Our chance to try again

Nick- 01

I could feel my skin sting as the water pushed me farther up the cement. The air was cold making the water feel warm, My head ached as I tried to recall what had just happened. I slowly opened my eyes only to be met with the dark. I slowly sat up looking around to see if there was a clue of where I was, nothing. I was in a canal that had half a foot of water that was quickly rising. I stood up and looked up the canal, there were people, alive, happy people. They cheered as the water poured down the stream. People were filling water bottles, buckets, and vases. Anything that could hold water was being filled. Kids danced, splashing each other with water well Laughing, smile stretched across there faces. This brought joy to nick, he felt he had finally done something he could be proud of.

"Boy, get out of there before the waters to your head" he looked up to see a lady standing at the edge of the canal, she had darker skin and brown hair, her hair was tied up. nick looked down to realize the water was now just past his knee. He pushed himself over to the edge where the lady was and tried to climb the wall, after about two failed attempts the lady reached her hand down for nick to grab. He had to jump to reach it, but when he got it the combined effort of nick climbing and the women pulling got him out.
"thank you" nick said when he finally got up. "Yeah, just don't ask me to do it again" the lady said as she put her hand on he shoulder and rolled it in circles. "What were you even doing down there" she asked looking down at the canal as it filled. "I blew up the bridge" he heard a scoft come from the lady, he looked over confused. He watched as the lady smile slowly faded "you're not joking" she said. When nick shook his head he looked away, "Well I guess I owe you a thanks."
The two sat In silence for a couple seconds before the lady started to walk away. "Wait where are you headed" nick asked,"I'm going home" "would you mind if I followed along" nick asked hoping for somewhere to stay, even if it was just until the sun came up. "I guess I owe you" she said and continued to walk, nick did a light jog to catch up to her. Every step hurt his back felt like it was on fire, but he ignored it trying to keep up.
"I never did get your name" nick asked. "Freya"

xxx (time skip)

The two had been walking for about thirty minutes when they made their way to a huge chain link fence, it had to be covering about 4 acres of land. Freya led them up to a large gait that had two large men holding large guns standing on each side, nick guessed to be guards.
"Freya" one of them said, giving her a welcome back nod. "Boys" she replied, followed with the same nod. She reached into her pocket pulling out a set of keys, going through the 10 on the chain.
"Looks like today's a good day to be a stray" the guy on the left said "and what's that spouse to mean Carlos" Freya asked not looking away from the keys.
This time it was the other guy talking "your daughter just came home with two." She didn't say another thing just opened the gait and entered, Nick followed. There was a road that led to the main building, on each side of the road was farm land. From the front you could see three buildings. There were people working, laughing, and kids playing.

It reminded nick of the ranch, just already he felt more welcome. He started thinking about the past day, he Wondered where his mom and sister were, Last he saw they were out of the impact. Probably on their way to the city Maddison had talked about, it was a small town just about an hour away from the bazaar. Then he started thinking about Troy. As much as he was Troy was crazy he also was calming to be around him, the way they got along. It wasn't easy to like Troy but Nick felt as if Troy was the only one who didn't look at his different after finding out what he was truly like or about his past with addiction. He saw a lot of himself in Troy and would forever miss the boy. He also felt, although his mom was out there he was in no rush to find her, he didn't know if he could forgive her fully after she killed his only friend.
"What are you thinking about" Freya asked as they made their way up to the front house, "a lot."
"Penny for your thoughts" Freya asked pulling out an actual penny. Nick just scoffed "A good friend." She slid the penny back into her pocket "did this friend have a name" "Troy, Troy otto" Freya didn't reply. They stayed quiet, they were at the building now.

When they entered the building was when she started talking again, "So this is what we call the lodge, upstairs is what we call the med-bank its the hospital/ care station" she led him down a small hall that lead to a lunch looking area "this is our cafeteria" she said doing air quotes over the word cafeteria. "the kitchen is over there" she said pointing to a door on the wall beside them. They walked back through the hall, Freya pointed to the door on the side with the stairs "that's the school room, and that's the storage unit" she said pointing to the other side of them.
"It's the end of civilization and you're still making these kids go to school" Nick joked, a chuckle came from the stairs.
Freya and Nick both looked to see who it was.
She had long brown hair, it was tied back into two french braids, she had darker skin and brown eyes, she was thin, but not skinny. She had green cargo pants on with a grayish green tank top tucked in, over top she had a green and brown flannel the sleeves had been rolled up to her elbows, she had beige combat boots on. She had long eyelashes and an oval shaped face, she was gorgeous.

"Hi Alex" Freya said breaking Nick's train of thought, "hi mom" she replied well walking down the rest of the stairs. "Nick, meet my daughter Alexandra"

~~~
Authors note: funny little things the song ribs was playing well writing this, so I have decided that's the type of friendship Alex and Nick are going to have

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Published: 29/01/2024
Words: 1122