"So, where are there always demons and not people other than the outskirts?" Nora asked.
"Do you not want to go back to the outskirts?" Sam asked.
"I thought that might be too suspicious." Nora said.
"Right, well I know a place." Sam said as they started to leave the hotel room.
"Where?" Nora asked as she trailed behind him.
"It's a surprise." Sam said.
"W-why?" Nora asked a little nervously as they opened their car doors.
"You'll see." Sam said and Nora pouted. They got in the car, started it up, and started to drive. It was a long drive, close to 3 hours but then they pulled up into a town called Meyor. They pulled up and parked before Sam turned to Nora.
"Here, you'll have to wear this." Sam said and handed her an old, beat up ring box. Nora tentatively took it and opened it to see the most beautiful ring inside. It had a white gold band with a big, pear cut diamond on top and smaller diamonds on either side.
"You'll um, you'll have to pretend to be my wife to be accepted here. I've told them that we're on the run, it's the only way they'll believe us and cooperate." Sam said. Nora was so confused she didn't even know what to say. Before she could even say anything, Sam tore the radio unit out of the car.
"W-what are you doing?" Nora shrieked.
"This town has nothing but demon problems, we'll get to 100 in no time." Sam said.
"O-ok, but why did you tear the radio out?" She asked still completely lost. "How will we contact the capitol, or they contact us?"
"They won't contact us. They think we're on the way there right now and we have no reason to contact them, if we do there are always telephones." Sam said.
"W-why do they think we're on the way there? Did you tell them I wanted to re-test before talking to me?" Nora asked and Sam was quiet. She let out a sigh and looked back at the ring. "Why don't you consult me before coming up with these crazy schemes?"
"I-it was a surprise. I wanted to show you how committed I was to us." He said.
"You did it for us so I can't be too angry, but I really wish you'd talk to me before making these big decisions." Nora said then looked back to Sam. "So, what's the plan?"
"We'll stay here until we get to 100 then we can drive all night to the capitol. I told them we weren't in a hurry to get there so it'd take us a few days." Sam said.
"Ok…so why here?" Nora asked.
"It's…this is my hometown. This is the best place to find demons and the people here will cooperate with us more so than other places we've been. Plus if we're going to do this, really do this, I wanted to give back to my people." Sam said.
"Y-you're real hometown? Not the fake one you gave to the government?" Nora asked.
"That's correct." Sam said. He quietly took the ring out of the box and put it on her ring finger on her left hand. "Are you ready to be my wife, even if it's only for a few days?"
"Why does it have to be only a few days?" Nora asked and pouted.
"Uh, well, I mean it can be longer than that if you want." Sam stumbled over his words trying to think of what to say. Nora put the ring box back in the glove box and looked over at Sam.
"Nevermind." Nora said then got out of the car. Sam quickly followed suit and hurried to catch up to her.
"I didn't mean it to sound the way it did." Sam said.
"Don't worry about it." Nora said.
"Sam is that you?" They heard in an excited voice as a woman emerged from a house. "It is you." She said then ran up to him and gave him a huge hug.
"Aunt Cheryl." He said with a surprised look on his face.
"It's so good to see you." Cheryl said then let go of him. She looked over to Nora and smiled. "And who is this?"
"This is my wife, Nora." Sam said.
"Wife." Cheryl said in surprise but with a big smile on her face. "Well that does change things. Here I thought you were sent to clean things up." She said and the smile slowly disappeared from her face.
"We weren't sent for that but that is what we came for." Sam said and Cheryl looked back at him. She turned her head so quickly he thought it might keep spinning from the momentum.
"That's just fantastic, the demons have gotten so bold to venture into town during that day, that's why no one is out right now. Let's get you into the house before anyone else dares to peak outside." Cheryl said and they scurried inside.
"How's my mom doing?" Sam asked as he closed the front door behind them.
"She's still mad as hell at you for leaving, so is most of the family honestly." Cheryl said.
"It's been 2 years and it's not like I had much of a choice." Sam said in a meek voice.
"I know that, and your Uncle Earl knows that but you know this family, knuckle heads the lot of them." Cheryl said with a snicker.
"You think they'd be happy their son is out there helping others and making their lives better." Nora said.
