Ace was staring at the batteries on his palm. Got to take these to Mark's later for recharging. He was deep in thought but then instinctively closed his hand around them as he heard the rushing of footsteps from outside. Each step coming closer as they thump against the sheets of metal laid outside.
A head popped out from the side of one of the windows. "Sorry I'm late!" It was Ingrid, catching her breath. "Thank God, I caught up with you." She crept towards the door, trying to be quiet because Ace's mother, Iris, was still asleep next door. "You know I hate walking towards The Drop alone." He looks at her, escaping his thoughts. "Yeah," He clears his throat. "I'm uh... Also running late. Batteries from our clock ran out an hour ago." He looked towards the clock hanging from the cabin showing Ingrid the frozen hands in place almost exactly an hour ago, simultaneously opening up his hand to show her a pair of cylindrical pieces of metal rolling slightly on his palm. This made Ingrid realize that he was still in the middle of gearing up for The Drop.
Ingrid moved unconsciously, finding his gear and helping him put them on. Cables, gloves, boots, fasteners and hooks, as well as his pack, his helmet coming in last. Lecturing Ace on why he should never be late as a leader of a pack. "They all look up to you, set an example." In which he laughs off, "Well if I knew the batteries would run out, I would've done something about it. I always do." He double checks his gear and straps his empty pack behind him. "Time to go." He leads the way out.
People greeted them as they made their way through The Settlement, some joking about how they're running late today and how the weather really has been lazy today although the weather hasn't changed in more than a decade. It storms some time every second week of the month which has become routine for everyone to do a monthly preparation to stock up on what they can and reinforce their own homes, but unlike in here, beyond The Drop the weather was strange. There's no definite pattern of storms and surges of the sea, which meant anything could happen at any time. It's now the fifteenth of March, they are expecting the storm to land in two days. Despite the storms, population has grown ever since the world flooded in which in the new world they called, The Weeping.
In the past year, the population growth has increased by hundreds, which was the best news The Settlement has had in years. Ace estimates the population to be at least more than a thousand now compared to the past year's barely seven hundred. Things were indeed looking up. But the heavy death toll every month was still a big loss for their small community, losing workers and people of all sorts. Not to mention those Collectors who risk their lives working at The Drop everyday.
Pushing through the city, rushing towards the five hundred foot cliff they called The Drop, they got a full view of The Settlement. Everyday they take a glance before going down, not knowing if it's the last time they'll see what they've been used to calling home. The stacked makeshift metal homes piled high, making their necks crane. Each one with their own creative flair made mostly from different vehicles, ship containers, and whatever washes up at shore. Becoming a craftsman and smithing metal has become quite a popular job within The Settlement, it was also a tradition to sign up for apprenticeships for different crafts, divided into different guilds which helps children specify their professions at an early age.
Ace belonged to the least popular guild, The Collectors. They were in charge of scavenging materials from the old world and bringing them back for crafting and rebuilding lost technologies from the old world. While Ingrid was in charge of Communications, providing information from a command center called Guardian built within The Drop to update Collectors on incoming surges and waves, as well as weather conditions by the sea so the two factions are correlated somehow.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The elevator rattled to a stop at the mouth of the cave leading towards the command center, "This is me. I'll be in your ear, yeah? Always check your watch." Ingrid starts walking the length of the tunnel, while Ace watches her with a silent response. What he didn't say though was that his watch has been acting up the past few days, he's just been lucky he hasn't been caught with it malfunctioning when Guardian contacts him while collecting. His earpiece comes to life with a static as the elevator continuously hums and rattles down The Drop. "Don't forget to tie your lucky knot, Ace." That was Ingrid's way of testing comms. "Copy that, Guardian." He replies dutifully, switching the homing beacon on his watch as he got to the surface.
Collectors had the life expectancy of two minutes to five hours while scavenging, hence making them the least popular guild, but was regarded as one of the most important. For them not to run out, a selection process was made where for every seventeenth child is subject to automatic apprenticeship under the Collector's Guild. It wasn't a popular rule, but it was necessary. Ace was one of the founders of the guild. Before, the survivors would just wait out every storm for stuff to be blown on top of The Drop before they could collect new materials for everything. When a group of young, hardheaded teens looking for something more useful to do instead of farming inside their houses decided to make use of their scavenged rappelling gears and went down to the surface of The Drop, discovering a new guild of scavengers which gave way to at least seven times faster progress in development of The Settlement.
Ace's pack was waiting for him below, their buggy already out. There were no jokes today from his five old friends. As he got closer he counted six silhouettes. "Bad day to be late, Ace." Harry, one of his first friends in The Settlement started, gesturing towards the new silhouette. "This is Steven, he just signed up." Ace didn't even bother to look as he got closer to them, strapping his gear and putting on his helmet. "How old is he?" He said without regarding the new recruit, setting up his watch, checking if it's acting up at the moment. "Eighteen, Ace, sir." Only then did he meet the piercing blue eyes of the Irish boy that stood before him. "You know what you're getting yourself into, boy?" Ace looked at him checking for anything that the boy forgot to do and checked on his gear. "I've wanted to be a Collector since the first day my dad put on his gear, sir. He died a few years back, I just was thinking it might already be my time, sir." He kept those eyes fixed on his leader, thinking if he was fit to be in his pack. The founder of the guild. A legend, having come up with something as daring as going on adventures inside the raging sea, being the key to survival of humanity.
Harry gets on the buggy, "Interview can continue on the way to work, boys! Ace's already late as it is." And they followed suit. Ace sat beside the new recruit, "I knew your father, Victor Kelly, right?" He nods in response, he did know him after all. "I'm sure the boys have told you what you're supposed to do out there in the wet." Steven acknowledges with another nod. "I only have one rule: Survive. No matter how good your find is, it's not worth your life. We stick together, we go back home together in this pack, okay? That's how we do things around here." He put a hand on the boy's shoulder as the buggy bumped against the uneven surface that was slowly changing into lumps of puddles and softer mud. "We're family." The new member of the pack's expression was determined as he nodded, listening intently to that one rule, holding on to it.
The waves were rising above them as they approached their pack's hatch, twenty to thirty feet high at their lowest. Harry reported to the command center, "Guardian, Wolfpack 1 is now arriving at the hatches, see you on the other side, over." The buggy rumbled to a stop in a large circular hatch made out of pure steel that led to the tunnels that went up to the raging sea. "Copy that, Rabbit. We'll be seeing you when you get up on the other side, happy scavenging." The buggy radio squawked in a mix of garbled and robotic sounding voice that they weren't sure if it was Ingrid speaking.
Ace was the one to open the hatch as Harry parked the buggy inside the tunnel. "Double check your gear and throw out your fear," He said through their comms. "Let's give Seven a proper debut." Steven smiled as he finally received his call sign from his new pack leader as they started making their way to the sea, each step making a hollow echo as they heard the rumble of the unnatural Weeping waves crash on the surface above.