Train Game

Algreya, Tompston - Day 3 / Part 1

I was about to turn toward the front door to my right when I saw a shadow in the back door, to my left. It was Angelique, kneeling by her son's grave.

Every single one of us had to go through so many obstacles to get here. From what I knew, none of us came from a clean past. Heck, most of us still refused to speak of our pasts. Angelique was one of them. We knew she had lost her mother at a young age, didn't know who here father was and didn't care. We knew she had lost her lover before Toby's birth when she was sixteen. Now, she had to lose her son. What did she have left? Would I come back from work tonight and find out she chose to join her loved ones?

I made my way towards her. Kneeling beside her and offering her my company and support in her silent mourning. She had refused to break down but I could easily see how dead inside she felt. A low scrunching noise made me turn my head to see that Corvin was making his way towards us and Tyler was standing in the door frame. Corvin knelt beside her and took her hand from her thigh, squeezing it in his. Corvin, the teen that looked like the type kids at school would pick on, was probably the one who reminded Angelique of her son the most. I stared at his grave and took her other hand. A silence took over; a silence worth this moment.

At that moment, I felt Angelique's hand tighten around mine. I turned to look at her, she was staring at her knees and I saw a tear slide down her cheek, onto her skirt. A moment later she threw her head back and screamed her pain away. The scream continued on and on. When she ran out of breath she would grab a quick one and scream again. When her tears started flowing freely, sobs took over the screams and she collapsed against her knees. She ripped her hands from ours and beat furiously at the ground with tight fists. Screaming, sobbing and crying. As suddenly as she had started, she stopped and just lay there, hands on the pile of dirt that covered her son's body.

''Say hi to your father and to grandma for me, please. We'll see each other again...'' was all she whispered before standing up.

She took a deep breath of air and walked over to the shed where she grabbed the tool box and headed back inside, smiling at us. I smiled back at her, mind temporarily at ease and headed to the diner.

|--KANE--|

Algreya was a city that every tourist had a picture of. Even most of its citizen's couldn't resist hanging a picture of the city in their homes. From an aerial perspective, the city looked like dozens of circles going smaller in size to end with a castle in the perfect middle. Algreya was built on and around a mountain. At the very top, the historical Royal family's castle still stood; although, now it was used as a museum and expensive hotel to attract tourists. From the castle, one paved road swirled around and down the mountain's side, leading to the residential areas. The houses that were higher up on the mountain were extremely beautiful and the owners were seen as the high society population. Just above the base of the mountain were two circular rows of houses meant for the 'poor class' population. Finally, at the very bottom where the city met with the main road, was the market area.

Considering the layout of the city, the various leaders of the city had had to adapt. Initially, the main road and road up the mountain were enough. However, as the city grew and expanded around the mountain, they saw the necessity for a tunnel to be built under the mountain from the North side to the South side. After more years of expansion, a second tunnel that intersected with the first one was built to cross from the East side to the West side. Over the years of expansion and adapting, Algreya had flourished into a bustling city of high standards. Hoever, the war had hit every city in the world and Algreya had lost all the near-by villages that supplied most of it's' market. The destruction didn't stop there, where once lay three circles of markets, now stood only one- the one nearest to the base of the mountain. The outer limits of the city were now in ruins.

I sat in the van, staring at the most recent map of Algreya. The market was divided into four sections; south meant food, west meant clothing, north meant electronics and east meant furniture. I placed the map back on the passenger seat and headed for the West sector. I took the back road where the merchant vans loaded and unloaded and tried my luck at a first shop. I knocked twice on the back door and waited patiently with a pad of paper and a pen.

''Yeah?'' asked the young man who opened the door.

''I'm here for the over stock and outdated stock.'' I lied, easily.

''Oh, right yes. Come in.'' he opened the door wide and lead me into the back store. He pointed to two wooden containers about two feet deep, three feet long and two feet wide. ''They're labelled. Do you need help taking them to the van?''

I nodded and he helped me bring the two containers into the van. I waved him goodbye kindly and moved on. I was able to take the stuff from three shops before one of them doubted me. From there, I switched sector; such information had a tendency to spread fast amongst common merchants. I continued my raid with the North sector, where I managed to hit two shops before the story repeated itself. I made a quick stop in the East sector for materials to fix the house with and finished off my trip with the south sector where I bought some food the normal, legal way. Even if we lived like runaways and stole various supplies, we did actually buy our food.

Tyler, Angelique and Corvin were busy fixing the house with what they had when I arrived in the late afternoon. I made my way to the back of the van and took out the supplies they'd need for the house. Angelique came around back and grabbed the food supplies which she took inside while Corvin and Tyler debated what to fix first now that they had more options. When the necessary things were cleared from the van, I went to help the guys with the house. A few hours later, the smell of whatever Angelique was cooking up reached us on the roof of the house.