New Friends

Posted on Tue Mar 21st, 2023 @ 3:35pm by Kyleigh Arynson & Glitch
Edited on on Sat May 6th, 2023 @ 9:11pm

3,924 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Welcome to the Hometown
Location: Near Hometown 1 - Old St Louis
Timeline: March 21, 30 AP

The sun was high in the sky and a few birds of prey circled overhead upon hearing the sound of something moving on the old highway below. It wasn't often that they got a treat and the birds circled for a closer look.

Rusted out cars, trucks, and other vehicles, long since picked clean of anything useful littered on old route 64. It was the longest stretch of highway leading to Hometown One and the one most traveled by people trying to get there or leaving there.

It was also home to raiders who lurked in the fringes littering the sides of the highway, old semi trailers repurposed as temporary camps. It was also home to black bears, coyotes and rattlesnakes and Black Widow spiders. Few people camped out without beating the bounds of their new campsites and few stayed long enough to offer the wildlife and raiders a free meal.

***

A lone motorcycle hauling a small trailer sped down route 64 on a path that had been cleared long ago, but not so long that nature had reclaimed its former land. The sounds of the birds flying overhead caught the driver's attention as she brought her bike to a stop to take in her current surroundings.

Kyleigh Arynson, a young woman, pulled the bike/trailer just off to the side of the road to be out of the way in the event anyone came by, and turned the key to kill the engine. A smile formed on her lips as she reached up to remove her helmet. Her long, curly locks tumbled free, sweeping down her back until they came to rest against the aged black leather of her jacket. After setting her helmet aside, she pushed the goggles she wore on top of her head, then looked toward the sky.

A smile formed on her lips. The birds she'd heard, Ferruginous hawks, continued to fly overhead, creeping closer and closer to her, undoubtedly of the mind that they might be able to make a meal out of her.

Sadly, they weren't the only dangers on the road. Some had feathers. Some had fur. Some flew. Some walked on four legs. Some walked on two. And, it was those that walked on two legs that were the most dangerous of all.

Humans, especially after the Glitch, had become desperate to survive, often resorting to criminal behavior. Thankfully, Kyleigh had no intention of staying still for too long, and even is she did, one thing she wasn't was an easy target. If anyone, or anything, wanted to make her a victim, they would definitely have their hands full.

She dismounted her bike and stretched, taking a second to crack her neck before moving to her saddle bag to open it. The young woman reached inside and pulled out an old canteen, one of the few things she'd had left from home, and opened it, taking a deep drink from the water inside. It certainly hit the spot, and she was beginning to run low on it and other supplies, which is what brought her to her current position just on the outskirts of Hometown One.

One of the Ferruginous hawks swooped lower and gave a piercing cry, then swooped into a thick patch of grass. It rose with a shriek a moment later, a young rabbit in its talons. The sun beat down without mercy and without weather prediction services, there was no way to tell what the day would bring.

Still, it had been hot the past couple weeks and every watering hole was starting to dry up. If rain wasn't coming soon, others that depended on them would have to move on in search of new ones.

Kyleigh watched the hawk for a moment before she reached into the back pocket of her vertically striped pants to produce a handkerchief. She brought it up to her forehead and wiped the sweat away, then tossed it onto the seat so she could work on getting her jacket off. It offered a layer of protection while riding, but it was just too hot to leave it on. Now, with more skin exposed to fresh air, she found herself just a bit cooler.

"Much better," she muttered, taking another drink of her water before stuffing the canteen and her jacket into the saddle bag. Even if she'd only stopped a couple of minutes ago, it was time for her to get back on the road again.

A screech reached her ears from one of the hawks, then a much bigger triangular shadow passed over her and bike.

For brief moment, she hoped that bigger shadow wasn't one of the hawks morphing into a much larger version of itself to make good on her prior thoughts. Kyleigh knew she could handle herself even in a situation like that, but thankfully, that was just her imagination. Still, she turned her attention toward the sky and raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun.

Overhead was a hangglider with a single pilot and they seemed to be getting lower to the ground. The pilot was covered in leather flying clothes in a riot of colors and waved, but any words were distorted by distance.

Kyleigh cocked her head to the side as she watched the person on the hang-glider. Why would they chose to land out here and make themselves some kind of target? And that's when her hackles raised. Perhaps, that's what they wanted to make her. A target. A victim. She would definitely keep her guard up, but for now, wanted to see what he or she wanted.

