Apocalyptia (Retro/ValiantPickle)

Micha smiled. Rebels groups never seemed like much of a problem. They were, however, cockroaches; their nests hiding far greater numbers than the one or two that showed themselves. They were also has hard as to get rid of. The man snapped his fingers and Esme fell to the background.

"It would be foolish, indeed, to leave them standing." He said as he leaned forward on his throne. "They are likely going to try and stop are trading with the other four bases. A small group to do much to sabotage a caravan, even if it is highly protected. So, what do you plan on doing in attempts to exterminate the rebels this time? And please, do be graphic as possible."

Gilles nodded his head. "Of course, sir."

Gilles started walking back and forth. It was a habit he had when formulating strategies, or deciding what to do. He could see them now, the rebels running around in a panic, burning, dying, screaming. Gilles was a very disturbed man. A psycotic and angry sadist. He glanced at Micah, ready to explain.

"Sir, I propose that we use a caravan as a diverision, a big caravan. But we should alter the path and lure them far out of thier territory, make sure they bring alot of thier fighters. We'll let them think they've got a good haul, then we'll take out thier camp when they're gone." Gilles stopped. He started to get a determined look in his eye. "It sounds simple I know. But it will be effective. Then... when they come home. We'll wait in thier houses until they go home. then we'll slaughter them... we'll slaughter them all."

That sounded like a very good plan to him except. There would certainly be people left behind at the base to guard it but with the highly trained soldiers of the Order, cutting through a new rebellion would be simple.

"Slaughter the men," he informed him, "but leave the women. In the past older groups have managed to free some of our women and I am sure that the cattle have defected to other safe havens and other nooks."

Although he liked sewing his wild oats, so to speak, the reason for capturing the women was solely for the purpose of having them breed with the most desirable men. What this world needed to be set back on the right path was children; many strong children. Surviving the conditions in the wastes took not only intelligence but a genetic disposition for physical exertion and endurance.

"Remember the goal of Samson's Order is to repopulate the world. To do that we need young woman who can produce children. Destroy the adult males and women over the age of healthy conception."

Of course, the women. The way the world could rise out of the ashes and man could cement themselves atop of it again. Maybe he had gotten a little... over-zealous. He saluted Micah. "Oh course, Sir!" And with that he walked out of the room to set his plan in motion. Killing the women couldn't possibly be that bad. After all they provided some... fun. Gilles was mentally and physically strong, being thirty two, he would surely get a female to breed with. He stopped when out of sight of Micah. He started laughing, everything would be perfect.

Lance rolled over and almost toppled out of bed. He could feel the drool on his face, it had seeped into his pillow. He goggles pressed an indent in his face, leaving it red. Alot like the mark from the slingshot. He looked around. It was cold and the lantern was out. That must mean it was nighttime. He rubbed his aching face and pulled his goggles off.

"Jeez. I betting go collect the water." he said, jumping from the bed to the floor.

He walked forward a bit turning on the lantern and recoiling in surprise. Managing not to yell out, he saw Charlie on the floor. It's a good thing he didn't yell. He didn't want to wake anyone up. He didn't know what Charlie would do either. What did girls do when they woke up? Lance crouched down to look at her face. She looked peaceful. She really did look different. Was he supposed to do something special? Was there was you were supposed to act around or talk to a girl? Lance didn't know.

Lance stood up again, he didn't need to know. She'd be gone soon enough. He stepped over her and opened the door. It was freezing. The wasteland was always cold at night and hot in the day. These was noo inbetween. So pick your poison. Lance hopped on the ladder and climbed up to the roof. He shook the tarps one by one. He tried to be quiet but frankly he wanted to get out of the cold.

Charlie woke up cold. Very cold. The wastes were always so freezing in the night and she did not have a blanket to cover herself up with to help keep in the warmth. She trembled on the floor a few minutes, noticing how someone bent down to look at her, probably checking to see if she was alright. Even the proximity of his warmth felt nice and she tried to arch her cold and sore body up towards the source. By the time she was able to move, it was gone.

Groggily she sat up, shaking the loose dirt that had been on the floor off of her hair and face. The dust settled into her eyes and made them feel swollen and the eyelids stiff. She wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her arms until heat returned to them. The dim light from the lantern cast heavy shadows and she felt as if she were in an odd sort of fairy tale.

