“Who are you?” He asked. The girl looked up at him with wide eyes. Her brow was raised and pointedly furrowed as she tried to steady her anxious breathing. She pulled herself away so her back pressed up against the wall, and she slipped her feet back, so she could hug her knees. Ricky noticed one odd thing about her; her dainty arms held muscles like iron chains.

“I, umm,” She started with a quivering voice. “I’m a nomad, I’m not meant to be here, I know.” She pulled out a necklace from underneath her shirt. It was a sea shell attached to a leather cord. Tentatively Nick reached forward and gently rested the shell in the palm of his hand. It was almost warm, understandable as it had been resting against her chest, but it seemed to hum in his hand slightly. Perhaps he was just tired from his travels. Still, the shell was smooth to the touch, sandy colours rippling across the delicate fossil in uneven layers. One edge he found had been sharpened, no, serrated. He realised the shell was long as well, long enough to cut if need be.

The nomad girl gently turned the shell over. On the inside where it was paler was a word carved into the material, highlighted in fading ink.

“Hiekka?” Nick read aloud with a stutter as he tried to pronounce the word.

“Hiekka, yes. That is my name.” She said.

“How did you get here, Hiekka?” Ricky asked. He sat next to his brother and picked the first cut of meat from the grill resting over the fire. He handed the spit toward the girl and she cradled it in calloused hands. She looked across to him, her expression having changed. The brothers hoped she would have relaxed with them, but rather she looked troubled. She wiped away the welling of tears with the back of her hand.

“My tribe was attacked in the night,” she steadied her voice. Tried to, at least. “I was taken, with a few other girls. They brought us to the city.”

“Who took you?”

“Slavers.” A long, rackety release of anxious breath. “They already sold the other girls when I broke free. They didn’t think I would make it through the ruins, but…”

“ You surprised them.” Nick pointed to her steak. “You should eat, you look starving.”

Hiekka did just that. She lifted the meat to her mouth and took a testing nibble before she started to wolf the chop down. Ricky and Nick were relieved. She was a kid after all, she should never have been separated from her family. Never have had to survive on her own in the city. She was lucky she’d found the centre. The Bloodborn in the Eastern Suburbs would have sooner taken her clothes from her than give her any. And what they would have given her would have been very perverted for a girl her age.

“Do you know where your tribe will be now?” Ricky asked once they had all finished eating. Hiekka liked the brothers, she decided. Their voices were soft, and their words flowed like gentle water. They looked alike, but they weren’t twins. The one who said he was Ricky was taller, but his brother was just a bit broader. They both had hair the colour acorns, though Nick’s was longer, so long he had to tie it back in a loose braid. Their eyes were different intonations of green, Ricky’s like grass and Nick’s like kelp.

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“No, but we always follow streams and small rivers.” She said softly, anxiously braiding her hair on either side of her small head. Not all of it, just enough to pull to the rear of her scalp and leave the remainder in a small ponytail atop the rest of her unkempt mane.

“There’s a river about a hundred n’ sixty kilometres South of the City.” Nick pointed out to her, and she seemed to smile and nod softly.

“I think that’s where we were before.”

“It’s hard terrain.” Ricky added. “Could take a week or two to reach it.”

The brothers exchanged glances. They didn’t need to say anything. They’d been inseparable for so long that people often called them NicknRick, and they were so like minded that they needed only to lock eyes to form an agreement. Hiekka needed to get back to her tribe, and she couldn’t make it on her own. “What do you know about this city?” NicknRick asked softly.

“Um, different groups live in different parts of the city. One in the North, another in the East, a third in the West, fourth South and another one in the middle.”

“That’s the basics, yeah.” Nick smiled softly. But he bit the inside of his cheek, because she didn’t seem to know much else. Without another moment his brother chimed in to complete the background knowledge.

“In the North are all the factories and industry of the City. The Iron Brotherhood owns all of that, they make clothes and weapons and sell it to everyone else in the city. Maybe even some people outside of the city. They’re the most powerful 'tribe' because of that, they don’t sell us anything better than what they have. But they’re good people really, just business people.

“The West has the Basilisks. They’re peaceful, just a little backwards. They’ve not rebuilt any of their suburbs, they just squat in the ruins. I think they’re pretty much died out, the district’s pretty much barren, really hard to find anybody. The South belongs to Flint, they’re a lot like my tribe. We’ve both rebuilt parts of our districts and we’ve set up villages for our civilians and have a standing army to protect them. But neither of us are fighting anybody, we haven’t for years.

“The Bloodborn are the worst. They’re in the East. They’re killers, thieves and brigands. Your slaver was probably a Bloodborn, they’re known for kidnapping children. At the moment, the Iron Brotherhood has boxed them into their district. They can get a few people out here and there, but it’s impossible for them to mount an attack on any of the other districts so they’re not as bad as they usually are.” Ricky explained. There was more he could have said about the Bloodborn, but he didn’t want the poor girl to worry about her tribesfolk being raped at the hands of those monsters.

Hiekka frowned as she processed the information, but then she nodded softly. She looked a lot better, the colour having returned to her small face and she had stopped hugging her knees.

“If the Flint people are nice like you, I can travel through on my own. I’m sure you have better things to do than to escort me.”

Ricky shook his head. “No way, the people aren’t the only thing in the city. There’s Nightmares too. They’re seven feet of twisted, with steel claws and meat like charcoal. They hide in the shadows even in sunlight, so imagine how awful they are at night. They’re fast as well and I’ve never seen them tire.”

“We have those in the forest too.” She said matter-of-factly, as if they didn’t bother her too much. She was naïve. “But, I suppose it would be hard to travel alone then.”

“We’re picking up supplies from an Iron Brotherhood convoy that was cutting through our border. Come with us, and we’ll get you back to our headquarters for some clean clothes and a shower. We’ll go south with you after that.” Nick said to Hiekka. She considered the offer for a moment, before she smiled wide and nodded.

“I’d like that.”

NicknRick looked to each other, exchanging a subtle nod of appreciation. They found Hiekka a warm bedroll and took her through to another room with bunkbeds. They all agreed that they’d leave for the convoy in daylight. Hiekka went to sleep easily that night. She’d found company that seemed safe and friendly, something she had been without for months.

Maybe she would get home alive after all.