It’s too cold.
It felt like winter would never end. It wasn’t hard to recall the first few years, bundled away underground to avoid the storms. The everlasting cold. Winters were still harsh and long, but at least they got an inkling of spring now. It was easier to raise crops. If only they could just… maybe find a chicken or two somewhere. Now that would be great.
“Not a lot left.” Erin mumbled under her breath as she tossed a few bottles of pills into her bag.
“Mhm. We’re lucky we could still find anything in this place. Jackal’s not gonna be happy.” Lin smirked back at her, leaning a shovel on his shoulder, his blonde locks starting to turn white with his age.
Or maybe it was more stress than anything. He wasn’t that old.
“Jackal’s never happy.” Natsume grumbled under his breath, rattling a bottle of Advil. A statement that rattled a few laughs from the little crew of four.
“May as well prepare for the slaughter now.” Claire chimed in musically.
With another little chuckle, Loran nodded, already jogging over to the back room. “I’ll go keep watch. If she comes dashing through the snow, I’ll stomp to warn you guys to hide.”
Loran spoke in a mocking tone, but he knew they understood what he meant.
Collin joked about zombies and mutants coming out of the woodwork to get us all when everything started cooling down — metaphorically and literally speaking. While they were lucky that life wasn’t some weird video game with monsters coming out of the woodwork, they weren’t so lucky when it came to the other people.
The military took everything, anyone left outside was a health risk to their little zones, and even though they’d been surviving out here for this long, there weren’t any efforts being made to pull them back into society.
It was almost like they wanted them to die.
… But Lin had a feeling it was more complicated than that. Supplies were limited, it was still cold in June for fuck’s sake, and he could only imagine what the tensions were like in a place full of random people who didn’t even know each other.
It made him feel lucky to have been with so many of his friends when it happened. He was sure that had something to do with their survival for this long. And thinking of survival, he should really get his mind back on track. Out in the open —while they didn’t have to deal with mutants— they needed to beware of humans of a different kind. As they ventured out from their usual scavenging grounds, there were plenty of signs of other life. Other people. Someone out there was alive, and they had a group looking to survive. There was a chance they could be running into military or even just other survivors.
Last time wasn’t exactly a nice meeting. Trigger happy assholes took more than just some supplies, and it hadn’t been the first time either. Lin had a pistol in his pocket, packing himself at a window and watching for movement while under cover.
They were going to need to clear this spot, take all the medicine they could carry. For everyone back home. And that meant not getting interrupted.
Loran would make sure of that.