"I was hoping that everything that happened was an awful dream." she muttered to herself. Though the comment was more in reference to her father being gone than her finding the three boys who ended saving her.

"Lance?" she croaked out. "Are you in here?"

Lance slid down the ladder, landing with a kinda painful thud. Thankfully he was wearing gloves or the friction would have ripped his fingers off. He felt his pants to try to find his cigarettes. Unfortunatly he left them in on his bed. He was about to go back inside when he heard a voice. It sounded like his name. He'd heard it enough so her would know. Yup.

"Yeah?" he asked, opening the door and coming inside.

As he closed the door he saw that it was Charlie. Lance had assumed it was Sam. The voice was high enough. He glanced at her on the floor. She looked cold, he didn't touch her before so he didn't know. She really should wear something that covered her a little more. But that was her decision. Lance didn't want to tell her what to do.

"Are you cold?"

Charlie smiled as he came through the door. He really was a sight for sore eyes. The other two were sleeping but between a kid who tried to give everything to her and one who stared, Lance was clearly the best. Not to mention there was just something about him. He may have been goofy but there was charm to that.

"It is a little chilly in here, yes." she admitted. "I didn't think of the cold of the night before I fell asleep."

A hand came up to rub the sleep from her eyes and she gave a yawn. At first she was worried that the other two would startle awake but, as the minutes passed, they seemed to be completely out of it.

"Do you need help with anything? I don't feel right sitting like a bump on a log while you go about doing things."

"Not really. There isn't much to do at night." He said in response to her question. "It's either stay up and build stuff, or go back to sleep most of the time."

Lance shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know what to tell her. He looked at Sam on the lowest bunk. He looked so cute and small. Ugh... what was he thinking? It's almost like he avoided looking at Charlie. It was a weird thing to do, sure, but seemed appropriate somehow. Lance moved over to the corner of the room. They had an extra blanket somewhere for the really cold nights. He pulled a folded and faded blue blanket. He tossed it to her before crossing the room again and plopped himself in James' working chair. He didn't really have any questions for her anymore. What else was there to know? He knew her name and why she wanted to join the Redemption. So he didn't ask anything and picked up James' latest creation. It didn't look like anything at the moment, but he would find some way.

"What does this look like to you?" he asked, holding up the unidentifiable lump of scrap metal and screws.

"Oh, wow! Thanks! I had to leave all of my blankets behind to reduce weight. My supplies aren't heavy but can easily become a burden if I am carrying too much." Charlie replied. Perhaps she was talking too much. The words sounded alien to her; as if she was a being only imitated a human language.

The blanket was a beautiful luxury and she wrapped it around her. It was still cold but soon her warm filtered into the material. With a content sigh she pulled her legs beneath her and looked towards him. The welts on his face from where the sling shot hit him and where his goggles had pressed down around his eyes and seeing that made her giggle. He looked like a dirt covered, injured raccoon.

"A lump of screws and old, rusty metal." she replied looking at it. "Is that what James was working on? It doesn't look like it will do anything useful to me... maybe its supposed to be art!"

"Sounds about right to me." Lance said. He put it down gently, both to keep it intact and not disturbing the sleepy guys. "If it's art. Then the bar has been lowered, that's for sure."

He wasn't trying to be mean. He actually liked James' creations. But compared to other pieces of art it was just a joke. Lance hadn't seen much art. He once came across a painting in an abandoned building once. Not that it served much purpose. For that reason they promptly used it to start a fire. In hindsight, it might have spiced up the shack a little more. Lance stood up and climbed back onto his bed. The one way he could end this conversation for sure was by going to sleep. He'd probably wake up absurdly early because of how soon he went to sleep. However he'd deal with that when it came.

"I guess I'm gonna go back to sleep." he said to Charlie. "Lots to do tommorow, you know." Lance laid down on his bed. "Just turn the lantern off when you're ready yourself.

Charlie turned off the lantern almost as soon as Lance said he was going to bed. What was the point of having it on anyway? There was nothing that could be explored in such a small shack without waking the inhabitants. Yes, they could sleep through the noises of collecting water and the small bits of conversation that went on between Lance and herself but she doubted that they would be able to rest if she was clanging everything around.

Instead she curled up on the floor, beneath the table that the lantern sat on. There was not as much dust and dirt there and it kept her away from empty floor space. Being step on or tripped over didn't sound like a pleasant way to start the day.

