Chapter Text
The city fell about a week ago. A few cranks can still be found milling about the ruins, but as far as we can tell, we five are the only people still alive. Well, technically four. The boy Cara found is still in a sort of coma. He has a faint pulse and is still breathing a little. He'd been branded, one of W.C.K.D's subjects. Natalia was able to remove any implants left. As soon as she did, all traces of the Flare disappeared. Hose W.C.K.D.
The knife wound wasn't too bad. Sent A5 into shock, barely missing his heart. We're calling A5 because that's what his brand labels him. We'll have to get his name once/if he wakes up. Nat and Cara were able to remove our own implants three days ago. Awinita should be getting back from a supply run. I got back before her and haven't heard anything over the radio so she should be fine. Speak of the devil, here she comes now.
Jay put down the notebook and pen he found on his supply run today. A string of whistles rang through the air, piercing the quiet of the hideout. Cara returned the whistle from her lookout point. The group of four had made camp in a destroyed light rail train left on the tracks. Some cars had tilted to one side or had, somehow, been completely flipped, but it was home. As Cara climbed back in through the hole in the roof, Natalia moved from her spot in the front train car to open the one door the youngest had managed to hot wire. A young girl stepped through pulling off the goggles and scarf covering her face. Her jacket and pants were covered in bits of dust, and some sticks poked out of her hair. Setting her bag down, she collapsed onto some of the train seats that had been made into a bed.
“I hate Cranks.” She said in between breaths.
“How bad was it?” Cara asked, digging through the bag.
“I looked in the main medical building of W.C.K.D. Janson’s body is still there. I’m going to have nightmares for weeks.” Awi shuttered. “Found some needles and a mostly intact IV drip bag. No stand though.”
Cara pulled said item out of the bag. It was good enough for her. She moved to the back of the train car and behind a curtain, Jay had jerry-rigged. Awi sat up and dumped out the rest of the bag. It was random parts, some clothes, weapons, and bits of food. “Not much out there. Most of the stores were raided when the fires started. Killed a couple of rodents though.”
The small group of four had been living off what they could. The majority of the water and any type of food that made a decent soup or broth went to A5. They’d made do with little before this whole mess, they’d do so again. Cara came back out from behind the curtain. “As far as I can tell, he’s doing alright. Can’t tell much without access to medical tech, but he’s still alive. The IV should help speed up the healing process just a little.”
Jay nodded and turned to check in on the youngest of them all. Natalia was sorting through the parts. Tossing parts into the many piles she’d had scattered through the car. Jay, Cara, and Awinita had no idea how she found what she needed, but whenever asked about it, the girl would always answer the same. “It’s not just a mess, it’s an organized mess.” The older ones never saw the ‘organization’ bit. Natalia had been working on getting the train up and running again. Upgrading the wheels to allow them to go off the track hadn’t been too hard. It took all four of them to do the first two cars (the main car, and the one they were living in). Grease and oil were smeared all over her clothes, and face, while her hair stuck out a little from working the wires. “Anything good in there?”
“Possibly. The engine is a jerk. I hope whoever designed this thing died a gruesome death. It makes no sense, but I think I figured out the important stuff.” Natalia inspected some rusty jumper cables, before nodding and jumping up and disappearing back to the main car. Awinita laid back down again, mumbling about sore muscles while Jay climbed through the roof for his turn on watch. The city had been… peaceful? Since the surviving W.C.K.D subjects and the rebels destroyed it. A massive rainstorm hit two days after it all, and the plants started to take over the city. Rebels still wandered into the city, but they didn’t last long before the cranks found them. Altogether, life wasn’t too-
“SON OF AN ONION BISCUIT!” a loud pop could be heard, and all the lights in the train -that Natalia had worked so hard to get running- went out. Jay poked his head back into the train. Awi had jumped up and Cara had whipped out her knife. Natalia opened the door to the main train car, black smoke following her out. Wiping soot off her face, Natalia grumbled about the engineer behind the engine and something about committing murder.
“Everything okay in there?” Awinita asked.
“Obviously not. A fuse blew. Looked like it was the power circulator to the other cars, so we should be fine though.” Natalia left the door open, letting the last of the smoke escape. Jay laughed before going back up. Ten years ago when the world first got scorched, the four had found each other. Five years ago when the Maze Trials began, the small family had avoided W.C.K.D’s clutches. Parts of the world had started to rebuild, the parts that hadn’t fallen under W.C.K.D. That was where they were headed. Hopefully, they could make it north to Canada.