Warnings: Suspense?

Word Count: 2405

Request: Hey can you do something trenchis like you did with tyler but with josh? Like a girl escapes from dema and josh finds her and take her to the banditos and they fall in love? 💫💛🖤💛 -Anon

Author's Note: Another little two part series! Part two will be up on Friday, as per usual. Writing this request just reminded me how much I love writing Trench stuff, probably because it ties into the whole fantasy/different universe type thing, which I've always loved. Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy this one! :)

*     *     *

You had heard the rumors.

They were whispered phrases, tumbling from the lips of your fellow residents as they passed one another in the halls. Some sort of greeting. Or a message. You weren't entirely sure which.

You caught all these phrases, taking them into your mind. Turning them over and over, searching for some sort of hidden meaning among the words that you had somehow missed. When finally you felt as if all your avenues had been exhausted, you added the new phrase to the bottom of your list, hoping that among the others some sort of obvious clue would be revealed.

It never was.

Your notebook was plain and black. Small, by most people's standards, but perfect for what you needed it for. It was nondescript, just so long as the pages remained hidden from view, not that anyone ever got the chance to look. The journal remained in the inner pocket of your Dema-issued jacket. Or in your pillowcase, when you finally put away your materials for the night and decided to get some rest. The notebook was never left unconnected from you. It was too risky.

The visible strip of sky outside your window was orange tonight, with a few bits of yellow mixed in among the clouds. You took a moment to admire it, wondering if this would be the last night you got to enjoy this particular view. Not that you would miss it, the memories that surfaced as you sat at your small desk were mostly negative.

Your eyes scanned over the hastily scribbled list in your notebook. The phrases were burned into your mind, with the exception of the last couple that you had picked up today, but still you looked them over. There had to be something you had missed, some connection that had flown under your radar. You weren't sleeping enough. Your brain was fried.

Still, there must be something. There was always something.

*     *     *

Ten steps. Pause. A little longer. Ten more steps.

Your heart was pounding in your chest as you carefully counted Nills' steps. He was the slowest of the bishops, notorious for taking his time to carefully look inside each cell and examine its resident. Most people feared him for this habit, but you took it as an opportunity. Any bishop that took their time looking inside the dim cells would be less likely to notice you.

You waited until he had rounded the corner and made it past the first couple cells, guaranteeing that he wouldn't see or hear you. Once the echo of his steps began to quiet, you slowly shifted yourself out of bed. The comforter lightly rustled against your sheets, making you pause for a moment, waiting with bated breath to tell if the steps were coming back towards you. They only seemed to grow more distant, so you exhaled and continued to move.

Your jacket felt heavier than usual as you pulled it on over your plain shirt. It was too warm to be wearing in your tiny cell, even with the window cracked to let the cold night air in. Still, you had no idea what lay waiting outside of Dema's walls.

Trench.

You recalled the word from your list. It was what they called the area outside, though it seemed to you to be nothing more than a name given to make the place seem more real. For all you knew, nothing laid outside the walls but wasteland and despair.

You laughed quietly to yourself as you packed your things - making sure to grab your notebook where it was tucked away in your pillowcase - thinking about how desolate this whole plan seemed when you really thought about it. All this work could have been done for you to spend a week away from the harsh rule of the bishops, only to be dragged back. Or worse.

But even that seemed better than spending your remaining days in this tiny cell they forced you to call home.

*     *     *

Clouds obscured most of the sky as you made your way across the courtyard. Every few seconds you found yourself turning around, checking for any fellow residents or bishops who may be following you. Your backpack beat monotonously against your back as you walked, quickly, along the uneven cobblestones.

You weren't entirely sure where you were going, but you kept moving east. The more distance that you put between yourself and the bishops, the more likely it was that you would make it out of here. That was all that mattered right now: getting out of here. If you let your mind dwell too much on how you would survive once you reached the other side of the wall, you noticed that your pace started to slow.

You couldn't go back. It wasn't an option. So you pushed the thoughts from your mind and pressed forward.

Unfamiliar buildings rose around you as you entered Nico's sector of the city. It was darker here; torches didn't line the courtyard here as they did in Nills' sector. All of the windows were shut tight, curtains drawn so that nobody could see in. Or out. Your footsteps seemed to echo more here, so you slowed your pace and moved closer to the wall, trying to stay out of sight.

A flash of light up ahead caught your eye. It shifted against the wall, creating new shadows against the plain facade of the nearest building. The light continued to grow and it wasn't long until the echo of footsteps hit your ears.

Someone else was out here. Moving. Towards you.

Fearing the worst, you shrunk back into a particularly dark corner, waiting for the figure to show themselves. A resident would be easy enough to hide from, but a bishop... well, that was an entirely different story. The mere thought of the consequences was enough to send a chill down your spine, but it also reignited the fire beneath you that pushed you to keep going and finally escape this place.

The figure rounded the corner and you allowed yourself a moment to take in his appearance. He wasn't dressed like anyone else in Dema. His clothes were covered in bits of yellow tape, adding the only patches of color to his otherwise plain outfit. A yellow bandana covered the bottom half of his face and the torch threw shadows across whatever was left uncovered, keeping any of his distinct features hidden from view. You had never seen this man before, and yet you recognized him on sight.

A bandito.

So the rumors were true.

His eyes scanned the courtyard as he moved quickly along the cobblestones. You watched him just as carefully, wondering if he was aware of your presence. If he was, he hadn't shown any signs of it.

He stopped a few paces away from the statue that stood in the center of the buildings, turning slightly so that you could just make out the profile of his face. The torch flickered steadily behind him, unaffected by the light wind that rustled the surrounding trees.

