Atticus Exit in 60km
The green sign hung above a four-lane road going into the continental heartland as a sleek black car cruised past underneath. It was a relatively arid and hilly region littered with countless succulent plants and the occasional passing tumbleweed, having a road snaking its way between the rocky earthen mounds. There were barely any cars on the road, save for a few quarry trucks carrying everything from rocks to well-contained Dust. The road itself was lined with some broken tires, a few abandoned pieces of furniture, the occasional animal skull and at least 1 freshly dead Grimm corpse. It was a generally boring drive for Yang, who drove for most of the way as Blake was a rather defensive driver and could only drive for an hour at a time before she gets tired. Tired enough that she was sleeping soundly on the passenger side, purring softly like a cat.
"Wake up Blakey!"
Yang rubbed her hand over Blake's head. The young Faunus slowly rubbed her eyes and stretched, letting the dry wind outside weave over her freshly woken face. The car windows were down in order to let air in and lessen the load on the car engine, which could easily overheat in the desert sun. Yang had ridden enough times in dry environments to know that having a breakdown in a place like this would pose big problems, as one wouldn't find an auto shop for miles. They had, in fact, stopped a few times to check and refill he radiator to make sure.
"… *yawn*… sorry… we're close?"
"Less than 60km to go. We should be there in less than an hour."
Blake looked outside. They had been driving for about 5 hours already, having some of the lunch they packed in the car as there were no stops to be had to have a proper sit-down meal. It was 1pm with the sun just past its apex. The heat sweltered outside as Blake stuck her head out to have a better view of the surrounding lands. She breathed in as much air as she could, air much cleaner than the somewhat polluted air in Vale. The area was in fact a comparatively safe place to go out on unbeaten tracks, as being a mining area it was well patrolled by hunters and troops alike. For her, it felt like nothing much has changed.
"So… what's in Atticus?"
Blake sat back on her seat, her face looking towards the horizon in the distance.
"Nothing really. Just… the place where I was born."
"…"
Yang had decided that, with the look on Blake's face having one of relative disinterest, it was better not to pry any further. It was obvious that it wasn't something she wanted to talk about right now. Blake was the silent type, but was always willing to talk when she felt the time was right. For the time being, silence filled the car with Yang concentrating on the road and Blake staring off in the lands beyond as she reflected on the sights, sounds and smells of the place she once called home.
Within the next 30 minutes the car had made its exit, heading into what amounted to a mining town that looked somewhat larger than the typical mining town out in the wilderness. On entering the town through its paved but cracked and dusty streets, Yang felt like she went back in time. The houses were somewhat rickety constructs made of wood and stone with chimneys bellowing black soot. Almost all the men either held scrolls or the typical pickaxe that so characterizes miners. The women wore rather old-fashioned dresses that clashed with the hi-tech scrolls they were using. It was a glaring clash of the old and the new in a town that embraced technology while living in the style of the past.
This was the place where Blake was born.
Blake pointed them towards a small stone building near the middle of town that read "Visitor's Centre." It was a dusty but air-conditioned facility filled with mining tools on display, countless pamphlets about the history of the mining town and and even an old mining cart. At the information counter was a bell and a plaque that indicated the Schnee Company's ownership of the mines. Behind the counter was a an old man with a long beard reading a magazine. His hands were full of callouses and cuts, indicating he was most likely a miner in his younger days. He appeared too preoccupied with his magazine to notice the two girls.
"Excuse me? Sir?"
The old man put down his magazine and saw the young brunette looking at him. He spryly sprung back to his feet like a man half his age.
"Well lookey here haven't had a visitor in ages! You guys here for the mine tours?"
"Nope sorry. I'm here to visit a friend. She... She used to live around... Obsidian Lane I think? Is that place still around?"
The old man's right eyebrow twitched slightly at Blake's words.
"Obsidian lane huh... No one's lived there in... More than ten years I reckon. You sure that's where she lives? Nothing but old run down houses there. That place has a... History no one really likes to talk about."
"I haven't seen her in ages so I thought she'd be here. Wouldn't hurt to take a look."
"Well if you're set on going there, take the first left off the main road going down the opposite side of town, up the small hill. When you see the broken houses you'll know you're there."
"Okay. Thank you... Mr Crim."
