If you’re new here, you’ll want to start at the beginning.

And now, back to the Wasteland…

Kai woke with a yawn and a long stretch that pulled the ache from her limbs. She blinked against the gloom of the cave, expecting the dull throb of a wound, the iron tang of blood, the creeping cold of infection. But there was no pain!

Her hand moved instinctively to her side. Was it a nightmare?
She lifted her shirt, almost afraid of what she’d find but, where yesterday a jagged gash had carved her open, she saw instead a pink scar. Smooth. Healed. Impossible.

Slowly Kai became aware of the fact that not only did she not hurt but she actually felt… amazing. She stretched again, relishing the way her muscles felt refreshed in a way that they maybe never had. But then she caught sight of the discarded chest bindings on the cave floor and two concerning thoughts crashed into her mind at once: Aza knows! and Where’s Aza?!?

Kai scanned the small space but there was no sight of the child. She grabbed the bandage and quickly rebound her breasts as she hurried to the cave opening. Still, she cinched her belt, tucked in her shirt. The illusion complete: a boy again. A scavenger but no longer a lone wolf.

"Aza?" she called softly, stepping out into the sunlight.

The wasteland met her with a wall of heat and silence. The sun spread wide across the sky, painting the horizon with hazy gold. Kai had no time to marvel at the sight or her revived health.

A knot bloomed in Kai’s belly. Aza was gone.

Kai swallowed down the rising panic and scanned the dust near the entrance, searching. There! A single tiny footprint pointed Kai on her way. And then another, even fainter in the gritty earth. Kai followed, eyes narrowed and focussed.

A flash of color half-hidden beneath a thornbush caught her eye.

The picture book.

She dropped to one knee, fingers brushing its tattered cover. The happy puppy smiled back at her. The knot in her stomach turn to fire at the blood speck she saw flecked across the cover.

"No..."

Panic surged. She stuffed the book into her shirt and broke into a run.

A conejo darted across her path, startled by her sudden movement. She didn’t even notice.

A cracked basin in the earth that once held water had been turned to sludge. The ground around it churned by a dozen booted feet. Nothing left but mud and waste.

Kai’s knees threatened to buckle when Kai found Aza’s little plastic dog, sunk half into the muck. The same toy she’d carried like it meant the world because Kai had left it for her once upon a time. Kai crouched, fished it out with trembling fingers.

The bootprints told the rest of the story.

Raiders.

Kai’s knees turned to steel as she tucked the toy in her pocket.

Long shadows stretched across the ruins of the old Flyers station. Rusted signage jutted like broken teeth. The truck stop reeked of oil and smoke that Kai could smell even from her far off perch in the dunes.

She gazed through her binocs at the Raiders gathered below.

The ruthless men lounged in the rubble. Shouting. Laughing. Tormenting the slave women tethered like livestock. The stink of rotgut and sweat wafted to Kai on the wind. Where is she?!?

Kai’s glass at last focused in on the smallest of the chained and Kai nearly wept with relief.

Aza sat quietly, somehow serene, somehow beyond the chaos around her. Eyes closed in meditation, breath slow and easy.

She opened her eyes and they shimmered that peculiar color that was becoming familiar and… beloved to Kai. As if she knew Kai was near, Aza turned her head and seemed to look right into Kai’s own eyes.

Kai made her a silent vow.

Hang tight, little one. I’m coming.

Kai counted heads. Only six Raiders, already drunk and distracted. Six drunk assholes shouldn’t be a problem Kai thought as a plan began to form.

The rumble of sound from the East hit her first. She swung her binocs toward the noise and saw a swarm of men pouring over the far dunes. Led by a familiar, loathsome figure. Zi, riding in with his crew like a storm on legs.

Kai muttered a curse and slid backward, belly to sand, vanishing into the dunes.

Darkness fell like a shroud. Fires burned low. The Raiders celebrated with howls and liquor and, while Zi wouldn’t let them do more than grope the chained women, there was plenty of rough manhandling of the merchandise. Feral joy in a godless world.

Kai watched from the ridge, curled beneath a blanket of stars. She waited.

Waited.

Until the shouting died. Until the fires sputtered. Until the night fell into a drunken, exhausted silence.

Bodies sprawled across the truck stop like casualties of a war no one had won. Two guards stood half-alert, heads bobbing with booze and fatigue.

Kai shifted. Buried her pack in the sand. All she had left, hidden for later. Move fast, fetch Aza and get the fuck out of the area before anyone noticed.

She crouched, ready to scuttle down the dune but a deep growl from behind froze her movement and chilled her blood.

Kai turned to see, a creature silhouetted in the moonlight. Close. Too close. The female yote’s lips peeled back in a snarl.

Holding her breath, Kai’s hand went slowly to her knife hilt but as she drew the blade, she noticed the beast’s swollen teats. A nursing mother.

Kai’s eyes flicked past the 'yote to the single pup watching from behind a rock. Her hand stilled and she sent a silent message to the beast. I don’t want to hurt you.

The 'yote’s growl deepened as it crouched.

Kai rolled just as the ‘yote lunged.

Teeth flashed. Kai slashed with the knife, missed. The creature danced back, then struck again.

Pain.

Hot and sharp as the 'yote tore a flesh from her calf, blood spilling fast.

Kai staggered back, knife held low. Breathing ragged. The pup whimpered.

Kai growled a feral sound from her own throat and waved the blade.

“Get back!” Kai hissed with as much dominance as she could muster.

The mother paused. Weighed the risk. Her eyes flicked to her pup, then back.

Hackles raised in warning, the ‘yote backed away. Silent. Then vanished into the dark with its offspring.

Kai’s head spun and her knees gave out. She pushed down vomit that threatened her stomach as the mutated coyote’s venom entered her blood stream. Kai knew she didn’t have much time.

She tore her pant leg open to expose the wound. Deep. Ugly. Muscle glistening. She tied the torn pants around it, tugged hard to slow the bleeding.

Her vision swam. Stars above twisted in strange patterns.

Poison. Toxins in the bite. She could feel it already, the sick heat climbing her veins.

She rolled, vomited into the sand.

Wiped her mouth with a shaking hand.

She couldn’t stay here.

Not this close to the truck stop. I’m as good as dead but they’ll finish the job if they find me. And worse for Aza.

The sand was cold now. The stars high and sharp. Her body shook with effort as she crawled. One arm forward, then the next the drug her wounded leg behind her. Inch by inch into the wasteland.

Back to the Wasteland…

Screams. Chaos. People running in every direction.

Sounds of terror tore through the air, sharp and panicked, ricocheting between ramshackle buildings and dirt alleys. The trading post collapsed into chaos. Merchants shoved wares into sacks and vanished. The painted women scattered like colorful, frightened birds. Men bellowed. Children wailed.

A swarm of Raiders poured through the streets like a flash flood, machetes gleaming, clubs rising and falling with wet thuds.

Kai ran.

Aza bounced on his back, her tiny fists clutching at his coat. His breath came ragged, muscles coiled like rope about to snap as he pushed through the throng toward the dunes. Kai caught a glimpse of Mira as she landed a well-timed kick into a Raider’s groin before disappearing in the crowd.

The sea of chaos parted for a moment and Kai started to believe they just might make it out of this disaster.

Aza screamed as a filthy, machete-wielding invader stepped in front of them before they could make their escape.
Make that TWO machetes Kai had just enough time to notice as he skidded to a stop.

The Raider grinned with rotted teeth as he spun the blades in his hands, daring Kai to come closer.

Kai had seconds to choose. Put Aza down and fight? Risk her being trampled, stolen, worse? Give up their sled and make a run for it?

Kai spun, hurling the scavenged loot - nearly everything they owned in the world - straight at the Raider. Bottles clattered. Plastic toys scattered. The Raider leapt out of the way, giving Kai just enough time to bolt.

Aza’s breath hitched against his back as he ducked, weaved, dodged bodies and blades. The stink of blood filled his nostrils. And then Aza shrieked in terror as she was torn from his back.

Kai spun, heart in his throat and swore as the Grocer, the very weasel who had tried to buy her, trotting away with Aza tucked beneath his arm like a side of meat.

“No!”

Kai’s voice was raw thunder. His knife flashed into his hand.

Aza writhed, kicking, pounding her fists against the weasel's back. He kept going, Kai dodging individual battles to catch up. Kai felt his lips curl in a proud grin when Aza sank her teeth into the weasel’s hip.

He yelped. Dropped her.

Aza hit the ground hard, scrambled back.

The weasel spun, sword already out, his ratty face twisted into a grin.

“Walk away,” Kai growled. His voice was low, lethal.

But the Grocer only cackled, words tumbling from his mouth like stones rolling down a hill. “Walk talk balk. Bock bock bock!” He flapped his arms, a chicken mocking death.

Then he lunged.

Steel sang. Kai ducked, parried. Sparks spat off the clash.

