#noah everett

The sky over the southern plains was almost always tinted a deep red-orange these days, and it had been this way for as long as Liz could remember.

She was crouched over a small device, fiddling with some of the wires that hung out of the back of the casing, a lighter in one hand as she held two exposed wires together with a pair of pliers. It was a shitty way to solder wires back together, but she was good at fiddling with things.

Satisfied, she wrapped a small piece of tape around the exposed wires and tucked them inside the casing, before flipping the device over. Most people this way didn’t seem to bother with radio communications any more, so it hadn’t been too difficult to find the parts to fix up the ute’s old UHF radio.

Liz flicked the switch on the side and a burst of static sounded as she began to turn the dial, trying to find the right wavelength. The digital display showed the frequency as she slid through, finding the familiar numbers. Smirking with pride, she raised the handset to her mouth.

“Yo, Sensei. You there?”

There was a soft hiss of static as she waited for a response, before the sound changed slightly.

“Padawan, switch to wizard code.”

Liz quickly fiddled with the dial, finding another frequency, and paused, waiting for a response.

“Noah?”

“Hey chicka, how’re you doing?”

A small smile tugged the corners of her lips as the familiar voice cut through the static. “Hey Noah, how’s things?”

“You sure blew up a storm wit’ how you left, girl. Mama ain’t too happy you took the ute and left Mitchy just sittin’ in the cold.”

“I gave him the shit he’d need to get home safe. Mama can suck my dick.”

“You know she probably would. But anyways, took you long enough to get in touch. What’s goin’ on?”

“I got your message, obviously,” Liz replied, “So, what do we know about Los Palos?”

Noah sighed heavily on the other end, and she could almost envision him leaning back in his chair. Since the rollover crash, he’d struggled with reaction speeds, which was crucial for a driver. Mama Everett never left a man behind, so she’d given him a job working with the comms setup at home base. Liz, ever eager for adventure and excitement, had stuck to the road, becoming a freelance gunner - and one of the most popular, at that.

“Not a lot, funnily enough,” he replied, “It’s one of those kind of black spots on our radar. Some intel we got from these guys, the Iscariots, suggests it’s one of those gated kind of places. I don’t know what you’ll have to sell to get in there, though.”

“We both know there’s no price too high,” Liz reminded him, “And you’re sure she’s there?”

“Not me,” Noah replied, “Friend of mine, Fischer, he had a sketch that Alaric was in, and I’m pretty sure the girl with him was her. You can find him at what’s left of the San Antonio refuge.”

Liz felt her face twist into a grimace at the thought of the refuge. They’d passed through it a few years ago, but she doubted it had seen much improvement - most of those kinds of places didn’t have enough stability in their population for there to be any sort of progressive action.

“What sector of the refuge?” She asked, noting the info on her arm anyway. “If this place is a black spot, how am I supposed to get in there?”

“Beats me. I’ll get in touch with a friend, see if we can pull a string or two, but for now just get in touch with Fischer, he’ll be in zone six. Radio back in if he doesn’t have any messages for you from me.” She heard a voice in the background of Noah’s end. “I gotta look busy, one of the boys is comin’ through. You stay safe, chica.”

“I’ll kick twice as much ass on your behalf,” Liz chuckled. The radio static returned, and she sighed, turning the device off and looking down at the notes on her arm.

Fischer, SARC 6

San Antonio - or what was left of it - was still a couple of days’ travel away. The nearest settlement was a solid half-day walk away, but she knew there was the remains of an old town somewhere in the next valley - the main reason she was hesitant about heading there was the inevitable shelter it offered for daemons.

There were dangers to driving in this part of the country, dangers that Noah Everett was all too aware of - but he knew that he didn't have time for fear. Let the passengers deal with the racing heart beat and sweaty palms that came with dangerous territory.

Ever since he'd known Elizabeth Johnston, Noah had been aware of the girl's sole driving purpose in life. He had been there when she had been separated from her sister, exchanged for food and ammunition that her so-called father figure had sorely needed at the time. Noah had been the one on the other end of the exchange, after all - and the second that the old man and Elizabeth's younger sister were gone, he had told Liz she was free to make her own decision on what she wanted to do next. It was a luxury she had never been awarded before, but one that she would be offered time and time again in the decade that would follow.

Noah had taken her on as a gunner. He needed a second pair of eyes when he was on the road, and although she had never shot a gun before, Liz had picked it up pretty fast. She wasn't a very talkative type, having lived as a servant to a bitter old man who was trapped in his memories of the past. But over the years, she had broken out of the shell she had been forced to develop. Noah was proud to say that he had been a direct influence on that - he'd quickly grown attached to the strange teenager, and insisted on ensuring she knew how to protect herself. He had taught her to fight, shoot, drive, haul cargo, and actually enjoy the chaos that was modern life in the States.

But that fire he had helped her to build up would undoubtedly get her into trouble, one day. And that one day was coming soon - if it hadn't arrived already.