"You C.O.'s aren't out in the real world like the rest of us, you don't understand how the government works." Cheryl said.
"Maybe not but that's our job, to help people." Nora said and Sam shot her a look to stop but she ignored it.
"That may be true, but you only go on the missions they give you. Unfortunately, the government doesn't care about towns like us who don't have much to offer them in return, so you aren't sent here." Cheryl said. "We haven't seen a chosen one in close to a year now, the demons take over the town once the sun goes down. If it continues like this much longer there will be riots."
"Well, we're here to help. I can't control what the government tells us about, but I can give back to Sam's home town." Nora said.
"That's wonderful. I like her already." Cheryl said.
"Can you point us in the right direction?" Nora asked.
"Well, they're in all directions. Why don't we have some tea and I can get an idea of what your abilities are?" Cheryl asked. Nora bit her tongue, how was she supposed to tell this sweet woman that tea would be a waste of time? They had 20 demons to kill!
"That sounds great Auntie but we're in a race against the clock. We're trying to get to 100 to prove or disprove the myth." Sam said.
"Oh well in that case you better get cracking." Cheryl said.
"One-hundred isn't all that hard, if the government would just keep giving us missions, we'd be there in no time. There clearly isn't a shortage of low-level demons."
"You don't know how true that is, leaving this town even in the day time is so impossible we have to send all the men in one trip a month to get whatever supplies we need and trade. There's something suspicious going on, the government has to know what happens when you hit 100 whatever that is and they're trying to keep ya'll from getting there. You two need to be careful." Cheryl said.
"Of course Auntie, we're always careful, and Nora is really strong. Point us in the direction of the most demons and we'll clear it out today no problem." Sam said.
Cheryl seemed hesitant at first but let out a sigh before giving in. "As determined as ever, if you head East you'll find a handful in no time. There's a nest right outside of town." Cheryl said.
"An actual nest? They've been here long enough to make one?" Sam asked and Cheryl nodded.
"Score. Let's go Sam." Nora said and tugged on his sleeve.
"Just be back in time for dinner, I'll make your favorite. I'll have your old room ready for you by then too…" Cheryl said then looked over at Nora for a moment.
"Thank you very much!" Nora said excitedly then they rushed back out to the car before anyone could see them.
"This is great news Sam, we'll get the 20 we need in no time!" Nora said excitedly.
"Don't get your hopes up, her definition of a camp might be different from ours." Sam said.
"Whatever, let's just get there. Some are better than none." Nora said.
They made their way to the camp. Before Sam had turned the car off Nora had powered up and jumped out of the car.
"Typical Nora." He sighed before following her out of the car.
"Be careful, I don't see any yet." He shouted after her.
"I know where they are, I can sense them." She said with a determined grin on his face.
"Still, wait for me!" Sam shouted at her as he ran to catch up.
"No time!" She shouted back as she kept running.
"Don't be so rash, pretend wife." He said. This got her attention and she turned around.
"Does it have to be pretend?" She asked.
"W-well we can't consummate our marriage until after we get to 100 anyway…" He says.
"So we're merely pretending until then?" She asks. Sam stops in front of her and takes her hands in his.
"Absolutely not." He said then kissed her.
"That's better." She said and her grin returned to her face. "We should get started then."
"Should we make a plan?" He asked.
"They're all low or mid-level. Rush in and kill them all, that's the plan." She said then took off running again.
"Well, it's a plan." Sam said then went in after her. "There's near a dozen down there, we've never taken on so many, we need to be more careful."
"You're no fun, there's too many of them in such a close proximity that a plan won't do any good. You know I have to kill them all." Nora said.
"I'll go for the legs, you go for the head. That's a better plan than nothing at least." Sam said.
"Good enough." Nora said.
"Just be careful." Sam said. He was worried about her but had to let her do what she does best.
"Always." She said.
They snuck up to the camp and took their weapons out. Sam started shooting at their legs, all the ones he could see, while Nora ran towards them and slashed through their heads. They caught the demons off guard which helped them get through the first four demons with ease but after Nora landed and swallowed that fourth soul one of the demons caught them by surprise. The demon had snuck up on Sam and plunged their shadowy hand through his stomach.