Rebecca hovered over dead, brown grass, face without expression. It had been a long time since the Scot could remember smiling.

The skin that was once very fair was now tanned from constant time spent outdoors over two years, especially in the hot summer. Her skin also collected a host of new freckles in all that outdoor time. She barely wore much anymore: a dirty white top and a tattered green skirt, with nothing on her feet. Now that she could hover freely, she found little need for shoes.

Since the incident, Rebecca never really stopped moving. She had wandered around what was New York, and even ventured into the Wastes of New England. Resources were slim pickings, so Rebecca found what she could, lived light, and took what she needed.

Very rarely did Rebecca travel with anyone, and if she did, it was usually when resources came even harder than usual. The twenty-two year old never stayed with any group long; she had little reason to trust anyone, especially in such a dog-eat-dog world.

Time found a way of hardening even a girl like Rebecca, and the End Day got her off to a great start. Kindness went from a virtue to a liability fast. There were times when Rebecca had to change her views on morality if it meant food or water. Sometimes that meant succumbing to the be-or-be-killed nature of the Age of Sebastian. Other times, it meant doing... other things she never would have considered to earn her share. Living was the only thing that mattered, not how she managed it.

Today, Rebecca found herself alone again, save for three metal pillars maintaining a constant perimeter around her, and a sheet of metal to shield her from the sun. On her own, it was very important to have a wealth of metal to defend herself.

She was lucky enough to stumble across what was at one point a farm. There might not be any food of quality remaining, but if she was fortunate enough, there might be some water-- enough to take care of her for the day and maybe even possibly a canteen for a week or two.

After scouring the barn to no reward, Rebecca checked behind and noticed a small pond-- it was no more than fifteen feet wide, so not a true "pond" in the old days, but to her, the small quantity of water meant life.

The metal pillars dropped into the ground, and Rebecca's bare feet touched down on the wet ground. She lapped up a handful of water, hoping it was clean. She still remembered the awful sickness she suffered the last time she drank contaminated water, but dammit, she was thirsty.

Rebecca tugged at the collar of her shirt, trying to air it out. She looked around for any company, debating just stripping down and letting the cool water soothe her hot skin.

Lije sighed as he put away his binoculars and began to walk down the hill towards the small pond he could see in the farm. Perhaps back before the entire world went to hell in a hand-basket the pond had been cool and clean, and kids had splashed smiled and laughed, but now it was just a small dirty hole, the next stop for water for Lije. Lije had changed in the years since the bombs went off, physically and mentally.

No longer did Lije look like a sixty-year old man with a rotted and skeletal arm. Now he was literally nothing more than a skeleton, connected by withered, dry tendons. His face was permanently formed into a skeletal smile, and his desiccated tongue and withered vocal cords meant his voice was a barely audible scratchy whisper. On his right ring finger, a glimmer of gold could be seen where a wedding band was melted into the bone of his finger, forever a part of him. In the day and age he was now in, there was no need to hide his nature in the wastes. If people got scared and tried to kill him because of his appearance, then they forfeited their rights to life and property. That said, Lije was no bandit. He had no desire to become a marauding piece of scum like he had heard tell of those Amazons, but in the wastes you didn't have room for squeamishness and looting dead bodies was the least of it.

Lije was dressed in a long dusty brown duster, with a wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun out of his eyes and a pair of torn, patched up slacks from the old days. He wore a slightly less-used white button-up shirt and had a blank mask hanging on his hip next to a pair of gloves. He had found that it was much easier to shop or pass through a town or deal with other travelers (when necessary) if they didn't see his condition. Lije had adapted to life after the bombs, scavenging from deserted houses and small cities, looking for relics of the old world to trade for supplies. He had heard that there was a town nearby, one with a (relatively) thriving economy, and so Lije was making a bee-line there. He had a piece of merchandise that was burning a hole in his pocket, and it was possible that there were already others on his trail trying to get at it.

