Against The Sun

Tent Town

Having grown up inside Battery City for practically their entire lives if you had asked Gerard or Mikey to describe what The Zones would look like neither of them would of been capable of conceptualizing anything like this. BL/ind rarely showed footage or pictures of much father out than Zone 2, and what they did show painted a depressing and scary picture. If pushed Gerard might have admitted to imagining just endless swathes of dry, blistering sand from horizon to horizon, and maybe, if communities existed at all they would be occupying concrete structures just as he had seen in the city, but broken down, crumbling and in disrepair. Sad, lonely fossils of civilization peppered around an unforgiving dangerous landscape, occupied by starving, ill, and violent people. He would not have envisioned a colourful and lively shanty town that looked to have been built out of anything and everything the inhabitants could put their hands on.

There were a few buildings in the center of town that were solid concrete or brick just like WKIL. Jet pointed out a bath house and a small store, obvious remnants from whatever had been here before the war, but spreading out around that was a curious bundle of brightly painted tents, part fabric, part wood, metal, scavenged windows and doors from old buildings, the occasional caravan or trailer could be seen amongst everything. With the sun now below the horizon and the temperature dropping the whole town seemed to be coming alive. Several bonfires had been lit around the place. People, just as bright and colourful as the tents they were emerging from were milling around and chatting, several small children flew past Gerard on beaten up bikes squealing and laughing cheerfully. This was a side to The Zones that BL/ind had never shown and seeing it now he could understand why. This happiness he was seeing, so different to the controlled safe "happiness" that the corporation promised, was wild and thrilling. Tempting. It was dangerous in the best possible way.

Right on the edge of town Gerard and Mikey were led to what appeared to be an old gas station, surrounded by old rusted out car bodies, painted in big blue letters along the side wall read Small Jim's Chop Shop.

"Small Jim said we could raid the fridge when we got back, " Jet announced.

"Jim coming through again with the goods!" Bunny cheered. As she followed him through the side door of the chop shop.

"Who's Small Jim?" Mikey asked.

"He's Jet's Dad," Ghoul replied as he continued to lead them around the edge of the building. "Best mechanic in The Zones, although Jet could probably give him a run for his money at this point."

Beyond the Chop Shop, standing a little separate from the rest of the town was a decent sized shanty tent, that looked to have been pulled together from at least five smaller tents, and was held up with an inventive array of posts, pallets, ropes, and bits of cars.

"Home sweet hovel," Ghoul grinned, nervously indicating to the ramshackle building. "It's not much but we only started it two years ago and there's lots more we want to do."

Gerard couldn't help but be impressed by what he was seeing. "You all built this?"

"Well, yeah. Mainly Bunny and me, but Jet helped a lot after we decided he was cool," Ghoul replied trying to sound nonchalant but Gerard could hear the pride in his voice as he lifted a flap in the side of the tent and led him and Mikey inside. "I know it's not much compared to what you're probably used to, but it's home you know?"