Chapter 2
Faith
“Why are you picking up that dirty broken thing?”
Faith ignored the other woman as she stood and brushed off the dust from a shard of porcelain plate. On the bottom, which was still intact, she could make out the words “Fine China.” It had a nice floral image, pretty. It couldn’t be used but she could clean it up and place it in her small collection.
It was silly to collect these broken pieces of a past that would soon be forgotten. But that was the exact reason she started the collection. She wanted to remember the beauty that Earth once held. The day the Earth was nearly destroyed by nuclear weapons, she had visited the local art museum. It left a big impression on her.
Faith had always dabbled in sculpture, painting, drawing, and even animation. She preferred painting to everything else. To take a blank canvas and build color upon color until something amazing appeared, well, there was nothing like it. Her art teacher encouraged her to pursue it because she was gifted. Her parents wanted her to go to college to become someone practical like a teacher or a lawyer, but they did allow her to take art courses on the side. They didn’t fully understand that finding beauty in things made her the happiest—which she was still doing to this day.
“Leave it. It’s useless.”
She glared at Cary. No one appreciated art like she did. Cary was just like the others in her tribe. If you can’t eat it, wear it, or trade it for something you can eat or wear, then it was useless. Ignoring what the other woman said, she placed the dish in her personal satchel.
The other woman snorted with irritation. She took pleasure in giving orders. “Look under those beams over there. Stop dawdling.”
Again, she glared at Cary who acted like she was in charge whenever the guys weren’t around. Technically, Faith should be in charge since she was the sister of their tribe’s leader, and she was older than Cary. But Cary was hard and cold; it made her look older. Cary was pretty with short, dark brown hair and big blue eyes. Guys enjoyed being around her, even Felix. But she had the warmth of a cucumber. Cary was currently sleeping with Felix which made her think she was in charge whenever Felix wasn’t around. Faith couldn’t wait for Felix to tire of the irritating woman and move on. Until then, Faith had to do whatever she could to keep the peace.
Following her “orders,” she knelt on all fours and crawled carefully under the fallen beams that used to hold up the local drug store on this street. She remembered coming here with her brother and parents and getting root beer floats. The manager was friendly and always made sure she had more whipped cream topping than Felix. Now, the store was practically rubble. Rummaging for scraps, they were in the basement fifteen feet below the top level.
Something slightly shiny caught her attention. She moved farther in. “I’ve got cans!”
“Great! Put it in the satchel,” Cary told her.
“That’s what I was doing,” she mumbled irritably.
She pulled ten cans out and stuck them directly into her bag. She kept crawling to the other side grabbing anything else she could find. When her head came out on the other side, she stared at a familiar pair of dirty boots and tensed.
“This is how I have always imagined you, on your knees before me.”
“In your dreams, Rooster.”
She climbed to her feet with no help from the tall, lanky man. He had been a thorn in her side from day one. She remembered him and Nox climbing in the back of the car the day the nukes hit. With reluctance, she had to admit they would not have gotten that car started without Rooster’s questionable carjacking skills. As soon as they had reached the entrance to the subway system, he shoved her behind him.
“Men lead, women follow,” he had told her. She hated him instantly.
It frustrated her that Felix allowed Rooster to act the way he did. He only threatened Rooster once, a while back when she had been cornered by Rooster. The man backed off for a while, but lately, he’d been pushing the boundaries. He would try to find ways to be alone with her, say rude or sexually charged things to just get a rise out of her. Whenever she threatened to tell Felix, he would back off saying stuff like she was being too sensitive and that he was only joking.
“Oh, Faith, if only you knew what kind of things I dreamed of,” he said as he leaned against the basement wall watching her with beady eyes.
Cary stepped up with her hands on her hips. “Rooster, are you here to help or bother the shit out of us? Because as Felix likes to say, if you don’t pull your weight, your weight will push you out of the tribe.”
Oh yeah, Cary had a thing for her brother. She was always following him around, telling him how awesome he was, and repeating his orders. It wasn’t like there were a lot of them to order around. Usually, it was just the five of them. Felix, her, Rooster, Nox, and Cary.
Occasionally, someone would travel through and hang with their tribe to see if they were a good fit. Mostly the travelers were temporary, wanting to take what they could and leave. There were times when her tribe and another would spend time together and trade goods.
By that, she meant the available men and women would hook up. Sometimes members would stay or go with a new tribe. They considered it a trade. She wished she could trade Rooster. Also, Cary. But she was out of luck. It seemed that she was stuck with both of them. Especially now that Cary and Felix were hooking up. She hoped her brother would get fed up with both their antics and kick them out.
“Did you find anything useful?” Rooster asked, pulling at the strap of Faith’s satchel making it slide down her arm. She had to jerk it back up.
“Yes,” Faith answered.
Cary snorted. “I did but I don’t know about Faith. She’s found moretreasures.”
“What kind of treasures? Gold? Silver? Precious Gems? I got it! It’s Gollum’s ring!”
Faith tried to ignore him.
