Seth led Ellyn down the path
to the lake where his cart was tied, the rope still leading to the lake. As
they approached Ellyn stopped short.
“So this is your cart?”
“Yes? What of it?!”
“Well I saw it earlier…”
“And?”
“Well I wondered who’s it
was”
“So now you know, do you not
like it?”
“Um, well it’s uh…..
Charming” said Ellyn as she looked at the cart.
Seths cart was made of a
dark metal frame; it was loaded with an assortment of chests and boxes, with
larger objects tied onto the side with bits of rope. A worn leather chair sat
the front behind a colourful control panel. Seth climbed aboard his cart by
standing on a wheel, climbed to the front then pressed a button on the panel
and a small set of stairs slipped down allowing Ellyn to also climb aboard. Seth
went to the back and found a small wooden chair; he then proceeded to tie the
chair on the front next to the leather one. Whilst he was doing this, Ellyn
busied herself with finding a place to put her stuff, and after winding all the
chests full, she decided to just hang her bag on the back of her new chair. Seth
Pressed another button on the panel and a motor sounded, and the rope connected
to the Prawn net started reeling in on a winch. As the net got closer the line
started moving more and more as the prize within started getting restless. As
the net arrived at the bank two large prawns were writhing about within it. The
net came to a stop at the back of the cart hanging off a sort of beams and
pulleys, dripping with radioactive water. Seth climbed to the back of his cart
and poked a stick into the net and he electrocuted the prawns with it so they
stopped moving. Whilst at the rear of the cart Seth pulled out a box and took
it to the front. He pulled off hid mask and pulled one with a hose from the
box; Ellyn looked into the box and saw the hose went into a box filled with
lush green plants. Seth grabbed another hose-and-mask combo and attached it to
the box and handed it to Ellyn. She put it on and smelled a strange smell of
mud. Ellyn slowly made her way to her seat and sat down. Seth unfastened his
cart from the ground and started the motor.
The cart pulled away from the bank and trundled towards the path, once
there Seth took a hard left and set off down a road. After what seemed like an
age Seth finally spoke:
“We’ll be staying out of the
village tonight, and then in the morning we can find you a job to do.”
“Wait what?” spluttered
Ellyn
“Well, you just lost your
last one, so you need a new one right?”
“Yeah, but…” Ellyn Trailed
off.
“But what?” asked Seth,
“Well, I had thought I would
join you!”
“WHAT!?” Exclaimed Seth “Oh,
no no no no no no no”
“Why not?”
“Well, I uh….” Now it was Seths
turn to trail off.
“Hmmmm?”
“It’s just that I’ve been on
my own for most of my life, and I don’t know what I should do with a partner”
“Well, just let me stay with
you and help you with your um, ‘business’”.
“Fine sure whatever, I could
use an assistant anyway…”
“Good, now that we’ve come
to an agreement about my placement… We can get onto more pressing matters, like
where are we going?”
“Well, that way” said Seth
indicating in front of them, “Gonna get to the woods, then we park and sleep or
something”
“But we are in the woods
already!” said Ellyn waving her arms around.
“Yes, but not the right
part.” Explained Seth, as if he were talking to a 3 year old. The cart trundled
on for a few more minutes in silence, until Seth shouted;
“Here we are!” waking Ellyn
from her day dream,
“Hm whaa?” she mumbled
distractedly
“This is the spot,” Said Seth
proudly, as he manoeuvred the cart into place. He grounded it and climbed out,
Ellyn following suit.
“Want to help place the
traps?” Seth asked moving to help Ellyn down, although she just jumped down.
“Uh, no thanks, I think I’ll
just stay here” replied Ellyn.
“Hm, ok your choice.” Said Seth
sceptically “just don’t touch the yellow chest”
“Why? Seth!? Why not!?” But Seth
seemed not to hear her as he wandered into the woods.
“Well then!” Ellyn shouted
after him. Ellyn crossed her arms and sat down on the ground, sulking.
A few minutes passed and Seth
did not return, for he was hiding just out of sight of Ellyn, but of course she
didn’t know that.
Curiosity got the better of
her she stood up, then got to the cart and looked for the yellow chest. When
she found it she saw it was large and square with several bolts on the front.
She undid the first two then when she got to the third the chest burst open and
something the size of a rabbit came flying out of it. It knocked Ellyn over and
she fell onto her back on top a bunch of junk that was covering the cart. The
rabbit sized thing jumped onto her face and started licking it. She tried to
push it off but it was moving too much.
“Acorn, down!” She heard Seth
yell sternly, and at once the rabbit sized thing jumped off her and ran to Seth.
Ellyn got up and started wiping her face. “Ewww…what is that thing?”
“This, ‘thing’ is Acorn!”
explained Seth “I don’t really know what he is” Seth said holding him in front
of his face examining him. Now she got a good look at ‘Acorn’ she saw what
looks like a mixture of lots of animals with its head like a cats, upper body
and arms of a monkey, the lower body of a dog and all of its fur was a dark
crimson.
After Seth recovered from
his laughing fit, he straightened up and held out his arm, Acorn Jumped from
the ground onto his arm with practiced grace. Once on his arm Acorn then
proceeded to climb onto Seths shoulders. “I’m sorry” began Seth “I knew you’d
open it, any sane person would, but I had to introduce you to him somehow!”
