NOVEL NEXT Chapter 48: Coffee
Three hours later the skyscrapers of the shielded city come into view and it doesn’t take long for us to rendezvous with the selfsame guards who waved us goodbye the day before.
“Bill, go get Marcus, those adventures have rescued his daughter!” We hear one of them call out to the other, at which the soldier, Bill I presume, quickly runs off.
“Hey there.” Hilda approaches the soldier.
“Darn bloody good job misses, Marcus is going to be so happy to see his girl again.”
“I’m glad we could save her.”
“And what about the bandits?”
Élise steps in. “They should have all been taken care of, if there’s any left they won’t be a threat.”
“Great to hear. You can go and talk to the commander in the city’s administrative office to collect your reward.”
“Alright, we’ll head there once Charlie has seen her dad.”
“You can wait in the guardpost, it has a sofa and a coffee machine.”
“Thanks, we will.” Hilda nods at the soldier as we enter through the city gate and make our way inside of the small guard post.
“I hope the coffee isn’t that bad.” I hear Nikki talking to my sister.
“It’s government provided coffee babe, it’s not going to be good.”
“My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined…”
“Drama queen.” Élise starts laughing.
“We’ll get you some good coffee later, Nikki.” Hilda starts making a mug for herself and swiftly tastes it when it’s done. “Yeah, this is definitely not good.”
After Elise gets her coffee as the last one of the group we can hear people running towards us.
“Charlie!?” We hear a man’s voice coming from outside.
“Dad!” Charlie sprints outside and we slowly follow along. When we come outside we see Charlie already swung around the neck of her father.
“Charlie, I’m so happy you are safe. Me and your mom were so devastated when we heard about the attack on the caravan.”
“It was so scary dad.” Charlie is crying as well. “But luckily these ladies rescued me.”
“Thank you all so terribly much, I don’t know how I can repay you.” The man is still crying.
“No need for that sir, this scene is payment enough for us.” Hilda takes the lead. “Every decent human being would have done the same.”
Our entire group nods along with the sentiment.
“You are all saints…”
“There is one thing, sir.” Sam steps forward a little.
The man nods.
“I promised your daughter I would teach her how to play basketball today, if that’s alright with you.”
The man wipes away his tears. “Of course, of course. If you don’t mind me, my wife and another guest coming along.”
“Of course I don’t mind.” Sam smiles.
“There’s an abandoned basketball court in sector F9 of the city, not that far from our home. So you can use that.” The man has stopped embracing his daughter.
“Alright, we need to go past city administration first and you probably want some more time with your daughter. So let’s agree to meet up there in 2 hours?” Hilda takes the initiative again.
The man looks at Charlie and she gives him a nod. “Hmm, that sounds good for us.”
Charlie grabs her father’s hand and waves us goodbye. “See you a bit later then.”
“See ya later Charlie!”
They walk off in the distance towards the city center.
“So where’s sector F9?” I ask to Hilda.
“I have no clue.” She laughs. “We can ask around when we get to the administrative office.”
“Hopefully Charlie will come prepared, she’s going to get taught by a true professional after all.” Élise teases Sam.
“Yeah, I’m super jealous. I wanna get taught by Sam too.” I pout.
“Well, I can always show you the ropes as well, little kitten of mine. I bet Charlie isn’t going to mind.” She grabs my hand, spins me around and plants a kiss on my lips. “Might want to teach you how to tango too.”
“Wow, you know how to dance, Sam?” My sister looks at my girlfriend in awe.
“Only the tango.” She laughs. “A friend of mine from basketball once forced me to follow a lesson with her.”
“Max?” I tilt my head.
“Yep, that was a good guess.”
“Well it’s the only one I know!” I laugh.
“Fair enough.” Sam laughs as well.
“So, when are we going to the administration’s office?”
“Just let us finish this… coffee water first…” Hilda sips from her mug. “Okay, maybe not… it might make me sick if I drink this all.” She throws the rest away in the nearby foliage. “Let’s hope it doesn’t kill the local flora.”
