"Jesus Christ, Hank," one of the men around us said. "They're only kids."

"Shut up!" the guy holding the gun to Josh's head roared. He must be Hank. Charmed to meet him. "I run this black market and if I say I don't want them in it then they're not coming in!" My gun was on the ground at my feet. If they were just distracted by something then maybe I could grab it and shoot one of them while getting to Josh. Then we'd be able to use telekinesis to get us out of here. Before I could relay this idea to Josh, he stepped forward so the gun was literally resting on his forehead.

"So you're the leader of this black market," he said putting on an impressed voice. "Thank god! You know, you're a very hard man to find. If our boss hadn't of given us the battery, then I don't think we'd ever have found you." Hank narrowed his eyes.

"Who's your boss?" he asked. "What battery?"

"If you promise not to shoot us then I'll get it out for you," Josh said calmly. "Right now I'd rather not get shot in the head." Hank signalled his men who lowered their guns from Josh but swivelled them round to me.

"Alright," Hank said. "But you pull anything funny on us, and your pretty little girlfriend dies." Josh's eyes widened a fraction. I knew that this was totally going against everything he valued in himself.

"Oh she's not my girlfriend," he said, trying to cover up his fear.

"Well, get a move on then kid!" another one of the men shouted, earning a chorus of laughter from the others. I curled my lip in disgust. Sexist pigs.

"Shut up, kid," Hank said. "You talk too much. Now get me that battery and tell me who your flipping boss is before I shoot you and take your girl for myself." Josh bent down to his rucksack but didn't take his eyes off me.

'Just play along,'  he told me in my head. 'This is an easier way in than fighting...just like you wanted. If something goes wrong, we'll lift up that old generator and smash them.' I flicked up my eyes to the big hunk of metal he was talking about.

'Ok,' I said. 'Just don't get us killed.' Josh unzipped his bag and produced the battery. Hank took it and examined it.

"I sold and load of these just a month ago," he said. "What was the beggars name?"

"Charles Hunt?" I suggested. For the first time, Hank's attention was on me.

"That's right sweetheart," he said, waving his men away. He swaggered up to me, circling me with his hawk eyes. "Well, aren't you a fine one." He reached out for me but I caught his wrist. I could feel Josh sending strength to me so I could hold Hank there. There was no way I could have held Hank if I was just a normal girl. Well, I wasn't normal. Josh couldn't openly help me without risking our stale mate.

"One rule," I growled at Hank, looking into his eyes. "You don't touch me. If you want to make the deal that we're willing to make for our boss, you won't touch me."

"Alright missy," Hank said, still looking amused. "But if I don't like the deal...well, you folks better run, or I'll add you to my collection of girls and your boyfriend to my collection of graves." That wouldn't happen obviously for two reasons. It would never get to that stage because Josh and I would rip them apart. If it did, I would be dead anyway because Josh was. Still, this guy made me sick, thinking he could own a girl. What were we in, the middle ages? We might as well be with the state Triple has the world in.

"Hunt needs information," Josh said, trying to get Hank's attention back on him. Josh didn't realise but he was sending a load of telepathic insults at Hank which, of course, were buzzing around in my head. His anger was pretty intense at him for even trying to touch me. He must be barely in control of himself if that was going on inside.

 I released Hank so he could turn back to Josh. "We'll need to look around for the guy he wants then we'll pay them for the favour." Josh continued. He looked calm on the outside. The telepathic valve had shut off now so I could no longer see what was going on in his head.

"That ain't how things work around here," Hank said.

"Well then how do things work?"

"We have our different stalls," Hank explains. "People who run them have certain contacts to get the stuff they need. When someone wants something they have, they give them what they want then they come to me. I'll say a price for the stuff, and they'll pay it."

"So the people who get the stuff don't get the money?" I said.

"Oh they get the money, sugar," Hank said to me, winking. "In food, shelter and protection. And sometimes a little bit of entertainment if they get lonely at night." I think everyone got what he meant by that. I tried hard not to smack him right then and there.

"What if people don't pay?"

"Then I'll add a girl to my collection or a grave in my grave yard," Hank said again gleefully. "Now, tell me what Mr Hunt has to offer this time."

"Some Triple technology," Josh replied, obviously deciding not to argue. "Provided he gets the information he needs." I looked at him in surprise but quickly made my face neutral. What Triple technology was he talking about? In a sense, we were Triple technology but what did we have that these people didn't? Triple tech was pretty valuable. It was way ahead of its time, just look at me and Josh. But we didn't have a lot of it. And it certainly didn't get out a lot.

"Blimey," one of the men cried. "How the hell did you get your hands on that?"

"I've got dibs, Hank!" another yelled?

"No it's mine!"

"Shut up!" Hank roared before turning to Josh? "What kind of Triple technology?" His eyes gleaming with greed.

"You'll find out once we get what we need," Josh said. "I'm sorry but these are our boss's orders. Can we please go in?" Hank thought about it before nodding.

