count to ten

He walks with Rose, falling in-step without so much as another word. Thankfully, people stop approaching him. Whether it’s because they’re in the middle of a conversation, or the idea that one Council member is approachable but two are just intimidating, Pierce doesn’t know. He doesn’t need to know to be grateful for the small cone around them as people seem to be moving out of the way, whispering as their backs fall into view. That suits hi ust fine. As long as people stop trying to talk to him, Pierce is happy.

“It wasn’t death, it was murder.” Pierce had been one of the first at the scene. Frank Scotsman’s skin was tinted a shade too pale and his lips were an unnatural blue color. He was face down in the bushes, as if he just couldn’t bear to walk one more steps. And the foam that had been near his mouth was sizable. It’s death unlike anything Pierce has ever seen before. Radiation and raiders are the two biggest concerns for safety. Pierce has seen gun shot wounds, he’s seen stabbing and dismembered bodies. But Scotsman’s death struck a nerve with Pierce. It felt deliberate and like an attack against his home.

“Dee is doing the autopsy now. We’ll know more when she’s done.” 

It was the air that made people fan around them instead of trying to capture their attention. Rose’s face always had a way of speaking volumes. A stressed unsmiling Rose was probably a big red flag to stay away. You’re welcome Pierce, maybe she’ll just follow you around. You know as a break from people.

“Right. The world is full of murder, people kill people all the time. But it wasn’t like Mr. Scotsman was in the wild west with riches.” Her hands moved around her, speaking with her body was another one of those things Rose did when frazzled. Her voice kept low still, just incase.

“I don’t know I am probably just being ultra paranoid but… I don’t want to see anyone else die… And my brain is telling me that people in power will fall all over the place.” Bottom lip was chewed for a moment. Rose’s brain goes a mile a minute, overload it and it’s the grand prix in there.

Fort Hope were usually the serious sort. Soldiers who made Pierce look like a kitten in comparison. Overly aggressive people had always made Jackson a little intimidated, and their rugged structure went against the life he’d lived for the past two and a half decades of being completely free, doing what you could to survive but only answering to yourself.

Coming to the Hub had changed that a little, but their structures and rules were nothing like how he imagined Fort Hope to be. He wondered if those people came out of the womb with a scowl and salute. “I’m not a weapons kinda guy anyway. They can keep theirs.”

He smiled at Rose. The story she had shared was touching. Imagination was so important in a place like this. “The things they used to have to keep kids entertained back before the irradiation… I can’t even imagine it.” He gave a soft laugh at the thought. “I don’t really think of it as dangerous. Been running and scouting all my life. There’s not that many things that compare to it. But I mean, come on, it’s not like Hydro’s a walk in the park.”

Fort Hope made a lot of people look like kittens, atleast Jackson was daring enough to leave the walls for little bits at a time. More then Rose could say about herself. She had moved from a white collar neighborhood, surrounded by an almost blissful sanctuary to a place with walls and power and guards galore.

Maybe one day she would see the rest of the world.

“Oh I know i’ve seen a few of those old relics in my time.” The words made her roll her eyes a bit. The old at Suncove prided themselves on having everything, even when the world went to shit. “I think handmade toys are better, more character than something a machine pumps out. More love too.”

There was a pause with his next words, head nodded for a second. “Hydro isn’t easy no but it’s not like I have things trying to kill me. It’s more… ‘Becareful Rose don’t fall off the scaffolding’ or ‘Rose don’t cut your finger off’.” There was a weird merriment behind her words that matched that ever present smile. “Machines aren’t scary, humans can be.”

Rose. Rose is nice. Pierce doesn’t ind Rose as much. he’d rather talk to her than another civilian, that’s for sure. He flinches away from her touch, feeling too overwhelmed. People have been talking to - at him, really - all day. The idea of someone touching him after all of it makes his skin feel too tight, like he’s going to climb out of it with a wrong twist. It’s an awful itchy feeling, and if he had just made it a little bit further, he could have locked himself into his office and ignored the world for the night. He’s up to his ears in paperwork, and even Pierce isn’t sure how to launch a criminal investigation. There’s no one here to teach him, so he’ll have to made due.

Rose has a stack of paperwork with her. He wonders, briefly, if it’s for Hydro or recent events. Rose has been briefed, they were in the same room with Commander Wilson after all. He doesn’t know how much the trade issues or the dead body will change Hydro. The Hub still needs to keep on running, n matter what.