Aza scuttled into the dust, wide-eyed. The crowd around them raged with its own wars. Citizens fought Raiders, Raiders carved through whoever stood in their way. The weasel circled, light on his feet, sword darting like a snake.

Kai’s knife felt small. Too small.

He stole a glance toward Aza.

The weasel’s blade hissed past his throat, so close Kai felt the wind of it. He staggered back, breath sharp. Another Raider barreled by, machete flashing wild, drunk on slaughter.

Kai dove, snatched Aza out of the Raider’s path, shielded her with his own body. The weasel saw his chance and took it. Kai hissed as the weasel’s sword slid into flesh, cutting deep between rib and hip.

Kai swayed, blood soaking hot through his shirt.

Aza shrieked his name.

The weasel saw his victory. His grin widened, teeth crooked, eyes hungry. He raised his sword high, ready to finish it. But then his head left his body as a Raider swept past with a slicing swing of his own blade.

Kai and Aza watched, stunned as the head landed in the dirt at their feet with a dull thud, eyes still wide in surprise.

Aza froze, horror painted across her little face.

Kai didn’t let her look long. He grabbed her arm, dragged her stumbling away. His legs were shaky, vision blurring. But he kept going. Away from the town. Away from the massacre.

By the time they reached the outskirts, Kai’s strength was nearly gone. Each step dragged. His hand clutched his side, blood seeping through his fingers. Aza propped him up as best as her tiny frame could manage. They could still hear the dying screams of the trade town behind them and so Kai stumbled on until the sounds were at last swallowed by the desert.

The world was a blur of sand and blood by the time Aza managed to coax Kai into the hollow of a cave. He collapsed in a heap, face gray, lips cracked. His breath rattled in his chest.

Blood darkened the fabric at his waist. So much blood.

Aza knelt beside him. Her tiny hands trembled as she peeled back his overcoat. Kai tried to stop her with a weak push of his hand but his head lulled and Aza pulled up his shirt to reveal the weasel’s damage. The wound was ugly, deep, red-black in the dim light.

Aza closed her eyes, tilted her chin up and her lips moved in silent ritual. Her hands stopped their shaking as she placed them over the wound. Kai moaned, stilled, and… breathed easier as he fell into a natural sleep.

When Aza opened her eyes, they were swirling with color, like they contained an entire galaxy within them. And then they were just the eyes of a little girl again… except for their rare, beautiful indigo hew.

When she pulled her hands away from Kai’s side, the wound was nothing more than a fresh scar. Healthy and pink. Aza grinned.

But then she noticed the bandage around Kai’s upper torso. Her brow creased in concern. Slowly, gently, she unwound the cloth bound tight around Kai’s chest.

And then she saw. Not lean masculine pecs but the soft curve of feminine breasts.

Aza stared down at her protector, this scavenger who had saved her, who had fought for her, who had nearly died for her.

She ran her hand through her own short cropped hair and realized the secret Kai had fought so hard to keep.

So… did you suspect? Did it feel like it was inevitable or like a betrayal by the writer? I’d love to know!

Leave a comment

And now, back to the Wasteland…

TW: violence against women

Kai and Aza moved in the direction the sign post pointed until the endless dunes gave way to packed earth and hints of what passed as civilization since The End had come.

Kai’s anxiety grew with each step. A day’s walk, maybe less, and they’d be in the thick of it, surrounded by people. Too many damned people.

As the packed earth became an actual road, Kai’s eyes never stopped moving as he scanned every shadow, every gust of shifting sand that might hide someone ready to take from them. And then they weren’t the only ones on the road.

A farmer pushing a wheelbarrow of emaciated root vegetables. A tinker and his son pulled a wagon of junk. A heartbroken but determined father drug his young daughter by the hand. The child offered no protest but tears streamed down her face.

The last one made Kai’ stomach clench and anger tinged his vision red.

“Keep close,” he told Aza, his hand on his knife hilt.

Aza scurried to his side. She picked up on his nerves like an animal sensing a storm. Her wide eyes darted, mirroring his tension.

A clatter of hooves behind them drew Kai’s attention. He spun, keeping Aza at his back to face this new danger. A stringy herd of goats trotted toward them, driven by their herder.

The herder’s eyes locked with Kai’s, hard and wary. Kai dipped his chin in greeting: give me no trouble, I’ll give you none.

The herd shuffled past. Dust and dung filled the air. Aza reached out and stroked the muzzle of a young goat that lingered behind.

Kai’s mouth watered. Meat. Hide. Bone. Survival on four legs. His fingers twitched on his knife hilt.

“Kai, no.”

Her voice was soft but steady. Her gaze lifted to his, that strange, swirling glint in her eyes that made his chest tighten. Made him hesitate.

He cursed under his breath and let the knife fall back into place. Shouldered his pack. Turned away.

“You’re too soft,” he muttered.

“Kindness isn’t soft,” she said.

“It is if it means we starve.”

“We have enough.” She nodded toward the sled trailing behind them, piled with old-world junk and scavenged treasures. Enough to trade. Enough, maybe, to live.

By the time the sun hung low, they reached the ridge overlooking the trading post. The town sprawled in a basin below them, smoke curling from cook fires. It was rowdy, loud, chaotic.

Kai flattened himself on his belly, tugging Aza down with him. He scanned the town like a predator. Every person was a risk. Every stall, a temptation. He marked exits, dark corners, rooftops with vantage.

Even from this distance, Kai could feel how the place pulsed with energy. Music pounded from several directions. Voices rose in argument, laughter, and rage and drifted up to them on the wind. It was bleak and lawless, a carnival of desperation. And every instinct in Kai told him to turn around.

As if she sensed his thoughts, Aza whispered beside him.

“Maybe we should go somewhere else.”

Kai didn’t answer. His eyes drank in the danger as he considered their options.

“You want to try and find Home?” he asked her. She nodded and fought back her fear.

Kai still didn’t fully believe in the existence of the place but, even if they were going on a wild coney chase, they need supplies to carry them on their way.

Finally, he stood. “We go.”

Aza stood and started to protest but he pulled her shoulders back, straightened her spine. “Chin up. Chest out. Like you own the place.”

Aza remembered her disguise and lifted her chin in false bravery.

Kai recognized her nerves.

“And don’t forget to spit,” he said. He hawked and spat, the glob sinking into the dust.

Aza giggled.

“Boys spit. So spit!”

Aza grinned and gave it a try. Most of her saliva ended up on her chin.

Kai snickered then gave her his most masculine frown.

“Good. Now walk like this.” He demonstrated an exaggerated manly swagger.

She mimicked him, ridiculous and overdone until they both snorted with laughter. For a moment, they were two kids mocking the world instead of prey walking into its jaws.

So bolstered, they strutted into town.

A brothel sat at the center, painted women draped across railings, calling out to drunken men who pawed at them. A pimp in a long coat leaned against the doorframe, his smile a shark’s grin. Across from it, a grocer’s stall leaned precariously under the weight of bruised fruit and slabs of meat buzzing with flies.

For Kai, used to the silence of the Wasteland, the noise was almost too much to bear. Man up! Like you own the place! He reminded himself and leaned into his swagger a bit with his chin held high in defiance.

Eyes followed them as they made their way into town. Too many eyes. Always too many.

Men leaned against posts and watched them pass. Women eyed the sled with its bundled treasures. The air smelled of sweat, smoke, and blood.

They passed the brothel. Painted women crooned offers. Kai kept his eyes averted, disgust roiling in his gut.

And then a familiar figure caught his attention and he froze.

The slave girl from the outpost.

Her throat was bruised by cruel fingers, her hair hacked short. Her smirk still held, though, bitter and sharp. Her eyes found his and she snarled at him in recognition.

The Pimp shoved her forward, into Kai’s path. Her smirk deepened, her shirt open to expose sweaty flesh, daring him to look as she strutted close.

Kai looked away, pulled Aza tight against him and kept walking.

She laughed until the Pimp snarled her name.

“Mira! I told you. Stop scaring the boys away!”

Mira. Kai tucked the name away like a bit of scavenged treasure.

A crack of flesh on flesh split the air behind them. Kai winced but didn’t turn to look,. He knew the sound. Knew the pain of it.

Mira’s hiss in response, the Pimp’s laughter, and the sound of another blow followed them down the street.

“Abba, no! Please! I’ll be good, I promise!”

Kai recognized the father they had passed on the road stood at a trader’s booth, tears streaking his face. Beside him, his daughter sobbed and clutched his arm. She’s barely older than Aza. The thought made Kai’s skin crawl and he had to force himself to keep his hand off his knife.

Rule number one, stay invisible!

The father’s tears betrayed his regret, but his hand pushed the girl forward all the same. The Slave Trader pressed a pouch of credits into his palm and the shoved the child into his goon-like assistant’s grip.

Aza whimpered beside Kai and he felt her tuck her face into his ribs to hide the sight. Kai clenched his teeth so tightly his jaw hurt. This was the Waste at its cruelest.

