Old Bay

Both Harper and Jackson explored the area around Dilworth Park as quietly and quickly as they could. And thankfully it appeared that Jason had kept his word about keeping quiet after they let him go, however after several hours of diligent and thorough searching neither of them had found any clarinet reeds.

The sun had begun to dip low in the sky when Harper voiced their need to look for shelter.

“Can’t we just stay in one of the buildings?” Jackson asked, gesturing to one of a handful of empty houses and apartment blocks they had passed during their search.

“Yes, but we need to be aware that there may be people looking for us tonight.”

“Right…so it needs to be somewhere not easy to spot, but easy enough for us to come and go.”

Harper smiled faintly at how quickly he was learning, “exactly. Where do you think would be a good place?”

The young man pondered the question before scanning the buildings, taking in the surroundings of each before pointing to a small three story tenement that was situated in between several larger ones.

“And why that one?”

“It’s tucked between the larger buildings so it’ll be more difficult to investigate without getting close.”

“Anything else you noticed?”

He looked back at the building before shaking his head, “no, sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “The fire escape. Because we can’t see it means it’s on the other side, probably connected to the other building or close enough we can jump to it. Means we can move quickly to the next building if they end up finding us.”

He nodded taking it all in as they headed toward the three story apartment to set up for the night. It took them a few minutes to find a suitable room, opening up several doors to block the light from the fire they made to stave off the evening chill.

It was after they had been settled in for an hour when a sudden thought crashed through Jackson’s mind.

“Do you think the next iteration will be crabs?”

The silence this time was one of shock, and Jackson momentarily thought he was about to get a chuckle out of Harper.

“What are you talking about?”

Jackson smiled and mentally determined to try harder next time.

“I read this theory once about evolution that non-crab crustaceans evolve into more crab-like bodies. Maybe the next iteration will be crab people.”

Harper smirked at him and shook her head, “so they’d go well with some Old Bay and butter?”

“What’s Old Bay?”

Her mouth fell open in mock horror, “how have you lived this long and never had Old Bay?” Receiving only a shrug in response she continued. “Okay well now we have something else to look for.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes seriously. Trust me, what you know about music I know about food.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, I briefly thought about becoming a chef when I was around your age.”

Jackson could not help but notice the wistful tone with which she spoke, and though he didn’t wish to pry too much he had often wondered about her life before the military and what led her down that path.

“Yeah?” He asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. “Why didn’t you?” It was hard not to sound accusatory when asking a question like that but he hoped she wouldn’t see it that way.

Harper looked at him momentarily before looking back to the small fire that cast a warm orange glow to the tiny bedroom they had chosen to bed down in. She tore a piece of the dried jerky they had brought, thinking about how best to answer the question.

“In my final year of high school my mom got really sick, the kind of sick you don’t really get better from…my dad had already passed by then, and his pension didn’t exactly cover the type of care she needed. The military was the quickest way for me to get what she needed.” She spoke so matter of fact that it was almost chilling, like rattling details off a checklist she didn’t care much about.

“Oh…” Was all that Jackson could muster. His brain now wondering exactly how she felt about his desire to kill his father when she had given up so much for her own family. Was he a bad person? An even worse son? Did she regret her choice? And if she did, does that make her a bad person? He couldn’t quite muster the courage to ask these questions out loud and so they simmered in his brain for the rest of the evening.

The rest of the night passed mostly in silence, with only the briefest of discussion about their next plan. They would search the rest the adjoining neighborhood shops and if they didn’t find anything it would be then that they had to think about venturing into the walled area.

“How exactly are we going to do that?” Jackson asked before they turned in for the evening. “They have guards all the time, right?”

“They do, but there’s one place they likely have no guards. But it’ll be a bit of a shit situation.”

She smirked at him as Jackson gave a brief pause before the realization dawned on him.

“Wait, you don’t mean?”

“That’s right. With any luck it hopefully won’t be as bad as that bathroom was.”

Jackson silently prayed while falling asleep that they would find all they needed tomorrow and would have no need to venture beneath the city. He had long since grown out of his childhood desire to play in the sewers, especially after learning there were no mutated reptiles learning martial arts.