“Who was that?” Nina asked as her eyes scanned the curious crowd. As they were dressed in a variety of colours, clean, and in good health, the members of The Cloud Orchestra cut a very different picture from those around them. It reminded her of the red floors when she thought about it, how the people, buildings, and state of disrepair were all products of the same poverty that plagued the people above. She did, however, note that although they were still a collection of people who had been dealt a poor hand in life, these people seemed to have something that the people above them didn’t.

“Graye the mechanic,” Jade replied as she took off her armband and stuffed it in a pocket before watching as Aline did the same. “He’s going to drive us to Sandscale Pass, the largest settlement in the badlands.”

“People have cars here?” she asked as she turned to face the gentle breeze that was passing through the canyon. The air was hot, but the lack of moisture made it bearable.

“You probably have more fingers on your hands than there are non-SuTSU vehicles on this plate,” Reina smiled as she also removed her band. “Graye’s family built this one and has maintained it for generations.”

Nina paused in thought as she tugged her band off like the rest of the group had before dropping it in a pocket. If Graye was going to risk driving them to another city, he was probably a decent person. How did a decent guy keep hold of something so valuable in what was essentially a gigantic prison? She was about to ask, but then it clicked into place all by itself. If Graye’s family had maintained it for generations, that would mean that Graye was born here.

Graye wasn’t a criminal, and he probably didn’t know anything besides the life that he had. He would have never seen Luem, Neo Luesa, or any of the other plates. If that was the case for Graye, it was probably the same for most if not all of the residents in this town. She had found it odd when she had sensed a difference in the atmosphere compared to the red floors, but now she could put a finger on it.

It was a sense of community.

On the red floors in Luem, moving up in the world was a difficult but attainable reality. Life was a struggle where stepping on somebody else’s shoulders to climb even an inch higher was just par for the course. It was step on, or be stepped on. Reina had accurately described it when they had been discussing Saela’s past, it was wild. Here, however, not only were the conditions harsh, there was also nowhere to climb. Stepping on someone else wouldn’t let you climb anywhere, it would just result in ostracism in a town where everyone needed to work together.

Her attitude towards the crowd softened slightly as she relaxed her guard. A community like this probably didn’t have any criminals, or at least troublesome ones, as they would likely be turned away.

“These people were all born here?”

“Either that or vetted by Graye and the mayor before being brought here,” Reina replied as she waved her hand at Trim to turn the music down. “This town was intentionally founded far away from Sandscale Pass so that nobody could reach it without a vehicle. The open desert is a wonderful people-filter in the end,” she smiled. “It’s on a different river too.”

“And so all the people with… issues, are at the pass,” Nina concluded.

“Most of them,” Svanda agreed as she pat the assault rifle that was slung over her shoulder. “Not a problem for us though.”

Nina gave her a weak smile in reply before her ears pricked up as she caught the sound of an engine approaching. After waiting for brief moment, Graye and his vehicle appeared from behind a corner before steering through the curious onlookers and coming to a stop before them.

She had thought that the vehicle might be unorthodox, but Graye’s truck was unlike anything she had seen before. With a six meter long flatbed at the rear, Graye sat on the front edge of it, his feet resting on two of the pedals that dangled in the empty space below. In front of him sat a large wooden cube which housed the engine, two rusted wheels with degrading tires poking out from underneath. A large iron rod and a steering wheel protruded from the cube to sit in front of Graye while two wheels that matched those at the front were fixed underneath the rear of the flatbed. There was no roof, no windshield, no mirrors, no lights, and certainly not a single safety feature on the truck, something that Nina was cautious about as she watched the members of the team climb up onto the shaking tray. What worried her the most however was that the entire thing was held together by a single iron beam that ran from under the tray at the rear to somewhere inside the cube.

“Tires are almost gone,” Graye commented as Nina grabbed Svanda’s outstretched hand before being hauled up onto the tray. She watched as a second man who had been standing in the crowd walked over with two containers of water, pushing them onto the tray before hauling himself up to sit beside Graye. Nina raised an eyebrow, but the lack of reaction from the rest of the group assured her that this was normal.

“Alright, alright,” Reina sighed as she sat down in the centre of the tray. “Tires are a pain to move, but I’ll bring some for you next time.”

“Thanks,” he smiled before he grabbed the large iron rod and pushed the truck into gear, the vibration of the tray turning into a steady throb as the truck slowly accelerated through the parting crowd. Nina watched as Jade and Aline sat down on the back of the tray, their legs dangling off the edge as they waved at the crowd. Seeing that the crowd waved in return, Nina also tentatively waved in their direction as they passed the last of the buildings and turned in the direction of a road that stretched away into the open desert.

She didn’t know why she waved. She had never seen these people before, so why was she filled with a sense of melancholy as they left? Reina had told her that she would see the seven plates, and this tiny insignificant speck in the desert was just the first stop. She wouldn’t be able to continue like this. Svanda, Trim, and Reina had done this plenty of times, yet they chose not to wave and instead looked ahead with confident gazes.

“There are different reasons to wave,” Reina spoke. Nina heard the words as she was standing right next to her, but over the loud throb of the engine at the front and Trim’s stereo at the back, it seemed that nobody else had. “It’s also easy to see which type it is when you think about it for a while.”

Nina sat down next to her, their shoulders touching as she brought her knees in to her chest. Reina was instead stretched out, her upper half supported by her hands which were planted behind her.

“How?”

“By the facial expression, of course,” she smiled. “I couldn’t see it, but I know that Jade and Aline were smiling when they waved, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Mmm,” Nina nodded as she looked at their backs. She couldn’t hear their conversation, but Jade’s excited laughter filtered through the rest of the sounds as the truck hit a new gear and the speed picked up once more.

“Waving at someone with a smile is a way to say that it is, or it was, good to see you,” Reina said as her gaze drifted over the pair. “We spend some time here occasionally, bringing supplies or waiting for a storm in the desert to blow over. They’re lovely people and the fact that we appear over the badlands near this town is fortunate.”

Nina was silent in return. She knew that Reina was going somewhere with this because she always did. She just didn’t know where.

“Think about if someone waves at you with a panicked expression,” Reina continued. “They’re usually looking for help, or they’re looking to attract your attention.”

"..."

Reina sighed as she looked upwards at the sky, her hair swirling around her face in the breeze that the lack of windshield provided them with. “The reason I don’t like waving is because I don’t like how people use it with an expression of loss or sadness.”

Nina frowned because Reina’s comment was true in that her expression had been empty. It was the same feeling that she had when she had sat on her bed before leaving The Cloud Orchestra, a sense of finality even though she wasn’t sure about what the future would hold. So many possibilities had tumbled through her head since she had first appeared above Neo Luesa. Futures with The Cloud Orchestra, futures on Caecus, even other futures like something with Dari Corp had all crossed her mind. She had tried to narrow them down, but every time she chalked one possibility off, it seemed as though another one appeared to replace it. As a result, she had just started accounting for all possibilities in a hope to end up with the least amount of regrets when her path finally became clear. Saying goodbye was just a part of that coping mechanism in case it turned out to be a reality.

“You know that we will be back soon on a new trip,” Reina stated as she stood up before looking down at her. “So why do you wave as though you’re never going to see this again?”

“Sorry,” Nina mumbled in reply. She smiled but it was hollow, Reina probably knowing just as much as Nina did.

“It’s going to be a long trip to the pass, take some time to think on it,” Reina said before she turned and left Nina to herself to collect her thoughts.