It's a windy day, the snow seems to have gotten better. Inside a town there is a small building that seems quite old yet new at the same time. It's made out of bricks and there a few windows that are broken and boarded up. Inside there is a tall beared man discussing with two other men. They are sitting down in front of what seems to be a secretary desk. The man is dressed quite well for a building that seems low maintenance. He has brown hair, his eyes are black, and his skin seems rough. His fingers are long and seem to be fidgeting.
"I thought we made it clear that I was to not speak with any of you people in the day time. It's risky as there are people who can see them, or who might overhear them." The man says to the duo who don't seem to care. "I am not going to be publicly associated with a gang like yours. Don't you know the punishment for association with dangerous people?" The men look at him with annoyance. "Of course you two don't, I bet you are ignorant as the rest."
"Listen to me Amir, I know what our leader said, but that's different for now." Said a man who has a raspy voice, he is quite on the bigger side compared to his partner. "We need the payments right now, that's all, nothing more." He says as he puts his hand on the table.
"Yes I understand that, but you all know me, for years I have always paid my shares." Amir says as he shows them notes of every payment. "As you can see I never missed a single day nor was I off by a single cent. I will not pay later nor earlier than the agree upon time you all gave me. That's how I work around here, we make a deal and I fulfill it as so do you."
"Listen we understand what you are saying, our boss really appreciate your honest work. The problem is that he wants your payment right now." Said the other man, he has his arms crossed, and he is wearing a hat and glasses. "He ordered us to get the payment, and that's what we will do. We don't know exactly why he is asking for it now, but we won't question him. This doesn't have to be complicated Amir, you're one of our favorite people. You aren't annoying or ugly to stare at, we want you to be safe and that's the truth."
"I'm sorry but I have worked for you guys for many years. I have done my part perfectly, and the least you can do is go through with the darn contract. I can't be left with the feeling that you have no trust behind your words." Amir said as he stood up and walks to them.
This doesn't make them happy at all as the fat man stands up, and points his gun to Amir. He has it pointed at his forehead. "Come on, don't do that shit to him. He is one of the only useful people we have under our control. Everyone who works with us are all stupid, and this rumor of intelligence was dumb to begin with." The man said as he pulls the gun away staring at the fat man.
"Fine, you're lucky Amir, we won't kill you, but that doesn't exclude being hurt. We can hurt you as long as you're able to work for us, I'm just giving you this one, and only warning because we like you." The man said as he grabbed his gun and put it away.
"Well you have to leave now as I heard that the SDA is coming here. I heard that they are here because of some rumor of there being a man who has gone missing. I'm just warning you two as I am also going to be affected now that the people know they have gone here." Amir says as he points to the front door. "Don't make this hard for me or yourselves. I know some of you people can be resonable, don't make me change my mind."
"Fine, we will ask our boss that you ignored his demands. We will try to make you look good, but we aren't promising you that you might stay safe for a while." They laugh a bit and stand up. "Don't worry, the boss is quite merciful, he might just pull out some of your teeth."
In the other room Daniel is there, he is inside a storage room. He is being silent and, overhears their conversation. Daniel seems a bit worried, but doesn't attempt to make a move. When he finally hears the men leaving he sighs in relief. Daniel then hears the door unlocking, and he steps out of the room. Daniel is facing Amir now. "Amir my dearest friend, I need your help right now. I need it more than ever before, I'm in trouble right now."
"Yes Daniel, I could tell by the way you looked at me when I helped you hide here. You always come to me when you need help and nothing else." Amir says and Daniel lowers his head in embarrassment. "Oh I didn't mean it in a bad way, I'm quite glad that you trust me with your life."
"This is different Amir, it's on a bigger scale than anything before. This is very serious as it's a whole gang that is after me. Remember when I told you I was going undercover for the Iron Deadlocks?" Amir nods saying he remembers. "Well they found me out, and I'm scared for my life." Even when he says that he seems rather calm.
"This is quite shocking to me." Amir says with a surprised face. "To think that you of all people would mess up, may I ask how did you?"
"I didn't get caught in the sense of what your thinking, I gave myself up by saying the truth. What I mean was that I told another member something I shouldn't have."
"Daniel, sometimes you just don't think through with things. That was very stupid of you on whatever that was. Well stupid in the sense of doing the right thing of course, who was it that you helped?" Amir smiles at Daniel.
"You're right as I did it to save the life of a woman. Her name is Ashly, and she is quite young." Amir raises an eyebrow. "Yes I know, I didn't expect a woman to be working in a gang like theirs either." Daniel says as he tried to describe who Ashly was.
