Boundless Wilds

Boundless Wilds

Beyond Here

Characters
Aosta Broca Chiave Jaye Merchant Rhodes Island Operator Bandit Leader Bandit
Backgrounds
1 2

“

In the wilderness of the Siracusan midwest, three young men, freshly escaped from the city and driving a stolen car, embark on a new journey.

”

<Background 1>
On the endless barrens, a red-haired Vulpo man squats on the ground, concentrating hard on something. Not far behind him is a car, undergoing inspection from a Lupo with white hair and a Feline in black. The three of them seem like companions, and their ride, broken down.
[The red-haired Vulpo (Chiave) calls for the white-haired Lupo (Aosta).]
Chiave	Hey, Aosta, come over here.
Aosta	What?
Chiave	Look at these bugs. See what they're doing? All walking in a line. And their group's pretty long too. Let me see where they're heading.
Aosta	Looks like you're charged back up.
Chiave	Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better now!
Aosta	I don't put too much stock in your own self-reports, though.
Chiave	What are you, my mamma?!
Aosta	You were coughing blood half an hour ago.
Chiave	Ha ha, but I'm not now. Ah, shit. I spent too long talking to you and now the bugs are gone.
Aosta	Forget it. I'm going back to fix the car again.
Chiave	Hey, have you guys figured out what's wrong with the car yet? Want me to come help?
Aosta	The tubing's busted in places. The engine won't start. Me and Broca can deal with it. Just stay in one place, okay.
Chiave	Not like I've got anywhere to go. There's nothing out here, and nowhere to run to.
<Background fades out and in>
Following a rumble, the engine comes to life again.
Aosta	Phew... Broca, go and call Chiave back here.
Broca	Alright.
[Broca, the black-haired Feline, goes to get Chiave.]
<Background fades out and in>
Chiave	Yo, Broca, why don't we see who can piss farther!
Broca	My bladder is empty.
Aosta	You don't give him straight answers to these, Broca.
Chiave	Damn, that's a shame! This is perfect weather to piss to!
Aosta	Aside from polar wastes, I don't think there's any weather bad for p... for relieving yourself.
Chiave	You just don't get it, Aosta. It's all about a feeling! Ah, a perfect arc—che cazzo!
Aosta	What's wrong?
Chiave	The wind just blew my perfect arc onto my shoes! Tch, what a bummer.
Aosta	Just leave it, we're gonna go. If we can't find a rendezvous before sundown, we'll have to sleep out on the barrens tonight.
Chiave	What's wrong with the barrens? Look at it this way, I've never been camping before! Let's camp out today!
Aosta	The barrens are a death trap, and realistically speaking, this jacked ride doesn't even have any camping equipment in it. Our only place to sleep is inside. Also, fuel is another problem.
Chiave	Cheh. The last owner just didn't get it.
Aosta	I don't think the average city car owner would have any camping stuff prepared, let alone additional fuel.
Chiave	Who knows if one day someone'll borrow your car to go camping, eh? It doesn't hurt to prepare!
Aosta	And would you?
Chiave	Eh... no.
Aosta	Then shut up and get ready to leave.
Chiave	Aight.
<Background fades out and in>
Broca	Are we off now?
Aosta	Mm-hm. Let me drive.
Chiave	Whaaat? Isn't it my turn?
Aosta	You just relax.
Chiave	Aosta, you know something? You get more and more like a mamma every day.
Aosta	......
Chiave	Hey, Broca, you get where I'm coming from?
Broca	A little.
Aosta	It's because both of you have Oripathy. I hear good life habits help keep illness in check. You should go to bed earlier every day, Chiave.
Chiave	God, y'know, Aosta? My own mamma never told me that.
Aosta	Sticazzi... just shut up.
Aosta says as he starts the engine.
Chiave	What's some good tunes to put on... *Clicks tongue* Respect to the owner, they listened to a lot... Ah-ha, I like the look of this sleeve. Put this on!
Chiave inserts his newfound record disc into the car's hi-fi system, and lively music bursts from the speakers— "♪Saturday's coming, wanna ride my beast far" "♪To your apartment with a present like a star"
Chiave	(Whistle) Not bad.
Aosta	For sure. Okay, on we go.
[The trio's car drives off.]
<Background fades out and in>
[While driving the car...]
Chiave	By the way, Aosta.
