Entry 1661: Part 1

Date: September 8, 2061

As soon as morning came, I wasted no time scouting out the village of Moles. I didn’t want to be hesitant; I wanted to walk right in and pull the first person I saw into a hug. I felt stupid sneaking around the perimeter of the village; these were other moles, my people, good people. Normal, non-mutated humans who could all relate to me. But my days in the forest seem to have left me with more trust issues than I initially thought. Bellamy’s dagger pressed firmly against my abdomen, ready to bite at the first sign of danger. My grip on the wooden hilt was deathly tight, but the heavy rain soaking me to my bones threatened to rip the weapon from my grasp. 

I didn’t have to worry about being quiet; the rain silenced everything in the forest through its own yell. That, however, was the only benefit it offered me. The once hot, sticky forest turned freezing. The wet cold seeped deep into my body with each subsequent raindrop. My light rain jacket was no match for its thunderous intensity. My baseball cap had initially kept the rain out of my eyes, but soon it dripped just as badly as the clouds. 

I blame all of these factors on the reason I didn’t notice the man behind me. He’d been following me for a while, watching as I tripped and stumbled blindly through the foliage, still trying to get a view of the village. I didn’t hear him yell at me over and over again. I did notice when he grabbed my forearm. On some kind of untrained instinct, I spun around to punch whatever had me. I completely forgot about the dagger in my numb fingers until I saw the cherry blade swing forward with my fist. The sight startled me, and I caught myself just in time. The blade hesitated before the man’s cheek. He looked almost as startled as I did at the sight of the knife. The man, whom I then realized was only a boy a few years younger than me, dropped my arm and stepped back with his arms raised. Brown curls sopped onto his heavily freckled face. He frowned in a way that made me notice a scar running through the corner of his lips, then he smiled. “Sorry, Ma’am, I didn’t mean to frighten ya.” His voice was smooth and rich with a subtle Southern accent. He moved one of his raised hands to wipe away some of the rain from his face before his skittish smile returned.  

I didn’t respond; I was too busy weighing my odds in a fight against him. I guessed he was around 5’10 and decently muscular under his heavy layering of jackets. I would need to be quick to have a chance. If he managed to knock me down, I’d go for his heels and then his eyes. After a while of silence, the boy gave a weary chuckle and rubbed the back of his head. “You’ve got an intense gaze, Ms. Like you’re plottin my death.” The truth of his remark knocked me out of the mental chess game of our imaginary brawl. “What do you want? Do you live here?” I called out, raising my dagger just a bit to seem more threatening. I was starting to lose my nerve holding a dagger on a man who was smiling at me so kindly. But it was also pissing me off that he didn’t seem to think I was enough of a threat to be scared. 

“I think we got off on the wrong foot, Ms. My name is Em. Or well, it’s Emerett, but Em is just fine. I live here in this camp, and it’s my job to watch the perimeter for mutants. Can’t say I was expectin to find a young woman alone out here. If you need a place to stay, we’ve more than enough room, Ms.” I once again just stared at him in silence. It all felt too easy; he was too nice, too inviting. “What bunker were you in?” I called out in a harsh tone that vastly contrasted with his own gentle one. Immediately, I flinched at his reaction. The conviction of my dagger faltered, and it fell to my side as I stared at the pain that erupted over his face and seemed to consume his very soul. I opened my mouth, suddenly feeling like I needed to apologize for something. I shut it a moment later, scratching at my forearm and staring into the puddles below our feet. “H.4.3 Ma’am,” I’m not even sure why I asked; it’s not like I know the names of many other bunkers. Besides, they were all named randomly. H.4.3 could mean anything; he could have made it up for all I’d know. But the pain in his voice was enough for me to realize I was finally among my own people again. “Wren, P.T.9,” I mumbled out over the shouting of the rain around us. Prometheus Tera 9 my own living hell. “Is a place to stay still on the table?” I asked with a soft, shivering smile

Once inside the village, I realized how much bigger it was than I had initially thought. There had to be room for at least 100 people, though Em’s ramblings relayed that only about 60 people live here. Despite the rain, people move all around us, seemingly busy with morning chores. The entire village is outlined with a wooden fence. The camp is a mixture of wooden buildings and tipis. I don’t need to listen to Em to work out that the tipis are the loggings. We walked down a tilled path through the main buildings. Each one has a large sign carved into the top to note its use. A particularly large one is the food hall, and the one next to it is a town hall. They even have a church. We walked past gardens and crop fields, past a bathhouse that connects to the deep river running through the village. I can’t help but smile at the sight of the flowing water; it’s the first river I’ve seen since I left Bellamy. I made it out of Exposed territory.  

Once we got to the section with the tipis, Em stopped his spiel about the village's origin, which I hadn’t been paying attention to anyway. He turned to face me and gestured to his right, where smaller tipis, better suited to a single person, stand in a circle of about 20. “You’ll be staying over here; I live just over there.” He pointed to the left where 20 much bigger tipis and a few wooden buildings stand. “I live with my younger sister Mary.” I didn’t have anything to say back, so I just nodded. I didn’t wanna talk family with someone I just met. He seemed to sense my trepidation and softly clapped his hands together before guiding me further into the single tipis. Eventually, we reached their edge, and he lifted the leather of the furthest one. Inside was beautiful. A little too beautiful for an empty bedroom. Animal and mutant hides of all kinds decorated the floors and bedding. The bed was an actual mattress made of large mutant feathers and hides sewn together. A handheld lantern sat on a small wooden desk beside the bed. I turned towards Em with a skeptical look. “...” I gave a disgruntled huff and waved my hands around wildly, as if to say, ‘What the fuck is this?’ The man snorted out a laugh and shoved a hand through his still soaking-wet hair. “I know, I know. We have a few fancier rooms for special events, but well…” He trailed off with a soft blush as he scratched his cheek. “As I said, it’s not often I find young women wandering around our village. I figured we’ve got plenty of them; you should have something nice.” I frowned softly. I didn’t want any kind of special treatment. But I’m not one to turn down a comfy place to sleep. “Thank you, Em,” I responded as I shrugged off my backpack. 

Then, with a quick goodbye and a promise to come collect me in a few hours after I got a chance to rest and change into the dry clothes he supplied me with, Em left. I barely had enough energy to strip down my clothes and shove on the simple tan garments before I crashed down onto the bed and passed out. 

—--------- 

A loud thud caused Wren’s eyes to snap open. She flung herself out of bed and scooped up the safety of her dagger before she could even understand what had happened. The leather door peeled open, leaving her blade once again inches away from Em’s face. The boy flinched before giving a laugh. “We’ve gotta stop meetin like this, Ma’am,” he snickered, holding up a slightly muddy box. “I didn’t mean to frighten you again; I just came to bring you some supplies,” Em said with a little trill. His free hand reached up to gently move the blade away from his face. Wren let the blade fall to her side once again and breathed out a deep sigh. If she was going to make a home here, she needed to stop almost killing this man. “Sorry,” She huffed softly, taking the box and setting it down beside the bed. She’d look through it later. “That’s alright, Ms. Why don’t we walk on over to dinner?” Wren’s eyes widened as she looked out to the dark sky behind him. “Fuck I overslept.”