"Ah thank you", Martin says to the boy before he proceeds to open the pack and inspect what is inside...

He finds all the equipment he lost overboard.

"Wow, this is all of the equipment that I lost. Thanks a lot, you've been a great help." Martin says to the guy, he then sits down next to Naru, lighting a cigarette and waiting for the bus...

"That is seriously lucky" says Naru. "We seem to be spending a lot of time waiting in this world. It's either boring or crazy whacked up action."

"Whatever" Martin takes another puff of his cigarette...

Naru leans back on the bench and gets a water bottle out of her bag to take a swig.

Martin slips off the bench for some unknown reason and accidentally cuts himself with his new assault rifle, leaving a nasty gash in his stomach.

"Shoot! Are you ok?" says Naru in surprise. "Take off your shirt so I can dress the wound"

"Fuck", Martin gets up and brushes himself off and fixes the wound, he sits back down and continues to smoke his cigarette, now and for always holding all of his weapons in a safe manner

The town continues around them, a man with a bucket walks past the group on his way to the well.

"I think someone has it in for you Martin." Naru says lazily. She begins to hum Dean Martin's song Watching the World Go By under her breath.

Martin decides to get up and look around until the bus comes, he follows the guy with the bucket from a distance and goes to check out the well while smoking his cigarette...

The man walks to the well and begins the arduous task of attaching the bucket and lowering it into the well.

Martin walks up to the well and looks down it, he then talks to the guy, "So, what's it like, living here in the desert in the middle of nowhere?"

The man stops lowering the bucket and turns to Martin.
"It's more than that. This land is more colourful than a jungle once you see the true beauty of it."

Martin laughs, "From what I've seen it doesn't look like much to me, what makes you say that?"

Naru gets up from the bench and wanders down the street, drinking in the village.

"It's hard to explain, but once you have been here a while, you really see past the sand to what lies beneath."

Martin is confused by the man's answer, "Hmm very well then, what have you heard of the war against Niac and Kasdeya?"

"Not much. We don't really pay attention to what happens outside of this town. None of it concerns us."

"Have a good day then", Martin leaves the man back to what he is doing and goes back to the bench and sits down it to relax, waiting for the bus to come...

After a long, long, LONG-ass wait, the bus finally pulls up in front of the bench. Some villagers disembark, and some others climb aboard.

"About time the bus got here", Martin says relieved. Martin gets up off the bench and looks around for Naru, seeing her down the street he waves to her and yells, "The bus is here, come and get on". Martin steps through the door and asks the driver, "Hello, we need to get to the Sun Mountain, where does this bus go exactly? We were told that the bus heads in that direction, but we're not sure if it actually goes there"

"Next stop IS Sun mountain. Dumbass villagers." replies the bus driver.

Martin looks at the driver annoyed and imagines impaling his head with his knife, he goes to grab his knife, but decides to leave it and heads into the back of the bus, wondering why its taking Naru so long to get on...