Urban Decay

[Omi]

Lukas rubbed his bleary eyes. He hadn't gotten much sleep, and the rain was still hammering down outside. He'd spent a good portion of the night pondering his immediate future, and what sleep he had managed to get had been light and fitful at best. Damned noise. He peered outside, squinting at the weak sun trying to piece the sheets of falling water. Only after sunrise, he reckoned. Time enough to get moving.
He stood up, wrapping some of his newly gained bear meat inside the packaging for his old rations. He examined his canteen carefully. He'd mixed in some antirads and boiled the meat inside it to purify it, and the water was still there, albeit more red-tinged than before. He stowed it away anyway; if he found somewhere to refill it, he would. Otherwise, bloody water was better than no water.
Speaking of antirads, he popped one now. No point waiting until you had a third arm already. He shouldered his pack, draped his waterproof over himself and it and headed out into the horrific weather of New Hangzhou's surroundings.


Lukas stumbled forwards, flopping down against a rock. It had been two days since he'd found the cabin, and he was beginning to worry again. His water was almost out, even with how carefully he'd rationed it. He was getting dehydrated, and he needed to find more very soon. He had plenty of food, though he was getting a bit sick of slightly charred bear meat. Antirads were another worry, but less so than the urgent water crisis.
The main thing occupying his attention, however, was the huge wall of trees in front of him. He'd thought this planet was a dusty, barren wall of rock, and the jungle they'd described to him to be rather less vivid than this. Thick, bottle-green leaves formed a majestic array of nature in front of him, like an immense natural barrier between him and the city beyond.
Lukas pivoted, surveying the landscape behind him. Mountains lancing up from the flatness of the earth, their peaks wreathed in clouds as leafless pine trees struggled for life on their slopes. It wasn't an ugly planet, even after all it had gone through, he thought to himself.

Sighing, he turned to face the leafy menace again, and started hacking away with his knife to clear a path into the jungle.

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