“What do you need?” The smile doesn’t reach her eyes. Normally, Rose’s face is aglow when she smiles but not this time. Pierce has been around her long enough to be able to see that. If she’s asking for someone in all of this madness, well, t’s probably important. And even if it isn’t important, it’ll be a nice distraction for Pierce.

It was in the air, thicker around Pierce then anyone else. Maybe because it was so close to the action. Poor Pierce, really the tall one needed a break sometime.

They all deserved one, the runners and guards, the guys with the guns in a sense. They worked their asses off, maybe one day they could all get drunk together, celebrate the night away. Even if there was not a whole lot to celebrate.

“Walk with me to Hydro?” It was a simple request, though if the guy was busy she would surely understand. The papers she had been reading were folded up and tucked into a small satchel at her side. They could wait for later.

A dead body is literally the last thing Pierce could want. He had doubts, of the meeting, doubts he did not voice to Commander Wilson. Now, Pierce is wishing he did, because this sucks. Someone dying within the Hub’s wall really sucks. He’s already swung by medical and they aren’t ready for him, so Pierce can do just about nothing until thy get results. Every available guard is posted on duty, and Pierce has recruited a crack investigation team. They’re out surveying the death scene, trying to put the pieces together. Pierce wishes there was just a goddamn bullet in his skull. It’d make things easy.

It’s not the first dead body Pierce has seen. He’s killed people before, point blank range. It is, however, the most troublesome dead body he’s seen. Frank Harold Scotsman seems like he was an okay guy. Probably. But now he’s a real pain in Pierce’s neck. His lips were blue, the foam was dried and crusted, and man, did he smell bad. Pierce had him delivered to the medical wing for whatever they do with dead bodies. Pierce doesn’t think about it.

The worst part is the people. Everyone keeps approaching him, asking for details he is not allowed to give out. People want to know who is he, why he’s at the Hub, how he died, where he died, and who killed him. If Pierce had the answer to half of those questions, he’d be a happy man. He turns, leaving the cafeteria with a scowl on his face. He can feel people watching him. What an awful feeling. It leaves him twitchy, angry, and jumpy. He’s halfway back to his office - somewhere with a goddamn lock- when he feels and hears someone approach him. What now?

Meetings anyways made her nervous, it wasn’t the speaking in front of people nor was it the act of being around people… It was the theme of the meetings they often had. Unhappy people raised through voices, it made her hair stand on end. Tension was a thing that bulged under a thin veil of peace. Peace, that word rarely had meaning. Not in this world.

The events following… Rose couldn’t say she wasn’t surprised. The man though, an odd choice. Though Rose’s knowledge of him was mostly second hand. A seemingly nice enough man now dead and whatever, whoever, had done it was still somewhere. In the Hub? Did it leave? That aforementioned tension was even thicker on the ground then before. Great.

Death was a thing she knew, that part didn’t bother her. It was the unknown that did.

She hated the unknown.

Her nose was buried in a stack of papers, eyes watching the lines of text instead of the people moving around in front of her, usually they side stepped the blonde, leaving her unharmed and about her business. Maybe it was a coincidence that she would run into Pierce, a man she was sort of wondering about. A hand was pushed out to stop herself from fully running into the guy, palm pressed to his shoulder.

Jackson let out a laugh at Rose’s comment. He tried to get along with everyone, a team player, somehow managing to fight off becoming cynical in spite of the tragedies of his past. They were sad events that had made his life harder, but they didn’t have to define him. He was more concerned with moving forward.

So that was what he’d done. Moved on to a new life with him and Hyuna. The Hub had become his family, and people like Rose were what made it a home. “I feel like Team Hub uniforms might cause a little dissent in the ranks. Especially with those Fort Hope people. They seem to be pretty high strung.” They were a settlement full of soldiers, and Jackson was a pacifist.

Hyuna was totally engrossed in the toy Rose has given him now, and at the promise of more, his little eyes widened. “Cool!” Was the only answer he had before he sat on the grass in front of Jackson and used the robot to fight imaginary monsters in the green blades.

