Vasilisa the Brave - Chapter Ten - Relative Safety

They had to ditch the cart. It was probably a good thing, while the Crystal girl was... at least a safe driver, she was also very slow. At times, Vasilisa suspected that she could walk faster than they were driving.

Still, it had been good. She'd come to appreciate transportation not provided by her own two feet in the last couple of days. The cart, for all that it was noisy and shook a lot, had still gotten them away from the Camp and well out into the hillsides beyond.

But now it was time to get off. There was a camp in the distance, one that Alice had said was entirely abandoned and relatively recently. How she knew before it even came into sight, Vasilisa had no clue, but she had spoken with confidence.

The cart rolled up to the edge of the camp, then died. Its engine grumbled and sputtered and gave up.

"I think we were about to run out of fuel anyway," Crystal said as she put it into park. "They didn't exactly top it up before we stole it." She patted the steering wheel affectionately. The lights at the front were still on, giving them a decent view into the camp.

It was in the centre of a few old buildings. A cracked and pitted road nearby led off into the distance. It looked like one of the normal highways, so this wasn't too far from where people travelled.

Two of the buildings were warehouses, or maybe stores? It was hard to tell. They had been red, once, but weather and time had stripped them of their paint. At the back was a large... farming building. Vasilisa didn't know much about farming. But this looked very much like one of those strangely tall buildings that tractors could drive into and come out with their trailers loaded up on grain.

There were a few tractors here too. Just sitting out in the darkening outdoors, collecting rust.

"The camp's further in," Alice said. "Come on."

She moved forwards like, like... Vasilisa had never paid too much attention to how people walked before. There were some things that were just self-evident. Confidence, authority, and those things were easy to read in a person's body language.

Alice walked as if she was the queen of the entire world, as if her every step was a declaration, not of her own greatness, because such ought to be self-evident, but that she was allowed to be here.

It was a weight that Vasilisa felt, not in her body, but in her soul, and so when Alice said 'come on' what Vasilisa heard was 'we are moving.'

She scurried after the girl, a mouse chasing a slinking cat. Alice brought them past one of the old buildings, then gestured further in. "Like I said, empty. There are a few mattresses. Are you tired, Vasilisa?"

Vasilisa blinked. Was she? Yes, she was exhausted. The day hadn't started well and it had continuously gotten worse until the moment where it became weird. Still, the tiredness was nothing compared to the amount of adrenaline-fueled energy she felt. Her heart was still beating faster and her mind raced.

She wanted to tell this to the girls. She wanted to scream, and shout, maybe cry a little, because more than the near-deaths and the strange awakening that morning, more than the quick escape from the Camp and all the rest, what weighed on her mind the most were Kuzma's revelations.

Was she even real?

She could remember her dad, of course, she had to save him... only now that she thought about it... what did he even look like? Her home was Pripyat, of course!

So... where did she go to school there? Where did she buy groceries? Who were her friends in the city? Did she know anyone from there? She had vague recollections about neighbours and people that lived in the city, but not a single face came to mind.

Had she almost died today? Yes. Was it the worst thing to happen? No, far from it.

"Hey? Are you okay?"

Vasilisa jumped and turned towards Crystal. The girl was looking at her with guileless, innocent eyes. She didn't have that same aura about her that Alice had. There was power here, and a lack of fear, but it was... kinder. At least, Vasilisa thought it might be. "Sorry, yes, I'm fine. A little tired. And... hungry. Very hungry."

She hadn't eaten since that morning. She had recovered her bags, at least. Her guns were gone except for Kuzma's revolver, the men had taken those, but her bags had been tossed into the back of the same cart they used to run away from the Camp. It meant she had some things.

Some things from home, maybe? Enough to start piecing things together.

"Alright, let's get you sorted, then," Crystal said. "Uh, Alice, do we have anything to eat?"

"No. At least, I didn't think to bring anything," Alice replied.

"Huh, I didn't either. Mister Koshei was the one with the food last time. Dang, um... I'm sure we can find something edible."

"There's a small camp here," Alice said. "A few tents, some mattresses. People have been staying here. They might have left something."

"Traps," Vasilisa said, and both girls turned her way. "Traps, we need to watch out for traps."

"Not a bad idea," Crystal said. "Go sit down, I'll look around."

Vasilisa looked about. There was half of a fifty-five gallon drum a few steps away from an open warehouse. There were logs around it, and the metal bucket of a tractor pulled close and flipped over to serve as a bench with a ratty blanket left atop it.

She reluctantly moved over to the bucket and sat on it. Alice picked up a few logs and pieces of wood from a pile nearby and looked them over. "I'm guessing either someone keeps this place stocked, or it's used relatively frequently," she said before tossing the wood into the drum. There was a slight puff as some of the ash on the bottom was disturbed. She tossed in a few more pieces, just stacking them up.

Vasilisa almost stood up and started to sort them. They'd never burn right the way she was stuffing the wood into there, a fire needed some room to breath, and they needed kindling or something to really get things started.

Then Alice snapped her fingers and there was a warm burst of black flame that washed up from below the fire. A moment later those flames faded and far more ordinary flames remained.

Vasilisa blinked as she felt the fire's warmth against her skin.

"You can make fire," she said. It wasn't even a question at this point.

"It's more of a cantrip than anything," Alice said. "Fire isn't my thing, really, but I can manage a little."

"Ultra would be disappointed to hear that," Crystal said as she returned. She had found something. A pretty large metal lunch box. She set it down, revealing a few cans of saury and a couple of baggy green packets. She fished one out and flipped it over to read the instructions on the front. "It's an... MRE? Says it's three meals! And these cans have little fishies on them that are apologising!"

Alice looked over, then rolled her eyes. "Saury, not sorry."

Crystal giggled. "I know, I know. Anyway, here." had handed the lunchbox to Vasilisa who held it for a moment before setting it down next to her.

"Um, thank you," she said. Hesitantly, she reached for one of the MRE packs and then fumbled it open. There was a box within, and in that box were a dozen or so smaller packets. Salt and pepper, lots of sugar packs, a few packs for powdered drinks. She found a small metal disk thing and some white tablets within with instructions on how to use them to heat up the more metallic meals.

Vasilisa's stomach rumbled at the sight of food, even pre-packaged lowest-bidder food. She found a sachet of some sort of apple sauce and then opened it with her teeth. It went well with one of the dry crackers.

"Are you going to eat?" she asked when she saw the girls settling down around the fire.

"No, it's fine," Alice said. "We don't need it, and it's best to save the supplies we do have for now."

"Ah, okay," Vasilisa said. After a few bites--the apple sauce disappeared quickly--she managed to get the little cooking system working. It was enough to get one of the meals warmed up.

Beef and barley. It looked like something she might consider feeding a stray cat, and the plastic spoon that came with the pack broke on it, but it tasted... somewhat better than it looked.

"So, did you want to talk?" Alice asked.

"Hey, let her finish her food first, then maybe give her a chance to sleep? We can talk in the morning," Crystal said.

Vasilisa nodded. She was thankful for that much, at least. Though she had doubts about her ability to sleep.

***