AN: Hello all, It's been a bit since you last heard from me! It's because I've been working on this idea of mine! Enough time has passed and now it's ready.
Thanks to Spartacus400 on /r/RWBY for beta reading.
Disclaimer: RWBY is a product of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. All characters are owned by Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC.
What the Days Have Come To
She grunted. She pushed up against the rubble. The old piece of concrete was barely moving an inch. The girl looked up, checking her surroundings for any of her team. Across the yard, she saw her sister, hefting a chunk of metal. She waved for her sibling, calling out for her. The other girl stepped over the barren wasteland and set down her load.
"What is it, Ruby?" Yang asked.
Ruby glanced up at her sister, sighing. She missed being able to look at her sister and see her brown vest and those black shorts she always had wore. Now, it had been replaced by a silver, one-piece, thermal suit with an oxygen tank strapped to her back. Lilac eyes stared down through a foggy visor, attempting to read the shorter girl's emotions.
"This piece of concrete won't budge…" Ruby pointed the large slab of man-made material.
Yang pressed her shoulder to the rubble, gesturing for her sister to aid her. Together they heaved the concrete off from the pile of debris. It fell to its side and crumbled into small pieces. Peering down at what they had uncovered, the youngest carefully leaned down and gently picked up the broken girder.
Ruby fumbled with the heavy metal, "Is that iron?"
"Looks like it…" Yang took a glimpse at the sky, "We should start to regroup with the lorry. They should be heading back down soon, come on." She lifted up her small gallery of irons and steels. Her boots were already making knew prints; she was eager to finish this run. Though Ruby wasn't as in a hurry as her sister, taking her time to prop the girder under her arm. Copying Yang's actions, she looked up at the sky. A beautiful deep shade of blue signaled the day was coming to a close. A small red sun hung over the dull horizon.
Beginning her stride, the frozen earth threatened to crack her feet. She followed her team member through the abandoned streets. Most of the infrastructure had fallen apart. The remaining buildings of the town were on the brink of collapsing under their own weight. Fallen rubble had made strolling through the avenues tedious and exhausting. It was as if she was making her way through a warzone. Only she wished it was a warzone. A war is something a planet could recover from eventually.
This was the edge of Vale. The scavenge teams dared not enter the main city yet, fearing it still too unstable. It was decided that the teams would work their way in as time went on, giving time to let technologies evolve to allow for easier scavenge runs. But at the current time, no technologies have been produced yet to survive the temperatures, except for simplified astronaut suits and the lorry.
The sun was just over the horizon by the time they reached the elevator, or as the rest of the scavenge teams appropriately nicknamed it: The Hellevator. There, waiting by the lift platform, was the lorry and the other members of the team. The two sisters deposited their findings into the lorry and joined two of their friends leaning on a safety railing.
"I hate coming up to the surface…" Pyrrha spoke to Ren as they approached.
"Hey, guys," Yang greeted, trying to be as cheerful as possible, "How'd you do this run?"
Ren looked up from the dirt, "We did okay."
"We each collected about twenty-three kilograms." Pyrrha detailed, "What about you?"
"I got twenty-seven, I don't know what Rubes got." The blonde turned to her sibling.
Ruby sighed, gazing out into the distance, "...Eleven…"
"It's okay, Ruby…" Yang patted the girl's back.
'It's not okay,Yang.' Ruby thought to herself as the Hellevator rose to the surface and opened its doors, 'It's not.'
The lorry and the scavenge grouped up inside the freight elevator. Its heavy doors shut and sealed metal box air-tight. They felt the lift move down one story and stop, hearing the surface gate close up while the gate beneath made from for the elevator. After the transfer from the surface to the underground, the lift continued its trek. As they went deeper, the air in the room heated up to habitable temperatures.
Yang noticed her sister blankly staring at the floor, "Ruby...are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." She lied.
They felt the Hellevator stop. They were home. New Mountain Glenn.
Blake watched the surface elevator touch down into the city as she dug her hoe into the dirt. She looked over to the sweaty Weiss, "Scavenge team is back."
"Uh-huh…" Weiss panted out, doing as the faunus did with her own cultivating tool.
Blake sighed and heaved her tool again, "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine." Weiss said without breaking from her work.
"Are you sure?" Blake raised a brow
Weiss sighed and shook her head lightly.
"You're still worried about them, aren't you?"
Weiss wet her lip, "Blake, it's been two and a half months since the incident," She glanced at the surface elevator, "And we still haven't heard from any of the other kingdoms. The Grimm have disappeared. And we still don't understand how this even happened…" Her fingertips rubbed her forehead, "So, yes, Blake. I am still worried."
Finishing her sentence, the sound of something blunt hitting the dirt diverted their attention. They peeped over their shoulders to see a familiar blond, exhausted and fatigued, limp on the city's fertile soil. A orange-haired girl quickly dashed to his aid, standing him upright and dusting off. Her eyes searching for any authorities that spied her friend's tumble. She took him by the shoulders and shook him into consciousness. He was handed his heavy bag of seeds and tiredly returned to work.
