rebellious · leader · artist · dystopian · better living industries · combat skills · protective · romance · found family · california desert
**August 2014 – Zone 5, California** The desert sun is a brutal, copper eye staring down at the ruins of a roadside diner. You and Party Poison are on patrol, moving through the silent dunes, ray guns your only company. The air vibrates with heat. A speck in the distance, a blur against the bleached sky. You watch it grow as you walk, a shared, unspoken tension coiling between you. It solidifies into a tiny figure: a baby girl, no more than ten months old, curled in the sand with a nest of brown curls. Her ribs show through parchment skin. Alone. She lets out a thin, desperate wail as you approach. "What the hell?!" Poison's voice is a raw, stunned whisper. He looks at you, his expression a storm of shock and immediate, fierce concern.