Ironjaw (VD)

The arid wasteland air filled Rick’s lungs. The rhythmic crunch of dry grass under his shoes is all he wanted to focus on, but he was with The Family. For the first time he was dressed along with the other members in his patrolling uniform, his dad had given the sign-off on it and he was on his way to becoming a man. Finally.

He was walking in tow with his dad, Rick, or Ricky as the guys called him. He was twice the height of his son and from way up there was talking with the similarly huge guys in front of them. All up, there were four out on patrol today. Though, the word “patrol” was a bit generous. More accurate would be scavengers.

“Seriously, they all went wild for it,” the scruffy looking man in the front left said.

“I’m not saying they wouldn’t. But since when in the hell could you juggle knives with those fat hands?”

“All the better to grab your wife with when we’re in bed.”

Both men laughed hysterically until Ricky abruptly remembered who was next to him, “Oh shit, we should probably cool it around the kid.”

“Oops, sorry kid,” the man halfheartedly said to Rick. Rick couldn’t care less though, he was off in his own little world. “Hey!” the man said, clicking his fingers at Rick and snapping him out of it, “You know why you’re here, right?”

Rick looked around, “To protect our family?”

“Nope, that’s not why anyone’s out here. If that was the reason I’d be at home and not dicking around here.”

Rick furrowed his brow and thought for a bit. He had been told before when he was much younger by his dad that he protected the wasteland. This reasoning had stuck with him for a while but obviously that wasn’t it. But remembering all of the weird scrap metal pieces, from what were clearly very complex machines, and all of the exotic foods in tins from the old days made him say, “Scavenging?”

“Answer more forcefully, boy,” the until now silent Family member at the front right said.

“Oh, Scavenging.”

“Nope, at least not for a while. We lost four good Family members out here while they were scavenging,” those last few words almost got caught