The Burn Zone

When I said the hunting was good, I wasn't kidding. On the way back I saw a group of rabbits sunning themselves after the earlier rain and was able to hit two of them. We didn't have to share after all.

The kids had set up camp on a large flat rock and cleared away most the surrounding weeds. They'd also picked apples and berries to feed a gang.

As I built the fire I watched them laid out on the slab. They were exhausted. They may have been worked hard by the monks, but walking long distances was a different kind of work. For a moment I was annoyed at having to stop for the day until I remembered that I wasn't going anywhere. Why not take it easy and enjoy the journey?

We ate our meal of rabbit and apples and I listened to them chatter about not much of anything. As the sun set I could smell more rain on the horizon and put some tender and wood into the tent.

There was a story I barely remembered from my childhood about dead people becoming stars. I laid back and looked up at the sky and tried to figure out which star was Oak. I was never any good at that crap, though. I thought it would make me feel better, knowing that Oak was a pretty little star looking down on me, but I knew he wasn't. None of those stars was big enough to be him.

"What's a star?" I asked. Shu shu looked over at me and I could tell she was wondering why I didn't know. That's why I never liked anyone who was monk-taught.

"It's like the sun, only very far away so it looks smaller." I thought about that for a minute. It made as much sense as any of the other crap I'd been told.

That night Shu shu and the boys slept soundly, snoring loudly. Shu shu was in my tent with me and I laid awake listening to her breath. I had missed that after Oak died. Every once in a while the boys would stir and stop snoring and I would almost fall asleep. I would dream that Shu shu's breathing was Oak's and I could roll over and feel the warmth of his skin and the hardness of his arm next to me.

At some point I had fallen asleep, because I woke up to the rain. I pulled on my rain gear and headed outside to start a fire.

The fire started going good and you could hear the sizzles of the rain drops hitting the flames. Stalk came out of his tent pulling on rain gear that almost fit.

"We'll have to get you gear that fits the next chance we get." I told him.

"Yeah," he said sheepishly, "I out grew this stuff, but couldn't afford to have new stuff made."

I nodded and put the pot on for some tea. I figured we might as well use up the good stuff right away. Stalk sat and watched the water boil for a bit before asking "Why do you and Shu shu have Chinese nicknames and me and Red got English ones?"

"We do?" I thought about it for a moment. "I was raised with Chinese. Guess I never figured a difference in their talk from ours." He sat watching me for a second and I realized I hadn't answered him. Since I hate it when folks do that to me, I tried to give him an answer. "The Chinese talk sounds more girlish to me I guess."

Stalk nodded and ate an apple.

Shu shu and Red got up and finally the rain stopped. I let them move around slow like and get the creaks out before we started back up again, so the sun was high before we got going. A while after getting back on the road we came up to a sign. There weren't no pictures on it so I kept on walking.

Shu shu stopped. "Food and lodging!"

"Yeah?" I asked. They were all looking at the sign.

"Yeah!" Red almost yelled. "Corn & Chicken!" I could almost see him drool.

"How much for the food?" I asked them.

Shu shu looked at me kinda strange like. "You can't read?"

"Nope. How much for the food?" It wasn't like it was a big deal for those were I was from to not read. Shu shu told me the prices and we went in to buy some food.

As we walked down the road, Shu shu asked me how I came to be called Cha.

This was an amusing story, and I decided that telling it would keep their minds of the long walk ahead and keep them from asking any questions that might be too personal.

When I was a baby, I was left with the Jia ting gang in the City. In the City, not counting the merchants who come in every day, you are either a druggie, a thug, in a gang, or seriously in danger. Jia ting thought of itself as a family and didn't really prey on people too much, but enough to get a reputation as a gang you didn't cross. One day Nai Nai, the old woman who ran Jia ting, met with a merchant selling tea. Nai Nai wanted the merchant's highest quality stuff, but didn't have the pounds to buy it. She bought some cheaper tea and he left.

Later Nai Nai found out that the tea merchant's sister had just lost a child. Nai Nai had him brought back and she gave me to the merchant for the high quality tea.

The merchant, my foster Uncle, took me to Turnback and gave me to his sister. She started calling me her tea baby, and from there, people took to calling me Cha.

I never felt any reason to change the name when I got older. She also gave me my true-name, but like I said, in the Burn, that's for family and lovers and that's it.

I broke the spell my poor storytelling had cast by noticing an old, overgrown apple orchard.

"Want some apples?" I said motioning to the trees.

"Is it safe?" Shu shu asked, peering over the broken down fence into the weeds and brambles in between the apple trees.

"Sure it is." I climbed over the fence and found a good spot to park for a little bit. "You guys pick the ripe apples from the trees. I'll go get us some meat for dinner."

Red's head shot up. "Can I come too?"

I thought for a moment that I could use him like a dog to hunt the squirrels and rabbits, but decided against it. "No. Don't know what you can do yet. Maybe later when it don't matter so much what I catch."

