Chapter Sixteen - Ferris Wheel

"This... is not as exciting as I thought it would be," Crystal said.

She and Alice had arrived in the little amusement park behind city hall just a few minutes before it closed for the night. It took a little bit of sweet-talking, but the young man operating the ferris wheel agreed to let them on, though it wasn't going to be for a very long ride.

That was probably for the best, Alice wasn't overly fond of wasting time like this.

Then again... it reminded her a little of the best days. The others would often get on her case for spending too much time working. Alice had taken on the burden of being the team's de facto leader. It wasn't an actual position of any real authority. She considered herself an equal to the other girls.

It was just that the others, with a couple of exceptions, weren't overly fond of the more business-side of the magical girl life. They didn't want to deal with government bodies, oversight committees, and the press.

Yes, they were all very powerful individually, but they needed to rely on the governments of Earth for some things nonetheless.

Some of the others were helpful, at times. Happy Sparkles was fantastic with the media, Silenced Annihilation could do paperwork like a goddess, and Hypertense Breakpoint was great at negotiations, but the rest were only interested in the results of their hard work, not so much doing the work.

"Are you okay?" Crystal asked.

Alice sighed. "I'm fine, Crystal. Just thinking about work."

"You know, we're about as far from work as we can possibly be," Crystal said. "Heck, I doubt there's any paperwork left on Earth. Paper tends to burn easily, right?"

"I suppose," Alice agreed. All that time spent cultivating their reputation, creating contacts in various industries, shaking hands and kissing babies, all gone.

It actually felt like a bit of a weight lifted from her shoulders.

Who knew that the only thing that needed to happen for her to finally take a break was the end of the world? Alice chuckled darkly to herself, earning her a look from Crystal. "Just a silly thought," she said.

"Oh," Crystal said. "I get those. A lot, actually. Hmm, maybe mostly?"

Alice smiled slightly, and then looked out and over the city. The sun was setting on Pripyat, the darkness coming earlier thanks to the massive walls surrounding the entire city, but from the very top of the ferris wheel, they could see the sun's orange glow on the horizon still.

Then the wheel continued to turn, and they dipped into the darkness of the city at night.

The young man at the controls was a little nervous, but a hug from Crystal and her big thank-yous smoothed things over nicely. Then the two of them were off, though not with any kind of hurry.

They were meeting Koschei soon. Sure, they had a few hours to wait, but they could do that at the Last Resort easily enough.

"Do you think we should get some guns?" Crystal asked as she walked next to Alice.

"Do you know how to use a gun?" Alice asked.

"Uh. Point it at the thing you wanna shoot, pull the trigger?" Crystal said. "I mean, there are children soldiers out there, right? How hard can it be?"

"I... Crystal, I don't even know where to begin with that," Alice said.

The only reason they'd need firearms might be to fit in better. When it came to combat, they both had much better tools than mere guns. Magic, for one, was far more versatile and deadly than any gun, and both of them were quite capable in any close-quarters engagement.

Alice's sense of direction was decent enough to guide both of them back to the bar. They walked next to each other, bumping shoulders as they went until they arrived at the bar.

By then, it was well past late, but the place seemed just as active as when they were here earlier. A few patrons were at the bar, more were sitting around the tables minding their own, or chatting in little groups.

Someone had whipped out an acoustic guitar and was strumming away at something in the corner, accompanied by the scratchy noise of an old radio.

Alice wasn't sure how to describe the ambience of the place, but it wasn't all bad. A chill, quiet space where worn-out men could lower their guards just a little.

"One milk, please," Crystal said as she took a stool at the bar.

Alice sat next to her, then sighed. "Make it two," she replied.

The bartender looked between the two, then shook his head and headed back. He returned with two tall glasses of lukewarm milk. "Six hundred rubles," he said.

Alice locked eyes with him, then gestured to the table. "Here you go," she said.

The man blinked, then reached across the table, as if swiping away coins that weren't there. He nodded to them, then moved on to check up on his other customers.

"That was a little mean," Crystal whispered.

"I have the impression that six hundred rubles is a rip off for two glasses of milk," she said with a shrug. The bartender might be a few rubles short at the end of the day, but probably not that many. She eyed the price of a beer on the dirty signboard behind him and shrugged. If this place had any amount of tipping culture, then he'd be just fine.

"That's very rude," Crystal said, but she didn't sound all that chastising, more amused.

"We should find a way to make some money while we're here. Just enough to afford basic amenities like this," Alice said. She took a sip from the milk, then gagged. "Oh, this is... not good."

Crystal sniffed hers, then took a big swallow. "Hm, it's not so bad. I've put worse things in my mouth."

"Crystal," Alice said, exasperated. One day, if the stars aligned just right, Crystal might actually grow a brain-mouth filter.

Alice doubted if that day would ever come. In the meanwhile, Crystal would just have to get away with it by being cute enough that no one would suspect foul play.

"What are you two doing here?" someone asked from behind them.

Alice turned in her seat, milk in hand, to see that Koschei had come up behind them. He was surprisingly quiet. "We're waiting for when we need to head out," she said.

"That's not for a while," he replied. "Shouldn't you get some sleep?"

"Shouldn't you?" Crystal retorted.

Alice eyed the man up and down. He wasn't in the same clothes as before. The jacket and boots were the same, but the rest had been changed, though it was functionally similar. A shirt, some tough worker's pants in drab colours, a belt with a holster and that iron around his thigh. What she could see of his hair was matted down and wet too, as if he had just stepped out of the shower.

"I was planning on taking a rest while waiting for you two," he said.

"You can still do that," Crystal said. "We're... more or less patient."

He sighed, but shook his head. "We won't be going far if we take off at night, but in its own way it's a lot safer. Come, if you're ready to go now, then we might as well."

Alice glanced at Crystal who shrugged, and downed the rest of her milk.

"Is that... milk?" Koschei asked.

"Makes your bones strong," Crystal replied. "And it makes you grow big and tall."

Alice suspected that Crystal would have to drink a lot more milk, then.

"Right," Koschei said. "If you're ready to go now, then meet me out front in two minutes."

"Got it!" Crystal said with a happy thumb's up.

They both watched as the man stepped out and away, heading towards a side room and disappearing quickly enough. "I suppose we can wait outside," Alice said.

"Mhm! Hey, we're heading out early, isn't it a lot more exciting than staying indoors and waiting on nothing?"

"I suppose so," Alice said as she stood up from the stool and adjusted her jacket. She wasn't sure if she was one for the whole bar ambiance to begin with, so waiting outside was fine.

Koschei was a punctual sort of man, because he stepped out of the Last Resort with ten seconds to spare. "Come on," he said as he walked right past them. Alice idly noticed that he now had an assault rifle on a sling bumping against his hip, and the holster on his other side had a handgun stuffed into it now. Somehow, despite the modern weaponry, he struck her more of a hunter than a soldier.

"So, where to?" Crystal asked.

"We're slipping out of the city first. Then we'll be heading to a nice, quiet spot in the zone, one where we can stay until the sun rises."

***