"Don't panic Daniel, as long as you stay inside this town, you are safe. This place is very safe as it's not in the territory of either gang. If they suspect you of being a spy, which they definitely do think. By staying here they won't have any proof of that. "
Daniel smiles a bit, feeling a bit of relief. "Amir, you don't know how much I wanted to hear those words come out of your mouth. I feel much better already."
"Alright then Daniel, just relax a bit and be careful. There's no telling what might happen in the next hour, don't forget that you can never be too cautious." Amir says, "Also never and I emphasize on this, never leave this town alright?"
"Yes I understand that clearly, I would hate to know what will happen if I leave." Daniel says, "I'll settle in a nearby area, I think I have enough money to rent."
"Let me think of something Daniel, I'll talk to you tomorrow." Amir says.
Daniel then gives Amir a smile of gratitude, he then opens the door and leaves the building. Daniel doesn't make it more than eight feet outside when he bumps into someone. "Ah im sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." Daniel apologies, and he looks up to see three men.
"Hey I feel like I've seen you before, yeah I definitely do." The man who Daniel bumped into said. "You're part of that gang, the one called Iron Deadlock am I right?" His voice was rather sweet compared to his expression.
Daniel notices how tall these men are, they seem to be six feet tall. They are all blond and seem to have short, spiky hair. He notices how they all seem angry as the man mentions the gang. "Oh yeah that's not really true, I'm not a part of them. I am an enemy to them, they want me dead because I betrayed them. I work for these men around here, I'm not an enemy."
"Yeah we don't buy that one bit, do you think we are stupid or something?" Said another man with a soothing voice that can calm others down. "Why would you do such an idiotic thing? It doesn't make sense to us." The men then surround Daniel smiling, they seem to be laughing at him.
"Oh don't be afraid, we are just testing you that's all." Daniel doesn't believe their words at all.
"For the sake of everything leave that man alone." A man said as he approached them, with how he looked he was part of the Lurkers. "That man isn't with those bastards, he is not no darn enemy. He is one of us and we don't appreciate people who mess with us." The man then turns to Daniel. "They aren't going to hurt you at all, even if you were part of the rivals. They love to scare people, I doubt they would be stupid enough to hurt you in brought daylight."
"Yeah that's fine, it's not like I was scared or anything." Daniel said with a voice that is trying to hide his fear.
"Sorry for the trouble you're facing, I heard that you got caught. The boss appreciates you're cooperation, and don't listen to what these men said. Your work is valuable to us."
"Its alright, I have no problem with them if they were just messing with me." Daniel said as he watched the men smile at him, Daniel doesn't smile back as he doesn't like faking too many emotions at the same time.
"It seems you don't know who these men are don't you?" Daniel doesn't know them. "Well you see they are a bunch of weirdos who aren't part of a gang. Zoryem, that's the name, stupid but we don't usually say that to their face."
"Which of them is called Zoryem? What's the name of the other two men?" Daniel asked.
"They are all called Zoryem Daniel, crazy but that's the truth. They aren't related either, that's what makes them crazy in our eyes." The man said which confuses Daniel a bit more. Daniel has never heard of men sharing the same name, specially those who aren't related.
"I'll inform you in this, these people are a group of 23 men. They are all called Zoryem as they idolize their leader. As you can probably guess already, their leader's name was Zoryem."
"Was this leader of theirs a good one? He must have if they idolized him." Daniel asked.
"None of that matters now as their leader is dead." The man can see Daniel having more questions now. "Don't bother asking for more information, you will only end up with even more questions. Also I would recomend you to not stay nearby these men. Nothing much is known about them, the government does know them which is why you should avoid them."
"Well then, I'll take your advice to heart. I won't attempt to go near them anytime soon." Daniel then leaves and decides to return to the building. "Amir, I want to tell you more about this woman before I rest for the day."
"Well go on Daniel, I'm always listening to you." Amir says as he offers him a seat besides him.
"This woman, Ashly that's the woman I told you about. She is very strong, and probably a much better fighter than I am. Well overall at least, I'm still the best shooter around. This woman might be of interest to us in the future."
"Alright Daniel, tell me everything about this woman. I want to know as much as possible to see if she is worth the effort to go for. She might be what we are missing for our goal." Amir says.
Right outside the town an elderly man can be seen walking straight inside. He is carrying a cane with him, and his legs seem weak. He is balding but he seems very serious. The man who was talking to Daniel earlier walks up to the elder. "Oh sir Omar, it's a surprise that you're here, why didn't you tell us you were visiting here?" The man then bows his head, and kisses the hand of Omar, Omar smiles, and there are a few teeth missing from his mouth.