A cold glint appeared in his eyes as he spun on his heel and followed the cyborg in turn...
Or that was at least what Ester wanted to happen.
In reality though, this particular action was taken only in his mind as he continued to slink through the crowd, the brief burst of annoyance from the people behind him fading away as they found something else to be disgruntled with.
When he and Eva split off from each other's vicinity and made the agreement to circle back to the driller in an hour or so, an unspoken agreement was said underneath.
Whoever the cyborg follows has to lead them on a wild goose chase for a whole hour, leaving the other to make a beeline for the Driller where they would make the most urgent repairs so that they could make an urgent getaway.
'So unless there's a bunch of assholes who paid the parking lot keeper to look the other way while they grift stuff from vehicles then it should be good.'
Slinking through the crowd and dodging the odd vehicle within this system of concrete and noise, Ester made sure to keep hands not his own out of his pockets as he walked.
---
'There's a bunch of assholes who paid the parking lot keeper to look the other way while they grift stuff from vehicles.'
Ester rubbed the back of his neck as he leaned against the corner wall next to the parking lots booth, his ears sifting through the dull din of fluorescent lights, the buzz of the crowd, the hum of respirators to focus onto the shuffles of movement and beeps of alarm behind him.
The assholes weren't exactly subtle in their acts of theft so even if he wasn't aware of them before, then he sure as void was now.
Rolling his right hand's wrist as he pushed off of the wall, Ester thought.
'It's been a while since I've been stolen from... Weirdly nostalgic.'
Since this planet was the trash planet where the trash of society, i.e. repeat offenders who decided rehabilitation was for chumps, every so often, large jail pods fall from the sky to release their humanoid contents.
Although these jail pods hadn't fallen from the sky in some time for reasons Ester knew intimately well, even if the criminals were killed off for a variety of different reasons, several dozen years of consistent arrivals (Except as of late) was enough for society's like this one to pop up.
And because the trash of society was a whole lot more common than the trash of society, the society built here was a melting pot of crime just waiting to overflow.
'And to make sure that you aren't targeted in this pot of snakes you have to build a reputation.'
A reputation that's hard to build thanks to the fierce competition for resources.
A reputation that's even easier to pull down thanks to dozens of sharks waiting for even the slightest scent of blood.
Thanks to the population consisting mainly of criminals, although there were the odd good apple amongst the bunch of bad apples, when all the bad apples pretend to be the good apples it was difficult to put your trust into someone who could possibly betray you.
It was stifling.
'...It's also why I left this shithole to live in the Driller with Eva.'
Thanks to being children unique in the fact that they grew up together underneath the watch of a stupid old man they could trust each other implicitly.
'Now that I think about it though, it's weirder how no one tried to mug us yet.'
It wasn't as if they built up a reputation in this place yet have they?
They only just got here after all.
Thinking about that, Ester rounded the corner wall where the parking booth was.
He glanced inside and instantly a frown formed underneath underneath his mask as he stared at the cyborg woman who was both here and not as evidenced by the yellow color lining her mechanical parts.
Spark. A hallucinatory drug specifically made for tin cans like her.
And by the looks of how many more charges of the stuff was set to the side, it wasn't going to be the last.
'...I paid five A-Units for a bum ass druggie to guard the driller.'
Feeling his lip twitch at the sight of the woman flashing another dose of Spark right into the back of her neck where her neurostem lied, it seemed that the lot keeper would be useless in fending off the thieves breaking into the number of vehicles in the parking lot.
It also seemed like he was scammed so. 'I could break into the booth and get a refund with some interest...' Ester thought before shaking his head. 'But it'll take to long, and by then the thieves would be long gone.'
'It's not like she's going anywhere any time soon though.' He glanced at the cyborg one final time before jumping the barriers, his right hand spinning.
'Now then, where are the assholes grifting shit?'
---
'How the void has that guy not lost me once?' Eva thought as she slipped through the crowd, her hands making damn well that no one would be touching her things.
Glancing back at her internal clock, it had been nearly an entire hour since she first split from Ester.
An entire hour of misleading the Cyborg on a wild goose chase where he would eventually lose her to the crowd.
