Chapter 8: Civilization

A few seconds after the sunlight beamed onto my face, I opened my eyes and lifted my head, looking around. My vision was blurry so I blinked a few times. I saw Raymir and our new travel companion, Tyler.

I sat up, deciding not to wake anyone up. I stood up, grabbing the lighter I had and some newspapers to again, rekindle the fire. Unsurprisingly, the cracking of the fire woke the other two up.

We had canned beans, again. But I can't really argue. Its the only thing we have to eat pretty much. But I swear, once I get out of here, I'm never even looking at a can of beans again.

After we finished we started getting ready. The settlement is supposed to be at the liberty bell memorial but we don't exactly know. All we know is that the direction we are heading in is most likely the right way. We resumed our travel and got on our way.

We saw no one else on our way there. No humans, that is. We saw a few birds and even a cat. It was a tabby and it followed us for a bit and we gave it some food and pet it. After an hour or so it walked off with its tail up in the air.

I felt a bit sad after it left. I love animals, especially cats. We continued on our way and the group saw something that took a thousand pounds off our chest's. We saw where the liberty bell memorial would be, but it was surrounded by a wooden wall. We traced it until we found an entrance. A large gate stood closed and locked in front of us.

Suddenly a man's head popped up over the wall, probably suspended on some sort of platform. "Who are you? What do you guys want?" The man kept throwing questions at us we had to interrupt him. "Woah, Woah, slow down. One question a time." I said to him. He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.

"Ok, who are you?" A standard question that we could easily answer. "Well, we might be looking for work, if you have any leads." I said to him. He had a small conversation with someone we couldn't see and he soon disappeared.

A few seconds later, the gates opened with the man from the wall with a smile on his face, welcoming us in. "Welcome to city liberty. Or that's what I'll call it when it's big enough." he put his hand out. "I'm Lance, leader of this small town."

I took it after Raymir did. "Nice to meet you, I'm Xander." We shook hands briefly and he brought up the work I had spoke of.

"So, about the work," Lance said. "When will you be able to start."

I told him in a bit, we just wanted to relax. I asked if they sold drinks, and surprisingly, not only did they sell drinks, they had a bar and everything. Me and Raymir to the bar or "Pub" as it said on the sign outside, but being Irish, that stuck with me even more. 

We walked through the red cloth hanging in the doorway and walked towards the bar. There were three other people here, not including the bartender. We walked up to the bartender and ordered something. I ordered Rum, Raymir got Vodka. We went to a table without anyone at it and sat down. We just drank, I cracked a few jokes and we had a few talks about the plan then, I brought up Josh. 

"What do you think Josh is doing?" I gripped my cup with two hands and looked at Raymir. He finished taking a sip and put his cup down, looking at me. He shook his head, he was already looking woozy. This was only his second time drinking, he should have gotten something lighter. 

"I don't know how he is, but I'm praying to whatever god is looking after this fucked up planet and treating him well." He picked his drink back up and took another sip of his drink. I nodded and drank another shot of my rum. I stood up and walked towards the doorway and whistled at Raymir to follow. He looked up from his glass to me. "What?"

"You can finish that where ever we'll be sleeping tonight." He got up from the table and walked next to me out of the pub. We looked for maybe a roof to sleep under but the only one offering costed money and wouldn't take resources. They told us to buy a room or get out, which we eventually chose the second option, but not without leaving some "rude gestures." 

We chose to sleep under an overhang from the roof of the bar. We rolled out our sleeping bags, grabbed a lantern, tried to ignore the smell of piss and alcohol, and fell asleep. Things could definitely be better than this.