“Small pleasures are great. For kids, small pleasures are huge pleasures. I wish I could go back to being that easy to please.” His words were playful. Jackson was still pretty easy to please, occupying himself with books and pages torn out of them, with the dancing orange flames of a nice open fire. “We’re all good. I do my best. With how busy it is here right now, I’m kinda looking forward to going out on a good run.”

Hyuna was a cute kid, Rose had to admire Jackson for stepping up to the plate with him. Could Rose do something like that? Though she had no family other than a Grandfather who seemed pretty content to not acknowledge her existence outside of Suncove. No brothers, no sisters, it was probably better that way. Maybe this was why she took to watching the families that gathered in the markets to trade. A piece of a puzzle missing? Though her will to have a child of her own was not there.

It was something else.

“Ohhhh I wouldn’t go up against Fort Hope.” Rose made a sour face at the runner for a second. “They might be sore losers because obviously we’d win. They have bigger weapons.” Brows rose and a grin cracked lips.

“When I was a kid I was more into fire then a kid really should be. But I also could find a funny rock on the ground and pretend it was a pet dog or something.” The fire hobby turned into a love for welding which came in handy when a pipe burst in the dam. The rock thing she was still unsure if a talent could be pulled from that.

“Running is dangerous… But I can see how it makes for a great escape. I sometimes envy you runners you must see a lot of new stuff out there.” She would have to word herself carefully, new wasn’t used as a placeholder for exciting she imagined there was just a lot of bad in once beautiful places.

“I wouldn’t waste the effort.” Pierce can smell bad blood a mile away, and Rose’s words are tinted a little red and a little green. He still can’t picture her growing up in Suncove Springs. Rose is covered in grease, sweat. her hair is always back or unruly, and he works sunrise to sunset, even later when there are issues going on. She’s the opposite of how Pierce sees the Suncove citizens, all prim and properly, with pale, pale skin and smooth, dainty hands. He knows if he reached for Rose’s hands he’d find callus upon callus there. She has workers hands, the hands of someone who makes a hard, honest living.

The joke is lame, but it’s better than Tommo’s nicknames, so Pierce doesn’t comment on it. He doesn’t have much tme to wander around, and the Dam is always so loud, old gears cranking and the rush of water. Some days, Pierce needs dead silence. He can’t always find it, but perhaps the rush of water would be a better escape than the rush of people. It has to be. She calls him kid, like Pierce isn’t several years her elder. Rose’s optimism is a much different flavor than Hope’s infallible sunshine. It’s something he can relate to a little bit easier, just good-natured charm in the face of unspeakable obstacles. Rose is an underdog. Pierce can appreciate that, he’s an underdog, too.

“I’ll get you.” The conversation is over, so Pierce turns to leave. When his back is fully to Rose, there’s a smile on his lips that stays there for a couple of seconds. Then, he’s back out into the Hub’s common, away from the large Hydro gates, and his neutral expression returns.

Her callused hands, her unkempt hair and the splattering of grease that often framed her round face, those were just among the few things that made Rose stand out from the others at Suncove. Just a few. It was never home like the Hub was, like the Hydro was. Still the sting of seeing those she grew up with just pass her by… Well hell she was smarter than them anyways. Suncove missed out the day Rose Gunderstall left the building.

“Thanks Pierce, I appreciate you!” He turned to leave and she waved him an unseen goodbye. The journey back into the Hydro was a bit of a march, just a few hundreds steps to reach the top of her bird’s nest. The elevators worked here and there but wouldn’t it suck to stuck in one? Besides the exercise was nice.

He can tell Rose is thinking, trying to understand why people are the way they are. Pierce stopped trying to understand that a long time ago. People are complex and selfish, he’s learned, always looking out for themselves before anyone else. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but they are few and far between now. Commander Wilson is one of these exceptions. Most of her Council seems to be as well. But when push comes to shove, people get nasty. Pierce has seen it happen, first hand, and it’s not something he’ll be willing to forget.

“They’re always late.” Rose is from Suncove, so Pierce leaves off any choice remark about how aggravating it can be. Whenever they try to congregate, Suncove is always the last one to arrive, fashionably late even after the world has ended. It’s ridiculous. Pierce finds it hard to believe that someone so logical came out of the settlement, but Rose turns away from him at the mention so it’s obviously not something she wants to talk about personally.

“Our forward scouts have them making contact just before the gates close down.”