Aosta	Mm?
Chiave	Where are we heading right now?
Aosta	I should've answered this before we set off.
Chiave	I forgot.
Aosta	I bet you weren't even listening in the first place. I nabbed a map while were slipping out. For now, we're heading towards Locomotiva City, since it's closest. They've taken a rocky road with our family. As long as we're lucky, we can join up with them. If not, at least we have somewhere to stop over.
Chiave	Hey, I used to hear about this weird village in the west of Siracusa. It was all haunted inside. Let's go take a look.
Aosta	Keep dreaming. We don't even know where it is. You don't even know if someone just made that up.
Chiave	Then how about we go see a city one of the other Twelve Families runs? Hey, y'know, the Sicilia Legale counts as one of the Thirteen Families, but they fight each other plenty. Some alliance, hah!
Aosta	The Sicilia Legale don't organize like all the actual Families. After all, it's made up of tons of families, big and small. Nobody from the big Families would give a shit about our Sicilia Legale nobodies.
Chiave	Pff. They'll come begging for me to join them one day, no doubt about it.
Aosta	In any case, there's no heading back to Vite City for now... no, maybe we can never return. And we've offended the Trin Famiglia. We've got no place in Vite anymore.
Chiave	Ha ha. We caused a shitstorm, after all. I kinda wanna see my old capo Layton. *Hack*—*spit*! See what his stupid face looks like right now.
Aosta	For sure.
Chiave	Ha. Too late for regrets at this point.
Aosta	Regrets... I wouldn't go that far. Layton was a real son of a bitch, after all. Sold us out and still wanted us to count his money. Wasn't happening.
Broca	Mm-hm. No regrets here either.
Chiave	Hey, take your mind off it. Look, there's still some families who treat coming out of jail for the first time like an initiation, and you're not a real member until then. And yesterday, we defied our Family and hightailed it out of the city. So I now declare, you are true members of my Chiave Famiglia! Aosta, you're the family's consigliere!
Aosta	Haha.
Chiave	Broca, you're the family's underboss!
Broca	Heh.
<Background fades out>
"♪But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell—" "♪You don't know—" "♪You don't know you're disgusting!"
<Background fades in>
Chiave	By the way, we've been driving for ages without seeing a single guy, eh.
Aosta	Apart from a couple gathering spots and settlements, there wouldn't be any lone travelers outside the cities in the first place. Because there's a few families who couldn't stick it in the cities and spread out to the barrens to wreck shop. I've been with the family's caravans a few times before, and every time we'd make the right preparations. Anyone like us, running off into the wild without a second of prep? Probably cruising down Death Road.
Chiave	Ha, Death Road. I like that. But yeah, back in the garage, I saw plenty of guys prepping themselves a hell of a lot of stuff to head out with. Egh, if we coulda brought a little more to eat when we escaped, that woulda been good. Aosta—
Aosta	Forget about the food in the trunk. That's for emergencies.
Chiave	Tch.
Aosta	I'll take the fact we escaped at all. If we weren't lucky enough to have Mandel on guard that night, we'd probably be tied to chairs blindfolded in a dark closet right about now.
Chiave	Broca, next time something like this happens, remind me to bring more food.
Broca	Alright.
Aosta	You... whatever.
Chiave	Man, this is boring, though. All this land forever and no way to use it. Look, over here, we could set up a garage THIIIIIIIIS big, and then we could pimp rides inside. Wouldn't that rule?
Aosta	And what about Catastrophes? We'd have no way to stand up to one.
Chiave	Egh. Catastrophes, Oripathy—nothing's ever good in this whole stretch of world. Broca, I'm begging you, you got ANYTHING interesting?
Broca	Want to take a look?
Chiave	What's this?
Broca	A book I just finished reading.
Chiave	About what?
Broca	A novel about a pair of lovers who were broken apart in the end due to the conflict between their two families. The ending is very moving.
Chiave	Forget it. Whaddaya even doing bringing that kinda book?
Broca	Because Aosta said the journey would be incredibly boring.
Chiave	Yo, Broca, I've been pretty curious for a while now. You like reading those?
Broca	Not "like" like. I just read them when I have nothing else to do. They're alright.
Chiave	I gotcha. Yo, that reminds me, Aosta, you ever get a girlfriend before?
Aosta	No.
Chiave	You, Broca?
Broca	No.
