062. About freedom, 6

(Zeslinry)

Walking with a prosthetic leg is tiring. But clearly the world and age doesn't seem that harsh and hostile now.

Myls hands me a bottle of warm soup. I smile and thank her kindly, before gulping it down quickly. I was needing it.

M - You okay?

Z - Yes... Just still need some training.

I still use a cane, more than a crutch to walk steadily.

I feel that if my drift was a little aimless; now that I've met this shrewd child, a new meaning and purpose has appeared from our unlikely collision.

We've met, and now we found our reason. I don't feel much of a motherly instinct toward her despite her age next to mine. It's more a realisation.

We're not alone in the end, but it's nearly just us two however. So since it clicked, now we're teaming up.

Our wandering felt for both of us that it faced its main logical end on that day.

Now we can more peacefully move on to the next phase of living on, helping each other. And as I tire and ache between my hips and legs, I appreciate how caring she is. And I can say with confidence I would do the same for her.

I check and clean my stump as we camp for the night, on the outskirts of another town. It's good this severe wound healed so fast and so well, but I still shiver when I think back about that lesson of life.

I scratch my drying skin, turning hard as a foot sole.

M - Can't you replace it or grow it back with technology?

Z - That would prove exceptionally challenging.

Myls laughs. I smile back. We like playing on my monochord voice when we have the chance.

It lightens the mood, not that it's that dark otherwise.

Z - You'll tell me more about your past someday?

Myls looks a little dumbfounded more than anything.

M - I don't recall that much from before honestly. But I'll try okay.

I think she repressed a few too many awful memories. I was already adult and alone, but she has lost her family.

She scratches her head without realizing it, as if saying she'll have actually a hard time figuring out what to say since she doesn't know the answers really.

I won't push if it obviously hurts, but I'm inclined to learn more about her.

~

We walk the roads of the midlands, looking for a good place to stay. It takes for ever as we're on foot, and need to look for food or clear water most time of the days. We open trash cans and cars alike, looking for anything.

I gather the giant mushrooms grown on plastic I'm rather confident now are edible, because it's better than nothing I suppose.

Myls a little further in town is filling our bottles, from soft puddles that are still clear after boiling them.

She found some clothing and more tools than we might carry.

We gather the loot we can't carry with us in a recognizable house, on the fringe of the city. We store our spoils in a sturdy box there. We're modern stalkers now alright.

Maybe we'll return for this someday.

We build caches along our way. We head from little town to the next, avoiding the bigger clouded cities.

We also avoid the roaming monsters...

We hid inside ruins holding our breath, while a weird decomposing ox was growling aggressively in the streets below. We remained in hiding while the beast crushed the wall of another place in incomprehensible wrath.

We were lying in hiding from the sight or smell of this thing, but still felt scared and uneasy.

From each of its attacks below, it spilled its own blood, which turned to corrosive mist for its surroundings.

After a few hours of dedication, the monster then reduced in size, shrinking inside itself, abandoned this endeavour and its carpets of peeled skin. And finally, reduced to a different and smaller animal, it just wandered away.

All it left behind was a puddle of toxic goo in the middle of a wider area of acidity and splattered stains.

The broken but not collapsed wall there became a peculiar landmark we also rapidly strayed away from.

Was it just mad, or marking its territory in a way? Holding cloth over our faces to avoid breathing more than necessary what was scattered in the air, we just fled this place.

~

Another hazardous city we don't want to return to was left behind. Sometimes it's that obvious, on others it's more insidious.

Z - But given how varied the situations can be, I'm confident we can find an ideal place in the near future.

M - How much confidence do you have?

Z - Eighty per cent.

We smile, washing our faces in a stream.

There is plenty of fresh water in these lands, which is partially why I emigrated here.

We found big enough kettles and enough dry soap to get ourselves a reminder of what modern hygiene used to be.

I sigh in my mud bath. Myls hears me as she's drying herself.

M - You want a house with a bath?

Z - So much... This is life.

I roll around in this warmed up puddle of clays like an animal, enjoying the scrub and warmth.

Myls refills a kettle in the stream beside and put it over the fire to heat. This will be to rinse myself. Then I see her hanging a towel for me, and putting my prosthetic leg next to the rock where I should sit later.

Z - You're spoiling me Myls.

M - Only helping.

Z - What would you like to have in our next house then?

She looks at me a little surprised again. No immediate answer is coming to her.

M - Safety and education?

I can't help but laugh at her earnest answer.

Z - I will do my best for you.

My answer seems to satisfy her sufficiently.

~

Cleaned, dried and clothed again, we continue our journey, crossing semi-methodically all the little towns of this countryside. Building caches of materials and plunder at times.

Evading the worst things that have settled here and there apparently, solid or fluid.

I get gradually more flesh between my skin and bones, getting better. The cane I need less and less.

The headaches and nauseas are also a thing of the past now I realize.

I look back to that cold past and desolation since I arrived.

It's all behind now I plainly accept.

M - Move on you lazy bones!

Myls is already a good fifty metres ahead, while I daydreamt about all that befell me like a storm.

It feels like the weight is mostly gone?

Now I smile and limp gradually faster my way forward.

I'm coming with you little brat. I'll catch up with you...

~