Liberation (Remnants of Men)

Chapter 3: Between Scylla and Charybdis

   Runner scattered the tools on a large table. There were knives, wrenches, screwdrivers, nails, tapes and copper wires. He held the wrench tight and fixed the handle of a knife in-between a small opening at the head, and then tied it in place with a copper wire.

He weighed the weapon on his hand but the head was a bit shaky. Furthermore, he stretched out a tape and wrapped it around the joint of the wrench and knife to ensure its holding strength. Satisfied, he raised his new weapon up, his gaze cast upon it in great admiration.

Now, he was good. His continuous nods proved that.

“Here,” Rhiannon handed a pneumatic nail gun to Troy.

“Hey,” Runner said, “I don’t think we would need that. I mean, come on…”

Rhiannon snatched it away from Troy and bent down to fix it in his bag. “I told you, Runner, there is something out there in the building ruins. I don’t know what exactly, but it won’t hurt being prepared for all possibilities.”

She continued to browse through the bags, “Gas mask, check! Wrist watch, check! Axe, check! Sense pills, missing,” she looked around.

“I don’t have any more stash of Sixth Sense left,” Runner admitted and threw his gaze at Troy.

“Me neither!” Troy responded with his hands wide open.

“Sense pills are the only things that keep the air out there from poisoning our system. You would not last ten minutes without those pills.”

Rhiannon searched her pouch frantically. Runner watched her in keen. She was now officially their guardian angel. It was hard to find someone that would go down the depths of hell to make sure their friends were alright. At least not in Rat town or even the big city itself and even if some kind of research were to be carried out regarding the high rise of peer gangs rocking the city, the result would end in the fact that loyalty has been enslaved.

Folks exchange the little free will they had left for favours.

Everyone wants something from you. Nothing was free, not friendship, not even love. Integrity was dead and so called dignity cast into a fiery pit. To survive the new order of the world meant to shed three quarter of the building morals of humanity.

“Found it,” Rhiannon smiled and Runner returned one too.

She was not like the typical slum dweller, greedy and fraudulent. Together with Troy, the three of them were inseparable and he would not trade that friendship even if a knife was placed on his mother’s neck. Okay, that was treading a bit too far. Good thing he didn’t have a mother anymore.

Runner took the pills from her, “The pills are not even necessary because, I don’t think we would spend more than ten minutes in the wastelands. It is just to get a few scrap metals and that’s all.”

“I’m not stupid, Runner,” Rhiannon said softly, “I didn’t get all this stuff for you guys to pick metals worth five credits. Come over here,” she beckoned at them.

She placed a dusty piece of clothing on the table and opened it fully.

“A map,” Troy said.

“Yes,” she nodded, “see here,” she pointed at the map, “we went around this part of the wasteland during our rounds. It used to be an old factory in a place formerly known as Boston.  I heard that after…you know…the big boom! A truck transporting copper coils got hit by one of those storms and now is buried alongside the ruins of the factory. That is where you must go. If you guys are successful, you could find enough copper worth a thousand credit chips.”