“Well isn’t this just a fine upgrade from our previous cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere.” 

Vincent leaned against an old lamp post that looked as though it had been stuck in the ground for a hundred years, as he stared at the long abandoned miner’s barrack ahead that would be considered their new “home” for awhile. Past the old shack was a mining shaft that probably went to the other side of the world, but Vincent had no intentions of finding out just where in the hell it lead. Although something told him that their new guide would probably think otherwise since he was probably born in a mining shaft such as that.

“Really Eli, you shouldn’t have.” 

He grumbled, shaking his head at the shit hole that the group had been tossed into and immediately thinking back to his place in Atlanta. Luxurious in it’s design and more room than any one person needed, Vincent’s penthouse was his sanctuary that overlooked a city which never slept. It had been a place he could escape to if he needed to be alone, or to throw the most outrageous parties without a single care in the world. Sure, that life wore him down at times, but it was nothing as unbearable as living out on the set of [i]Deliverance[/i] with gunslinging rednecks all around him who would rather eat him in his sleep.

Nate didn’t seem to care a whole lot about where they were, as long as they were somewhere he could relax and heal in his own time, which Vin couldn’t blame him. The guy took as much shit as he dished out, so he could use a reprieve if there was such a thing. The Eric Miller kid was decent, seemed to pretty much say whatever was on his mind at the time, and yet Vin still couldn’t quite understand what his role was in everything. The little girl, Christi, on the other hand was timid, but from what he’d heard, she had every right to be reluctant to interact with strangers. No one should go through that kind of shit, no matter what their upbringing. No doubt she saw the three from the city as something entirely different, maybe almost alien from a culture she was accustomed to.

Vin turned to Jennifer and grinned. “I don’t suppose you want to step in first and check out the new digs. Maybe scare all the rats and shit out before the rest of us come in.” 

She’d been, for most of the hike up to Noble’s, at his side and they kept each other company trying their best to keep their minds off of the train wreck of their current lives. It was no secret that he liked her, and sometimes he believed he might even [i]love[/i] her considering how protective he’d become of her, but he pushed those thoughts aside knowing that growing so emotionally attached to someone at this point was probably not the best course of action. However, as much as he wanted to fall back to treating Jennifer like he’d treated most women in his life as though they were simple playthings and sexual diversions, Vin couldn’t. They’d been through too much for him to ever think of her like that. 

“Eh...I was kidding, by the way, babe.” He said, rubbing her shoulder as he turned to the others in the group. 

“So, who’s going in first, because I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m tired as all hell...”