up on achieving anything worthwhile with it before becoming stronger.

Little stared at the walls in her front. Positioning herself as straight as she could, she took off the prisoner robes that marked her as property of the Holy Nation. The straps that held her breasts were well tied, despite the lack of 'material' to hold onto; Her ribs were barely in the process of being hidden away by the regenerating muscle tissue and ever so subtle sliver of fat tissue that was beginning to reform.
She put her hands on the cleaver sheathed on her belt. Pulling it out, she stared at the thin layer of rust that covered it. The edge was poorly kept, irregular and chipped, and seemed like it wouldn't last undeformed for more than a few hits.
Looking down, her stomach was bloated and the skin was weak, if still smooth and relatively intact. Gliding her hands over it gently, she wondered how often would it be 'chipped' away.

Gecko finished a stretch of her arms. She was the strongest of the three and she knew it. She had felt the eyes of admiration of Little as she scanned her body. Despite that, she didn't feel like it. The blade she carried felt heavier than any other, and the wound on her shoulder hurt more than any in recent memory. The weakness she felt was greater than any before.
Her spirit was wild and rebellious under captivity, but now that she was free, the impact of the defeat she suffered weighed heavy on her mind. The loss of the honor of a warrior was not a light misgiving, and Kral would surely not meet her, were she to depart now from this world. She once proudly carried the plank, a signature weapon of the shek warrior, but now even this cleaver felt difficult to handle, even if she weren't half-starved. Using it again would surely be a challenge.

As Soto slid off the side of the building to the dirt, he attempted a simple roll, achieving it with moderate success. Brushing the few leaves and dust that fell into him, he got back up.

"Come on Soto, time to go! We're ready!" Little called out from inside.
"I'm already out." He answered, opening the door to the building.

Despite the startled jump from Little as she turned around quickly, Gecko was relatively unimpressed. Looking at the shek, then at Little specifically, Soto raised an eyebrow.

"No shirt? Why?" He questioned, staring at the younger lady.
"You two got new shirts, and I had to keep wearing the 'hello, I am an ex-slave' banner? No thanks." She pouted, looking to the side as she walked towards the exit.
"Besides, we shek have thicker skin and bones where your puny human skin would tear." Gecko replied with a smirk.
"You say that, yet you were the first to pick the leather shirt. Sure." Soto rolled his eyes as they left the building.
"Anyways, we are going north, towards the village that the note talked about." Little declared, pointing towards their direction.
"Won't the Holy Nation be there?" Gecko asked, reluctantly.
"They're everywhere. Besides, they don't like the HN, if the paper is to be believed." Little answered.

Slinging the backpack of food over his shoulders, Soto grinned. He was glad to be back on the road, despite having to babysit two obnoxious women.

Despite initial objection from Little, the group began jogging to reach their destination, both to leave HN territory faster and to train for times to come.
They ran through several small paths, attempting to avoid large roads as they distanced themselves from rebirth. They went through a region of wetlands, where their feet dove into the mud with each step, eventually reaching drier ground, making it so that the mixture of hardened, dried mud coated their feet entirely.
Continuing through the relatively forested region, they were welcomed by wandering packs of herbivores and the eventual bird as they continued on their way to the ninjas. Back on rebirth, they had heard of blood spiders and the like surrounding the camp, and they were thankful the wildlife seemed fairly harmless… for now. Soto was particularly happy with that.
After hours of intermittent jogging/walking, the trio spotted a distant pillar of smoke rising through the forest. Elated at the idea of finding their objective, they quickened their pace, despite Soto's protests over the lack of caution in the action.
After what accounted for a sprint, they arrived at a small, walled off village in the middle of the forest. Walking toward the gates, the guards who, to the trios surprise, were all women, put their hands on their blades.

"Halt! Who would you be, outsiders?" The leader of the guards commanded.
"We're escapees from rebirth. We came here from the refuge." Little explained, raising her hands to show cooperation.

The guards examined their clothes and weapons, the nodded to each other.

"Alright, come in. Be careful though. People here still don't like the boneheads much, and if you end up causing trouble, you won't be coming out." The captain warned as the gates behind her opened.

The escapees looked at each other and went inside. The interior of the village was humble, to say the least. There were a few buildings for services such as a bar and a weapon shop, but the rest of the space was occupied sparse few houses. Directly in front of the entrance, a metal Outpost building held two mounted harpoon weapons, however unoperated. Most, if not all, inhabitants of the village were women, possibly refugees from the Holy Nation, who operated a tiny farm in the back of the village, which seemed barely enough to feed the place. Even if the guards looked tough, any medium patrol of the Holy Nation would burn this place to the ground. This place wasn't good for any of the three.
But, most prominent of all, a large corpse furnace, now inactive, was present in the middle of the village. This raised suspicions among the tiny group, despite the lack of proof of anything dubious going on.
Arriving at the bar, the ex-slaves sat on one of the tables. The small building was sparsely occupied. Little and gecko sat down on one of the empty tables, eyeing the villagers carefully as Soto walked up to the barkeeper.
"Pardon me, would you know of any large settlements nearby?" Soto put his hands on the counter and taking a swig from his waterskin.
"You know, I do… unfortunately for you, that information doesn't come for free." The woman scoffed, a grin reaching her mouth as she made a show of counting some cats off a bag.

