Salvation

Chapter 1- Althea

"I'm going either way, you can come or not."

It was a statement, a matter of fact. She was going with or without her brother's help.

She stared him down with her best no nonsense glare, hands on her hips. She was tired of waiting until one of them was sober enough to take her.

The little girl, Tansy, was an orphan she took in when the child's mother died from Pneumonia. The child was sick as well. She had been doing better under Althea's care but with a lack of proper medicine she had taken a turn for the worse.

Thirteen years after The Fall, where probably three quarters of the world's population was wiped out by a super virus, living was harsh. She lived in a small trapper cabin with her two older brothers. They had lived there for the past five years. It was comfortable, away from most of civilization, safer from the gangs and violence of the more populated areas. There was a tiny village about 2 hours walk from the cabin, and other cabins spread out a few kilometers here and there.

Tansy and her mother lived at the nearest cabin, about 20 mins walk from their own. After Theresa had lost her husband she did the best she could, continued to sell her eggs at the market in town and tending her garden during the warmer months. Althea traded with them often, she would bring the woman and her child milk in return for eggs.

That was when she found Teresa sick in bed, unable to take care of the small homestead and her daughter. She had begged Althea to take Tansy, she knew she was dying. When Teresa passed a few days later she had dug as deep a grave as she could and said a small prayer for the lady she hardly knew. She quickly packed up anything useful, some clothes for Tansy, the chickens and some food supplies and took them all in her pull cart back to her own home.

At first her brother's had bitched and moaned about another mouth to feed. The small girl, only eight years old and grieving her mother had just sat silently watching them fight. She never made a sound. Althea was adamant. She would take care of the child. She would tend the chickens and take them to market when she took the milk.

It wasn't that her brother's were horrible people. They were gruff, hardened by a world that didn't give too many second chances. They took care of her and all three of them had managed to keep going after their father's death. But it had always only been just them. Althea was convinced that the prospect of adding to their small family scared them, the more people you brought into the fold, the more risk you took and the more heartache when you lose them.

A few days after she brought Tansy home she began to get sick. Althea had managed to keep it under control until her brother's had gone on a binge at a neighbor's house. Sean Lathe lived about an hour away and had just finished his latest batch of moonshine. They had been gone for days (which happened every couple of months or so).

She was out of fever medicine and herbs. She couldn't leave the little girl alone to make the trek into town (that was even if anyone had pills). She was more keen on doing the trek up to Old Maddy's. It was about three hours away in the opposite direction, but the old lady knew everything about herbs and the local plants that help with sickness. Apparently she used to live closer to town at one point, but the older she got, the more isolated she made herself.

Althea had at one point wanted to spend a summer up at her homestead and learn what she could if the she would have accepted her as a student. Unfortunately she felt as though she was abandoning her brothers if she left, even for a few months. Maybe she could work something out with Maddy, a week or two there every month. She'd have to talk to her about it.

Unfortunately after The Fall the world turned upside down. They were lucky being closer to the mountains as it was away from the big city areas. There was better trade in the bigger towns and cities but you were just as likely to get raped or your neck slit as you were some bolts of cloth. Didn't mean that some of that unpleasantness did not make it's way towards their area. On more than one occasion they had had some close calls. Wanderers coming around, a few gangs seeing if they could get some quick loot with the quiet mountain folk.