"Do you want to come with me or not?"

His voice startled you. You pressed your palms flat against the wall behind you, slinking back further into the darkness. Your breath was uneven as you inhaled, trying to calm your shaking hands.

"Who are you?" you asked, putting on a false sense of confidence. Hopefully the facade would work.

He fully turned towards you now. The torchlight shifted again, but he now held it closer to the front of his face. You could more easily make out his exposed features now. His eyes were soft, so unlike the eyes of everyone else in Dema.

"I think you know."

You swallowed. "And why should I trust you?"

"Realistically, you shouldn't, but you're running out of time and options. They're coming."

You reached up and adjusted the backpack on your shoulder where it had slipped a bit. Your air of confidence was quickly deteriorating.

"And where would you take me?"

"Somewhere safe. Outside the walls."

Were you really considering this? Following some solitary stranger outside the walls on the promise of something that had no evidence of existing?

Yes, it seemed you were.

"Show me your face," you stated. If you were going to go with this mysterious figure, you at least wanted to get a good look at him. "And tell me your name."

"Only if you do the same," he answered, just as coolly.

"You first."

He started to reach for the bandana that covered his face when torchlight flickered along the wall at one end of the courtyard. The stranger took notice of this. His hand immediately dropped to his side as he turned towards the light, studying it.

"One of yours?" you asked.

He shook his head, slowly at first, but it quickly became more frantic.

"We need to go. Now. Are you coming or not, Y/N?"

You were so panicked that you didn't even take notice of the fact that this stranger knew your name. He watched you with wide eyes, waiting for answer before he left.

"I'm coming. Lead the way."

The stranger held a hand out to you. You strode forward and linked your hand with his, taking a moment to appreciate the warmth of his skin and the torch in his opposite hand. His eyes roamed over your face, taking in your features.

"Josh, by the way."

"Alright, Josh. Let's not waste any time."

*     *     *

You followed the man - Josh - through tunnels below Dema that you hadn't previously known existed. Your chest was still heaving from your sprint through the courtyard, but your pace had slowed now that you were somewhere safer. Josh stayed a few steps ahead of you, lighting the way with his torch. You turned to scan the blackness behind you every now and again, looking and listening for any sign of the bishops.

"Wait," Josh said. He stopped moving and the echo of your footsteps grew quiet before stopping completely. "Before we go any further, we need to cover you."

"Cover me?"

The phrase sounded familiar as you said it out loud. Perhaps it was one of the more recent ones you had picked up on. You would have to check later, once you finally reached wherever it was you were going.

"In yellow. The bishops-"

"Can't see yellow," you finished with him.

Josh reached into a small bag and pulled out a roll of yellow tape. He began to apply it carefully on your body: around your arms, a leg, a few bits and pieces on the pockets of your jacket. Anything to make you look less as if you had just come from Dema.

"You know a lot," he said as he finished a band of tape around your left bicep.

"You learn a lot of things if you look in the right places."

His eyes met yours, studying them for a moment. After a brief silence, his eyes crinkled slightly at the corners. You assumed he must be smiling - that, or he was skeptical - though you couldn't be sure because of the bandana that still covered most of his face.

"Earlier," you started before clearing your throat. "In the courtyard. You said my name."

His eyes dropped back down to the tape on your arm. He ran his fingers over it, making sure that it was pressed smooth against the fabric of your shirt. You shifted a bit at the contact.

"Y/N," he repeated nonchalantly.

"How did you know it?"

He sighed as he tucked the tape back into his bag, giving his head a slight nod as a signal to keep moving. You fell into step with him, this time matching his pace rather than lagging behind.

"We keep track of people of interest. People who might want to escape and join our ranks. Tonight was far from the first night that we've come across each other's paths."

Reassurance and uneasiness wrestled in your mind, struggling for dominance over your emotions.

"What do you mean by that?"

He shifted his torch from one hand to the other, allowing his other arm to rest.

"What I was doing tonight - it wasn't a rescue mission. I was doing rounds in Nico's sector, looking for any distress signals. Yellow flowers in window sills, people up late doing research, that sort of thing. You were someone of interest. A couple inside informants let us know that you had been collecting information."

"And here I was thinking I was being discreet." You allowed yourself a small laugh. It was nice. Comfortable.

"You were to the average person. We just have people that are hyper aware of these actions. Those are the ones you can't so easily slip under the radar of."

"So you bumping into me tonight, that was coincidence?"

"Yeah. Tyler won't be happy that I didn't finish my rounds, but I think the addition of another bandito will be enough to soothe him. Solo rescue missions aren't really in our repertoire, we tend to stick to bigger groups. Harder for stuff to go wrong, you know?"

"Tyler," you repeated the name. "Is he the leader of the banditos?"

Josh shook his head, "We don't really have a leader, although Tyler will take on the role if it's necessary."

There was light up ahead, hardly more than a speck in your vision now, but it was a reassurance nonetheless. Could it possibly be morning already? You had lost track of time as you moved through the dark tunnels, following the light of Josh's torch.

"I have one more question," you asked, hoping he wouldn't mind.

"Feel free to ask as many as you want. I know life is a lot different out here."

Your mouth curled into a slight smile, "The name of the place we're going... what is it?"

Josh turned to you, meeting your eyes once again. The chocolate color of them was evident, now that you stood only a foot or two apart.

"I thought you would know."

"I do," you answered plainly, suddenly realizing the truth behind all the information you had collected. "But I want to hear it from you. Confirmation that it's more than a rumor, I suppose."

Josh nodded and turned his gaze away from you. After a moment, he answered you. The word rang out clearly along the stone walls. Clear and simple and familiar.

"Trench."