"What do you mean you didn't find anything?" Boss' entire demeanor changed when Hana and The Wastelander returned. "Um, okay, maybe you don't understand how this works. I told you not to come back unless you found something. You don't come back empty-handed. Your run ends when you find something useful to us."

The Wastelander, of course, said nothing, leaving Hana to do all the explaining. All eyes were on her, with several Junkers crowding around in curiosity at the sound of Boss' angry voice.

"We were tired and hungry. We were out in that heat for hours. There was nothing out there."

Boss frowned. "Oh, you were tired and hungry? Well that changes everything."

"…Really?"

Suddenly one of Boss' gloved hands lashed out at her. She struck Hana in the face, knocking her backward. The Junkers around them hooted and howled as if they were school kids watching a fight.

To Hana's surprise The Wastelander immediately leapt in front of Hana, preventing Boss from landing any further blows. Boss scoffed. "You two have some bonding moments out there? Touching. Guess you had to be doing something while you were busy not finding shit for us."

Hana was still reeling at Boss' sudden change in personality. Or was it sudden? She had never really been nice to Hana, just decent whenever Hana went along with her leadership decisions. Maybe The Wastelander had been right in warning her about the Junkers.

When Hana didn't respond to her jab, Boss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, it was your first time. You're young. Maybe you're a little stupid. I don't know." She turned back around and leveled The Wastelander with a glare. "What's your excuse?"

The Wastelander stood tall even under Boss' scathing glare. The clear lack of intimidation on the older woman's part evidently irritated Boss. With a huff she reached for The Wastelander's gas mask, presumably to pull it off. The Wastelander's hand shot up and caught Boss' arm in a tight grip before she could even get close. Boss' eyes widened for a moment, but she quickly masked her surprise, instead yanking her arm back and scowling.

"Do better next time," was all she said before walking away.

Hana touched her cheek where Boss had struck her. No one had ever hit her before. The roughness of Boss' glove must have sliced her dried-out skin, for it stung like an open cut.

The Wastelander beckoned for Hana to come with her. Not sure what else to do, Hana ducked through the crowd and followed her all the way to her cell.

Once inside, The Wastelander sat Hana down on her cot and pulled a makeshift curtain made of various fabric scraps across the bars of the cell, obscuring them from the rest of the Junkers. She retrieved a small jar of something from one of the pouches at her side. Taking a seat beside Hana, she slipped one of her own gloves off, revealing a weathered brown hand underneath. Hana held perfectly still as the woman dipped her fingers into the jar, covering two fingertips in a balmy white salve, and then gingerly dabbed at Hana's wound with them. Hana winced at the brief stinging sensation that followed, but she did not dare pull away or complain. The woman rubbed the solution into the cut until the stinging subsided.

"Um, thank you?" she said as The Wastelander slid her glove back on and quickly pocketed the salve. "I don't understand why you're helping me, or if you're even helping me, but…"

"You should not stay here." The Wastelander turned away from her. Her hand lowered from her face, holding her mask. Hana was curious to see what she looked like beneath it, but she did not attempt to.

"There's nowhere else to go. Everything else is just…wasteland."

The woman moved to glance out the tiny window of the cell. Of course, being dark out, there wasn't much to see. Not that there was much to see out there in the daylight, either. "I cohabited with the Junkers in an attempt to blend in. To hide myself." She turned slowly toward Hana. In the dim light Hana could just make out the woman's face – she was correct in her assumption that the woman was old, but she wore her age gracefully, like a badge of honor for surviving so many long years. A tuft of pure white hair poked out from under her hood and covered one eye, which Hana noticed was shielded by an eye patch. Her one uncovered eye had a twinkle to it, almost a mischievous sort of gleam. Beneath that eye she had some sort of tattoo. "You don't have to hide yourself like I do."

"What are you hiding from?" Hana lowered her voice, mindful of potential listeners beyond the curtain.

The woman smiled sadly. "The entire world."

Hana went quiet as the woman sat down at the far end of her cot. After a long silence the woman finally spoke again. "My name is Ana, by the way."

"Oh. I'm, uh, Hana." Hana laughed a little. "Close."

Ana nodded. "If I may, how old are you, Hana?"

"Nineteen."

"Ah. You truly are a child. I'm sorry you were forced into this kind of world so young."

"Oh, it's not…that bad…" Hana shrugged. "I mean, who needs to finish uni or anything, right? No student loans!" She forced a small laugh.

Ana stood back up, facing away from Hana once again. "I won't be staying here much longer," she said. "I would advise you to consider other options as well."

"Like what, though? I don't think any other countries want to set foot in Australia to look for survivors. Where else can I go?"

"DVa?" Both Hana and Ana froze at the voice echoing down the hall. "Deevs? Where are ya?"

The two women exchanged a brief look. Ana quickly reaffixed her mask, then gestured for Hana to go. "Thank you," Hana whispered as she pushed the curtain aside and snuck out the cell door. Ana simply nodded at her.

The second Hana emerged from Ana's cell, Junkrat began hopping over to her. "Oi, I thought you didn't make it back! Why didn't ya come find me earlier?"

"Sorry, I…" She trailed off, unsure of what to say.

The moment Junkrat reached her he immediately locked on to her gradually-blackening eye. "What happened to yer eye, mate? Somebody pop you one?"

Hana looked around. At this time of night the base was fairly quiet. Hopefully no one was spying on them. "Can I talk to you somewhere private? Like, outside maybe?"

Junkrat looked confused. "Uh, okay. Sure."

Five minutes later they were just outside the prison's front entrance. Hana beckoned for Junkrat to lean in close, so she could whisper to him.

