Through the Eyes of Blue

V

The convoy came to a stop inside the palisade, the gates sliding shut behind us. From the rear-view mirror, I can see someone placing a large U-shaped metal bar into a series of rings on the gate, jamming them in place. As I was dismounting, a crowd of people came and started offloading the goods. Olyvia guided me away from the crowd after I had reclaimed my belongings. I had left the pack of books behind; they were meant to be donated to the place anyways. Walking beside Olyvia, I spent the time taking in the sights. There were rows of houses, a town hall of sorts, a motel and several other taller buildings dotted around. Right beside the gates, I saw several large greenhouses sitting on a dirt field, figures were moving inside them, labouring away amongst the plants; on the far end of the road, I saw rows of solar panels lining the road as it bends to the right.

While I was silently taking in the sights, we approached a lean and willowy woman dressed in blue police uniform, with a pistol and baton hanging on either hip. My eyes quickly darted to hers, checking her eye colour. Her eyes were hazel in colour, framed by thin and short eyelashes. She was not one of the infected, good.

'Kim! The new one is here, could you get her settled in?' Olyvia greeted the woman. The redhead turned towards me, gesturing at the woman. 'Sadie, Kim; Kim, Sadie.' She gestured back at me. 'Alright, I'm off, stuff to do and all that. Have fun!' She turned and walked back towards down the street.

'As Olyvia had kindly introduced, I'm Kimberley, but call me Kim.' The bronze-skinned woman stretched out a hand at me. I reached out and shook it. Her grip feels firm and unyielding, her calluses feel rough on my skin. I carefully kept my claws from breaking her skin, they were rather sharp. 'I'm one of the senior guards here.'

'It has been a long time since I've had human contacts,' I replied, tilting my head, 'so... nice to meet you. Call me Sadie.' I smiled at her. After so long of baring teeth and snarling, the expression felt strange on my face.

Her eyebrows ticked up a sliver. 'Alright, let's give you a tour and settled in.' She inclined her head and gestured at me to follow.

We started across the main road, towards the greenhouses. Right next to the greenhouses were a larger road with a smattering of small trails that leads to the many, many houses. Near the end of the road, where it enters back to the main road, was a church, right next to an ugly, rectangular building.

'This is the greenhouses, our primary food source.' Kim gestured at the greenhouses, which stretch along the wall to the far side, where it turned south. Next to the greenhouses, it was rows of housing, a great many of them hastily constructed, made of wood and steel panels instead of concrete. Yet, there are traces of houses that were part of the town before dotting around the road. In fact, most of the houses along the road were built pre-crisis, only a few of them were built of timber and steel.

We started down the road that leads around the greenhouses. To our left, there is what was unmistakeably a school before the crisis, but who knows what the building now served as? Perhaps even as housing. 'And here, is the school and at the same time, the library, the tannery and the seamstresses. After the outbreak, the number of students dropped significantly, which freed up space for other uses. The production of clothing ended up in there.'

'And there is the church. Not much had changed for it since the outbreak, it's still just a church.' Kim told me. 'And here, is the motel, now simply a housing unit in our tiny town.' She pointed at the ugly rectangular building I saw before.

The motel sat at the corner of where the road meets the main road that spears through the settlement, and on the other side of the main road, sat a large but squat building. 'Cold storage, where the foodstuff is stored.' This building was built entirely by steel plates and steel beams, on its front, a pair of steel doors guard the entrance, their circular window offers a tiny glimpse to the insides. Compared to the building's dimensions, the pair of doors appear incredibly tiny.

Next to the cold storage was a post office. Through the glass door, I saw people in brown milling around. 'This was the old post station, now the carpenter's workshop.'

Turning left on the crossroad, we started down the main road. Kim pointed out a misshapen wooden building on our left, just located on the bend, with blurred glass as windows high on the wall. 'And that ugly thing there is the communal showers and toilet. With water supply and sewage services gone, we decided to pipe all the water from a nearby creek to this one building, and the waste was filtered through layers of sand, and dried outside the walls.'

'To our left is the primary electricity supply for the outpost. A store specialising in them just got a huge order delivered before the outbreak, and they sat untouched there for us to find. So here we go, free solar farm for us.' It was an impressive array of solar panels indeed, spanning from the bend all the way to the wall, occupying the entire corner of the outpost. With only narrow paths dividing the sea of dark tones.

Just down from the panels was a large circular building that boasted a cone roof with a glass peak. With dark brown paint coating the walls, a lawn that was both wild and orderly, small yellow flowers dotting the green sea, it looks welcoming and comfortable. 'The town hall, and the mass at the same time. Meals are served at 7:30, 12:30 and 7:30 in the night. Be sure to arrive on time, there won't be anywhere to go for food if you missed your meal.' My guide told me.

'You saying there isn't any way to get food other than the mealtimes?'

'Yes. Food is scarce as it is, we can't just hand them out willy-nilly.'

'Uh-huh, good to know.'

Next to the mass was a warehouse. Clad in white and grey, the warehouse's blocky figure stood out amongst the mismatch of colours on the houses surrounding it. 'Here is the dry warehouse. Anything that's not food, goes here. The Acquisitions also has had this their headquarters.' At this proclaim I turned to her, curious.

'What do Acquisitions need a headquarters for?'

'They also keep track of our stores. The headquarters is for the recording part of their job.'

'Ah, I see. I thought they consist of just the raiders and the foragers; I didn't know there wasn't a separate group keeping track of the inventory.'

'Understandable. Oh, on our left is the barber and laundry. We decided after building the wall to relocate some of the washing machines to one central location because most of the new houses don't have one. The place was an electronics shop before the outbreak, but all its remaining stock was relocated to the warehouse, freeing up the place.'

Down the road from the warehouse, a police station stood. If I'm not mistaken, this was still the headquarters of the guards, formerly the police. 'The Security Headquarters, also the containment cells for anyone who might be infected.'

Right next to the police station, a pristine building stood, shining from the steel walls it had. 'This is the hospital. We had levelled the old clinic and replaced it with this when it was clear the clinic just won't do for our need. We then raided the hospital a town over for equipment – the only time we sent every infected away from the outpost, that place was crawling with uncontrolled.'

Further down the road, and we were back to the fork in the road. Turning down the last path on the fork, we walked past the back of the guard headquarters, arriving on the opposite side of the warehouse, where a wood and steel plate house painted in the most horrid shade of bright yellow stood. Gods, why would anyone use that paint?

'You can have this house. Now, it's late, take the time to settle in, come see me tomorrow, I might just have a job for you.' Kim unlocked the door and handed the keys to me. 'Remember, dinner will be served at 7:30!' She called over her shoulder as she walked away.

Walking inside the house, I took note of the sparse furniture populating the house. This is going to take some work...

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Alright then, the new chappie is here. 

I'm considering posting this on ao3, since Phoenix is also posted there, should I? Hmm...

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. If you do, don't forget to press that lil star!

-LHYT