Soto immediately turned around and walked to the table where his companions were. Sitting down, he looked at the both of them seriously.

"We need money." He declared nonchalantly.
"No shit." Gecko answered. "And here I thought we were going to pay them with dirt."
"Gecko, being rude with each other isn't going to help us with anything." Little commented, putting a hand on her comrade's shoulder.
Soto arched his eyebrow ever so slightly at the display of care, but refrained to comment. "You see," he began calling their attention again. "We can work in the farms for three months to get any decent amount of cats. Or-"
"We're not stealing anything." Little immediately interrupted his speech.
Soto frowned, but continued. "Or, we could go to the wetlands west of here. Unless you don't want us 'stealing' from some robots." He mocked, picking a small piece of meat from between his teeth.
"The wetlands it is, then." Gecko ordered, rising from her chair.
"Wait, wait! The ruins are too dangerous! The robots-" Little protested.
"Can be easily dealt with, if you know what you're doing." Soto cut her off, rising from his seat behind Gecko.

Little gave a last look at her departing allies, wondered what did Soto really knew, sighed, and went after them.

The group left the village, once again going towards the wilderness. They barely ran for an hour before reaching the margin of the forest, which opened to the wetlands. It was a dreary place. The ground was the wrong color, no plants grew here, and despite being a swamp, even mosquitoes seemed to avoid the place. The distant scent of oil, sulfur and decay reached the noses of the companions. On the horizon, several ruined buildings were obvious, and even at seemingly empty areas, iron spiders wandered the landscape, making it an obviously dangerous place.
While the shek hesitated to step forward, Soto didn't even react as his feet sank in the slick mud. He ducked, and began walking in a way that somehow made little noise despite being nearly ankle-deep in a mud-water-oil solution. Observing the man with barely hidden fascination, the women mimicked him as best as they could.

The dark man let out a very low, grim giggle. "You lot just can't be silent huh? Glide your feet in the water, avoid stepping in the thick spots, and don't raise you feet that high." He turned around and watched as they silently attempted to follow his advice, to surprising success. He managed to stop an obvious smile to creep across his face.
"Excellent. Now here's the deal. These robots are nearly deaf, but they have great sight. Stay as far as you can from their front sensors. If they turn in your direction, do not try to hide. Run away from their cone of vision. If everything else fails, I hope you boneheads have learned how to run faster."

Gecko continued to follow his instructions, quietly wondering who or what this scorchlander used to be before being enslaved.

While beginning slow, they picked up pace when they got used to moving in the mud, and it wasn't long before he reached the door to one of the towers. Despite the different layout, the mechanism was apparently similar to modern doors, as Soto made quick work of the lock. The three stepped in and he closed the door behind them. Little loudly sighed in satisfaction at stepping on a solid surface, despite the huge mud stains they left on the floor. Soto made a 'shush' sound at her as he quickly creeped up the stairs. The two girls looked at each other as they stood on the ground floor. Minutes later, Soto walked down the stairs, visibly calmer.

"It's clear. Let's loot the place." He ordered, with a confidence in his voice that wasn't heard before.

The two women proceeded to indiscriminately empty every locker, cupboard and chest they found into a table on the second floor. Soto took care of the two locked containers they found. After an hour the three sat themselves around the table looking at the pile they uncovered. After Soto quickly threw out anything he declared to be 'worthless' out, the table was filled with assorted pieces of loot.
A wide smile occupied the scorchlander's features. He picked up two apparently well made books and stuffed them on his backpack. Before they could question it, he began to explain.
"Ancient books. When in one piece, they're worth quite a bit to people who want to buy them." He picked up some complicated looking machine parts. "Hydraulics, or skeleton muscles if you're normal. Also worth a bunch." He pulled a hidden item from below the table. "And this…" he pulled it out of its scabbard. The blade gleamed even in the poor lighting of the place. "Is a model 1 longsword, I think." The girls looked at the weapon.
"How much for all this?" Gecko asked, taking the weapon off Soto's hands and testing it. "It's rather small."
"I have no idea." Soto admitted, his smile wavering. "It's been a while since I've seen, save sold one of these." He stuffed the final piece of muscle down his bag. "But it should do more than five thousand cats." He added.
"Well, that's quite good. Time to head back then?" Little asked, raising her own waterskin to her mouth, taking a large gulp.
"What? Of course not! We're having lunch, then we're going to the next one!" Soto exclaimed.

Gecko and Little were taken aback by his excitement, but didn't complain. After half an hour, and with their stomachs adequately filled, they departed for the next set of ruins.
The next two were rather disappointing when compared to the first one, carrying only junk, and two hours and one close call with an iron spider later, they saw a bigger ruin.

