บท 32: Sojourner, Pt 10
You dust off the welcome counter in the corner and lay out one of the rest stop's maps on top. The map itself isn't very technically accurate, and instead it has the general layout of the area around you. There are cute icons and images representing the various points of interest on it, such as hiking trails, nearby towns, and the rest stop itself.
On one side of the map is a localized view of the half-dozen hills, with that your rest stop at the southernmost hill. There's a couple of circuitous hiking trails that ring around and interweave between them, one of which is clearly harder than the other. In addition, there are a half dozen or so scenic stops along the two paths, no doubt to show off the beautiful forest in all its glory.
The other side of the map reveals a larger area in general around the rest stop, and marks a couple of towns and a small city beyond the forested hills you're in now. Cartoonish main roads link everything to each other in an interesting branching web, and a part of you wants to walk down all of them. Mostly because you're drawn to looting and scavenging whatever you can at every town around you.
You're practically drooling at the prospect.
Noir hops up on the counter and pads on the map, even as you're perusing it. She stops at the very center of your gaze, as though to commandeer it. When she gets it, she starts grooming herself.
You ready to go hunting yet? she asks. 'Coz I sure am.
"If you're wanting to hunt, why are you getting all spiffy?" you ask in response. "Trying to impress your prey or something?"
What? No. I'm cleaning up my own scent so they don't smell me coming. We're gonna need to clean up a bit if we wanna hunt properly.
"Oh. That makes a whole lotta sense. But you know, I can't exactly clean myself off. It's been what, a week since those rains? I haven't exactly had a bath since…"
Yeah, don't remind me. You're smelling kinda ripe.
"Thanks."
Well, there's a buncha washrooms in the corner over there by the entrance. Maybe that's got a shower?
"If it does, I doubt it still works. No way water's getting pumped up here, not without power."
Shame. In that case, we'll just have to absolutely stay downwind. Otherwise neither of us are gonna get to eat.
You certainly consider taking Noir up on her offer to go hunting, even though you're pretty tired from being on the road. Part of you wants to sit down. Another part of you wants a shower. Every part of you wants to go to sleep.
"Shouldn't we, you know, hunt at night instead? It's already getting close to noon. Plus I'm kinda worn out already."
Best time to go looking to be honest. There's squirrels out there, just asking to be taken down a notch.
"Didn't think you were so anti-squirrel."
It's the way their tails flick and wag. It's like they're taunting everything around them to pounce. Can't help it.
You feel her shrug, at least psionically.
But fine, she continues, to answer your question, we can put off teaching you until tomorrow. I'll go hunt for myself, you take a rest. We can go hunt together at dusk instead.
"Or maybe even at night," you add.
Possibly also at night.
Having cleaned herself to her satisfaction, Noir hops off the counter and slinks towards the door. She meows at you to let her out, which you do happily. Then you prop the door open all the way, because why not?
It being open allows more air to circulate, and for Noir to come and go as she pleases.
You then head into the relatively spacious washroom close to you. About a third of it is the toilet and sink area, where people can do their usual business in semi-privacy. Two toilets are behind closed doors, inside of booths. Across from them is one large and long sink with two water spigots and soap dispensers next to them.
The next third is some kind of dressing area, with a wide wooden bench in the middle and lockers along two of the walls facing each other. You peer into the lockers, but find that they're all relatively empty.
The final third is a couple of tiled semi-private shower stalls with shower curtains to keep out onlookers. You spin the shower handles easily, but nothing comes out, not even the groan of empty pipes. Not that you expect anything to come out in the first place. You just want to confirm it.
All said, everything in the washroom is relatively spotless and clean. You get the feeling that most of this has barely been used. Maybe the toilets and sink, if anything.
You then take everything off you - your hat, your poncho, bags, gun, boots, everything. You put them all in the locker area, though you just kind of pile them next to the wooden bench. No point in putting them in the lockers - there's no-one around you to take them. Besides, they aren't locked anyway.
You do take everything out of your cargo pants and put those contents in a locker though. Not to keep them safe or anything, but simply because it's too convenient not to.
You then grab one of your few remaining bottles of water and head towards the showers. There, you take off your undershirt and cargo pants, then dump them on the tiled floor right in the middle, and stand on them. Then, you pour some of that water on you, hoping to take some of that grime away from your body.
The sensation deeply satisfies you, especially when you pour some of that water into your hair to dampen it. There's nothing quite like the feeling of water spreading across your scalp and cleaning it. Even more as it drips down over the rest of your body afterwards. A sweeping sense of relief fills you as you wash yourself, as you take off layers of dried sweat and dust, as the week's hardships flow off your body.
You scrub yourself to some degree, especially around your swampiest sections, making sure to cover what you can with what little you've got.
Whatever water trickles down your body dampens your shirt and pants at the same time, allowing them to soak everything up. Though they pick up all the dirt, at the same time. Once you feel appropriately clean, you pick them back up and use them to help wipe you down.
