CYPHER

Your hands in the air

The map was finally ready and they all stared at it , admiring Blade's penmanship .

Blade had left out all of the places that they had no idea about, marking them with a large X.

The area for the shopping mall was not centered in particular because they had been unable to figure out the exact location of it but at least they knew the area around it .

When they got there , they could begin their search for it .

Jade finally broke the silence that had first stemmed from their awe of Blade's work .

" When do we leave ? At night ? "

Blade turned towards Jade and scoffed like Jade had said something completely unimaginable .

" Why would we go there at night ? "

" It is best if we leave right now considering that the longer we stay away , the less food there is going to be there ".

Jade turned to Dean , Blade turned to .

" What do you think , Dean ? "

Dean thought for a brief moment before opening his eyes to regard them , they were both looking at him like he was here to settle a land dispute .

Dean rolled his eyes at them before answering .

" There is a high chance that we will have to encounter Steels there , we know how to kill them in the daylight like we have always done but we have no idea how they behave at night . Going in the night might be a bigger disadvantage for us than the steels themselves ".

Blade nodded thoughtfully while Jade blew out a frustrated breath before he went over to his sack and pulled it over just as Dean was about to head back into the room .

" Since you are making me go there during the day , I might as well go prepared ".

Dean stopped moving when he saw Jade's sack being brought over .

He had been so curious of its content since earlier today but he had been unable to say anything at that moment since they had been really busy with their other issues .

He watched from the corner of his eyes as Jade took hold of the sack and began to untie it with Blade also leaning in to see what the sack contained too .

He finally finished untying it and Dean and Blade almost fell over as they watched for whatever it was that was inside the sack .

Jade slowly pulled out a black bottle that was filled with some kind of liquid , he placed the bottle on the ground and put his hand into the sack again , this time around , he pulled out a rifle that had to be military grade .

Blade rushed over and grabbed the gun out of Jade's hands , surprising both Dean and Jade.

He flipped the gun over, checking it before he lifted his face to look at Jade again , this time he was sporting a look of disbelief .

" You were carrying around a loaded machine gun all this while in that bumpy sack ? "

" Did you even think that it could have gone off and killed us all ?!? "

Jade did not look like he was aware that the rifle could have gone off on its own , he was staring at Blade in bewilderment , his hands shaking .

Dean moved between them and faced Blade , he held his hand out for the rifle Blade was holding fiercely .

" Blade , take a breather . We both know he was not aware of the dangers of carrying that around ".

Blade sighed and nodded , acknowledging what Dean had said ,he handed the rifle over to Dean and took a step back .

" Get all your stuff that you would need ,we are heading to the shopping mall in a few minutes ".

Blade smiled , all the thoughts of the rifle suddenly being filtered .

" Yes , we should head to the mall now . I will go get my greens ready ".

With that , he ran up the stairs leaving Dean and Jade alone .

Dean turned around to face Jade who still looked quite shocked by Blade's outburst .

If Dean did not think it was rude , he would have been quizzing Jade on the reason he was here when he could not even handle being yelled at .

Dean lifted his chin and surveyed his face while Jade looked anywhere but at him .

" Why did you bring it along ? "

Jade wiped his face hurriedly even though Dean had already noticed the sheen that dotted his eyes .

" I saw it back at the Arena when I was looking for space for May to be treated and then I remembered how I was the liability here . I thought if I carried something like that , I would make things easier for you guys ".

Dean closed his eyes and counted till five , honestly , he was begining to think everyone acted like a variation of Jay .

" You know , being a liability here won't matter in a few days , it could even be today ".

Jade's eyes cleared as he tried to make sense of what Dean was saying .

" What I am saying in essence is that , you might die today . Here , the little things like worrying about what other people think of you does not matter . I will keep this , you can have my pistol ".

Dean bent to reach for his kevlar vest before he walked past Jade , swinging the rifle around .

May was sound asleep , so he carefully dressed up and emptied his backpack , leaving just a bottle of water in it .

He looked at May one last time before leaving the room with his pistol , the backpack containing only a bottle of water and the rifle .

Jade was standing where he had left him but the black bottle was gone which meant that he had left and returned , he was also wearing a kevlar vest that Dean had not seen before .

He looked like a soldier ready to take orders , Dean nodded in appreciation and gave the pistol to him .

He watched him secure it on his waist before they descended from the altar to meet Blade who was hopping down the stairs .

Dean shook his head and headed to the door , he could now open it on his own , it seemed that the door had been hard to open previously because it had not been used In a while .

Dean looked outside first before stepping out , followed closely by Jade and then Blade , who pulled the doors closed .

Dean waited for Blade to take the lead which he did after opening the sheet of paper he had drawn the map on .

He studied for a second before turning to the north .

" This way ".

They began to walk with their eyes peeled for any signs of danger , it was dawn and the sun was not even properly out , this was the time that a lot of people probably went in search of food .

Dean had somehow ended up behind them and turned around occasionally to look around them .

Even Jade had secured a very defensive pose with his hands resting on the pistol , he looked like he was cosplaying .

They had walked in plain sight for almost ten minutes when Dean felt the chill that crawled up his spine , someone was watching them .

Dean did not immediately turn around to search for where they were being watched from instead he cleared his throat .

" Don't turn around and just listen to me ".

They stilled for a second before quickly adhering to his instructions .

" There is someone watching and following us , I can't tell how many of them but they have been at it for over five minutes now. They are coming from my left ".

Jade and Blade were silent before Blade cleared his throat too , his gruff voice lowering into a whisper .

" We are going to make a right pretty soon, since they are not pretty close and don't know that we've caught on to them , we hide as soon as we make the right and just wait for them to show ".

They didn't talk anymore and just focused on making the turn .

They were still being followed as they turned into the street by the right .

Blade immediately made a break for it while Dean and Jade followed him as he ran past several houses and Into the opened garage of one of the houses.

There was a truck parked in the garage and they hurried Into the cargo bed of the truck , pulling Jade into it .

They laid flat and waited , peeking through the sides that were not completely covered .

The street remained quiet until Dean spotted movement coming up the street .

They walked closer and Dean could make out three people ,he concluded that they were not dangerous .

If they were , they would have realized Blade's stupid plan and not exposed theirselves so easily .

He still waited though , Incase there were others in their group waiting behind or moving slower .

When he realized that no more people were coming , He turned over to Blade and whispered for Blade to let him handle it .

Dean crept out of the truck and out of the garage , his rifle focused on them all the while .

He walked between houses until he was behind them .

" Put your weapons down without turning around ".

All of their hands flew up making Dean realized that he had forgotten the most important phrase , " Hands where I can see them ".