Jeff reached the camp just half an hour later, his hideout, was well hidden. It was in the name, still he felt uncomfortable so close to a camp of people. They called it a village, but Jeff knew from his mothers stories a village had huts and buildings, not mostly inhabited caves and tents. Still decades after the Pandemodium people still lived in squaller. At least that was what his mother had told him, old people afraid of losing it all again, young people often not taught how to build. Well at least outside the numbered zones.
It didn’t help that most zones lacked trees to burn and build with, Jeff had only seen one or maybe two mines in this zone, a extremely sparse amount though to be fair most of the caves here apparently housed large aggressive beasts that ate people, so understandable. Still this zone had little to offer to people, outside Brindgap now that was a town. The camp before Jeff was well a camp. People lived in small and large camps inside a ravine, sheltered by overhangs and carved funnels on top of one of the many hills in the hill belt, that surrounded the apparent center of the zone. Like the rest of the belt it was fertile and while the ground was still hard, Jeff could see some of the few plants that grew in this zone being cultivated outside the confines of the camp.
The camp had maybe two hundred inhabitants, nearly half being young adults and children, the rest was mainly adults going up to their middle ages, old folk were rare, most didn’t survive beyond sixty anymore, most zones being too dangerous, especially outside the few cities that managed to spring up. As such Jeff mainly saw people his own age as he entered the camp, all tending to the farms or standing on top of a nearby other hilltop, working as a lookout.
The people looked like everywhere a mix of colors and body types, Jeff knew from stories that before the Pandemodium people in some places called “nations” ordered themselves by how they looked, this habit mostly had died out, Jeff only ever met one group who did that and they had treated him like shit because his skin was too light, so Jeff didn’t think much of the practice. Still the camp was predominantly inhabited by people with a slightly darker skintype, apparently many people who lived in this zone came from a part of the world speaking something called “Spanish”, many people here still spoke it but practicality had brought the common language into the forefront, it was the most wildly spoken language before the Pandemodium and had persisted as the common language since then. Jeff mother had always grumbled she hated the common language, apparently something about losing the beauty of their home language, German or whatever. Jeff could speak a bit of it but never met anyone outside his family who … no not dwelling on it, looking sad would just make Jeff look angry and he neither wanted to be sad nor look angry right now.
A few of the kids gave Jeff a polite wave, most had seen him a few times now and while Jeff preferred to not interact much he still had talked to a few people out of necessity. The person he had interacted with the most was Diego, the kind of leader of the group, he did most of the planning and had been the one who had taken Jeff’s first batch of good a few weeks back. He was a broad-shouldered man, maybe in his late 40s, Jeff had never bothered to ask. The man had olive skin, muscles like an ox, but still wore some old pair of glasses, new once were hard to come by even though Brindgap probably had someone making them, still Diego had once mentioned, as if Jeff had asked, he only needed them to read. The fact Diego was also huge, not just his muscles but also his body, he was probably 2 meters in hight, just extenuated how silly the small glasses looked on his face, his dark hair was short and neatly trimmed. In another attempt to do something akin to small talk, if Jeff understood the concept, Diego had told him his wife was the local barber, did the hair for all folks in the camp apparently some even came from other camos just for her services. Or maybe he wanted Jeff to pay for her service. Well didn’t matter. The man was hinged over a table in the central tent, due to his size most furniture looked too small for him the table especially, it was some pre Pandemodium relic called a folding table. Diego was working on some of the wax tablets mostly used for record keeping in this zone as he spotted Jeff entering.
“Ah Jiff, back again, I thought we might not see you again?”, said Diego with a broad inviting grin on his face, his voice was boisterous and energetic, it was fun talking to him, but Jeff didn’t want to get to know the man since he would be leaving soon anyway and it would just hurt again.
“Hi Diego, I wasn’t gone that long”, like most times Jeff hated how his voice sounded, always out of use, craggy, too high pitched for his liking, Butch had called it a girly voice, probably less for how it sounded and more to get a rise out of Jeff, until kate had shut him up.
“Well four days is pretty long in my books, especially for a wanderer like you. Never know when people like you leave, especially when you don’t want to stay in the camp”, the implicit offer hang again between the two of them, Jeff had ignored it each time and Diego had started pushing a bit harder. The man was too nice, probably thought off Jeff as a child, like one of his daughters, they were roughly Jeffs age form the one time he had spoken with one of the twins.
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“Well this may be my last stop to be honest, I have nearly all I need then it’s back to Esher zone, from there maybe I will try going for zone 23, if the route is still open”, Jeff shrugged, trying not to sound dismissive, the man was nice no need to be more rude than necessary, the fact he didn’t push just made it harder.