The goon drug the child away.

Aza clutched Kai’s hand. The other girl’s screams echoed long after she was out of sight.

And then the Trader’s eyes found Aza. Calculating. Scheming.

Kai pulled Aza across the street, but he felt the weight of that gaze follow. Like claws dragging down his spine.

The grocer’s stand stank of rot. Meat hung in strips, flies clouding around them. The Grocer himself was a weasel of a man, his eyes quick and greedy.

“What’ll it be, what’ll it be?” he crooned, waving a haunch of something too long dead. “Fresh today, good price, best price.”

“Fresh a week ago,” Kai said flatly.

“Hmph. I say fresh, she's fresh.” mumbled the Grocer. His eyes darted to the sled. “What you got to trade, anyway? Nothing good I'd wager. Trade fade, made laid.”

He cackled at his own rhyme.

Kai pulled back the cover. The Grocer descended like a rat, pawing through the treasures. His eyes widened when they found Aza’s picture book.

“Not that.”

Kai reached, but the Grocer scampered back, clutching it.

“Book. Look. Took book!” he prattled. “Rare find. Big price.”

“I said no.”

“What you need book for? Scavenger like you? Food. Water. That’s all you need.”

Kai snatched the book back. “It belongs to my… brother,” Kai snapped. He shoved the book into Aza’s arms.

The Grocer’s eyes shifted. Not to the book. To Aza. His greedy gaze turned hungry.

“I give you good price for the child. Big trade. Good trade, all made..”

Kai’s body went taut. He shoved Aza behind him, hand dropping to his knife.

“Males are protected from trade by law.”

“Laws. Caws. Jaws. Not everyone follows the laws.,” the Grocer sang, grin stretching too wide.

Kai’s knife glinted as it cleared the sheath. “Say it again and choke on your own tongue.”

The Grocer backed, laughing nervously, but the crowd was pressing now. Too many eyes. Too much attention.

Before Kai could decide what to do next, an alarm rang out. A bell clanging, loud and urgent.

“Raiders,” the Grocer hissed. He vanished, pulling a steel door down over his booth. Others scrambled, grabbing what they could.

Screams filled the air. Chaos.

Kai cursed, heaved Aza over his shoulder, and ran. The sled rattled behind them, bouncing over the ground as the town erupted into panic.

Does Kai get Aza away before the Raiders find them? And what of the girl, Mira? New episodes every week! Subscribe today so you don’t miss a single one.

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And now, back to the Wasteland…

Kai leaned into the rope scavenged from the cellar to pull the toy chest across the sand like a sled. The weight of their pilfered loot and the deep sand made for heavy work but he just kept putting one foot in front of the other. What else could he do?

Behind him, Aza trudged along, hugging the little picture book to her chest as if it were her greatest treasure. Her small feet drug as fatigue set in.

“Hungry,” she whispered.

Kai grunted. No shit, kid.

Aza stumbled, caught herself for half a step, then collapsed. She didn’t bother to get back up. Sand clung to her face, her lashes. She lay there, staring at nothing.

Kai cursed under his breath, turned back, and scooped her up. She was weightless. Bones wrapped in too much nothing. He set her into the toy chest and went back to pulling.

By noon, the sun pressed down so hot it could’ve burned the bones out of their bodies. They sheltered inside the yawning mouth of a concrete culvert, its cement flaking and crumbling. The shade was thin relief, but it was something.

Both of them carried the gaunt look of starvation, skin stretched too tight, eyes too big. Aza sat cross-legged, the little book open on her lap, though she couldn’t read a single letter. She mumbled her own version of the story anyway, like prayer.

“And the little girl and her new family lived happily ever after,” she murmured.

Kai let her words fade into the background as he dug through the toy chest, taking inventory of what their haul. The naked Barbie drew his attention for a second. He smirked at her nippleless breasts then tossed the ridiculous thing aside. His hand landed on a sealed jar, its glass coated in decades worth of grime.

Aza tilted her head. “Is it food?”

Kai popped the clip and cracked the seal. A thick scent drifted to him, sweet and ancient. His mouth filled with saliva. He stuck his finger in, pulled it out sticky and dripping with amber honey.

He hesitated, then licked. His eyes widened. Holy shit. He’d never tasted anything so good! Liquid gold. He dipped again and shoved his fingers into his mouth with a moan then passed the jar to Aza.

She plunged her hand in without hesitation, stuck a tiny fistful of the amber sweetness into her mouth. She giggled, the sound startling in this place.

They grinned at each other, their faces smeared with honey, their hunger softened, and shared their first real moment of camaraderie.

When Aza had her fill, she wandered into the weeds, sticky fingers clutching the book.

“Watch out for snakes,” Kai called as he repacked the chest.

When he glanced up again, his breath caught.

Aza crouched low, holding her sticky fingers out toward a coney. Its nose twitched, body tense but curious. Aza’s face glowed, wide open in innocence.

Kai’s lips tugged into something that might’ve been a smile, but not for her kindness. He reached for the slingshot at his belt, fingers slow, steady.

The coney crept closer to Aza. Her smile broadened as the creature licked the honey from her fingers.

THWAK!

The coney dropped at her feet.

Aza gasped, eyes darting from the body to Kai.

He was already moving, knife out, snatching the limp creature before it could twitch.

She glared at him like he’d done something horrible.

“You hungry or not?” he growled.

Tears fell from Aza’s eyes but she held her tongue as Kai made quick work of skinning their supper.

By dusk, the fire snapped and hissed. Meat roasted black, fat sizzling.

Kai passed Aza a portion of cooked coney. She gave him her best stink eye but that didn’t stop her from taking the meat. Kai devoured his portion with brutal efficiency.

When nothing but bones remained, Aza watched Kai crack one to get to the marrow.

She gnawed on a leg bone but got nothing for the effort. Kai watched her struggle a moment then chuckled and held out his hand. “Give it here.”

She crawled close and passed him the bone. Kai cracked it easily, exposing the rich marrow inside.

“Like this, see?”

He demonstrated how to suck the nutrients from inside the bone then passed it back to her.

She sucked, eyes widening at the rush of richness.

Morning brought movement again. Their bellies, for once, not entirely empty. They pushed on through the ruins of a neighborhood that had once thrummed with life.

Aza’s eyes darted everywhere.

Dust had swallowed the houses whole. Only foundations and crumbled outlines remained. A minivan’s skeleton hunched parked in a cul-de-sac.

A triangular metal frame stood in between the ruins. Rusted but still standing, unravaged by scavengers. A single child’s swing still clung to the frame on creaking chains. It swayed with the wind, eerie and alive.

Aza stared. “What is it?”

Kai didn’t answer. He tugged at the chain, testing its strength.These could be useful! He worked to free the chains but then a low howl whistled form the distance. Kai froze. Shit.

On the horizon, a wall of dust rose, rolling their direction with dangerous speed.

Kai didn’t hesitate. He scooped Aza up, dumped her into the sled, and ran. Aza screamed as the sled bounced and twisted but Kai didn’t dare slow.

The roar grew, like a thousand horses barreling toward them. Sand stung his eyes, tore at his skin.

Behind them, the swing whipped in the wind, screaming on its hinges.

Kai’s eyes darted around for someplace to shelter. He saw a low place in the piled sand and ran for it. As they crested the lip of an empty swimming pool, Kai launched them toward the center. Aza screeched as the toy chest flew with her inside.

Kai hit the cracked cement of the pool hard, rolled, and grabbed Aza before she met the ground.

Above them, the dust storm hit.

Sand swallowed the world, a deafening howl, grit in their teeth and eyes, burning their throats. Aza coughed, cried out, but her words vanished into the wind.

Kai yanked a blanket free from his pack, threw it over both their heads.

The blanket provided enough shelter to protect them. Aza’s eyes were wide, wet with terror.

“OK?” Kai shouted.

She nodded, though tears slipped free. Something heavy overhead and crashed nearby. Aza startled, nuzzled closer to Kai.

“Tell me a story?” she begged.

“I don’t know any.”

Her face crumpled. She buried herself against his side, sobbing.

Kai’s thoughts stuttered. A deadly storm threatened their lives and he was saddled with a crying child. He had no map for this. No similar experience from which to draw from. Finally, he said the only thing he could think of.

“You tell me yours.”

Aza sniffled. Kai prompted: “Once on the time…”

She blinked at him. He tried again, louder: “Once upon a time…”

Her lips trembled. Then, softly: “Once upon a time… there was a little lost girl. Red Robby Hood was her name.”

Her voice lifted, stronger with every word against the scream of the wind.

“A Big Bad Yote chased her away away away from her family. She wanted very badly to get back home, but she did not know the way. She wished upon a bright star, and the four wise men told her how to there, but it was far far far.”

Kai listened, the storm raging, her tiny voice fighting through it.

