It was late in the afternoon when Tessa left the colony. Too late, in fact, and luckily the others didn't know how far she would be going, or they would surely protest and keep her inside. So she said nothing, just left, with her daypack slung over her shoulder.
The desert sands scratched her face, and created dust devils that crossed her path, not far ahead. In the distance stood a nameless city, an empty husk of humanity's greatest accomplishments before the bombs swept all of that away. She frequented the city despite the radiation, to scavenge for technological gadgets that still worked, and in secret, to marvel at how differently the generation before her must have lived.
Tessa was a war child, born on day 0, the day of the flash- About 20 summers ago. She had known no other life than this, and frankly didn't care much for the stories of the elders, about glass and monitor screens, about airplanes and politics. She was happy here, especially now, picking up a running pace. She still had a long way to go, but she covered it swiftly.
Maybe it was from the radiation that her hair was so red. But her freckles, her button nose, and eyes the color of a rough emerald, she had her mother to thank for that. Her condensed size, she owed her father. She was often made fun of by the other settlers, but it made her the perfect scavenger and in truth, only added to her beauty.
She caught her sash from flying off with the wind and wrapped it back around her once-white dress. Neither did much to protect her from the sun but this time, she didn't care. She knew exactly why she had stolen these from the pawn shop the day before.
The power plant came into view as she reached the top of the last dune. Bent cranes rusted dryly in the sand, and solar panels stood useless and forgotten, at an angle someone long ago had calculated meticulously. At least, most of them did. A large section of them were wrought or broken.
The hole in the fence was wide enough for her to walk through with open arms. Still, she had to be careful, sneaking from panel to panel towards the control building. When she finally peeked down the maintenance shaft, the coast seemed clear. With an agile jump, she twisted herself into a horizontal cable tunnel.
She knew her way here, this wasn't her first visit. Wasting no time, she made her way into cooler areas of the facility, descending further until shadows merged into a complete black.
But there, in the distance, she found it: A light, guiding her forward. One foot in front of the other in the pitch black, fingertips grazing the wall on either side. Awkward steps, to avoid tripping over cables.
Once she had reached the unimpressive little light bulb, she took a right and followed the string of LEDs. More and more signs of inhabitants became obvious. But not all of them knew her, and it wouldn't be the first time if she was scared away. What a night that was.
She was nearing her destination, and her heart pounded. She heard voices in the distance, a couple fighting. A strong buzz masked her footsteps, "The sound of cancer" her friends liked to call it. But there was no fallout here. Only-
"They looked upon her, but couldn't say a word."
Tessa startled violently, jumping to the side, into the wall. She rolled her eyes.
"Was this a guppy... Or was it a bird?"
A hand pawed at her, pulling at her clothes, her hair.
"She had a beak, and feathers and things, but one thing she didn't..."
A young man appeared from the shadows, and took hold of her hand by the pinky, bringing it up to inspect it.
"She didn't have wings."
-"Damn you, Corvus. You scared the hell out of me."
-"Good, I intended to. Welcome home, Tessa."
He walked on in front of her, and she soon followed. Even under the dim light, he was easy to recognize, with his jet black hair around a handsome face. They were what gave him his nickname, that and his size: He wasn't much bigger than Tessa, and from what they could guess, only days older than her. He was fully dressed for a change, in simple black pants and a longsleeve shirt.
She didn't even know his real name, she realized, as they made their way to condenser 37K, his room. She had to admit, she liked what he had done with the place. He was very clever with electricity so he could make pretty much anything work, buzzing little black boxes powering all sorts of light strings lining the corners of the room. The radio he liked to play with was opened up on the table.
The walls were covered with rags, some in a better state than others. There was even a camouflage net by his bed. It looked messy but it sure beat the sight of concrete, copper and broken dials.
"How are you doing, Corvus?" She hung in the door as he threw back the last of some cup and went to sit on the corner of the table. In this light, she could see he had been in a fight. He shrugged.