“HEY RUI!” An enthusiastic voice yelled. Rui and Aryan stopped to face the small shop door, “oh hey John” Rui replied. “Just the 3 of your this morning is it?” John exclaimed looking around at the boys. “Ah, yeah,” Rui quickly tried to pick himself up by changing the direction of conversation, “how's the morning treating you?” he walked into the shop front helping to pick up the other side of the open sign so could John could take it out onto the footpath.
John was an older gentleman, one that had lived before the current world. This was and had always been his meat shop. One of the many reasons he was still around and in business was because of his skills in cutting, curing and preparing meat produce. He had had to adapt and lower his quality, I don't think he ever expected to have to prepare horse , fox or dog for human consumption. But his food was still of the highest quality around.
“Hasn't been to bad aye.” John grumbled as they placed the sign down. He looked up to see Caeden sprinting back after realising the boys had stopped. “And how's young Caeden doing aye?” “I'm good sir, do you have anymore pork I could have? Please.” Caeden tried pulling the biggest puppy dog eyes you'd ever seen, hands clasped together, pork was his favourite food. He found steak to be to tough and chewy and fox to be to stringy. “YOU'VE JUST EATEN!” Spat Aryan. Caeden's face began to pout and scowl. “He's alright, come on in, I'll see if Edvin has prepared any yet.” Gestured John. Edvin was John's apprentice he was in his mid 20's and been working with John since he was a boy. After all, someone had to learn the skill in order to pass it onto the next generation.
The group walked inside, the shop had various different animals hung up by hooks and on display in glass cabinets, they were all either dried out, smoked, or covered in some kind of substance like a sauce or spice. Except for a very small few that was all ready to be cooked that day at the demand of a customer. You could tell there was a lot of empty space that was once filled. But the demand and chance of wasting the food was too high to use it all. John went around the back of the counter, “I hope you're feeding him well.”
“We are John, he's just always hungry.” Aryan replied.
The back of the shop door opened up to Edvin carrying out some freshly skinned fox. The once white apron was covered in dried blood, white was a terrible choice of fabric to be considered for such work. Blood can remain visible under the right conditions for decades, and cleaning supplies and utensils weren't something easily accessible. His hands were covered by some thick black leather gloves that the boys understood to be there to protect his fingers incase he wasn't to accidentally cut or strike them with one of the blades, rather than protect everyone else from cross contamination. It wasn't something well practiced, after all. The living conditions were bad enough. Preparing and cutting the meat was Edvin's job ever since John's hands were riddled with arthritis.
“Hi guys.” He acknowledged to them, receiving nods in return before putting his attention towards John, “no meat delivery today it seems. I don't think they've made the journey into town yet.” John rolls his eyes in frustration, “Ah, ok, that's fine. We'll just have to make what we have last. Do you think you can do that?” “Yeah I got this, it's only maybe another day at most. Beside, if we aren't getting a delivery, some of the other stalls will be coming to us right?” Edvin made a good point. Without the farms delivering food into town, John became the main source for their goods.
“I'll talk to you guys later alright, I've got some work to do.” “That's cool,” Rui replied to Edvin. “You'll have to come show me what you got later. And tell Wystan I said hi.” The boys tried to keep as subtle reaction as possible. But Edvin noticed something was up. “Hey, if you guys need help. You guys can come to us. You know that right?” Edvin then nodded before walking back out the back. “Sorry Caeden, no pork today.” John added. Rui had began to rummage through one of the backpacks in the corner, pulling out a vinyl record, “do you know this music at all?” Rui held up A Day To Remember record cover.
The edges were now bent and the image on front was faded, but he had hoped that if anyone, John would know what it was.
“You're kidding?” John's eyes went wide, “oh wow. Wow. I remember wanting to see them live.” John laughed, “never got the chance.” John politely took the record out of Rui's hands, who was still a little confused about what seeing live even meant. He made sure to look over at Aryan just to confirm he wasn't the only one out of the loop.
“Are you looking to unload this? Like is this something you guys found?” Asked John.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Hmm. It could give me a reason to get my record player fixed, that's if it's fixable, or modifiable.”
“We were hoping for some coin or something. We already have some food you see.” Rui stated still looking confused at John's excitement, he was just surprised Wystan was right, and that something like this held so much value and joy to someone. “Coin you say? I'm sure I could spare some coin, just remember that it isn't worth much to people outside these walls, depending where you go that is.” John kneeled below the counter, his hand reaching over the table top placing down objects in the way of his safe. An old 6 shot revolver that from a distance only appeared to possess a single shot, maybe two. This was something that shocked all the boys. Guns were incredibly rare nowadays, regardless of what form they were in. And even if you had one, bullets were even more rare. It scared them all. To possess such a small object capable of doing so much damage. Aryan was visibly disturbed, he'd seen someone use one once when he was a child. Just a loud bang and that was it, he watched as someone fell, dead before they even hit the ground. It gave him the impression that the world before the current was a far scarier place than it is now with so many of these guns and ammunition in rotation.
