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OLD - Week 1 Day 3 Morning

This section of the forest was close to the main route so was busier with traders and merchants, but also those who do not mean others well. The trees here were the same height but had little branches until the top which spawned very large and broad canopies, which cause the area beneath them to be in the shade, dotted with specks of sunlight making its way to the ground.

When Ellyn woke the following morning, Seth was gone and so was Acorn. But she didn’t mind, in fact it helped as she lay in her hammock, gently swaying herself, and thought on what Seth had told her. The way he said “which they used to blow up the major cities and population hubs.” Got to her, he said it so casually as if it didn’t matter that almost the entirety of the world’s population was killed in a couple of days. As she lay there Ellyn started listening to the sounds of the world, the animals skittering around in the undergrowth  and in the trees, the “birds” , if you could call them that, circled in high rings over the land. Ellyn heard footsteps and turned expecting to see Seth, but instead there stood a hooded man, she could tell it was a man as he wasn’t wearing anything but said hood and a somewhat mouldy arpon. Naturally this caused Ellyn some distress; she looked away, and pulled up the courage to talk to him;
“H-h-hel-hello?”  Ellyn asked the man “C-Can I help you?”
The man just stood motionless, eyes down and hidden by the hood. Eventually he spoke up looking straight at Ellyn;
“You must be new, little lady” his voice was gruff and raspy. “or you’d know not to be out here on your own, eha eha eha” His laugh was more of a cough than a laugh, but that only made it worse. “I do like a bit of woman-meat, Hmmmm” he rasped.
He started coming towards the cart and Ellyn, who then started to walk backwards on the cart. She tripped on something and fell on her back; the man was now climbing up onto the cart. As Ellyn flailed around of the floor, she managed to get her legs tangled in a mass of old cables. By now Ellyn was starting to panic as she tried to escape the wires, and the man stood over her, licking his lips he started laughing in that horrible laugh as he pulled off the hood, to reveal a scarred and misshapen face. Suddenly he stopped, stopped moving, laughing, everything. He started to tip forwards, Ellyn rolled to the side, to avoid him falling on her, and came face to face with Acorn, who gave her a single lick on the face then bounced off. Ellyn turned to the man to see a large knife protruding from the back of his skull she then looked off the back of the cart to see Seth standing there, a grim look on his face. Acorn bounced up to him and his expression changed he smiled at his pet and picked him up, poked him on the nose, then placed him on his shoulder. Seth hopped up onto the cart, in one practiced movement and offered a hand to Ellyn, who had now freed herself from the wires. When she stood up Ellyn brushed herself off, straightened he clothes and gave one of her little sighs to Seth, who Pulled the hood from around the man’s neck, as he said; “I warned him”
“WHAT?! YOU KNOW HIM!?!” Ellyn Shouted at Seth, who mimed blocking wind. “depends on what you mean by “know”, Seth said pulling the knife from the man’s head, blood dripping from it ”yes, we’ve had….encounters….but that’s it really so I suppose not…”
“What do you mean encounters?” asked Ellyn, Seth was now dragging the man’s body off the cart, “Well, ive been in this area a few times, and he keeps finding me and trying to take my cart, and I told him the next time he went on my cart, I’d kill him…so I did…” he shrugged as he threw the body off the cart. This explained a lot about Seths character to Ellyn, about how he doesn’t seem to care much for other people, which worried Ellyn as he seems to care about her…
“Right!” Seth said “Time for some progress, eh?” he nudged Ellyn with his elbow as he made his way to the front of the cart, he stored the hood, in a barrel full of some foaming discoloured liquid. Ellyn shot a quizzical look at Seth, who took the hint;
“it’s some sort of strong soap solution, I have no idea what sort of things that guy could have been carrying so it’s better to clean it before its used.” Explained Seth,
“Wait, used for what?” asked Ellyn
“No idea, something, anything, everything, just see when or if it’s needed” followed Seth.
Seth Was now at the front of the cart, sat down and pressing buttons on the control panel, Ellyn came and sat down on the jury rigged seat. Seth seemed to press the right button and the cart roared into life, and he started moving it forwards slowly, until they were firmly on the road, where he announced;

“Next stop; Macewood!” and pushed the throttle all the way forwards and the Cart lurched forwards, groaned a little then sped up and continued to trundle down the road. Ellyn decided that the wobbly wooden chair wasn’t as comfortable as she thought at the increased speed, she got up, using the miscellaneous beams and poles of the cart to stop her from falling over, she found a soft arm chair to sit on but first there was the case of a small animal to take care of. Acorn was curled up asleep of the chair, she picked him up and sat on the chair with him on her lap, she stroked his fur and he quickly fell back asleep. As Ellyn settled into the chair and the rhythm of the cart, she looked off the side of the cart and took in the surroundings; they were starting to leave the woods and entering a large set of plains, which seemed to have been agricultural fields, but have since been turned into a mix of dry rocky ground and dense shrubs of mutated crops. As they travelled on Ellyn continued to gaze at the surroundings, amazed by things shed never seen before…
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