Setting the Scene

It's 2064 and the world has been through quite the stressful apocalypse; Something about nuclear weapons, world governments, secret agencies and mass EMP blasts.
Luckily though many of the chronically paranoid, extremely prepared and just plain lucky made it through safely and are recovering both their health, sanity and their society at a strange and illogical pace.
Though the world seems to be in disrepair and all governmental and authoritative figures are gone, many outcroppings of civilization are starting to rise. Each with it's own laws and justice systems.
Despite this, many prefer to wander either individually or in small groups, making their own way and not adhering to any lawmaking they encounter.

It's a world where scientists strive for any technology and farmers are considered rare and barely sane for even trying to grow anything from the trodden dust.
Mercenaries are many and Doctors rare and a man is just as likely to say Hello as he is to shank you and steal your stash of canned goods.

Animals are smarter and humans are mentally unstable.

Cults are normal and families are few.

Food is meat and vegetables are poison.

Society is gone and ordered chaos remains.

This is 2064. This is our Dystopia.

"Dad, I can't do this much longer. We need to rest. We've been walking all day...."

The older man walking in front turned to face the smaller voice. The child; who was only about eight, was slumped forward from the weight of her bag as she struggled to walk up the hill they were currently climbing. under normal circumstances the father would allow his daughter to rest but they were to exposed. The hill was bare, and there was no cover to be seen. Usually the pair would avoid such open areas, but the surrounding areas were filled with flesh-eaters and gangs. Though not the safest route, it was the safest option given to them.

The Father stopped and took the over sized bag from the child and placed it over his own shoulder. "Just a bit longer, Kasy. We gotta keep up the pace." He placed a hand on the child's arm. "Keep your weapon up, you never know what we might run into." He returned to walking up the hill.

"And who knows," Kasy smiled though her strained breaths. "Maybe we'll find something for dinner. I'm getting sick of this canned stuff."

Her father laughed softly.

"Well this looks interesting" The girl murmured, absently petting Nicholas as she peered into a large passageway roughly hewn into the Mountain face, "Almost like a Duct really. Noun. A tube or passageway in a building or machine for air, liquid, cables, etc.
...Doesn't really seem like it's for air though, more like a hallway or corridor; a long passage in a building from which doors lead into rooms."

Regarding the passage for a long time she slowly turned her head towards the blazing sun and the exposed landscape around her, hills too gentle to really provide much protection against either the elements or the other residents of these parts.

"We are thinking..." She mused out loud, "That we would probably be best off investigating. Cautiously of course. Derivative. Adjective; careful to avoid potential problems or dangers"
Crouching, she retrieved the bundles of clothe she reserved for wrapping Nicholas' hooves with to muffle any extraneous noises and re-secured all her and the goats bundles.
"Into the beyond" She said chuckling nervously, voice catching in her throat as she stepped over the threshold and into the slanting tunnel.
Cautiously.

Night was approaching swiftly and though the pair had left the wide open space, they had now entered what was known as the no-mans-land. A No-mans-Land was easy enough to spot for nomads. Though foliage did grow in this area, nothing else lived there. No animals would walk its grounds and neither Gang, nor Flesh-eater cared much for the land. That wasn't to say that it was completely safe, every now and then a group walking through a No-mans-land to avoid contact with anyone stronger or hungrier than them, would be over powered and their body either eaten or left to rot on its grounds.

The father, who went by the name Joel hoped that they had managed to scavenge enough ammo to ward off any threats if they should come. "Stay close." He warned his daughter as he tightened his grip on the gun. Silence always put him on edge, even if it meant that they were alone.
Kasy moved in closer to her father’s right side. Though getting Joel to admit it was tough, he was blind in that eye thanks to the high levels of radiation in some areas of the world. His left eye was going too, but was still strong enough to aim.

A rustle echoed from a tree overhead. Joel turned his gun, ready to fire but Kasey had beaten him to it. The shot resounded through the quiet surroundings and then a bird dropped to the ground in front of him.
“I thought no life came here.” Kasy said in a small voice. She looked at the bird, shocked that something, other than a few humans looking for safety was here.
“It doesn't.” The male put his gun away and bent down to inspect the bird. “It wasn't a clean shot, but we should be able to get some meat from it.”
“Is it safe to eat?”
“Would you rather break open a can?”
Kasey sighed deeply. “Let’s risk the bird.” Joel grinned.
“That’s my girl.” He lifted the bird by its legs and tied it to a lose strap of Kasy’s bag. “Now we just gotta find a place to make camp.”

