[h1][color=olive]Franco[/color] and [color=lightgray]Sierra[/color][/h1] 


Franco wandered off back into the forest after Jack left. He watched him walk for a bit and then headed off back into the woods. He reached a small rocky stream, maybe a foot and a half across and six inches deep, that trickled through the forest. he knelt down at the water's edge and took a drink. The fast-running water was cleared of most of the salt, and so it tasted sweet and fresh. He followed the water's edge to a small rocky cave on its bank. Inside, it was about fifteen feet long and twelve wide, a small home all to his own. It was roughly square-shaped, with grey walls and a low ceiling. The floor was incredibly uneven, with a large drop-off in the center that had a puddle in it. Sitting around the room was a lawn chair, a dirty mattress, a cactus in a pot, a lamp, and a small electric generator. A small pile of books rested on a rocky shelf in the corner. 

The generator was solar-powered and sat near the front of the cave so that the light would hit it during the day. Fraco had found it in a broken-down Adelon truck and had been using it ever since. He turned the generator on and hit the light switch on the lamp. It lit up for a brief second and then darkened slowly. Franco walked up to the generator. It wasn't emitting its gentle buzz like it used to. He cursed and flicked the switch again. Nothing. 

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck..." he muttered. He fiddled with the panel and then hit the switch again. A small wisp of smoke escaped the machine. He wanted to cry. Panicked, he snatched up the generator, knocked over the lamp, put the lamp back up, and walked out of the cave heading in the general direction of Site Borea. He knew a girl. 

[hr] 


[hider=Mz.Hyde, Halestorm][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej8or-DfrIY[/youtube][/hider] 

Sierra Alvarez stood over her workbench in her shop at Site Borea. She was fooling with the inside of an alarm clock, trying to replace a rusted gear so that it would work again. She smoked a cigarette as she worked. On the island, there were a few old workshops, places where machinery would be repaired and vehicles would receive maintenance. After the island had been abandoned, most of the equipment had remained in the workshops, completely untouched. Sierra found a workshop shortly after she had gotten to the island and decided to use her engineering skills to repair machinery and electronic on the island. 

Her old iPhone sat in the corner, plugged into a stereo system. The stereo blared a Halestorm song. It was a lucky find, an old iPhone 6s with a cracked screen. A worker had left it in the shop before the island was abandoned and Sierra managed to find it again. What do you know, the owner of the old thing had her same taste in music. She bobbed her head and hummed along as she worked. The workshop was long and rectangular, lit by flickering fluorescent bulbs hanging from above. Sierra had figured out how to rig the lights to work again after she arrived. The workshop had solar panels, so she didn't need any kind of generator. The back wall contained a wall-to-wall shelf filled with mechanical parts and different kinds of wires. Much of the equipment was rusted out once, but Sierra went in and cleaned it out. The shop had three garage doors, two of which were rusted shut. Two long work benches nestled in the spaces between the doors contained all assortments of power tools, from lathes to circular saws. There was a computer in the corner of the room nearest to the working door, but it no longer worked and Sierra was missing half the parts for it. A mattress rested on a palette in the corner. A No Smoking sign hung next to one of the garage bays. A thick clod of sludge was stuck to it. The east side of the building, one of the skinny ends of the rectangle, contained a door with a small glass window and a bell. 

The door opened and the bell rang. Sierra looked up from where she was working. Franco stood in the door, his hat tilted forward. The generator was under his left arm. Sierra turned down the stereo with a remote. 

"How's it going, Franky?" she asked, still fiddling with the clock. 

"Could be better," he said. "My old generator's stopped working. I flicked it on and jack shit." Sierra closed the clock back up and wound it. It worked perfectly. Franco watched for about thirty seconds as Sierra finished with the clock. Then she walked over and looked at the generator. 

"Ya tried turning it on and off again?" she asked. Franco laughed. 

"You're an ass," he said. 

"Yeah, and you like giving me heart attacks. Did you leave this fucking thing out all day again?" 

"What the fuck else am I supposed to do with it? It's solar-powered." She took the generator from him and sat it down on a work bench.

"Maybe if you didn't live in the middle of the fucking woods like a hippie we'd be able to connect it to the rest of the town's power grid." She took a pack of post-it notes from a drawer and stuck a note on the generator. She wrote a large "3" on the front of it. Next to it was a coffeemaker with a "2" on it. 

"I don't need this shit again. Can you fix it by nightfall?" 

"What? Fuck no. I have another machine in front of yours and it's getting dark. Plus I haven't done an actual diagnostic on the fucking thing. I don't know what the fuck to even fix." Franco looked down and gritted his teeth. 

"Well what am I supposed to do?" he said. "I don't have another place I can stay. Sierra unscrewed the panel from the side of the generator, only occasionally looking back to Franco but listening. Franco clenched his fists. Sierra never acted like she was listening. 

"Fuck if I know," Sierra said. She kicked her leg up so that her left foot was on the bench and her leg was bent. She found this quite comfortable. Franco thought she was just trying to show off her ass. Or maybe that's just what he wanted her to be doing. "Look, Franky, you're my friend, so I'll do your machine first. But I'm not a fucking miracle worker. Why don't you just try to stay with someone tonight? You'll have your generator back by tomorrow and then you can go slink back into the fucking jungle." Sierra took off the panel. A bit of smoke wafted up. She picked up a flashlight and shined it inside of the generator. 

"I don't know no one well enough around these parts for that," Franco said. "Can I stay here?"

"I got one bed, brother," she said. "And hell if you're gonna sleep in it." 

"It's not like I'm gonna try to fuck you or anything," he said. Sierra started playing with some of the wiring inside of the generator. 

"I'm not worried about you trying to fuck me," she said. "I'll snap your dick off bare-handed if you tried that. I'm afraid of your dumb ass getting a nightmare and impaling me. Go find somebody else. Or go up to Site Haeda. I'm sure they can find you a room for the night there. Now buzz off and I'll get to work. You got payment?" Franco took a bent cigarette out of his pocket. Sierra smiled devilishly. "Good," she said. "Give it to me tomorrow when you come to pick the generator up." 

"Roger," he said. "I'll be back around noon. You got time to grab dinner in a bit?" 

"Not if you want this thing done. Either way, I'm having a girl from Aber over tonight for dinner. I'm covered." Franco shook his head and opened the door. 

"Use protection," he said as he stood in the doorway. 

"Don't tell me what the fuck to do." Sierra said. 

"Alright, have good evening!" Franco shouted. Sierra didn't respond. He closed the door and looked around. It was getting late. He began to walk southwest, towards Site Haeda. It was as good a place as any to look for shelter.