Chiave	Pfft. Me neither. I don't get what's so fun about dating. Hey, Aosta, I'm guessing you like that kinda book too?
Aosta	I prefer political and historical titles more.
Chiave	Tch, I shouldn'ta asked. Those two words make me fall asleep.
<Background fades out>
"♪She played mouth harp in a Victorian band," "♪But she fell in love with a Columbian man."
<Background fades in>
Chiave	Yo, can something just happen already—huh? Hey, Aosta, look over there.
Aosta	That's...
<Background fades out and in>
Merchant	I'm begging you, my mother's growing old and my children need me...
Bandit Leader	Outta my face. I'm feeding my old and my young just the same. Now be nice and shut up. You piss me off and I'll open you a few new breathing holes!
Merchant	*whimper*...
<Background fades out and in>
Chiave	Hey, Aosta, Broca, I've got an idea.
Aosta	Don't tell me you wanna play robbers with them.
Chiave	Eh? I'm saying we scare the robbers the hell outta here, and then we ask these merchant guys for some supplies. How about it? Yo, but your idea's not bad either.
Aosta	No. Actually, let's go with your plan.
Chiave	For sure?
Aosta	For sure. And if they don't cough up the goods, we just have to make them.
Chiave	I like it! C'mon, full speed ahead, let's knock those morons into next week! Broca, get ready to fight!
Broca	Alright.
[The trio floors their car right into the bandits.]
Bandit A	Hey, look over there!
Bandit Leader	What?!
<Background fades out and in>
[Chiave forces his way out of the car...]
Chiave	Ha! Get down!
[...before fighting one of the bandits...]
Bandit B	Hmph!
[...eventually knocking him out cold as Aosta gets to the merchant's side.]
Chiave	Tch.
Aosta	(Whisper) I'll give you an opportunity. You take it...
Merchant	(Whisper) Got it, got it.
Aosta	Also, Broca, you...
Broca	Alright. I'll do my best.
Bandit A	What're you mumbling about over there!?
Broca	!
Bandit Leader	Out!
[The bandits attack Broca, who easily withstands them.]
Bandit Leader	Tch. You're a pretty tough guy. All of you, over here! Deal with him!
Bandit C	Got it!
Broca	Hmph!
Aosta	......
[Aosta runs off...]
Bandit B	Hey, pretty boy, where you going!?
[...only to be forced into fighting one of the bandits.]
Aosta	Now!
Merchant	Right, right!
<Background fades out>
With Aosta acting as bait, the bandits have momentarily overlooked the merchants' presence, and on Aosta's signal to seize this chance, they jump aboard the car. After that, following a fit of rumbling, the car vanishes into the dirt and dust.
<Background fades in>
[The merchant's car flees the scene, much to the bandits' anger.]
Bandit Leader	Cazzo, you three sons of bitches!!!
Chiave	Wait, what about our supplies now?
Aosta	Just stay alive!
As the merchants draw the bandits' attention, Aosta jumps aboard the gang's own ride and revs the engine up.
Aosta	Chiave, get on!
Chiave	Yeah!
Without waiting for Chiave's response, Aosta first drives the car straight into the throng of bandits. But Chiave's known how things roll for forever now, and after dodging two guys, he grabs onto the door handle while the ride's still accelerating, and clambers aboard.
Bandit A	You're not getting away!
Aosta	Broca!
Broca	Here!
Broca brandishes a drill bit out of nowhere at the bandits to push them off, and the moment the car passes him, Aosta putting pedal to the metal, he turns and jumps inside.
Aosta	Hold on tight!
Bandit Leader	Tch! Don't let 'em get away!
<Background fades out>
The bandits attempt to stop the three's car, but stopping a vehicle that's already going ain't easy. Their ride breaks out of the bandits' encirclement without a hitch, and races towards the horizon.
Bandit Leader	What are you doing staring at them?! You, you, and you, pursue the merchants! The rest of you, after those three assholes! They WILL die in this wasteland today, you hear me!?
Bandits	Got it!
<Background fades in>
Chiave	Whoaaaa, Aosta, look, they're catching up to us!
Aosta	I know! Fasten your seatbelts, I'm shifting this thing up!
<Background fades out>
"♪Con las manos arriba, cintura sola" "♪Da media vuelta y sacude duro" "♪No te quites ahora, que esto solo empieza"
<Background fades in>
Even as Aosta takes it to the redline, the bandits bite ever closer at their heels.