Where he should've lost her to the crowd bustling and jostling each other as they forced their ways to their destinations.
But somehow, someway, that cyborg never lost track of her even once.
Whether it was due to luck or because of something else she didn't know.
All she knew was that it was Voidedly irritating.
Wanting to click her tongue at the man's persistence only to be unable to thanks to ThisArchitectDamned thing stuck in her throat, she suppressed the urge to scratch at the metal connecting her head to her body.
instead of that incredibly self harming act, Eva settled for letting a sharp hiss of air escape from the folds of her metal neck, letting the custom made Ester built apparatus filter her breaths.
It served as an additional protection in the case of someone tried to harm her neurostem, but in this case where it served as a reminder of ThisArchitectDamned thing stuck on her throat it only served to make her more irritated.
Letting out another sharp hiss of air from her neck as she cursed, her mind instinctively returning to the time when those bastards had exploded her neck, she forcefully shook her head free of the downwards spiral it seemed to be going down.
'No. Bad Eva, you have to focus.'
Her thoughts shifted to the man who was strangely obsessed with leaving the trash planet.
'For Ester.'
His desire to see a world that seemed to have more trash than it knows what to do with was incomprehensible to her, and that was speaking as someone who grew up alongside that boy.
But if was what that big idiot wanted then what could she do?
Feeling the irritation die down somewhat as she thought about him, her thoughts shifted towards the Cyborg that was still at this moment doggedly pursuing her.
Sometimes she really wished to rip her neck out to get rid of this irritating feeling consuming it, but with how persistent that cyborg was in pursuing her, she would reluctantly substitute the urge to rip out her neck with the urge to rip that damned cyborg apart.
'Since the neurostem is definitely protected heavily I should start with cutting what's left first.'
Fidgeting the knife hidden within her sleeve as she walked forwards absentmindedly wondering how best to torture the Cyborg persistently following her, at some point in time she forgot to look at where she was going and nearly collided with someone.
Frowning- Wanting to frown, Eva looked at the person who had just interrupted her thoughts before she cursed.
[Y-You've got to be f-flakking k-kidding me.]
---
The best way to survive in a barren wasteland that rustled to the tune of empty cans and plastic wrap is to not make any sound at all.
In that manner, the bunch of hooligans making a ruckus as they bangs metal pipes in attempt to break into whatever vehicle they set their sights on wouldn't survive a day out there in the plastic ridden wild.
'All the better for me though since they won't hear this.' A certain grey haired man thought.
Grabbing an unsuspecting hooligan from behind as he was rummaging through the cracked window of some sort of car, his arm slipped underneath the woman's neck in one smooth motion as they soon dove to the ground besides the car.
Letting out a sharp grunt as the woman tried to slam the pipe onto his face, the only success she managed was one slam against the side of a large truck screeching out in alarm thanks to his previous actions before her neck snapped.
Body falling limp as the brain that was supposed to be controlling it disconnected all of a sudden, the woman's eyes spun around in panic and confusion, eventually gaining a sort of stability that allowed the woman to see the number of bodies lying on the ground from underneath the cars.
Their necks were broken just like hers, but unlike her, they weren't breathing.
Letting out a sharp gasp as the reality of the fact set in, the man who seemed to have snapped her neck let out a quiet exclamation of surprise.
"What the... How the void did you... Ah. So that's how you survived."
Eyes wide open in fear as she looked at the man who seemed to place his curiosity over why she lived over the weight of her life, the woman instinctively realized one thing in the haze of panic.
She was going to die.
She was going to die before she could finish eating that boy.
Mouth opening uselessly underneath his mask as she let out sounds akin to a dying fish as she tried to beg for mercy, the man looked down at her with a gaze that seemed to contemplate something.
He raised a hand.
*Crack!
Two eyes, one flesh, one metal stared upwards in frozen fear.
The metal one in particular, whirred silently within the woman's skull.
---
20 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
8 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRED ITS FLAMES THE SECOND TIME
8 DAYS SINCE THE CORRUPTED OF C-POINT BEGAN 'HER' HUNT
+++
T'was laundry day today, and since this tree doesn't have the hobby of exhibitionism the chapter is a bit late.
Three whole hours gone just like that.
Tree