“When are we likely to trade outside of the city John?” Aryan spoke up. “I don't know boys, I don't know. I honestly don't know where you guys go these days. I'd have thought a lot of this stuff would have been gone long long ago. You must travel quite far. I imagine you'd have come across other settlements or groups.” “Ah, sort of. Mostly other scavengers though. I don't think they were from here though. We just stayed out of their way and they stayed out of theirs. Kind of bluffed our way through that to be honest.” Rui answered.
John could be heard struggling to stand back up, Caeden rushed around the counter to help him up. “You ok sir?” Caeden asked, “I'm fine, just old Caeden. You'd be lucky to reach my age these days.” “You don't look lucky,” stated Caeden. John laughed and gave a smirk in admiration of Caeden's quick wit. “This is all I can spare for that vinyl, and for anything else this month really.” John placed three pieces of rough and not quite so round gold coins on the counter top, gold was a good use of currency inside the containment zone, as well as worth a lot to engineers. Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals. It has the highest corrosion resistance and does not oxidize making it quite a valuable commodity.
“I know it's not much, but if I'm to pretend to play the smart businessman, what you have has a very small range of interest. And even smaller range of those whom can use said item. So what do you say?” “Done John.” Rui smiled and shook Johns hand without hesitation, putting the vinyl on the counter in place of the coins. Aryan was still leaning on the wall in the corner surprised at how easy it was to unload, and all the while having none of them aware at what it entirely was.
—
“OI YOU LITTLE SHIT!” The bellowing voice came from outside, the boys jumped and turned to face the window. John peering across his store, “what's going on?” he asked the boys. “I'm not sure” Rui said whilst trying to peer out of the dirt covered windows. “Hold on.” Rui opened the shop door to get a better look, stepping out onto the front step.
There stood a soldier, a peace keeper of the city. His black padding across his chest bared the logo of what they deemed the symbol of freedom.
Big boots with steel over the toes, they had chips and dents in them and the remnants of blood. In his right hand he held a baton raised high into the air and in his left, a small child, maybe 12 years old, held close as to prevent him from struggling. The child didn't know whether to shield his face or hold onto the soldier's arm as he lifted him almost off his feet. “You made me drop my food you little shit.” The solider exclaimed, spitting what left over mouthful he had previous. “You can't even repay that can you?”
The child looked terrified, he didn't know what to do. More than likely he was probably an orphan just like Rui, Caeden and Aryan, most kids on the streets were. If they weren't. They weren't seen in this part of town, this was the borderline slums.
“Rui, do something,” Caeden begged. Rui umming and ahhing on his decision to intervene. “Fuck it.”
Rui leapt in between trying to be as non threatening as he could, “I'm so sorry soldier sir, he's with me. He's just an idiot and clumsy, it was an accident. Please show him mercy.” Rui held his hands up as the solider lifted his baton higher.
“Are you going to pay for my food then?” Rui's left eye closed as the solider continued to spit. He didn't know what to say, he didn't want to hand over any of his belongings, or hand over the gold they had just gotten. He didn't know this kid, he was just trying to diffuse the situation.
“Excuse me sir.” John said loudly, projecting over the chaos. “If you forgive these children. I can give you breakfast. How about it?” Rui looked back at John who had stepped in front of the now formed crowd of on lookers.
“Fine,” said the solider, looking down at Rui and the kid. He moved his baton hand into his pocket pulling out a poorly rolled cigarette. The soldier gave an evil grin as he placed it into his mouth. He then reached back in, pulling out and striking a zippo lighter before beginning to levitate out of his hand and up towards his mouth lighting the cigarette.
He must been subject to a fracture once in the past, this was what Aryan and Rui had warned Caeden about. Being suspected as a Fractured. Some who harbor potential abilities created after exposure to time storms.
Rui had a friend once in the past who could produce electricity with his body, like that of an electric eel. He could hold a light bulb and give off light, and occasionally prank someone by giving them a small shock. It was at most the power of a small battery.
But it often took a lot out of him to do. Couldn't imagine the calorie intake to expel such excessive energy.
But that made Rui think, maybe this solider thought being able to manipulate gravity and levitate something as small as a lighter appeared cool or scary, or even to be seen as threatening because of his power. But all Rui saw was the potential of him bursting a blood vessel before or after his little party trick.
It would have been faster for him just to use his hand.
“You got lucky you little shits.”
The solider ripped his arm away and pushed Rui into the child tripping them both over onto the dirt covered street.
“Arrg,” exclaimed Rui, rolling off the kid. “Are you ok?” He asked. The child said nothing, he just stared back at him before quickly getting up and running off. Rui sighed and begun standing back up and dusting himself off, “what an ungrateful kid.” Rui mumbled under his breath, that landing should have hurt far more than it did though, he thought. He had placed the pieces of gold into his back pocket before stepping in, but yet, didn't feel any of it on landing. It was at this moment that Rui knew exactly what had just happened.
“Don't fucking tell me.” Rui patted his back pocket and knew.
“THAT KID TOOK OUR COIN!” Rui yelled, and within an instant both Caeden and Aryan pushed through the crowd and began sprinting after him down the street.
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