The hunting in the orchard was very good. Most the animals here hadn't seen a person so were easy to sneak right up on. Using my slingshot, I was able to get two rabbits and a squirrel right away. I just needed one more and we'd all be eating well that night.

Then I saw a dog moving toward me from around a tree. He was very skinny and wasn't approaching like he was going to attack me. After years of living in the City, I could tell when a dog was going to attack. What I didn't want was for this mutt to scare away the rabbits. I reached into my sack I was holding my kills in and pulled out the squirrel. He seemed interested, so I made a big show of laying down the squirrel where he could see it and moving away.

As I walked away I could hear the dog making off with the squirrel. Now I need to get two rabbits or we'd have to share. After thinking on it for a bit, I realized that I'd been out here long enough and we had apples too, so I headed back to the others. We could share.

I looked at them for a moment before deciding not to be bothered with them. "Would you like some strong tea?" the mouse girl asked.

Now that was tempting. "Sure." I said, walking off the road. It was a poor choice for a campsite, to be sure. Out in the open right by the road for anyone to do them harm.

"Here you are, Traveler." the mouse girl said cheerfully as she handed me a hot cup of tea. It had been so long since I'd had real black tea it was wonderful.

They started talking and told me how they were looking for something other than what they knew from the Sanctuary. The three of them were orphans raised by the monks and now wanted to see what was really out here.

They were going to die.

"The tea is good, Shu shu, thanks." I said sitting the cup down.

She looked slightly confused, "My name is..."

"For your family or your lover. Now you're called Shu shu. I'm called Cha." I looked at the boys. I named the pale boy Red and the taller one Stalk. Shu shu and Red looked confused, Stalk looked amused. I shook my head as I stood up. "Come on, let's break camp and get going."

"Where are we going?" Red asked.

I pointed down the road away from the City. "That way."

How had I gotten myself into this? I had just gotten rid of some monks and now I take on some monk raised orphans. For free no less! What the hell was wrong with me?

"So, you're going to go with us?" Shu shu asked.

I still couldn't believe it myself. "Yeah, looks about like that, don't it? Pack your gear up, you're burning daylight."

I got all my gear for 5 pounds. Doc ripped me off but what could I do? He's the only one around who gets the type of serious gear I needed if I was going to survive in the great unknown.

It started raining the day I wanted to leave. That was ok by me. There's a superstition that if you're out in the rain you'll get sick and die. I think it's left over from right after the war, when the radiation and crap would come down in the rain.

That doesn't happen anymore and the rain is perfectly safe. But that keeps the idiots inside so I don't ever tell anyone the truth of it. If they want to think the rain will kill them, fine by me.

My plan was simple. I loaded up my pack with everything I'd need except for food. I had some dried meat, but that was it. There are some farms and stuff outside of the City that I could steal some food from and later on, I'd kill and pick stuff to eat.

As I headed out it struck me that I'd probably never see the City again. It's not like I had a ton of great touching memories of either the City or Turnback, but it was my home.

The strangest thing happened. As I was leaving the City, I started to cry. I didn't stop. I walked while I sobbed about everything I felt like sobbing about. It was just before dawn, and the rain was pouring down, but with each step and each sob, I felt better. Soon the sun was up, the rain cleared, and I was marching down the road I thought lead to a better place.

It was going to be a great day.

That is, until I passed a three people sitting on the side of the road in a prayer circle. "Greetings, traveler!" The girl called to me. I stopped and looked at her. She was young. Younger than the monks I had just worked for, but she seemed more aware of the world around her. She had plain brown hair and mousy features, and was a bit on the short side. The two boys with her were like twigs. One had bright red hair and skin so pale it looked like mentioning the sun near him would give him a burn.

Once we got to the Sanctuary, everything got crazy. Like it wasn't already. The head monk bitch makes me put all my weapons in this locker to come in. Stupid, but what am I going to do? If I don't, I don't get paid, and that's why I did all this crap and why Oak died in the first place.

I bent over to pull the knife out of my boot and she sees the tattoo I have on my lower back. It's practically right on my spine. Must of hurt like a motherfreaker when I got it. Damn good thing I was a baby and don't remember it.

She freaked out. She went on and on about how they had been wrong this whole time. There was some prophecy that Leila was going to bring this Chosen One to the Sanctuary. Everyone had thought it was Sidra, but it was me.

I am not anyone's chosen anything. I'm just a girl trying to survive out here. I don't believe in any gods. Plus, she was really freaking me out.

I grabbed my weapons and hauled ass out of there. It was weird how fast I got back to Turnback without those slower than hell monks. Being able to travel at night and not having to stop every hour to pray made for a fast safe trip. I was lonely though. I haven't done anything without Oak since I was about 14. He's always been there for me. I felt like an idiot, but I talked to him during the trip. I felt like he was listening too.

