Greetings travellers and thanks for reading this collaborative effort between Wandering Letters and myself (with thanks to our mutual fan and friend Jen Jen Yuki for instigating this particular brand of anarchy). I won't bore you with talk about mine and Mr. Letters' respective stories that led to a certain individual believing this would be possible; instead I'll say that, hopefully, if you liked either The Pelanoi Accounts or Finding The Haven then you'll find something to like in this as well.
Cheerio from both myself and Wandering Letters and, without much further ado, the first chapter of the story, contributed by Letters himself.
Scavengers
Chapter One – The World as we Know It
Diary Log #1: Nicholas Wilson It's been about a year since the biological bombing across the globe. The majority of what's left of humanity has fled to a group of islands towards the Western Hemisphere in an attempt to escape the T-Virus outbreak. I was still very surprised that despite the efforts of the BSAA to stop Neo Umbrella and bio-terrorists, the world has still reached the stage that everyone wished to avoid. Life is difficult in these harsh times where resources were limited and I knew I had to do as much as I could for my family here. I decided to pick up a job on the trade vessel that travels all over the archipelago in order to take better care of my mother and older sister. I had to say it wasn't going half bad for us either but my mother was in an accident a few months ago which fractured her right leg. I really didn't want her moving around but her maternal instincts just spat in the face of logic. At least I have Lisa to watch out for her whenever I was gone on trips with my best friend Oliver. Oliver's probably one of the only reasons why I can still keep my sanity; he came out of nowhere as if God himself was answering my need for someone besides my mother and sister. We started working on the vessel about eight months ago and were best friends from day one when he helped me with my loads. It's pretty damn tiring to have to load heavy shit all day but with him around, it's a heck of a lot more managable. Oliver unfortunately keeps trying to corrupt me with alcohol and women though it was mostly humorous to see his attempts. It's not that I'm not looking for love, it's that the one hasn't shown up yet and to be honest, I don't think there's much left after the T-Virus wiped out so much of humanity. Still... maybe there is someone out there… Anyway, Oliver and I have a meeting in an hour about that Scavenger team that just came in from a trip at our usual spot by the docks. Nick.
Diary Entry #8
August 20th 2013
-X-
One Hour Later
Nick
"Had a good sleep mate?" asked Oliver.
I nodded at him as I took a seat on a crate beside him.
"Scavenger Team just came in this morning from Canary," said Oliver.
"Really? Haven't been there since we pulled our boat in for repairs," I said.
"You know the score; our humble little vessel usually does the side jobs to all the other less fortunate islands," said Oliver, as if it were obvious.
"You have a point there mate," I said as I stretched my arms.
"You know they've requested to use our vessel to head back to Canary?" he asked.
"Yeah, Calvin told me about it a few hours ago," I said.
"Gonna join in?" he asked again.
"Yeah; I'm sure it'll be good to get a job to do for the capital; should mean the pay's a heck of a lot better," I replied.
Oliver nodded and took a gulp of his Samuel Adams Beer.
"What would you think of officially joining a Scavenger team?" I asked.
He was silent for a few seconds and took another gulp.
"I wouldn't mind being able to help out with things more than what we're doing now because it doesn't feel like we're making as big an impact as we possibly can…" he said measuredly, "but then I've heard it's brutal just getting accepted into their ranks, never mind actually getting on a team."
"Since when has something like that ever stopped us?" I said with an easy laugh as I gave him a brotherly smack to the arm and held it there.
Oliver chuckled.
"So you think we should go tell the captain down there?" I asked as I pointed at the man who was directing things to unload.
"Sounds like a plan mate," replied Oliver.
We rose to our feet and began to make our way to the vessel. Oliver paused for a moment and a very wicked smile appeared on his face. I suddenly heard some beautiful music from a wind instrument.
"Well now if it isn't your secret admirer," Oliver teased.
He pointed over to a pier and to my surprise, I saw an absolutely gorgeous girl holding what seemed to be an ocarina and playing it with immense skill. Her eyes were closed and I took a moment to absorb her features.
She had very long raven hair with subtle light brown highlights that was kept in a ponytail. She had a slender and curvy build but not like a supermodel's almost perfect figure but it suited her size well and her skin was a shade of brown just slightly higher than being pale brown. She was wearing a pair of shorts but not short enough to really show off her curves and a black tanktop. She had a jacket tied around her waist and the only reason I could fathom that she wasn't wearing it was because today was quite a hot day.
"You look like you saw an angel mate," said Oliver with a chuckle.
"This must be the Asian girl mom was talking about... how the hell have I never seen her before?" I asked.
"Because when you're working you enter tunnel vision," said Oliver.
I rolled my eyes as Oliver playfully gave me a noogie.
"I have no time for love... my family comes first," I said.
"Oh don't gimme that shit! You know it'd make your mother a completely different level of happy if you brought a girl like that home," he said.
I sighed deeply.
"You two kids gonna stand there and block the way or do you have business here?" asked a masculine voice.
I turned around to see the captain of the Scavenger team
"Oh sorry sir" I apologised, "we work on this vessel and we just caught wind of the request to head to Canary. That you?" I asked. The burly Scavenger captain nodded, then perked up as his head
"Ahh so you're the two kids Mr. Antoine was talking about, Nick and Oliver is it?" he asked.
I nodded in unison with Oliver.
"Splendid! Everyone is here...though we're in need of a cook at the moment because the trek to Canary Capital is a good ten hours and the other cook had an accident and fell off the ship," he said.
"Did you say you needed a cook?" asked a female voice.
I turned to see the same girl who was playing the ocarina, now with her jacket on.
"I can be the cook sir," she said.
Her voice had a slight Japanese accent but not enough to taint the English she spoke with obscurity.
"Thank you my dear! Everyone aboard because we're heading off soon," said the captain.
I quickly boarded the ship, trying hard to avoid the girl's gaze.
"Where are your manners mate? Introduce yourself!" Oliver demanded; his amusement all too obvious.
I turned around to face the two of them.
"Sorry... kind of shy," I said looking down and scratching my head.
I held out a hand.
"Nicholas Wilson," I said.
"Nicole Prester," she replied.
She shook my hand and gave me a shy smile. At that moment I realized she had violet eyes, a very uncommon eye color these days.
"I guess we better get settled in... long trip ahead of us," said Oliver.
I glanced awkwardly to Nicole before we boarded the ship together.
-X-
And there is the first chapter folks. Sign-up is standard procedure if you've read mine and Wandering Letters' stories, with a max of two unique skills allowed, no ridiculous weapons allowed and no 'Ace' characters. Added to the character creation list however is your character's Beliefs. Is s/he a Christian? Hindu? Atheist? Are they Social Darwinists or do they believe everyone should have an equal chance at life even in a world as cruel as the world they live in now?
Leave a comment, but be aware that this is a shared effort, so don't forget about Wandering Letters; he brought the very first chapter to you after all.