Kai knelt over a flat slab of rock, brushed the sand away to reveal a symbol etched deep into its surface. The lines were faded with time, but still sharp enough to read if you knew the code.

“What does it mean?” Aza asked, her voice thick with sleep.

“Outpost,” Kai pointed toward the horizon. “Two days.”

Aza’s face lit up a bitt like she almost believed that the outpost meant safety, food, people.

Kai scowled at her hope, then glanced at the direction the carving pointed. Was it worth the risk?

The hollowness he saw around Aza’s eyes suggested they didn’t have the luxury of choice. He adjusted the straps of their makeshift sled and dragged on.

Toward the outpost.
Toward whatever hope, or Hell, awaited them.

Duh duh duuun…
I hope you’ve enjoyed these past couple of gentle (relatively speaking anyway) episodes because things are about to go sideways for our friends. In the next episode we finally get to see what things look like beyond the Wasteland.

If you need to get caught up before reading this episode, you can find all the episodes here.

And now, back to the Wasteland…

Aza’s scream ripped through the air, sharp and short, and then she was gone as the ground beneath her swallowed her whole.

“Aza!” Kai screamed her name as he lunged for her, skidding across the grit to where she’d been. He clawed at the sand until they found splintered wood. A house once stood here. Now, the floor was the roof, splintered wood over the yawning dark of some buried ruin.

Kai ignored the splinters stabbing beneath his fingernails as he worked to pry the rotted wood up. He called her name again.

“Aza!”

Her muffled voice floated back to him. “Kai!”

The knot in Kai’s chest loosened the smallest amount. She’s alive.

Kai’s eyes swept the wasteland around them. Nothing but wind-scoured sand, no rope, no tree, no anchor. Just the hole yawning at his knees. He pried up a slab of warped floorboards, letting a shaft of light spear down into the darkness.

Beneath him, Aza stood in the thin column of sun as sand rained down around her.

“I’m O.K. See?”

She twirled in the shaft of light, laughing at the adventure.

Kai grabbed another splintered plank. The wood gave way with a groan and a crack.

Aza’s spin stopped. Her gaze shifted to something behind her. “There’s stuff down here.”

Kai narrowed his eyes. “What kind of stuff?”

“Come look.”

Kai hesitated. The last thing he needed was to fall into some death trap after her. But curiosity…or maybe the flicker of hope…was stronger. He was a scavenger, afterall.

He grabbed a piece of exposed rebar, swung himself through the gap, dangled, and dropped the last five feet. T

The basement air was stale, cool against his skin as he looked around with wonder.

Aza’s eyes were wide. “What is this place?”

Kai shook his head. “Hell if I know.”

They moved slowly, boots stirring decades of dust. The space was a tomb, sealed away from wind and rain, but time had still chewed its edges. One wall sagged under rows of rusting metal shelves, their cargo long past its prime. Bulging cans, blackened labels, a sour stink of rot. Some long-dead prepper’s stash for the end of the world… and the world had ended without him.

Kai tore through the shelves, tossing aside cans that had popped and leaked, searching for anything still good. His stomach ached at the thought of food, but every find was spoiled.

“It’s all gone bad,” he growled.

While he hunted, Aza wandered deeper, drawn as if guided by unseen hands to a Rubbermade toy chest, its cartoon decals faded and peeling. She knelt in front of the colorful chest with reverence and lifted the lid.

“Be careful,” Kai called with his newfound parental concern.

Aza stared at the strange artifacts inside the chest. Things she had no context from which to understand. She reached in and pulled out was a naked Barbi, her blonde hair tangled and her painted smile frozen in place. Aza turned it over in her hands like she was trying to understand the point of it.

“Look for anything that might be food. Or stuff we can trade,” Kai ordered, too focused to notice that the child had her own agenda.

One by one, Aza fished up remnants of a long lost childhood. A pair of Hotwheels, a squirt gun, a brightly colored ball, so out of place in the dark dreariness. Each thing foreign to her and yet, some child’s instinct had her toss the ball up. She giggled as she caught it.

Kai came up behind her. “What are you–” He stared in awe at her trove.

Kai knelt beside her as Aza pulled out a sealed plastic box. A magic marker had drawn hearts and starts across the lid. Surely the contents must be extra special.

Aza worked the seal until it hissed, a soft exhale of air trapped for decades. Inside were tiny treasures : marbles, stickers, a bracelet of plastic beads. Kai watched as she found a small board-book beneath the other treasures.

The cover was bright and soft under her dusty fingers and showed a spotted puppy sitting beneath a leafy tree, rolling hills of green grass behind it.

Kai gasped. It was a color he had never seen in real life but did remember. It was the bright green of the valley in the vision Aza had shown him.

A broad smile spread across Aza’s face like the first rays of dawn light. Her eyes gleamed with a triumph that was part discovery, part faith.

She whispered a single word that sent ice down Kai’s spine.

“Home.”

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And now, back to the Wasteland…

Kai turned to her with fear-fueled anger in his eyes and his knife in his hand.

Aza froze, her breath catching in her throat. The betrayal stung more than the fear. She looked up at him, this strange, quiet man who had fought for her, bled for her, carried her through death’s door. And now here he stood with a blade glinting in his grip.

With a swift, brutal stride, Kai was on her. He grabbed a tangled fistful of her long hair, lifted the blade and sliced.

Instead of Aza’s blood, it was strands of her dirt-matted hair that spilled to the ground. Aza stood still, biting her lip as Kai used the knife to shear her long hair short.

It wasn’t long before Kai was done. He sheathed the blade and nodded at his handy work. Aza ran her hand through her freshly hacked crop and glared at him.

Maybe Kai should feel bad but the fear that had gripped his gut since their close call with the Raiders finally loosened at the sight of her boyish haircut.

That night, a small fire flickered at the mouth of the cave. Sparks rose toward the ceiling like insects drawn to freedom before vanishing into the darkness.

Kai crouched near the flames, crafting a slingshot from a forked branch. He worked in silence, pretending not to feel Aza’s angry eyes on him.

The girl sat pouting a few feet away. She kept tugging at the edges of her new haircut.

“Stop fussing,” Kai muttered.

“I look like a boy.”

Kai sighed. How to make her understand?

“It’s a man’s world. You’ll be safer this way.”

With a final grumble, Aza gave up her pout and played with the toy dog for a moment.

As he finished up with the slingshot, Kai’s mind wandered once again to the slave girl from the outpost. She was so fierce! Like nothing could beat her down, like she didn’t know she was in chains. Kai remembered the way she bared her teeth at him, like a feral animal and his lower belly warmed. Before his thoughts could run on to wherever they were taking him, Aza interrupted.

“You need to take me home.”

The words were said in her soft, lilting voice but fell heavy, like a rock dropped into still water.

Kai sat back on his heels as memories of the vision she had shown him blossomed in his mind. A shiver ran through him .

“Even if I pretend this place is real–”

“It is!” Aza insisted.

”If somehow a place of greenery and freedom exists,” Kai countered, “how we s’posed to find it?”

Aza’s face lit up. She grabbed a bit of char from the fire and ran with it to the cave wall.

Gripping the piece of coal in her hand, Aza drew with quick strokes.

His curiosity peaqued, Kai watched as a simple stick-figure came together on the wall.

“Once upon a time…” Aza whispered.

The phrase was unfamiliar to Kai.

“What’s that mean?” he asked.

Aza’s hand stilled as she turned to stare wide-eyed at him.
“You’ve never heard a Story before?”

Kai shrugged.

“Stories start Once Upon a Time. It’s how you know it’s a story.” Her indigo eyes sparkled and she returned to her drawings.

She quickly added a child’s rendition of the sun, mountains, stars.

“Once upon a time,” she continued, “there was a little lost girl. She was alone and scared, but also very brave. She followed the path through the Fire Mountain.

She drew four rough faces into a mountain as she continued.
“She followed the path past four wise men who looked down from the clouds. That night, the star light, star bright…”

Kai stared at the faces in the mountain and gasped.

“Wait,” he interrupted. “Say that part again.”

“Starlight, star bright…”

“No. The stone men.”

“Wise men,” she corrected with the confidence that only a child can project.

Kai stared at her in wonder.
“I know where to find them.”

They moved across the Wasteland again the next day, the same endless expanse of dust and ruin. Kai’s gaze always on the move, keeping an eye out for both predator and prey.

Aza trotted close behind, chattering like a magpie.

“She told me lots of stories,” she said. “Her ma told them to her and she told them to me. Did your ma tell you stories?”

Kai’s expression flickered as memory tried to distract him.

He didn’t answer but Aza didn’t seem to notice, just kept babbling.

“They always start with Once Upon a Time, but I guess I don’t really know what that means, either. What do you think it means? What’s–”

“It means we’re never gonna find food if you don’t stop that noise coming outta your mouth.”

Aza huffed. “You’re mean.”

“I’m hungry,” Kai countered.

She opened her mouth for a comeback.

Movement in the brush. A flicker of fur. A coney!

