forbidden (illicitus) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-06-23 16:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 09, thomas galloway, ~ series: traders |
Characters: Tom & NPC Evie
Location: Siena Suites, Courtyard.
Summary: Tom and Evie talk about the groups futures over dinner.
Rating: G
Tom had changed into a knit shirt, cargo pants and sandals after cleaning up once the grunt work was done for the day. He'd arrived back with the rest of his belongings and equipment from his cabin late that morning and helped with fence that afternoon. The help of the traders had been a big boost and they'd gotten a lot accomplished, and might be able to start working on the walls between buildings to cut off access points to the courtyards in the next day or two.
With all the new people around, Rollo was on a leash so he didn't go tearing after everyone trying to lick all his new friends to death. The dog's tail was wagging back and forth so much that Tom half wondered if his canine companion was part hummingbird. Either way, Rollo made it a little difficult to handle both a plate of food and a drink at the same time, and Tom looked for the nearest open seat. That happened to be opposite the dark haired young woman that he'd been told was the leader of their new friends. "This spot taken?"
The young woman in question was eagerly tearing into the steak in front of her, and smiled pleasantly at the man in response. "I don't think any one place is taken, honestly," she said. "People are traveling a lot. Have a seat."
That earned her a smile in return and Tom placed his plate and cup on the table before lifting one of the legs just enough to slide the leash handle under it to keep Rollo from running off. "Sit, Rollo." He ordered, and his four legged friend immediately complied, though the dog's expression clearly suggested he hoped to score some table treats out of the deal. "Good boy."
That taken care of, he sat down himself. "I'm Tom Galloway, pleased to meet you ma'am."
"Evie," she replied, giving a nod but not offering her hand up. She brought another bite to her mouth and chewed enthusiastically. "You guys sure know how to show gratitude," she said, then swallowed.
"I heard y'all came by a few weeks ago, that's a bit before my time here. They're all good folk though, tryin' to do the right thing by people." He smiled at her. "Besides, any excuse for a party in these days is something to be encouraged." With that he began to cut up his own food.
"Hear, hear," Evie replied around another mouthful. Her plate was filled with a little bit of everything offered, though she was going through most of the semi-processed stuff first; she wanted to save the fresh and frozen things for last. "So you're new, huh?"
"You could say that," Tom nodded. "Came down from the mountains last week and saw they were havin' meet-ups and thought I'd check it out. Turns out I came to the last one. Guess it was getting too dangerous to have them anymore."
"Such is the way of things, these days," the brunette answered, pausing to take a sip of juice from her glass. "Everybody's gotta be careful these days. That's one reason we never settle too long. What's the point of setting down roots, y'know?"
"Gonna have to sooner or later," Tom replied easily. "That or convert to horse power and eventually turn into neuvo-gypsies."
"Don't need horse power," Evie said as she took a bite of niblet corn. "We run on bio diesel. It's pretty easy to make, once you get it down. My boy Rizzo has us hooked up for as long as the trucks can keep going."
Damn that steak tasted good, where had they been hiding this? Tom swallowed another bite and nodded. "All right, that'll keep you going for a decade, maybe two if your mechanic is as good as you make him sound. Most of the roads will probably last that long, especially down south where you don't have freeze thaw. Assuming the bridges don't get washed out in a few years from spring floods you could keep going around the country. Where'd y'all start out at?"
"Olympia," Evie answered. "Originally. I'd been traveling for a while following a band, until I got news about what was going down, so I went back up to the rez to find my parents and my brother. Haven't really stopped since. Everyone else we sorta found along the way, on the road or stopping through evac camps."
"The opposite of here I guess," Tom mused after a bite of greens. "People seemed to find them rather then being stumbled across. Me, I just headed up to my cabin with Rollo here and held out until the worst of the chaos was over." It wasn't like he'd had anyone left to look for. "Took a lot of guts to do what you did."
"What, pick up people?" she asked, looking at him. "Hell, what kind of person would I be if I'da just kept driving? Just because the world's shitty doesn't mean I've gotta be. Everybody's got their limit with just how much they're willing to extend their neck out, yeah, but you should still do it."
"No, I meant travelling around the way you did early on. I agree with you on being willing to stick your neck out. That's why I joined this bunch." To be honest, as far as he was concerned they needed him more than he needed them, though being around people again was nice.
"Oh." Her cheeks colored slightly, but she ploughed on as though it hardly affected her. "I was always kind of a leaf in the wind. S'what my mom always said. Noah's the down-to-earth one, not me."
"Seem to have done all right so far," Tom responded with a shrug, and finally gave in to the doggy eyes pleading with him next to the table, handing him a bite of the steak.
"So what're things like up through the northwest? Meet a lot of survivors or just your little group?"
"There's actually a little settlement up in Oregon near Grant county," she replied around another mouthful. "A couple evac communities joined up and settled together. Last time I checked they were doin' all right. They found themselves an apple orchard and one couple had some livestock still alive and producing." She smiled a bit. "Next time we go up that way, I'm sure we'll come out with a good haul."
Tom filed that away in his memory for future reference. "Sounds like you've got it all figured out."
"As well as I can, I guess," Evie admitted with a small shrug. "There's pockets of people everywhere. We've managed to get along good, either by trading or living off what we can find."
"Glad to hear there's more people around than it seems," Tom said after washing down a bite of food. "For a while there I wasn't sure what I'd find when I came down out of the mountains."
"That's the thing about the human race," the brunette woman said, sipping leisurely from her drink before going back to her food once again. "Not even a plague can kill us all. Though granted, it'll be a good long time before we're anywhere near our prior glory."
"Eh, the eggheads were always saying the planet was overpopulated anyway." Tom shrugged, unconcerned about getting humanity back into the billions. "Humanity will start increasing again before long, if it isn't already." Bridget passed by at that moment, plate piled high, and Tom jerked a thumb in her direction. "Case in point."
Evie smiled, watching as the woman passed them fondly, almost wistfully. "I want a baby myself, I won't lie. Most of my people are gone. If it meant carrying on the traditions outside of just talking about it, I would."
"Most everyone's people are gone," Tom pointed out. "Doesn't mean you can't find a nice guy, 'settle down', and have a few kids. You can keep what you want and get rid of what you don't think worked before."
Evie looked like she wanted to say something more, but she refrained, concentrating on her food in contemplative silence. When she reached for her drinking glass, she found it empty, and frowned slightly at herself. "I'm going to get some more of this amazing sweet tea. Can I get you some while I'm up?"
Tom nodded and handed her his glass. "Thank you ma'am, I'd appreciate it." The sweet tea was pretty good.