The Sovereign

Her

She was my age, and I couldn't help but blush. I hadn't seen a woman since I was six. Finding a girl of my age is like finding a mummy under your house. It just doesn't happen.

She smirked. "What, thought I was a guy?"

I shook my head and stared at my shoes. "Maybe. It's been a long couple of years. Haven't seen a girl for a long time. Not used to it, you know."

She nodded understandingly. "It's alright. I haven't seen another human in three years. My parents died after they both got bit by Radios."

"Oh...I...I'm sorry. My mom died in the Ripples, and my dad disappeared during the last few Ends."

"It's a sucky world nowadays. By the way, take some armor and a weapon. You'll need it."

I gladly slipped the armor over my clothes and skimmed over all the weapons she had.

"So, how'd you end up here?" I asked.

"I was heading for Cape Canaveral, stopped by a few months back. Because of the food, I've just camped out here since then. My name's Jade, by the way."

"Des Kayn, nice to meet you." I said, jokingly formal.  "I was headed for Cape Canaveral too..." I selected a staff with togglable plasma shock spears at either end.  Mainly, I liked it because it looked like something out of Star Wars.

I quickly checked if it worked, then turned to Jade.

"Thanks again.  I mean it.  In this day and age, most people would have let me die.  Let alone save me and give me food and water, and gear."

"I'm not heartless.  When you haven't seen a human in three years, you'll do anything. To see that human alive."

I nodded and walked out of the back room and out into the main store.

"Hey, you got any gasoline here?" I called.

"Yeah, it's to the left," she said, not coming out of the room. "I was traveling by foot, so I never needed it."

"I've got a car, about a half mile down the road. You still up for Cape Canaveral?"

"A CAR? Here I am walking with a sack over my shoulder and you've got a freaking car!"

"Well, yeah, but I left my camp and didn't have time to grab food and water. That's something I'm grateful you have."

"Well, we've got so many supplies that it'll take at least a day to bring them all down there. Let's start at sunrise." She said, coming out of the room with a new, cleaner set of armor on. She tossed me a metal mask.

I looked at it and raised an eyebrow. "What's this for?"

"Radiation protection. I use mine to hide my face from people I'm unsure of, or in places I don't want to be recognized as female too quickly, but it has an oxygen valve."

She tossed me two tins that looked like flattened soup cans. "Oxygen." She said.

I donned the mask and shoved the oxygen cans in the pocket of my coat.

•••

I woke up in the middle of the night to a smash.  I heard Jade scream.  I scrambled to my feet and ran into the back room where she'd been sleeping.

"Jade, NO!"