When the trio arrived at Hillcrest, the sun had only risen a couple hours ago. The nights had been getting longer and colder, but Ofelia had explained to Ette that they were near enough to their home that they could be there before midday if they hurried.

The sight that awaited them was a community built along a sole suburban avenue, with twenty foot walls constructed out of sheet metal and wooden beams for support. Across the paved street itself, a large chain link gate had been repurposed and re-fitted to the adjoining walls. Wooden towers had been built on either side of the gate, with people positioned at the top to act as lookouts, and perhaps even guards.

Ette couldn’t help but stare up at it all in marvel, which Ofelia got a chuckle out of.

“Admiring my handiwork?” She jested.

Ette’s face flushed red and she dropped her eyes back to her own feet, embarrassed at herself. The gate itself rustled as it was pulled open from the inside by someone else entirely, and what Ette saw down the open avenue was a busy settlement. There were a good hundred people coming and going, of all ages and backgrounds. Many of them had brought their wares to trade and sell at one of the stalls set-up along the sidewalk, and there were even a few with horses covered in packed bags they’d come to unload. A bit farther in, Ette could see gaggles of young children lined up to enter one of the many buildings, and she concluded it must have been either some sort of daycare or a school.

As Mya led them through the gate, she suggested Ofelia come to the clinic for a once-over before heading back to her regular duty- which Ofelia promptly shrugged off.

“Headed to the council house,” She informed the doctor. “And you should too.”

The three of them split off from there, with Ofelia headed to a large bricked building and Mya taking Ette directly across the street to the clinic. Inside the clinic was quite small, with three cots spaced out along one wall, and chairs sitting on the wall opposite them. Mya helped Ette over to the nearest one, and Ette happily crawled into the warm bed.

“Get some rest, I’ll be back with dinner later.” Mya instructed and threw a scratchy blanket over Ette’s frail figure.

As she walked to the door to leave, Mya heard a very quiet thank you, and smiled to herself as she left the building.

Mya made her way across the road to the council house, which was a large building with three floors of red bricks towering over the other single story buildings along the street around it. Columns ran along the front porch to impose a sense of importance to the building, and was very likely the reason it was chosen to be a central figure in Hillcrest’s settlement structure.

She pushed herself through the large oak doors in the center and revealed a large open area with rows of benches set up on either side of a central walkway. Quite a few of these seats were taken by curious onlookers and people Mya knew well. At the far end of the room several chairs were positioned to face the benches, mirroring royalty giving audience to its many subjects.

In each of those four chairs sat a prominent figure of Hillcrest that Mya was already quite familiar with. Instead of royalty, these figures acted as democratic representatives of the settlement as a whole. Ofelia sat in one of these chairs, her mature face fitting in perfectly next to the others.

“I was just catching everyone up,” Ofelia said as she saw Mya. “The council is now in session.”

Beside Ofelia sat Robyn, nearly ten years younger but with a significantly sterner face. From the bluntness of her blonde haircut to her almost-formal blazer, anyone who didn’t already know could tell that she was the one in charge of almost everything. With a square face and stern brows, Robyn had the presence of a leader even from far away.

“Your run ended prematurely.” Robyn stated firmly towards Mya.

Mya gulped back a hint of nervousness, as she was not fond of being at the focus of the room.

“We ran into someone who needed help.” She spoke up.

On Robyn’s other side sat Soliz, a handful of years younger with a mess of black curls cascading down to her collarbones and hard eyebrows with a scar across one of them.

“That… is not exactly the issue we have, Mya.” Soliz spoke up. “The issue is that you didn’t get any of the steel Ofelia needed to reinforce the wall, and that Eva was left to finish the run on her own.”

Mya opened her mouth to respond but was cut off abruptly.

“Stupid child!” A fourth voice rang out.

On Ofelia’s other side sat an elderly woman, with clouded eyes unfocused and a blanket draped over her legs. Her grey hair wisped around her head in a frazzled mess, and her bony hands quivered in her lap.

“Stupid child.” She repeated, much quieter.

Ofelia chuckled. “For once, Ester’s outburst is right on the nose.”

Mya raised her brows in surprise, and Ofelia cleared her throat to elaborate.

“Listen Mya, no one here is condemning your actions. Hell, they were my actions too.” She looked over to Robyn who was listening intently to her every word.

Ofelia let out a sigh before looking back to Mya. “Steel can be collected elsewhere, it’s just that... I happened to recognize one of those men.”

“From where?” Robyn raised her brow.

“Claresholm, I believe.”

A few murmurs rippled through the benches of the audience. Robyn’s face turned stony and her grey eyes hardened when she looked back to Mya.

“The Claresholm group has been attacking travellers for some time now. Eva and the other runners have managed to stay under their radar, but if your actions have put us in their sights…” She trailed off.

Robyn paused herself to reallocate her thoughts, and Mya took this time to speak up for herself.

“I… should not have acted brashly, no.” She looked to Soliz who gave her a reassuring look. “But I did what any one of us would do. People deserve help when they need it.”

Robyn pursed her lips a moment, but eventually nodded in agreement with Mya’s statement. She cleared her throat once more to make a final address, and rose to her feet.

“We still need those supplies, but it’s too risky to head back to the farmlands.” She stated to the room.

There was a brief pause as the people in the room thought to themselves. Eventually, Soliz spoke up.

“I can head into the city to trade,” She volunteered. “I wasn’t due to make a run there for a few weeks but considering everything, it wouldn’t be much of an issue to head out early.”

Robyn looked over to her and gave her a nod of approval before turning back to Mya.

“I believe you have a patient to attend to.”

Mya took her leave happily, and spun on her feet back to the door. As the few people in the audience dispersed, Robyn made her way over to Ester. She crouched down low and took her hands in her own, and smiled softly at the elderly woman.

“Ready to get back to work, mum?” She asked, and received no response.

Ofelia rose from the seat beside them and gave Robyn a wave as she left, and Robyn looked over to Soliz walking towards her.

“Take one of the horses,” Robyn suggested as she carefully pulled her mother to her feet. “You can cut some travel time that way.”

Soliz nodded in agreement and folded her arms over her chest tightly. “Are you worried about this Claresholm group?”

Robyn sighed deeply as she began to walk Ester to the back room, and Soliz followed. The back room was small, but equally as wide as the main room. Fabric mannequins were lined up around the room with different clothes in varying degrees of work done, and large stained windows set against the back wall sent soft sunbeams in different colours throughout the room.

“I don’t want to be, but…” She settled Ester down in an old chair that sat up against a sewing table. “It’s not sitting right in my gut.”

Once Ester was comfortably seated, her attention shifted to the manual machine on the table in front of her, and she instinctively began to fumble with it as if no time had ever passed since she last sat there. Robyn turned around to face Soliz directly and shook her head in frustration.

“Be careful out there, you never know who you could run into.” Robyn said. “And if you see any of them… stay as far away as possible. We can’t risk antagonizing them any further.”