Kai froze, held his hand up for her to do the same. Thank the gods she actually did.

Kai raised his slingshot, fitted a small rock into place, pulled back, and said another silent prayer to gods he didn’t really believe in and let loose.

The mutant rabbit squeaked once and collapsed.

Aza sprinted ahead. Knelt beside the fallen animal, shielding it with her small body.

Kai’s stomach growled as approached, blade in hand, ready to skin the creature for breakfast but when he reached her, the coney was gone.

What the hell?

“Where is it?” He looked around.

Aza turned wide, innocent eyes up at him. “It woke up. Hopped away.”

Dead things don’t just wake up. He narrowed his eyes at her.

“Hopped… away?”

Aza smiled sweetly and gave a little shrug of her shoulders.

Frustrated, hungry, and maybe a little freaked out, Kai sheathed his blade.

“Unless you want to starve out here, best hope the next one doesn’t just hop away.”

As they trudged on, Kai tried to make sense of the somewhat frightening child who had attached herself to him. He’d heard rumors of it, the children birthed in recent years knowing things they shouldn’t know, doing things they shouldn’t be able to do. Some called it magic, others a mutation. All Kai knew was that it made his skin crawl and his insides flutter when her eyes did that swirly thing.

“What’s a yellow brick?” Aza interrupted Kai’s musings.

“A what?” Kai was seriously starting to regret not killing her the day he found her. No you’re not his previously lonely existence reminded him. And it was true… but a little silence once in a while–

“And the little girl followed the yellow brink road up, up, up into the hole to never never land.”

Kai clenched his jaw. If she didn’t stop, he might actually lose his mind.

“How ‘bout you just say the stories in your head,” he growled, “and pretend I can hear them.”

Aza giggled. “Okay.”

They walked in silence. For almost two whole blissful minutes.

“How long before we find the wise men?” she asked.

Kai groaned. “We’re not looking for them.”

Aza stopped in her tracks. Shock and betrayal twisted her face. “But you said! You said you’d take me Home. You promised!”

“We need supplies,” Kai snapped. “We need food. And to get supplies, we need something to trade. To find something to trade, we—”

Aza screamed.

And then she was gone.

Swallowed whole by the sand beneath her feet.

Thanks for reading and I hope you are thoroughly hooked on Kai’s story by now! I’d love to now your thoughts on this particular episode as it has taken a pretty hard left turn. Please send me a message and let’s discuss! Also, it would be amazing if you would share it with your friends… maybe they’ll fall in love with it, it too!

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Dear Reader,
You’ve come back for more and for that I am truly grateful. Episode 4 is a pivotal moment in Kai’s journey and we get a hint of what’s ahead. I decided to leave out the artwork this time. Let me know if you missed it. BTW, did you know you can LISTEN to the episodes? Now you don’t have an excuse to miss a thing! But ff you missed any of the previous episodes, you can get caught up here.

And now, back to the Wasteland:

The Eaters danced in a frenzied circle like carrion birds drunk on the promise of meat around the terrified girl.

Barely recognizable as human, their life of eating human flesh had left the Eaters weak and slow but vicious. And smart enough to recognize easy prey when they found it.

Aza screamed as one of the Eaters lunged at her, its skin bubbled and split from malnourishment and sun, its gums bleeding and teeth rotting.

Like lightning through bone-dry air, Kai exploded into the ring of Eaters with a snarl, his blade drawn. Sand flew in every direction as he kicked one creature square in the gut, slashing at another before it could even turn. He moved like someone possessed not by rage, but purpose.

Kai’s long held self-preservation had become something new. A singular purpose to protect the helpless child who had strayed into his life.

The Eaters shrieked, lunged, scrambled to re-form their circle. Kai kept Aza behind him, using his own body like a shield. One of the creatures, braver - or hungrier - than the rest rushed forward, jaw unhinging with a sickening crack. Kai dropped low and swept the blade clean across its throat.

The creature’s blood splashed across the sand.

In less than a minute, it was over.

The remaining Eaters shambled off into the desert, grumbling and squealing their complaint but unwilling to fight for their meal.

Kai stood, panting, his shirt soaked in sweat and someone else’s blood. Aza rose shakily and leaned into him, pressing her small body against his leg, hungry for comfort.

Kai was surprised at the way his own nerves quieted at her nearness. After a moment, he put a hand on her narrow shoulder. They stood panting, letting the fear drain into the sand like the Eater’s blood.

And Kai finally answered the question she had asked the day before.

“My name’s Kai,” he said gruffly.

Aza looked up at him, eyes wide. “Thank you for finding me, Kai.”

She wrapped her arms around his legs. He froze for a second—then, awkwardly, returned the embrace.

They kept moving until the sun threatened to crack open the sky.

Both were crusted with dust, their lips were chapped, skin taut and stinging. Aza's steps had turned to staggering but Kai lacked the strength to carry her. She stumbled to her knees. Kai pulled her to her feet.

“So thirsty,” Aza whimpered.

Kai’s eyes scanned the horizon with desperate, bloodshot eyes.

He pressed her back against a sunbaked rock outcropping and crouched beside her, peering across the vast nothing.

“It’s got to be here,” Kai’s words a cross between a prayer and a curse.

He reached for his binocs but then, caught sight of something about twenty feet out, a stack of rocks. Somehow special despite looking like nothing more than that.

Kai breathed a sigh of relief.

“What is it?” Aza asked but Kai ignored the question and signaled to her to keep low.

Together they sprinted, fast, low, silent, to the pile of stones.

“Keep watch,” he ordered.

Aza took her job seriously, standing tall despite her exhaustion as Kai knelt and lifted the top stone to reveal a dark cavity.

Kai reached inside and grabbed a frayed nylon rope. His hands moved with urgency as he pulled the rope, slow and steady, until he brought up a plastic child’s pail.

Inside: water. Clean, clear, life-giving water.

Aza clapped with glee, her whole body lighting up. Kai felt the faintest grin slip onto his face.

He handed her the pail. “You first.”

She drank like it was life itself. Because it was.

Kai finished what she didn’t, then dropped the pail back into the well for more. They both drank until their bellies were full with it then filled the empty canisters from Kai’s pack.

They rested in the shade of gnarled, leafless tree and let the hydration revive their spent bodies. Kai’s thoughts drifted, as they kept wanting to do, to the slave girl from the Outpost. The way sweat gleamed at her throat. The curve of her hips beneath the rags she wore. The fierceness in her eyes.

Kai swallowed hard and forced the images from his mind. He had his hands full with what was right in front of him.

Aza used a stick to once again trace symbols in the sand, humming a little tune to herself.

“What am I supposed to do with you?”

Aza didn’t hesitate. “Take me home.”

Kai barked a hollow laugh, glanced around at the empty expanse.

“There ain’t no home. Not anymore. Not in this world.”

She looked up at him. “You’re wrong.”

Then something shifted. Her face softened, not childish, not afraid, but somehow ancient. She moved closer and placed her small hands on either side of his face. Her strange indigo eyes darkened, deepened, like a storm churning behind glass.

And Kai’s world fell away.

A breeze blew and somehow Kai could smell a sweetness on the wind and the sent of approaching rain. He closed his eyes and breathed in the intoxicating smell.

And when he opened them, he gasped. No more sand. No more blaring sunlight. Instead, he saw lush fields, taller than any he'd ever walked, greener than any color he’d ever seen. Trees heavy with fruit. A waterfall cascading into a crystal pool. Children laughing. Women cooking over open fires. People tending goats. Singing. Happy. FREE!

Kai gasps and yanks himself away from Aza’s touch and back to the Wasteland.

He scrambled away from her, stared with frightened eyes.

“Witch,” he hissed.

Aza tilted her head. Didn’t speak. Her hands dropped to her sides. Just a little girl again.

Kai didn’t have a chance to get his bearings. He froze as sounds drifted to them from across the wasteland. Aza was about to ask him about it but Kai held up a hand. Listen.

Chains. Hooves. A whip crack.

Raiders.

Kai was on his feet in an instant. He scooped Aza up, threw her over his shoulder and ran. Within moments, they reached a rock outcropping and dove behind it.

Panting, he pressed Aza close, shielding her with his body as they peered over the edge as they watched a ragged convoy come into view.

A troop of Raiders marched beside a wagon pulled by two mutant cattle. Behind the wagon, a line of women and girls shackled together, stumbled through the sand. Sunburned. Dehydrated. Hollow-eyed.

The leader, Zi, sauntered beside the wagon with the casual swagger of someone who feared nothing and owned everything. One small gesture from him and the caravan ground to a stop near the well.

Kai watched from their hiding spot as a desperate woman reached toward the water, only to be yanked back by her chain.

Zi pulled up the pail, drank his fill in long selfish swallows as the chained women watch with dull, hungry eyes. The raider boss belched. Poured more of the precious liquid onto his upturned face. Taunting them out of sheer cruelty.