A place to stay turned out to be an easy find, what was not so easy was the search to make sure no-one else planned to use it. Joel spent the rest of the day light looking for anything that may suggest this. Kasy on the other hand spent that time readying the bird for cooking.
“I think we’re safe.” Joel said as he sat down beside his daughter. He poked at the fire she had just lit, trying to keep it dim enough to hide their location but still hot enough to cook.
“Nothing here?” Kasy asked.
“Just a few old photographs, but nothing else.” The male sighed. “Looks like this place was ransacked with everything else.”
“Hey.” Kasy smiled at her father. She held the stick she had been resting in the fire up. The bird was on the end. “At least we have something new for dinner.”
Joel smiled and ruffled the girls hair. Kasy smiled back.

The small enclave that was cut (definitely by hand at some point in time) into the tunnel had been possibly the most lucky find he had experienced for weeks, and he hadn't wasted a second in setting his things up underneath the shelter offered by the above overhang of rock, knife lying within easy reach by his side. He lit one of the three remaining hand-made candles, pulled out the small needle and bundle of threads and set to work patching up the newest split in his rucksack, eyes jumping constantly from his hands to the entrance. He couldn't stay here longer than an hour, it was too close to the entrance of the tunnel and just about anyone could spot that, but he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity for some shelter.

"You're getting slack, in your... ‘Old age’, you know," Jacinda pointed out with plain irritation, and his eyes flew open, hands snapping out to drag himself back a little closer to the wall (because she was crouched right in front of him, and she hadn't been there when he first let himself rest, and he was really starting to hate the way she just did that) but she didn't say anything else, and it was quite suddenly apparent that it wasn't actually her voice that had startled him out of sleep. No, because that would almost definitely be the sound of low muttering, probably just from the entrance of the tunnel, just around the corner, and he should have been paying more attention.

It was two hours later, going by the displacement in the shadows he could see catching the top of the opposing rock wall, and he immediately extinguished the candle, shoving his few things into his rucksack and shouldering it, knife gripped tightly between his fingers. There wasn't quite enough room to hide - they would see him, no matter what - so he just stayed backed up against the wall, knife held by his side, ready to pull up. He couldn't figure out the noise; they were quiet, whoever they were, and there was definitely more than one of them, maybe... Three? But the footsteps sounded wrong- They'd muffled their movements then? He could barely catch it, and- Adjective?

Adjective. That was a female, and she had said 'adjective'.

What?

And nobody responded to whatever she had been saying, but no, he was sure there was more than just her, no matter how confusing the altercation of sound (a limp, maybe?) and five, six, seven seconds later and he could have laughed with relief – which was stupid, because just the fact that this was a child didn't make them any less dangerous, really – because it was a girl and a goat with cloth around its hooves. Hilarious, brilliant, and not what he should be focusing on right now.

“I don’t have much, and I’m not interested in whatever you have,” He said carefully, voice firm but quiet, the moment he spotted the recognition that meant she had processed the fact that there was an actual opening in the rock wall there, and he wanted to get the first word in. Just… He was actually backed into a corner here, by the… The girl and her goat, and he wasn't planning on looking aggressive, so he kept the knife by his side, in sight, but between apparently loose fingers.

Celia and Nicholas was barely a few meters into the tunnel when a small scuffing and a shadow out of the corner of her eye made her jump back, teeth bared and pipe clutched firmly in her hands ready to face the danger of a... Very scrawny man wedged into an alcove.
Not quite what she was expecting she took a moment to study the sight in front of her, the man was tall and thin, that much was obvious from the way his limbs were crammed into the space, not used to much light and most definitely not from around here.
This didn't make him not a threat though, sometimes the mousy ones had weapons, but the only weapon Celia could see was the knife clutched loosely in his hand, his other hand was empty. The man was stupid she decided, he could have easily killed her when she was unaware and now she had him at her mercy.

He was weak and puny.
"poor in quality, amount, or size" She murmured, lips catching in a rueful smile as she lowered her pipe slightly, careful to keep her vision wide in case the man had allies further down the tunnel and this was merely a trap.

"Are you a trap?" She asked, just in case. Sometimes the stupid ones told the truth, they like to gloat.

"No, no-" Sam said quickly, shaking his head and trying a quick smile at the girl, because she'd lowered what looked like a sharpened pipe, and well, that was good. That was definitely a good thing. He didn't put the knife away, though, just stood still exactly where he was.