Noah had spent the past six months in the comms house at Base. The Everett Trading Company was by no means a small operation, and obviously there was a need to maintain constant contact with everyone involved in the operations - whether they were out on runs, resting up, or waiting around in Base. Being the main trading group on the eastern seaboard, the various members of the Everett "family" had access to all sorts of information, and being the youngest son of the original family, Noah was one of the few people who had the security clearance to be privy to all of that knowledge.

Liz had spent the better part of the last ten years looking for her younger sister, Annaleigh Johnston. Noah had seen an opportunity in the comms house to track down the girl's location; he'd been able to trace the girl's guardian, a man named Alaric, but since Anna was mostly kept out of sight, she had been difficult to track.

Until a week ago.

Noah had made contact with an old friend, who had once been a photographer. Though the decline in civilisation and culture had ebbed away at the need for his trade, Fischer, hadn't given up on his old skills or hobby. He had some of the almost ancient photography equipment he also maintained, and the second Noah had made contact, Fischer had mentioned "the little girl you're lookin' for".

There was only one "little girl" Noah was trying to track down, and after Fischer had described her, he had known it was the right one.

"Her and her dad come through. He set her up with nice new clothes, since she’s gettin’ big now. But she came back a week later, alone. I helped her get on a truck for somewhere west of here," he had said, "Lost Palace? I dunno, some place out near the Nemexa camps."

Noah had checked the maps, and the only place in the area Fischer had described was a shady town called Los Palos. He double checked and triple checked, just to be certain, and then just before dawn, he had sent a message to the last camp Liz had been in, one he signed off on himself: Los Palos, Old West.

That had been three days ago.

Noah glanced at the treeline bordering the road again, before flicking the headlights on. Night fell faster in these hills, but the tracker told him he wasn't too far away.

Liz had stolen the pickup, abandoning the driver and almost all of ETC's company gear. At least she'd had the sense to do that - Mama wasn't happy about her stealing the truck, but if it came back in good condition then such a misdemeanour could be excused. Usually, they were able to track the vehicles, but Liz was one of the few people who knew how to disable the tracker - she'd had the sense, however, to reconnect it once she was apparently finished with the vehicle. Or in distress.

Noah knew Liz too well to imagine she was in any sort of distress.

Still, the girl had left behind a hell of a mess to clean up, and Noah had unfortunately volunteered to do that. At least it got him out of the office.

Night had fallen by the time the headlights illuminated the white shape of the missing pickup. Noah sighed as he pulled up on the side of the road behind the vehicle, killing the engine and climbing out. At the same time, the original driver and Noah’s own gunner both jumped down from the tray of the ute he’d been driving.

"Why the hell would she drive it this far out and then ditch it?" The other driver, an almost naive youth known as Skitz, was shaking his head. "If she ran out of gas, we're gonna have to find some of our own to get it home."

"She'll have left it with gas," Noah reassured him. "She brought it to this point so it was out the way, less likely to be targeted by raiders and scavengers. But she also stopped here because it's half a tank from the last refill station - which means, if you economise, you'll get it back there without trouble."

Skitz huffed, clearly disgruntled by Noah's knowledge. Skitz was relatively new, only two years into the family, but he had already adopted the attitude that he knew everything. Noah hated people like that.

"I'mma check it out," he told Skitz and the gunners, starting for the vehicle, "Y'all keep ya ears peeled. We don't want no daemons sneakin' up on us."

He didn't wait for a response, approaching the ute and scanning it for any signs of a trap. The door was unlocked, and he pulled it open to find the keys sitting on the driver's seat.

"Liz, you considerate bitch," he chuckled, scooping them up and pocketing them quickly. He scanned the interior of the vehicle, and was about to close the door and give Skitz the all-clear to take over, when he noticed something tucked under the front passenger seat.

Leaning over, Noah tugged at the fluorescent yellow box. The device was easily dislodged from the hiding place, and he frowned at it as he looked it over. If he didn't know better, which he did, he would have guessed that he was looking at an old VLF radio.

While most communication radios used the ultra high frequency spectrum, VLF radios had been used almost exclusively by military units, particularly naval units, back in the days of submarines. The density of the radio waves made it much easier to communicate without environmental disruptions, and the waves tended to actually follow the curvature of the earth's surface - though they were more susceptible to interference from higher radio frequencies. Given their current location, Noah figured that such things wouldn’t be a problem - they were too deep into Georgia, and most people actively avoided the wooded mountains because of daemons and raiders alike.

The fluorescent yellow paint job told him that it was definitely left by Liz. She had a love of obnoxiously bright colours, for some inexplicable reason. Noah wondered why she’d leave a radio behind when she was heading out west, but he realised almost as quickly as the thought occurred - she would want to say goodbye. If not in person, then at least over radio.

The first thing that Elizabeth realised as she stirred, was that they had stopped.

