“No!” A loud voice pierces through the mist of a murky moonless night. The screams, whimpers and last gasp of a caravan of travelers can be herd from a nearby valley. Heavy smoke rises in the distance and ash the culmination of a people’s entire existence drifts silently to the earth.

  Their shouts reverberate far into the distance. “Please! NO!” appeals for mercy and safety echo and leak into the farthest reaches of wasteland, as if trying to break free from the confines of area. They slowly fade away, leaving just a profound silence as more ash falls to the ground. The world is silent in these regions, holding its breath. This is now a site of loss and mourning, given that something amazing has been lost to the world in this moment.

  Over the crest of the hill leading into the now ominous place a grizzly man walks out of the mist. Drawn by the sounds of distress, he appears with his weapons ready. Two double edged tomahawks clutched in his fist and his hounds the size of dire wolves alert at his side.

  “Louis! Hera! Search!” He commands in a deep gravely voice. The dogs set out to look for survivors as the man approaches the devastated camp site. The Caravan of cobbled together mobile homes and mechanical horses that pulled them are left in burning pieces as the last evidence of the people who once called them home turns to soot and ash.

  The only thing left of the identity of these poor folks is a torn cloth that the man finds draped over one of the carriages. The faded symbol of a raven surrounded by a silver spiked crown. The man bows his head in silence, paying his respect for the fallen. A bark in the distance draws his attention, one of his hounds has signaled the possibility of a survivor midst all of this destruction and death.

  “Show me what you’ve found.” he orders. The hounds lead him to a cluster of bushes, creeping out barely able to be seen in the dying light of the fires is the pale foot of a young woman. As the man pulls the bushes further to try and help her he notices another smaller body wrapped in her arms and protected by her.

  He lets out small grunts as he works harder to get to them faster. Hoping to salvage some life from this disaster. When he finally drags them out, he can tell that the woman does not have long. Determined to save her anyways, the man begins calls his hounds “Come!” He barks. Turning towards the direction his bike.

  “Wait!” the woman gasp as she abruptly comes awake

  “In the..in the box” her hoarse voice croaks.

  “You have to bring the box” She begs.

  The man looks around, he doesn’t remember a box and he doesn’t believe they have time to waste looking for one.

  “I haven’t seen any box” he rumbles " and you need help now.”

  “She going to need it” the woman pleads looking at the young girl in her arms “I know I’m not long for this world, please, for her.”

  The man sighs and rest the woman down by his things “I won’t be long, hold on. She needs you too.”he pleads earnestly to her, tightening his grip on for just a moment to maybe help anchor more to this earthly world. Turning, the woman grasp his wrist once again.

  “My name is Robyn.” She says with a small smile. “And this, is Wren.” she continues with both love and grief, looking down at the child in her arms. “Thank you.” she whispers, as more of her strength begins to leave her.

  “My name is Henry.” He tells her in return, “hold on, I’ll be right back.” As he leaves the woman surrounded and protected by his two hounds. Henry hopes that he isn’t making a mistake.

  Making his way back to cluster of bushes from which he had dragged the woman and her child. Henry can see something glinting in the dying light, a flash of silver half buried in the earth. He has to crawl a bit to get to it but, manages to dig out a small ornate silver box the size of his hand.

  Getting up and dusting the dirt from his worn jean overalls. Henry clutches the box to his chest and makes his way back to the woman. Well Robyn.

  As he arrives at his bike. He see’s Robyn lying where he left her. Still holding Wren and surrounded by his hounds. But she’s to still, she’s not breathing. It’s as he had feared, Robyn had passed.

  Henry releases a deep and heavy sigh, weary at the world and the struggles that come with surviving in the up messed wasteland left to them by their irresponsible forefathers. Shaking his head and getting a grip on himself, he wraps the woman in one of his spare blankets and swaddles young Wren to his chest.

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  Returning to his bike, he realizes that this is yet another incident he has experienced out here in the wasteland that will haunt his sleep for years to come.

  Henry jumps on his bike “Home!” He barks. As his hounds begin to run. Kicking the bike into gear, he leaves the the horrors of man’s greed behind him never looking back once. A dusty expanse looms out before him as they make there way home.

  After driving straight through the night, just as dawn breaks. Henry’s bike continues to lean higher as it climbs a sloped hill towards two triangular jagged rock structures that meet at a point in an arch. Passing beneath it, he can feel the air shifting from dry dust to damp earth. Tall trees soar in the distance, eclipsed by an ice-capped mountain range, while a large valley stretches underneath them. There is home, and there is Holden.

  On his way back to Holden, Henry made the decision to raise Wren as his own. Showing up with a dead woman and an unconscious toddler was not a good look for anyone. But, Henry was notorious for being strange and as a Metis born and raised practically coined the term among the settlers of Holden.

  He was lucky that the settlement of Holden had been the stomping grounds of his family from its birth.

  Cresting down into the valley, the morning light started to fill the sky as Henry approached the tall cobblestone walls that blocked off the outer farming areas of the tight knit community he called home.

  In the distance he can see a young man with short dark hair in black leather, leaned against the heavy stainless steel doors that protected one of the three points of entry into the valley under the leadership of Holden.

  Pulling up in a cloud of dust and surprising the young guard out of his daydreaming. Henry can’t help but grimace a little bit at the blatant negligence.