"Do you feel safe here?" was the first thing she decided to ask him. He drew back, scrunched up his face for a moment – then burst out laughing.

"Safe with the Junkers? Mate, someone here'll kill ya for lookin' at 'em wrong. You couldn't find a bigger band'a bastards around. So to answer your question, nah, nobody's safe here."

"So why do you stay?"

Junkrat shrugged. "They like havin' me around as the explosives expert. Any chance to make things a little more explodey is a good deal to me." He started to cackle before Hana quickly shushed him. He fell silent and waited for her to formulate her next thought.

"…Boss punched me in the face earlier."

"Oh, so that's where you got that shiner. You come back empty-handed or something?"

"I didn't know you had to bring something back. Neither did An – neither did The Wastelander. Boss never explained that to us."

"Well now ya know. So what's the problem?"

"The problem is I don't know if I want to stay in a group led by a lady who would punch a nineteen-year-old girl in the face?"

Junkrat stared at her for a long moment. Then he said, "You're nineteen? I had you pegged for sixteen tops."

She growled at him. He threw his hands up in mock surrender.

"Has Boss ever hurt anyone beyond just hitting them?" Hana asked. "I mean, like…"

Junkrat scratched his chin. "Um, I don't think so. My memory's pretty shit, though."

"What if she does it again?"

"Punch her back? I dunno."

"I'm not gonna get into a smackdown with the leader of the group that's giving me a place to eat and sleep."

"Aw, but that'd be hilarious!"

Hana punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow! Don't practice on me!"

"I guess I'll stay for now," Hana eventually said. "But if things go bad here, are you gonna stay?"

Junkrat hesitated. "I don't know. Guess I'd have to see what Roadie wanted to do."

Hana stared at him for a long moment. He stared back at her, growing visibly flushed at the awkward silence. Eventually she reached out and pushed him in the chest.

"All right, conversation over. Go be a weirdo somewhere else."

"Jeez, ya meanie." He hobbled over to the front door that they'd left propped open with a hunk of wood. He opened it wide as if holding it for Hana, but as soon as she approached he let it go in her face. She quickly yanked it open and chased him down the main corridor, Junkrat laughing madly the whole way.

"Hey."

Hana pulled her tired eyelids apart and lifted her head off the cot. In the darkness she managed to make out the silhouette of Boss standing outside the door of her cell. Hana remained silent, and lowered her head once again.

Boss was silent for a few moments as well. Then she said, "I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have hit you, you're just a kid. It's like…" She sighed, massaging her temples in apparent frustration. "I have to keep their respect around here. These guys, they don't want a leader. But they need one. And sometimes it takes stuff like that to get them to listen to me."

Hana curled up smaller on the cot. One hand drifted subconsciously to her bruised cheek.

"You know, I'm only twenty-two," Boss continued, filling the thick silence that grew between them. "I know I don't look it. People used to always say I looked 'mature' for my age. But I'm twenty-two. Was in my last semester of uni when all this shit went and blew up in everyone's faces." She paused, as if not sure where to go from there. When Hana still would not meet her stare, Boss said, "C'mon, woman to woman, or girl to girl, or whatever, hasn't there ever been a time in your life where you felt like guys didn't take you seriously?"

"I was a professional video gamer," Hana mumbled. "Nobody took me seriously."

"A professional gamer? Really?" Boss' tone changed, growing a little more lighthearted for a moment. Then she quickly reeled it back in. "Okay, video games are a notoriously male-dominated area. So you must know what I'm talking about. How hard it can be to be seen as an equal sometimes."

Hana shrugged, still facing away from her. "I guess."

The old metal of the cell door creaked as Boss must have leaned against it. "I feel like the Junkers can be something really good. Rebuild society from the ground-up, where everyone gets an equal chance as long as they've got the skills to make it out here. You're missing an arm or a leg? Your face was blown off in the omnium explosion? You can't form a coherent sentence because you've got radiation-induced brain damage? Doesn't matter, you can still be a valuable asset here if you've got knowledge or strength or stupid amounts of bravery." She dragged a hand down the bars, making a series of tiny metallic sounds. "I don't know. I guess I just like to think I'm doing something that's gonna matter in the future."

They fell silent for what must have been a full minute. Then, slowly, Hana rose from her cot. She approached Boss at the cell door. Boss seemed uncertain, but when Hana opened the door Boss did not shy away from her.

That made it all the easier for Hana to wind up and deliver a splitting face punch of her own.

Boss clutched her face as she staggered into the wall behind them and steadied herself against it. "Holy shit," she hissed between her fingers. "For a professional nerd, damn, you've got some strength behind those tiny fists."

Hana folded her arms triumphantly.

When Boss removed her hands from her face, Hana realized she was smiling just the tiniest bit. "So, are we even now?" she asked.

"Hmm. I guess so."

"Good." Boss started to walk past her, but then paused. "Um, thanks for hearing me out. I won't hit you again. Might have to yell at you, though. To keep up appearances."

"Then I guess I'll have to complain to everyone about how much of a hard-ass you are."

Boss' smile grew. With one of her gloved hands she reached up and playfully ruffled Hana's short, choppy hair. Hana knocked her hand away, but that gesture, unlike her last one, was not malicious in nature. Boss actually laughed a little.

"I'll let ya get back to sleep now. See you in the morning."

Hana rubbed her eye as she nodded at the other girl. "Night."

Of course, she didn't get to sleep for some time after that. Her head was filled with conflicting thoughts, concerns of who to trust and how much of herself she could truly expose here. She got a good gut feeling from that old woman, Ana. Maybe tomorrow she could get her to talk a little more.