Chapter 84: Thorn of Rose
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Author: Arya
Washington DC.
Before the Reboot the amount of prestige and grandeur held by this city could be rated as one of the highest levels.
Ever since the Reboot, the situation had changed a lot.
A city once dominated by high rise buildings, spectacular views and the iconic Capitol building was nowhere to be seen. Instead what had replaced it was overgrown vegetation, walls stained with moss and other smelly substances, fallen buildings, rubble, broken down machinery, etc.
But one thing which hadn’t changed was the hustle and bustle of human life.
The city had been turned into their base of operations by the Mercenary League.
Unlike other high level cities built for the Reboot, this was the one without any huge walls, advanced weaponry and great security. It wasn’t that they could not afford, but they found no need for such.
Majority of the people living in this city consisted of combatants who bordered on the edge of life and death.
Being a Mercenary in essence was the path filled with untold amounts of hardships and fights, playing with one’s life. For these Mercenaries, the Reboot was no different from their regular work. In fact some of them even preferred such an environment, free from external politics and rules, only the strongest would survive.
Diane and Sophie landed near the Rook Creek park deciding to cover the rest of the path on foot in order to not attract any attention. Their main reason for this journey was to search for Oracle.
The total distance from their location to the Capitol was around 10 Kms. Unlike what they had thought the journey seemed relatively smooth, free from any danger considering their destination to be once populated by humans prior to Reboot.
They even found the certain harmless animals and birds chirping and moving lazily around.
If not for the broken foliage and buildings, this could very well be considered as a heaven.
After covering about half the required distance the sin sisters heard the noise of motor engines.
Proceeding carefully, they were greeted with a fleet of different vehicles heavily reinforced with steel plates and grills for protection moving towards the same direction as them.
The sisters watched as the fleet of vehicles flashed past with a heavy woosh and swoosh.
“Elder sister, those seemed to be heading towards the Capitol, why didn’t we ask them for a ride?” Sophie asked.
“These aren’t peaceful times. Even if we do not fear them, we should try to stay away from the trouble. After all this isn’t our domain and no matter how strong we are, we cannot fight against that entire squad if some conflict were to happen. Let’s just proceed on our own, besides the scenes here are not bad. It is quite nostalgic.” Diane explained.
Sophie nodded, the two sin sisters resumed their journey once again, following the same path as the fleet of vehicles ahead of them. Due to the constant use of the path there were hardly any obstacles in their journey.
Soon it was night time.
The sin sisters found a relatively safe location and hunted down a wild boar. They set up fire and roasted the boar meat, ready to dine and take some rest.
Just as they had started grilling the meat, a tattered car with barely hanging heavy steel plates making strange noise entered their sight. In this darkness its front headlights were flickering some flashes of light, hardly illuminating the space ahead of them. If not for the path ahead free from any obstacles the car would definitely not be left in one piece.
-Tat- -Tat- -Tat-
Making a series of strange sounds the engines shut down. With sounds of the door opening a group of girls alighted from the vehicle.
“It’s all your fault, you should have agreed to that guy’s request. Now we are stuck here for the night.” A woman with small eyes and short black hair spoke annoyingly.
“Stop it Lucy, it isn’t as if you aren’t aware of that man’s real character. This was bound to happen someday when we decided to form our group.” Another woman wearing a tracksuit with her long hair neatly tied, said.
Apart from them there was another woman, who seemed to be in her mid twenties. Her face and figure both seemed like a delicately sculpted piece of art.
She wasn’t bothered by what these people were saying, instead she could see a light at some distance. Pointing towards the location she spoke while moving.
“There seems to be some people there. Let’s go, see if we can find someone who they might be able to help us.”
The sin sisters did notice the group of women moving towards them, but they did not react.
“You guys seem to be alone, do you mind if we join?” The one with the short hair asked, but her eyes were glued to the fat piece of meat being grilled on the fire. In fact if there was sufficient light one could even find her drooling.
“Sorry to bother you both. She is Lucy, I am Carla and this here is Rachel. Do you mind if we take rest here till daytime, as you can see our car just broke down?” Asked Carla.
“Feel free to join us, myself Sophie, she is Diane, my elder sister.” Sophie said, handing an already grilled piece of meat to Lucy, who without any regard of face, snatched it and started eating.
Diane was seated the whole time, eating her meal slowly. She didn’t even look at the people, neither she greeted them.
“Don’t mind her, she is just shy in front of strangers.” Sophie justified her behaviour, which in turn received an angry glare from Diane. In return she just smiled.
Due to the light from the fire, the area was not that dark, but still the women could interpret the beauty and facial features of the sin sisters which were as beautiful if not more than Carla.
After they had their fill, Rachel asked.
“You guys, which group do you belong to, we haven’t seen you guys in the Capitol.”
To which, Sophie cross-questioned.
“Don’t tell me you know each and every mercenary living in the Capitol?”
“Umm, we cannot be sure about that, but at least we would have heard about you guys considering your face and figure.” Lucy replied.
“What do you mean by that?” It was Diane this time who asked.
“Well, the Capitol is flooded with hot blooded men so as women we need to be careful in order to not be exploited by these bastards. Thus each and every woman is under the protection of the ‘Thorn of Rose’ Mercenary Group. So once a time we gather around to meet and socialize.”
Rachel replied.
“Thorn of Rose, whose group is that?” Diane asked again.
The tone of her voice caused Carla’s eyebrows to frown. But eventually she replied.
“Since you don’t know about them, then you must be new here. We shall take you to register tomorrow when we reach the Capitol. It is only then you will be safe.”
“You still haven’t replied to my previous question.” Diane said.
“Thorn of Rose is currently the most powerful Mercenary group in the Capitol and the most awesome part about them is that they entirely consist of women from all ages. Up till today no one has ever been able to defeat their mysterious captain and vice-captain. They created a system in order to guarantee the safety of the women. Although there are loopholes, still it is way better than before. You see, one needs to register at the Thorn of Rose and you must report every time before and after you leave for a mission. If you were faced by any form of harassment you must report back or even a message would suffice. The Thorn of Rose would handle everything.” Rachel replied.
“Heh, what a lousy method!” Diane sneered.
“Don’t mind my elder sister. But there hasn’t been anyone who exploited such a system?” Sophie asked.
“At the beginning there were people who utilized the loopholes, they harassed the women in their groups when they were on missions outside the Thorn of Rose’s influence and then later declared they were killed on the mission. At first such cases were few, but as numbers increased, the mysterious captain led a team towards the location of their death and found a note which mentioned how the men in their group were planning to harass them. In rage, the captain ordered a cleansing operation which destroyed more than half of the Mercenary groups. She did not even ask for any reason or excuse. It was said that during that period, all the other Mercenary groups were so frightened that they didn’t even dare to touch a woman’s body.”
Rachel explained.
One could sense the spark of admiration and respect from the eyes and tone of how she explained. Lucy was nodding with a similar expression which termed on the border of total devotion.
“I see, their deeds do garner respect. By the way have any one of you heard about two women named Rose and Julie?” Sophie asked with expectations.
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