With a bit of sadness in his eyes, like seeing a hurt animal he wanted to help, but which wouldn’t let him near, Diego sighed slightly.
“Well glad we had you here, brought some much-needed things, people with your skills are rare my boy you’d be a good help especially with the Cano boys out of order for a bit. Well, we will manage, maybe I will need to go to Brindgap but there is worse. Should you change your mind you know where to find me”, his eyes made sure Jeff knew the offer was genuine, but even if he wanted to, he couldn’t really stay. Too much explaining.
“I would warn you about the Esher zone, the route apparently is starting to fizzle. Well then onto business, I need to finish up here soonish, wife will get mad if I work too late again”, Diego said that last time with the sort of smile that made Jeff think of his parents and his heart ached, pushing forward before Diego could see his reaction Jeff said.
“Oh well it won’t be the first fizzling route I take, it will be fine”, Jeff put as much confidence in the words as he could with his craggy voice, he really should use it more,”I managed to get my hands on these fruits, some may be a bit squished in all fairness. Oh and I have some information about one of the caves near the flatstones southeast of here.”
“Well I will take the fruits off you, the kids will be glad, they were starving for something sweeter a while now, how about 20 points? I can also let you get something from the metal stockpile though I will need to charge you extra unless you have sheets? As for the information, sorry but I don’t see it being of use to us, there is also the risk of you lying, sorry but we had one bad tip about the caves and lost Jackly last year so I cannot buy that information, though I would be willing to tell you some rumor about a new connection turning up in exchange?”
Not as much as he had hoped for but enough for now, the brindgap metal sheet money, was a last resort Jeff wanted to use closer to the connection to the Esher zone, so he didn’t consider using it here.
“Sure to both, I do need some tools, and do you have some rope? A hammer would be great and some cloth, if you have some batteries, it would be a great help, small once and whatever amount of bandages you can give me so I still have enough for a hot meal from the common kitchen. As for my information, people seem to die to weird four legged crabs, they are much faster and nimble than the big once there was also a small trope going inside, they got eaten couldn’t see who it was because I was running away, so if some camp comes to ask you know about it. Oh, and there is some twisted object making water bubbles like the once up here just down there. Seems risky though so better leave it alone”, the nagging feeling of having forgotten something nagged at Jeff again. Oh yes a notebook so he could write stuff down!
“Oh and pleas one of your wax pads, would be helpful to keep a few things organized if you can spare one.”
“Well that is a rather large order … I will see what I can do, the hot meal is for free, Oilvia was saying she wanted to thank you for helping out last time. As for the information, thanks a lot, it’s good to know some people died there, sad though it is, I will tell others again to keep away, it’s also good to know why people seem to die, maybe that will help. As for the new connection, it started apparently a few weeks ago, some say that’s why Esher is fizzling, I don’t know enough so I won’t speculate. The zone is still unknown, its at a new place and people are scared. Last time a new connection appeared it was to some dark place, my mother called it “tierra del demonio”, or in common, Land of the demon. A horrid place from what I heard, though I was a young man then I didn’t go near the affected area. Some think it’s that connection if it is, well maybe your idea of moving is correct, last time the beasts nearly killed four thousand people, only those who managed to get to brindgap survived until the connection fizzled. Hopefully it’s less dangerous this time.”
Well as if Jeff needed another reason to be fast. The Esher connection fizzling was bad enough, though not a lie entirely, Jeff had never really gone through a fizzling connection alone. He was confident he would manage but if another connection appeared right now … Well he could always try the ice connection, though that may be suicide and there was the main connection to the Greylands near Brindgap. Either option was bad, though the Greylands would be an ok alternative. But Jeff knew the Esher zone, had lived there for nearly a year, he knew where the few town were and some camps, it was relatively safe. Still if a knew connection arrived before he reached the Esher connection he should maybe use the Greylands, people lived there too though it was a connection zone unlike Esher. The free meal was a nice surprise though, even if Jeff was unsure why helping with cleaning was something to be thanked for his parents had taught him it’s what you do when you are eating at someone’s place.
“Thanks for the warning Diego, should I come back after my lunch?”
“Sure I will have your things ready by then, but it’s a lot so don’t have too much hope, we have to tighten our belts too a bit until the next harvest when we can trade with Brindgap again. Come pick it up near our cave later it that’s fine?”
“That will be fine by me. Thanks again see you later”, with a shy wave Jeff moved back out the tent and moved with purpose for lunch. It smelled delicious.
