Wasteland

Twilight was already darkening to night. Leona had missed dusk while sitting in the kitchen talking with Anne. While she enjoyed the colors brought on by evening, night was her true love. She'd spent the first part of her life in the darkness of living underground, but then there was a ceiling. To look up into the black and know that there wasn't a sudden stop, that there was no steel panel to keep her in made her feel as if part of her was flying through that inky expanse with all the freedom she felt. The liberty had frightened her at first. No secure walls to keep out the great unknowns and certain dangers. It had become the air she breathed to be able to toss a rock as far as she could and not hit a wall. To be able to spot something far on the horizon and walk to it and discover what it was. Traveling on land that was seemingly endless and finding new things to wonder about or run from, that was the hard life she'd grown accustomed to and fallen in love with. She could still explore and scavenge is she stayed, but her rang would be limited to a days journey. Another wall, one she couldn't actually see or touch, but a wall none the less.

Leaning on the rickety railing that lined the patchy walkway over the sloping hillside, she gazed up at the stars. She stood silently, heedless of the comings and goings of the dry throated, or the stairs of men. The hill was more like a bump on the face of misery leading to the taller foothills and eventual mountains far to the west. If Leona had know at that moment that those mountains lay a weeks footing at her back, she would have left that night with whatever supplies she could carry. As it was, she did not. Thoughts milled over the idea of caging herself like the bird she sometimes dreamed she was. She wondered what kind of man Jack truly was, or how he'd come to be the almost king of this tiny kingdom. These were the ideas occupying her mind when Jack left Egor in charge of the bar while he went to satiate his curiosity.

"The nights are gettin' cooler." Jack said, leaning on the rail next to her. It creaked and bowed, but didn't give. "Ya might actually be needin' that jacket of yern soon."

Her eyes didn't leave the sky. A slight breeze pushed the untamed mane of her hair away from her face and her tank against her skin, revealing the harness of her nipples. She was only acutely

aware of his wandering eyes. Silence was allowed to settle between them. For a short time it was welcome and abided. Leona felt as though she still stood alone on the walkway, but there was a presence just on the edges of her poriferal vision like a shadow. Knowing he was there was almost a comfort. Finally she tore her eyes from the glittering expanse to gaze at him instead.

"It was somethin' I took wit' m' from the vault when I left. I... I think it was m' dad's." She confessed. "Maybe it was his dad's 'fore 'em. Like a grand dad, from when people firs' went down int' the vaults, brought it wit' 'em."

"That be mighty fine." Jack answered.

"Or maybe it was somethin' I took off a dead man. I don' rightly remember." She grinned playfully at him.

Jack grinned back and chucked a little. He seemed to appreciate her showing him a bit of humor. There was no way for him to tell which story was the lie. There was no way for her to know for sure, herself. She didn't 'rightly' remember. The body she took it from had been dead. Whether it was her father or not was a as fuzzy as the horizon on a hot day in the desert.

"Ya wanna be back out ther', don' ya?" Jack asked, nodding toward the desolate, wind blown fields beyond the walls of town.

"Yar, part o' me does." She looked back out the was he'd nodded. "An' part o' me wonders what it might be like t' stay a while longer."

She felt his hand settled over hers. Her eyes fell to the grip that gently curled it's fingers over hers, then up to the eyes that shined almost as silver as the moon that reflected in them. She wanted to believe the kindness she saw there, but the pub and the hookers, the tattoo; these things made it impossible for her to accept that his intentions were in a good place.

"Will ya tell me yer story?" She asked, holding her gaze steady on his eyes.

His open kindness seemed to withdraw in those eyes. Their light dimming slightly as he pulled back his hand, he let his fingers linger on her wrist for a fraction of a moment. His gaze flashed out to the open black, as if remembering a long ago passed just as dark. His chest filled with a deep breath and he let it out slowly. He didn't look at her again. Instead he spoke to the breeze that whispered by.

"It's a tale fer another time." He said softly. "Egor will be needin' relief."

Alone on the railing once more, Leona was only more intrigued to learn about the man's passed. Beginning with the oldest villager she could find might be a good place to start digging. The best place would be with Egor. But he wasn't talking. She couldn't very well investigate a man with him in the same room. So she couldn't go inside and inquire of the patrons. She could wait for the inebriated to leave for home. Doing just that, she took a seat in the shadows along the side of the tavern on an empty crate. It didn't take long for the first of many to leave, either alone or with friends, to emerge. He was an elderly man, as she had hoped, but not so old that he needed a cane to walk or so drunk he couldn't see strait. He passed right by her, using the rail to steady his path. Deciding to follow him, she left her hiding place to offer him her aid.

"Can I help ya home?" She asked coming along side him.

"Ya can if ye like." The gentleman nodded with a smile. "Why would ya want ter?"

"Call it m'good deed fer the day." She replied, returning his smile.

"I'll take the help, 'cause I don' know if I'll get ther' on m'lonesome, but I knows ye's got somethin' 'sides karma on yer mind. I'm not too blind t' see that!"

Leona didn't respond. She simply took him by the arm and helped him down the declining path. He lead her to a small shack a few homes down from the gate on the ground level, the second being where the newer homes and the saloon were located. She desperately wanted to ask the man all her questions, but felt guilty for that being her only reason to help him and being found out on the matter. When they reached the door to the simple structure, she helped him inside, fully expecting him to shut the door in her face. He started to do just that, then hesitated. His old, beady eyes started out at her as if he were having an internal argument. The side that lost let out a heavy sigh, and the side that won motioned her into his metal hut.