Kai’s fists clenched but his only concern was his own hide. And now Aza’s. He kept silent and hidden.

Long tortured minutes passed until finally Zi tossed the empty pail into the dust and ordered his crew to let them drink. One of the Raiders unhooked the chain from the wagon and the women staggered toward the well.

One of them dropped the pail down the well and they worked together to pull it up. The water splashed and spilled as the bucket was passed around. They didn’t care. They scooped up handfuls of muddy water, slurped like animals.

The oldest of them - too old to survive this abuse, thought Kai - tipped the pail into her parched lips and swallowed greedily. Over the bucket’s lip, she locked eyes on Aza hidden behind the rocks.

Kai watched a silent communication passed between old woman and young child. Then the old one winked at him and went back to hydrating as if she hadn't seen them.

Kai’s hand gripped Aza’s arm tighter. He dragged her deeper into the shadows, away from prying eyes.

The cave they found was shallow but safe.

Fury and fear burned through Kai as they watched the Raiders disappear into the horizon. His hands quivering with what he knew he must do, Kai drew his blade and turned toward Aza.

Aza turned to him with a question on her lips. But the sight of the blade silenced her.

Kai took an savage step toward her and grabbed her by the hair.

I hope you enjoyed this episode! I’d love it if you shared it with other readers and please join the conversation and let me know what you thought. Did anything surprise you? What do you think happens next?

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Episode 1: The Scavenger - Join Kai as they fight for survival in the post-apocalyptic Hell that is the Wasteland.

Episode 2: Sand & Smoke - Kai finds more than they bargained for…

Episode 3: The Uninvited - Rule Number One: Go it Alone.

Episode 4: Among Monsters - Things just keep going from bad to worse in the Wasteland. Secrets are revealed and questions arise.

Episode 5: Map or Myth - Could a little girl's story be more than just fiction?

Episode 6: The Things We Keep - A treasure trove beneath the sand shows Kai the past and hints at a possible future.

Episode 7: Once Upon a Violent Storm - Kai and Aza face a new threat and Kai must make a decision that, one way or the other, could prove deadly.

And now, back to the Wasteland…

Kai marched away from the child and her slaughtered family.

His thoughts gallop through his mind like the monstrous, sharp-fanged horses he barely outran last month.
Go it alone, that’s the rule. You can barely keep yourself alive, let alone a kid. Better she die now with the rest of the family then starve in the Waste alongside you.
Or worse.

Because, in this world, there were things worse than death.

Kai pretends he doesn’t hear the tiny footsteps hurrying to catch up to him. He just keeps stomping across the sand. Even when the girl stumbles up beside him, breathing hard, impossibly big eyes eyes shining with tears, Kai refuses to acknowledge her.

Aza sniffles, tries to take Kai’s hand. Kai yanks his out of reach.
Doesn’t she know not to trust a stranger?!?

Jaw clenched around his resolve, Kai tries to outpace her but she trots alongside.

“What will happen to me?” Aza asks, her voice hitching.

Kai doesn’t try to soften the truth, doesn’t try to make it easier on her. Kindness gets you killed.
“Done for, likely.”

Her footsteps falter behind him. Kai can’t stop himself. He glances back to see she’s stopped, her lip poked out in a pout as she glares at him.
“That’s not very nice,” she says, her voice thick with accusation.

Kai snorts. “Truth usually isn’t.”

The girl’s face crumples. She cries in great heaving sobs that hit Kai hard, despite his resolve. He looks down at her. So weak and helpless. What hope is there for one like her? For either of us?

He sighs, pulls the knife from his belt. The one he took from the woman in the sand, likely this girl’s own mother. They both stare at the blade as sunlight glints off the edge.

“I could kill you,” Kai says flatly. It’s not a threat. It’s an offer.

“Why are you so mean?” Aza whispers.

Kai squats so he is eye level with her. To her credit, she doesn’t flinch away.

“I wouldn’t like doing it,” he says. “It’d be quick. Mostly painless. Better than Eaters, or ’yotes getting you. Better than what’ll happen if the Raiders find you.”

Aza looks from the knife to Kai’s face.

Kai sucks in a small gasp as a strange swirl of color flows across the child’s eyes. Something… unnatural and fleeting. A knowing comes over Aza and she shakes her head no at what the knife offers.

Kai shrugs and stands. “Suit yourself.”

He turns and resumes his trek, determined to leave the helpless girl to her fate. The sky thickens with carrion birds over the remnants of the girl’s family. A ’yote yips in the distance, its cry echoing over the dunes.

He grits his teeth to hear the girl’s footsteps stumble into motion, then quicken as she jogs to catch up.

“Go away.”

“My name’s Aza,” she says, trotting beside him.

This is what happens when you’re friendly to strays, Kai scolds himself and refuses to acknowledge Aza’s presence any further.

“What’s your name?” her sweet voice scratchy with thirst. Kai quickens his steps. So does the child.

“Go. Away.” he insists.

“I could go with you,” she offers, the hopeful lilt to her voice hard to ignore.

“No.”

Aza gives him her most winning smile, “You found me. Finders keepers.”

Kai scowls down at her, his face twisted with something that might be fury or might be fear. He drops his voice to make it as gravelly and deep as possible.
“I ain’t got nothing for you.”

Aza scowls at him, trying to match his threat with her own.

“Listen. I’m not your friend. I’m not your keeper. I’m sure as hell not your savior. I didn’t kill your people, and it ain’t my fault you got no one left. I fight every damn day just to stay breathing, to keep the Waste from swallowing me whole. And yeah, maybe it’s ‘mean’ to say, but truth is you’re already dead. It just hasn’t caught up to you yet.”

Having just spoken more in one breath than he has in three weeks, Kai falls silent and watches as tears carve muddy trails down Aza’s dirt-smeared cheeks.

He sighs. Why are you letting her get to you?
Fully aware of what it will cost him, Kai rips the pouch that holds what’s left of the jerky from his belt and drops it at her feet.

As if sensing what’s inside, Aza falls to her knees and tears into the jerky like a feral thing.

Kai uses the distraction to disappear over the nearest dune.

Kai sprints across the cracked remains of a dry riverbed, chasing a coney that’s faster and maybe even smarter than him. Like most creatures in the Waste, the long-eared rodent carries the marks of post-Collapse fallout.
This one has four floppy ears instead of two.

The coney darts to safety in a cleft between two jagged boulders. Kai curse under his breath, painfully aware that he is a far better scavenger than hunter.

His stomach growls a reprimand for giving the girl the last of his food. Kindness gets you killed. He kicks a rock in frustration and looks for a place to camp.

Night falls.

Kai stares into the flames of a small fire built into a hollow in a rockface to make a rough camp. The loneliness echoes all around him as the memory of screams whisper from the past. He clenches his eyes shut against the tears that threaten.

The image of the slave girl comes to life behind Kai’s closed lids. I wonder how soft her skin is…

A twig snaps, bringing him out of the past.

Kai’s eyes flash open as his hand wraps around the hilt of his knife. He listens, then relaxes. “Might as well come in.”

Another moment of silence and then Aza appears at the edge of the firelight. She scurries to sit across the fire from him, her eyes down, respectful.

Kai watches the firelight dance across her face, casting mysterious shadows. And for just a second, something in him settles. He’d never admit it even to himself, but the break in the endless solitude is… not unwelcome.

“Just for tonight,” he hears himself say before he can consider the consequences.

Aza nods an enthusiastic agreement and creeps a little closer. And when he offers no protest, closer still. Until, before either of them know it, she’s curled beside him in the dirt like she belongs there.

The fire’s crackle acts as a lullaby and Kai watches with curiosity as the child starts tracing symbols in the dirt with her finger, mumbling to herself. Before long, her hand stills. Her exhaustion too big for her body, she falls asleep tucked against him.

Kai watches her. Vulnerable. Too soft for this world.

He shakes his head, turns his attention back to the fire but is surprised when the memories don’t return to haunt him. He slides into sleep listening to her breathe.

Kai wakes with a start, blinking in the sickly morning light that filters through the dusty air. It takes him a moment to understand why his arm feels numb. The girl, Aza, is tucked in close like he’s her warm place in a cold world, his arm curled around her, his body having decided without his permission that he should the vulnerable thing while she slept.

He moves away from her as quickly as he can... but still careful not disturb her. Fury flares in his chest, not at her, but at himself.
Soft. Stupid. Weak.

He gets up quietly, brushing grit from his coat and does his best not to look at the sleeping girl but his eyes are drawn to her against his will. Her fingers twitch as she dreams.

Kai growls to himself as his thoughts war within him.
She’s just a helpless kid! She’s a liability!

He rubs his arm as if massaging away the warmth of her curled against him, trusting him like they were something to each other. Like he was someone who mattered to someone.

She’ll slow you down, get you both killed.
And if the secret ever slipped…

Kai stares out at the wide, sun-bleached horizon. The Waste doesn’t give second chances. Not to soft things. Not to fools.

