[4] The Ghost Town

[Kaden]

"Keep an eye on him..." Kaden repeated to himself.

The courier would have much preferred going with Piper to scout out the town, but it probably wouldn't hurt to have a word with Orion first. Actually, given what Kaden knew about saiyans, it could hurt plenty. Either way, Kaden didn't have any other brilliant plans, and there was something that had been eating away at him. Approaching the saiyan warrior, Kaden took several seconds to build up his courage.

"Hey," the courier finally managed.

"Hmmm?" Orion turned to face Kaden. "What is it?"

The one-eyed warrior had been standing in the middle of Olde Town's main road, surveying the surrounding buildings with what Kaden assumed was interest. Maybe the saiyan had come up with some masterful strategy that would let a kid, a medic, and a one-eyed warrior a chance of beating a group of well armed, coordinated soldiers.

"We kill them all..." Kaden began. "Anyone who wants to die along the way is more than welcome to. Your words."

"Ugh..." Orion crossed his arms across his chest and shook his head. It was clear where this was going. "What of it?"

"You're not really planning on killing everyone who comes after us, are you?" Kaden's voice carried a tone of disbelief, though it mostly for posterity.

"I'm planning on staying alive. If people come after me, I'm going to do whatever I have to."

"You don't have to kill anyone, though."

"Are we really going to do this?" Orion let his arms drop to his side and turned away from Kaden. "The more time we spend wasting our breath, the less time we have to prepare."

"Yeah, we're going to do this!" Kaden took a step towards Orion. "I'm not just going to stand by and watch you kill people."

"Then leave. Or close your eyes. Doesn't matter to me."

"Well it matters to me. If I do nothing, and people end up dead, then I might as well have killed them myself."

"You can't be serious..." Orion turned back towards Kaden, his annoyance written across his face. "This isn't the time or the place for preaching."

"This is exactly the time and place for 'preaching.' Did you forget why we're even here? Some psycho thinks that it would be fun to watch people scramble for their lives. He treats people like toys and life like it's a joke. That's wrong and you know it."

"This isn't about right or wrong. If my choices are kill or be killed... well, it's a pretty damn easy choice."

"Have you ever lost someone you've cared about?" Kaden watched as Orion narrowed his eye. "Well I have. I know all too well the pain and grief that comes along with it. You blame yourself, you blame the people you loved, you blame god, and in the end your left with nothing but that all-consuming agony and the knowledge that you'll never see that smile, or hear that laugh ever again. Even if you don't care about the people you kill, that's what you're forcing upon their loved ones."

"Oh grow up!" Orion took several very menacing steps towards Kaden. "What do you want me to say? Life's a fairy tale and people are good and nothing bad ever happens? You want to just lay down and die? Do it on your own."

With a shake of his head, Orion turned and began to walk away. Without think, Kaden closed the short distance between them and placed a hand on the saiyan's shoulder, intending to stop him. That was a mistake.

Almost instantly, Orion grasped Kaden's wrist and ducked under his arm. Before the courier knew what was happening, his arm was twisted behind his back and Orion was gone. Releasing his grip on Kaden's arm, the siayan shoved the young human away from him. Kaden tried to stay on his feet, but stumbled and fell to the dirt road.

Despite the pain in his shoulder, when Kaden picked himself up from the ground he was smiling. Orion watched the youth with a furrowed brow. Nothing was said for several seconds, the only sounds that filled the air were those of Kaden dusting the dirt off his clothing.

"I think you're a good guy, Orion."

"Don't presume to know me," the saiyan shot back. "You've known me for no more than a few hours."

"You're right... I don't know you. But I do trust you." Kaden took in a deep breath and tried to steady his nerves. "When it comes down it, when a decision needs to be made, I trust you to do what's right."

"Kids..." the saiyan muttered to himself as he turned away from Kaden.

"Well... I guess I'm going to go see what Piper found." Kaden mussed his hair for a moment. "We'll meet you back here in a couple minutes."

As Kaden walked away from Orion, he felt a weight press upon him. The courier thought he would feel relieved to say something that needed to be said, but that wasn't how he felt at all. As Kaden thought over what he had said, he almost laughed. It was so typical. He had just been another bright-eyed kid spouting the kind of nonsense one would hear in a saturday morning cartoon.

What right did Kaden have to question Orion? Or anyone else, for that matter? In the end they would do whatever they thought was right. It wasn't his place to try and force his viewpoint onto other people.

Kaden wasn't a pacifist by any means. He had no problem fighting to defend himself, or with other people doing the same. He also knew that fighting could get out of hand and, no matter how much he wished it weren't so, people would die as a result. The only thing he could do was try to keep that from happening.

