Three raggedy-looking Cranks stood in his way, each one holding a steel pipe, as if they’d just robbed the same plumbing store for makeshift weapons. Newt thought he must really be losing his mind because the sight of them made him laugh. It was stupid. Comical. Like something from a 10-year-old’s vision of the baddest people on Earth. One of the Cranks even had a bandana tied around his head and affected an evil grin that made him look like he had something wrong with his lips.

“I’m not in the mood,” Newt said. He knew with absolute certainty that he could pass a lie detector test right there on the spot, declaring to the officiator that he’d be perfectly okay with these idiots putting him out of his misery.

But fate decided not to call his bluff, at least not yet.

One of the thugs—a man with long, greasy black hair and muscles bulging out of the rips in his shirt—walked up to Newt and stopped about three feet in front of him. Every instinct and internal alarm told Newt to run like hell, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. The ever-expanding crazy part of his brain urged him to lash out and punch the guy in the nose, get the brawl started and hope for the best. Instead, he waited.

“We know who you are,” the man said, finally. For such a tough-looking fellow, he sure had a soft voice. The word velvety came to Newt’s mind and he had an absurd urge to laugh.

“Out with it, then,” Newt muttered. “Who am I?”

Surprisingly, the man took on a somewhat humbled air. “We know the things they did to you. To the ones taken. We know the utter shite you’ve been through. At no choice of your own, trying to find a cure for the likes of us. We’re here to tell you that it’s... appreciated. That people like us honor you.”

Newt swallowed, rendered speechless. This man didn’t appear to have any intent of beating the tar out of him, after all. That, or this was all a ruse to... what? Catch him off guard? Nonsense. These blokes could take him down without breaking a sweat.

“Sorry,” the man said. “A tad on the cheesy side. We’re just...” He straightened his back, lifted his chin a little. “Hell, man. We just wanted you to know that a lot of us are on your side. No one will mess with you. Not until they get through us, first, anyway. I don’t know what else to say. I kinda feel like an ass.”

Newt nodded, a little thrown off balance but honestly thrilled at the prospect that he might have his own personal security detail.

“Thank you,” he replied, worried anything more elaborate might shatter the whole deal.

The man nodded back, then looked around awkwardly as if he hadn’t thought this far ahead when he’d imagined the scenario. He stepped to the side of the path, gestured for his two partners to do the same. They did.