Twenty Seven

Bird’s decision to head north wasn’t a difficult one. She fucking hated town. To her, the town represented a lack of progress and personal growth. It had a name that nobody used. It was called Kingston, but due to the fact that it was the only town around, everybody just called it town. She had abandoned it quite early on in her life and saw no real reason to go back there. Sure, Teeroy would set her up with a pretty good life there, but resigning herself to that life would come with a lot of unspoken obligations.
By letting Teeroy set her up in a cozy little hut downtown, she would all of a sudden be Teeroy’s girl. She wasn’t anybody’s girl, thank you very much. She had crafted her life so that she could be her own woman without emotional debt or obligation to anyone.
If she were to settle down with anyone, Teeroy would be a decent choice. He was kind, smart, ethical and not too bad on the eyes. He had most of his teeth and washed himself in the river relatively often, so he didn’t smell all that bad. She couldn’t abide the assumption that she would be his though. He had been trying to own her in his own way ever since they were kids.
When her parents disappeared, Teeroy and his family had taken her into their home. This was a kindness that she was grateful for, but one that she would never really be able to repay. Under their roof, there was always this unspoken assumption that she and Teeroy would end up together. He would march around town with his chest puffed out trying to protect her from the other boys, and full grown men, assuming that she was his. All of this without even the courtesy of asking her. It was like watching a dog piss on a fence post. She felt pissed on, which in turn made her feel pissed off. So she ran for the hills.
She built a cabin and began carving a life out for herself. Her first attempt at cabin building was a pretty sorry excuse for a home. It was more of a pile of sticks that she could sleep in, but it was hers. Her parents had taught her the rules of the Waste. She knew where to go and what not to do to attract the attention of the Wendigo.
The Waste, contrary to its name, was full of stuff if you knew where to look. There were ancient ruins just teeming with useful things. Whole abandoned towns laid hidden in the hills to the west, their wood and stone structures in various states of repair. The material that was most resistant to the end of the world was metal.
The first valuable find that Bird had was a cache of tools. Axes, saws, shovels, chains, and the like had all survived the end of the world with just a bit of rust to show for it. After some careful restoration using various grits of sand they were almost as good as new. They of course all needed new handles, but Bird lived in the woods so the materials weren’t too far from hand.
Her most precious find had been around five years after she had been making trips into the Waste. She had come upon a structure that was made completely of metal. It had survived the end of the world almost completely intact. When she managed to get inside, to her surprise, it was full of books.
Her parents had some books that were passed down through the generations. They were dusty old things that were only held together by the memory of what they were. Her parents used these books to teach her to read. Reading was important if you were looking for things in the Waste. Words held information. Usually this was found stamped into metal or carved into a fencepost, but any new information that she found was worth its weight in gold. To find something like a single book was incredible. To find a structure full of them was life changing. The books themselves were great, but they could also be traded for precious things if you found the right person.
She had found the right person and the right book to trade them. There was a man to the north called Solomon. He had a thirst for knowledge about the world and how it worked, and the books she found were exactly that. He also happened to have a great many things to trade. This all happened long ago, but a debt was still owed to her. This debt was why she was heading north. Because right now, while she made her way north through the Gulf, she had nothing. Well, almost nothing. She had the clothes on her back, the food in her pack, and an extremely dangerous ancient artifact. Something that death seemed to follow. What she needed was a place to lick her wounds and figure out what was next.