Scavengers [Mido]

Mido has spotted the fog rolling in from his rather high vantage point, they'd done a fairly good job of securing the area, to make sure none of those things would catch them off guard, but it wasn't just creatures that they had to fear. He already knew that Jessica would be radioing him soon enough to warm him, so he didn't waste time adjusting the gear on his back to start climbing the long way down. He liked climbing up high, the vantage point nearer to the apex of some of the large, forgotten machines was sometimes fruitful in that not as many wanted to risk the climb.

As if on cue however, Mido heard his radio and pulled it out, smiling as he heard the voice, "I noticed, I'm heading down now, give me...Ten minutes. Over." He chuckled softly as he slipped the device away and focused on climbing, touching his feet to the ground five minutes later with a slight puff.

It took him another five minutes to pick his way back to Jess, and when he did he laughed and pointed up, "I was up. On the big one, I found a few good pieces up there." He looked around him now to take in the fog, "you weren't kidding, I can't see around me hardly...I hate it..." There was an anxious edge to his last words and he looked over at her, "are we good to head out?"

Jess waited a bit anxiously, and actually startled slightly when Mido's tall form seemed to just appear in front of her, stifling down a slight yelp.

She peered upwards to the hulking shape ahead of them, all the way up at the top some distance from the ground. "Oof. You're braver than me!" She grinned, there was a lot she was willing to do but the heights, they weren't her thing. "You might be onto something there though, we've cleaned out the lower stuff pretty well."

"Yeah, lets get out of here. I'll feel better back in the car." She admitted. She picked her way back to the road, they were often quiet lately, only used by a handful of route-runners, or those that passed through, heading out into the wastes. She clamored up the side of the embankment, with a short jump she caught the edge of the bent and twisted guard rails and pulled herself up and over to them. The station wagon was right where they left it, parked on the shoulder.

"You wanna drive back?" She called to Mido as she unslung the rifle and set it behind her before climbing in. "I wanna take inventory of what we got here." She set her bag carefully at her feet and reached out to take his as well to look through.

He chuckled as he followed her gaze to the imposing form that dominated the horizon, "I was only about five minutes up. Might go higher next time." He tossed a glance at her, "yeah, most people don't want to bother going up there." He shrugged as he followed her back down the way to the road, "but a climb like that isn't really anything for me...Might as well take advantage of it, eh?" He laughed, keeping his tone rather soft to keep their location fairly concealed, just in case.

He was always relieved to come back and find their car exactly where they left it, as there was always a chance of that not being the case, "yeah I hear that, even better when we get back to the settlement..." He glanced up and gave a nod when she asked if he wanted to drive, passing his bag over to her as she stowed away his weapon in turn, climbing into the driver's side and starting it up once he was sure she was settled.

"We might have to move on soon...Picking are getting slim around here, aren't they?" He glanced over at her briefly before turning his attention back to the road, "find a new area, secure it, hope that that one hasn't been picked over too..." He chuckled, "wonder which way we oughta go next..."

Jess took the extra moment to make sure the door was locked, just to be sure, before she started to dig into the bags, laying items out along the deep dashboard in front of her after holding them up and peering at them with a practiced eye.

"Oh, this one's nice...good find." She held up a piece in perfect condition, setting it aside from the others.

"Well, I mean, a few of our further out places aren't as picked over, but yeah I think this one's pretty much done. I mean, sheet metal collection, sure, but we don't have the tools for that." She held up another piece to look over.

"So we started east, right? So I'd say go west a bit further, see where that takes us. Could go south or north too, but it's getting a bit late in the year to go north I think. Getting fucking cold." She glanced over at him. Once snow started covering everything, pickings got slim. Some people still lived up there year round, but they were the sort to grimly shut themselves in and hold on tight until the thaws. And they really were on their own, as only a handful of the runners would head to places like that when it got too bad, it was just too much risk otherwise.

"What d'ya say? Try and winter down south this year?" She suggested.

Mido listened closely to her as he kept his eyes on the road, giving an appreciative smile at her praise, then looking thoughtful, "yeah, shit can be hard to transport anyway." He laughed, keeping his eyes out and alert for any sign of trouble as they drove back. He didn't think they would run into any trouble, the roads seemed mostly quiet and he figured not many people would want to brave this fog to try and drive through, but the brights on the car and careful attention made him confident that they would be fine doing so.

