To Be A Warrior

Chapter 28: Stranger

Singer walks aimlesslythrough the streets, her arms wrapped around herself in an attempt to keep in body heat. Her jacket is doing a piss-poor job and she wonders why she bothered wearing it in the first place.

The sun is setting, soon to be gone and leave in its wake the stillness of night.

Dark, cold, and seeming to never end. Singer doesn't like the night, but she accepts the fact that it comes and will always come, just like the sun will always come back. It's one of the few things she can rely on in this day and age. Singer's been at Mullins for nearly a year now, and she knows BSL and Morse Code like she knows the back of her hand. It, like the sun, is something she can rely on now that she knows it as well as she does. It will be her only form of communication for... forever. So Singer supposes it's a good thing to rely on.

But what she's finding she can't rely on as well is Anna.

She knows the woman is busy, but it doesn't mean Singer doesn't feel a small bit of hurt when she doesn't show up to hang out when she said she would. Of course, Singer knows she still sometimes acts like an ass even when she shouldn't, and she knows there are things she will never-can never-tell Anna about herself, but she cares about Anna. At least, she cares about her more than she does everyone else here. She's even beginning to warm-up to Josh.

But Anna was supposed to meet up with her to help her sew up a shirt she'd accidentally ripped while out on a run. Singer can sew, but it's mostly just basic stitching techniques. Anna's been trying to teach her the more advanced ones. It's odd to see her do it, considering the punk aesthetic the woman radiates, but skills are skills, especially in an apocalypse.

Singer keeps walking, her footsteps echoing against the paved roads, melding along with everyone who's walking around. She sees them from the corner of her eye, but she doesn't look over at them. It might be considered rude if they didn't do the same thing. Singer's been around here long enough to work out how this place operates. They aren't as bad as the A.M.T.B., but to say people care about each other here is a bit of a stretch.

Everyone is mechanical, robotic. Schedules go around like clockwork and the only time these cyborgs revert to their humans selves is when they're around the people they care about, away from the eyes of authorities. Even then, though, Singer knows that the way everyone acts isn't normal, not the normal she knew of before the apocalypse. She's sure there are people who still act normal, who are able to separate fun and work and still have both in this chaotic mess the world is in, but whoever they are, they don't reside here.

Singer's almost certain the only person who cares about her is Anna, and possibly Josh. She's not sure. She tends to stay away from him. The intimidating aura he gives off reminds her a bit too much of Rux, even if the two are nothing alike. Honestly, Singer couldn't see Josh doing half the things Rux did, or had did, to her, but that lingering bit of caution is still there, and probably always will be.

Step after step after step. Singer almost swears the rhythm her steps make are from a song she once knew but forgot the lyrics to, not that she could sing them if she did remember. She can't even hum the tune.

She wishes she could sing though. It's the reason for her nickname, but her real name means "most beautiful" and the acne that comes with puberty and the scars that come with lack of any good skin care products show how much names mean. Beauty doesn't matter much anyway. The only people who cares to wear makeup is Anna and a few other girls who work in the hospitals, but even they say they do it to remind themselves of before, not because they want others to think they're pretty.