“Have to make an entrance I guess.” Blue eyes rolled at the thought. Suncove was her grandparent’s home, her mother’s home… And she often wondered why a person like her father had gotten mixed into the lot. He loved her. Maybe that was why he could stand the snotty kids with the fancy clothes. Rose took after him a lot. She was pretty grateful for that.

“I always wonder if I should try and make nice with them. The last time the leaders came here, from Suncove, they seemed so interested in the Hydro but… Not in me.” Though it had been six years she still knew the faces, their names and remembered playing with them. It didn’t seem that long ago. Her words were a tad spiteful.

The rest of her lunch was being wrapped up carefully, an arm reaching down to collect her bag and bring it into her lap. “Ah, they’re not too good at making conversation with us common folk anyways.” There was that smile, beaming at Pierce.

“It was nice talking to you kid… You really ought to come visit the Hydro more. If your tall self can even make it through the doors.” Her bag was slung over a shoulder as she rose, Pierce was given a little pat to an arm. “Duties call, they will come find me when the meeting starts? I hate being away from the Dam for long, so much to do so little tiiiime.”

“People watching is like the town sport around here. Always someone new.” That was one thing about living in The Hub. You got to meet the travelers. The people who were there for the long term became your friends. Or your enemies, in some cases, but then Jackson tried not to have any of those. Confrontation wasn’t his thing. A runner, not a fighter. That was what he’d been raised to be.

He placed a hand on Hyuna’s head. It filled him with both joy and sadness to look at the boy sometimes. Joy for what he’d grown into, and sadness for what he’d lost. So young, and already an orphan. It was more common than Jackson wanted to admit in this world.

“Uh-huh,” Hyuna answered, big grin almost drowning his tiny face. “Big fun!” He held out his arms to signify the size, and Jackson met Rose’s eyes with a little grin too. He hadn’t been expecting the gift.

“Wow,” he said. “That’s awesome. Say thank you, buddy.” Hyuna had already reached out with tiny hands to clasp on the gift. Jackson was almost sure it would be his favorite.

“Thank you,” Hyuna beamed, the ‘Th’ more of an 'F’ through his baby teeth.

“You really didn’t have to do that,” he said more quietly, taking a seat next to Rose on the grass. “But I know he appreciates it.”

“We should get everyone matching Jerseys. ‘Go Team The Hub’.” Well she thought her lame joke was pretty funny. Laughter filled the air around them for a moment, Rose loved to laugh. It kept her sane. Smiles, joy, friends, those kept people sane.

Rose’s nerves over the small boy faded when he took the toy from her hand. What kid didn’t love a toy? “I’m glad you are having fun out and about. And you are so welcome. If you promise to be good and I find more pesky toys clogging up my turbines… You can have first dibs.”

Her smile was offered to the smile one before turning her gaze back to Jackson. Rose knew a lot of friendly faces around the Hub, she guessed from working at one of its main facilities, getting to talk to them all helped her social skills… And Jackson was a good person so his company was always welcomed.

“It’s all about the small pleasures in life Jackson. Annnnd like I said I have a lot of toy robots. My dad use to weld them together for me when I was around his age.” Head tilted towards Hyuna. “How is work and life and everything in between treating you?”

The prospect of spending time in Hydro, especially upon her return from a runner’s shift, always sent shivers along her back. Bridgewater functioned without electricity, and it got by all right, but since first arriving at the Hub years ago, Izzy knew it could be the start of something incredible. The dam contributed to a lot of that, and it fascinated her besides; how running water managed to power machines. No number of visits exhausted her curiosity.

Though she was unsure of the sincerity of Rose’s offer. Who would trust Izzy with something as vital as repairing the dam, even a little bit of it? She’d stitched up enough people in medical, but that was different, and as long as people weren’t bleeding out they tended to appreciate whatever she did to stop it. Rose would do most of the work, she assumed, and let Izzy watch and ask questions where she saw fit.

She nodded along to Rose’s words, drawn back to the issue at hand. “I have to go to Hydro to find out?” Rolling her eyes, Izzy feigned annoyance. She threw up her hands for good measure. “What a damn shame. That’s asking too much of me.” Izzy gave a heavy shrug as she stood up, taking the spectrometer with her. “I guess I’ll force myself up there. How will I know you have anything to tell me?”

Running water was a game changer, as odd as that sounded. Rose was sure there were other ways to power settlements, little miss Hydro had big ideas… Though, sadly, none of them would probably see the light of day. Not for awhile anyways.