"Yeah North is a definite no." He mused, glancing to the side, "we still don't have the kind of equipment and clothes to survive long out there in the winter. It's twice as dangerous picking anyway with ice..." He glanced over at her with a smile at her suggestion, nodding, "South sounds like a good direction to head in, and we haven't been that way much at all, bound to be some good pickings there!" Assuming others like them hadn't cleaned them out, but he doubted it.

"Not to mention more risk of damaging stuff picking it out of the ice. Or just the fact I fucking hate the cold and don't wanna do it." She stuck her tongue out in his direction a bit teasingly.

"Hey, and if we don't find good stuff immediately we just keep going. It's a big country, it can't all be gone." She laughed, but there was still a bit of anxiety deep in her stomach at the thought of going too far. They weren't the reconnaissance sort, the ones who went deeper and farther, handling threats and reporting on any settlements, or the fate of those settlements. There was risk in what they did, but...high risk, high reward, right? She hoped so.

"So, take a few days, trade some of this off for supplies then head out? Don't think there's too much rush, unless it looks like bad weather is gonna sock in and make us stuck here for a while. Of course, we should also keep some of the good pieces to trade in new places too. Y'know, show them we can get the good shit and make them more wanting to deal with us."

It was all a balance, a game. Get enough for yourself, give enough to prove your worth, hold back enough so that they came back to you again, don't show too much so someone just kills you for your stuff. It was exciting, but at times also exhausting.

Mido laughed and glanced to the side, "yeah I'm not to eager to freeze my balls off either. So South suits me perfectly." Maybe it'd be less fog and more sunlight, he was getting sick of fog and clouds, it was a rather depressing atmosphere to be stuck in as long as they'd been here.

He had an ambitious spark in his eyes, "if only we had a good boat." His voice was a tad distant as he pondered the thought, "the places we could go...The things we could find..." He shook the thought away, "not worth the trouble, but still a nice thought." He smiled and looked over at her, "I'd like to get together some better climbing gear though, I just know we'll strike a proverbial gold mine getting up higher." It was risky, if he fell and broke something they'd be fucked, but that only meant he couldn't fall and break anything.

"sounds like a plan, Chief. I know we got a few really nice finds, enough to surely gain us favor wherever we end up." He squinted and chuckled, "looks like we're almost there, it'll be nice to rest..." Even if it would only be brief, any rest was good rest.

Jess carefully put all the items away again, tucking the bag into the back seat before kicking her shoes up on the dashboard and leaning back in her seat.

"A boat like a boat-boat? Or like, rowboat or kayak or something? Cause I'm pretty sure we could get something little and tie it up on the roof or something." She suggested. "I mean, you might be onto something there." She looked over at him. "And uh, yeah. If you're gonna keep climbing up on those fucking things...climbing gear. Yes. I don't wanna pick up the broken pieces of you at the bottom." She sounded like she was scolding a little, but really it was more from concern.

She looked ahead of her, seeing the brighter glow that made up the settlement, the main part was mostly fenced off surrounding a re-purposed strip mall as the main center of business, a handful of buildings used for various storage, business and living purposes, and the cluster of trailers that seemed to be pretty much just thrown together, some that people lived in all the time, others kept available for use by scavengers and route-runners whenever they came through town. Generators and piece-meal electrical cords ran around, to and from the buildings to keep them powered up.

"Awww man, I can't wait to get in there and get warmed up." She gave a little bit of a shiver, it was chilly and damp in the car, she looked forward to getting inside.

Mido yawned wide, starting to feel a tug of tired at the corners of his eyes, he nodded though and smiled at her, "yeah, we find a good boat that'll stick up on the roof and we might be able to reach shit no one's touched." It was risky, but sometimes the profits could outweigh that, and really it wasn't any more dangerous than it would be going into regions they hadn't been to yet. He laughed, "you know me...I guess I've always been like that..." Even before everything went to shit, he'd always been an outlandish young man, "but I'll try and get a hold of some good climbing equipment, I promise!"

He was glad to see the settlement coming into view, it was always a comforting sight after crawling through the metal wastelands all day. He looked over at her with a grin, "right? I'm chilled to the bone..." After a few more minutes of driving, he finally pulled into the lot where several other vehicles were parked, "phoo, back at last..." He made sure the car was shut off before climbing out and shutting the door, waiting for Jessica to hop out before locking it up, "can't wait to curl up..." He loved exploring and finding things, but he loved curling up with Jessica afterwards more.