Though you only get mostly clean, it's more than enough for you. You already feel fresher. And being this much cleaner only helps you go on that hunt tomorrow. At least, you hope so
You then soak up the last of the water in your bottle with your clothes, shake off what grime you possibly can, then wring them out as hard as you can muster. You do your best to clean them up, though without soap you're unsure just how clean you can get them. You suppose they're good enough, at least for now.
A part of you notes to keep an eye out for soap in the future. No doubt that's incredibly valuable these days, too.
Once you've got as much of the water wrung out as you can, you hang them up on the curtain rods to dry, then pad back over to your things. There, you grab an undershirt, underpants, and socks out of your backpack, then put them on with glee.
Doing so feels amazing, to the point that you realize that this simple act of being clean and putting on clean clothes is kind of a luxury. If you could bottle up this feeling and sell it, you'd be an instant millionaire. Well, if money still existed, anyway.
Or, hey, maybe you could transfer the feeling through your Surge, and maybe get something in exchange for that? That's definitely an idea to explore…
Then you roll out your sleeping bag on top of the wooden bench itself and lay down on top of it. A part of you wants to continue thinking about the day, about where you are in your journey, and where you could be soon enough. Plus how you could use your powers more effectively, not just to survive, but to live a fuller life.
But everything fades away as weariness takes over, and everything descends into dream.
…
The next thing you know, you wake up with a start, having seen Kaja once again collapse herself into oblivion. You grip your heart, unable to take the pain of it. A sheer pang of loneliness sweeps over you not long after, and you bury your face in your hands in an attempt to console yourself.
You try to rub the tears from your eyes, before they can come to the surface and leak out. Memories of Kaja flit in and out of your head, and you have to work hard to push them out.
Instead of lingering on her, you purposefully reach over with an arm and psionically tug your Old Coin from the locker nearby. You focus what you can into your budding Telekinesis in an attempt to pick it up. But the constant nagging from your memories makes it much harder than it needs to be.
With an exasperated sigh, you sweep everything away and clear your mind, then truly put everything you've got into picking up your coin. This time, it comes to you relatively easily. The coin itself clinks and clanks as you lift it up, then it slowly crawls towards you in the air.
And instead of plucking it to grasp it, you attempt to move it in front of you, then around you. Slowly at first, but speed up as you go along. It takes a great deal of your attention, and it's starting to make your head throb in pain.
But it's working. You're getting better at it.
More importantly, you're better able to rid yourself of the lingering effects of your dream. Though you'd usually be filled with a deep melancholy that often hangs around you for the rest of the day, your achievements with your Telekinesis instead leaves you with a more positive outlook.
You spin the coin a few times around you as you practice your Telekinesis, then ultimately put it back in the locker with the rest of your things. Doing so makes you feel much lighter, physically and emotionally, and so you pick yourself up off the bench and get back on two feet.
You reach out with your Scan, even as you stretch your body out. Almost like you're limbering up in every way possible. You feel your blood rush through your sleepy body, waking it more and more. At the same time, you note the numerous critters that are out and about near the rest stop, out in the wooded areas surrounding.
You can also sense Noir, who is out in the main area, lounging around lazily.
Then you pull everything back into yourself to get ready for the rest of your day. Or, rather, night. You sense that it's reaching dusk outside.
With your growing Telekinesis, you tug your cargo pants off the curtain rod and bring it towards you. Though your efforts are a bit labored, it eventually hovers over to you, allowing you to pluck it out of the air.
Though it's no longer sopping wet, it certainly still feels a bit damp here and there.
You put them back on anyway, especially since you don't really have another pair of cargos - something you need to correct at some point down the road. It feels a bit cold on your skin, though you're sure it'll eventually dry out once you get out in that musty heat.
Once you have it back on, you take everything back from the locker and stuff your pockets once again. You also ensure that your survival knife and canteen hang on your belt like always, and make sure to strap your pistol back on your thigh. Though you keep your katana in the locker - it's not like you're going to be hunting with it.
It suddenly strikes you that you're going hunting, but you don't have anything to hunt with. As in, how are you going to kill your prey? Noir can certainly kill her own prey, considering she's got physical claws. And Telekinetic claws now, too.
But you? You can barely move a coin and a pair of pants around with your Telekinesis. You're going to need something else to do your killing for you. You head out to the main area where Noir is, and bring it up to her almost instantly. What good would hunting do if you can't actually hunt?
"Hey, I'm about ready to go hunting whenever you are," you say. "But, um, I don't exactly know how I'm gonna kill anything. Should I use this gun?"
Noir turns her head towards you with wide eyes.
Gun? Absolutely not! If you fire that thing even once, you're gonna scare everything around us away. That's a no-go, captain.
Before you can respond, she half-sniffs in the air in your direction.
Ooh, you don't smell quite as bad today! Nice! That'll make things easier.
"Gee, thanks."
Noir then clambers back on four feet, then stretches out. She shivers a bit, as though she's resetting all her muscles, then she pads her way to the door out.
Anyway, don't worry about killing anything for right now. Just follow me and watch what I do. I'll try to break down how I hunt as much as I can, but ask questions if you need to. Quietly, anyway. We wouldn't want you to scare everything away.
The two of you then slink out the doorway and out into the darkening forest beyond.
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