Black Market Merchant

Gillian and Lisa both looked down expectantly at Nathan, Anthony, and several others that, judging from their green arm bands, were militia guards. They were making their way across the open ground between the road that ran towards the river and along the cliff. From the urgent steps they were taking, it seemed that something bad might be going on.

“Nathan! What are you doing all the way out here at this time of day? Is something the matter?” Gillian called down as he leaned over the edge.

Nathan stopped walking and looked up upon hearing Gillian’s voice. Then cupping his hand over his mouth Nathan yelled back, “Not exactly. There have been some strange events going on over on the other side of river this morning. Seems like the relations between the Mad Dogs and the Skull are breaking down. Come on down and I can explain more without yelling so much.”

“Are things alright on our side?” Gillian called back.

“So far. However, its probably best if we prepared for anything now.” Nathan shouted back. His voice echoed of the cliff walls and the metal building behind him.

“Alright, I’ll be down in a moment.” Gillian replied. Then he turned to Lisa, “Did you happen to see Hanna and John before you came here?”

“No, I hadn’t. Were they supposed to come and start officially working on the Mech today?” Lisa asked.

“Yes, John said that he could bring her to work in the afternoons. Mornings John said he has to do his work, but he also said that as summer comes closer, he won’t work as much and have the time.” Gillian replied as he turned to leave the cliff’s side.

Lisa followed close behind him towards his Mech. Meanwhile, Terisa and the other two pilots were sifting through the big pile of sand to dig out the largest of the rocks and boulders. Terisa was giving them quite the hard time and every little error or fumble they made, she wasted no time in pointing it out to them.

“So, how are you getting down?” Lisa asked as Gillian started to climb up the Mechs ladder. “You aren’t taking the mech, right?”

“Correct. Seeing you and the others stupidly climb the cliff the other day, I too came up with an unsafe way to get up and down the cliff.” Gillian called down with a bit of laughter as he ascended the ladder. Then reaching inside the cockpit, he grabbed something and started coming back down. “I knew that we had rope suitable somewhere for climbing, but I didn’t remember where until it was my turn to go around the cliff. There was a climbing shop not far from the center of the town and there I got some rappelling gear.”

“That would have been nice to have earlier.” Lisa sighed seeing the colorful harness and safety belt in his hands.

“Probably.” Gillian said giving a nod. “Anyway, I told Terisa about Hanna already and that she can use my Mech when she gets here. Naturally, she didn’t believe that little Hanna could do what I described. If I’m not back by the time Hanna gets here, please describe my cousin’s expression when Hanna operates the Mech.”

“You got it.” Lisa chuckled giving a thumbs up.

…

Earlier that morning, Hanna was pacing impatiently in the living room waiting for John to come back home. This was probably the first time she was ever excited to go and do some work. Normally doing the chores or running errands was a massive pain to her, however, this was completely different.

“Hanna, will you please sit down.” Mrs. Weathers called from the kitchen. “You are going to wear a hole through what is left of my carpet. John will be here any minute, so relax.”

“Fine!” Hanna huffed as she plopped onto the couch.

Then as she was scowling down at the purple shirt and blue jeans that Lisa had bought for her when they first met, she picked at the fuzzy balls of lent impatiently. She had a small pile of the fuzzies next to her on the lamp stand when she finally heard the familiar shuffle of shoes on smooth concrete as John entered from the garage door. Jumping up from the couch and grabbing the fuzzy lent pile, Hanna hurried to intersect John in the kitchen before he got too far away.

“Are we going now?” Hanna asked urgently.

“Can’t I even get a drink first before you start hounding me?” John asked with playful mock annoyance.

“No, we are wasting day light.” Hanna jokingly replied with a serious expression.

“Just a moment then.” John answered her before speaking to Mrs. Weathers, “Dear? Is there any lunch for us to take?”

“No lunch, but I have an old apple for the both of you.” Mary replied reaching into the soon to be empty wooden bowl on the kitchen table. She pulled out two browning green apples and tossed them to him. “Sorry, they are getting wrinkled, and we need to eat them now before they spoil.”

“Ah, ok. I guess these are better than nothing.” John replied pocketing the two apples.

“Joan and I will be going shopping for food once the midday heat goes down some. So, expect to have some nice soup for when you get back. I know you two will be hungry after working.” Mary said giving them a cheerful grin.

“Can we go now?” Hanna asked again. She was bouncing impatiently on her toes at this point.

Mary looked down at the little muddy red-haired girl and sighed, “Please Hanna, be careful out there. I don’t understand why you are doing something so dangerous, but don’t do anything that would put you in obvious danger. If you feel uncomfortable, just stop at any time.”

