Chapter Text
Day 1 in Abel Township
Cora walked towards the front gate, cradling a bedroll against her hip. It wasn’t hard to find who she was looking for—in a township as small as Abel, any new face stood out. Earlier that day Evan had asked if Cora and Rowan, two reliable Abel Township runners (who also happened to have a bunk free in their room), would be willing to host a guest from Mullins for a few days, and Cora wasn't about to let him down. Before long, Cora spotted an unfamiliar blonde talking with Maxine outside the medical tent and waved as she crossed the main yard towards them. The newcomer was listening intently to Dr. Meyers, who was clearly listing something off rapid-fire.
“Oh, good, here’s Cora now,” Cora heard Dr. Myers say as she drew close. “She’ll show you around – she really knows the lay of the land around here.”
The newcomer turned to Cora and offered a handshake. “Hi, I’m—well, I guess I’m Runner Five now, so that or Five will be fine.” Cora noticed Five had the kind of general American accent familiar from Pre-Z blockbuster movies, voice pitched high in cheerful politeness despite the shadows of fatigue beneath her grey eyes.
Cora returned the handshake enthusiastically. “My name’s Cora—Runner Nine, it’s so nice to meet you! I think the whole township’s heard about your dramatic entrance with our latest supply drop by now…We’re all so glad you made it out okay.” Five gave a short laugh that was more of a wry acknowledgment than an expression of amusement, but smiled a little wider.
Maxine addressed both women with final instructions, handing Five a small bag of basic painkillers. “Cora, if you don’t mind—just keep an eye on her, she may not be feeling all her injuries after a crash like that, although I haven’t seen anything worrying yet…Five, just get some sleep and come back tomorrow morning, alright?” Five nodded and angled her head away from Cora to smooth down the edges of a square bandage on her left temple. Beyond that and a bandage-wrapped left elbow, Cora was surprised at how relatively unscathed Five looked, based on the story that was making its way around Abel township.
“We’ll take good care of her, Dr. Myers,” Cora assured her. “If you’re ready, I’ll show you to the runner’s quarters,” she said to Five, who nodded again and looked in the direction Cora indicated, raising one hand in farewell to Dr. Myers as the two turned away.
Cora talked rapidly as she led Five down a packed-earth path between several sheet-metal buildings. “So, there’s two of us in the room already: me and Rowan, Runner Twenty-Two…she should be there already, you’ll meet her in a minute. Sorry if that’s a little crowded, but Abel isn’t exactly sprawling. Though, I guess if you’re from Mullins you might be used to it? Do they have you all in barracks and bunks and such? Oh—these are your bedsheets, fresh from the laundry.” Cora indicated the bundle she was carrying and glanced back at Five, who was only a pace behind but taking two steps to each of the much taller Cora’s ones. Cora slowed slightly and pointed to their left as they moved on. “That’s the runner’s meeting hall, there…they’re going to have you be a runner while you’re here, is that right? Since they’re calling you Runner Five and all?”
“I definitely can,” Five replied uncertainly. “I’m not sure what the plan for me is, exactly.”
“Well, I’m sure Janine will know,” Cora said reassuringly, “Besides, we’re hard up for runners at the moment.” Cora had no idea what would happen now, either, but it was getting late and she didn’t want to pry. Mullins personnel only ever stayed long enough to supervise the offloading of supplies and maybe grab a meal before heading back. Then again, none of their helicopters had ever been shot down before.
“Cafeteria’s across the yard, we can stop by and grab you something packaged if you’re hungry—do you have any more clothes in your bag?” For the rest of the walk to the barracks, Cora barely paused to draw breath as she pointed out the rec yard, comms shack, and community center.
As they passed under an old streetlight buzzing to life under the descending twilight, Cora stole another sideways look at her guest. Cora’s first impression was that Five was tiny – the runner couldn’t be more than five feet tall, and her plain black backpack pack was nearly bigger than her torso. Five certainly wasn’t the battle-hardened soldier Cora had initially pictured as a helicopter crash survivor; she was of an average build that spoke of good fitness but not unusual strength training. She wore a one-size-too-large grey shirt with MULLINS across the chest in unimaginative black block letters over navy biker shorts. Several rips and tears in the fabric up her right side served as obvious evidence of the crash, and Cora thought she caught a flash of more bandages around ribcage level. Besides the battle damage, there was nothing that would immediately identify her or make her stand out.
Five seemed to notice Cora’s examination at this point and tugged her medium-length ash-blonde ponytail from where it had snagged under the pack, smoothing down stray wisps of hair. Cora quickly resumed her tour narration.
Although she didn’t talk much during the walk, Five didn’t look as nervous or disoriented as one might have expected. She paid close attention to Cora’s directions, scrutinizing important landmarks they passed. The pair collected a few curious looks from people milling around the township – fresh faces really were an unusual sight these days – but if Five noticed, she ignored them. She followed closely behind and hugged one wall as Cora finally led her through the narrow hallways of the brick building that served as the runner’s quarters.
