Day 2

I'm kinda curious what things are like for you, when you're hearing this. You know, I wonder if it's...a month from now, a year from now...or if its decades or even a century, my body recovered half-buried in some form of ruins or cave or something. Mostly, I wonder how the world has changed, whether real crops grow somewhere; real cities may be built, or being built. Whether almost every animal you see still tries to kill you.

So, I was thinking this morning that I need to make sure you know what kind of world I'm living in now. I don't have anything planned or scheduled immediately, no jobs lined up. Plenty of food for while I wander.

Like I said, my name's Alex Gofer. A-L-E-X, G-O-F-E-R. I'm a little under six feet tall. About two hundred pounds or so. I've never been a massive guy, or a hugely muscular guy, but I've always kept fit. I grew up in a raider gang. Don't know if I was born by one of the women, found by them, stolen by them, or what. I don't remember anything that came before. Pretty much, the place was ruled by a mentality of “Me first, then the rest of the gang, and straight to hell with anyone else”. I hope I don't need to explain how hard it was to grow up there.

I was taught to read. Not everyone in the gang could, but they took the time to teach me. Seemed I was destined to be a scout for them, they saw that in me from early on. And it's kind of important to know the difference between seeing a pile of boxes marked Ammunition, and a pile of boxes marked Angel Statues, Ceramic.

They're the ones that named me Gofer. That was the only name I had, and it took them a while to start calling me that instead of “Hey you” or “C'mere, you little shit”. They never put me out in the front lines of the raids or ambushes. No, they gave me jobs like running messages, scouting buildings, looting bodies. Yeah, that last one was the worst. Sorting through bloody corpses, going through their pockets and bags with their empty eyes staring at you, through you. And knowing that they hadn't done anything more than have something that the gang wanted.