Almost two weeks ago Lije had been searching an abandoned airfield for anything useful when he had come accross a wonderful find. A single crate of perfectly intact, top-of-the line solar panels. He packed them away into his little cart, carefully packing around the crate with soft cloths to help prevent damage, and immediately set out for the nearest town. Unfortunately that town didn't have the means to pay for a find of that magnitude, and so he had struck out for the next. However, it was likely that bandits or raiders had heard about his find, and indeed he could see a dust trail on the horizon that could come from a group of horses. His little cart would slow him down enough that if he didn't reach the town soon, they'd likely catch up to him.

It was then that Lije noticed somebody else heading towards the pond. He slowed his cart and called out, not wanting to startle the lady who was an obvious mutant, if the floating metal was anything to go by.

"Hey there miss! Mind if I join you for a bit of a drink?" He asked, walking slowly and pulling the cart behind him.

Rebecca was ready to pull her shirt over her head when a scratchy voice let her know she was not as alone as she hoped.

>> "Hey there miss! Mind if I join you for a bit of a drink?"

The greedy part of Rebecca sighed, but she knew that there was enough water to give some away and still take care of her. Without turning to look at the man, she replied, "Not much in the mood for sharing, bit Ah suppose Ah'm not looking for a fight, neither." She had been cut off from her homeland for a long time, not even sure if her family survived the fallout. She still had a Scottish accent, but it was much fainter now, only noticeable on certain words.

Rebecca turned to look at the man; if he was not too sketchy, she might yet follow through on her dip in the pond. She had done far too much over two years to care about modesty.

Unfortunately, the "man" was about as close to the book definition of "sketchy" as one could be. Rebecca was pretty sure she was staring at a skeleton approaching her. "Hmm, maybe Ah've been in the heat too long." Rebecca poured a handful of water over her head, letting it drip down her bangs and over her face. Whether he was a man or a hallucination, it mattered little to her; she could mind her business.

"Not much in the mood for sharing, bit Ah suppose Ah'm not looking for a fight, neither."

If Lije still had lips, he would have smiled, as it were, he simply parked his cart and took off his hat. He turned around and rummaged around in the cart for one of his mostly empty water containers (an old 5-gallon red plastic gas container) and drained the rest of it before dunking it in the water to start filling up. Even though he wasn't looking at the lady, he could tell the exact moment she actually took in what he looked like by her sharp intake of breath, and then the muttered words.

"Hmm, maybe Ah've been in the heat too long."

Lije chuckled, a raspy clattering sound that sounded more like a drawn out cough than anything, and said "Nope, what you see is what you get. Power has a price, girl, remember that." Lije stood and stowed the now full container and withdrew another. Almost a fourth of Lije's cart was full of foodstuffs and water for his own personal use, because he spent so much time in areas without good supplies of either looking for good loot.

"M'names Lije, and I'm a scavenger by trade. Do a bit of fixin' too, i've gotten pretty handy with mechanical things, I even know a thing or two about electronics, so iffin you've got something to trade you might wanna have a look at what I got here for sale, while I'm here."

Hopefully this girl would know the quickest way to the town so Lije could get rid of the panels.

Juka floated through the sky, protective bubble around his person. Before the world had ended, he never saw his bubble as protective, but in this world he knew different. If it couldn't stop a bullet or a knife from harming his body, it could stop radiation, heat, cold, smoke or any other naturally occurring danger to his fragile human form. It could stave off the need for food and water indefinitely and allow him to remain awake in the darkest hours of the night when predators, on both two legs and four, were most likely to be lurking in the shadows. So, if his bubble didn't protect in the conventional way, it nevertheless allowed for the sort of life that few others in the world got to experience. It was why he was so invaluable to Celeste.

Juka wore a long dark red jacket that was only slightly frayed at the bottom and the sleeves. That was another thing his bubble protected against: The ravages of time and the elements upon the clothing he wore. That, combined with the relative safety and luxury of The Bunker, allowed him the sort of luxurious clothing that caused almost universal envy. Of course, before the end times they might not have been considered anything but average, but not anymore. Now, the rich red fabric was a mark of wealth and success.

Juka tended towards the practical but also for the bright. He was a trader, one of the most successful traders in this hellish world. Far from wanting to remain inconspicuous, his bright clothing was plain to see from miles around, especially as he floated through the air from destination to destination. What good was being a traveling trader if no one knew where he was or that he existed at all? His dark red trench coat was one of his staple pieces and he was known by it.

