The Badlands: Kinship

 "I didn't know you were interested in a life with me after this." I admit.

She seems surprised. I feel myself rather concerned. She is important to me but, I can feel the tension from her gaze. It was not what she expected to hear, however is not seeming to be insulted. I feel a bit relieved.

"You are a strange one Etha. Why else would I be curling up to you? I feel safer with you around." She says to me and I can feel my eyes widen by the surprise I bear from this.

"Really? I wasn't sure what to think." I admit.

She seems to be looking at me as if i am some sort of lost pup. I know nothing of how to read a woman, I hardly knew my mother and my father passed shortly after nobody taught me about this kind of stuff.

"Well, yeah, that's why we are here now."

"I'm sorry, I don't really know much about this kind of stuff." I say.

"Etha, I actually think of you as the one i want always with me." She says and I feel like my heart just stopped dead in its tracks.

"Mia, I like you." I admit. "Is that normally how people dictate their lovers out here?" I ask.

"Kind of, we all are too awkward and isolated from regular events that it just kind of happens, like we kind of just happened." She says. "Unless I am wrong and need to stop how i been acting..." She drifts her voice off.

"Nothing is wrong with that Mia." I reply.

We quiet down as we can hear shifting sand. I pull my whip from my hip and have it at the ready. Mia has a pistol ready to go. I inhale for a moment. I hear more sand shifting about out there.

I have no idea what to expect out there. Me and Mia get up close to the tent door. She nods. i understand this is already her telling me whenever i am ready we spring into action. I brace myself inside. Three... the sand shifting gets close to the tent and even piles against one of the walls a little. Two.... I hear two other sources of shifting sand close behind. We are three to two, we have good odds. One... I nod and we both spring out into the night.

I activate the electric whip and see three people in the distance of my light. They are all wrapped in some weird shimmering cloth that I have never seen before. Mia looks to them and slides to my side.

"I think their clothing shines because it is a metal." Mia says before patting my back.

I nod and she stands a fair bit back from me and begins firing off laser rounds towards the three of these scavengers. I will not fall to these guys if being buried didn't kill me. I flick the wrist lightly and hear my whip hiss. I shake with excitement.

"You two, put your weapons down, we seek food only." One of the scavengers with shining clothing decides to speak up. It sounds like some kind of female.

"No thanks." Mia says as she fires at the one which spoke and nails them right in the throat.

"How dare you?!" The second one shouts.

One sprints for Mia, I assume she will be fine. the last one tries to pull out some kind of sword like thing i believe they made on their own. I slide my right foot back and adjust my grip on the whip.

I hear two shots fired from Mia's direction and the one i have to deal with is already in my range. I swipe my whip towards the scavengers wrist. I miss it barely and spin around for a leap forward while following the swing to make a second attack.

I can hear fighting behind me. It seems Mia has a faster opponent than she expected. I look over to my enemy to see them just over my swing for their legs. I groan and slide to my feet once more. The cloth wearing people seem to know more about fighting others than I would have hoped.

A sting hits my face as my vision blacks out on the left side for a moment. I shudder and swing back to the one I am handling. I can hear Mia having her person groan from a hit. I feel my hand filled with the whip my finger crushed between their face and my weapon, as they stammer back I swing my whip overhead and it wraps around their arm. The whip ignites with electrical energy. the person on the end of my whip can't seem to speak, only letting out a vibrato of a groan. The whip stops the current and the body continues to twitch on the ground.

I turn to see Mia standing with a foot against her enemies back, pulling against their arm. The individual squirms uncomfortably. I smirk.

"Nice work." I say.

"Not too shabby yourself, Etha." The man squirms as she speaks.

She twists their arm and this time i can tell its a man's groan. I kneel before the individuals head and pull his face cover off. I look up to Mia.

"Well, why'd you try to ambush us?" Mia demands an answer.

"You have pre war tech." The man grumbles.

I stand to my feet. I shake my head and sigh. Mia watches me. I think she knows I don't buy his story. That would mean they have been following us for quite some time.

"Who sent you?" I ask.

"I work freelance. My clients information is personal." They return as a statement.

"Well, your life is also personal and at risk." I say.

"I am not saying." He insists.

"Well Mia, let him up." I say as I raise my hands.

Mia let's the man get up. She looks at me rather confused and keeps a hand on her laser pistol. I know why already. We won't be letting this guy come back later with a new crew.

"Big mistake tough guy." He says.

I simply turn the whip back on. He watches the sparks flying off of my whip. He then raises his hands.

"Idiot." I say.

The man charges at me. I take one step left and swing the whip, grabbing onto one of his legs. He quickly begins twitching like the first victim to my whip, smouldering as I keep the high voltage going. The smell of his flesh beginning to cook hits my nostrils when I release the current of the whip.

"Uh, Etha, you alright after all that?" Mia asks.

"It's them or us." I say. "I have to be okay with it." I add.

"True enough." Mia nods in agreement.

We go back into the tent and let the bodies stay out there until we decide to pack up in the morning. we probably will end up just leaving them there. A mutated animal could have that for their next meal, I would think.

"So, Mia, anything you ever encounter out here that you didn't have gear to fight?" I ask.

"Outside of the giant sand worm thing? Never." She says with confidence.

"You seem to be a bit of an old world genius. Where did you learn all of this stuff Mia?"

"Well, I spent a lot of time in New Boston. Most travellers go through there regularly. You end up learning about alot. Like how Californex almost got whiped out a while ago. We all have our fights." Mia says.

"So, you probably have heard of all kinds of weird creatures." I say.

"Well, it's one thing to hear a story, but its another to actually see them."

"What creatures have you seen then?" I ask.

"Well, there are many. Stags, obviously. I have seen humans." She pauses. "I have also seen the Feral." She says.

"What are the Feral?" I ask.

"The Feral are wild humanoids... i think that at one time maybe they were human." She thinks for a moment. " They look like people made out of old candles, kinda." She tries to explain.

"That's creepy."

"You're telling me." She laughs.

This night I feel like it would not have any way of getting any better. Well, minus us always fighting to live and survive. She makes living in these wastes worth it. I hope we can make the badlands a place we all see as worth it. We could start farming again like our ancestors. This could change everything we know about life.

Many of us struggle with food or some other kind of resource. Californex for a little while had a shortage in Iron and Steel, so they decided to melt the old metal that our old world ancestors used for dining to try and replace the need for the metals. Aluminum and Nickel however, were no replacement. Some even were made from gold, but that was more valuable before the bombs fell, now, it seems pointless to have such a soft metal.

"You know what, Mia?" I open the route for a new topic.

"Hmm?"

"I think we can really make a big difference because of you." I smile.

"Well, we're gonna try to." Mia says to me.

"I want us to bring a better life to everyone we can." I say.

"Agreed." She nods.

I feel at peace knowing we both are on the same page. I think maybe I do feel the same about living with her when this is all over. Perhaps she has a point. We work really well together. At least, I think so.