“I’ll be careful, but I won’t feel uncomfortable at all. I ready like driving the Mech!” Hanna chirped.

…

After some time, John and Hanna arrived at the dam to find that Lisa had already left not long ago. Sadie explained to them what directions they needed to take to reach the work site and headed across the dam towards the woods. With every step they took along the Mech made path, Hanna’s excitement grew.

When they rounded the last set of trees, they both saw Lisa sitting on a flat toped rock near the cliff side watching the two MCM3’s working. They seemed to have already gotten a big pile of rocks piled near the edge, but a strange woman with a red hat was still yelling at them to collect more. Even from here they could hear every harsh word she shouted at them.

“Aunt Lisa!” Hanna shouted as she left John’s side to run.

“Hanna, you made it.” Lisa replied turning back to see the little girl running her way. “Gillian is busy at the bottom of the cliff right now. He did say, however, that you can go ahead and use his Mech. That lady over there is named Terisa and she is the one in charge right now. She will tell you what to do.”

“A-are you sure?” Hanna asked looking wide-eyed at Terisa who was yelling some choice words at one of the pilots that accidently dropped a rock to close to the edge and it nearly rolled off. “She seems mean.”

“That is just the way she is.” Lisa sighed. “She nice to no one, especially not to Gillian. They are cousins by the way. Come on, John and I will go with you to smooth things over.”

The three then went over to the fuming woman and Lisa introduced them. Terisa was skeptical of Hanna and did nothing to hide this fact. It was clear she didn’t believe that Hanna could actually work them Mech.

“Alright, get in Gillian’s Mech and let’s see what you can do.” Terisa said sounding very snappy. “I will give you your tasks over the intercom. However, it will be an open mic with the other two pilots Lane and Max. So be sure to pay attention to what I tell you and don’t make me repeat myself.”

Hanna nodded nervously and though her expression was clearly frightened, the sparkle of excitement in her pale green eyes was clear to both Lisa and John. Hanna then jogged over to the Mech and started climbing the ladder. Meanwhile, John and Lisa returned to the flat rock to watch.

“Are you as nervous as I am?” John asked Lisa as Hanna’s Mech door closed.

“A little, but I’m more interested in seeing Terisa’s face when Hanna starts working.” Lisa replied giving a reassuring smile.

Just as Lisa hoped, when Hanna turned on the Mech and started approaching the work site, Terisa’s face for the first time today, did not look angary, but rather her jaw looked about ready to fall off her face instead! However, this was short lived and Terisa started issuing orders to the three MCM3 pilots. They soon resumed sifting through the pile of sand for rocks.

Hanna was able to walk and rotate the Mech without much trouble, yet this was the first time she had to use the bucket loader to dig. She was terrible at it and when she only managed to skim off the top layers of sand repeatedly, it clearly showed her inexperience. John and Lisa could see every time Terisa would yell at her over the intercom, because when Hanna got into trouble the whole Mech would flinch and stutter as Hanna fumbled at the controls. After being corrected though, Hanna started to visibly get better little by little.

Not too much time went by when Lisa spotted Gillian climbing over the edge of the cliff. “Hey, John, I’m going to speak with Gillian now.”

“Alright, I’ll be here.” John replied not taking his eyes off Hanna’s Mech.

When Lisa came over to Gillian he was panting lightly and unfastening himself from the rappelling harness. “So, what was up with Nathan and the others, everything good?”

“On our side of the river, yes.” Gillian said loosening the last strap. “The ERM militia that were patrolling the southern river area early this morning saw three big barges leaving the Mad Dogs docks. This wasn’t anything unusual, but they didn’t go down the middle of the river like the merchants normally would. Instead, they hugged the far bank and then made for the Skulls docks.”

Gillian then tossed the harness on the ground and proceeded to coil the rope as he continued explaining, “As soon as the barges reached the docks, they heard guns firing and a bunch of Mad Dogs rushed the docks as they spilled off the barges. At this point they stopped watching because bullets were flying over their heads and they came to report what they saw.”

“Are they still fighting?” Lisa asked curiously.

Then before Gillian replied he pointed in the general direction of the Skulls docks, “See for yourself. Nathan came to tell me now because a huge fire broke out right before noon.”

Lisa looked up and sure enough, a low rising cloud of black smoke was drifting away from the river and out over the downtown area. She hadn’t noticed it before only because the wind kept the smoke low to the ground, but now it was obvious. Lisa didn’t know what was going on, but from her experience, burning things down meant only one thing, invasion!