She was awoken by the sound of the three of them waking and doing what they did in the morning. She didn't want to move. The blanket was warm and toasty, she knew that the air in the shack was going to be still a little chilly.

"I don't want to get up yet," she groaned.

Lance had slept rather well. His goggles were quickly snatched up as he climbed out of bed. James and Sam were already awake. They sent the youngest to go collect the water. He half-awake face looked around the room. It took him an embarrassingly long time to realize that Charlie was still there. In fact he didn't know until she spoke. It was strange he would forget about the only thing that really happened yesterday. Lance knelt doen to look at her curled up under the blanket.

"Then don't," he said. "We'll just leave you here and move on."

He wasn't being serious. But they had about an hour to spare until they went to scavenge for the day. They had done them all with three people before, so there wasn't really a need for another person. It was weird, you needed a minimun of three legs to make a table stand, but four was better. In this case the fourth was Charlie, but it's like they didn't know where to put it. If you put the fourth leg in the middle of the table it would be useless right? Well that's what they were doing, it was strange. If she stuck around they might want to think of something for her to do. Lance pocketed his slingshot and walked outside for a morning cigarette.

Leave her there? Charlie instantly scrambled out from beneath the blue blanket, kicking up dust as she did so and nearly knocking James' work from the table with her harsh and sudden movement. No way was she going to be left by herself for hours on end! No way would she be abandoned again and alone!

"Please let me come!" she exclaimed and she threw herself against the nearest boy she could find, clinging to him tightly. It just so happened to be James. "Don't let mean ol' Lance leave me to fend for myself!"

The dramatics for her were a little intense when she first woke up. That paired with the fact she had recently lost the one person she held dear made her exceedingly finicky about being left to her own devices.

James' face turned a bright red as his face was buried in Charlie's chest. Sam and Lance broke out into laughter as the seventeen year old froze up. The poor kid didn't know what to do about it. Sam rushed ouside to keep from laughing anymore, Lance looked away and said, "I think you're killing him Charlie."

Who would have thought that his line would have gotten such a reaction. Did she forget that they lived here? They had to come back whether they liked it or not. Still, now that she was up they could go scavenging. If they left her here she might just rob the place and leave. Though she really didn't seem lik the type to do that.

"I was only joking." Lance said, closing the door to the shack. "Fill up your canteen. We're gonna get moving soon."

It wasn't that she forgot that they lived in the shack. Previous conditions had her and her family moving all around a sector. Even when she was by herself she was constantly moving. Home wasn't characterized by the place they stayed but, rather, with the people she was with.

"I should probably get dressed in my overalls," she said to him, releasing James. She turned her gaze towards the blushing young man. "Are you going to be alright? I didn't mean to hurt you any or embarrass you. I am just a little paranoid."

Clearing her throat she entered the small building once more and pulled on the overalls. They were impossibly stiff and she had a difficult time putting them back on. Her nose crinkled. She wondered if she should get a new pair of find equally baggy clothing when they were out that day. Instead of putting on the sweat stained t-shirt, she remained in her tanktop. She stuffed her hat on and, as she crammed her hair back inside of it, she kicked open the door and let it slam behind her.

"Lead the way oh fearless captain!" she exclaimed.

Lance waited outside. James was close to having a panic attack and quickly retreated behind the house to splash some water on his face. Lance lit his smoke and inhaled as he waited outside. He didn't know what direction they were going yet. Lance walked over to a stick on the ground. He stepped on it and pulled. It snapped off, leaving a clean broken end. He tossed it up in the air, having it land and point. They would go that was. It was north. As he took another drag off his smoke he saw Charlie come out. She looked way different with the overalls on.

"There you are." he said.

Captain? It was an amusing thought and stroked his ego. Lance smiled and pointed. "We're going that way."

Charlie looked towards the direction the stick pointed. As far as cardinal directions went (or any directions for that matter) she had no clue where it was leading them to. She would trust whatever direction Lance pushed them though. He was smart about these things, of course he knew what he was doing! Then again she assumed that the stick was placed there to show them where they should go. She had not seen him toss it upward to see where the pointy end would land.

