The next day they started to fall into a routine. Jeff would wake earlier than Vaeri and wake her. She then would go about her hygiene, as Jeff made a modest breakfast. They would then eat, Jeff would take care of his own needs and Vaeri would pack their things. They would then start to march. During the morning and marching they would talk about idle things, Vaeri would avoid prudently any talks about their pasts, so much so it became a void in their conversations. It still bothered Jeff but this way was much better and he slowly started to actually enjoy their conversations.

  Vaeri, as it turned out, was quite smart. Jeff himself was of course also smart, but she knew things Jeff had never learned. Which was an exiting development for him, as his normal experience was that he knew more than other people, even with all the things he kept from himself. Still, he could recognize how smart she really was, it was quite impressive considering the current state of education in the world.

  As they moved throughout the day they would stop only for the necessary things like bathroom breaks. Jeff had to stay especially conscious about Vaeri’s gender as he until now only ever travelled with men and had not a great instinct for personal space. Thankfully he avoided any obvious blunders, outside a single incident on day one where he went to gather water from the bubble, she chose to bathe herself from. Thankfully he arrived after she was already dressed.

  They ended the day with another meal, which Vaeri insisted on cooking. Either because she liked cooking or was just better than Jeff. Their ingredients stayed fresh Throughout their journey so their meals where never awful, but Jeff was glad about him only making breakfast.

  They travelled like this for a few days it took in total five rather than four days to reach the town. They were just crawling over a hill on the fifth day as when they laid their eyes on it.

  Brindgap was intimidating in its own way. The Town itself didn’t seem especially large from a glance, but its true size was hidden. The whole town was located on a has surface that made a small hill, rocks and sand made the smooth surface rough enough to walk upon, but Jeff had heard that early on people had trouble walking on the surface. The prevailing theory was that the city stood upon a giant hell of a being that came to be and died during the Pandemodium. It wouldn’t be the only such being. But Jeff personally thought it was unlikely because there had not been enough time to bury such a creature in the earth. More likely it was some twisted object, hardening the soil around itself forming a shell-like floor. The town covered most of the presumable shell, but one would be able to tell without walking near the city. It was by pure area, not very large. However, to the rear of the “shell” for the lack of a better word, arose a formation of rock cliffs, overseen a gentle incline of rock and soil on one side, and the city of Brindgap on the other.

  Unlike all other cities Jeff had seen, Brindgap had grown more vertically than horizontally. Which lend it it’s awe-striking feature. The city was built in three distinct parts, the first was hammered into the cliff, roughly 20 meters in height some of the towers anchored to it, reached the 15-meter mark, the highest buildings Jeff had seen, though from what older folk said it was still small compared to the giants of the pre Pandemodium times.

  The wall part of the city, with its high towers and beautiful views, was also the rich part, the leaders of the smaller groups of this zone lived there and did business. A steady stream of that business came from the stable connection to the Greylands even if it was inconsistent. The Rets from the distant Esher connection. Overall, this part of the city looked huge but was really mostly empty, most towers were filled with cargo elevators powered by the batteries and electricity gathered from the cliffside solar farms, that dotted the peaks of the cliffs.

  The second part and the part Jeff knew second best, because he had actually been in it, was the incline, smaller but still higher houses dotted the close surrounding of the Cliffside buildings, housing stuff like cargo, the wealthier folks and people working for the rulers of the town. It also housed the two clubs and the Brothel Street. Why a town of Brindgaps size had only two clubs but a whole street for brothels would be a mystery Jeff never wanted to explore. It was also there that he would have to go to get the crawler back, probably before going to Candy and the Rest because then he would have at least a chance to talk with them.

  Well, he didn’t sell the crawler only its engine so hopefully he could get the engine built into a new crawler too otherwise it would be quite useless. Though Jeff knew that this plan was unlikely to work. It would probably boil down to stealing it back.

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  Otherwise that the incline housed the few factories as well as some additional accommodations and luxuries Jeff never bothered to engage with.