He gathers his pack, careful not to wake her and tells himself this is mercy. Leaving her here, letting her wake alone, letting the truth of the world find her early.

Better now than later. Better she hate him than cling to him.

He stuffs his hands in his coat pockets, his fingers find plastic. He pulls out the little toy dog, turns it over in his hand. He considers the ridiculous thing he’s carried since across the sand. With a sigh, he sets it beside Aza so she’ll see it as soon as she wakes.

Maybe she won’t feel so alone. He snarls at himself, shoulders his pack and slips into the rising heat of the day, leaving the child behind for good.

By midmorning, Kai is alone in the Waste again, the silence a familiar ache. Sand crunches under his boots. The sky is too big. The wind too sharp.

He tells himself it’s better this way. Safer. Cleaner.
But his thoughts betray him.

Did she wake up yet?
Did she cry to realize he was gone?

He grits his teeth and picks up his pace.
Not your problem. She either survives or she don’t.

He trudges over a rise, the sun beating down like judgment. He drinks the last swallow of warm water from the coke bottle and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. Maybe I should have left her some–
A scream rips through the air. Shrill. Panicked. Childish.

Kai’s heart stutters in his chest. He freezes, every muscle tense.
Aza!

And beneath it, another. A throaty, half-human howl.

“Eaters,” Kai curses under his breath.

He starts toward the sound. Forces himself to stop. Not. Your. Problem!

Kai turns away, fists clenched. One step. Then two. Let it go.

But the scream comes again and empathy twists in his gut like a blade.

“Dammit,” he mutters.

Then he takes off at a dead run toward the sounds of terror.

I hope you enjoyed Ep 3! Curious about the Eaters and the fate of little Aza? Ep 4 coming soon! Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out. And please leave a comment letting me know what you think about Remnants so far!

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And now, back to the Wasteland…

Blood sprays in all directions.

The Raider’s nose shatters as Kai’s skull smashes into his captor’s face. Blood sprays in all directions as the Raider staggers back, giving Kai a chance to break free.

Kai dives out of reach with only the slightest pang of regret at abandoning the packet of jerky he’d risked his life to get. He throws his weight against the tractor tire, shoving hard to get it rolling down the incline. With a running leap, he dives in the tire and lets the momentum carry him down the dune away from the battle and...
away from the girl whose eyes awoke feelings in him that he couldn't quite name. Shame, guilt, and something wholly unfamiliar… but not entirely unpleasant.

The old roadway is not much more than a two-lane scar across the earth, littered with the occasional skeleton of a long abandoned vehicle, most of which have been picked clean of everything but ghosts and rust.

The heat rises off the ancient machines whose purpose Kai can only guess at as he scavenges these remnants of a lost civilization. Going from vehicle to vehicle, searching for anything of use, he pries open hoods, digs into engine compartments.

He doesn’t know how many days have passed since he made his escape from the Raider infested outpost but he does know he hasn’t had a drop of water since. Thirst claws at his insides, turning his spit to dust and his breath to fire. The kind that isn’t just uncomfortable, it warns he’s running out of time.

The sight of a length of intact rubber tubing attached to the engine of an SUV almost makes him weep with relief. Or would if he had any moisture left in his body. He yanks the tubing free before shifting his search to the inside of vehicle. With nothing more than a quick glance at the sun-bleached skeleton behind the wheel, Kai scrounged among the floorboards until he finds a couple of old Coke bottles. Empty but no closer to decay than the day they were tossed there.

Weak and exhausted, Kai takes his scavenged supplies and sets up camp in the meager shade of the dead soccer mom's pride and joy. Shade doesn’t offer relief from the heat, just a reprieve from the sun’s brutality. But out here, a reprieve is all he can ask for.

Kai’s head swims but he fights the darkness that closes in around the edges of his vision. With fingers made clumsy with desperation, Kai slices one Coke bottle in half with a jagged shard of glass but leaves the second bottle intact.

A brief flash of memory breaks through the fog of dehydration: An Old One from Kai’s family demonstrates to a circle of half-starved children the mechanics of harvesting water from the air.

Kai shakes the memory from his eyes, hardens himself against the grief that tries to spark to life in his gut. Focus, damn it.

He seals the connections tight with a length of rubber weatherstripping peeled from a badly damaged cyber truck’s door then props the whole contraption up in direct sunlight.

It’s not much of a set up but it doesn’t need to be pretty. It just needs to work.

Kai settles back in the narrow slice of shade. His eyes drift shut. Minutes crawl. The bottle begins to fog, then sweat. A single drop collects in the tube. Then another.

A carrion bird circles lazily overhead as Kai lies in the roadside weeds, watching his contraption with bloodshot eyes. The top bottle sweats in the heat, moisture collecting, precious drop by drop. In the bottom chamber, water gathers slowly. So… very…slowly.

His mind tries to drift toward thoughts of Zi’s captive. The girl with the fierce, haunting eyes. Kai grits his teeth and yanks his thoughts back where they belong: on surviving this moment… and maybe, if he’s lucky, the next.

Another drop of water lands in the bottle and, with barely an inch of water collected, Kai can wait no longer.

He snaps the contraption apart, brings the collection bottle to his lips, and lets the tepid water slide down his throat. It’s not enough to buy him more than a few hours, but it is enough to let him rest. He reattaches the tubing, adjusts it to catch the last of the morning sun, and lets himself slip into much-needed sleep.

When his growling stomach wakes him a few hours later, the sun has crawled halfway across the sky and the collection bottle is more than half full of life-saving condensation! A small smile of triumph cracks his chapped lips as his stomach reminds him that he hasn’t eaten since the night before. He takes out a strip of the precious coney jerky left and nibbles on it as he packs up his water collector.

Another day and more of the same. Sun. Sand. Suffering.

Kai crouches next to a cactus, snapping off spines with cracked fingers. With no knife, he uses a sharp rock to carve through the thick skin and dig out the flesh inside.

It’s bitter. Tough. He chews it anyway as he thinks.

As much as he dreads it, he’s going to have to find another outpost soon. And that means putting himself in close proximity of other people. With them comes the very real risk of his secret being exposed and the kind of danger that doesn’t just threaten his safety. It threatens everything.

The wind shifts.

Kai freezes, sniffs the air. Smoke.

He scrambles up the nearest dune on belly and pulls his binocs from his belt. At first he sees nothing but sand and more sand. He refocuses and finally catches sight of a ribbon of black smoke curling upward from behind a distant hill. He lowers the binocs, judges the distance to the smoke then lifts them to his eyes to scan the area once more.

Kai sucks in a breath to see a troop of Raiders come into view as they march across the horizon away from the smoke.

Kai tucks the binocs back inside his back, considering. Worth the risk?

Desperation drives him and he slides down the dune.

The smoke leads Kai to the remains of a caravan. What looks to be a pilgrimage, maybe, or a desperate flight to somewhere better. Bodies, mostly men and children, cut down and left to rot where the Raiders dropped them.

Kai knows why there are no women among the slaughtered. They’ve taken them.

Their blood stains the earth. Their packs have been torn open, contents scattered. Buzzards already circle overhead.

Kai walks among the dead, fighting to remain detached at the tragedy before him.

A father lies with his arm stretched toward his son. Two teens, barely more than boys, cut down with the makeshift weapons they’d used to defend their family still clutched in their hands.

A pregnant woman lies in a pool of blood from a self-inflicted knife wound. This one didn’t let them take her.

A wave of despair swirls in Kai’s belly. It’s all so pointless. So cruel and hopeless.

He kneels and rips a scrap of cloth from the woman’s torn garments. With unwanted tears stinging his eyes, Kai gently lays the cloth across hers. For just a heartbeat, he lets himself feel the sorrow and the loss that he works so hard to keep at arms length.

The moment passes. He grits his teeth, pulls the blade from her chest, and wipes it clean with a handful of sand. Tucking the knife into his belt, Kai rises. He turns his back on the dead and gets back to the business of staying alive.

The knife is the real treasure but he finds a few more bits to scavenge worth trading and then with strides made heavy with sorrow, he leaves the carnage behind.

As he makes his way back toward the dunes, Kai hears a sound. Soft. Like the whimper of a wounded animal. Kai perks up. Dinner!

He tracks the sound toward a cluster of jagged rocks. His new knife drawn, Kai crouches low and peers into the shadows.

There, tucked into a crevice, a child of about eight stares back at him. Dirt-smudged cheeks. Hair matted with blood and dust. Eyes too big for her gaunt little face.

For just a moment, Kai gets lost in the pooled indigo of her eyes as she watches him without fear.

With mire than a little effort, Kai yanks himself away from her mesmerizing gaze and glances back at what remains of her family. Well, shit.

Before he can speak, the girl launches from her hiding spot into his arms, her tiny arms wrapping tight around his waist.