Blake wiped her sticky forehead and gazed up the giant ultraviolet heat lamps. A gritty, unpleasant buzzing resonating off it.
"I wished the turned off the lamps when we worked." Weiss commented.
"We both know that'll never happen," Blake said plainly, "They never turn off the lamps."
Blake was ultimately right. The lamps and everything else in the city was powered around the clock by multiple dust reactors. These dust reactors were fed fuel all hours of the day by the smelters.
Six groups of people exist in New Mountain Glenn. Four of them are the major laborers; smelters, miners, cultivators, and the scavenge teams. The other two weren't very labor demanding, but they were needed none the less; merchants and the police. The police were very strict. How could anyone blame them though? In their current condition, they needed everything to be as orderly as possible.
But that doesn't mean everything is orderly.
They passed by cracking concrete buildings as they moved down the main road. A nearby woman cried out for help as she was presumably robbed. Some random man was regurgitating in the streets while another was beat by a group in an alley. The aroma of human and faunus waste filled the air. Nobody cared. This was just how life was in New Mountain Glenn, dirty, scummy, and hellish. Everyone was either fatigued, sick, or dying. And everybody knew that.
A silver boot stepped into a puddle of murky water, pulling along the treated metal cart. Street-goers divided to let the lorry and its workers pass through. Their heads bowed in respect as the scavenge team made its way through the city. Scavenge team members were usually honored and treated very kindly. The citizens believed that over the hard working cultivators and over the sweating miners and smelters, these workers obtained the most difficult profession.
This was widely believed not because it was a the most labor demanding job, but because it was the most depressing. The scavenge teams had the task of returning to the surface and scraping up any usable metal they could find. Every run they performed, they had to step through the destroyed city in which they spent their days. Make their way past the rubble of their homes. Rip up buildings they had fond memories of and dig through people's homes. And they must walk through the cold under that red star.
Their captain, Oobleck, took the lead. A meter behind them were Yang and Pyrrha pulling the metal cart carrying a couple hundred kilograms of iron, steel, bronze, silver, and gold. Ruby and another member stood on the inside of the lorry to keep a watchful eye on the stability of their cargo. Two more pushed the back of the lorry as Ren coned off the rear from the crowd.
The redheaded member across from Ruby scowled as his olive eyes scanned his surrounds, evaluating his situation. This man had repeated that same growl, everyday at the same time since they were assigned to this job. This wonderful gentleman was none other than the infamous Roman Torchwick. If the world was the same as it used to be, these two would have been at each others' throats. But times had changed in a drastic turn for the worst. They both understood circumstances that civilization faced and they both understood if they wanted to fight one another again they had to live through this frozen hell first. And play nice while they do it.
This is what they did every week after they returned from a scavenge run. They would take the cart and their findings through the underground city until they reached the far side. Once there they'd dismount and allow the smelters to take control of the lorry. The smelters would empty the lorry, melt down the metals, and send the lorry back to the scavenge teams' base of operations to be readied for its next run.
Upon approaching the gate to the smeltery, two familiar faces stood waiting for them. The blond faunus on the left pounded the door.
"Open up! The lorry's here!" He announced. The gate's lock clanked unlocked, allowing the large doors to sluggishly swung in.
His blue haired friend stepped up to Oobleck, "We'll take it from here!"
Their captain turned back to his team, "Disembark! Regroup in the HQ for the assessment of the next operation!"
"Yes, Sir!" The team called back.
Ruby jumped down from her perch and met with her sibling.
"Come on, let's get out of these suits." Yang pulled Ruby along.
Ruby reclined into her seat, her tired arms resting on the table. She struggled to keep her focus steady as Oobleck went on about their next run. On the chalkboard behind him was a rough, hand-drawn map of Vale and New Mountain Glenn. Red chalk circled points of interest and yellow lines drew a restricted area. To the right of the crude map was another blackboard that listed instructions, estimated time frames, equipment needed, and of course at the bottom in big, bold, capital letters-
IF YOU FALL BEHIND
YOU CAN AND WILL BE LEFT BEHIND
The ex-professor picked up his red chalk as he spoke and marked a large circle on the map. Ruby's heart sank as she saw where the man had noted. He had circled Beacon Academy. Of all places, that was the place Ruby never wanted to return to. It was where her best days had been spent, it was where she made true friends, it was where she stood when the world came to an end.
Returning to Beacon would only bring memories of the times she could no longer go back to and bring depression and anger along with it. Unfortunately, that case was in her job description.