She loved the place, the cool interior of the concrete walls, the dusty control panels all covered in gauges and long burnt out surveillance equipment. That was another thing on her long list of shit to fix at the Dam. And she was always willing to share any tidbits of information Izzy might be interested in. Maybe they could swap stories.

Maybe one day Izzy could help her outside the walls? Silly thoughts those were.

A small piece of bread was pulled from her lunch and thrown at the runner girl in jest. The little laugh Rose always carried with her following. “I know, I know hanging out with Rose sucks, she talks too much about boring stuff.”

The rest of her lunch was being packed now, time was ticking and she really ought to either figure out this meeting situation or go back to her duties. Her baby couldn’t be left alone long. “Well if you have copper for me… That’s one way to find out. Or I can send you a message.” Leather clad shoulders offered a shrug.

“I… Ought to be going though, water just doesn’t flow by itself. Thanks again for offering help.” A hand was pulling up her bag, slinging it over a shoulder, while the other gave Izzy’s own shoulder a bit of a squeeze.

Pierce just lets out a groan when Rose mentions the fighting ring. She’s right, of course. It’s going to be awful. Whether it’s physical fights that Pierce will have to intervene and break up or verbal arguments he’ll have to suffer through, it’s going to be about as fun as wrestling an irradiated bear naked with beef sticks strapped to your chest. He really doesn’t want to get involved with this giant meeting.

But people are dying out there. Over the last couple of years, weird shit has happened. Pierce wants to blame the raiders, but they aren’t organized enough to be so subtle. Something is happening in the Wastelands. Something that has Pierce more on edge than he normally does. That’s what the meeting is about, after all. Trying to figure out all of the strange things happening are a very strange coincidence or something planned.

“No,” he answers, but Pierce gets no gratification it. People generally don’t get along. It’s just the way the world works. Pierce doesn’t like it, but he’s beginning to understand it. When you put people from Suncove and people from Bridgewater in the same setting, their reactions are going to be near polar opposites.

The little Hydro worker wouldn’t be much in a fight if one were to break out. She could go for some shins if needed but please don’t let her get trampled in an uproar. The world had gone to hell in a handbasket, everyday lives were lost outside the safety of those walls… To bring a fight inside was silly.

Peace was hard. When the end of the world came… Sometimes it was humanity you had to fear. Rose supposed this was one of those lessons.

“If the settlements have a common enemy… It would be logical to just play nice. But I guess logic in a time like this is few and far between.” Rose was a girl of logic. She poured her mind and heart into science, into fixing things with her hands. The trouble of learning people’s behaviors was often mind numbing.

“I haven’t seen anyone from Suncove yet…” Wasn’t that one a sore subject. Rose glanced at Pierce for a bit before turning back to a corner of the market were a man called his wares out.

She grinned back at her, and gave a soft shake of her head. There were rules against stealing, of course, but Rose hadn’t admitted a thing, and Izzy would loathe to say a bad word about their best hydraulic engineer. She’d have to see the theft with her own eyes, and have Pierce standing over her, before she’d tell a soul. In any case, the dam needed copper, and how were they to get it without the spectrometer?

“We need you up there working your magic,” she said, gesturing with a vague wave of her hand in the direction of the dam. People as skilled as Rose in a such specific field were few and far between. 

“Leave the going off and copper-finding to me. If I can’t find something, I’ll show the next shift how to use this.” She lifted the spectrometer, then placed it carefully in her lap, fingers wrapped around the grip. It wouldn’t do to have someone else snatch it up.

Izzy gave the rolling crowd another look. “I wish I could be here for the meeting.” She had no place in the council, but Rose did, and maybe she’d feel up to telling Izzy what transpired. Whatever happened, news travelled fast and the Commander would surely make an announcement if anything important was decided. But Izzy itched to know everything. 

Whatever it took to keep the Hydro running, without it she’d hate to see where the Hub would be. Besides the man didn’t even know what it was! Rose knew exactly what it was the moment she laid her eyes upon it. It was like finding a big glass of cold water in the middle of a desert under the hot hot sun. The spectrometer could be used to test several different metals though the only true way to know what they were was by knowing what those pesky numbers meant. Lucky for the Hydro Rose was pretty damn good at knowing things.

