[u]Amir Asadi Jones[/u]



It had been two years since Amir Jones last left his adopted home, the bastion of Lasthope. He remembered when the order had come down from the council: there was an expedition going south. They needed a doctor to accompany them, for the good of the mission. Something about too many casualties beyond the settlement. That was the day when Amir had been “promoted” to an Expedition Doctor. It had been a year after the death of his adopted father, Robert Jones, the man who saved his life and brought him to Lasthope as a kid. That first year without him, Amir had become the primary medical professional (for humans – James Blaise had been coming into his own as a highly skilled veterinarian at the time) and had taken charge of Robert’s own medical clinic on the ground floor of his home in Lasthope. So when the council selected him two years ago, they mandated a dramatic shift in his life, a shift away from Robert’s memory and the clinic, at least temporarily, and into a life on the road. 
	
But Amir held older memories of a life on the road; older than his life with Robert and Lasthope. Memories of his mother leaving him in the car, and her accidental death, and Amir’s frantic bid for survival in an unfamiliar town on an unforgiving street, far away from home. So that meeting with the council had terrified him, at first. But he knew that he was no longer a child, and he knew that his head held higher as he walked along the road flanked by others of his nation, a nation of survivors. 

And now he found himself on a new road, with a new expedition – this time heading East. How far East, Amir didn’t know; that was up to Jain, their leader. Jain was two years Amir’s junior, but he could see why the council chose her. She seemed like a natural-born leader without the desire to admit it to herself just yet. She was a scout, so she had more experience of the areas beyond Lasthope than many other did. And she was resilient; but then again, so was most everyone left in Lasthope. 

Amir sat amidst the main cluster of soldiers along the roadside camp, taking in the local foliage. At his side was a leather-bound journal which served to chronicle both his day-to-day thoughts and his medical examinations. At his hip was a sheathed tactical knife, long enough to hang halfway down to his knee when he stood. Amir was not a fighter by instinct or by trade, but he knew that in the new world, everyone who wanted to survive had to be willing to kill. He had learned from a young age that the shambling corpses which roamed the world had long since renounced their humanity. 

He had heard the news that a young scout had died up ahead, and didn’t even question that he hadn’t been called to provide medical treatment. That was one of the facts of life for medical professionals in their post-civilized world: most patients were long dead by the time a doc got there. Still, Amir closed his eyes for a moment in mourning, letting the bright heat of the sun’s rays wash down upon his face as he tried to remember all that he could about the kid that died. Ben, Benny – Amir had seen him around from time to time. He was far younger than Amir, and years were amplified in their world, so the young doctor felt positively ancient when he recalled the youth of Benny. He remembered a time when Benny had come to the clinic, probably the only time that Amir had spoken to him. He had escorted his friend there, who had broken his ankle. Once Amir brought the friend inside, he nodded to Benny and said, “thank you – what you did was very noble” before closing the door to the clinic and tending to his patient. He wasn’t even aware that Benny had joined the expedition.

Standing up as the group began to move en masse, Amir noticed the veterinarian, James, walking along nearby with his horse. Amir caught up to him, matching his pace with the man. 
“Good to see you, James,” he said. “It’s a shame about Benny, I heard the news.”
They stood about the same height, and had a similar build, but otherwise couldn’t look more different. Being both within the realm of medicine, and Lasthope being a fairly tight-knit town he had talked to James on multiple occasions, but didn’t know him well enough in town to develop a connection. Still, he was a familiar and friendly face on the expedition, and a kid had just died. Amir reasoned that everyone should probably start getting to know each other better, himself included.

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