  The last part of the town was low town, the buildings were squat, metal sheets, old vehicles that didn’t work anymore and the likes made up most “buildings”. Where ethe rest of the town looked good, even wealthy, lowtown looked just plain poor. It wasn’t really by modern standards, the camps were mostly poorer and had less amenities, still lowtown was kept low and housed the most people, workers for the few factories working or going out on mining expeditions. It also housed the seediest bar in Brindgap and Jeff’s probably first goal, not that he wanted to drink, he had not much experience with alcohol and didn’t want to repeat the once he did have.

  The bar was still his best shot at getting information aaaand the likeliest place he would run into Butch, which all in all would probably be a good thing, the guy was much less hung up on Jeff’s whole “I sold the crawler engine so we can buy better equipment and travel on foot” idea than Candy. Candy was right that a crawler was the only feasible way to go on much longer journeys but still.

  As it stood the “Bastards Call” where one tooth Brian worked was also the biggest gossip place in all of Brindgap, poor workers and servants drinking their paycheck and talking about all sorts of secrets. Plus if Jeff had the time he may finally learn why one tooth Brian was called one tooth, when he had only lost 2.

  “Wow that city is sure something”, came Vaeris surprised tone from Jeffs side. Her face showed she was at least moderately surprised at the sight of the city.

  “Yeah, it’s quite intimidating, especially when you consider the rest of the zone.”

  “How many people life in it?”

  “I honestly don’t know, probably ten thousand. Maybe twenty, it houses like three fifths of the population of the entire zone, I think. Some guy named Frederick runs the city.” Shit that was the leader of the mercs wasn’t it? Good to remember that snippet.

  “So many? I hadn’t thought so many people lived in this zone to be honest. How are they all kept fed? I don’t see many farms; they cannot use the Greylands connection for everything right?”

  She was right, the town normally relied a lot on the camps and other outposts to provide food, which now that Jeff thought about it more, did raise some serious questions why the leader of the city would kidnap the people feeding his town.

  “Well they normally get most food form the surrounding camps and Esher. I also think there are some Greenhouses in the city to grow some plants.” That also reminded Jeff about a rumor, sure the town imported a lot of food, but Kate once had done some calculations and realized the greenhouses produced more food than was strictly possible. The main issue that tipped her off was, however, the amount of meat the town had. Better not to mention that information, no need to worry Vaeri they would hopefully not stay long enough to eat that mystery meat … better not thinking about it like that again.

  “Hu, sounds interesting we don’t have Greenhouses at home, weather and soil were good enough to just grow food normally, that and the fact we didn’t have season meant food production is not really an issue. Still, we don’t have a city like this one.”

  “Probably because you have it so good, no need to band together, the camps around here are mostly scraping by and don’t really do too well, Diegos Camp was on the better end of that spectrum. Most people live in Brindgap because they have to, not because they want to. And do you not have factories at home? No town at all?”

  “No but my Mom said I shouldn’t talk too much about home and the more I see the more I get it.”

  Curious, but Jeff didn’t like other pocking into his no talking topics, so he did the one decent thing to do in that situation and dropped the topic.

  “Well let’s go, we need to visit a bar and get some information and then I need to find a crawler engine I sold. After that we have to get some friends of mine.”

  “Wait a bar?”, Vaeris tone was shocked, and there was a tone of disbelieve.

  “Ahh yes is that a problem?”

  “Will they even let us in? I mean we are underaged!”

  Well at least her home seems to have some sense, if Jeff’s father was to be believed. Brindgap did not have such sense and as such, confusion was the only answer Jeff could muster. That confusion being evident, a slight blush crept up Vaeris face as she realized she ahd said something quiet ridiculous for the location she was in.

  “I mean they probably shouldn’t now that you mention it but around these zones I don’t think I ever met someone who cared. They will give you alcohol regardless of your age. Well not too young children that mostly just leads to trouble.”

  “Ah ok”, Vaeris tone made it clear she was not a fan of the notion but also accepted that this was how things were around here. She didn’t need to like it just get through it. Well same went for Jeff really, he did not like the bar, drunk people or being drunk, well mostly it had been fun like once. Maybe twice. He had only ever drunk with Butch and Kate, Candy was not a fan of alcohol, which Jeff soon agreed. He only ever got drunk three times and after the third he decided to not repeat that again. That and he really didn’t care for the alcohol from this zone. So best avoid the drinks and just get in and out as quickly as possible.