Black Market Merchant

Leaving that interesting dockside meeting with Olivia, Lisa decided that she would checkout what was being kept in the storage units right away. There were many possible ideas bouncing around in her head as to what it could be. Though it all depended on who those people were that are using the units.

"Smuggled products, contraband, stolen things from citizens or maybe the gangsters weapons supply line? Drugs? Saul had drugs on him and there was mention of a factory. I hope that that is not all that is in there." Lisa thought while walking with excited strides. "Drugs are easy to sell, but it's the ethics that I don't agree with. They ruin lives and I don't want anything to do with ruining life like that. If I were to end or ruin a life a fair fight is the best way, that way they would also have the chance to do the same to me. Drugs just end up leaving everyone a soulless husk."

"It probably is drugs though." Lisa surmised rounding the next corner to see the red roofed storage units sprawled out on the rising hill. From this angle she couldn't see any other person nearby, nor her crew working on the opposite end of the units. "Perfect. Now let's see… they said those sketchy people were around there."

Lisa stopped in front of unit number 29 M. It looked completely normal compared with the other units. All except for the locks. In fact, there were three fist sized key locks attached to three dead bolts. One bolt lock was on each side of the door and one at the bottom center. The fact that there was such tight security compared to the other units made it too obvious. Yet there was no easy way getting past these without leaving traces of her tampering with them. If the contents inside was indeed something worthwhile, it would be wise not to tip off the owners that its location was discovered.

Lisa then looked for any other way inside the unit that would be less conspicuous and found that along the right side of unit 29 M at the passageway running between it and 30 M, there was a side door. Lady Luck smiled on her again, this side entrance looked unused by those sketchy people. This was due to the lack of footprints in the sand that the wind had piled up by the door and the long dead body of some unlucky person was crumpled in a fetal position at the foot of the door. Coming up to the side door and gingerly stepping over the body, Lisa was pleased to see that it had just a single simple door lock on it.

"I should be able to pick this one." Lisa murmured while slipping off her coffin. Unlocking her coffin and still talking to herself, Lisa searched for any small picks she might still have tucked away in her box of electronic parts. "If I can break in here without a trace, then those sketchy guys won't be on the lookout for me. Also, if they are sure everything is fine, I can stake them out and figure out where they are getting the goods from. Then I can work out the details from there."

Finding a suitable tool, Lisa went to work on the lock. Gently she prodded the locks mechanism to push up on the pins to unlock the door. She hovered her ear closely to the lock listening to any indication that the pins were being pressed upward and staying in place. After two minutes of fiddling, Lisa heard the gratifying 'Click' of the lock turning.

"Whew, I'm getting rusty. Probably haven't done that in two hundred years." Lisa then chuckled at her own joke.

Putting the pick tool away and closing her coffin, Lisa grabbed rusting the handle firmly. "Now, please let these items be something good!" Pushing in, Lisa entered the unit.

Naturally, it was dark inside. Probably the only light provided would have been the sun light coming from the main doorway. It was no wonder that the sketchy people were doing their work in broad daylight.

Lisa couldn't see anything for several seconds while her eyes adjusted to the minimal light coming in from the small side door. During that time, she thought of something. "If they have to come here during the day, does that mean that whatever is stored here might be flammable? Oh, please let it be ammo or guns!"

She took a deep breath through her nose. Sure enough, there was no smoke smell. Only the smell of dry stale air and dust. Unfortunately, there was also no smell of gunpowder either. By now her eyes had nearly adjusted to the darkness and she could make out a large, orderly pile of boxes near her. Carefully stepping towards it, Lisa reached up and plucked off the topmost cardboard box.

Interestingly enough the box was heavier than she would have guessed. A good sign. Then turning to face the sun light spilling through the dusty doorway rays, Lisa looked at a label on the top of the box. It said: Serum XXI, shipping to Moab City, Silver Block. On the lid was also a stamp of the Mad Dogs' snarling wolf.

"So, the gangsters are responsible for these boxes. This makes things a little bit easier for me. Let's have a look." Lisa said wetting her dry lips in anticipation.

Taking a finger, she easily broke the tape and lifted the flaps. Inside was a layer of Styrofoam acting as motion buffer. Carefully lifting the Styrofoam lid, Lisa revealed its contents and was delighted. There were forty vials of a pale red liquid all carefully packed and separated by an additional layer of Styrofoam designed in a grid like formation.

