Polybius - The Stranger IV

[Zardoz]

February 26th, 2021

A long time passed as I was up at restless hours waiting on the Stranger to come through that door and I had just about passed out. Scavenging in such a resource scarce region and separated from the main camp meant that the food supplies had been dwindling. We only just found this bunker days ago and already we have gone through what limited canned goods we had, sometimes I swear there were far less tinned beans than before, by a great deal. Did the Stranger arrive in my absence during intermittent periods? Or did the Watcher have a secret passage leading to here as some form of low-priority storage? Not only is food a concern but also water for the desert heat, shade can only take you so far but your body soon runs out. Even with this bunker this place was increasingly unliveable and I had more than enough mysteries to try and solve let alone who has been eating the last of peas. Cabin fever could not even describe it more so than crippling loneliness that embarking on such a mission imposes.

If I were to find just one lead then we would be out of here in an instance, I already figured out the Watcher for the most part, the Stranger despite his pledge of allegiance is a wandering soul in contrast to that of the former. Would he stick with me, or stay here, maybe neither of the two? The camp of survivors were not here to lay down roots nor were the slavers going to be in this region for much longer. The slavers association with the Trader corresponded to their business interests, the main camp for the time were their newfound customers but are also now targets once the Watcher leaked the truth. Some of their spies must have been keeping watch over the crime scene when our newfound group of armed survivors arrived, who knows how long they imbedded themselves in our ranks. It was only when I was snooping around and brought Ramos, factor in my visits to the Watcher, I was getting too close. By the time I am about to connect the final dot to this madness, someone will be waiting behind me with a gun to my head. Perhaps it will be the Stranger.

Pondering on the possibilities did not take long until I had fully succumbed to my slumber and found myself falling in a new nightmare. Various faces of men and women I knew, Lady K, Lucas, Kairos, Karol, Ramos, and the Watcher. Each had a judgemental glare as to why I was chasing after ghosts and shadows of the past while the present was now. In fact, the looming shadow of the devil himself, the Stranger appeared again waking me from this spiral of questioning. For the first time in a long while I finally felt relief. It had been a considerable while since we last 'spoke' but making headway should be a lot easier now. I could make out bits and pieces of my non-existent French and his gesticulations. Fortunately the previous occupants of the bunker had a map in the break area which we appropriated as our own 'war room'.

From the safety of our bunker's planning room we could organise our next phase of action. As mentioned, the Combine are poised to overrun this region after 626's demise and the survivors who sought to integrate themselves with the wider Resistance, who themselves were not here. The Watcher was the only one with the means to survive out here, I knew that. The custodian of this stretch of desert and even he could ill afford to feed two lodgers let alone one extra. We were going to have to make our move tomorrow at most, Ramos informed me that our time here was already rapidly dwindling. We needed help from the camp to find the Trader and his slavers even if their fight is elsewhere, but we also knew spies are rife in the main camp too. If it did not take me much effort to break out a captive who was very capable of killing anyone who crossed him in that camp, then I dread what those mercenaries could do to poison the well. Well, the Watcher already seen to that one, the silver lining was that at least now those slavers could no longer use it.

Towards the end of our planning session I heard, or maybe at least imagined the sound of footsteps coming from behind the door? My eyes did not want to leave the Stranger. Paranoia once again? Maybe it was nothing and just the shuffling of the improvised chess pieces we used on the map. Despite the safety this bunker offered and my earlier praises, I will be glad to see the back of it when we are out of here. For now we will rest and our plan will commence by tomorrow. I have someone on the inside of the camp who might be able to help, she just needs to trust me on this.

Both the Watcher and the Stranger gave me a puzzle piece in this strange land.