āļø A Sobering Aftermath āļø
āļø For @adventuriemāās Faith! āļø
Who would have thought that all it would take is seven seconds to set humans back by seventy years?
Not Selene. That was for sure.
She never did get the full-story as to how things had fallen this far this fast, but she supposed it didnāt really matter anymore, did it? The fact was, things had changed. For better or for worse, sheād had to accept that fact and sheād say she was doing pretty well. Time was the greatest medicine of all sheād learned. With it, sheād halfway taught herself how to take things in stride and not worry about things that just werenāt worth worrying about. The other half of it came from her plants. Because nature had a remedy for everything - and any kind of pain.
But a remedy could only be found with the right methods and the right plants. And the plants were in short supply in her usual spots. Which meant that sheād have to travel farther and look in new places for patches of them. Against the advice of many, Selene had decided to head out westward across the county in search of new growing spots. She knew it was dangerous. Everyone had told her that the west was overrun by toxic mist - the seven-year-old leftovers of the Bliss, whatever that was, and Faith Seedās final gift to them all; a fat fucking middle finger to the people thatād killed her. As if the dozens of families sheād ripped apart hadnāt left a painful enough legacy.
Truthfully, most of the details were lost on Selene. She wasnāt originally from Hope- sheād navigated this way on the train tracks looking to try and help people, so the history of Scavengers and the āPeggiesā was lost on her. Likewise, their warnings about a toxic mist didnāt dissuade her, and she figured it was nothing that a makeshift gas mask made out of an old two-liter couldnāt handle. With that in the very back of her mind, she set off into the fog. It was a patchy, inconsistent soup, wafting mostly around patches of what she thought looked like datura. But something was⦠off, about it. Something about their flowers, it didnāt look right. Figuring there might be therapeutic property to the plants, she decided to follow the rows upon rows of them until the shadow of a building emerged from the fog. It almost looked like the skeletal remains of a greenhouse. A lavish one at that. For a moment, Selene felt a flicker of excitement was over her. Oh! This could be good! If she could clear the fog somehow, clean it up a bit, maybe she could create some sustainable gardens in the old beds!
Her jovial thoughts were cut short by a strange sound however. The rustle of old plants and the rattling of things being knocked over inside. A flicker of fear relaxed that hopeful yearning inside of her, and she cautiously pressed on to investigate the interior and find the source. The place was⦠quiet. And the air on the inside was much cleaner. Still, Selene didnāt want to quite remove her mask yet out of caution. She lingered by the door sheād closed behind her for a moment and hesitantly called out.
āH.. Hello? Is anybody here?ā A pause, and she stepped forward, looking over the area. Tables. Beds. Lab equipment. A veritable treasure trove for a botanist-slash-pharmacologist like her. She raised her head again, gasping softly as she heard another sound. āCan anybody hear me? Hello? Iām here to help⦠I thinkā¦ā
Please, someone tell her she didnāt just walk into a wild animalās denā¦