"Protect everyone, huh?" the courier mumbled to himself. It sounded just as ridiculous out loud as it did in his head.

~~~

"Hey Piper, you in there?"

It was a fairly rhetorical question, but it seemed polite to ask anyway. As he approached the front door of the Sherrif's Office, Kaden could feel Piper wandering through the single-story building. Eyeing the broken doorknob with a smirk of amusement, Kaden pushed open the door and walked in.

The front room was boring enough. Behind the front-desk, Kaden noted a pile of sun-bleached paper that had fallen to the floor. The dust that covered most of the room had been disturbed, obviously by Piper. Turning away from the lobby, the courier walked into the hallway beyond.

At one end of the hallway there seemed to be a series of small rooms. Some of them might have been offices, some of them might have been used for questioning, or maybe they were there so the Sherrif had a place to nap in peace. Kaden shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention towards the other end of the hall.

Despite the waining sunlight, Kaden didn't have too much trouble seeing. The light the eminated from his eyes, though soft, was enough for him to be able to make out the cast-iron bars of the prison cells at the other end of the hallway. It was obvious that Piper wasn't inspecting the cells, so Kaden decided to check out the small rooms first.

There were only three rooms, upon further inspection, and the doors to all of them stood open. Inside the first was just a desk, cluttered with faded papers and various mundane objects. If Kaden needed a paperweight, he knew exactly where to look. The second room had only a pair of chairs set up facing each other; neither interesting nor useful. The last room was where Kaden hit the proverbial motherload.

Squinting, Kaden could barely make out a figure in the darkness of the third room. They seemed to be searching for something on their person, but their back was turned to the door, so Kaden couldn't be sure.

"Piper?"

"Gah!"

There was a sharp crash as the woman spun around. Kaden leapt backwards himself, not expecting his allies' surprised response. When the surprise faded, Kaden found the barrell of Piper's pistol staring straight at him. As the medic realized it was only Kaden, she holstered her weapon.

"Sorry," she offered.

"Don't worry about it," Kaden replied with a chuckle. The courier tilted his head as Piper seemed to crouch down and search the floor around her feet. "Whatcha doing?"

"I, uh, dropped the lantern I found."

"Ahhh. Well, allow me."

Stepping into the small room, Kaden held up his left hand. Ki streamed through the courier's arm, coalescing around his hand before fading into the air in a bright cerulean mist. The energy pulsed with a soft light, illuminating the small room.

"Thanks," Piper nodded as she scooped up the lantern. To both Hunter's surprise, it seemed to be still intact.

"So... find anything good?" Kaden looked around the room. There were several large wooden chests, most of which had been opened.

"A couple things. There was an old rifle and some ammo in one of those boxes," Piper pointed out the chest. Reaching out with his ki-free hand, Kaden scooped up the rifle.

"You know how to use that thing?" Piper asked as she withdrew a match from a pack at her side. In short order she had her lantern re-lit.

"An old gun like this?" Kaden scoffed. With a shake of his hand, Kaden dismissed the ki that he had been using as a make-shift lamp and hoisted the rifle up to his shoulder. "Not even a little bit." Kaden dropped the butt of the rifle and peered into the barrel. "Bullets are supposed to come out this end, right?"

With a shake of her head, Piper snatched the gun away from the courier. After inspecting the remainder of the wooden chests -- which revealed nothing more exciting than a couple blankets, a set of shackles, and another box of matches -- Piper and Kaden made their way out of the Sherrif's Office. Stepping out onto the worn dirt road, both human's shivered at a sudden gust of wind.

"Damn..." Kaden kicked at the dirt road.

"What?" Piper turned to him.

"I left my jacket back in the SUV." The courier looked genuinely upset as he spoke. "It was my second favorite," he explained.

"Second favorite?"

"I kind of... burned up my favorite a couple weeks ago."

"Kind of?" Piper arched an eyebrow at the courier.

"It's... a long story." Kaden turned his eyes from Piper to the horizon. "I didn't think it would get this cold when the sun went down, though."

"You'll manage," came Orion's voice.

Both human's turned to see the saiyan Hunter leaning against the Sherrif's Office. They had walked right past him. The one-eyed warrior's arms were crossed against his chest giving him an air of boredom. Pushing off of the wall, the saiyan approached Piper and Kaden.

"Was that all you found?" Orion's eye traveled to the rifle in Piper's hand.

"Pretty much," came Piper's reply.

"Is anyone close?" Orion asked, turning to Kaden.

Taking the hint, Kaden closed his eyes. A frown crossed his face as he focused his thoughts on trying to feel anyone other than Orion or Piper. With a sigh, the courier opened his eyes and ran a hand through his hair.

"No, I can't feel anyone else."

"So we know that they're not too close," Piper added.

"Hmph," Orion grunted. He didn't seem reassured. "We need to figure out what we're going to do when they do get here."

"So," Kaden turned towards his one-eyed ally. "Got any brilliant ideas?"