Scarlet relaxed, stretched out on her bunk, watching the other two women in the room through Crysna’s eyes. She suppressed a smile, seeing them almost petrified, like mouses before a, well, snake. Neither of them moved or talked, they just sat there, almost too terrified to breathe. For a moment, Scarlet wondered if they would pass out from lack of oxygen but decided to help them out.

“Relax, everything is fine.” Scarlet said, without even looking at them, again, accompanied by soft hissing from Crysna. When she realised that her kind gesture had not reassured the two in any way, she made Crysna wrap around her arm, before using parts of him as a pillow. He wasn’t cuddly, but his cool and smooth softness worked decently well and it seemed to have helped the other two.

She laid there for some time, letting her mind wander, until the door opened again and more people entered. Instantly after they entered, they were shushed into silence by Jasmine, at least it sounded like her. Scarlet watched Butch enter, followed by six other woman. Most of them looked quite average, each in their own way, fitting into the various categories of human. Two of them stood out, because they looked rough, reminding her of the female gang-members she had seen in her youth, just like Butch. Another girl stood out as well, walking in the middle of the group. Scarlet instantly pitied her, the girl, as Scarlet wanted to call her reflexively, had a cuteness that, combined with her petite stature, made her seem harmless. Scarlet had to suppress a grin, when she realised that she wouldn’t be the smallest person in the room but she also made a mental note, not to underestimate the other woman. She, herself, knew how to overcome physical disadvantages, so she would take most bets that the other had learned that lesson, depending how long she had been on Verdun.

After a moment of quietly whispered words between them, Butch moved closer to Scarlet’s bunk, staying a respectful two meters away.

“Excuse me, Scarlet, was it? You should get up if you want to eat dinner in the mess.” the woman said, her voice friendly but respectful.

Scarlet opened her eyes and pushed herself up, Crysna taking his usual position with his head atop her shoulder. It allowed her to get a good look at them, without the slightly strange resolution delivered by his eyes.

“Thank you, Butch.” Scarlet answered, after looking the other over for a moment. “But I guess I should introduce myself to all of you.” Scarlet continued, before jumping off the bunk, softly landing in front of Butch. Her words had caused all of the women in the room to focus on her.

“As you probably all have heard, my name is Scarlet. I’m new on Verdun and I will spent most of my time in the wilderness, outside of town.” She introduced herself, while sweeping them with her gaze. When she got to the cute girl, the other smiled brightly at her, as if she had just met her best friend. It made alarm bells ring in Scarlet’s head, accompanied by flashing lights.

In the moment of silence, the others introduced themselves, not that Scarlet cared to remember most of their names. Only Bea, the cute, most likely exceedingly dangerous, little girl was likely worth remembering. Riley and Cleo, the other two physically powerful women stuck to her mind, even if she hardly cared. One of them, Cleo, walked up and moved towards the closed locker assigned to the lower bunk.

“I’m the one sleeping beneath you. I hope we can get along.” she said with a careful smile.

“Sure. You said something about dinner and a mess?” Scalet asked, addressing the whole room, while noticing the distribution of sleeping space. Riley was standing next to the door, on the left side, right where the door would open and had opened the locker for the lower bunk. Butch was on the other side of the room, and near the window, and, finally, Bea was sleeping in the lower bunk on the right side, next to the door, positioned in such a way that her bunk would be the last that anyone would see, when entering the room.

That distribution told Scarlet quite a few things, most important of all that Bea was likely the hidden leader of the normal humans sleeping in her room. Butch was likely the official leader, with Bea the brain behind her, using her harmless nature to lull people into a sense of security.

It was Cleo who answered her question. “Yes, we normally go all together, for protection. Not that you need us for that. We go to the river, wash up, and then it’s time for dinner.”

“Oh, I think I will join you today. I simply don’t know the town that well, I don’t think I’ve spent more than, oh, about five hours within the walls.” Scarlet answered, adding a slight, friendly smile. She knew that playing harmless would be pointless, they all knew she was a psion and as such, far from harmless, but being friendly might come in useful in the future. She had no great expectations for normal humans, but a few minions could come in useful, especially to get a baseline of information.

Scarlet got her own clothes and got dressed, while the others around her did their own thing, some changing into comfortable clothes, others getting rags to use as towels, and so on. Scarlet pushed Crysna into his crystal, not wanting to send the wrong message, just in case walking around with a materialised Crystal Monster was against some sort of town-rule. She knew that trying to fight with Crystal Monsters would be a foolish idea, fighting another psion would be a foolish idea in any shape, at least for now, but if she was forced to fight, her best bet would be to take out the opposing psion before their monsters, undoubtedly much more powerful than her own, could intervene.

Soon, everyone was ready and Butch opened the door, leading the way. Scarlet stayed back a little, following behind without making herself part of the group. They all walked to the small channel that allowed everyone to wash while within town and Scarlet noticed that a lot more people were around and that they were overwhelmingly male. Most of them moved in similarly in groups, likely for the same reason. She took another look, this one assisted with psionic power, looking for the ripples from other psions, while looking for the crystal belt-pouches she had gotten from the Doctor.

There were only two guys walking with one, both of them walking on their own, projecting an aura that Scarlet knew all to well. It wasn’t a psionic skill, it was sheer arrogance, they were secure in their superiority. Not that it wasn’t partially justified, without modern technology, psions ruled supreme, even without the crystal monsters that further amplified their power. Even a weak psion, if sufficiently ruthless, could kill every normal human in town, simply killing by burning out a brain or two before hiding.

Scarlet had no need to draw their attention, if she knew humans at all, some of them would love to rub their superiority over everything and there was just no sport in dominating someone who hadn’t the slightest chance of resistance. No, dominating and breaking another psion would give such sadistic bastards the extra kick. Officially, the Doctor had told them that there would be no fights between psions in town, but Scarlet trusted his assurances as far as she could comfortably punt him.

They all washed up at the river and Scarlet followed them to one of the largest buildings in town, realising that she should simply have gone after the smoke, there was just one building with a smoking chimney.

Inside was a huge mess hall, row after row of tables, most of them currently occupied. Near one wall were large cauldrons of stew and plates of bread, so that everyone could get their food. Scarlet noticed one psion standing off to the side, keeping the chow-line in sight, likely to make sure that nobody stepped out of line. It made Scarlet curious, just how the Doctor organised things, there had to be some sort of system in place to keep everyone in line. But, once again, she pushed the thought back, it would just get her caught up in local politics.

She went through the chow-line, mostly copying what the others were doing. She had eaten a great lunch, so she was not too hungry, but her youth had taught her the lesson to eat whenever there was food.

Dinner wasn’t bad, she had eaten worse, mostly on the streets of Nova Yor, but the stew was warm and the bread free of mold, In addition to that, she had a roof above her head and a table in front of her, all things that made eating a lot better, even with the bland taste. She was halfway done, when a figure she had been waiting for appeared.

Keera had just entered the building, noticed her and was coming her way.