It's Not Great, But It's Home

Laser fire struck the trees as the Juggernaut repositioned itself around the semi truck to fire at me. It was slow, giving me just enough time to get out of range. Those tenacious bastards could track for miles if you didn’t hurry, so getting as much distance as quick as possible was the key to fleeing.

My narrow escape was an example of how dangerous this job could be, but most of us who made it past our first dive into a bot run facility, and wanted to keep going back into them, usually didn’t mind the thrill.

That didn’t mean we were stupid enough to go in without being prepared. I was smart and had contingency plans for when shit hit the fan, plus I could think on my feet. But there were a lot of chard skeletons past that tree line that showed not everyone had that sort of ability.

As bad as I felt for the dead, intrusive thoughts made me glad that there was less competition. One of the reasons this career worked at all, if you could call it a career, was that there were so few of us who made it past our first time. I still remember nine years ago when I almost got my ten year old self shot dead by a bot in Green Bay. They didn't discriminate age. All I came out of it with was a scar on my back and a can of peas. Best damn can of peas I ever choked down.

Truth be told, I've come a long way since then. Far enough that I've even been able to sell my stuff for a good handful of cash. One thing that never fully died after the war was the economy. Go figure. It was a shell of its former self, but money still had some value. To be honest though, I was considered one of the wealthier individuals, and I only had about twenty dollars to my name tucked away under my bed back home.

Speaking of home, I was well on my way back to friendly territory. It wasn’t too far away on foot, just a half a day hike.

I had to pass through a small place that looked like it had been a battleground town. Overgrown buildings had huge structural damage to them, and broken down vehicles of war littered the streets. They’d have been deserted for a long time now, maybe about thirteen years or so. I stopped keeping track.

Rundown towns like this were pretty terrible places to do scavenge work, despite being vacant for so long. Most of them around here had been completely picked clean of any junk left behind. I didn’t even bother taking a look around.

Once past that town, I entered familiar territory. From up on a hill I could see our wing of land surrounded on all sides by good old Lake Michigan. Thanks to our natural watery borders, we had one of the most defendable positions in the northern Midwest.

“I hate this place.”

It might have been home, but knowing how confined I was here was probably half the reason I didn’t mind throwing myself into life or death situations. One day, maybe I'd be able to leave… Just run away and never look back. But right now, I had too much responsibility that prevented that dream from coming true. The man held me down hard.

A single bridge connected our territory with the mainland US, so it was my only port in and out of this cold hell.

“Hey, open up!” I knocked on the bridge's gate door.

“Password!” Called out someone over an intercom.

“Bite me! Open the door already.” I folded my arms and tapped my foot, impatiently.

“Vanessa, always a ray of sunshine.” The big metal door parted and allowed me access to the bridge. A security guard named Frank gave me a lift in his car, even offering to take me back to my place, shortening my trip greatly.

“Find anything good?” he asked from the driver's seat of the jeep.

He meant well with the question, but I wasn’t obligated to give him a straight answer.

“You want to find out? Come check out my shop later,” I told him. “But you better not be thinking I’d bring back crap.” I kicked my feet up on the dashboard of the car and pushed back my seat.

“Maybe I will check it out,” he chortled. “How’s your brother been?”

“Damn doctor raised the price of his meds again. That greedy piece of crap.”

“It wasn’t just the doc. Foods gone up too, but I'm sure you know about that,” he said. “I think the farmers aren't doing so well.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

I dabbled a little in farming on the roof, making some change off that. But most of my profit came from canned goods. That old stuff made before the war was packed with sodium and chemicals, but people buy it up like crack. Might as well call it canned gold.

That reminded me that I'd need to pay a visit to a certain competitor shopkeeper in town. The guy who sold me that rope that so conveniently broke when I needed it most.

“Hey…” I tapped on Frank's shoulder. “Stop here. I’ll walk the rest of the way.”

Frank didn’t argue with me and let me out at the town entrance.

