“How can something smell so good…”

“Hey, stop drooling in my pot!”

“I want it!”

“You have to wait until it’s finished.”

“Is it finished?”

“No.”

“How about now?”

“Still no.”

“… now?”

“It’s ready.”

“Really?”

“No.”

“Don’t tease me!” The little girl pouted.

“I’m just trying to cook here. Shouldn’t you be paying attention?” I shot back.

“I-I am…” She responded, looking at the boiling pot longingly.

I let out a sigh. I had considered teaching Misty a bit of cooking as I made her dinner so that she could survive better on her own, but her eyes quickly glazed over after I introduced more than three ingredients, and once the smell started to emit from the put, she had become completely distracted. I could only let out a sigh and do it myself.

I quickened up the steps and eventually put a hunk of roasted meat and vegetables on her plate. This was normal food you would slow cook, but since the ingredients I used were all pre-cooked and canned, all I needed to do was get it up to temperature and then spice it to taste. I wondered how these people would feel if I did some real cooking using fresh ingredients, the kind that took involved overnight preparation and three or four hours to cook all the way. I hadn’t even done something like that for Katarina yet.

“It’s finished.” I declared, scooping the ingredients onto a plate.

“There are vegetables and meat! And you cooked them together so the taste of the meat saturated the vegetables! Ahh… and there is no radioactivity!”

“Put the Geiger counter down.” I shot her an annoyed look as Misty stared at her plate like it was some kind of strange organism that needed to be examined thoroughly.

I made my plate up and found the cleanest place I could find to sit down and eat. Misty’s stomach made noises as she stared at the plate longingly.

“Eat up already,” I informed her in an annoyed tone.

“Y-yes!”

She seemed like she had been waiting for permission. As soon as I gave her the go-ahead, she began savagely tearing into her plate. She was quickly finished with it and already looking at the pot longingly before I had even gotten a third of the way through my plate. After taking two more bites and seeing her lips quiver with each one, I sighed and put down my plate to put more onto hers.

“Eat slower or you’re going to get a stomach ache,” I warned.

“Okay!”

By the time I picked up my plate, she was already shoveling food into her mouth again. I decided to ignore her and finish my meal. I didn’t get along with any children. My sister was older, and along with my mom, I didn’t need to deal with kids who were younger than me. Because of my small size, many kids would often approach me thinking I would play with them. This only irritated me further and was a lot of the reason I didn’t like kids. I was especially annoyed when I met someone half my age who was taller than me. That was the worst.

“Geh… mmm…” When I put down my plate, I heard groaning next to me.

I let out a sigh. “What is it?”

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“My stomach hurts!” She declared.

I wanted to smack her across the head. I knew someone who had only eaten processed crap for the majority of their life and couldn’t handle such nutrient food, especially given how fast she was eating. It seemed like such a waste that she was eating likely the best meal of her life, and now she’d be sick on it.

I decided to ignore her yacking and whimpering. At least she was used to taking care of herself and didn’t beg me to tuck her in or something obnoxious like that. It wasn’t the comfort of my rental suite, let alone home, but it was safe and clean enough that I was able to fall into a fitful sleep.

I woke up sometime later to the sound of a commotion outside. I blinked a few times, squinting as a hole in the makeshift structure shone sunlight directly into my eyes. As I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and started to make out the sounds outside.

“We know you’re hiding a thief in there. If you don’t get out of our way, you’ll be just as culpable.” An angry male voice stated.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A young girl’s voice defended. “I live alone. There is no one in my house since you took my mother.”

“You were seen entering the house with a male who was skulking around last night. Don’t tell me you’ve already sunk to prostitution. If that’s the case, you know the city rules. Prostitutes can only work out of the squalor district.”

“I-I’m not… one of those!” She protested.

I found the woman’s voice to be familiar, and as my mind caught up, I remembered the little girl. I was in her residence, and more than that, she was outside arguing with a mob of people.

“If you’re not entertaining a man, then you’re helping some thief get away with a crime. Several residences were robbed last night, and with a stranger about, the guilty is already obvious!”

“That’s not true! He didn’t still anything from anyone!”

“Oh? So there is a person inside?” The man chuckled.

“Ah, n-n-no…”

“Next, you’ll say your mother wasn’t a thief either.”

“Mom didn’t take anything!”

“Move her aside. Let’s get the perp, boys.”

I had heard enough to understand what was going on. It seemed like my wandering away from the squalor district the previous night had gone noticed. There were some break-ins the night before, and they decided that it was the stranger who did it. I didn’t trust anyone, and I didn’t feel like I owed the little girl anything either. She had let me stay the night and she had gotten a good meal. I’d be doing her a favor if I escaped and they opened the door to find nothing. That’s said, a quick look around her place showed there were no backdoors or hiding places.

I could activate my world travel and go back to Earth. They would find the place abandoned, and then I could return in a few hours. However, I’d be seen returning by the little girl, and then I’d have some things to explain. That was presuming that the men didn’t do something bad to the girl just because they didn’t find me. I didn’t feel like I owed her anything, but that was different from letting her get harmed.

I could hear a scuffle going on outside. I knew I didn’t have a long time to make a decision, so I decided to come out and greet them on my terms. I reached the door and then shoved it open.

“You guys are noisy for early in the morning. What do you want?” I asked as nondescriptly as possible.

If I had anything to hide, I would act far more reserved. That’s what I hoped they were all thinking. There was a group of about a half-dozen men. They were all armed, and as soon as I appeared, at least half of them pointed their guns at me. There was a time when I might have wet myself if I had guns pointed at me, but it had happened so frequently since coming to the Apocalyptic Wasteland that it didn’t bother me like it used to.

There appeared to be a man in the front with a beard. He was holding the girl by her shirt. He had lifted her several feet off the ground. He had a surprised look on his face as stared at me. It was like he hadn’t expected a person to come out. As for the girl, she gave a triumphant look in my direction, even though she was in such an embarrassing situation. I tried to ignore the guns on me and looked the man up and down.

“You need to beat up on small girls to feel big?” I asked.

The man stiffened, and he finally let his grip release, causing Misty to fall two feet to the ground. She stumbled slightly and then backed away. She gave me a worried look. Although I didn’t like kids, who could truly remain a kid in the wasteland? She had lied to protect me. She couldn’t know for certain I wasn’t this so-called thief, but she had still risked herself anyway. I felt myself warming a bit to her.

“You’re a stranger!” The man finally managed to collect his thoughts, pointing a finger and me and declaring.

“Close, I’m a merchant,” I responded. “Is there a problem, gentleman?”

“Hmph… a merchant? Then, why are you in the lower district and sleeping at the former house of a recently made slave and known thief? Just admit your wrongdoings and face justice.”

“What justice is that?” I asked innocently.

“Of course… you will be sold into servitude until your debt is repaid!”

“Oh? And what debt do I owe?”

“Hmph… the cost is 10… no, 25 large crystals!” He declared, crossing his arms smugly.

I pulled out the great crystal. “Will this cover it?”

His eyes nearly popped out of his head, and the little girl even gasped. The man reached out for it, but I activated my digitizer and made it disappear.

“Ah, ah… we’ll need to make some change first. I don’t suppose you have 75 large crystals lying around, do you?” I asked.

His face flushed, and he looked back at the other men who shrugged.

He turned back to me and glared. “Stop playing games! Give us the crystal.”

I grinned. “I will, but first, we need to make some change. As it so happens, if we leave now, we’ll arrive just in time for a previous appointment of mine.”