Disc 1: Many Streams. Ch. 7: Forever We Can Make It!

Common Day and Satis walked two more hours until they found shelter inside the abandoned OR-7. Luckily for them, the survivors of the Great Earthquake hadn’t reached this part of the Community. They noticed a commotion near the north wall of the OR, so they used a rag to cover the large electricity pile and walked towards the crowd.

Around forty people lined up in front of a hanging corpse, guarded by four men who looked like merchants. Before they got closer, Satis observed that the corpse had a strange appearance: not a single hair on its naked body, no indication of sex, and purple skin. The people in line were cheerfully waiting their turn to take a selfie with it.

“What is that thing?” Satis asked innocently.

Common Day looked at her tenderly. With her, even the bare minimum of common knowledge made him feel like a genius.

“In the first months after god’s death announcement, a lot of people decided that no form of government was indispensable. That corpse there is a Judge. As far as I know, all of them were already killed. If you’re wondering about the color, it was meant to symbolize neutrality—no race, no gender, and…” he pointed at the sky “...no nationality.They were all created and sent from the Moon.”

“Oh! Never heard of those in my time, but it’s very ingenious indeed. And what are those shiny eggs?” Satis was referring to all the opened metallic spheres scattered on the ground outside the OR wall.

“Every time they came to execute judgement, they summoned their weapons from space. The sky, in simple words. But I wouldn’t get my hopes up. This one was probably killed by a mob, and all the good stuff’s already been stolen. Now it’s just a money machine for those rats”.

Satis insisted on taking a photo too, prompting Common Day to join the line with her. One of the kids asked for a picture with Satis and the corpse, and she agreed—allowing herself to be photographed with the public in exchange for a free shot with the former Judge.

The merchants seemed to like her attitude. In response, their boss pulled them aside for a chat.

“Day-kun, Deer-chan, I’m Sky Groans. Groans, for you. Hard to find people outside Many Streams willing to do a proper job these days. Need supplies, eh? I’ve taken a liking to you, thus I want to offer something. As you probably know, waves of people are coming. Relax, we’re used to moving. However…”

He called out to one of his companions, the one most covered with clothes. The companion uncovered their—it was a girl.

“She’s Pretty Anarchy Emerald-chan. You can call her Eme-chan. She’s part of our guild, but we need her to arrive safely in Stone’s Water, and we’re in a hurry to catch our next corpse. What do you say? You can have our food and water—we already stocked enough for two years. Bwahahaha!”

The girl had short, light blue hair and was smaller than Common Day. Now that he could see her face, he noticed that under all those clothes she was probably quite skinny. Glasses rested on her small nose, and a green, shiny earring hung from her right ear. Her gaze, filled with distrust, shifted between Common Day and Satis.

Not really my type. I can already feel their dislike for me. But we could use the help. Once we leave the Community, she’ll be a good commodity to spare.

While pondering his next move, Common Day looked her up and down. Pretty Anarchy Emerald began to grimace.

“We’ll take the offer! And we should hurry. On our way here, we saw the people moving in the distance”.

Both men smiled and shook hands. When the merchants had finished setting up camp (corpse included) and the supplies had already been handed over, Satis dragged Common Day away from the others.

“What do you think you are doing? First, you steal some weird cylinder and unleash hell. Now you agree to take care of the first woman who comes along—this…this Pretty whatever”.

“Weird cylinder?! Do you have any idea how much this might be worth? Now’s not the time to be picky. Let me handle the modern stuff. Focus on explaining your damn, useless powers on time!”

Satis was deeply offended by his last remark.

“You… you…” Common Day saw a tear running down her right cheek.

“Ok, let's calm down for a moment. The cold truth is, we need food—and it’s good to have someone else with us in case of a new emergency. For your information, that girl isn’t just a merchant. She tried to hide it, but she’s probably from a rich guild.”

Pretty Anarchy Emerald was watching them from a few meters away, impatient.

“Eme-chan, eme-chan, are you ready to go? Don’t worry about Deer here. She’s really nice. We were discussing the fastest way to reach Stone’s Water. If you need help with your stuff, I can—”.¡

“I don’t need your help. And don’t call me Eme-chan. If I’m worried, it’s about you. So move on”.

Ugh, I hate blue-haired girls.

They said good-bye to the rest of the merchants and began the march to the next community. The OR was riddled with holes from vandalism, accidents, and lack of maintenance—like most buildings. Though they could have exited through one of the breaches,it was better to stay under cover since the weather could shift abruptly. Common Day noticed many abandoned camps in the holes, similar to the one they’d just been. Merchants and survivors had probably taken advantage of both the shelter and the open space nearby.

He also had to be very careful in how he explained the workings of the modern world to Satis. Fortunately, Pretty Anarchy Emerald didn’t seem to care what they were discussing. The hardest part to explain to the demoness was that they had been inside the community the whole time—a term she still confused with “city”.

The important thing was that Many Streams was the largest community on the peninsula and had better internal highways, known as the Outer Rings. Some areas resembled a wasteland, but as he showed Satis, you could see more buildings beyond the tunnels. The destroyed section they’d seen hours earlier was just the “city center” (where Common Day lived), a concept Satis finally grasped.

“She is not totally wrong, you know? These lands were separate “cities” once—before the Outer Rings were even invented”. They thought Pretty Anarchy Emerald wasn’t paying attention, but she was irritated by Common Day’s inaccuracies.

Satis stuck her tongue out at him.

“And you…Rowdy Deer-san. Is that a pun?” Pretty Anarchy Emerald pointed at Satis’s black horns.

The demoness looked puzzled. Common Day prepared himself—just in case he needed to summon the bow. You never know.

“Oh, I mean, those are antelope horns, right? I’ve seen them many times—back when I had a signal on my NCCAG. And your name is Deer, so I thought…sorry, never mind…”

Satis was overjoyed.

“You notice, Eme-chan! Yes, these are clearly antelope! Obviously, only a despicable person would call someone with horns like these a deer.”

The two girls got along well for the rest of the trip. Eme-chan enjoyed explaining aspects of modern technology and society. The fact that Satis was interested in her knowledge made her overlook just how ignorant the demoness was about common life.

I’m not even sure I can leave this community with this demoness…