Mission: City of Fallen Angels || Hawkeye II, Agent Hummingbird, Beast & Iceman
[20:34:57 – ETA TO DELIVERY SITE 5 HOURS 25 MINUTES]
A nondescript, older model freight truck of European origin (like so many others in the country) clattered along the La Union Expressway, kicking up dirt that had been washed into the cracked, ridged surface of freshly paved (yet poorly constructed) highway. Two men sat in the cab of the truck, detached from the rest of the vehicle and whatever cargo they were carrying in the back. It was dark, the night sky awash with pinprick stars and the dusty remnants of newborn planets that swirled about in the Milky Way galaxy, sadly visible only to the more remote regions on the blue planet, now. The men were uninterested in the cosmic beauty, instead focused on the road ahead, their ears attuned to the rattling metal freight compartment behind them.
The shipment was worth a lot of money. Not necessarily to them, they were merely hired hands, but any complications or lateness on their part would most surely result in their execution. Swift and brutal, their boss. He would meet them in Angeles City, their destination, to oversee the transaction. There was no other entity on Earth like Angeles City, a city built up on the dependence of another nation and that nation’s freedom fighters dependence on their own subsequent vices; the grids of its rectilinear logic had been decided by the people that moved and lived inside it. Built on the ashes of a volcanic eruption and shaped by the sin that dwelled between the half-constructed condos, colonial hotels, and elaborate churches, the city was truly a different breed. The people that lived there were tough- hardened by the yearly typhoons that moved in from the east, the constant awareness of the volcanic mountain that loomed over the metropolis, and the ever-present threat of violent gangs and the kidnappings that they endorsed.
[21:26:21 – ETA TO DELIVERY SITE 4 HOURS 34 MINUTES]
As they neared the city, its high-pressure sodium lamps glittering in the distance and encroaching on the universe’s magnificence above. Electricity and telephone wires began appearing in larger numbers, crisscrossing over the asphalt and slashing across the sky like thick black pen strokes. Somewhere along the line, the conveniences of the modern world had become more important than the beauty of the land. The man in the passenger seat turned, speaking in a rapid-fire mix of Filipino and English, indicating the approaching petrol station and his need to stop. They could use some fuel after nearly five hours on the road and almost just as many left in their trip. The truck was eased off of the highway onto a packed dirt byway that lead to the fuel station, the motor rumbling and sputtering in protest at the change in velocity. They stopped, the man in the passenger seat hopping out and stretching for a moment before heading toward the desolate-looking outhouses that lined the edge of the dirt parking lot.
The driver got out as well, lingering near the door momentarily as he unintelligently lit a cigarette. After a few puffs, he meandered to the rear of the vehicle, hopping up on the ledge that was longer to aid in loading and unloading. He fumbled for a moment with the lock with the cigarette bobbing between his lips, the reddish glow of the ember the only light illuminating his sagging features. In one swift movement he flung the truck’s tailgate open, only for whatever was inside to collective flinch away from the sound. Forty children stared, eyes reddened and swollen and glittering in the darkness. Silence, only the smallest of whimpers coming from the back, where the younger children were shielded by the ones older (although the difference in age was nearly negligible). He leered at them, catching the cigarette between his yellowed teeth as his lips stretched taught into a vicious smile. After a quick head count, he slammed the door shut again, catching the lock and checking it twice before meeting his partner at the front of the truck, crossing paths through the high beams as they switched sides.
As the truck sputtered up again and rumbled from the petrol station without anyone to confirm that they’d even been there, only the red, incessant blinking of a tracking device’s light could be seen as the vehicle continued on its ill-fated trek.
[21:54:32 ETA TO DELIVERY SITE 4 HOURS 12 MINUTES]
[ooc: ok the driver & his partner can be NPCs and should be treated as such, also the boss and whatever children they interact with. the end]