  Hoping off his bike, the older man secures his smaller package to the seat with a strap. “Bowery!” He barks, his facing morphing into a thundercloud.

  “Is this how you guard our home? How can you see enemies approaching if your eyes are watching your eyelids? Awake lad!” He rebukes the young man as he leaps from his bike.

  Startled, Bowery Jumps to attention to salute the one of the most well respected members of the settlement, “Sir!” He greets in a high pitched voice.

  “Henry” he says in disbelief. “It’s good to have you back, people were starting to worry.” He murmurs.

  “Its been almost three weeks since you left and we hadn’t herd from you. Did something hap..pen” He pauses as he notices the extra guests that Henry has brought along with him.

  “Henry, who’s that?” he ask with confusion, looking at the ‘extra’ packages Henry had brought along with him. Already anticipating the trouble that the older man had brought to their doorstep.

  Bowery’s eyes go wide in disbelief,“Oh no Henry the rest of the councils gonna throw a fit.” shifting side to side as his entire body begins to fidget. “What’s going on?” he ask exasperatedly.

  “You know we can’t just bring strangers back to Holden. There’s a process, checks and balances.” He exclaims loudly while waving his hands around, about to go on the same old lectured that is cemented into the brains of all of Holden’s youth .

  Henry clicks his teeth, “Yes, yes, yes, for the safety and protection of Holden.” He drones in rote repetition with dead eyes.“Don’t tell me about what can and can’t be done lad.” He states forcefully, pinning Bowery with his steely grey-eyed gaze.

  “My family helped write those rules, and I’ve learned them at my fathers knee since I was but a boy” He lectures in return, huffing at being lectured by a youngin.

  Narrowing his eyes,“Now open these gates before I open them myself” He states with a mighty bark.

  Bower sighs and scratches his regulation shorn head, wondering if its worth the hassle to try and stop Henry.

  “Henry…I” he stops takes a breath and concedes. No one every wins an argument against Henry Metis.

  “Fine. But if the council catches wind of this I tried to stop you.” He says with a slightly distressed voice.

  Bowery pulls something out of the black leather satchel attached to his belt. He looks down at a bulky tablet.

  After typing in some information he says,

  “Okay, your free to go scan yourself in on the other side well, you know the drill.”

  “Henry.” He says softly, “Be careful things have been tense lately, especially since you’ve been gone.”

  Henry looks at Bowery, paying more attention than he had originally and begins to notice the nervous twitches and he had missed previously.

  He’s known Bowery since he was babe and watched the lad grow up to take over the post he currently guards. Their families had been close allies for years now. With the Metis clan being the original ones to sponsor their settling in Holden. Something was amiss.

  It also hits him that Bowery wasn’t supposed to start his duties for another few months. Yet, something must have gone wrong during his time away it seems.

  “Don’t worry lad” Henry says “I’ll set things right! Ain’t nothin that goes on in Holden that we Metis don’t know about.”

  Bowery sighs deeply, and worryingly fiddles with his tablet as Henry walks through the gates into Holden.

  “I hope you’re right Henry” he whispers “I really do.”

  Bowery salutes Henry once again as he passes the the first defense into Holden and returns to his post. Trying hard this time not let his mind wander to the troubles plaguing his home.

  As Henry rolls his bike through the deep steel and stone bricked archway behind the gate. His hounds keeping pace beside him, he can’t help but wonder just what had gone so wrong in Holden while he was gone these last few months.

  Staring down the dark hallway ahead of him, Henry waits for the LED white lights lining the sides and top to come alive. The tunnel is bare of any decoration just stark grey all around, the path only leading forwards.

  “Nothin I like better have burned down” He mutters to himself, brows furrowed into a deep frown. “Again.” his grumbles echoing through the empty hallway.

  Passing through the long tunneled checkpoint, Henry comes to a dead end with only a wall of metallic stone in front of him and a steel post shoved into the ground with a white LED light lit up its body and a circular hollow hoop connected to the top of the structure, both glowing with the same bright white light.

  Whirling sounds begin to emanate from the structure as the white light flashes in a circular rhythm. After what seemed like a few minutes, a robotic monotonous voice instructed Henry to “please insert your PCAi into the scanner for registration.”

  Henry impatiently shoves his hand through the lit up circle. Noticeable under the glow of the lights, wrapped around his wrist is a sleek sliver metal band with a single strip of white LED light visible across the surface.

  Green lasers scan the band and the light turns blue as the walls behind the machine pull apart layers deep to reveal a vast expanse of farmland and rolling hills of golden wheat.

  Henry bites his lip as he removes his hand and climbs back on to his bike.

  “Stupid Port” he grumbles rubbing his wrist, where he had been stung by the process of the settlement defense AI checking his registration. Complaining out loud, " I thought Greta was going to fix that.”

  Climbing onto his bike, Henry adjust himself and clutches his precious cargo to his chest. Straddling the bike he revs it as he switches into gear, shooting out from the archway, with his hounds striding beside him. He takes in the beauty of his home, Looking out at the valley. Henry takes a deep breath of the fresh air, admiring the safety and calmness of once more, being behind the fortified walls of Holden. Glancing down at the tiny face peaking out from his old jacket, he can’t help but think ‘Welcome home, Wren. Now lets see what went wrong while I was away’.