The pilot, a young woman now easily identified as she got closer, swept around the area overhead and scanned with some form of telescope, then brought the glider down about dozen yards from her.

"Ahoy, rider!" She called out, sounding surprisingly young as she waved, but didn't advance.

A young woman? Kyleigh mused. She could be a diversion for something sinister far more sinister. She hated to think that way, but one could never be too careful on the road. Her guard was always up, but it was even more so now. "Hey!" She called back, waving with her free hand since the other was blocking the sun.

"Name's Elixer," the young woman said. She wore a lightweight jumpsuit that covered with colorful stripes, had a leather helmet over her hair and a pair of goggles over her eyes. "Trade up some water for a tow?"

"A tow to where?" Kyleigh found herself asking.

"Up," Elixer responded, pointing in that direction. "I lost the current and had to land or I'd still be up there. I have a drag line but no tow."

Kyleigh weighed her options. There was no doubt that she could get the young woman up, but she was a bit skeptical. Of course, if things did end up going sideways, she could handle herself. "Very well," she said. "Hook up your drag line and let me know when you're ready." And with that, she mounted her bike and restarted it, then turned her attention back to Elixer.

"You gotta water tank?" Elixer asked as she went to her glider and pulled a long thin metal cable with an easy release hook on one end and dragged it towards Kyleigh. "Where should I hook it?"

"I do, but you don't have to worry about that," Kyleigh replied, then gestured to a good spot to hook the drag line up to. "There. It won't cause any kind of damage."

Elixer hooked it where she pointed out, wondering why the other young woman didn't want a top up on the water. "Are you sure you don't want a top up?" she asked.

Kyleigh got off of her bike again and moved back to the trailer she was pulling, removing a cap from the reservoir underneath. Water was hard to come by lately, and she truly would be a fool not to take her up on it. "I accept," she said. "Thank you. This is my tank."

Elixer gave a startled look, but smiled as she finished hooking up the tow cable which had a quick release on it she could pull from above. "Do you have a drop? Promise you can keep it after I'm done."

Kyleigh gestured to the tank. "Just what's in there. It's about a third of the way full."

"Right," the other woman said and went over to look in and gave a sniff. "Smells right, but you might want to clean that tank more often." She dug in a hip pack and pulled out a length of thin cotton string and offered it to Kyleigh. "Can you dip the wick for me? I need something to work with."

"It was just cleaned not that long ago," Kyleigh said as she took the string from Elixer and began to feed it into the tank. "You seem to know what you're talking about when it comes to water. How often would you suggest I clean it out?"

"Normally a year in something like this, but in these times?" Elixer shrugged. "You never know what might contaminate it." She looked at the string going in and gave a nod. "You can pull it out now as long as it's wet."

"It's only been a couple of months, but maybe I'll look into getting it cleaned again when I'm in town," she said as she pulled the wick from the tank. "What do you want me to do now?"

"That'll do," the young woman said as she called on her power and focused on the droplets of water falling from the wick, The droplets got bigger and started to fall faster, then became a thin, clear stream that poured from the wick and into the tank. "Just say when."

Kyleigh cocked her head to the side as she watched the stream of water move into the tank. She'd seen quite a bit on the road, but nothing quite like this. This was definitely interesting. Water was necessary to have nowadays, but she didn't know what kind of repercussions Elixer would suffer... any. "Do you suffer any kind of backlash?"

"Nah,," Elixer said. "It's why I ask for a drop. I can multiple it a lot easier than pulling it out of thin air." She looked around. "Especially when it's hot and dry as this. Wish we still had those things my folks used to talk about. Weather sat-til-lights, I think they were called."

"I know what they are, but have never seen one. I have actually come across the remnants of an actual satellite before. They're interesting," the motorcyclist said. Books were a huge part of her life, and learning was important to her.

The hang glider pilot slowed the flow of water down as the wick began to dry from the top between Kyleigh's fingers. "I'd love to make a find like that. All that old tech. Some people still say they can make it work again." She scoffed, clearly not believing in such fairy tales.

Kyleigh smiled. "It does sound a bit ridiculous, doesn't it? How old are you?"

"Twenty-four," Elixer said with a smile. "I was born into this mess. How about you?"

"Same. Twenty-four," the young blonde haired woman answered as she replaced the cap on the tank. "I was born into it, too. This world is all I've ever known, but like everyone else, I do the best that I can with what I've been given." Her attention went back to the other young woman. "So, you can manipulate water?" It was a stupid question considering she watched it happen, but for whatever reason, she wanted to find out more about her.

