Scarecrow

2.

"Why am I the one who just keeps on running?
Why am I surrounded by shadows of my doubt?
I search for some sort of solace
But I am a man with no light to guide me out."

Outskirts of Fallout City

23 years, 2 months and 3.5 weeks after de solar flare

As he wiped the glasses of the black plague mask to clear his vision, he turned to look around. He and Hayden were send outside the perimeter of Fallout, to search for usable attributes. Thusfar they'd had no succes, and as he checked the meter of his oxygen tank, he noticed he had only one hour left. They had to return.

'Tree.' The comlinks in their suits allowed them to talk to eachother on distance. Hayden turned and walked up to David, his outfit covered in dust. Their black combat radiationoutfits were way too hot for outside; the helmet and mask that excluded them from contact with the toxic air weren't helping to cool down either. David let his weapon hang along his body and sighed.

It had been six months since he joined the scarecrows now, and he hated it ever since. David was not proud of the work he had done, which included intimidating and hurting random citizens who did never do any wrong to him. The Raven put David on the task of making sure people in his part of the underground system paid their taxes and withhold anything valuable from the Raven. David was forced to threaten people, but he always made sure he didn't hurt any of them. At least he could wear his scarecrow mask, so no one would reconize him, and he often condoned 'minor' details while raiding people's homes to not ravage their lives any further.

He often thought about if he had made a mistake by joining the scarecrows, because he was not proud and happy about what he had to do and he hated to lie to his mother and sister about his job and where he'd spend the day. He often thought about leaving, or go and hide somewhere, but there was no where to hide and if he didn't do what the Raven ordered him to, he'd die and his mother and sister would be left behind.

The guy he was paired with each time he had to go outside, named Hayden Tree, had been one of his best friend for years now, together with three other guys from his age he met when he was still in school. Not that 'school' meant much in Fallout City; besides common knowledge and history, they had mostly been taught how to keep the society running and what of a danger the outside world was. The children of the Raven's personnel went to private schools at the upper part of the city, and were educated to become high functioning contributors of the system.

All five of David and his friends had some job in the system, contributing to the community, as all citizens did. Hayden had become a scarecrow because just as David, he wanted it for his family to get better and saw no other chance than to joint the Raven's crew. Andy Leo worked as a supplies distributor, Brandon Hoover took care of Fallout's communication system and Benn Suede was a combat trainer. They often met after work to hang out, talk about their days and family, about how fucking useless life in this world was, what their future would look like and how they longed to be able to go outside without any consequences. David felt like the guys understood him, and in times like these, that was more than he could ever ask for.

Hayden pointed at his oxygen tank and David nodded.

'We have to go.' They went back to their vehicle and while Hayden drove back to one of the four entrances of Fallout City, David thought of a way to tell the Raven their mission wasn't that successful. They hadn't found anything useful. Again. If only they had enough oxygen to go further than twenty five miles away, they might be able to find something; every building and every area they crossed was picked empty by all the previous scavengers before them.