Sit Still and Look Pretty

“What have you done to Olga?!” Yuri stared on in shock as he witnessed his niece in glamorous makeup and the most gorgeous dress I had in stock.

“Hey, you know how much I could be selling that look for?” I blew a bubble. “She should be happy that she gets to wear something nice in this day and age.”

“But why? You’re not going to sell her, are you?”

Why did everyone assume I was in the business of trading people? I just snickered to throw him off and popped another bubble.

“Oh, I’ll sell her image alright,” I pointed outside, grinning mischievously. “Go look at the window, my Siberian friend…”

We both went out and gazed at the painting I’d made of Olga outside. It had an anime charm mixed with a bit of western style cuteness. A perfect beacon of epic level cuteness that would have men and women alike gushing over the real deal.

“Come inside to meet the real Grand Duchess Anastasia?” Yuri gave me a dirty look after reading the sign, clenching his fists like he was about to throw hands with me. “How dare you turn my niece into a deceased Romanov princess?!”

I didn’t soup her up in this outfit just so she could play dress up for people. Olga was going to be my mascot. It seemed like the perfect way to take advantage of her tiny charm and not overdo it. Besides, all she needed to do was sit there and look pretty for a few hours each day.

“You can’t deny, she looks adorable,” I leaned forward with a taunting voice. “As long as she keeps that going, she’ll be my little princess.”

Yuri had a lot of self control not to yell at me, but I think he was relieved that I didn’t make her do any more strenuous activities.

“Just make sure she doesn't become one of your American divas. Alright?” he pointed at me with a stern finger.

“If she acts up, I’ll kick her little ass out. Simple as that.”

“That doesn’t make me feel much better.” he rolled his eyes as we reentered my shop. “Don’t tell me you want me in a dress too…” he laughed, but the dork was genuinely worried.

“I don’t know…” I brushed my chin, teasing him a little more. “I think I have something in the back that might pretty you up a bit.”

“I wouldn’t expect someone like you to be good at makeup,” he grumbled.

“Uh, hello?” I gestured to the eyeliner and heavy amount of makeup I put on every morning. “I may not be very girly, but I sure know how to do a badass makeup job.”

He walked into that one. Who’d ever heard of a punk that didn’t know how to do makeup? The trick was to not make yourself look like a mime walking out of a gem factory. Some posers really had a problem with that.

“Eto plat'ye stranno pakhnet.” Olga squirmed. “Dyadya, mne ne nravitsya eto plat'ye.”

“That’s right, sweetie,” I waved at her. “Keep up that look and you’ll do great here.”

Yuri didn’t seem all too happy about Olga’s situation, but I was quick to remind him that it was better than her living in a rat turd infested bunker. She’d be happier here in the long run, even if she had to put in the effort.

“So, what would you have ‘me’ do around here?” Yuri asked.

I explained to him that the shop would be open for a little while today, and that I needed to run some errands before then. “You’ll be doing inventory work for me and tidying the place up. If you can get it working, I’d like to set up a computer I’ve had gathering dust in the back.”

“Easy enough,” he nodded. “What errands are you speaking of?”

I explained to him that I promised I’d buy out a shop down the road for trying to kill me. In order to do that, I had to locate his employees and win them over. My time frame was three days, and I was already on day two.

From my understanding, his two major workers typically operated as a team, so they could often be found together like a dynamic duo or something. Basically, when you saw one, the other wasn’t far away.

She found shit, and he fixed it.

Once I hired them, that lousy Rick wouldn’t have anyone substantial working at his shop. He’d go out of business, leaving all the spoils for me.

A few of my informants usually kept tabs on all the people who were going in and out of the territory, giving us tips on where some rumored good stuff would be. I was a bit disappointed when I heard the pair I was looking for had just left for a scavenging trip.

“Where’d they go?” I asked the homeless woman informant on the street.

“All the way down to Lake Geneva.” she said, petting her cats. “Just left this morning.”

“Damn it…” Either I was going to have to wait for them to get back, or it was time to make another trip. I leaned toward the latter due to my three day promise. “Well, thanks, ya’ old bag.” I tossed her a few quarters.

She normally was sworn to secrecy about who went where, but I was always pretty generous when tipping her. And in this case, nobody really liked Rick. So getting rid of him was on a few people’s wish list.

When I got back, I was shocked to see wires all over the room, along with a computer tower hooked up to my TV.

“You’ve been busy…” I noted.

“Oh, sorry about the mess.” he nervously brushed the back of his head. “Those wires are supposed to go above the ceiling panels, I just didn’t have the chance to rearrange them.”

All of this was to set up a pretty elaborate cash register system that connected to all our items in stock. Using some of the old GB Games equipment left behind, he was hoping to get a barcode system going. If that meant this place was going to look like a tech nerds mancave for a few days, it was a worthy investment.

Besides, Olga’s cuteness canceled all this out. Nobody would dare look anywhere but her direction.

“You did this all in a few hours?” I was impressed.

“Most of the equipment was already here, it just needed to be hooked up to a thorium core in the back.”

“Nerd,” I lovingly dubbed him, to which he scoffed. “Listen, change of plans for the day. we’re heading out for Lake Geneva.”

“Why there?” Yuri’s brow raised. “And by we, you mean you and I, right?”

“Yeah, Olga can stay with my brother,” I nodded. “Apparently, those guys I’m looking for went down there.”

Yuri naturally asked why we couldn’t just wait for them to get back, but I told him that I had somewhat of a forced deadline. If I didn’t keep my word, I’d look like a joke to other businesses in town. This place needed to see I wasn’t weak.

“I don’t get it, but alright,” Yuri nodded. “Can’t say I’ll be much help scavenging.”

“You know science,” I told him. “That’s more than I can say for myself.”

There were some dangerous places out there that a lot of the dimwitted scavengers avoided, especially places that were hit by chemical warfare. Having someone smart like Yuri would definitely help me get around those toxic environments.

“I think you're putting too much faith in my skills,” he sighed.

“You’re working for me now.” I said. “You either do the job, or you don’t. Whichever it is, I want confidence. And If you're confident that you can’t do it, then I’m confident you can take my last order and walk out of here.”

There wasn’t any room for indecisiveness here. Surviving the apocalypse was like a business. Those who couldn't do the job didn’t stay around long. Luckily, Yuri showed me he could get results.