"An outpost! That's where the big stuff is hidden. Let's go there!" Soto whispered, nearly running towards the place.
"What? It's half-sunk into the water! And don't you see those iron spiders around it?" Little protested.
"That's easy to deal with! You two stay here and watch!" He declared, dropping his backpack on the ground as stealth-running towards the entrance.

Soto expertly jumped around the ground, stepping on the places where he knew he'd find hard metal and stone to keep his balance, and jumped towards the door.
I may not know how to swim, but I sure as fick know how to navigate this place.
A confident grin dominated his face. He unlocked the door with practiced efficiency, paying no mind to the iron spider that was dangerously close to him, but looking to right. Entering the room, he was greeted with several crates… and more iron spiders. He frowned. There were at least three just on this ground floor. He began the ritual of carefully opening every container he could without being found. After finding the first three empty, he smiled when he found nothing other than a CPU in one of the large boxes. Smiling, he held it under his left arm as he continued to explore the ground floor. Finally, he found a small metal chest. Picking the lock in minutes, he opened it. The hinges made a sound slightly louder than he'd normally appreciate, but he paid it no mind. The inside was worth it. Several pieces of skeleton muscle that he stuffed on every pocket of his clothes, and even some medicine, this would do nicely for gecko. Oh even a-
A piercing pain hit his back, and he let out a scream of pain, dropping the CPU. Jumping back and turning around he saw the iron spider, one of it's pincers now covered in what he didn't need to guess was his own blood. Besides that, he heard the sound of metal clanking on the floor all around him. Panic hit. He began to Sprint towards the door. One of the spiders was already near the bottom of the stairs when he ran past it, and it failed to launch an attack at him. Reaching the door he ran out, only to be welcomed by the spider that stood by the entrance and getting one of its pincers right through his arm and back. The fear dulled the pain as he continued to run.

Gecko and Little watched the scorchlander run in panic towards them, being followed by several iron spiders. Gecko quickly picked up his backpack and Little readied herself for a sprint. They didn't need the instruction when Soto ran past them screaming for them to run. After what was probably half and hour of running, Gecko noted the spiders were out of sight, and they were fairly close to the forest again. Only then she looked at the dark man. He was covered in blood. His left forearm was slick and dripping, and his shirt had a huge, stained hole in his back.
"Soto! You're-" Gecko began.
"I know." His voice was undeniably bitter, but weak. He put his hand in one of his pockets and took out the bandages, then a bottle of medicine. "This was for you, you know?" He laughed, sitting down on a rock.

Gecko took the antiseptic bottle and poured it into his arm. It made her wince when she noticed some of the medicine dripping from the other side of the wound. Rushing herself, she tied the bandages and moved to his back. Rolling his shirt up. She winced again. The hole in his back was dangerously near his clavicle and lung, but thankfully missed both by inches. Pouring more medicine and rolling the bandage around his torso, she heard him let a pained moan out. Being done, she rolled his shirt back up, not having anything to clean the large amounts of blood on it.
Little merely stared at their surroundings nervously, eventually stealing a glance as Gecko treated the wounds.

"Let's go to the village." Gecko demanded, and the other two silently agreed.

After reaching it, they silently sold most of the loot to the village trader, but Soto decided to keep the longsword and sell his horse chopper, mainly due to the weight and quality difference. Thanks to Soto's mild knowledge of the matter and Gecko's intimidation factor, they managed to gain roughly ten thousand cats. Soto took a 'bath' with water from the well, the group reaching the inn at about the afternoon. Restocking on the food and eating what one might call dinner, they paid for a night in the safety of the village.

Little took a long time to sleep. It was bugging her deeply by now, She was stuck thinking about 'what ifs', and it didn't matter what she tried to do, those thoughts wouldn't go away.
What if those things were faster than us? What if it was faster than me? What would I do?
The answer was simple.
Death.
She didn't like that answer.

Gecko stared at Soto. He looked back at her. His eyes and behavior were back to how they used to be before. She had taken her shirt off, and Soto was changing the bandages on her wound and applying some medicine. His hands gently glided over her skin as he expertly cleaned off bits of debris and dust from her shoulder. But he was silent, and his eyes were dead again.

"What… what did you do before?" She finally gathered he courage to ask.
Soto hesitated, his hands over her skin, his yellows eyes glinting with life again ever so subtly.
"This." He answered, returning to his duty. "I was the medic in a scavenging group." He smiled weakly at the memory. "Back in the southern swamp, we made our money by delving into nearby ruins and taking anything of value." His pincers missed and poked the wound directly. Gecko let out a pained grunt. "Sorry."
"What happened?" She questioned looking directly in his yellow eyes.
He turned his face away. "Everything went wrong. A failed expedition, a betrayal, a chase. Then I was in Holy Nation territory, carrying some books. Everyone else was dead or a traitor."
Gecko moved closer and threw her arms around him. He didn't resist.
Smoothskins have it rough too.
After a few minutes he pulled himself away, offered her a slightly more lively smile, and finished up tying the bandage on his shoulder. She laid down on her cot, and he did the same.

For Soto and Gecko, sleep came easier than they expected.