“I really appreciate it. Maybe i’ll even let you melt some of it down with me.” Rose leaned to the side a bit to bump the other girl’s shoulder with her own, wiggle of brows and a laugh. The Hub was a collection of tension, it wasn’t quite right so… Why not try to be silly?

“Yeah, it might be pretty intense. You know how leaders like to try to throw their imaginary weight around.” Words were accented with a roll of blue eyes. Part of her wished she didn’t have to attend but a job was a job. “If I can i’ll let you know what happens, you have to come up to the Hydro though to find out.”

Rose is always at the Dam. Whenever Pierce needs to find her, it’s the first, and usually only, place he has to go. He gets it. Sort of. The same way that Pierce loves to be outside of the Hub, helping and hunting with the smallest amount of group of people as possible, Rose loves the Dam. It’s above is pay grade, to be honest. All of the science goes over his head, and he doesn’t have the patience for all of the studying. Pierce learns with his hands and feet. Rose is a genius, in all regards, and Pierce respects that and has no desire to duplicate it.

“Commander wants us ready for the big ambassador meeting,” Pierce says while taking a seat next to her. Rose having to crane her neck up at him seems counterproductive. Besides, he can take a minute away from the big roar of people. It won’t hurt any body.

“Supposed to be a lot of arguments.”

Being reliable was sort of her thing. They both had things they were good at, Rose ran Hydro and… in doing so never really left it’s great walls. Pierce run, and really well, and he also made sure they were safe in their little Hub. Rose appreciated everything the towering man did for those who called those walls home. Maybe one day they could trade job secrets, Rose would show him how to power up the turbines and he could show her how to dodge crazies?

“Ready for a lot of not so happy people piled together in a pit? Might as well be a fighting ring.” Her laugh was light, a bit worried by the anger she could feel singing in the air. The world was already so fragile. People fighting monsters and then turning on themselves. Seemed counter productive.

“Do you think everyone will get along? I don’t get why people don’t understand why we should all work together.” A sigh passed lips, a shake of her head as if she was scolding a child in front of her.

“Mm,” Izzy grunted in response, periodically turning her attention back to the crowd. The Bridgewater leaders held themselves so differently beyond their own borders than within. Perhaps it was the rising tension between settlements, or the anticipation of Commander Wilson’s meeting. If it were any other day, Izzy would have gone to greet them herself and asked about her family.

At Rose’s request, Izzy took the spectrometer in both hands and wiped dust from the screen with a thumb. It did little to make the screen more visible, but she trusted Rose hadn’t handed her a dud; the numbers would appear when she needed them to. Izzy turned the device over in her hands and examined what would have been the muzzle, if it were a gun. Point and click, easy. She nodded, repeating the exact number for genuine copper in her head to remember. 

“You got it, Blondie.”  

Runners tended to travel light unless they were bringing resources back to the Hub, but Izzy figured she could hook the device into her gun holster and keep the pistol in her waistband if she had to. It wouldn’t be hard. She’d get Rose what she needed for the dam.

She aimed the spectrometer at a sheet of metal in the nearest wall—it only required a little leaning—and held it there until the device emitted muffled beep. Numbers and letters appeared on the screen, but no 488nm. “When you say snagged,” Izzy started, sitting up again, “do you mean really snagged, or traded for?”

The Hub was a big melting pot, Rose saw many different faces on a daily bases. Mostly from high up. Some of them even came with interesting items, like that spectrometer. Izzy would do good with that little handy device, she was sure.

“Thank you… I would go off myself but someone’s gotta wrangle the water.” Also she had no training to go off on her own. Beyond the walls of sanctuary lay a whole different world, one that caused a flutter somewhere deep inside her stomach but terror at the base of her brain.

Izzy’s leaning towards the wall got a laugh followed by a nod of approval when the little device went off. She had tested it a few days ago, it worked but no signs of good copper anywhere that she could recycle and she wouldn’t dare ask to start stripping the Hub’s walls just to check.

“Now now Miss Logan… That’s sensitive information.” The grin would give her away, a shake of her head upset pieces of braided blonde in hopes to hide behind. Rose’s past may have been speckled with good deeds and white collar upbringing but even angels had sticky fingers here and there. Only for the sake of the Hydro though!

