Across the Wildlands (Book One: The Wildlands)

Episode Twenty-Nine- The Friends Amongst Avoiders

The first floor of the building Alex had woken up in was empty, much unlike the second floor she left behind. She descended the stairs carefully, fingers trailing down the banister's worn and smooth surface. 

Alex stepped out into a vacant room filled with an array of tables and chairs. The chairs were set upside down on the tables, and the lights were dimmed. An overwhelming smell of cooking meat wafted in through an open door that led outside. Alex allowed her grumbling stomach to continue guiding her feet.

Dry, desert air sapped any remaining chill to her skin she felt from the air conditioning of the building she'd just left. Sweat beaded on her forehead. Alex swiped her arm against her brow and looked around.

She continued toward the source of the smell.

An odd sight appeared as she rounded the corner of the next building.

Ace and Rollo were kicking a ball around, playing with other Avoiders. 

Loud music boomed from speakers tucked away somewhere. Old rock music; a song created before the wars.

How retro.

Three picnic tables sat off to the side, surrounding a plume of smoke coming from a grill. Vida was perched on the edge of one of the tables, her head propped up on the palm of one of her hands. Another familiar face amongst a sea of strangers.

If Rollo and Ace were too busy making friends, then Alex would try and make herself a friend.

"Good to see you're awake." Vida tapped a cigarette on the edge of the table, turning her head when Alex walked over to where she was. 

Vida tipped up the bill of a blue baseball cap that had been pulled down over her head. Her brown eyes held a kinder light than they had during their earlier meeting.

Well, Edric had upset her.

"I still feel like I must be in a dream," Alex said. She took a seat next to Vida, staring in bewilderment at the game taking place in front of her. "This isn't exactly what I expected from Avoiders."

"What, normal people?"

Alex laughed, but her smile quickly turned to a frown when she noticed Vida wasn't joking. "No, that's-that's not what I meant... well... I guess I kind of mean that," she admitted. Her fingers nervously twirled the ends of her braid.

"We're not all heartless thugs. We do what we have to to survive," Vida explained.

"You say that like you're an Avoider." Alex lowered her voice to a whisper.

"I am," Vida replied hastily. "I'm just fighting the fight on both sides, I suppose."

She exhaled loudly, a plume of smoke encircling her face before fading out overhead. With a twist of her hand, she put the cigarette out on the bottom of her boot. Once the last embers died, Vida peered over at Alex from the shadows of her hat. 

"It's not what you expected, is it?"

"No, not at all," Alex said.

"I suppose it wouldn't be. Not after the life you've had."

Alex pursed her lips together in thought. She had so many questions whirling around in her head; it was hard to focus on the most relevant ones. Finally, she had someone that could have answers, but she had to choose carefully which ones to ask.

"Do you guys really help the Achilles?" Alex inquired.

"I keep our group mostly in trading goods, but yes, we do. In a way. Some other Avoiders track deserters, get supplies, help with finding usable cities for them to settle citizens. Things like that. The Achilles monitors us all pretty closely, reporting in every day for an update on anything, any new people we find out here," Vida answered her question with an even tone.