#6

Levi winced at the sight of Lindsey's bloody and dirt-encrusted fingers. He didn't want to alarm her so he kept his worry to himself. Or at least, he hoped that his concern stemmed from concern for her mental well-being than outright selfishness on his part. Whatever she was doing was eventually going to lead to an infection but better her than him.

[i]Fuck, what am I becoming?[/i] he thought furiously, the guilt intensifying as Lindsey began to work on his ropes.

As soon as the knots were undone, he swung his arms forward and stretched endlessly, grunting with satisfaction at the pops and cracks. He offered a smile to his saviour and thanked her with unabashed gratitude before raising his index finger to indicate that he'd be back in a minute.

Levi headed over to the dark green, wire chain fence and slipped his fingers through, squeezing it as hard as he could to test its integrity. It wasn't too sturdy but the possibility of ripping it off through brute strength was nil. He had to find a weak spot somehow. He looked to his right and spotted two figures far in the distance, their features inscrutable from his vantage point. 

The men were seated in two chairs, guns at their side. Their post was obviously boring since they had decided to entertain themselves by indolently kicking a basketball back and forth. He looked over his shoulder at Calliope, glumly sitting against the basketball post, then back to the basketball. Eureka!

"Hey!" he yelled to a couple of armed raiders lounging nearby. "[i]Hey![/i] I'm talking to you!"

Without warning, one of the men raised his rifle and pointed it at his general direction. He yelped and fell back as the shot rang out, the bullet nowhere to be seen. It must have been a warning shot. Their roars of laughter carried over to him along the gentle Autumn breeze, furthering his resentment of these people.

"I'm sure you have more of those inside that palace, can't we have that one?" he pleaded, obviously referring to the basketball. "We have a kid in here!"

He could see them both looking up at him and then to each other, as if contemplating their response. Their answer was definitely not what he had been hoping for as the one on the right pointed his rifle at the ball, cackling.

"Don't waste the bullet, Thorne wouldn't like that!" he warned.

Now he had done it. The two immediately stood up and booted the ball hard towards the court, walking menacingly over to him. Once their eyes were discernible, he could see the malicious intent in them.

"Wait, wait, I just wanted to stop you because I can trade!" he pleaded.

"The fuck are you talking about?" demanded the taller of them, face pressed up so close against the fence that Levi could smell the vomit-inducing mixture of blood, sweat and alcohol emanating from him.

"What do you have? The boys already stripped you clean. You hiding something in your panties, princess?" asked the short and stocky one, guffawing at his own wit.

"I have... information." he said ambiguously, trying not to betray how uncomfortable he was.

"Information?" repeated the tall one, handlebar moustache bristling with indignation. "What the fuck you gonna tell us, how we can cook meth?"

Levi's heart lifted.

"Actually, I have a degree in Chemistry, so I could-"

"Where the fuck are we gonna find the ingredients and equipment to cook meth, shitbird?" demanded the shorter man.

Levi grimaced. The man had a point. The only information that would actually be valuable to these two and prevent him from getting his skull caved in, would have to be more than theoretically sound. It had to be practical.

"You people grow your own food? Any herbs?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, we got a couple of whores who grow some shit. I don't know what, though." replied the tall one.

"Parsley?"

"Yeah, yeah!" he said, his dull eyes lighting up. "I heard 'em talking about that. Parsley." he repeated in an exaggerated drawl.

"Great, you can-"

"Boy," started the short man in a threatening voice, pointing the barrel of his gun at Levi's forehead. "You best not even [i]think[/i] about telling us to smoke parsley."

"No, no," assured Levi, raising his hands up to express the universal gesture of 'don't shoot'. "Parsley contains a phenylpropene called myristicin. It's a psychoactive substance that can induce powerful hallucinogenic effects by encroaching the brain-blood barrier and-"

"Get to the point, college boy."

Levi felt elated. He had purposely chosen to be as verbose as humanly possible in the attempt of creating a rapport between himself and the raiders. Judging by the epithet he had just been called, they at least considered him a figure of authority on the subject.

"The point is, I can teach you to make cheap drugs with long-lasting effects. Think of where that'll get you. All I ask for in return is the basketball." he said, laying down his terms.

"How about we come in there and beat it out of you?" asked the tall one, smirking.

"You won't know I'm being honest." he replied flatly

The raiders stared at him for a while, evidently sizing him up. He smiled back at them calmly in spite of his heart smashing against his ribs.

"Fine, take your stupid fucking ball." said the short one, grabbing it and tossing it over the edge. After throwing the basketball to Levi, he produced a battered walkie-talkie from his pocket and muttered into it for a while before pressing it against the fence. "Speak into this."

Levi chose not to question this but instead immediately leaned forward, reciting the instructions slowly to the person on the other side who was no doubt writing this down. The two men grimaced at some of the required items but Levi was certain that they wouldn't have difficulty procuring these things, what with them being prolific [i]raiders[/i] and all.

"... And then strain the mixture into the bowl." he finished, looking up uncertainly at the guards.

To his great relief, they nodded at him in a satisfied manner and began to leave. Just before they had passed the court, however, the taller one turned back and offered his parting words.

"Don't even think about telling this shit to anyone else," he threatened. "Or me and Danny here are gonna come back and cut your tongue out."

Levi bit back a retort and gulped, turning around and leaning against the chain fence. The ball, dusty and old, was stationary next to his feet. He crouched down and picked it up, pressing his finger tips into it before bouncing it against the court a couple of times. It was hard, sturdy and had a satisfying bounce. Perfect.

"Here." he offered, after making his way over to Calliope who was still sat against the basketball post. He held out the ball to her in both arms and attempted a warm smile. "You look bored."

Callie's face lit up upon seeing the ball but the elation lasted barely a fraction of a second. Still, it was not a completely futile effort to connect with her; she stood up and took the ball from him, mumbling a quick thanks.

[i]"That was a lot of work, kid. Fortunately, shooting hoops isn't the only good that ball's gonna do for us."[/i] he thought with a hopeful grin, returning to Lindsey.

"Sorry about that, she got caught up in our group with her sister. Our entire group got divided among different raider groups and now she's stuck with me." he explained lugubriously. "She would have been better off with anyone else but those are the breaks. Look, I know that under normal circumstances, we'd take time to get to know each other but since these aren't normal circumstances, I'm gonna be straight with you."

He glanced back over his shoulder to make sure that no one was listening before continuing.

"I know you're trying to escape. And that's good!" he added quickly. "I'd rather get killed escaping than stay here. Death would be preferable for the girl, too, they're going to do awful things to her. Will you be able to exploit that weakness," he nodded in the direction of the area that Lindsey had been digging. "When night falls? Because we need to get the hell out of here before we all end up dead or worse."