Moritz stirred at Ellis's nudging. Grumbling about taking watch, as he always did, Moritz rose and grumbled at Ellis's tired face. It was rare that anything ever happened on a night watch, but it never hurt to be vigilant.
Making his way out of the small office he called his room, he passed his small flock of children and teens. Taking a glance at the visitors, the ones called Boo and Tyson were asleep, sitting up against a wall, Tyson with an arm wrapped around Boo, pinning a blanket up on her shoulder. Smiling warmly at them, he read their energy. There was the beginning of a strong connection there, but it was still a fragile and new thing.
Maddison lay under a table in a sleeping bag, arm under her head, facing towards the entrance. Upon seeing each other, they exchanged nods and Maddison closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep.
He found Zoe near the entrance, slumped awkwardly against a pillar. Her energy was calm, but tinged with regrets and horror. He made a mental note to apologize to her for dragging up painful memories as he carefully picked her up and carried her back to his sleeping mat. He wouldn't use it again tonight and she would be better off not cramped and sore in the morning.
Picking up his crossbow from the shelf near the door, he passed the visitors truck were young Tomas was sleeping, hand on the steering wheel. Moritz could see some of his own late son in the young mechanic.
A drone buzzed by him as he climbed onto the roof of the building and started his long, slow patrol of the roof.
~
Excitement at meeting new people washed through Kally as she drove along the highway, the morning sun still yet to poke its head out. The small four seat car she drove hummed along nicely as Tomas had checked over it recently, replacing a few parts which she couldn't name.
The gps projected onto the screen showed her that she was nearly there, which was confirmed by one of Avi's defence drones dropping down next to her window. She could have sworn the drone 'bowed' to her before moving ahead and leading her along the best path.
She spotted a large man on the roof of the building she was heading to, another drone hovering near him. Another walked up to him, Kally recognized him as Tyson, as the bigger man pointed at Kally.
Mornin' Kally.
Hi Tyson! Who's that?
Moritz. See you shortly.
Kally parked a few moments later next to the truck. Her little car was dwarfed by the truck, but Kally was much happier to drive the car over the truck. Tomas woke and stretched, the headlights waking him as Kally exited her car and was greeted by Maddison. Tomas shyly waved at her as he joined them.
"Ellis hasn't woken up yet," Maddison said. "Come have some breakfast."
Kally's stomach grumbled at her and she readily agreed to eat.
Tyson and the big man she presumed was Moritz trudged into the building, hands tucked into pockets and collars high against the cold.
"You must be Kally," the larger man said, shaking her tiny hand in his enormous one. "Moritz."
"Hi!" Kally replied as he waved her to go back to eating. She happily filled a bowl with the leftover soup, eating away as the children started waking up. Hearing a child cough, Kally's attention was drawn to Boo, who crouched next to the child, checking their temperature and throat before giving them something to suck on for the pain. Spotting Kally, Boo made her way over to the young woman.
"Hey, can you please get Mary to pack some milder meds for the little ones? Some of them have coughs that could get worse if not treated soon."
Kally nodded, quickly making a note on her tablet. "Done," she replied after swallowing her food. "Let me know if there's anything else."
"Of course." Boo favoured Kally with a smile as she returned to the children, helping them get up and fed.
Looking around, she couldn't find Zoe. Asking Tyson, he pointed to a door as it opened, revealing an exhausted looking Zoe. Grumbling and rubbing at her eyes, she waved halfheartedly at Kally before making her way to where Maddison was brewing coffee, following Tomas's guidance.
"Ellis will wake soon," Moritz said to the visitors as he accepted a tea from Maddison. "Kally, if you could please tell me about your home while we wait, I would appreciate your view."
Kally brightened and as they sipped their warm drinks, she walked slowly next to Moritz as they walked around through the building. Moritz greeted everyone, making sure the groups were ready for the days work. Kally saw a kind and gentle leader, one who cared greatly for his charges, while Moritz read Kally, the passionate and energetic young woman. He took an immediate liking to her and felt that Kally was the right choice to take Ellis on the tour.
