The Doctor and Scarlet came back into the main-room, where the other three newcomers an Aida were waiting for them. Aida handed the Doctor a folded-up paper and stepped back, out of the way. The Doctor moved to the nearby table and spread the map out, gesturing for everyone to gather around.

The map was clearly made from orbital images, with some guesswork thrown in when necessary but it gave a great overview of the region.

“This here, is Albertina.” the Doctor pointed to a small sign roughly in the middle of the map. To Scarlet, it looked as if the town as in a huge, forested plain between two mountain ranges. The mountains were quite far away from Albertina, roughly three-quarters of the way to the edge, and the terrain remained forested until it became rocky, making Scarlet guess that it was the tree-line. She had no idea at what altitude it was on Verdun, but it seemed that the mountains were quite high.

“Over here, this is the river outside the door, we mostly call it the Alb and it flows from the mountains north of us, meandering through the area until it joins with another, larger river flowing west until it reaches the sea. That’s about five-hundred kilometers away, just for scale.”

Scarlet’s eyes followed the river north, to the edge of the map, curious what was beyond it. A quick glance to the scale told her that, if she wanted to find out, it wouldn’t be easy, the edge of the map was about one-hundred and fifty kilometers away. Judging by the angle of the two mountain ranges, they would soon after join together into one.

From the mountains on the side, more rivers and streams led out, most of them joining the Alb, as the Doctor had called the river, downriver from Albertina.

“Now, for some reason, we don’t really know why, the radiation in most of the valley is relatively low, with Albertina built roughly at the lowest point. To stay safe while out there, try to stay in the area until you found your legs and have become more powerful. As long as the scanner shows green you should be fine and even in the yellow areas you can work if you are careful.”

While we need you to pull your weight, it would be regrettable if you died, especially after I had to dispose of one newcomer already. Take your time to gather crystals, don’t rush in and perish. If worst comes to worst, there might be options to make up for lacking crystals, when payment is due.” The Doctor explained, strengthening Scarlet’s resolve. She had no desire to find out what other options there might be, it sounded reasonable but she suspected that it would be a proverbial deal with the devil.

“Obviously, there are other groups and individuals out there, I would suggest you steer clear of them, not just because that way you cover more ground but also because some of them are a little… rough. Here in Albertina, we can mostly keep order, out there, things might be different.” The Doctor continued.

Scarlet had to suppress a groan when the Doctor indirectly confirmed her suspicions, driving home the point that trusting anyone would be foolish. Unless she had the ability to, at least, assure her own survival getting closer to anyone, even Keera, might be foolish. What if, as soon as Keera had the tools to survive without her help, she would see Scarlet as a target, ready to be taken down in the night, for her crystals?

Studying the map, she tried to burn it into her mind, especially the small signs that showed locally high levels of radiation. Not that it would be truly helpful, without some sort of landmark it was difficult to pinpoint ones location and knowing that a particular high radiation-area was two-hundred-fifty-seven point eight kilometers away from Albertina, if heading into a direction that was fifty-three point two degrees off north was only as useful as the ability to locate that location on the ground. Meaning, it was useless. She had read about using stars to navigate, something that had apparently worked out fine in ancient times, navigating the oceans, but there were a few problems. One was that she wouldn’t be on the ocean, but in the forest, reducing the amount of sky one had to navigate with. But the bigger problem was that, even if she had all the sky at her disposal, she had no idea how to navigate using the stars or the tools to help with it. For now, she would have to slowly build her knowledge of the area, likely by careful exploration and learn the landmarks.

It was not unlikely that someone would sell the information she needed but that would require her to gather more crystals to pay that person and it would require her to rely on information from another to guarantee her safety. Even trusting the Doctor was a risk but at the end of the day, it was a necessary risk. He had shown nothing but benevolence to her and clearly demonstrated that, if he needed to take another out, he would do so, without trying tricky schemes with fake information.

“That should be enough. If you want to buy a copy of the map, you’ll have to pay for it using crystals. Aida, why don’t you show our newcomers to the barracks and give them their box of ration bars? Scarlet, stay for a moment, please.” The Doctor ordered, softening the order just a little for Scarlet, but it was clearly an order.

“Yes, Doctor. Just a moment.” Aida addressed the three that were supposed to follow her, before walking into another room deeper in the building, coming back with four packs of ration bars, handing one to each of the Newcomers.

“Now, follow me.” she told the three newcomers and left the building, without looking back.

Scarlet held onto the box she had been given, until the room had only the two of them in it, before handing it back to the Doctor.

“Here, as agreed upon, I want to trade.” Scarlet told the Doctor, eliciting a slight grin.

“Of course. Follow me.” he told her and walked deeper into his building, passing the rooms Scarlet had already seen and through another door that he opened with a key. The door seemed to be quite solid and inside, Scarlet was able to understand why. There were shelves filled with items, some of them packed into boxes, others just standing in the open.

It was as if a luxury store had collided with a survival shop, on one shelf were bottles filled with liquor, at least that was what the labels said, on another were small baggies filled with powders and strange crushed leaves, next to a strange assembly of glass tubes that looked like it should be in a chemistry-lab, pipes and papers. On the other side of the room were tools made out of shining steel, next to canvas-tents, well-made bottles, sturdy backpacks, better shoes, everything one would want to use in the wild.

Looking around, Scarlet tried to make sense of what she was seeing, looking for a common trend but other than what she had first noticed, there seemed to be none.

“Everything one needs to make life on Verdun bearable. As a friendly advice, stay away from the drugs. They will make you feel good, no doubt, and they are great to motivate those fools who are addicted to gather more crystals so they can get their fix but in the long run, they will kill you. Either directly, at least the harder stuff, or you overexert yourself and die out there. I have plans for you that don’t involve using an addiction to control you.” The Doctor warned her, while grabbing a set of survival cookware from a shelf. He even added a spoon, fork and knife-set, handing both to Scarlet who gave the two crystals in trade, knowing that he had given away something for free.

That made her almost as uncomfortable as him talking about his plans for her, those could be positive for her or not. She had assumed that he had plans for everyone, even if only very rough ones. Nobody kept power over a community like Albertina without making plans and controlling for chance. Trying to go against the Doctor, at least openly, was a surefire way to end up six feet under, next to the latrines, an area Scarlet didn’t want to visit, so she simply smiled the sweetest smile she could muster and thanked him for the items, before bidding him farewell, turning around and leaving, hiding the unease she felt when he talked about his plans and controlling her.

Keeping her movements steady, she left the building in a smooth, unhurried manner, knowing that showing weakness was a bad idea. Those around her were predators and she had to make sure that everyone saw her as another predator, not prey.