alanna

What's the score?

You're ahead by ten. How about you just let me have this one?

I'll let ya have shit... watch this—strike from behind the back!

Big Tooth—Big Tooth! My throat's smoldering!

Pour me a pint! A big one! Quick!

Lanns...

And a bottle of carrot soda!

A-Alanna?

You dropped your toothpick, Big Tooth—

Eww, don't put it back in your mouth! That's disgusting!

I-It's really her!

What's with that look like you just saw a ghost?

It's been a while. A whole year since you kicked that door in.

Really? That long? Give me that beer on the bar. I'm dying of thirst.

Ah—

You said you came back for a violation ticket?

Yeah, got an electronic ticket from the Rim Billiton Big Pillar Autonomous Prefecture Residential Management Council while I was working overtime at Rhodes Island.

Residential Management Council? When did that happen... never mind. Keep going.

The ticket said I had a 'non-compliant building' under my name, and it'd be torn down if I didn't pay the fine before the deadline!

What?

I know, right? I thought my old home was long gone!

We're surprised alright, but the most surprising thing is...

You eat and sleep on your truck, can't walk straight on solid ground, and even made a bet that you can go without leaving your truck an entire year except to go to the bathroom...

...But you have a house? How?

It was my mum and dad's. Well, I guess I inherited it, but I thought it'd collapsed ages ago. Even if it didn't, no way it's habitable after a Catastrophe.

But now you got a ticket...

So I came back in a hurry. What if the people who organized the evacuation were wrong? What if the Catastrophe didn't come at all?

If it's that important, why'd you come <i>here</i> first?

That might just be the smartest question to ever come out of your mouth, Big Tooth. Think about it. I gotta at least have a car if I'm gonna try to find the place after all these years, right?

Ah, gotcha. But you don't just want a car, you want someone to drive it for you, don't ya?

Of course. I never drive tired. Sounds like you're interested?

Alanna of the Barrenlands, the free spirit who drifts like the wind, has a secret den of her own? Of course I'm interested!

Deal! Righto, no time like the present. Let's get moving—

Potlid!

Yes?

Grab a few bottles of carrot soda from Big Tooth over there. No need to pay—he owes me. And make sure they're cold!

Heh, take as many as ya like. All good, girlie. Good health to ya.

Th-Thank you...

It's not on this map either?

Maybe the maps are too new... How could a big town like that just vanish from the map? It's only been a decade or so.

Well, we can't keep driving in circles. Anything else about the town that stands out, besides the Catastrophe?

Lemme think. There was a mine next to it, and the townsfolk all worked there.

That describes like 99% of the towns in Rim Billiton.

Were your mum and dad miners too, Lanns?

Well, not exactly. They worked <i>at</i> the mines, though. Mum was an accountant, and pops was a welder. Why?

Nothing, just that you've never talked about them before.

Wait... I think I remember this intersection!

Try taking a right.

Yeah, this is it! Keep going!

Judging by the road signs, this road's been worked on recently.

Maybe someone's still living here!

Alanna pokes her head out of the window, and forces her eyes open against the wind-borne dust.

A row of crooked rooftops appears on the horizon. Several pillars of smoke disperse in the air, covering the huts below in a smoky fog.

These crooked roofs, and this smell of cooking... that's the town I remember!

Maybe the Catastrophe Messengers were wrong.

It must be! Maybe it took a turn along the way and went somewhere else!

Look, Potlid, my home—

Whatcha doing, Potlid?

Seventeen.

Eighteen.

Nineteen...

I'm counting the Originium pillars on the side of the road.

I see a lot more Originium clusters and cracks in the ground here than in other areas...

Didn't Alanna say there used to be a mine here? That would explain it.

Just stop in front of those houses, Charlie.

Sure. Gotta fill up the water tank anyway.

This is the place, Potlid. There used to a lady here who made two-color cake on the edge of town... what was her name again?

She had a garden she took good care of, where she grew flowers she bought from distant markets.

But this doesn't look like a garden.

Yeah, sure doesn't...

Hey, don't step on my buds!

A-Aunt Susan?

Who ya callin' yer aunt?!

Just stop moving! You've already stomped on three of my beets!

I-I'm sorry! I thought you were someone else.

You know how hard it is to find an unpolluted piece of farmland in this hellhole? You'd better pay up, outsider!

Outsider...

What's going on here?

The hose's connected, but it's gonna take a whole hour to fill... That's one huge water tank you've got there.

Thanks. Here, have a pack of smokes.

Didn't expect there to be an auto repair shop in this town. Guess this place is pretty well-connected.

Connected my arse. Can't buy a toothpick out here. Everything's gotta be brought in by car, so of course we take good care of 'em.

I only came here 'cause I was sick of being a mechanic. How was I supposed to know I'd be stuck back at my old job?

You moved here? So you're not from this town?

Can you really call this dump a 'town'? You couldn't find dirt if you dug six feet under. It's all broken bricks and rotten wood.

No one would be here if the higher-ups weren't promising a big subsidy for some stupid 'environmental improvement' project.

Look at all that Originium scrap under your feet. It's only been, what, ten, twenty years since the Catastrophe. It's barely livable.

...Did a Catastrophe really hit this place?

None of the old houses are left?

Nothing but a bunch of scrap that couldn't be sold.

(On the way here, I thought I might find someone I knew, some kind of trace from my memory.)

(The Originium crystal clusters, the cracks in the ground, and even the broken tiles under my feet... they tell me all I need to know.)

(The Messengers were right. The Catastrophe came. My home... is gone.)

Are you alright, Lanns?

Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm good.

You've been staring at that hill.

Was your house on the other side?

Yeah... never mind. Just being silly.

Alanna sighs and rubs her own face.

Then she shrugs and goes back to being her bright and sunny self.