Queen's Princess

PART I: Chapter 5

"Up and at 'em, champ!"

I heard Odessa's voice from outside the back door. She had smacked her hand against the metal frames of the house, causing a loud clang and I even heard her knock over some of the things on my father's workbench since I heard her swear underneath her breath. I chuckled, rolling over, trying to avoid getting up this early. The door swung open, hitting the metal siding and Odessa walked into my room, tapping her fingers on the door frame.

"Come on, sleepy head. We got a full day ahead of us."

Ever since we had our chat about training, this has been going on for about a month since. We had to do indoor training everyday to avoid my sunburns getting worse. But since they were healing, it was time for me to train against the elements, but Odessa did have something to cover up my arms and shoulders to avoid getting more sunburns.

"Do I have to be up this early?" I mumbled, sitting up, rubbing my eyes as I yawned. 

"Yeah we gotta be up this early. We got to make the most of the day. Also, here," she said and tossed me a long sleeved shirt. 

"I'm gonna die in this," I said as I looked at it.

"Nah, you'll be fine. More sweat, the more you'll cool off," he said and walked out of the house.

"You got a fiesty one," I heard my grandfather say from the living room. 

"I guess you could say that," I said and forced myself to get up. 

I took off the shirt I was wearing and replaced it with the one Odessa gave me. It was loose and it didn't stick to my body. I guess that was a plus. I grabbed my bag that had a small bottle of water. Ever since my father fixed that motorcycle, we were able to find an oasis not too far from here. It was small and it was enough for us and Odessa's family. My father, even though he's not greedy like the other people here, thought that he should share the information with Stone. However, they went out at night to avoid people following them. And they'd cover up their tracks when they left and came back. But since intact bottles were hard to find these days, I still had to go out to the junk yards and search for them. Odessa would come along with me to make sure those boys didn't come around. I walked out of the back door to find Odessa leaning against the side of the house. She was watching the sun come up.

"Ready?" I asked her.

She turned and smiled, "Ready."

"Alright, come on them. I know you're fast, but try an' keep up," she said and darted off into the distance, towards the central part of the Wasteland. 

"You're not gonna let me stretch?"

"Nope!"

I chuckled, took in a deep breath, and shook out my legs before getting into a running position. I closed my eyes, focused my breathing, and took off, opening my eyes and seeing Odessa's tiny spec in the distance starting to become closer and closer. She looked over her head and laughed.

"I knew you could catch me, but let's see if you can keep up," she said and got closer to the central part, dodging the people and stalls that were there.

One thing I hated when running. I would never be able to run in a straight line for long. Dodging obstacles and avoid running into people made things worse. And today was the worst day. It was congested and full of people more than it usually was. 

"Dez, I'm gonna make you pay for this!"

All I heard was her laugh as her blue hair flapped behind her. I focused and tried to let my instincts take over, but if I did, I'd just run straight through everyone. I had to avoid them. Being light on my feet, I avoided the stalls and the people. Starting to get into a rhythm, I began to dodge with ease and starting to predict where people were going and if I needed to move to the side or jump over their stalls. Seeing a clearing, I knew I was getting to the end. Odessa was now running with nothing but sand in front of her. I ran as fast as I could when I reached the end of the central part.

"Not bad, champ," she said and ran faster.

I could feel my lungs starting to cry and getting air was harder now. This has been the longest I've ran before. But I needed to train the body to be stronger, to be better. I moved my head forwards and tried to run faster, slowly closing the gap between myself and Odessa. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks, causing me to skid to a stop, tripping on my own two feet and I ate shit. Face planting in the sand, my mouth was full of it. Lifting my head up, I spat out the sand and rubbed my eyes with the sleeves of the shirt.

"What the hell--?"

"Shh, get down," Odessa said, grabbing the back of my shirt and pulling me down to hide behind the sand dunes.

The Junkertown gate opened up and someone was shoved out into the Wastelands. They scrambled to get up before the gate closed, but it was too late.

"Another one to join the Wastelands," Odessa said as we watched the guy walk far into the sands. She shook her head, "Such a disgrace."

"We're going to change it, right?" I asked.

She looked over at me and nodded, "Yeah. Yeah we are going to change it."

We got up and she brushed the sand off from my sleeves, "Sorry about that abrupt stop. I-I just didn't want to get caught from Mason again."

"Do you think he even remembers your banishment?"

"Probably not. All he's probably doing is fighting people in The Reckoning, drinking, and sitting on his ass all day. Just thinking about it makes my blood boil."

"Why don't we use your anger for something productive?"

She nodded her head once more, "Yeah. Come on, there is still a lot more training to do."