"Nope,": the other woman said. "I make illusions." She laughed. "But yeah. I'm a Hydrokinetic, they called me at Four." Indicating she was from Hometown Four. "How about you?"

How much did Kyleigh want to disclose about herself? She hadn't even properly introduced herself to the other young woman yet, and it was possible once she found out her name that she'd know who she was. Some people did. "Super strength," she answered. At least for the moment.

"Bet that comes in handy when people get handsy with you," Elixer commented. "I just make them feel really dehydrated."

"Given the percentage of water inside the human body, I'd say that that's a hell of an ability to have. Especially if someone wanted to get handsy with you, too," the motorcyclist said as she moved over to her saddle bag to pull something from it after shutting the bike off. "Are you hungry?"

Elixer tugged her scarf loose and tugged her leather flying helmet and googles off. She had short brown hair that was plastered to her head and looked like it had spent hours under the helmet. "Whatcha got? All I bring out here is some travel bread and seaweed."

Kyleigh settled down with the bag. "Beef jerky, some dried fruits, nuts and some trail mix. I was going to drive on a bit more before I stopped to eat anything, but now is as good a time as any. There's more than enough here for both of us."

"I appreciate it," the other young woman said as she ruffled her hair away from her scalp and squatted down near her. She opened her belt pouch and pulled out a couple small green wrapped packs and set them on the ground. "Way bread and seaweed is my contribution."

"It's appreciated," the young motorcyclist said before offering Elixer some of the food. It wasn't much, but it travelled well. "You don't have to answer my next question if you don't want to, but what's your given name? The one you got at birth."

"Bit of a personal question, doncha think?" Elixer asked as she took the offered share. "But what's in a name, eh love?" She paused. "That's just a term. I'm totally not into women and I wouldn't declare love to a stranger. Anyway, it's...you can't control people with a name, can you?"

"No, I can't control people with their name," Kyleigh answered, hoping to reassure her a bit. Was that even a real thing? "If it makes you feel better, I'll tell you my name first. I'm Kyleigh Arynson."

"Now I have the power to eat your brain and make you my meat puppet," Elixer said with a bad villainous laugh that sounded more like Brittany Chipmunk - if anyone remembered who that was. "Okay. Fair's fair. I present to you one Cordelia Hope Dawkins," she said with a flourish.

Sparky, though she had yet to disclose that, bit into a piece of beef jerky. It seemed the other young woman had no idea who she was. Or, at least, didn't let on that she did. There was a little relief there. It was nice to feel normal once in a while. "It's nice to meet you Cordelia Hope Dawkins," Kyleigh said with a smile. "I'm glad you're not going to eat my brain and make me your meat puppet." She took another bite of her jerky. "What do you do to make ends meet?"

Cordelia took a bite of some dried fruit, then looked at it with a bit of concentration. After a second, it swelled up a bit and she smiled before she popped it in her mouth. "I bring water to the desert of life," she said simply.

Kyleigh was impressed. Water was getting harder and harder to come by lately. "Just be careful who knows what you're capable of. There are people out there that might want to exploit what you can do for their own personal gain," she said, taking another bite of her jerky. "I've had it happen to me before, but it didn't pan out well for them. It's part of the reason I'm so paranoid these days."

The other young woman gave a smile after taking a bite of jerky. "Remember you said about the percentage of water in a human body? They want me, I'm going to take that water out of them. Completely." She looked very serious for a moment. "Ask nice or offer a trade, I'll be happy to do business."

"I live by that, too. I don't want to be taken advantage of, but as I said, it happened once," Kyleigh said as she thought back to some years ago. "It's made me a bit paranoid when it comes to meeting new people."

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?" Elixer asked.

"First, I can manipulate electricity, and I'm known by most as Sparky. You mentioned earlier that some have claimed to rummage for old technology and make it work again. Well... it's not a myth. I can, and have done that many times," Kyleigh began. Why she was telling her new companion this, she didn't know, but it was happening.

"Anyway, I didn't always travel alone. Not in the beginning. I was with a small group of people I thought that I could trust, but I was very wrong. They used me. Convinced me to use my ability to their advantage. It took me a while to catch on, but once I did, I decided that I wasn't going to trust people again. Not like that."

