setting: post-apocalyptic wasteland

[rukonkid]

Gin can never get anyone to talk about the catastrophe. Never mind that finding someone in the first place is a feat within itself. Sure, the city has its tiny portion of residents holed away in various corners, but they prefer the inner city. If they hide among the wreckage, surrounding themselves with buildings far beyond repair, it almost looks

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[bittervictor]

Josh pauses at that. He puts his hand in his jacket, on his hidden police semi-auto, just in case, and shifts his hiker's pack on his shoulders. Then he looks up.

A boy. Probably not much older than Josh. A survivor, like him.

He smiles. Meeting his own kind - decent human beings - is too rare for him not to at least talk.

"What are you askin' for?" He called up. "Ammo, canned food, favors? I'm willin' to parley."

[rukonkid]

"Have ya really got all those things in enough quantity to trade? You must be rich~" For a moment, he disappears behind the concrete barrier edging the balcony, only to reappear with a small fruit (dry, just like the claim Gin made) in one hand. It's a vibrant orange, even in its current state, and if Gin knew the name to attribute to it, he'd say so.

"Here's my goods, yeah? Show me what you've got!"

[bittervictor]

"I move around a lot. Canned beans are heavy. Dried fruit, not so much."

Dried apricot, it looked like to him. Sulfur-treated, if it was that brightly colored - a problem for some people, but not for him personally.

Josh shrugged off his pack, and reached into a pocket for a box. He presented it and opened it; inside were about two-dozen shotgun shells.

[rukonkid]

Was Gin wary? Of course. It's an innate sort of wary, though, the kind that makes him hesitant to answer to anyone, be it inner city adult or traveling stranger. In all fairness, they're essentially the same to him. But among all this uncertainty (it's not fear - Gin isn't scared of a lot, he reckons) rages a furious curiosity.

It's what keeps him planted on the balcony, quietly staring down at the man.

Who offers anything up for free? is what he should inquire. That's enough of a warning sign, but: "What is it? Show me."

[rukonkid]

Whatever was being held up was too small for Gin to make out. Or - better yet - it was that he couldn't identify the object. Something contained in a flimsy box, something there were identical multiples of...

Multiples of anything was a rarity in itself.

"-if ya take yer jacket and pack off, and take ten steps away from 'em both, I'll come down!"

[rocksascarf]

Three months of traveling have told Lea one thing: wandering through desert and wasteland sucks. Long hard days of sand-blasting wind, nights when temperatures plummeted and strange things rustled in the brambles, times when he would see dust clouds on the horizon and hear the sound of bullets and screams. Not to mention the constant worrying about food and water; his stores were still good and he had ways to get more, but anyone who looked at him would think him easy pickings and just take what they wanted...

But he'd known, of course. He'd known it would be difficult. Hadn't everyone in the settlement told him so before he'd left? You'll just die out there.

There's nothing to find.

Savages will capture you and chew on your bones.

It's not like you're going to find him, anyway.

"I'll show them," he mutters for maybe the hundredth time. "I'll show them. He has to be somewhere out there. He can't have just disappearThen he's jumping, skittering back several feet and reaching into his pocket while jerking his head up to scan

[rukonkid]

"Woah - yer jumpy~ Look up, look up!" Gin can manage to lean over the balcony's concrete railing just a bit more, and wave. This stranger isn't quite as big as other travelers Gin's been exposed to. He's always a little hesitant to approach the men, and oftentimes the women are beyond desperate for salvation. It's a fine line that has to be walked with those he doesn't recognize, and to find someone who isn't quite an adult - it puts Gin at ease, even just a bit.

"Take yer hand out of yer pocket, though, or else I'm gonna disappear!"

[rocksascarf]

"...up. Right." Lea feels his cheeks prickle with a little heat, but it's not like anybody can see from from a distance, right? "I heard you the first time!"

He dutifully looks up, spotting the scrawny, light-haired kid hanging out of one of the buildings - and how he didn't fall or it didn't crumble under him, he had no idea. Suspicious, pride stung, but with no other option than to just turn around and take off, Lea eases his hand back out of his pocket, glaring up with narrowed eyes.

"You really mean what you just said? About the fruit?"