As they finished their walk around, they came upon Ellis, who had only just started eating. Children ran to and fro, playing with various home made and well loved toys, bumping into Ellis occasionally, who mock growled at the children, swatting them towards the others.
"Ellis, come meet Kally," Moritz said loudly enough to cut through the din. The other man grumbled and navigated through the playing children, managing to not spill the tea he had been given.
"You are my guide?" Ellis asked in his rough English.
Kally nodded. "We'll leave when you're ready," she replied in German. "I'm a native speaker, but I've got extra translators in the car. Makes communication between tongues easier."
Ellis chuckled. "It would," he replied in German, shoving the last of the roll in his mouth. "Okay, ready to go. Should I bring anything?"
"No, I have everything we need to go most of a week without resupply." She smiled and hugged Moritz's waist. "Nice to meet you."
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Moritz chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, gently hugging back. "I'm sure we'll meet again, little one. Safe travels."
Leading Ellis out the the car, Kally waited as he retrieved his crossbow and a small quiver of bolts. Opening the passenger door for him, she went and sat in her own seat of the hatchback car. Showing him the seatbelt, she secured her own, telling him how to release it and what it was for.
Bringing up the gps, she entered their destination and started the car. Most of the children had come out to watch, so she waved at them before letting the car start to roll. She cleared the crowd before accelerating slowly, for the comfort of her passenger, as they started the journey to her home.
~
"We can take two passengers in Avi," Tyson said to Moritz as they packed up the essentials.
"You still need to map the factory?" Moritz asked Tyson, who looked at Zoe.
Zoe nodded. "Yes, though your help has given us an idea of where we would have wasted time and where our best chance of finding intact machines are. I also want to get a start on the housing situation."
"That is appreciated," Moritz replied. "How do you wish to proceed."
"Tomas and Maddison stay here with the truck and a few drones. Tyson and Boo take Avi with three passengers and I'll run along in Nix. I can cover the distance relatively quickly in the suit. The three you send with us can guide us and let us know which they think would be the best houses for your people, while any who go with Tomas and Maddison can warn of potential dangers."
Moritz nodded. "Good plan. I have just the people to go with you." He called over the lupine featured teen. "Rex, can you get your siblings please. I want your pack to travel with our visitors to the housing."
Without a word, the teen boy turned and bounded off to find his siblings. "Nakita, where are you, you scamp?"
"Here papa," a twenty something, average build woman appeared from behind Moritz. As she came around him, Zoe could have sworn her hair was getting shorter. "What's happening?"
"I want you to tag along with young Tomas and Maddison, give them a tour of the factory and let them know which ones are most dangerous."
"Okay," she replied. Catching Zoe staring at her hair, which was definitely getting shorter as its length was now to the top of her neck, where it had been shoulder length. "Felt like a short hair day to me," she stated.
"Nakita can change her features," Moritz said to Zoe's confusion. "It takes a bit of time, but she can change whether she has freckles, colour of her hair and eyes, even some of her body mass, though that last one takes a bit of time and usually more food."
As Zoe listened to Moritz, Nakita made her eye colour change from dark brown to bright yellow, then to light blue, while her hair changed from its deep red to a light brown. A single freckle appeared on the end of her nose.
Boo gently moved Zoe aside and bent over to have a closer look at Nakita’s face. “That’s fascinating,” she breathed. “Can you make a freckled here?” she asked, touching the other woman’s cheek. Boo watched, mesmerized, as Nakita created a freckle that looked like a crescent moon where Boo had touched. “Oh, I really want to see what you can do when we’re not busy.”
Nakita giggled a little at the attention she was receiving from Boo, who went to explain that she studied Talents.
“We should get to work Boo,” Zoe said as Rex returned with two others, both teens, one boy, one girl, who also had similar lupine features. “You have the beginnings of a wolf pack?” Zoe asked Rex.
