Final Fantasy VII Web Novels

"Well, I'll think of something."

The next day, Barret rode along in the truck. Old Man Sakaki's nephew was driving, and Barret recognized the machine as the same type that took him all over the place as a kid. Its engine ran on steam from burning coal and heating up water in the boiler.

It took four men working together to run it: one driver at the handle, one engineer to keep tabs on engine output, and two boilermen to pump coal into the chamber. At the rear of the truck's massive body, a bed was attached that could carry about ten people. The coal occupied about five men's worth of space, and Barret commanded about two men's worth of the space that was left.

He was sprawled out face up, gazing at the sky. Man, this is slow going, he thought. It was nobody's fault. Large steam-powered trucks had always plodded along like this. The men were dripping sweat and working as hard as they could. Everything was running at full power. A middle-aged boilerman came out onto the bed for a break.

"Sorry to barge in while your pissed, but I gotta take a seat."

"I ain't pissed, so don't be sorry."

"Yer only pissed enough that the anger's jumpin' off your skin."

Barret sat up and glared at the man. "Th' f—k's your problem?"

"There you go—I'm right, see?"

The two fell silent for a while. Eventually the boilerman opened his mouth again.

"You plannin' to be our bodyguard forever?"

"I'm just doin' the old man a favor. I dunno what comes after that."

"You're not cut out for it?"

"Bein' a bodyguard? Ain't nobody more cut out for that than me."

"Dunno about that." The boilerman fell silent. Barret waited for him to continue. What do I look like to this fool?

"Hey, say what you're gonna say, man." Maybe the guy can gimme a clue about what to do with my life. "What type do I look like to you?"

"The type that, instead of just takin' out the monsters that come along, goes out lookin' for monster dens to smash."

Whaddaya know. Maybe I do.

"Even if you don't know where those dens are," said the boilerman with a smile.