Kai staggers back from this completely foreign creature but she holds tight, clinging like she’ll drown without him.

“Are the bad men gone?” Her voice is a ragged whisper.

Kai hesitates. Then nods. “For now.”

But the truth lives in his eyes. The bad men are never really gone.

“My da,” she says. “He let them hurt him so I could hide. They… they killed him.”

A sob catches in her throat. She looks up, waiting for a response but Kai gives no comfort. He has none to spare.

He steps out of her embrace.

“They killed everyone,” she whimpers. “Yes,” he answers. He glances at the vultures circling above.
Then he turns and leaves the child behind.

Next Chapter

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It whips across the wasteland like it’s got somewhere to be, dragging dust, bits of trash, and ghosts of the old world along with it. The End came five generations ago. All that’s left now are remnants.

Kai drags himself across the desolation one slow step at a time. Wind tears at his patchwork coat and flings grit into his eyes with relentless persistence. Lean and sharp-featured, almost delicate at first glance, he looks like a stray the world forgot to kill. Others see him, if they notice him at all, as too scrawny to be any kind of threat. And that’s exactly how he likes it.

The wasteland doesn’t leave many alive for long, especially not a kid like Kai. But he had two rules he never wavered from and they’ve kept him breathing despite the odds.
Stay invisible.
Go it alone.

Sure, it’s a lonely existence but, out here, trust is harder to come by than clean water.

Bodies lie crumpled in the dirt, stiff with death, flies and ravens picking over what the Raiders hadn’t bothered with. Kai doesn’t spare the lost souls more than a glance. Dead is dead. What matters is what they’ve left behind.

Kai’s clothes hang loose on a narrow frame that make him look even younger than his nineteen years, hiding more than just scars as he moves among the dead. Every step is calculated. Every breath, a decision.

He stays low and silent, creeping from body to body, scavenging what scraps he can find. The Raiders haven’t left much but Kai knows what to look for.

A few shirt buttons.
A cracked lens from some old codger’s spectacles.
A decades-old plastic bottle, with just enough water sloshing in the bottom to stretch his thirst another day. Maybe two, if he rations. And doesn’t bleed.

He stuffs it all in his pouch and, keeping a wary eye on the horizon, bolts across an open stretch to what’s left of the village’s meager garden. His stomach knots in anticipation as he digs through the charred earth and finds a shriveled root. Burned, but edible.

Barely.

He chokes it down without chewing. The taste makes him gag, but he swallows anyway. He needs the fuel.

He scrounges in the dirt once more and hits gold. Or what counts as gold in the Waste: a wilted plant that went to seed before the Raiders showed up.

Kai harvests the seeds with careful fingers and drops them into his pouch. Precious. Tradeable. Better than the buttons and broken combs he found earlier.

The caw of ravens squabbling over the dead startle Kai.

Keep moving, he reminds himself.

At the edge of the village, something in the dust catches his eye. A child’s toy. Sun-bleached plastic. A little dog with a spot on its eye. One thing the Wasteland had plenty of, in addition to the dust, was plastic crap left from the time Before.

Kai starts to toss the worthless thing but then, without really knowing why, he shoves the toy into his pack.

The heat carves valleys in his throat, but Kai trudges on.

The ruined village with its meager offering of food is days behind him and things are getting dire. Not that desperation is anything new to Kai.He’ll find water or he’ll die. Simple as that.

He follows the tracks of some four-footed animal and at last finds a trickle of slimy water weaving through the dust. More sludge than stream that he should probably avoid but his throat clenches and Kai cups the water to his lips. It tastes of rot and rust, but it’s wet. That’s enough.

As he wipes his mouth with a cracked hand, something on the horizon catches his attention. He squints against the glare and reaches for the binocs on his belt.

The image swims into focus and he sucks in a breath: four massive heads carved into stone, blank-eyed and eternal, stare back at him.

Kai lets the binocs drop.

A flicker of superstition twists in his gut. He doesn’t believe in gods, but still… the sight of the stone giants left from an earlier civilization sends a chill down his spine. He quickens his pace, eager to get out from under their gaze.

The outpost rises from the desolation like a mirage: scrap tents, rusted car doors, wires strung like prayer flags. Kai keeps his head down, shoulders hunched. Not a threat. Just a boy with nothing worth stealing.

At his trade tent, the one-armed, heavyset grubsmith watches Kai approach as the wind batters the tent flaps and swirls around his feet.

“Buyin’ or sellin’?” he asks.

“Buying,” Kai rasps. “Water.”

The grubsmith looks him over. “Doubt you got enough to pay for clean water, boy.”

Kai knows it’s true but offers his haul trinkets, buttons, the toy dog.

The grubsmith scoffs. “I want a bunch of ‘tic, I walk out into the Waste and get it myself.”

Kai hesitates. Careful not to let on how sharp the mind behind his youthful features really is. His eyes flick to the cistern behind the grubsmith. Watches as clean water drips in slow, precious beads.

At last, he pulls a rifle bullet from his pocket.

The man laughs. “Ain’t seen a bang-stick that works in more years than I can count. That won’t get you no drink.”

“Food then,” Kai offers.

The grubsmith eyes him. “I got conejo or rattler.”

“Coney,” Kai says as his stomach growls.

The grubsmith slaps a twine-wrapped stack of jerky on the counter and makes the bullet vanish with one smooth motion, then turns to head back inside his tent.

“Wait,” Kai calls. He opens his palm to show his real prize.

Seeds.

The grubsmith’s eyes gleam. Kai pours the seeds onto the bar. The man examines them with a cracked magnifying glass.

“Hmm. Looks like coney-root. Maybe green-squash.”

He nods and turns to the cistern, filling a cracked plastic cup with clean, precious water.

Kai licks his lips in anticipation but before he can grab the cup, a desperate scream rips through the air behind him. He crouches and spins.

A brute of a man drags a female captive behind him. Kai guesses she’s around his age, but her face is so bruised and smeared with blood he can’t be sure.

The grubsmith’s face pales. His hand finds the dagger hilt at his belt as he whispers a name filled with fear and reverence.

“Zi.”

Kai’s breath catches. Zi. He knows the name by reputation as the most feared Raider in the Wasteland.

Kai shrinks deeper into his coat. Be invisible.

The battered girl’s eyes land on Kai’s and an unfamiliar feeling flares in his gut. Whatever it is, he doesn’t have time to decipher it before her gaze turns hateful, accusing him and daring him to do something all at the same time.

With only a flicker of guilt, Kai looks away. Go it alone.

He slams the water back in one gulp, grabs the jerky, and steps sideways out of the Zi’s path as the Raider barks a demand for water for himself and his crew, offering the captive girl in trade.

The one-armed grubsmith tries and fails to look relaxed as he declines the offer.

“No disrespect, Raider. Don’t get ‘nuff traffic out here. No profit in women this far out. I’d have to feed her, keep her alive too long. You understand.”

Kai exhales. So far, Zi hasn’t noticed him. Time to get gone.

But before he can slip away, Zi’s crew of nasty, nearly lawless men, used to taking what they want crest the dunes.

Kai freezes. Hard to stay invisible when you’re surrounded by that kind of ruthlessness.

Zi glowers at the grubsmith. Water’s what he wants, and waters’s what he’ll have. Without warning, he shoves his captive aside and draws a wicked looking machete. She stumbles and lands face first into the sand.

The next few moments happen so quickly, Kai barely has time to register them.

The grubsmith raises his dagger, ready to defend what is his. Zi swings. Kai dives out of the way and the blade whistles just past his head.

He lands on the ground near the bound girl and locks eyes with her. She bares her teeth at him before crawling away in hopes of escape.

Kai rolls in the opposite direction.

Zi and the grubsmith clash weapons as several shop keepers dart out of their own tents to defend the post. Zi's crew let out a bone chilling war WHOOP as they charge in to join the fun.

His heart pounding, Kai ducks behind a broken pillar. Shit, shit, shit. He’s unarmed and surrounded. He scans the surrounding area for a place to hide.

There!

A massive tractor tire that someone has been hacking chunks off of for fuel rests near the back edge of the outpost.

As the battle rages around him, Kai scurries for the tire, ducks a blow meant for someone else along the way, and dives inside.

He hears the screams of the dying and peeks out to see Zi take a long, slow drink of water from the cistern as the grubsmith lays dying at his feet, his blood soaking the sand around him.

Kai ducks back. Think!

A feminine scream pierces the air. Kai looks out to watch one of the crew drag the captive girl back to Zi, kicking and spitting. Blood trails from a fresh bruise on her cheek.

No one’s watching Kai. This is his chance.

With a grunt of effort, he uprights the tire but before he can put his plan into action, he feels a blade at his throat.

Kai flinches back from the stench of the Raider who holds the blade.

The man yanks the jerky from Kai’s grip, stuffs it into his pouch, and prepares to slit Kai’s throat.

Next episode: Blood, barter, and a choice that changes everything.

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