“Yip, we’re family, same mother.”
“Family is a good thing to have,” Boo said, scratching behind the girl’s ear. “Do you have anything extra you can do on top of shifting?”
“We can sort of read each other's minds,” the other boy said. “We can feel impressions of what the others want when we’re in wolf form. Oh, and wild wolves tend to listen to us.”
“Interesting,” Boo said, pulling the boy closer, gently tugging on his wolf ear. “And what are your names?”
“I’m Finn, this is Meiko.” He leant into Boo’s hand as she scratched behind his ear, growling happily.
“Boo, we need to focus on work.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” She stood, brushing herself down. “Come on, let's go ride in Avi.”
The three wolf teens yipped in excitement as they bounded off to the vehicle. Zoe sighed and quickly put on her suit, knowing full well that she would need to be in it shortly or be left behind by the others. Moritz helped, holding pieces in place while she strapped herself in.
~
Following Nakita and Maddison, Tomas drove slowly, making sure that he kept a fair distance behind them, just in case he needed to brake suddenly. Emil, one of the adults in the group, sat next to Tomas, his bow held in both hands. Nakita and Emil had been chosen as their guides as their usual routes took them through the factories and in towards the city proper. There were several small farms and gardens that had grown wild that they picked from regularly, all not far from the factories. Leading them past the wreckage of the car storage, they approached another building that had been glanced by the explosion that had taken out the previous building.
The four walls were still solid and unbroken, but weathered and stained from years of weather. Rows of robotic arms greeted them as they entered into the barely lit building. Sunlight entered through grimy windows up high on the walls, making Tomas more nervous to be in there than he expected.
“It’s safe,” Nakita said, beckoning Tomas to come further into the building.
Neat production lines greeted Tomas as his eyes adjusted to the gloom. “We’ll have to get the lights on so we can see properly in here,” he muttered to himself out loud. “Need to check to see if the robotics are fine, will likely need Zoe for that.” He knelt in the dust next to the closest one, quickly opened the side of it and studied the internals. “Mechanical looks alright, shouldn’t even need dusting.”
“Does he always talk to himself?” Nakita asked Maddison as they studied the dormant machinery.
“As far as I know,” Maddison replied. “I’ve only travelled with him for a couple of days, but he was like that in the other building before Ellis found us.”
“He’s weird.”
~
Zoe ran alongside Avi, Nix flexing and moving as she did, empowering her strides, allowing her to keep up with the buggy. The rush of wind as she ran brought her back to the world of the living, helping to brush the nightmare from last night to the back of her mind. Glancing over at the buggy, she nearly tripped at the sight of the three teen wolves leaning over the sides, tongues out and waving in the breeze. An amused laugh broke from Zoe’s mouth as her outlook for the day brightened. If the three teens could enjoy the car ride, then she could enjoy the feeling of running faster than she could normally. She caught sight of Tyson smiling warmly at her and she smiled back, happy to be out and moving around, new parametres to her mission ahead of her.
It didn’t take the group to get to the estates that Ellis had told them about, and Zoe saw why they weren’t using them for shelter. They were in very poor condition, most of them having had taken weather badly or had been smashed by roving gangs. The land around was also forested, making potential farming harder than where they had settled. Knowing that they would be able to travel further than before once they had the car factory up and running, the group set about scanning the buildings with drones, making sure not to enter the buildings that looked the worst.
Gardens that had once been the pride and joy of the residents were now wild and very overgrown with very few useful plants. One garden behind one of the larger mansions revealed a bounty of pear and apple trees, alongside some very overgrown vegetable beds, pumpkin vines spreading over broccoli and cauliflower and under a large cranberry bush. The teens rushed in, grabbing at the apples and pears while Zoe, Boo and Tyson set about harvesting several bags worth of other fruit and vegetables, storing them in as many places as they could in Avi and the attached trailer.
Even though the majority of the day had been just walking around, looking at old buildings, Zoe was very happy to know that their efforts had not been for naught.