"I wonder what's so good up there?" she mused aloud to herself. Before anyone else began to move, she did. The water in her canteen sloshed about showing that it wasn't completely full. She still didn't have the heart to fill herself the entire way. The three of them surviving was more important than her surviving. "You guys are slow! C'mon! Get ya going!"

Lance smiled. This girl was so full of energy. It would be sad if he never saw her again. Lance motioned and the boys started moving out. She was gonna go talk to the boss today after they got back. She probably would be positioned far away. But at least they could have one little adventure first. Lance dropped his cigarette and stepped on it. He must be getting soft. In the course of one night he went from not caring about her, to thinking he might miss her. She probably didn't feel the same way. She had alot of problems anyway.

"Alright, I'm coming." Lance said as he started walking.

The sun was coming up fast and he wanted them to go as far as they could before it got really hot. Lance put his goggles on, pulling them over his eyes giving him the blank stare that most people saw him as. He felt his back over his shoulder, filled with his shiv, canteen and a couple of glowsticks. With a contented sigh he began walking after them.

The morning was delightful. It was at that time of day when the sun was just rising and burning off the cold air, making it feel warm. The sky was still spotted with barely twinkling barbs in an expanse that slowly faded from deep inky indigo to brilliant turquoise, then to the radiant orange of the fiery sun. There were few pleasures life had to offer in the wastes but the conditions that the four of them were travelling in was certainly a rare treat and delight.

Charlie was glad and sung almost the entirety of the time before the sun completely rose. It was more likely that a group of renegades would come after them during the midday heat. That was when people were more desperate. Or, at least, that is what she assumed anyway.

What she was unaware of was that a gang had thought of going out to scavenge as well while the sun wasn't very high. Not only had they gone out but they had heard the way that one of the boy's had sounded awfully suspect in gender. This piqued the gang's interest and so they followed.

As they walked, Lance listened to Charlie singing. Sam seemed very enamored by it. Lance had to admit, it sounded nice. Maybe it was just the fact that it was a female voice. Maybe she actual had talent, who knew? Lance wasn't really paying attention. He was focused on a little dot that appeared on the horizon. Lance stopped walking for a moment. They'd been walking for a little over an hour now. If that place was big it might yield some nice scrap. However from this distance it was hard to tell.

"Hey, boys, look over there." He said, talking to his two friends. He was used to talking to just them, but it seemed helpful since they needed Charlie to pass for a boy. "Did you guys think it's worth it?"

Lance adjusted the goggles on his face. they were od and were beginning to dig into his face. If he didn't move them he'd get painful red marks. Lance lookeed around. It would mean they could get home sooner if it was a good place to check out. But getting home sooner would mean Charlie would leave sooner. Ugh, he really needed to stop thinking about her. He'd only known her for a little while. Lance drew designs in the dirt with his shoe as he waited for thier answer.

"Well..." James said, looking into the distance. "I don't suppose trying it out would hurt. Right Sam?"

Same, still smiling from Charlie's singing almost didn't hear the seventeen year old. "Oh.... right."

The three of them looked at Charlie, since for this adventure she was part of the group.

Charlie paused in her singing as they asked her about what was on the horizon. Lost in her own amusement, she hadn't looked ahead at all and she had totally missed what everyone else saw. Her eyes squinted so she could make out the mass. It looked like a bunch of old metal piled together.

"I say we head for it," she replied with a grin. "Even if we don't find anything we can use I bet we'll have an interesting adventure anyway."

Anything was more interesting then hiding out alone and slinking from place to place. If she was with a group of people, it was going to be exciting. She clapped her hands together and began to make a mad dash for the pile.

"C'mon then you slow pokes!"

Meanwhile the men that had been following them stopped to speak to one another in hushed tones.

"I can't tell if that is a woman or a kid." one said.

The other nodded his head in agreement, "it acts like a preteen boy."

Who was she calling slow? Lance picked up the pace and ran after her. The boys followed suit and soon they were all running. As they got closed Lance could make out the shape. It looked like a building, half collapsed. Normally, going into a building that was damaged was dangerous. But Lance and the boys had done much worse in the past. Probably the worst being jumping from a sixth story window and hoping thier little cloth 'parachutes' would save them from death. It was a desperate situation at the time. Frankly the cloth didn't do shit, but the landed in a pile of rubble that neither tumbled on them or cut them to ribbons, they were lucky. Anyway this building would be childs play. If it was a building, it was kinda hard to tell. At this pace they would get there pretty fast.

