6 HUMANITY
In the morning I set out to explore the destroyed town of Pinevale. It's a desolate place. Everything interesting has already been looted by someone else. I can still hear the crying child and chalk it up to insanity. I am wrong.
As I walk down the road it becomes louder. I stop to investigate and step into the broken remains of someone's dream home. All that's left of the house are a few burnt sticks of wood and an armoire, and I open it.
Inside the dresser is a child, too young to be on her own. She's dirty and dehydrated, there are no tear stains on her face. She looks at me and cries from her green eyes, an awful, piercing sound of lament.
"Hey there little girl.. It's alright.. Where's momma? Quiet down ok?"
She's inconsolable. I put my hand over her mouth and only succeed in getting bit.
"Look at me.. Hey.. You thirsty?" and she nods her head between wails. I rummage in my pack for water. There’s dirt in it, like everthing else in the wastes, but she doesn't notice and gulps it down.
"Hungry?" I offer her some of my breakfast. A roasted iguana carcass lodged on a car antenna. She eats it, shuddering between bites. I try again.
"Where's mama?" I try to smile but only manage a grimace.
"Momma went to get foooood waaaaaa."
Crap. I see how the day is going to go.
"Come on, we can't stay here. Come with uncle Russ and we'll find your mama."
She shakes her head and wails, dropping the charred iguana. I pick it up, dust it off and take a thoughtful bite. I turn and feign leaving her behind. She clambers out of the dresser and takes a few steps towards me, stumbles and falls to her knees.
"Wait, please don't leave me to die!"
"Come on. I'll take care of you and maybe we can find your mom. Can you walk?"
She shakes her head and stretches her arms towards me. I go to pick her up but instead she hugs me tight.
"Don't leave me!"
"I won't. I'm gonna pick you up ok? What's your name?" She nods.
"Tee, "
I pick her up. What the hell am I gonna do now? I can't take her to oasis. I look around but cannot find her mother's trail. We can't stay here. Rule of the wasteland, don't linger, and keep moving.
I blink the dust from my eyes, squint at the horizon and trudge onward. My best bet is to find some friendly tribals to take care of her. I sure am not going to yell my head off looking for her mother, who is probably dead anyway. I doubt we will survive the night. That's nothing new.
I've been in the wasteland too long. My strength has returned but I have lost my will to live somewhere along the line, though she has not. Once I had been in love, with a beautiful girl. I don't want to think, ever again.
The little girl never takes her bright green eyes off of me, her small arms gripping me with renewing strength. I feel human again, for the first time in ages, I have a purpose beyond the next iguana.
I see distant smoke spiraling into the sky. I hike her up on my hip and set out beyond Pinevale. It's a better choice than no direction at all, though we might be heading towards a slaver's camp for all I know. But that's life in this hell, always choosing between bad, worse, and the unknown.