Arthur stepped off the vehicle and looked around a little before turning to Gary as he began rummaging through his pockets.
"So, what is this place? There are a ton of vehicles here either from Earth or outfitted to look like it."
Gary turned to look up at the man, his single eye matching his gaze.
"Before Earth was turned into a wasteland, some say it was a lovely place to live and start a family, a lot of people wanted a place like that. Some place safe and untouched by the markers of greed. So they started a semi self-sufficient settlement out here in the boonies, the only large scale businesses are ran by the Front and they are more than willing to adhere to that wish."
"Is that why you are here?"
Spite washed over Gary's face.
"No, in case you forgot I can't have kids, I was just in the right place at the right time. After the fall of the Valahis a lot of people were displaced and started this place, taking over the pieces of shits businesses and creating a place for people who were, marginalized, brutalized, and so on. The Front was just kind enough to allow this, pity I guess. We were just lucky the Valahis hadn't discovered the more... beneficial forms of creating energy."
"Human batteries?"
Gary nodded. A deep shadow of sadness coming across his face.
"I still consider myself lucky compared to them, those poor bastards live to be conduits for the larger corpo-capitalist shitbags."
Arthur looked around some more, it was a nice place, small buildings and workshops littered the streets with large overhangs for stalls selling various merchandise. There were all kinds of people and aliens wandering around, using sign language to communicate their needs and goods to each other.
The need for sign language arose from the first contact humans had with an alien species, they met on a planet couple thousand years ago, and neither species had the proper vocal cords to communicate with each other. Luckily, one of the human's was deaf and recognized the aliens did have thumbs, and taught them sign language to bridge the vocal gap created by their different evolutions. Arthur remembered learning about it in a school when he was a child and how he became wildly interested in exploring the vast universe and meeting the different kinds of aliens.
Scratching his face, he turned back to Gary, looking at the short man.
"I'm sure you can meet someone here kind enough to look past the modifications done to you Gary. Have you tried?"
Gary looked at Arthur, surprise and a little embarrassment covering his face.
"Shut the fuck up Arthur."
Arthur's eyebrow perked up at the corner.
"I'm being serious, Gary, you could at least try, it saddens me that you think of yourself as a monster, and I'm sure others feel the same."
Gary shook his head and turned away from Arthur, walking towards the crowd of people. Arthur followed him, pushing his hands into his pockets, he couldn't help but feel the stares of people as he was still without shoes and a shirt; he knew he wasn't anything special but he took pride in his physique. While not particularly muscular you could still the outlines of his abdominal muscles and his biceps were nothing to scoff at. Arthur caught himself staring at himself in a mirror, and turned away. His eyes were the same color as the man who took him.
Gary led them over to a stall with a woman standing behind it, she was a bit older, her hair a lovely brown with gray poking through the deep color in some spots, it was tied back into a bun, revealing the lines drawn upon her angular face. Her eyes were a light green, with hints of blue and she wore a light blue dress. Arthur squatted and whispered to Gary.
"I thought you hadn't seen humans since you were a kid?"
Gary turned to stare at the man, a hint of confusion in his eye.
"I'm virtually blind Arthur, besides, she's human?"
Arthur shook his head and stood back up, signing to the older woman.
"Do you speak English?"
She shook her head and signed back.
"My daughter does but I've forgotten."
"That's quite alright, we will continue like this then. Do you have anything that you think would fit me?"
She pointed towards a pile of neatly folded plaid shirts.
"These should dear, they aren't expensive either."
Arthur looked over the shirts, trying to find one that would at least match his pants. He landed on one that was green with black stripes. He put it on and turned Gary.
"How do I look dear?"
Gary looked him up and down, visibly annoyed at Arthurs tone.
"You look like an idiot, and don't call me that you oversized piece of shit."
Arthur turned back to the woman.
"Do you have any shoes or boots? Some socks would be great as well."
Shaking her head, she pointed a bit further down the street at a taller alien.
"That man over there should have some, just be wary, he can be a bit temperamental."
Arthur looked at Gary as he pulled a small device from his pocket and inputted some numbers, the older woman pulled her own device out; she reached across the table and tapped it on Gary's, presumably to transfer credits for the purchase. Arthur waited for it to go through, and when it did he followed Gary over to the shoemaker. The larger alien was lanky, fur covering his skin like blanket, it was jet black with openings for his hand and face. He was almost twice Arthurs size and looked frustrated. He began signing too fast for Arthur to understand.
"Sir, please slow down, I can barely understand what you a-"
"What the hell do you want?"
"I was going to say shoes and socks but if you are going to act like this, I'm not sure you deserve my business."
The large ape of an alien let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes, his other arm reached out and grabbed Arthur by the shoulder. His grip tightened for a moment before he pulled his hand back and began signing.
"Apologies, small man. I'm just not having a great day, the prices are set, just wash off your feet before you put anything on."
The alien turned away from him and began unloading boxes of filled to the brim with shoes, it became clear to Arthur that the man before him was a merchant; and a poor one at that, on closer inspect his jacket was full of holes and he didn't have shoes either. Arthur looked at him inquisitively.
"What seems to be the problem friend, anything I can help with?"
Gary looked at him clearly, bothered by his prying but didn't say anything, he was curious about it too. The alien turned back, a dark expression souring his ape-like features.
"It turns out there are still some Valahis left here, they've been attempting to raid us for weeks, I haven't slept in days, can't you see the bags under my eyes?"
"Yeah now that I take a closer look."
He could not.
Arthur looked at Gary, who was shaking slightly, his hands unsteady and beads of sweat climbing their way down his temple. His eye was wide and darting around, scanning the crowd in cold terror. Arthur reached down and placed a hand on his shoulder without saying a word, hoping to bring some comfort to the poor soul.
"Where?"
The alien paused for a moment, rolling over the question in his mind.
"Why do you want to know?"
Arthur answered without looking away from Gary.
"To avoid them. I think my friend here would prefer that."
The alien stepped out from behind the table and walked toward the middle of the street and pointed at the mountain range off in the distance; one of the mountains looked as if one of the top had pierced into the heavens and been forcefully snapped off. It was still the tallest, but it had clearly at one point been much larger.
"Thanks for the warning."
Arthur turned away from the alien and began looking through the different shoes on the table, it was covered in an assortment of boots, sneakers, high-heels with no particular method of sorting the mess. He reached down and scratched off as much of the mud as he could from his feet, he couldn't get it all but at least he wouldn't ruin the shoes. Grabbing a pair of socks, he pulled one on and tried on a rubber military style boot, it was bulky but would survive for a while before needing either replacing or repairing. He took a step forward and could tell it fit perfectly, after pulling on the other sock and boot Gary took a step forward, pulling out the small device once again. Arthur walked back to the middle of the street and looked at the mountain, a dark, almost menacing look crawled across his face.