"Fine," he said. His men lowered their guns and most of them started walking to the factory. Someone must have given an signal because it was now buzzing with light, music and activity. I could hear them as they walked back, whispering about us:

"Did you see her weird eyes?"

"That dudes hair was silver..."

"I'm telling you, them two are weird, definitely not normal." That word normal was really getting on my nerves. Who were they to judge us? They had no idea what we have been through.

"You drive a hard bargain, kiddo." Hank continued. "But if I don't like what I see, then-"

"We know," I said. "God, you don't have to keep repeating yourself." Before Hank could answer, I grabbed Josh's arm and started pulling him towards the factory.

***

"You were pretty brave out there, you know," Josh said to me over the booming music as we went around the different market stalls. There were a lot more people in here than I thought there would be, all looking for something they needed to survive in the damn city or just sitting around. This is what the world has come to. Crime and desperate people.

"I wasn't really," I told Josh. "I just hated that guy Hank. That wasn't bravery like you. That was just rage."

"I know," Josh said. "He was pretty disgusting. And when he tried to run his hands all over you...It took everything in me to stay back." He was silent for a minute as we tried to find where Hunt got the batteries from. "We could kill him, you know," Josh said quietly.

"No," I said. "We are not killing more than we need to. Even if it is someone as horrible as Hank. Now, tell me what your plan is because I don't see how this is going to help us get any closer to Hunt."

"We find who got him the batteries," Josh said. "Ask him to describe Hunt so we know what we're looking for. Then ask him how many Hunt took and what else he could use them for. After that, we give Hank the bullet case as payment for the information."

"He won't like that," I say, dodging a old woman who was offering charm bracelets. I so badly wanted to help these people. They had to make a living out of this place then having to give it all to that creep Hank. I wasn't going to lie, he scared me with the amount of power he could use but there was nothing I could do. Not yet anyway. "He won't take the bullet case."

"He will," Josh said. "There isn't a lot of security these days. If he has something precious, he'll want to protect it."

"Seems like all he cares about is his girls," I mutter. I had noticed a lot going around wearing the shortest skirts I had ever seen. Many of them were sitting on the laps of Hank's guards. This is what he meant by entertainment.

Hank said this was a black market but it was basically a place for him to feed on the people that were desperate, or take advantage of the people who he deemed worthy. The world had got pretty bad if this was what people had to do to survive.

"Erin!" Josh shouted. I turned to see that I had wandered off a bit. He was standing by a small stall in the corner, holding up a battery identical to the one we found. I jogged over, dodging people smoking and chatting. "I found our guy," Josh said. I was glad that this guy was in the corner. Here, it was quieter away from the music. My head was pounding from all the smoke and the loud noises.

"What do you kids want?" The guy sitting at the table mumbled. He looked up at us. "Well, you look interesting. Loving the golden contact lenses, darling."

"We need some information," Josh said, coughing. "A guy brought a load of these batteries from you about a month ago. His name was Charles Hunt. Can you describe him?" The guy shrugged.

"I dunno," he said. "I have a lot of clients."

"Please," I said sweetly. "Just try to remember."

"I dunno," the guy said again. "He was tall-ish, brown hair and eyes. Weird skull tattoo on his hand. Always carrying around a laptop. I haven't seen him since he brought twelve of these batteries from me."

"Do you know what he could use them for?" I asked, seeing that I was getting more out of this guy than Josh was. "Where do you get them from?"

"He could use the for just about anything," he said. "I get them from a buddy of mine. He lives across town in an department store, selling a load of stuff to people." I looked at Josh who seemed just as interested as I was.

"Have you got his address?" Josh asked. "We would like to buy something from him."

"Yeah sure." The guy scribbled down an address on a scrap of paper. "Just don't tell him I gave it to you. I wouldn't like any trouble."

"Of course not," I said, taking the paper. On it was the name Jack Peters with the address. It wasn't too far so that was OK. "Thank you."

"Why do you want this anyway?" The guy asked. I hesitated so Josh filled in.

"He just owes my family some money so we thought we'd try and find him," he said. He was so good at lying it astounded me.

The guy just shrugged. "Money ain't worth a lot these days," he said. "But I see why you'd go after him."

"Yeah, anyway thanks," Josh said. We walked away and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Josh murmured. He gestured to a couple of men sauntering up to us, guns slung over their shoulders.

"Boss asked if you've got everything you need," the lead said to us.

"Yeah, we think so," Josh said.

"Good, now come with us," he said. "Boss wants to see you."

***********************************************************************************************

Hi guys,

How did you find this one then???  I made it a bit longer because I couldn't find a natural break in the chapter and I just really, really wanted to keep writing. You know when you're in a flow and you just can't stop? Yeah, that happened in this one. I got up to 5000 words at some point but then I noticed the word count and I was like OMG I NEED TO STOP WRITING!!! So yeah, I  cut it down.

Anyway, I hoped you liked it. I tried to show a bit more of the outside world and how both Erin and Josh were shocked by it. Obviously because they both haven't seen a lot outside Triple I needed a way to show what this world was like without rambling on describing it.

So, comment and vote if you liked!!!

Love ya all,

CricketCat