The Toxic Tea Shop

By the afternoon the landscape had transformed from dead pillars of trees to dead pillars of metal. The pipes and vents twisting around each other criss-crossing the landscape, leading to and from various tanks and valves. Ellyn turned to Seth who merely shrugged, “It’s called the industrial plains” he explained, “I have no idea what they were for”. There were still some fires burning from some of the tallest chimneys burning off something left inside the pipes, producing points of fire floating in the smog that seemed to never leave the plains. Some of the sections of pipes had been removed by looters or destroyed by some ancient explosion. They passed a few turn-off roads as well as small camps, which inhabitants either wave them by or just ignored them. After what seemed like forever to Ellyn, Seth pulled the cart over to one of said small camps for some food. Seth seemed to prefer food other people make fresh rather than digging in to his own supplies though Ellyn, who had seen a...

Fire. Fire can be both an enemy and a friend. Fire is only really used for cooking nowadays. Cooking and cleaning one could say, but not cleaning in the usual sense but more like cleaning an area of land from Life. Whether accidental or with a purpose, cleaning can be very problematic… When Ellyn woke the next morning, they were already moving, she looked up to see Seth at the wheel driving the cart along an old road flanked with dead trees. The smell of smoke and soot filed the air. She looked around to see that there was nothing else alive in the area, what used to be a surrounding forest had been burnt down. Ellyn got up and sat in her chair next to Seth at the front of the cart. Seth noticed her arrive but didn’t look up as he was manoeuvring around a burnt out log in the middle of the road. “Good morning sunshine” said Seth, “Yeah…good morning to you too” replied Ellyn, “Do you know what happened?” She asked. “My guess is a fire” Seth said, followed by Ellyn rolling he...

The sun dipped below the horizon and was replaced by the moon, its separated hemispheres grinning down on the denizens of earth. Seth and Ellyn trundled into town on the cart, the few people still out and about looking up at them and the cart before moving on. Everyone was much quieter, the cool evening breeze stealing words from conversations that never happened. The light from the tall Byronite lamps placed around town. Ellyn looked up at the clouds of insects that surrounded the lamps and wondered what they would be saying if they could speak. Seth looked up at the clouds of insects that surrounded the lamps and wondered how he could make use of this. Acorn looked up at the clouds of insects that surrounded the lamps and wondered why the fuzzy dots like the shiny so much. Seth stopped off outside a baker and bought some lumps of bread, and they continued out of town. Once back in the protective cover of the forest Seth stopped the cart once more and set up the camp for the night...

They crested over a hill and below them a small mining town was spread out within the canyon, but instead of driving into the town, Seth bared right and went around the top of the canyon in which the town was sitting in. Seth stopped the cart to a point level with the town, he got down from the control seat, searched through one of the crates, and pulled out a mass of rope and clips. He threw them off the back of the cart and jumped down off the cart. Seth then proceeded to activate each of the mechanical braces from the carts underside. Ellyn then spoke up “What are you doing?” she said, disembarking from the cart herself. Seth walked around to the side facing the edge of the canyon, Ellyn met him there. “Just wait, you’ll see” Seth said starting to tie some of the rope to the cart. Seth then found the other end of the rope and clipped it to something under his jumper. Ellyn just looked at him quizzically. He gave her a wink and jumped off the edge. “Seth!” Ellyn called after him,...

The dust in this area tends to be mostly sand and mud, which causes havoc for unprotected mechanisms or machines. The plains are littered with debris from an older world, with the wrecks having been scraped clean of anything useful long ago. Not much grows in the plains but the area provides the quickest route between the two nearest cities. As Ellyn groggily opened her eyes and yawned. She sat up in the hammock and saw Seth wasn’t there, she assumed he was out laying traps or something. She looked around and saw Seth had left his arm again, as she approached she saw that it was holding a note, it read: Gone to scavenge, will be back with breakfast! His handwriting was smooth but uneven and was written on the paper at an angle. Ellyn then studied the arm, it was the first time she’d ever had a good look at it, and while she felt a little uncomfortable with it she still wanted to see it. As she looked at it in the morning light and she saw it was a pretty accurate match ...

They braved the storm with the cart tethered to the ground behind a big rock, shielding it from the winds somewhat. They sat there in Seths cart, with large canvas flaps covering the openings. Most the time was spent with Seth teaching Ellyn how to deal with Acorn, and learning the commands for him. “Come on Acorn! Now, NOSE!” Ellyn said sternly to Acorn who was being quite stubborn. “Ellyn, look, like this” Seth said as he demonstrated the `proper` way to do it. “Acorn, Nose” he commanded holding his hand out in a fist. Acorn then touched his fist with his nose. “See? Easy!” “Fine, let me try again” said Ellyn. She held out her hand in the same way Seth did and calmly said “Acorn, Nose” and he bumped her fist with his nose, slower than he did with Seth but still he did it. Ellyn made some sort of squeak with happiness as Acorn returned to Seth. “I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it!” Ellyn exclaimed, showing her excitement by clapping …..a lot…. “…..Anywa...

It was mid-afternoon when they arrived in Macewood, the fumes and steam of the various stands mixing into a pillar of white, towering above the market town, acting as a signal beacon that can be seen for miles. “So, you hungry?” asked Seth as he caught Ellyn staring at a heavy laden food cart that they passed. Ellyn nodded furiously. Seth found a gap in the stalls and expertly maneuvered the cart into the space; it was outside the ruins of an old-world restaurant called M-Dons, and had a big ‘M’ outside. It seemed that the food it sold had an extremely good sell-by-date and was still edible so someone had continued the business. Seth went in and bought them a sandwich each. It came wrapped in paper, and Ellyn un-wrapped it, then bit her sandwich, she looked around while she was chewing, and looked at Seth. He saw her looking at him and raised an eyebrow back at her; “Mmmph?” asked Seth with his mouth full “Hmmmm, Hmf, Huhmf.” “You did what!?” questioned Ellyn, smirking Seth...