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Once, a long time ago, violence was used as a last resort to quiet down drunk assholes. Now, if you don't pick up a gun you could get thrown into a pit and be forced to fight to the death. That's what happened to Rivers, the one time she chooses to spare someone she ends up in the death pit. To be fair she didn't think the guy in the blue Pac-Man hoodie would be part of the Highwaymen, or any gang for that matter. He just didn't look like the type, but that lapse in judgment is what ended her up in the death pit, to the chagrin of the assholes that put her there she just wouldn't die.
Were there close calls? Yes. Too many times where all it took was a second delay and her blood would be all over the floor. Yet she kept on living anyway. Rivers thought that she could just fight her way out, that they would run out of prisoners or goons eventually and they'd have to get tired of her winning all the time. Of course, that's what didn't happen, she somehow gained a reputation and people started coming just to see her fight. In a past life maybe this would have been rewarding, maybe she would have quit her job at the sheriff's office and spent her time in sports. Maybe to whoever came to watch her fight thought that this was a sport, to gamble on with scrap (because money means nothing when the bomb drops), to see her win. To Rivers, she just wanted to get the fuck out of here!
Rivers has fought a wide range of people over her time in the pit. Mostly either prisoners the Highwaymen or their goons who wanted to take a swing at her. A good chunk of them lost, sometimes the Pac-Man guy would tell her to spare them, and sometimes the bald guy with the prosthetic arm told her to kill them anyway. Until one day a strange opponent got into the ring, some sort of cat girl. It was an all-out brawl so Rivers didn't see her until everyone else was dead or unconscious. She was hiding behind one of those giant workout tires (of course it was plastered with bullet holes), although once she noticed Rivers standing there that didn't stop her from attacking.
She'll be honest, the cat girl wasn't any good. A miracle she survived the bloodbath that just happened. She didn't want to hurt the girl, she was lost and scared just like she was when she first got here. Although when she first got here she could at least throw a punch. And the strangest thing happened, the prosthetic guy let the girl live... and put her in Rivers holding cell. So now she had a roommate, which at least she wouldn't be lonely, but now that meant she had someone to look after. Her name was Niki and if anything happened to her Rivers would make them pay.
"Stop moving you'll make it bleed more."
Wouldn't be the first time Rivers was shot. It also wouldn't be the first time Niki dressed her wounds in the dark of their holding cell. Don't get her wrong, it hurt like a bitch every time, it makes her miss the days when doctors and hospitals were still a thing.
"I'm fine."
"No you're not, stay still."
A part of her wanted to fight back and say how she really was fine, but she couldn't bring herself to fight back this time. So she laid there, in mostly the dark, while Niki did her best to pull the pieces out. In times like these, she wondered how exactly she got here. What happened in her life that brought her to this damn place, and why does Niki put up with her? And River thinks about all the people she'll never get to see again because they're probably all dead. Her family, parents, her fellow deputies at the sheriff's office, ... Pepito.
That last one stung, and it wasn't because Niki just took out a big piece of the bullet in her shoulder. Where was her son now? Was he okay? Are his fathers taking care of him? Who is watching him? Was it a mistake to leave him there- she stopped the spiral of questions before it got too bad. She did what she had to do, otherwise, they would have killed Pepito and he deserved a safe life with good people who could keep him safe. Maybe when she gets out of the death pit she'll go see him, but it's been years hasn't it? He would have to be at least six now. She wondered what he liked, after which one of his fathers he looked like (would it be obvious who the father was or would that forever be a mystery?), and whether there were other kids his age for him to play with.
Sometimes Niki started to purr out of instinct, an instinct she couldn't really explain but Rivers didn't mind it. She vaguely remembers one of the deputies telling her that cats purring can prevent heart attacks and reduce stress. The whole cat thing was something Niki kept under lock and key, she didn't really talk about it. It wasn't normal by any means but maybe that's what happens when radiation gets to you. Hell Rivers has certainly seen weirder shit in this new world of theirs. But Rivers let Niki purr and she focused on dressing the wound.
Rivers never told Niki about Pepito, she didn't need to know about that part of her life yet. She trusted Niki but not like that, it was a friendship of convenience so that they both get to live. Maybe one day she would tell her about him, once she trusts her more when they get out of here... if they even stay together.
When a semi-truck barrels into the side of a death pit was the escape they weren't expecting but they gladly took the way out. She didn't know who was driving, she didn't know if this was some fucked up game set by the Highwaymen, she just knew to run. To grab Niki's hand and fucking run. She didn't stop to memorize the details of it all, it happened so fast. At some point, Niki let go of her hand and she panicked, only for Niki to return at her side with a gun she picked off a goon's corpse.
The thing about henchmen and goons is that most of the time they are randos who aren't very good fighters. People who get bossed around and given a gun with very little training on how to use it. Good for Rivers, bad for them. It was so easy to overpower them and use their weapons against them. Before Niki, she probably would have just killed them, now she just wacks them over the head with their own weapon. The crack of a skull breaking open with the butt of their rifle was a sound she was all too familiar with. She could swear she heard a faint tune of a music box.
She was ready for a fight, a brawl, and when she realized that they weren't even focused on her, the escaping prisoner... fuck it. She ran. The further into the woods they got, the sounds of guns and screams started to die out. Until they were alone. The anxiety made them nervous, and hyper-attentive to any small sound they heard. And it was a forest so there were a lot of small rustles to go around. When it came down to it the only sounds Rivers could focus on were her heartbeat and Niki's ragged breathing. Why hasn't she taken off yet?