For most of the journey, the pickup truck driven by the man, Noah, had been rattling over the damaged roads, shaking so much that it had given her a headache. Somehow, though, she had managed to fall asleep.

The pickup was parked on the side of the road, near a small stand of trees. Elizabeth could see a stand of trees not too far away, but, like in most places, they had been burned back to clear the space surrounding the road.

“Mornin’, sunshine!”

Elizabeth looked over at Noah as he appeared around the side of the cab, leaning in through the open window. He unslung the rifle from his shoulder and dropped it on the seat, before pulling the door open. “Slept well, I take it?”

“I guess,” Elizabeth stated. She was still trying to get a read on Noah. He was unusually cheerful, despite all the shit he’d supposedly seen. She had witnessed an apparently generous nature, too - after all, he had volunteered to do the run from Millstream to what was left of the Atlanta Base Camp, pro bono.

“I cooked us up some meat,” he stated, reaching into the cab and pulling out a packet of cigarettes. They were a rare commodity nowadays, but Elizabeth had discovered that somehow, Noah had access to almost anything if he wanted it badly enough. She watched as he lit up the cigarette, exhaling smoke outside of the cab before looking at her. “You hungry?”

She was still getting used to Noah’s friendliness. He looked after her in a way that seemed like he enjoyed it, which was more than she’d ever gotten from Alaric.

“Yes,” she admitted with a small nod. Noah jerked his head towards the back of the pickup.

“Well, c’mon and get it!”

He shut his door and moved away, and Elizabeth hesitantly opened her door and climbed out of the cab. They were somewhere on the side of the road, and it was still early morning, but smoke from one of the nearby towns had tainted the sky.

“What happened?” She asked, nodding at the pillar of smoke that was rising up from a point on the horizon. Noah looked up from the pan he was scraping thin slices of meat off of, eyeing the smoke.

“Folks got desperate,” he said, the tone of his voice changing slightly. “They said they were plannin’ it, when we passed through. Lured a bunch of daemons into a large hall, locked them in, and torched the whole thing.”

“Did it work?” Elizabeth asked. Noah shrugged, dumping the food onto a round metal plate.

“Who knows? That place has been condemned anyway - even if it did work, all the survivors are shifting camp to some other place.”

Elizabeth accepted the plate and eating utensils he held out for her, and poked at the meat and what looked like eggs. She was starving, but the idea of being so close to a place that was now condemned made her feel uneasy.

“It happens a lot,” Noah reassured her, “Daemons hide in daylight, they find buildings and basements, anywhere with little to no light. If you realise your nearest town is infested, best bet is to torch the whole thing and move camp. Even if its only ten of the bastards, that’s ten less for the world to worry about.”

Elizabeth looked up from the plate as Noah sat on the tailgate of the pickup and patted the space beside him.

“It’s a lot nicer to eat sittin’,” he stated. Hesitantly, Elizabeth set the plate down and climbed up onto the tailgate beside him. They were far enough from the smoke that it wasn’t affecting her sense of smell, but the cloud was certainly stretching across the morning sky.

“You travel a lot,” she remarked. Noah shrugged.

“I do supply runs. You see all sorts of shit when it’s your job to get from A to B as fast as you can. No excuse to go around most of the bad places - you just gotta blast through it and pray you come out alive.”

“You’ve made it this far,” she offered. He snorted softly, leaning forward on his knees as he surveyed their surroundings.

“You’ll learn, Liz,” he said, his voice changing slightly. “There’ll come a point in time when you find out just how much you’re willin’ to give up just to keep breathin’. I pray for your sake, that time don’t come too soon.”

Elizabeth watched him carefully, noting the dark tension that seemed to have settled into his voice. She wanted to ask, but there was a sense of foreboding, as though fully broaching that topic would lead her into a side of the world that she wasn’t sure if she was ready for.

“I told Alaric that me and Annaleigh would cook for him,” she stated, “Keep his fire going at night, fix his clothes when they needed it, clean his weapons. I told him that we’d do that for him, so long as he kept feeding us. I basically sold us into slavery - not just me, but my little sister as well.”

“You did what you had to,” Noah shrugged. “It happens. You could’ve landed with far worse. That guy, he’s a rare kind.” He sighed heavily, shifting his position. “You’ll learn, Liz, bein’ out on the roads. People ain’t safe. Even the safe ones ain’t safe. People call the daemons monsters, but the truth is, the daemons are just humans without the rules that we force ourselves to follow. They don’t know better. Humans, though - they do. And they still do wrong. Daemons just give in to primal urges, but humans hold themselves back. Until they don’t.”

He looked at Elizabeth, and there was a dark shadow behind the pale blue of his eyes. “You’re gonna see some awful shit before we get to Atlanta, Liz. Alaric didn’t wanna expose you to it. But I say that’s bullshit. You gotta know the world, so you can know how to survive in it.”