“So…this is your new room!” Cora said brightly, gesturing at a stenciled 42 on the door in a mock game show hostess pose. Some of the doors lining the hallway were mismatched, clearly installed at different times. This one was particularly distinctive, painted a deep emerald with a slightly weathered surface that suggested it had once been an exterior door. “Remember, it’s pretty simple from the main entrance—a left, then a right, and we’re about halfway down. Toilets are at the end of the hall there, and I can show you to the showers once you’ve dropped off your things.” Cora rapped on the door with her knuckles before opening, calling out, “Rowan! We’ve got company!”
After a vague noise in response, Cora pushed open the thin wooden door. The left and right walls of the room were mostly taken up by a bunk bed each, with a squat dresser on the left and a salvaged chair on the right of the door forming tiny sitting area. On the bottom bunk on the left, an athletic-looking girl with close-cropped hair cut sat up on her elbows from where she’d been lounging on her stomach. There was no mattress on the bunk above her, so the single hanging lightbulb cast a grid of shadows on her freckled face when she leaned forward to get a look at the newcomer.
“Heya,” she said neutrally, although not unfriendly. “I’m guessing you’re the Mullins runner that got shot outta the sky?”
“Rowan!” Cora chided. “A little tact, perhaps?”
Five gave another short, not-quite-a-laugh and followed Cora into the room. “It’s fine,” she said. “I mean, it certainly wasn’t your typical supply mission. Sorry to cause you all so much trouble.”
Rowan shrugged. “No such thing as a typical supply mission these days. Glad you made it out alright. At least, you seem to be in one piece.”
“I think so!” Five said brightly. “The doctor says there’s a chance of a concussion? But it’s hard to tell. Doesn’t feel like the last one, anyway.”
Rowan stared at Five quizzically and with a little alarm, but no explanation was immediately forthcoming. Changing the subject, Cora clapped her hands together softly, drawing the attention of the other two.
“Okay, so…right now both of the top bunks are free, although I can swap with you if you’d prefer a bottom bunk,” Cora set Five’s bedroll on the chair to the right side of the door and evaluated the bunks intently with her hands on her hips. “There’s only one mattress left, though, so maybe the right bunk—Oh, wait! I forgot the ladder on my side is broken— okay, we can move the mattress from there over to above Rowan. Hold on—”
Five was already moving towards the currently unoccupied bunk on the right. The plank that has served as a step between the headboards of the bottom and top bunks had been snapped off at some point, leaving only about a hands’ width of jagged-edged chunks of wood on either side. After a momentary pause, Five swung her pack around to hang off her left shoulder and hopped up onto the bottom board.
“Nah, this’ll be fine. It’s not worth all the effort to move the mattress over,” she said, placing her weight on one small foot on what remained of the left side of the broken plank. Cora took a startled step forward, but Five had already hauled herself up and disappeared over the top headboard. It seemed like maneuvering her pack over the last ledge was the hardest part of the process. After a moment, Five popped back into view, kneeling and grinning at Cora from the top of the ladder. “Yeah, this works!” She paused, noticing Cora’s half-raised arms, and laughed brightly for the first time. “Ah, thanks! You’re so sweet. But I’ll be fine climbing up.”
Across the room, Rowan snorted loudly at Cora’s befuddled expression. “If you fall off trying to get down in the middle of the night, don’t say we didn’t warn you,” she called upwards.
“Are you sure you—wait, can you sit up straight up there?” Cora asked as she handed up Five’s bedroll. Five, now sitting comfortably cross-legged in the three feet of space between mattress and ceiling as she set her bag in one corner, nodded brightly. Cora shrugged. “Guess you’re best suited to the top bunk, after all, Five.”
“Is that really what you want to be called?” Rowan asked, finally standing to grab a spare pillow from beside the dresser and toss it corner-over-corner up to Five’s bed. Since she hadn’t actually given a warning, it bounced off the side of Five’s head. Five winced slightly and Rowan grimaced an apology.
“Yeah, my name’s Rachel, but I don’t go by it much these days, anyway. ‘Runner Five’ or ‘Five’’ll probably be easier for everyone, so you don’t have to learn a new name,” Five said offhandedly over the unzipping of her backpack.
After a moment of rummaging, she swung her legs back over the ledge of the top bunk to sit at the top of the ladder. “Sorry to ask, but could one of you show me where I can fill my canteen? Dr. Myers gave me these painkillers to take…And maybe the showers?”
Cora practically leaped from her bed, newly concerned. “Oh! Of course! I can fill that for you! Do you feel okay? Does your head hurt? Should we turn out the lights?”
“Hey, Cora, I bet if you ask her a bunch more questions, she’ll magically be healed from literally getting shot out of the sky,” Rowan snarked, turning back to write something on a densely-packed notebook page.
Cora rolled her eyes at Rowan but stepped back to let Five jump slightly inelegantly down the ladder with a small bundle of drab clothes cradled against her chest. “Rowan, maybe you could at least make space in a drawer for Five’s things?”
Five looked slightly embarrassed. “Thanks, but that’s really not needed—I’m only supposed to be here a little while before I go back to Mullins. You shouldn’t trouble yourselves.”
Cora waved a hand in reassurance, but Five just shrugged with an apologetic expression. Cora dropped it, handed Five a clean towel from the top of the dresser, and led her back into the hallway. This was Runner Five’s first night in Abel Township, and even if she wasn’t going to be here long, Cora was determined to make her feel as comfortable and welcomed as possible.