"I'm not a trap, or anyone's trap, I'm just- I was trying to get through to the other side, and-"
"What are you doing?! Jesus, Sam, look at her! Knife up!"
"That's the... I'm not going to-"
"You can't be serious? So she's a kid! Doesn't change anything!"
"To attack you, or anything."

He was aware that he was fumbling the sentences a little, but with Jacinda - now suddenly standing just to the side of him again - all but yelling into his ears, it was more than a little difficult to sort through the audio input coming at him, not to mention the fact that he was still trying to gauge exactly how dangerous this girl could be. "I'm a doctor." He said then, because that was something he could actually say that generally carried a meaning on 'not aggressive' around here, and that was something he was definitely going to use.

The mans agitation was stifling in the small passage and causing Nicholas to get uneasy; braying slightly in his throat and shifting on his hooves, head bobbing as if in consideration of lowering his horns and just going for it. Shuffling her feet, Celia moved so that her hip was bumping into the goats side, she found that contact often helped the animal calm down in tense situations.
"We thinks, that you are probably not a trap, but we still do not trust you Doctor" Celia scowled. Most would ease up with the idea of doctors, but Father one often said that a profession didn't make you harmless, always be weary of strangers, no matter how trusting they look. On the other hand Jim would just smile blithely and Grandma would say that if you could trust anyone it would be Nun's, doctors or lifeguards. Two of the three had taken oaths to help any and all that asked and the other third were just damn nice people.
"But" She said, lowering her pipe, "We will not harm you."

"We? You mean there's more with you?" He asked, leaning to the side a little to peer over her shoulder, down the darkened stone passage.
"Yes, there's more with her, you're royally-"
"Or do you mean your... Your goat?" Sam asked with another small smile, because he hadn't heard any more footsteps after her, no, all were accounted for by just her and this goat, but that didn't mean she wasn't just a scout for a larger pack of people - although she looked young, definitely, to be scouting. And she wouldn't likely be doing so with an actual, live, goat; livestock were highly prized creatures, of course.

He slowly slipped his knife back into the somewhat makeshift case for it on his belt - the actual one was long gone in a rushed escape about two weeks ago, now, going by his count, and he had made do with some twisted plastic and cloth to blot out the sound and any possible reflection points.

"Were you going on through? There's no more like this down the tunnel, just- a much smaller one, looks unfinished," He said, gesturing around him to the enclave and eyeing her wearily.

Tipping her head, Celia decided that actually, the man was pretty stupid-adjective, lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull.

"We are the only ones here, we are just travelling with Nicholas. Nicholas is the goat." Celia said slowly, in case the man was actually slow of mind -you found that a lot with loners, gesturing at Nicholas and keeping her movements slow.
No use alarming the stupid and puny man.

The crazy ones could be quite dangerous.

She was speaking slowly, and he wasn't sure whether or not it was because she was trying to express herself carefully or because she thought he was missing the point. Both her inflection (and Jacinda's suddenly pleased smirk) told him that it was definitely the latter.

But he really didn't want to alarm her at all in any way while she still had that pipe thing - and she was just a child, really, and wanted to make sure she knew that he meant her no harm. So, speaking exactly as slowly as she had to him, he responded with, "That's a nice name. I'm Sam, can I ask your name?" he smiled carefully

"You look like an idiot. She thinks you're an idiot. Also, sharpened pipe. Fucking hell, Sam, can we leave, already? We're wasting time, and standing around here with this little girl and her goat is not going to be helping at all; considering she'd only slow us down- You're not thinking about actually trying to travel with her, are you?" Jacinda snapped all in one long, disbelieving ramble, that he had to shut his eyes briefly in an attempt to ignore the voice.

She wasn't there, and it was normal for him to respond, and he was struggling to try and carefully tune her out again. He didn't want to look crazy, to the... Crazy child, though.

And that definitely confirmed the intellectually slow theory here, what from the slow talk and the full body twitch the man had just had and tried to hide, and Celia was starting to really wonder how a man that was that obviously mentally lacking had even survived to be as old as he was.

Must be sheltered.

"You can call us Celia, we have already introduced Nicholas to you. He is a goat and our friend. Noun, a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile" She felt that she should emphasize the friend thing, in case the man considered Nicholas a good meal. It would not be the first time she would have had to defend her goat from potential predators. Or insane men.