"We can't stay here." By instinct, she grabbed Niki's hand and started walking. And she was certain that this would be the moment Niki would realize that she could run away, go anywhere else, and leave her alone.
Niki squeezed her hand. "Okay," she said, "I'll follow you."
That was the last thing Rivers expected to happen, but she was happy anyway. She trusted Niki, she wanted to have her around. And she hoped that sparing her wouldn't lead to another death pit.
Then Rivers realized that she had no idea where she was going. It's been so long since she has seen what the world outside looked like. With its strange colors painting the late afternoon sky, pure white dear with strange yellow eyes glancing at them before running away. They were free, yes, but she had no idea where to go. No idea where anyone was or where Pepito could be. What a deputy she was, can't even remember the land she's supposed to serve.
"I think there's a farm up the hill over there." Niki's voice broke the silence. "Across the river."
And she trusted her.
How different things were now compared to a few months ago. How different things were now compared to seventeen years ago! It was unclear how much time had passed since the breakout at the pit, a month or so perhaps she wasn't sure. Niki still hasn't run off, although that may be because they were dating now. Or maybe past that? Defining relationships after society collapses is difficult, and who really cares? She is happier than she was a year ago, besides getting her freedom back.
Turns out Niki knew a lot more of the land than she let on, taking her all across the valley. Avoiding Highwaymen and whatever crazy people let them out of the pit in the first place. A good chunk of their travels was through forests of some kind. Trying to find an abandoned home to bunker down in, or at the very least hide in a tree. Mostly trying to avoid the mutated animals because, well, for some fucking reason they're stronger now. Not like they wanted to mess with animals anyway but they can never seem to catch a break, but anything is better than the death pit.
Sometimes on their journies, they would see people running around with bows and arrows and covered in furs. Niki always made it a point to hide from them, even though they probably already saw them. Once when they were resting in a tree, Rivers asked about them. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Niki told her, "what they're like."
But Rivers was willing to believe anything at this point. "Tell me."
"They're a..." Rivers could tell she was struggling to find the word. "Cult."
And her heart dropped, and the sound of a music box reentered her mind. But Niki kept talking. "They call themselves 'New Eden' and they live up north. After the world ended they swore off all modern technology, I think they burn anything they find."
It was almost funny how different they are now compared to back then. "And they have this tree," Niki continued, "This tree and the fruit makes you stronger that's why... that's why I'm like this."
Rivers was trying very hard to keep herself together. "When I found them I had no idea what would happen, I thought they were just crazy. I was alone and they offered it to me, and... I didn't think I would, be like this. They were just trying to help me, they're not bad people just-"
"They are very bad people." Rivers cut her off, the music in her mind getting too loud to bear. "You weren't there when it happened. They caused all of this. Look what they did to you! What they did to us!"
What they did to us. She hated him, she hated them, all of them, every last one. She was jumping ahead, all evidence that Niki gave that it could be them was the name 'Eden'. Anyone could name their cult that. Anyone. Right?
"Us?"
"Who leads them?" It was blunt, it was to the point, but she needed to know.
"What do you mean 'what they did to us'?"
"Answer the question," she was pushing it, "please."
Niki thought for a moment. "I think his name is Roier." Roier? No. The name was vaguely familiar but not hers. But Niki kept talking, "But he's just temporary, he's trying to find someone else. I think her name was... what was it? Jaiden?"
Fuck.
"Roier said she vanished a while before I showed up."
"stop." She hated how weak she sounded. The music got louder.
"That's why they're going so far out of their territory, they're looking for her. I think there was a rumor that a crow man is sheltering her-"
"She should be dead! Her and her family, all of them!" She didn't want to yell at her. "You weren't there, what she did to everyone!" She would rather yell about anything else, anything at all, why did it have to be her? "Jaiden is a monster, you don't know what she did. She hurt us." She was struggling to find the words.
And she was certain that Niki would up and leave at that point. She probably would too if she was getting yelled at about the people who helped her. Rivers knows that cult, they don't help anyone besides themselves. They take people and they use them and then they break them. There were times in the pit, before Niki, that she could swear she heard his voice. How she is nothing more than meat and how the strong must kill the weak. She hated them. She hated them so much.
What she wasn't expecting was a hug, and soft promises and purring. Words of affirmation that she believed her, how she wasn't going to let anyone hurt them anymore, how she wanted to know more of what she had been through. And Rivers started explaining. She talked and talked for hours until there was nothing left to say about them. She talked into the night: the warrant, the arrest, the helicopter crash, how she was separated from her team, what happened to her at the veterans center, how the rookie came to help her, and she went to help him put an end to the cult once and for all. And the bomb. And how that rookie, Cellbit, left her to die in that car.
And that's when she learned Cellbit was living with the cult now. Now she has a chip on her shoulder. And she swore to herself, to Niki, to Pepito, that she was not going to rest until justice had finally been served. Kill Jaiden, beat the shit out of Cellbit, and end this bullshit once and for all.
"You don't need to help me," she told Niki, "I don't want you to die for this."
"I don't want you to die either, and you're not going to. Because I'm going to help you."
Rivers had always been a fighter. Fighting for the law, her fellow deputies, for Niki and her son, and fighting against the cultists. Seventeen years later she's still trying to fight them... and she was really getting tired of this shit.