When I got back to Turnback all our friends and stuff were sad about Oak. Some of them wanted to go kill some Jackals to even the score. I'm not sure if they did or not. I left as soon as I could and got back to the City. They were making too big of a deal about it. I didn't want to deal right then and everyone one wanted to talk about it. So I bailed.

I hung around for a bit in the City. It's weird to be somewhere where you've never been alone and be totally alone. I talked to Oak about it and got this crazy idea. I would grab some serious gear and head south.

So that's what I did.

These two monk girls, Sidra and Leila, came to us with 140 pounds, enough cash for about a year, wanting to get to the Sanctuary across the Burn Zone. I don't mind the Burn Zone. There's a town out there called Turnback that I pretty much grew up in. Oak and I, we met out there doing jobs and such. Unless you piss off the groups of Jackals out there, it's a pretty safe place to be, radiation aside. Most of us in the Burn Zone figure that there's not much of a chance that we'll live long enough to get any of the crap exposure to radiation can give you.

I got greedy and took the job. My gut told me it was a bad job but I heard 140 pounds and got stupid. Those freaking monks were a problem from the get go. They have to wash all the time and do they're prayers. Seems to me, if there were a god, then keeping your ass alive would be more important than praying. They hated me for not letting them pray all the freaking time. Seems like every minute there's a new prayer they have to do.

And that was just to Turnback. We hadn't even started into the crater or Jackal territory. In the City, there's gangs, and they're rough. They're rape you, beat you, then cook you and eat you. If you're luck, they'll kill you first. But outside, they get organized. And organized crazy ass killers is just mean. In the crater you got the Jackals. Not many people know much about them because when you meet them you either die, or become one of them. North of the Burn Zone is the Legion. They play-act at being civilized. They run a protection racket up there and everything is tolls and taxes. Can't pay? They'll take it out in trade. Don't have enough stuff to cover what they say is due? Your daughter or son will do just fine.

It's mighty important to understand once you get past Turnback, that you have to move. There is no stopping, there is no delays or you will die.

These holy bitches with their beads and books, they were some of the slowest women I have ever seen. No matter how often I told them to move their asses or they would die, they never picked it up. They had this stupid idea that they were on a quest from their god and he would save their asses.

Don't see why god would trouble himself saving some girls who don't care to hurry up when they're in danger.

Long story short, we pissed off the Jackals almost the first day after we left Turnback. They had to travel during the day. Something about being under the protection of the sun or something. The Jackals spotted us practically as soon as we left. In broad daylight.

I tried to insist that we travel at night, but they refused. I should have left them in Turnback and gone back to the City, but I wanted that 140 pounds. Oak and I could have cruised with that cash. We could have gotten some stuff and maybe headed south like we said we wanted to, to see what's out there.

The Jackals stalked us, playing with us. I didn't get it at the time, that they were there the whole time. I thought we were outsmarting them. They could have picked us off at any time, but they were freaking with us. It wasn't until we got to Holy Rock when the realized they had to act or we would get away. They'd been toying with us for days and honestly, we were ripe for the picking.

I saw them coming, just a cloud of dust coming towards us. I raised the alarm and told the girls to get their asses up that freaking rock. I was at the top when Leila fell. Oak didn't even pause. He just jumped down and helped her climb back up.

I could see the Jackals. They were almost on us. Oak was trying to haul himself up the rocks, but they were loose from where Leila had fallen. The skinny bitch didn't have any problem getting up the second time, but Oak couldn't find a hold. I was screaming for him to hurry the freak up. I could see them raising their crossbows and looking for the shot. We were behind rocks at the top, but Oak was stuck to the side of the freaking thing, practically asking to be shot.

Three bolts went into his back. He held for a second before falling back down. The Jackals swarmed over him so fast, there was no way I could help him, or even be with him before he died.

And then those damn monks pulled me away from the top of the rock. We had to get to the Sanctuary. Just like that, he was there, then he wasn't.

It's all because I was greedy. I'll tell you, 140 pounds isn't that great a trade.

I miss Oak.

Ever since he died when I had to take those stupid monks across the burn zone I don't know what to do with myself.

It's been a couple of weeks since he died. I got the god sluts where they needed to be. the head god bitch there tried to say I was this "chosen one" instead of the Sidra chick I just took there. I'm not buying it. I don't believe in god to begin with. Most the crap these monks spew is just feel good garbage. None of it will keep you alive in the zone or in the city. They sit in their comfortable monasteries with heat and food and water and comfortable beds and talk about how if you believe in their god you will be safe and warm and full. It's a bunch of crap.

So when this woman tells me her god chose me to lead them to some promised land, I took off. She had her little special monk girl and her handler. I had my cash. If her god wants me to do something, he can tell me himself.

She said the tattoo I have on my back was a sign. It's a tattoo that I've had since I was a baby. I guess her god is a tattoo artist too.

I never should have taken the job. I miss Oak.