Explained Seth with a cheeky Grin.
“Hmph, well in the future if
you have any more ‘friends’ to introduce me to, make sure I know what’s going
to happen and what It will involve!” said Ellyn seething.
“Ok, ok, fine! Calm your bits!” Seth said as
Ellyn rolled her eyes. Ellyn jumped down
off the cart and stood looking at Seth with hands on hips as he gave Acorn a
fuss, like he was some deranged cat. When Acorn decided he’d had enough he got
up and bounced into the woods.
“Well that was eventful,”
Sighed Ellyn
“Yah!” Seth Replied “What do
you want to now?”
Ellyn thought for moment. “Well what is there to do?” she asked,
“What is there to do? What is there to do?!” Seth exclaimed “What isn’t there to do!” continued Seth “We are in the big wide world,
the great outdoors, the exiting earth! We can do anything we want, within reason, in this new world law and order is
just as common as bagels and no-one makes bagels anymore.”
“Well, what do you like to do?” quizzed Ellyn
“Me? Personally at this sort
of time I like lie down and think about the day past, the day coming and my
situation in this world” Explained Seth “But today I think I’ll do something
different”
“And that would be…?” Asked
Ellyn
“Educating you on the new,
shiny world which you’ve just been dragged into, after my daring rescue.”
Continued Seth Grinning at Ellyn, reliving the moment. Ellyn rolled her eyes at
this and sighed “Well I’m glad you enjoyed it, I’m afraid I can’t say the same!”
“You would have enjoyed it
even less if I hadn’t showed up” quipped Seth.
“Yeah well, whatever, so
what was this you were saying about the new world stuff?” Ellyn said quickly
changing subject.
“Ah, yes well, come up
here,” said Seth waving his hand at his cart.
When they got up, Seth threw
himself into a nearby armchair that happened to be just hanging onto the cart
by a few strings, Seth indicated to a beanbag for Ellyn to sit on.
“Are we all sitting
comfortably?” Began Seth
“Yes sir mister-Seth-sir” Chimed
Ellyn sarcastically
“Then I’ll begin:
Let me start at the end that
was a beginning, the end of the old world, and the creation of this one; the
earth was in chaos, recourses running out, food getting sparse and even water
was running out, not just in the dry places, even here in Old England people
were running out of necessary supplies, and this was one of the luckier areas,
places south of the equator such as this place called Africa, was already in a
bad shape before all the problems arrived, so by the end that was a “forsaken
area”, with only scientists and scavengers going there to dig in the dust. Anyway, after a year of
struggle, a new faction arose, claiming to have an answer to it all. And answer
it they did their motto was to “Immanentize the eschaton to bring about utopia”
Which basically means destroy what was left and begin a new, which is probably
the biggest downfall of the old world, you know, ending it. Moving on, they
“acquired” some nuclear missiles, which they used to blow up the major cities
and population hubs. At the time china had the highest population so that is
now a desolate wasteland. (Seth shrugged) After the
nuclear fires burned themselves out, not much was left; those who survived
found only ruins left above ground. The nuclear explosions and fallout killed
99.9% of the world’s population leaving 7millionish people, which might seem
like a lot but from a population of over 7 billion it isn’t, especially when
the 7 million is spread over the globe. But life goes on regardless, well it
tries too, and people have started to rebuild upon the ruins of their old
homes, towns and cities. Some succeeded, others failed but now we are left with
the current world the different factions are fighting for superiority and
control over the various settlements that have been created. Of course, not all
the social hubs have been taken over by one of the factions, such as “Waymonia”
which is a Freeport just a few clicks down the road, the factions want to own
that but the mayor just won’t have any of it. And so we’re here, back to the
present day, not much happens out here, most of the action is more south, in
places like “New London”, which is the capital of this country we’re in now
called “New England”, imaginative right?
Anyway, so yeah that’s that. Now you should be up to date with the
goings on. Did I miss anything?” Seth finished and looked at Ellyn who just
stared blankly trying to process it; she nodded slowly then fell backwards onto
the bean-bag, rubbed her face and mumbled a quiet “I think so”. Night had
fallen over the course of Seth’s re-telling of the world, so Seth started to
close up the cart he pressed a button on the panel next to the steering
wheel, and a layer of canvas sprung up creating a roof and walls for them to
sleep in, he untied his hammock and one for Ellyn then climbed in his as he
indicated for Ellyn to do the same. Before going to bed, she poked her head out
the canvas to observe the surroundings and as she did, Acorn bounced in and
jumped onto Seths hammock and snuggled in with him, Seth didn’t seem to notice,
as he was watching Ellyn, who was looking out the canvas at the
twilight sky through the trees. After a few minutes she returned and struggled
into her hammock. Seth mumbled to her
“So
what’s your story?”
Ellyn
sighed and explained about her mother and her working for Valther, then her
mother passing, leaving Ellyn on her own working day-in-day-out in the manor
for Valther with only the other servants for companions, who seemed not to talk
to her much anyway since she was so much younger than them. When she finished,
she looked over to Seth, and saw he had fallen asleep. After sighing again, she
decided to do the same and closed her eyes.
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