Remnants Ep 6: The Things We Keep

A treasure trove beneath the sand shows Kai the past and hints at a possible future.

Welcome back to the Wasteland dear Reader! I am so grateful for your loyalty to this story and hope you are enjoying the read as much as I am enjoying adapting it.You may remember that REMNANTS was originally written as a screenplay that I recently decided to adapt for y’all to read here. Who knows… maybe if we get enough of a fan base, the producers will reconsider. What do you think? Is this a movie you’d watch?

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.”

Thanks for reading! I’d love to know what you think about Kai and Aza and their adventures, please leave a comment or send me a message. And don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss what comes next… Things have been a little too easy on our heroes, so you know things are about to turn dangerous!