In the pages of books, he’d read about the old world. The one that had been around before this wasteland they now lived in. It seemed something so foreign and distant that he could barely comprehend it, being able to order anything you wanted at the touch of a button.

It all seemed so impersonal.

Now, he couldn’t imagine any other way of life than looking around the market with Hyuna, holding the boy’s hand and trying to find something to eat, or a book that caught his interest, something for Hyuna to play with. He was an observational boy, a trait developed by years of scouting and constantly being on the lookout. To Hyuna, he was mother and father as well as brother, a complete family unit existed between the two of them, and he was always on the lookout for potential threats.

But there was no need for much caution here. The Hub was a place of safety, and rumors of a secret meeting taking place were something that even if it filled the streets with gossip, wasn’t something he was too worried about. He couldn’t afford to be. What was coming would come, and they’d face it when it did.

“Hi,” he said as he caught sight of Rose, observing like he often did, but seeming a little more lonely. “Are you alright? Or just thinking?”

“Hi,” Hyuna repeated in his small voice, lifting a skinny arm to wave, a big grin nestled in his youthful face, filled with hope, joy and puppy fat.

After a while her gaze glossed, she was watching but her mind was somewhere else. Coming up with stories for the various people who walked past, where they came from, where they were going and what little treasures they carried in their packs. Attention snapped back when eyes fell over a few familiar faces in the crowds, their presence was tucked away for a later date.

“Watching, more like it.” Jackson was given a smile, something of a classic from Rose. For a second the runner had her attention, she hadn’t seen the little one following him around.

“Hiiiii are you having fun out in the market?” People were amazing, kids… Rose always felt odd around kids. Not to say she didn’t like them, Rose liked almost everything, but… They held such a sense of innocence, of new, that she was afraid of spooking them.

Rose dipped down into the bag at her feet, a thing that held many wonders, most of which were made of metal and wires or just pure metal. Sometimes a thing or two would surface in the water, relics of old days. Coming back up Rose clutched a small wooden toy in her hand, the blocks had been painted brightly once, now a bit dim with age, and assembled into a robot form.

“I found this the other day, it got into one of the pipes in the Dam… I already have tooons of robots.” The figure was offered out. “He probably needs a better home the the Hydro.”

Izzy propped her elbows against a rusted surface behind her, but a level of tension remained beneath her welcoming smile. The marketplace hummed with activity, and people swept past them, their bodies sometimes brushing against her knees. She tucked her feet in under her seat.

“Thanks.” She tore a small piece of bread from the roll in Rose’s hand and popped it into her mouth. She brought food to Hydro whenever possible, lest she find Rose so deep in thought she was half starving. Izzy cast a look back into the crowd at the mention of them. As time wore on, merchants poured in, looking to take advantage of the rumours, most likely.

“The leaders might stay,” she said, gesturing into the crowd. The ambassadors for each settlement kept their distance from each other. “Depends on what the Commander has in mind.” Izzy turned back to Rose and watched her survey the visitors for a moment. “Yeah. Runner’s shift starts soon. Resources. Anything you want me to keep an eye out for?”

Food was one of those things… It could always wait ‘til later. Sometimes it wasn’t until when the stars hung bright in the sky that she noticed to slight rumble in her stomach. Sometimes it was absent eating, snacking between turns of a wrench here and the heat of a welding machine there.

Don’t worry Izzy Rose washed her hands before handling the bread, promise.

“Some are missing.” Her comment was queued, chin lifting towards one leader who was surrounded by their random entourage. Rose’s life outside The Hub and Suncove was mostly restricted but she had come to learn certain faces and names with her standing at the Hydro.

Blonde head bobbed when Izzy spoke of her job, of course. The runners would be out at all hours, swinging in shifts, they started early just like the Hydro did. With the offer from the other eyes widened, mouth formed a bit of an o as she ducked down to grab at something inside her bag.

“Copper, anything copper. Wires, bits and pieces. Even old pennies.” The item the blonde had pulled from her bag was offered to Izzy. “It’s called a Spectrometer, it’s used to test if metals are real… I snagged it a few years ago from some guy who didn’t even know what it was. You use it like a gun, put it to the metal and pull the trigger. Copper will read 488nm on the little screen.” a finger was tapped against the small dusty bar on one side of the device.

“I need it to patch some stuff up in the Dam.” Izzy was flashed a smile before another piece of bread was popped into her mouth.