The two bowed to the old man who tipped his hat at them as he went back to his magazine. Blake said the old man's name so softly that neither he nor Yang heard it.
"So Blake let me guess... Your old house?"
"Yeah..."
"But why would that place be-"
"You'll see."
Blake played up her poker face as the two got back into the car. On the way there Yang couldn't help but point out an observation that's been bugging her since they arrived.
"Blake... I just noticed but I haven't seen a single Faunus in the town..."
Blake sighed as she looked out the window, seeing a group of kids playing cops and robbers in an open field.
"Twelse years ago... There was an incident here involving the Faunus... But it would be better if I just showed it to y- hey wait!"
Passing by an old tree by the main road, Blake gestured for Yang to stop. Blake rolled down the window and looked towards the tree. The tree itself was so old it looked almost dead, with large crooked branches holding very few leaves. The leaves it did have were more yellow than green. It's trunk bore innumerable marks and scratches likely made by people over the years, so much that the bark had started to flake off.
"... Okay... Let's go..."
"Blake?"
"I'll tell you when we get there."
Yang let it slide as they approached the exit towards Obsidian lane. As they drove up the hill on a paved road that was so broken down it was more dirt than asphalt, Yang has started to see what the old man talked about. Both sides of the road were lined with either decaying husks of homes or complete piles of rubber. Each lot was overgrown with whatever was the equivalent of weeds in a desert, with various brown and green colored vines snaking around every crevice, broken beam and busted water pipe. The area was cluttered with broken bicycles, lawn mowers and a few cars. As the old man said, no one had lived on this road for years.
"This was the place where the Faunus in the town lived. This was where I was born and lived the first 5 years of my life."
Yang drove slowly, trying to let the reality of the place sink into her. She had always imagined Blake to be more of a city girl. She had a difficult time imagining that Blake lived almost in the middle of nowhere when she was a kid. Blake gestured her to stop about 10 houses down the road, in front of a broken down house that appeared larger than the rest. In comparison, the house looked less dilapidated than the others. It was a 2 storey house with a white paint finish that was now grey and black. The windows were broken and the porch above them had collapsed from the wood rot.
Blake got out of the car first and, surveying the area around her, took a deep breath before stepping up to the broken down porch. The floorboards creaked under her as she opened the crumbling door.
"I was born in this house, to a father who was a mine foreman and a mother who was a home maker. I was an only child."
They stepped into the kitchen littered with with rusting post and pans. A foul smell emanated from the refrigerator. On the breakfast table were 3 sets of plates and utensils, each with a pile of what appeared to be uneaten food that had completely rotted ages ago.
"Every morning we'd eat here before my father would go to work at the mines owned by the Schnee Company. My mom... She would kiss him goodbye after he patted me on the head. I would take my bike and go down to school. Heh... I guess you could say I lived a typical kid's life back then."
Exiting the kitchen they headed for the living room. Inside was a long broken TV with assorted family pictures on a shelf above it. The photos were fading but, taking a few of them by hand, she could still make out the faint images of her parents and her child-like figure. The rug in the room was all moth eaten and the couch was now more of a plastic frame than an actual couch.
"One day... My father came home early. Said something about how the Faunus workers were sent home early and that the human workers would clean up. Me and mom didn't really think about it much since he still looked as exhausted as he usually did. Plus it was raining that hard so we all went to bed after dinner..."
The two girls headed upstairs. The first room on the right had s small bed with a deflated and perforated mattress. The wallpaper had all but peeled off revealing the worm-eaten walls. On one corner was a old table and a broken mirror. On another corner a small cabinet with children.s clothes shredded clothes. In the middle of the room, a stuffed lion. Parts of the lion were ripped open with the stuffing hanging out. The left eye was torn off and part of the right ear was torn in half. The old thing was completely covered in dust. Blake stared at it for a while before picking it up and dusting it off.
"The next morning, during breakfast, a bunch of people drenched in rainwater that looked like my father's co-workers barged in the house screaming. Something about how some miners were locked down in the mine when the mine's water pumps were sabotaged. The men... They drowned. Only humans, no Faunus, because they all got sent home early that day."
The two headed back down the house, the steps still creaking loudly as they descended. Coming back out to the front porch, Blake gazed somewhat lifelessly at the other houses down the street.
