"To Wolf, my hero." Ellie said raising her glass.
"To Wolf." Jack and Dal said in unison, but their tones were nothing but in synch. Jack was clearly agitated by the presence of the man who had delivered the news of the Chosen, and Dal was loving every minute of it.
"Yes, I agree. To Wolf." A unfamiliar voice said. Out of nowhere a leather clad young woman appeared along with three other large boys and within seconds she had Wolf in a headlock.
Ellie began screaming as the large boys grabbed her, Jack, and Dal and held them back. Bray and Danni raced into the cafe along with Ebony and two Maltia members.
"What's the meaning of this?" Bray screamed at the invaders as Ebony and the Maltia men were getting ready to attack.
"This is none of your business." Replied the girl without looking up, "I'll just be taking my prisoner and leaving." Then without looking at Bray she instructed her men "They're clean, gullible, but clean. We really must be on our way now" she said turning her attention to Bray for the first time, "Are you going to move or what?"
"Bray! Don't let her take him!" Ellie screamed.
"I wasn't planning on it." Bray said looking the girl straight in the eye. "Now, why do you want Wolf?"
"Like I said none of your business." She replied.
"I'm making it my business." He said in usual Bray fashion, "Now what do you want with Wolf?"
"Hey, I know you." Ebony butted in, "I knew I recognized you from somewhere. She's a bounty hunter. When the Locos first taking slaves we had problems with runaways, she used to find them for us. Once the Locos took control of the city we really didn?t need her anymore so she left."
"So Wolf's a runaway slave, Bray you can't let her take him back! You just can't!" Ellie yelled hysterically.
"Don't worry Ellie, I won't. I'm sorry, but slavery is outlawed in the city. This is my mall and I won't let you take him." Bray said in his hero voice.
"Oh, don't worry, Wolfie hear isn't a slave, well not in the usual sense of the word," the girl said looking down upon Wolf who she had never loosened her grip on with a smirk, "And besides I don't hunt slaves anymore, I've moved on to bigger game."
"Oh really, and what would that be?" Danni asked sarcastically.
The girl looked down at Wolf again, then said, "Chosen."
"Chosen? Honey, I think you'd better find yourself a new line of work. Can't you read? the Chosen are all washed up." Danni said holding up a copy of the news sheet.
The girl rolled her eyes and pushed Wolf to the floor with a thud. Then she placed her foot over his throught and pulled out her own copy of the news sheet.
"Of corse I can read." Said as though she was talking to a child, "It was a nice story. Too bad it isn't at all true."
"What do you mean it's not true?" Ellie exclaimed.
The girl spun around to face Ellie, nearly choking Wolf in the process.
"Well Sweetheart, lets see. You have one source for the story, who you have never met before a few days ago, whom you know nothing about. That is except that he knows that a highly secretive large violent cult of wackos is all washed up, even though he knows who they are and yet your story says nothing of how he knows. Just that he says they are. And now he has been taken captive by the Chosen Hunter... Are you following me darlin.." she said tapping her chin.
"But this can't be... What about Trudi and Brady.." Bray began to say trailing off.
"Brady? Here?" The girl's face went blank. "This isn't possible..."
"Ohhh, The big bad Chosen Hunter make a boo boo?" Danni said, "Could it be that you just don't want the Chosen to die, because then you'd be out of a job? Huh? Huh?"
The girl completely ignored Danni, and sat down on Wolf. "I have to think about this." she muttered to herself completely lost in her thoughts.
"What do you have to think about? the Chosen are over. Trudy and Brady got home a few days ago, and the Chosen must have crumbled without them." Bray told the girl, who was still sitting on Wolf's diaphram, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.
"What I have think about is," she began, looking up at Bray, "I just saw Brady in The Gaurdian's arms no less than an hour ago."
"What do you mean Brady was with the Guardian an hour ago?" Bray asked, "That cant be true, I saw Brady an hour ago."
"That can't be true, because it isn't true." Danni interjected," Brady was here an hour ago. This so-called 'Chosen hunter' is completey off her rocker, now will you please let Wolf up and go, whatever your name is?"
The girl pulled Wolf to his feet and said, "I'll let him go, but I have a few questions for my friend Wolfie here."
"I don't know anything." Wolf exclaimed, "She's crazy! Make her let me go!" Wolf tried to pull away from the mysterus girl, but she wasn't having it.
"While I may be crazy, and I don't doubt how little you know, I have no intentions of letting you go until you tell me what I want to know.Now at the risk of sounding corny," she said pulling him closer, "Take me to your leader."
"Leader? What I leader, I don't have a leader, I don't have a leader! Let me Go!" Wolf yelled going into a panic. He once again tried to brake free of the girl's strong grip. Though she couldn't have been bigger than 5'4, 110 pounds, he was powerless against the girl's strength.
"What do you mean 'Take me to your leader'? I thought you just saw the Guardian?" Danni asked as though she had just found the hole in the girl's story.
The girl turned her attention away from Wolf and threw him into the arms one of the large boys."I'll get back to you later, so stand there and shut up while I deal with the simpletons," she warned Wolf. Wolf went silent with fear.
"I did see the Guardian. He was holding some sort of a rally for the Zootfreaks," she said never breaking her peircing gaze from Danni.
"Well why didn't you just grab him there?" Danni asked, is was clear that the having the girl's full attention was making her uncomfortable. The girl amd Ebony burst out laughing.
"Do you really think that the four of them could just run in there and take on the chosen? Especially if what she says about their numbers being huge is true. Hunny, the entire malita and all of us could bearly take on 10 of them, do you really think that they're honestly just going to run in there and get themselves killed?" Ebony explained.
"Finally, someone with a brain." The girl exclaimed.
"Oh, you believe her do you Ebony. We don't even know her name." Danni *****ed not liking to be argued with.
"Becky," Jack, who had been silent during this entire ordeal, said, "Her name is Becky."
Everyone turned and looked at Jack like he was from Mars, including the girl. "Why... no one's called me that for years..." She said confused.
"I thought your name was 'Huntress'?" One of her henchmen said confused.
They were strong and loyal trackers, but not exactly the brightest crayons in the box. In his confusion he let go of Wolf to scrach his head, and Wolf took off. With no where to go, he jumped out the cafe window into a dumpster underneath, then took off running.
"You stupid, ugh!" The girl screamed, smacking her man on the head. She turned to the mallrats and said, "I would be half way to the Gaurdian's lair if you hadn't been in my way. Thanks." Then she shrugged and said, "I could make this work too," Then she beckoned her henchmen to follow her and threw herself out the window and began tracking Wolf.
"Well, that was weird." Dal said letting out a sigh.
"I agree," said Ellie, "By the way Jack, how did you know her name anyway?"
"A brother never forgets.' he replied
"Shhh..." The girl warned her men as they creeped to the side of the allyway. They had been tracking Wolf all over the city, he had zig zagged across at least four sectors and now they were somewhere in the suburban townships, about sector 18. Either Wolf had known they were following him and was trying to lose them, or he was so shook up he didn't know where he was going. They were almost out of the city when the girl remembered where they were, Greensfield Park, or that's what they had called it before. There used to be kids playing, flowers everywhere, ... and churches.
"Churches, " she mused. She remembered when her mother had re-married. "It over there," she remembered. It had been one of the last times she had seen her mother, about a year or two before the virus had started. "Oh why did she have to marry him," she thought, "Why did my smart beutiful mother have to marry an electrician? She was rich scientist and she fell for an electrician? And not to mention his bratty geekoid of a son..."