Nikki sips from hers and promptly spits it out. “Yeah, throwing it away might not be the worst course of action.” and throws her coffee away right next to the spot where Hilda threw hers.
My sister doesn’t even sip from her mug, she just stares at the dark distasteful liquid and follows her comrades into throwing it away.
One of the plants already starts withering away.
“Wow. Instead of sending us to kill the bandits they should just have sent them their coffee machine.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s against the Geneva convention Élise.” Hilda starts laughing.
“Hilda, look around, I’m pretty sure they didn’t hold themselves to that even if it did exist in the past.” She points at the multiple destroyed buildings and the shield wall.
“Fair point.”
“So, city administration?” I gesture towards the center of the city.
“Yeah, let’s go before that coffee spawns a radioactive human eating plant or something.” My sister hurries past me while tugging her girlfriend along.
Hilda follows the pair and me and Sam walk closely behind her.
It takes us fifteen minutes to get to the city administration and five more to find the authorized commander with our reward.
“Here’s your reward ladies, thank you for your service to our beautiful city.” The fancily clad commander hands us a card. “I hope this will suffice.”
“No problem sir, we are glad to have been of help.” Hilda scans the card into a codex device and heads back towards the door. “Oh right,” she turns back around. “I have two more questions.”
The captain looks a bit surprised but nods. “Sure, go ahead.”
The captain starts laughing. “You drank from the coffee in the guardpost, didn’t you?”
Nikki and Hilda both nod yes.
“We’ve told those guardsmen several times they could have a new coffee machine and beans if they wanted but they said they liked their coffee as it is now.”
Hilda and Nikki both look like they’ve seen a ghost. “Really!?”
“Unbelievable, right?” The captain finally manages to stop laughing and takes a small map of the city from one of the drawers of his desk. He circles two spots on the map and hands it over to Hilda.
“Sector F9 is one of the western sectors of the city, right here.” He points at one of the circles. “And the best coffee in the city you can find right here.” He points at the second circle. “It’s a little bit of a detour if you want to get to F9 but it’s worth it. They have some great milkshakes too.”
Did he say… MILKSHAKES??
“Thanks sir.” Hilda salutes him.
“Oh, and if you tell the owner Jerry sent you, he will give you a discount.”
Hilda smiles and thanks him again. “Will do, sir. Thanks for the tip.”
“You’re welcome.”
We all leave his office and when we are outside I immediately cling to Hilda.
“So where is that bar?”
“Wohow, you are enthusiastic, kitten? Want some coffee too?”
“No, he said they have great milkshakes right?”
“Ah, ok, I get it now. Does the kitty want milkshakes?”
My tail goes wild and I nod energetically. “Yes!”
“Alright, alright, we were going there anyway. Want to have the map?”
“No, you can lead the way.”
Hilda smiles and whispers into my ear. “If you stop clinging to me we can go there as soon as possible, besides, I think someone is getting a little bit jealous.” She nods her head towards my right where Sam is pouting a little.
“Oh no! I’m sorry Sam.” I immediately switch my attention to her and cling myself to her arm. Rubbing my cheek against hers and purring slightly.
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” She starts laughing, her mood having made a 180 degree turn. “I just get a bit jealous, well envious, when I see you being so touchy with other girls.”
“I can’t help it, Sam, it’s the cat in me that takes control from time to time.”
“I know.” She pats my head, “That’s one of the things I love about you as well, sometimes I just want to monopolize you, have you all for myself.”
“Like yesterday evening?”
Her hand brushes the base of my tail. “Mhmm, like yesterday evening indeed.” she whispers into my ear but quickly backs off so I can see the devious smirk on her face.
She sends electric charges through my entire body, from the tip of my ears, all the way down to my toes.
Sam is dangerous, luckily this is the kind of danger I really really like.
I always try to stay at least 3 chapters ahead of time on Patreon.
Link to my discord: Link
Also! Soon I'll be launching a new story called Vintage Red! Chapter 1 and 2 will be uploaded in the week of 9 November!
Chapter 1 is already up on my discord for those who are curious :)