"The men... They dragged my mother and father out the house. I tried to stop them but one of the men... He hit me with his club. All I could do was crawl my way out of as they trashed and smashed the house. Everything you saw... That was all their doing."
The two of them walked back to the car as Yang could barely even begin to comprehend the story that was being told to her. She could tell it was a story few people knew, and even fewer had the chance to be told from the girl herself.
"When I made it out of the house all I heard were screaming. Shouting. Crying. My neighbors... Like my parents they were being dragged out of their homes across this street. Children clinging to their parents. Houses being ransacked and some even looted. I... I saw one couple... They were shot in the head in their driveway..."
Blake closed her eyes as as a tear dropped down her left cheek.
"They... We were all dragged and stuffed on the trucks that were used to ferry mining equipment. We were driven down the hill in the middle of the downpour. I was with my parents. You could barely see 5 feet in front of you in the rain. It was on the way down that my mom... She pushed me off the truck and told me to run. Run. Run away and don't look back."
The two girls got back in the car. Blake was now more or less calm and Yang was still trying to digest what she was hearing.
"Could we go back to that tree near the center of town?"
"Yeah... So um... What happened next?"
The car slowly rolled down the dusty road to the base of the hill. Blake didn't even bother looking back.
"It took a while before I managed to get down the hill under all that pouring rain. I was still in my pyjamas and I was barefoot. When I got down I tried to sneak into town. I could see it. I could see some bodies at the fork in the road leading to Obsidian lane. Men, women, children. All Faunus. All dead. Some shot in the head. Some beaten so bad you couldn't recognize their faces. But... I did. I could tell."
Blake's voice trailed off as they passed that fork in the road. There was nothing there. No markers. No graves. Nothing. As if what had happened there was completely forgotten. Nothing to remember it by.
"I made to the center of town in the middle of the rain. It was there that I saw it. Two figures in the darkness, hanging with nooses on their necks. Like common criminals. And around them a mob. Shouting. Cursing. Some of them drinking and laughing. Like they had succeeded."
The two had arrived again at the tree.
"Blake... This tree..."
Blake walked towards the tree and, touching it's bark and placing her forehead on the trunk, knelt in front of it.
"Yeah... It was here..."
"How... How could they... Those fucking monsters!"
"Stop!"
Blake turned around to see Yang's hair go all golden red and her gauntlets locking and loading. Blake dashed for her arms and gave Yang a hug.
"Don't. Just don't okay."
"But they killed your parents. Faunus for God's sake!"
"I know. Nothing anyone could have done. They blamed the mine incident on us. Almost 50 humans died and no Faunus. No one really knew what had happened, if it was an accident or really sabotage. All i knew at the time was that the town took it out on us. Maybe i was too young to understand but... Yes I was angry and I was sad and everything. A whole torrent of emotion."
Yang revved up the engine as they began to drive back towards the visitor's center.
"I was 5 years old. Anyone would have started to hate but... I couldn't. Maybe because I was 5 and too young to know what it was. Maybe because I didn't want to. I didn't really know but even after all this time... I still don't harbor... Any hate. For any of them."
They passed by the visitor's center on the way out. The old man was locking up and getting ready to head home.
"Hate. The fact that you didn't, or couldn't, makes you a better person than all of those men. Combined."
"Yang..."
"Blake... I might be the last person who should be telling you this, given what people say about me and my temper but... I think you should..."
Yang rolled down the car windows and let the cool afternoon air inside. She hung her other arm out the window as she put the car on cruise control.
"My mother once told me, before she disappeared, that anyone can hate, but only few can forgive."
Yang made a loud sigh. This surprised Blake who looked at her. Surprise at the uncharacteristic sigh and the words of wisdom one doesn't really expect from Yang Xiao Long.
"I won't pretend to understand or feel what you've been through. I can however tell that it still weighs a lot on you and-"
"Yang, I have."
"What?"
The car drove back onto the exit and back to the main road. They were no heading back into the highway towards their next destination.
"I already have. A long time ago."
Blake flashed a reserved smile at Yang.
"Heh. Now that's the Blake I know. So... Off to the next stop?"
"Yeah. If we hurry we should make it there by night time. It shouldn't be too far. And... Yang?"
"Yeah?"
"It's not so much about forgiving them ..."
Blake's speech slurred as she once again started to fall asleep.
"Forgiving myself..."