When they apporached it, Lance was breathing heavily. Maybe he shouldn't have run. He was acting like a little kid. He took a swig from his water jug. it was warm already, but satisfying. The building stood about three stories tall. The entire first floor looked destoryed, making it more dangerous than Lance first thought. It didn't have a stable foundation at all. From where he was standing he couldn't see anyway of getting in without actually scaling the wall to the nearest window.

"We need to find a way in. Let's split up." he said.

Normally splitting up wasn't the smartest idea. But it was still pretty early and if they wanted to leave early, then they couldn't spend forever finding an entrance. Lance, for now, was going to see if he could find a basement. Statistically and practically the worst place to be during a building collapse. But who knows? Maybe they could find a way to the upper floors? Lance, Sam and James all split, leaving Charlie behind.

Charlie didn't like it much that she was being left behind. Likely they did not trust her to such a rickety looking building but, really, she knew that she could climb that thing easily. Because the building was so dilapidated, bars and cinder blocks jutted out. The surface was rough, meaning that she could dig in easily and move quickly. Instead they told her to stay put. It was not fun just to wait around in the bubbling heat.

In annoyance she kicked a small pebble, sending it rolling. At least they would bring back some neat things for her to look at. That was cool... she guessed. Her father assumed that she wasn't capable of doing anything either. He always made her stay behind when he did things he deemed as 'really dangerous'. Maybe that was the territory that came with being a woman. Even in an environment where only the tough survived, men just assumed she was weak. A grunt of dissatisfaction escaped her lips and she threw herself on to the ground, landing in nearby shade cast by a pile of rubble.

The two that had been tracking them stopped upon seeing everyone go in except for the smallest looking one. That was odder still. Again it was difficult for them to tell, because of that choice, if the one left behind was actually a girl or a particularly fragile boy. They moved closer to the person, who had laid down.

Lance worked his way around the building. So far there was no entrance. At least not to the basement. Not really that surprising. Lance looked upward. The nearest window wasn't that far up, the worst that could happen was just a fall. It wasn't really possible to break that many bones right? Right. Lance grabbed the neares handhold and hauled himself up. This wasn't so bad. As he climbed he remembered that he didn't really like heights. But ut if he didn't look down he would be fine. there sure was alot of false courage to his words today.

Lance reached the first window without incident. He grinned as he took his elbow and smashed it. Taking the time to open it was for slowpokes. James heard the crash and came running. He looked up to see Lance clear away the glass and hop in. Jamed wiped the sweat from his hands and startup up after him.

Sam had no luck finding anything. He wasn't about to climb and risk falling either. Lance and he shared a fear of heights. Sam gave up in frustration and went back to find charlie on the ground. He raised an eyebrow and asked in his high-pitched voice, "What're you doing?"

Charlie looked up at the youth, face pulling into a frown.

"I am waiting around for you big, strong men to get everything around," she told him with pursed lips. Clearly she disliked having to stay put. "And you look like you had trouble climbing that mound of rubble."

She was implying that she, easily, could have climbed that falling building and was upset that she had been left out on all of the fun. What she had learned was a survival tactic and it did well in the wastes. At least it had done well as long as she had been out in the wastes on her own.

"You should convince Lance that a girl can be of help. He saw the way I was able to get ahead of you guys by navigating that trash pile in the mall. I bet I could get in that window with no problem at all."

Charlie was not afraid of heights. The girl was hardly afraid of anything. Even when people had come she did not run and, rather, embraced them. It was one of her bigger faults; fear is what kept sensible people alive.

The two males in hiding had heard and grinned. So the thing was a girl after all. With only a little boy to protect her, they knew snatching her up would be rather easy. It did not matter if she was hideous or not; all that matter was that she was a woman and could be sold for a good bit of scrap. Bits of metal were as good as gold in the wastes.

"Okay you two," one said as he stepped out. Unlike the group before, which only was carrying makeshift edges, the man who emerged was carrying a gun. A belt of ammunition crossed over his chest. He leveled his revolver at Charlie as she stood. "Hand over the bitch and no one gets hurt."

The other stepped out. He too had a weapon. His was an old sawed off shotgun. His leveled on Sam. "You wouldn't want your brains splattered all over the wastes, would ya kid?"

Charlie tensed and looked to Sam. "Shit."