This place used to be a nice little spot that thrived on tourism, but the war made sure that very few people would be coming in from the outside world. That created a significant lack of cash flow, which in turn gave people significantly less reason to care about the town's appearance. You’d think we were living in overgrown slums. Funny enough, the war never made it here. Protesters did though.

As proof of that, the scavenge shop I was currently standing in front of had boarded up windows and a big scorch mark on one side. Displayed on the protective wood was a tacky looking sign that read ‘Rick’s Emporium.’ I stomped on in and made sure my boots gave away my presence. For good measure, I blew up a bubble gum bubble and popped it extra loudly.

“Welcome, valued customer!” said the ratty looking five foot tall man named Rick from behind the counter. “What can I do for…” his eyes suddenly widened for a moment, then he clapped his hands together. “V…Vanessa? What a surprise to see you paying me a visit!”

Just like I thought. He was shocked to see me here.

I jumped onto the counter and dropped down right in front of him. That pussy was so scared that he backed up to the wall and pissed himself.

“Please don’t kill me…” he smiled nervously, sweating like a pig.

My hand flew forward, but I missed him on purpose, placing it flat on the wall behind him and leaning in close. I blew a bubble in his face, popping it like the bang of a gun. He yelped in fear.

“In three days, I’ll own this place,” I whispered into his ear. “And when I do, I’ll kick you out of this town. Understand?”

“You…you fool!” he laughed maniacally. “I have the most successful scavenge shop in all the city! And if you try and force me to give it to you, I’ll report you! You’ll be the one who gets kicked out!”

“You won’t need the cops, because I’m going to do it all legit.” I pulled away from him and jumped back over the counter. “You think you can try to kill me with bad rope? I’ll take your livelihood away from you.”

Guys like this had a lot of weaknesses. They think they’re invincible, even in the face of a bad bitch like me. He made it this far riding on the backs of hard workers, and I knew all the people backing his oh-so successful business. They had weaknesses too, plenty for me to exploit and put him out of business.

I never thought that snake in the grass would actually try to pick off his competition, but now that he screwed me, it was time to screw back before he took anyone else out. To think I bought something from him as a gesture of good will…

Before I could exact my revenge, I needed to get home and get my own shop ready for the day. Like I expected, there was already a line of people, many I’d never even seen before, waiting to get inside. They were blocking the door.

“Out of the way.” I whipped out my key and started fiddling with the lock.

“Hey, you can’t just break into here!” an old guy growled. “Get to the back of the line!”

I pulled out the key and grit my teeth. “I live here, jerk! Now back up!”

The old geezer grumbled a few times before backing away, also forcing the line to move back a few paces too.

“I’ll open up in five minutes,” I told the line. “Just wait till I flip the sign.”

The inside of my shop was pretty dingy looking, smelled like mellon too, but that was mostly because all these buildings were falling apart from long finished riots and lack of maintenance. The only saving grace was the big mural that went around the whole wall, curtesy of my artistic skills. I’m pretty sure at one point this was a video game store before the war, since I found a crap load of games stocked in the back.

I went upstairs to check on the only family I had left in this world. I peeked into his room, seeing he was asleep in his bed.

A grim thought appeared in my head as I didn’t notice him breathing. I ran in and shoved the kid around a little until he woke up.

“Sis…?” Aaron turned his head to look at me. “When did you get home?”

Relief blew over my heart as he spoke.

“Just now. Did you take your pills?” I asked.

He shook a little container on his nightstand. “Yeah, but I’m running out,” he coughed.

Those things weren’t cheap. Busting my neck for the cash wasn’t easy either, but somebody had to do it.

“I’ll get you more. Just keep resting, alright?” I started walking out of the room. “Better not catch you downstairs again, you hear me? Otherwise you’ll be visiting the doc for a broken butt.”

I heard him laugh from his bed. He was just as much a free spirit as me… Barely ever listened to what I told him. Maybe that was just fate getting back at me for being difficult.