Ace looked on edge, and once we were away from the site, she stopped and turned around to look between the passed-out Grace and me. This was going to be hard to explain, and I really hadn't thought of a way to explain why the front of my pants was soaked. I was also pretty sure that I smelt like sex.
"What happened to you two?! Why is Grace passed out?" Ace asked but said nothing about the front of my sex-soaked pants.
"She hit her head when I was on the way out of the bunker that we were investigating. How did things go with you two?" I asked, and then looked at Chloe, who was grinning. "How is your level doing?"
"She said that she is level 54 now, but I have a hard time believing her," Ace said as he looked over at her skeptically, but Chloe just grinned.
"I am level 54! I can show you if you don't believe me!" Chloe laughed, and Ace sighed and turned around.
"I am just glad that this is all over, and we can go back now," Ace said as he started his truck back up, but I reached forward and grabbed his shoulder tightly.
"What are you talking about? Go back to the city?" I asked in a serious tone, and Ace looked back at me with a confused look.
"We are done, right? Chloe said that we were just coming out here, power leveling, and then going back to the city, right?" Ace asked, and then looked over at Chloe, who was not looking out the window, but I could feel her smile.
"No, we are heading to the far east end of the canyon north of us," I said, as Ace was about to put the truck into drive but stopped to whirl around on me.
"What?! That was not part of the plan!" Ace snapped, but I narrowed my eyes at him, but it wasn't like he could tell with my mask on.
"Yes, it is. Get driving to the next campsite that I marked on the map," I said, and then looked over at Grace, who seemed to be waking up.
"Wait a minute! Since when did you become the one in charge?!" Ace demanded, and never had I wanted to take the mask off more than in that moment, but it wasn't time yet. Still, I was getting sick of these shitty little pricks sniveling, but I had a job to do, so I had to play nice for now. I had cracked level 120 from the bandits, but I was still a ways off his level of 215, meaning I still couldn't safely kill him.
"What are you scared of? Since we left the city, you have been acting like a scared animal. You are level 215, so start acting like it! Grace here is relying on you to protect her, but would you actually do that, or would you just leave her behind? I know that I could have done that exact thing when she hit her head (I fucked her brains out), but I didn't, even when I had to fight my way out of the bunker carrying her, and then I went and picked up you two!" I snapped, deciding that this was the best route to get under his skin. Ace seemed to need Grace because of his mommy issues, but to me, that felt like he was using her worse than I was. "I would save Grace every time, and if you all had been in a bad place, I would have done everything I could to save you. WOULD YOU DO THE SAME?!"
I let out some of my anger with the last line because I was actually mad about this. I had trusted this prick with Chloe, but I think if they had been in our shoes, Ace would have left Chloe.
"What happened?!?" Grace asked as she rubbed her head and looked between Ace and me. "Did you two get in a fight?"
"No, but they want to go deeper into the wild! That was not the plan!" Ace complained, but even Grace gave him a strained look.
"Wasn't it you that talked about us hitting a wall? Do you think that it might be because we aren't trying to explore and find stronger monsters?" Grace asked as she narrowed her eyes at Ace, and he flinched back. This situation was pretty crazy, and at any moment, Ace could decide that he was done without shit, and I wouldn't be able to stop him, but there were factors that gave me the advantage over him.
"All I know is that we leave now," Ace said as he put the truck into drive and stepped on the gas, but I just sighed. This was getting us nowhere, so I placed a hand on his shoulder again.
"I think we need to talk about this," I said as I looked into his eyes, trying to appear calm. "If you are going to be our leader, then you need to listen to us when we have something important to say."
Ace looked like he wanted to argue with me, but he let out a long sigh and nodded his head. "Fine, but let's do it while we are driving so we can make some ground. I don't like just sitting here."
"Good, head north then. Going back isn't going to help you move forward, and this was the reason that you asked me to join you, right?" I asked, and he nodded his head.
"Yeah, I just didn't think that it would be this dangerous," Ace said as he turned the wheel and headed north like I had asked.
"Well, it is, but we can handle it," I said with a smirk, but then I grew serious again as I thought about what we were going to do next. "We need to find a place to make camp soon so we can plan our next move."
