star chasers

ii.

Home was a rusted van for Chu, the kind with an engine that rumbled so hard you vibrated in its seats, thick blankets and the smell of incense, dust swirling in patches of sunlight, two happy people in the front seat. The wares would jingle and shake with each bump in the road.

"You know," he searched the cupboards of a dusty kitchen, "I was a caravan baby."

"Hm?" Lefty hummed.

They rested for the night in a house long neglected, in a barren town. They could spend the day searching each house for anything of value.

"My parents were merchants," Chu continued, "We traveled the world in a van."

He missed the hours on the road, villages painting the skyline, long fields of rock and dust, cracked, unkempt asphalt pushing with tall weeds. Long, dry fields where he could run and hide, scrounge for wheat and corn, catch hay fever if he wasn't careful.

"I was just a village kid," the fighter spoke, checking the cupboards near the floor.

"I'm guessing Remus ruined that."

He gave a dry chuckle. Lefty was from Keld, a small village close to Rocky Bay. Back then, it was just him and his mother. She spoke more in her actions than words, he remembered, the same deep brown eyes and quiet demeanor.

When it burned down, he could feel the heat from miles away. He still smelled smoke in the dust on hot days.

"Lefty."

He snapped back to the empty house, pelted by rain.

Chu gave a smile. "You were somewhere else. If you want to survive, you have to stay out of your head."

Lefty nodded. A pause settled between them as he sat on the dirt covered floor, back leaned against the wall. "Where are we going?"

"To teach you about the cause."

"Freedom?"

"Yes. But there are different levels of freedom. And different prisons we have to escape to be free."

The road to the city, first as dust, soon became jagged, sunbleached asphalt, man-made boulders. Rusted cars dotted the landscape, doors open, used until they ran out of gas long ago. Asphalt grew into bridges and raised roads as they got closer to the city. Bridges, roads, cars; all pieces of the past before the others abandoned this world and fire rained down from the sky. At least, that was the legend everyone knew.

"How long did Remus keep you?" Chu looked towards Lefty, whose brown eyes gazed at the sky. He was quiet for a long time, long enough that Chu considered asking again. Perhaps it was too soon.

"Seven years."

"How old are you?"

A pause. "Twenty."

Thirteen when he entered the camp. Chu was lanky at thirteen, selling wares at the caravan to village girls with his best crooked smile. Lefty was fighting. Would things be the same if they switched places? Could Chu survive?

He remembered seeing Remus for the first time, an R marked in their skin like a cursed tattoo. He'd met plenty of beautiful Remus girls, too, excited to hear about where he'd been. One, no older than him at the time, gave him a shy smile. She lifted her sleeve to show off the R in her skin, a fresh, bright red.

It was burned into his memory.

"State your business." Security ripped Chu from his thoughts, gripping his rusty assault rifle with a sneer. The only source of light in the dusk was a pouch of glowing stones that sat on his waist, moving with a clack as he changed position. He towered over the young travelers.