"You're Sparky?!" Cordelia exclaimed and looked amazed. "I always heard Sparky was like Thor and shot lightning bolts from ...you know." She finished as a blush crept up her cheeks. "But I get it. I can make water. That makes me a big target. It's why I like being up in the air by myself."

That made her a little nervous. "Yes, I'm Sparky," she confirmed. "And I guess I could shoot lightning bolts from anywhere I wanted to. Both of our powers means we need to be a bit more cautious. Though, we could really mess up someone's day."

"Sorry about that," the other young women said a bit sheepishly. "I heard all kinds of rumors about The Living Dynamo and The All Spark."

"No need to be sorry, and some of the rumors out there are true," Kyleigh said.

Cordelia smiled and ate the last of her dried fruit. "What's it like bringing the Old Tech back to life?"

"It's one of the coolest things that I've ever witnessed," she answered honestly. "To see something that hasn't worked for so
long come back to life... to be able to learn from the past... I can't really put into words just how amazing it is. Maybe one of these days, if you don't have anything holding you down, you might be able to go on one of my scavenging trips with me."

"I'd like that," Elixer said after she took a drink from a canteen of water. "I usually do scouting from on high and report any movement of Outlanders, raiders and the usual."

"I have some business to tend to in town, but if you're really interested, I wouldn't mind the company."

"If you get me up in the air, I'll follow you back," the water bender said with a smile.

Kyleigh returned the smile. "Well, your tow line is still hooked up, and I do owe you for the fill up on my water."

Cordelia came to her feet with ease and dusted off her pants. "Then let's get this show on the road. Can you tow with your fifth wheel attached?"

"To be honest, I don't know. This will be a first for me," Sparky answered honestly. "I can usually manage a steady speed of about eighty when I'm on the open road and don't have to weave through broken down vehicles. If you want to come with me, we can tie your glider to the top of the fifth wheel and you can hop on the bike with me."

"Are you sure you wouldn't mind?" the other young woman asked and looked a bit surprised. Few trusted people out between the Hometowns, after all. Still, they had shared a meal and exchanged names and a bit of what they could do. Besides that, if this was the legendary Sparky, she could turn her into bread that was left in the Old Tech too long.

"I'm sure. Besides, the way I see it, if you wanted to cause me harm, you would have done it long before now," the blonde haired woman pointed out. She wasn't exactly wrong in her assessment, either, and that went both ways. "Thanks to your bird's eye view, you noticed me long before I did you."

Kyleigh finished off the last bite of her food and drank more of her water, then started to clean up her mess. "That being said, what do either of us really have to lose?"

"Okay, you're on," Cordelia said with a smile. "Give me about ten minutes to break my glider down. I have it down to a science anymore.."

"In that case... we should put it inside. I'll get everything else ready to go while you do that," Kyleigh said.

The other young woman gave a nod as she went to the hang glider and began to unfasten clips fastened along the main frame of it. She folded the thin windproof material back carefully, clearly used to caring for it.

After she got the material off, she crawled under the body to the pilot harness and pulled a ratchet like gear tool out of her belt pouch and fitted it to a gear on the body. With a grunt, she began to crack it and the frame began to fold in on itself. "Blood stupid way to do it," she grunted.

While Elixer managed to break down her glider, Kyleigh opened up her fifth wheel and made her way inside. She wasn't in there long, perhaps a minute or so before she came back out with a helmet and a pair of goggles in her hands for the other woman. She never had anyone else on her bike with her, but she always made sure she had backups of her gear. "You'll be thankful for the goggles while we're riding. Taking a bug to the eye while traveling on a motorcycle definitely sucks."

Elixer held up her goggles after she pulled herself out from under the now folded up frame. "Got my own because bugs fly high, too," she laughed before she grabbed the frame that was now just a little over four feet folded up. "Get a hand loading it up?"

"Yep," the other young woman said as she made her way back over to her companion once she'd set the second helmet on the seat of the bike. "We'll be on the road in no time, then, if you're still interested, we can go on an adventure."

After they had gotten the folded up hang glider stored in Kyleigh's fifth wheel, which Elixer would have drooled over if water wasn't precious, she finally put her helmet on that Kyleigh had offered her and set her own goggles over her eyes. "Ready?"

Kyleigh lowered her goggles down over her eyes once she closed up the fifth wheel, then moved toward the bike again. "Ready," she confirmed as she pulled her own helmet on and mounted the motorcycle. When she got it started again, and her new friend was on and ready, the young woman took off down the highway onto what would be a new adventure with a new friend.

 

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