On Juka's back was a large denim backpack filled with dried and canned food and several skins of water. He had a pair of knives and a net gun concealed on his person as well, but those were meant to remain hidden. The basics that were always in demand he carried with him, any specific requests he either had to return to the Bunker for or speak to one of his many contacts in order to procure. One way or another, if enough payment was offered, he could get almost anything.

As Juka zoomed through the sky, his eyes remained aimed towards the ground. He spotted a pair of humans, although he wasn't sure he could call one of them human as he looked more like a walking corpse than a man. Still, they were potential clients in need of his services and were therefore worth talking too. Carefully lowering his bubble to a few feet off the ground, he guided it in front of the pair. "Would the two of you mind the company of a third?" They were strangers to him, both, but so were so many others.

>> "Nope, what you see is what you get. Power has a price, girl, remember that."

It was a powerful and evocative thought, and it called to Rebecca's mind memories of Agnes. Not the good memories when everything went well, but the End Day memories and the moment she found out the price they all paid for Agnes's "power." Her mood sank from mildly apathetic to moderately perturbed. "Ye dornt have to tell me twice," she grumbled.

>> "M'names Lije, and I'm a scavenger by trade... so iffin you've got something to trade you might wanna have a look at what I got here for sale, while I'm here."

So he was a trader. It was as respectable a living as any, especially in their tough times. Plenty of people would take what they had and what the could find or steal, and turn it into items more suited to their needs. It was an oddly trusting business in an untrustworthy time. Regardless, it was not Rebecca's cup of tea. (Well, unless she could actually trade for tea.) "No, thank you. I've got little in the way of 'needs' and less in the way of things worth trading." One day she might trade the ratty shirt off her back for a handful of strawberries, but until then, she had naught but a few pieces of metal to her name.

Something called for attention in the corner of Rebecca's eye. Before she could react, she was watching a bubble descend toward her, with a flashy outfit.

>> "Would the two of you mind the company of a third?"

What was originally a peaceful place to refresh herself was becoming a crowded watering-hole. Rebecca rolled her eyes, filling a canteen of water now on the chance that she would have to leave earlier than intended.

She did not look at either man, (assuming the one in the bubble was a man,) but directed her comment to Lije. "See? Now you have someain worth trading to." Please occupy eachother so Ah can enjoy my damn water."

"No, thank you. I've got little in the way of 'needs' and less in the way of things worth trading."

Lije shrugged and continued to fill up his water supplies. There were always those who preferred to make it through life completely on their own merits, or it could be that she indeed didn't have anything to trade. Lije didn't really believe it: there was always something but if she didn't want to even look at his wares he wasn't going to push. The good thing about being a scavenger was that you were one of the lucky few who were often able to regularly obtain things you wanted instead of just the things you needed. In these times, you were lucky to have even that.

For instance, some time ago Lije had managed to trade a few shirts, a almost full car battery, and a decent camelback pack for a completely working electric keyboard. It was wrapped in oilskin and canvas and safely hidden away in a secret portion of his cart underneath a false bottom. It was his most prized possession, and he only took it out in places where the dust wouldn't get everywhere. Lije knew he probably could have gotten a better deal at someplace like The Bunker, but he tended to stay away from there because by the same idea he got more for his stuff selling it to people without easy access to The Bunker.

"Would the two of you mind the company of a third?"

Lije looked up, a little peeved at himself for losing awareness of his surroundings in his musings, until he realized that the person was floating down from the sky in a shiny bubble of some sort. Obviously a mutant, and judging from the quality of clothing either a trader, or some other person of import. Considering that the bubble probably allowed quick travel and protection from the elements, trader or messenger would be an easy job.

"Not at all, my good..." Lije trailed off, realizing he couldn't tell whether the mutant in front of him was a guy or a girl. He shrugged apologetically. "Would you, perhaps, like to browse my wares? I'm a scavenger, you see, and relatively proficient in the repair of both mechanical and electrical devices." Hopefully this person would be more receptive. Though Lije couldn't really afford to spend much time stopped, lest those chasing him catch up, if he could unload some of his merchandise he could perhaps move a little faster.