Firehouse Oasis 118

21. Hen

As absolutely insane as the possibility of East River being real and a place they now knew how to get to was, the car still wasn't the safest place to be. So, as desperately as Hen, definitely Chim, and likely the others wanted to immediately discuss it, they ended up emptying the trunk and getting back inside the station first. Though once they had all the stuff settled in the living room area, they gathered around the kitchen counter and began discussing.

"I'm not going to lie, I'd given up hope that it was even real!" Chim started, comment directed at her, an awed look still plastered across his features. "I mean seriously, how many years ago did we first hear about it? And since then, nothing! Not a single clue."

"I only heard about it a year ago while I was with the league." Eddie added with a grimace, "and that was only because they were trying to figure out if it was real. An encampment like that is probably full of potential recruits."

"When I was with my last group we tried to figure it out." Buck told them, though strangely enough there was a frown painting his features."The only clue we got was, 'EDO' but we never ended up making any sense of it."

"Hey don't beat yourself up about it, Chim and I never even got far enough to get a clue." Hen said in an attempt to reassure him, nudging his ankle with her foot.

The conversation had been going pretty quickly so far, which Hen chalked up to their collective excitement. She was pretty sure that everyone at this table had previously given up hope in East River's existence, actually. Hope and fairy tales were dangerous things to put any stock in nowadays. Still though, she forgot to factor in the general current world knowledge gap that two of their members had.

"Ok, no. Pause for a second." Athena demanded with Bobby nodding along looking confused, her eyes cutting around the table to each of them. "What the hell is East River?"

Eddie, Buck, Chim, and her all seemingly remembered at the same time that Athena and Bobby hadn't been in the outside world for very long. They all glanced around at each other, a bit of guilt in their eyes at having forgotten, but also unsure of how to explain a place that they weren't even sure existed.

"It's a myth." Eddie finally started, "or at least we all thought it was. It was supposed to be a safe haven for kids somewhere around the East Coast of the country."

They all nodded, all having already heard this bit of information about it. Of course though, it was Buck who decided to add in more of an explanation, always ready and eager to share his wealth of knowledge on any topic at any time. 

"Apparently it was created by someone called the Slip Kid, they got the name because supposedly they slipped Skip-tracer and government custody three separate times." He explained, the rest of them nodding along since this wasn't new information, while both Bobby and Athena had calculating expressions. Leaning more towards disbelieving by the second though, Hen observed.

"Three times? Sounds like a bit of an exaggeration." Athena observed and Buck just shrugged.

"Probably is," Eddie agreed, throwing his two cents in, "though I heard the same rumours that Buck knows. Doesn't make it true, but that is the common belief out there."

Buck sent a shy smile at Eddie that the other boy didn't see, bumping his shoulder in thanks for the backup, despite the fact that no backup had been needed. Athena hadn't been questioning Buck, just the rumours that none of them even believed anymore anyways. She shot a glance over at Chim who met her gaze with an eye roll at the behaviour. Yeah, they'd definitely be having a gossip session later about the two younger boys.

"Anyways." Chim started, bringing their attention back to the current topic. "Rumor is that there's a sort of Utopia run by kids. It's a safe space that no one but other kids can find. The Slip Kid runs it and can offer you a place to stay or can even get you back in touch with your folks if it's safe to."