Tentatively Lisa picked up one of the glass vials carefully to look at it in the light. The pale red color floating around inside reminded her of watered-down blood. There was nothing else inside this box that could further aid her in figuring out what these vials of Serum XXI were. Then she turned around and grabbed another box, opened it, and found that it carried the exact same Serum as before.

"Looks like I am going to have to stakeout the unit and find out from those guys after all." Lisa said putting the curious vial back into the box. "I also better put these back where I got them. Don't want to make things look suspicious."

Lisa, once finished up looking around in the darkness and finding nothing else worth investigating, relocked the door from the inside and left the unit. Before leaving, Lisa made sure to smooth out her tracks in the sand with some dry grass, never can one be too careful. She then headed straight to where her crew was probably still working. Crossing the storage unit’s grounds, she found they indeed were still there. Coming closer, Lisa saw that they had found more clothes, but nothing else seemed added to the boat trailer now turned cart.

"Hey guys. I am back!" Lisa called out.

"That was faster than I thought." Eva called back putting a pile of empty plastic bins down. "We haven't done much sense you left."

"That's fine. How much daytime do we have left?" Lisa asked looking towards the mountain. There was at least a palms width of time before the sun reached the mountains top.

"What do you have in mind?" Henry asked as he and the others came out from the unit each carrying more articles of clothing, jeans, and shorts to be exact.

"Well, we need food badly. I am sure you guys are as hungry as I am." Lisa replied.

"Starving." Tayvon said patting his stomach. Then as if to emphasize the fact, his stomach gurgled violently.

"Thought so." Lisa answered giving a chuckle while looking at the piles of clothes. "Wayne, you and two others try trading for food with the cloths we can't use. Then come back by darkness's arrival or if you get rid of everything you take."

"Already on it, boss." Wayne replied. "That pile on the right is already piled with stuff too small or baggy for us."

"Good." Lisa said nodding with satisfaction. "I'll pull the cart back and I want whoever comes with me to start preparing the net. I want to try catching at least one fish from the river. Maybe we can get lucky and have enough to share with Gillian and the others working on the road. I am sure they would appreciate the extra supplies."

Once everyone was set, they split up once again and went on to carry out their orders. Wayne went with Eva and Henry to trade clothes, while Tayvon and Willis followed after Lisa. As the two young men looked over the net, they couldn't help but voice their disapproval of the idea for fishing to Lisa.

"Are we sure this is worth the trouble boss?" Willis asked walking alongside the trailer and picking at the net. "There's never been anyone successful enough catching fish. Won't we be wasting our time?"

"Besides, my momma said that those fish probably got radiation in them and aren't safe to eat." Tayvon added.

"I can't rule out the radiation, but the river water we drink probably has radiation in it anyway. If that hasn't killed us yet, then we should be just fine for now." Lisa answered as they started up the steep hill towards the dam. "As for how the fishing goes, we can try at the foot of the dam first. Like you two guessed we might not get anything, just like everyone before us. But what about above the dam? I've noticed that no one ever goes up to the lake. Fish probably haven't been in disturbed for years and are plentiful."

"Perhaps." Tayvon replied rubbing his chin. "I can't even recall the last time I had fish anyway. Better be good."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? That lake might be haunted." Willis said tucking the partially prepared net back in the box.

"What, haunted?" Lisa said looking at him curiously. "What makes you say that?"

"Rumors have it that the lake is guarded by a ghostly creature that has been patrolling the shores for decades. A shadowy being that stalks anyone that ventured into its forest near the lake side, guarding it adamantly for some reason. No one has seen it directly, but a few foragers and hunters claimed to have been struck from behind only to turn and see nothing was there. Others have been scratched on their heads or cheeks, only to keep seeing nothing around them. All the oldies on our side of the river have told us this story since were kids." Willis answered as they reached the car wall, and he unlocked the door for Lisa.

Lisa pulled the trailer the rest of the way inside and laughed a bit. "That's just silly. I have been at this dam for a while now and I haven't seen anything like that. Probably just a legend made up around a campfire."

"I hope so." Willis said giving a shrug. "However, if that ghost shows up I will be out of there in no time!"

"In any case, unlike ghosts, we still need to eat. So, we are going to fish the lake eventually anyway." Lisa said coming to a stop outside the powerhouse building. "Let's unload all this stuff we are going to keep and get this trailer put way in the Powerhouse buildings forklift garage. I think we should head on down to the foot of the dam before it gets to dark and try there first. I wanna eat some good meat, so let hurry!"