Easternport Vol. 1, First Edition

Hidden Treasure - Part 1

Miles

Mikkel's little spat at the Inauguration Ball caused a bit of a stir in the days following. He ended up getting called into the Capital Building to answer to Matthias for it. It was the start of a smoldering fire that would inevitably burn us all, but to Mikkel, it was a game of chess that he was certain he'd win.

Cory, poor girl, got stuck in the middle--reporting for work to Matthias every day, and coming home every afternoon or evening with some horrible story about what Ian had done to her that time.

"She will be okay," Mikkel said when I accused him of bringing this on her. We were sitting at the table in the kitchen eating food out of cans and waiting for Cory to come home. "Locking her in a closet isn't going to harm her. It's obvious that Ian is too frightened to do anything serious to her. He's resorting to pulling teenage pranks just to get her out of his sight. He's a fool."

Nate walked in the heavy front doors. No one could sneak through those doors. Their movements echoed through the house. And I could always tell who was coming in the door. Cory had to push twice to get the door open and I could hear it rub twice in the frame. Mikkel always tripped on the threshold and Nate always had trouble closing the door behind him. It would either be too soft of a close to latch properly, or it'd slam hard and make the dust fall from the ceiling in the atrium. This time it didn't close hard enough, but he didn't bother trying to close it again.

His footsteps resounded through the house, but he wasn't alone. I could hear him talking to someone else. After a time, he came into the kitchen followed by a short, graying woman. She wore a blue dress with a simple flower pattern and lace around the collar. In its day, it would have been a nice dress, but that day must have been before the war took its toll on the city. The dress was as faded and worn down as the city. The woman looked rather faded, herself, with her leathery skin that sagged around her eyes.

Behind her followed a younger lady who looked to be in her early twenties. Her jeans and t-shirt were also faded and stretched out of shape. She had a small frame wrapped in hard muscle. And from the tanning of her skin, it was obvious that she had been working in the southern farms for a long time.

"And this is our kitchen," Nate said, sweeping his hands across the space in a broad gesture. "We're still working on fixing it up, but everything in here is functional. Mostly."

The women looked the room over from the cobwebbed ceiling to the weed-infested windows and grime covered floor. However, the oven and refrigerator were new and shiny. They still had stickers on them and plastic was wrapped around the stove top elements on account of none of us knowing how to cook. That's why these ladies were here. I bought a stove and Nate bought a cook or two.

They gaped at the space we called a kitchen and then turned their heads to look at Mikkel and me. The graying one tried to hide a grimace. The young woman just looked stunned. "You live in this?" She said in something above a whisper. The graying lady hushed her.

"Nate, you really should have warned us before bringing company over," Mikkel said. He got up from the bench, wiped his hands on his pants, and walked over to greet the ladies. "If we had known, we would have cleaned up a bit." He held out his hand to the older lady and smiled his warm, charming smile. The lady smiled back, and, after hesitating briefly, shook his hand. I followed suit.

"My name is Ingrid and this is my daughter, Anna," She said.

"They want to help us fix up this house," Nate added.

"Ah! From the Midtown Station Shelter, yes? I remember you both. Lovely for you to join us! I believe the tree growing in the study wall needs trimming," Mikkel said and leaned back on the table.