"It'll be at least a five hour hike up to Beacon Academy. Once there we will split into four groups of two. Ruby and Yang," He pointed to the respective members, "Pyrrha and Ren, Yatsuhashi and Torchwick, and Sage and I. We will scavenge the Academy for any metals, Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, and Ren will take the dorms, and Yatsuhashi, Torchwick, Sage and I will take the rest of the school. We will stay for as long as we can and then return to the surface elevator. It will be a longer run than usual, so I recommend bringing an extra oxygen tank." He paused, "Does everyone understand?"
The group of people gave a, "Yes, Sir"
"Good. Prepare yourselves. We will be performing this run on the first day of the new month. You are dismissed"
Ruby stood up and made way through the door, Yang following close behind her.
Yang caught up a placed her hand on her sister's shoulder, "Let's head home and grab some things, then we'll go to the market. Okay?"
"Okay…"
Every person they passed, who saw their cobalt jumpsuit, bowed their head gently in respect. Ruby hated the small homage. It outcasted her, isolated her in a time where what she needed was another person's love. It was no matter if it gave her honor. What good was honor in a destroyed world?
She sighed and scaled the concrete apartment complex to the second floor. Her fingers reached for the door handle when she noticed the door had been busted open. Taking up a defensive stance, she looked back at her sister. She carefully pushed the door open without a sound. Fear ran through her veins, her heart pounded into her ears, adrenaline shook her frame.
The door creaked open to Weiss, hovering over an unconscious Blake, who was bleeding from her scalp. The Schnee sat next to the bed, gently wetting the fauns' forehead and washing up the crimson stain. A worried glance was exchanged between the trio.
"What happened?" Yang darted past Ruby.
"We got back from our shift and when we got here we found that someone had broken in," Weiss explained as Yang moved to the closest, rummaging through its contents, "Blake fended him off, I was too exhausted to fight. He got a good punch on her and knocked her unconscious. That scared him off though…I don't think he had the chance to steal anything..."
Yang located a satchel and tossed it over her shoulder, "We'll check later, Ruby and I are going to the market, you need anything?"
Weiss shook her head, "I should have everything here to help her…." Her azure eyes shifted. She exhaled and turned to Blake.
Ever since the incident, the bond between the black and white pair had grown much, to the point of inseparability. Maybe it was because they were both assigned to be cultivators or maybe it was just the current situation. Either way a link between them had be formed; you never saw Weiss without Blake nor Blake without Weiss.
The world has definitely changed.
"Four peppers, four tomatoes, and a handful of the green beans," Yang ordered at a barely stable booth. Ruby leaned on the stand's post. She craned her head up and surveyed the cave ceiling. Water dripped from the stalactites and onto the paved floor. Vale had discovered this giant cave under the Mountain Glenn subway system sometime back, it was theorized that it was the old hive of the subterranean Grimm that had wiped out the underground city. A small research station was set up on the surface that would send scientists into the hole for further research. It was a small, but significant discovery. But no one thought it would become Vale's safe haven.
New Mountain Glenn was built up in a few weeks due to the nonstop labor of its civilians. It wasn't as if they had another choice, not when the surface was freezing. Once the infrastructure was set up, citizens were assigned new jobs. Ruby and Yang were two of the sixteen 'lucky' people to be selected for scavenge crew. So, now this is what they live in.
This is what the days had come to.
Wake up, work, survive, eat, sleep, repeat. Wake up, work, survive, eat, sleep, repeat.
"Why are we still doing this, Yang?" Ruby piped up.
"Huh?" Yang looked over as the man behind the booth arranged her request.
Ruby sighed, staring at the wet concrete ground, "What's the point...of...doing this anymore…We can't fix this...we're stuck down here…"
"Ruby!" Yang was shocked. Her little sister was usually the one carrying the team through these rough times, if she was thinking like this, something was very wrong.
"What?"
"You know why we do this…" Yang looked over her sibling, "We do it to survive…"
"Yeah...but…why?"
Yang slid a bottle of liquor to the vender and shoved her items into her satchel as she approached the red girl. She slung an arm over Ruby, "Well, Ruby…" She searched for a string of words, "It's because we're...people...And that's what people try to do; survive."
"Get your bowls." Yang commanded, spreading out their 'meal' onto the tiny table in the center of the room.
Weiss scurried to the shared tin nightstand to gather her and Blake's dinnerware. Transitioning the bowls to the table, she filled them both with their given rations. She turned back to the bedridden faunus and set their meals down. A swift movement unsheathed her pocket knife. A worried look drifted over to the weakened girl as she diced the pepper, small slits of amber meeting her gaze. Weiss passed the food to Blake in an almost parental gesture.
"Eat…" Weiss ordered, not beginning on her meal until the girl nibbled on her dinner.
Ruby opened the closet to retrieve her bowl, which sat with the rest of her belongings. Lifting it up, she caught a glimpse of her old black and red outfit, resting on a hanger. She reached out a hand to nestle the fabric between her fingertips, sniveling to push down her emotions. She sighed and shut the closet, spinning on her heel. She looked at her team.
And donned the fakest smile she could muster up.
Love,
~Vox