Chiave	These jokers just don't give up, ha—*cough* *cough*.
Aosta	Chiave, don't stick your head out at them. Close the window.
Chiave	What—did—you—say? I can't hear you over the wind!
Aosta	Broca, pull him back in.
Broca	Alright.
Chiave	*cough* *cough* *hack* *cough*—What the hell are you doing?!
Broca	Aosta told you not to stick your head out.
Aosta	Chiave, what's wrong? What's the coughing for?
Chiave	I don't know. Probably caught too much wind in my mouth?
Aosta	Hopefully that's it. I have good news and bad news. Which do you wanna hear?
Chiave	Bad news first.
Aosta	We're almost out of fuel.
Chiave	Ha. What's the good news, then?
Aosta	The good news is, it looks like we can shake them off before we run empty.
<Background fades out and in>
Chiave	Whoa, I can see the wall of a nomadic city from here!
Aosta	Yep, that should be Locomotiva City now.
Chiave	Yo, doesn't look half bad. It's got more style than old Vite—*cough* *cough*.
Aosta	Seriously, Chiave, are you okay?
Chiave	I'm okay, I'm okay.
Aosta	Then you're gonna help push the car with us. It looks real close, but if that's where we're going, we're not gonna make it today.
Chiave	The car's out of fuel, c'mon. What are we still doing with it? It's gonna be faster just to walk.
Aosta	There's actually still just a little fuel left. I'm leaving it for either when we get close, or when they catch up to us. Also, this is the most valuable thing we have right now. Are you seriously gonna go into a city with empty pockets and try to make a living?
Chiave	(Whistle) Fine.
Even as his face says he couldn't care less, Chiave still wanders over to one corner of the car, and starts pushing it with the other two.
Chiave	Hey, Aosta, I can turn the stereo on for some tunes, right? Not like it'll waste much fuel.
Aosta	...You can have that.
Chiave	Awwrighty, ha, lemme see—let's put this one on now!
"♪Hello, brightness, my old friend" "♪I've come to talk with you again"
Chiave	—Tch, this song doesn't get me pumped at all.
Aosta	I think it's pretty nice to listen to.
Broca	Same here.
Chiave	Fine, you both like it anyway. This works.
<Background fades out and in>
Chiave	Yo, say, Aosta, you remember how we met each other, right.
Aosta	Hm? Yeah. You were still a mechanic at the time, and then you beat the shit out of my family's people. I got sent in to clean you up.
Chiave	Ha, and then us two fought, and then we were best friends forever.
Aosta	Heh.
Chiave	*cough* *cough* *cough*.
Aosta	Hey.
Chiave	I'm fine. Broca? You still remember?
Broca	Of course. I'll never forget. You two saved me.
Chiave	Ha ha, damn right. You really were a goddamn lunk, getting sold out by your family without even realizing. But rest assured. I'll never deal you away.
Broca	Mm.
Aosta	...Tinkinh about it, we really have known each other for a while now.
Chiave	Sure have—*cough* *cough*.
Aosta	Chiave, I'm vetoing you. Just rest in the car, no acting strong. Me and Broca can push just fine.
Chiave	Hmph. I'm not acting strong. Broca, I think we both got Oripathy together, right?
Broca	I don't know.
Aosta	I think probably not. You just got examined at roughly the same time. Broca's should be from that time with the fire, where someone gashed him with that Originium thing. And as for you, you never normally protect yourself against anything. I wouldn't be surprised no matter when you got it.
Chiave	Yeah, yeah, yeah. *cough* *cough* Aosta, you spend the whole time with us, and you're gonna get it too one day.
Aosta	Perhaps. But even if I do, something tells me it won't be that bad.
Chiave	Eh? Why's that?
Aosta	It'll be better than me watching you two suffer.
Chiave	Ha ha ha, now that's my good brother right there.
Aosta	You've been talking endless crap today. Just lie down inside and relax yourself.
Chiave	*cough* *cough*. Aosta, I've decided what's going top of the list of things I hate.
Aosta	What is it?
Chiave	It's Oripathy.
Aosta	Broca, carry Chiave into the car.
Broca	Alright.
Broca, taciturn the whole journey through, goes over as he's told and picks Chiave up in his arms, putting him into the car's back seat, before moving right back to his original position and continuing to push the car. As Chiave lies on the back seat, he's dazzled by the sunlight, and he brings up his arm to shield his eyes.
