Celebration

"How about you? Are you excited, Ren?"

Ren stopped for a moment, his grin fading. This was his last day here. He had been stuck here for the better part of three months, and now he could actually see a city—well, a non-collapsed one, that is. He nodded.

"Of course I am! We won't have to fight anymore, Kael can go to school, and we can go off to find a job."

The man who asked him the question was Kai, Kael's older brother and Ren's best friend. Leaving the ruined city had always been a goal since they got here. All of them were glad to finally move on. Anything was better than struggling to the brink of death just for some food.

Kai seemed to be deep in thought too. He was thinking about something that clearly made him a little sad.

"Yeah, me too, but that also means we'll probably be spending more time apart."

Ren glanced at him. It was true. It was very unlikely that they would be together like this again once they reached the city. Kael would be going to elementary school, and Kai would probably be working some physical job. Ren wasn't very gifted in that sense; he would have to work elsewhere. Maybe in a kitchen. Ren shuddered and shook his head, wiping the thought away.

"Let's not think about that right now. We're still a couple months' distance away from the fort even if we left now."

Over the past few months, Kai and Ren had pooled their money to finally afford an escort to the city. There was no way they would be able to make it all the way there from this place alone, so in the end, they decided to find another way.

When they got to this city, all they could see in any direction was ruins. Ren had been pleasantly surprised to find out that anyone was living here—let alone that there was an entire station of Revengers. After talking with the few people that lived there, they came up with the idea.

The place they were about to head to was Fort Keep. It was a smaller city compared to most, excluding outskirt ruins like this of course, home to only ten million people. But there was a benefit to that—fewer scavengers would be running their way.

It had been a long time coming. Ever since the first day Ren met them, they had been fighting to reach a life away from danger. Just thinking of the hardships up until now brought a frown to Ren's face. 'Ah, whatever. No point in remembering the past.'

"Hey, before we leave, is there anything you want to do?"

Ren looked back at Kai as they continued walking. Thinking for a bit, he said,

"No. Not anything I want to do at least. What about you, Kael?"

Kai's seven-year-old brother took a second to reply before eventually turning around with a smile.

"Let's go get ice cream!"

For the next couple of hours, they roamed around. There was a small market with a couple of restaurants nearby. God knows how they were in business or even how they had ingredients to begin with. It was quite hard to find anything natural nowadays. Mostly, Ren just made do with the few synthetic meals he could get his hands on, but today was special. Finally obtaining a life away from danger called for celebration.