Chiave	Heh. We got this disease, and that asshole Layton threw us out like we were disposable 'cause of it. Hated me to the point it got hard to even breathe. Aosta, the day we become heads of the Thirteen Families, I'm gonna find some way of settling this Oripathy thing, once and for all.
Aosta	Mm-hm. When the time comes, we'll get a whole taskforce of doctors just to research the disease. Or maybe those real mighty hospitals. Give them some cash and get them studying.
Chiave	Ha, damn right. And then I'm gonna set up this whole big hospital. Gonna find every single guy the world hated 'cause of their disease, and I'm gonna throw 'em all in there and cure 'em. And I'll clean up every single person who hated 'em.
Broca	I'll help you out.
Chiave	Ha, of course you gotta. Aosta, you too. Don't forget, you two are my consigliere and underboss.
Aosta	Mm. Chiave, you'd best stop talking now. Just rest nice and easy.
Chiave	*cough* *cough*... Hey, Aosta.
Aosta	What is it?
Chiave	What do you think about dying out here on the barrens?
Aosta	Huh? What are you talking about. Weren't you gonna be head of the Thirteen Families? What the hell are you dying in a place like this for.
Chiave	Ha, yeah. But I thought about it kinda carefully just now. And nothing seems too bad about just dying here in the barrens, really. All the big cheeses are gonna go in the ground someday. What's the difference between death in a wasteland and death on a bed that cost a couple million, huh? Find a couple stones, dig a hole, lie them down in it, and then close their eyes. Pow—one person's dead. Not so bad hearing it out loud, right.
Aosta	Hold on, Chiave, what the hell are you saying?!
Chiave	I'm saying, the sky today—cazzo, it's so blue—
<Background black>
"♪Seppellire in terra sconfinata." "♪O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella"—
Perhaps it was the battery that exhausted itself, as with little fanfare at all, the car stereo's music comes to a halt.
Aosta	Chiave? Chiave?! What the hell are you dying in a place like this for?! Broca, get in. I need to find some kind of rest stop somewhere. Hopefully I'll find someone...
Chiave	Zzz... zzz...
Aosta	......
Broca	Aosta, he just fell asleep.
Aosta	Goddamn you. But... we still can't be hopeful about Chiave's illness. Our best option remains to find an Infected doctor who's willing to treat him...
Rhodes Island Operator	Hey, you look like you've got car problems. Do you need some help?
<Background 2>
[On one night in the Rhodes Island landship's cafeteria at the present day, Jaye gave Aosta, Broca, and Chiave – now part of R.I. – some sashimi.]
Jaye	Here, three portions of sashimi.
Chiave	Ha ha, about time.
Aosta	Thank you.
Broca	Thanks.
Jaye	So, when you and the others got rescued by Rhodes Island, Chiave, that was when you joined them?
Aosta	Not at all. That operator, codenamed Straightedge, brought us all the way to the Rhodes Island office in Locomotiva, and then asked the medical operator stationed there to give Chiave some treatment.
Chiave	Eyo, Jaye, you've got some real skill.
Jaye	Much appreciated. See, I always thought that was how you joined Rhodes Island.
Chiave	How? We didn't know them from Adam yet, and besides, Aosta gave the car over in exchange for the medicine. At the time, I actually thought Rhodes Island was pretty lousy.
Jaye	Haha.
Chiave	But Rhodes Island's medicine's pretty effective, right, Broca?
Broca	I can confirm.
Aosta	As for why we joined Rhodes Island, to put it simply, it's because Chiave offended one of the big family heads in Locomotiva, and we had people out for our blood again. That time, Straightedge saved us again. And then, under his referral, we just straight-up came to Rhodes Island.
Jaye	Got it.
Chiave	Heh. For the record, Aosta, that one was never my fault.
Aosta	I know.
Jaye	It sounds like another new story all of its own.
Chiave	Heh, you got time, Jaye, brother? I'll tell it to you, in all its glory.
Jaye	It's already past midnight, and there's no missions tomorrow. I'll go get some Lungmen wine. We can drink and talk.
Chiave	Ha, now that's a plan. That evening, me and Aosta were gonna go see...
<Background black>
The men share their stories on into the dead of night in the empty cafeteria...