Ashes of Harran - silent promises I

Spike and Kyle Crane

Spike hadn't left Harran voluntarily, he had survived it and he had endured it. That was a difference he felt with every step he took in the dust of the outside world. The city that had torn the skin off his back for years and yet given him a reason to get up in the morning was behind him. He still carried its smell under his fingernails and the memories of it like scars on his skin. He had survived because he had never stopped functioning. He kept the thing running long after all hope was gone. But eventually, even the most reliable mechanism reached its end, and he broke when he realized there was no saving what he wanted to protect. Crane had been the one person who not only did what was necessary but went above and beyond. The relationship between the two men had to grow and flourish first, which was quite difficult in a world where you just had to function, and it took a long time for Spike to see and recognize the real Kyle Crane, not just the runner who did everything he was told, who put his head on the line for everything and everyone and didn't shy away from doing the dirty work, while Spike organized, structured, and controlled much from his tower.

The madness of Harran had consumed him, just as it had consumed everyone who risked too much. But Spike had never resigned himself to the idea that someone like Crane would simply... disappear. Not without a trace and not without an answer. A kind of stubborn loyalty had taken root in him when he left the shadows of Harran behind. Crane had made his life easier back then, and Spike wasn't the type to forget something like that. So he set out to find him, because some promises are made silently, between chaos and survival, and Spike was one of the last people who still took such things seriously. Spike hadn't expected to meet anyone else who reminded him of Crane, but Aiden came into his life, a pilgrim with scars beneath his skin that reminded him of his own and Crane's. They met at one of those abandoned outposts, a little way outside Harran. Spike had just finished checking his equipment when he noticed the stranger. Aiden moved differently than Crane, announced himself more cautiously and almost naively, and seemed to place far too much trust in strangers, but he also had that constructive toughness and a pedantic will to live, something else he had seen in Crane, and it was easier to navigate this world in the company of others than alone.

At first, it was pure pragmatism. Two survivors, two goals that crossed paths. Spike needed someone to help him get ahead, someone who knew the new routes, the cities where there was still life. And Aiden needed someone who could fix things,  equipment, power lines, traps, things that kept him alive. They helped each other, and Spike taught the younger man not to trust everyone immediately and gave him the mental tools to help others and teach them to help themselves. They were on the road for a long time, weeks... months... maybe even years, and something like friendship developed that had taken a long time to emerge and turned the two from practical companions into companions. When Aiden finally told him where he was going, Spike knew that his path might intersect with Crane's fate there. If there were answers anywhere, it was there. The GRE's signature was visible everywhere, even in the outskirts of the city and in the nature that surrounded it. Spike was not yet ready to open himself up completely to this city, the wounds ran too deep, and he was not yet ready to accept further disappointment, which is why the two parted ways and Spike visited other places, searching for signs, creating a small home for himself in the woods and returning there again and again in the hope of finding information from Villedor. But Aiden did not return, and from a distance, Spike could see the city burning again and again.

Time passed, and he was now ready to move on, but then he suddenly felt this damned city tugging at him, inviting him to take a closer look. A letter, or rather a note, was stuck to his wooden door.

Crane is alive, he's i_ Ville_or. S_b__t_tion...

It was Aiden's handwriting, but the words were barely legible, so Spike had to improvise. Kyle was alive, information that gave him a sense of inner peace for the first time in a long time, even bringing a smile to his full lips. He grabbed his backpack, reached the city, and set out on his search while trying to get used to the new circumstances. He was like a shadow fighting his way from day to day until he finally, by chance, followed a trail of blood that led to a substation. It had already dried and was a little old, but the shoe print matched what Crane always wore on his feet, and the size was identical. Well... many men had big feet, but Kyle stood out from most of them in every respect, with his stature and, above all, his presence. Spike felt that very presence as he climbed through the broken window and looked around the premises. Everything screamed Kyle Crane, even if it was only obvious to those who knew him. Tools were not just lying around carelessly but were placed so that they could be quickly accessed in an emergency. Even the way the windows had been secured, rather half-heartedly but with a clear focus on escape routes, spoke volumes. This wasn't just Crane's way of protecting himself..  it was his way of thinking, a distinctive trait. And Spike knew immediately that if Crane had actually created a place like this, it meant he was on the run, injured, or on a mission, and it meant he was actually alive. How should he approach him? How should he announce himself to avoid a fight? Spike initially thought about it strategically because he didn't know what condition Crane was in, but then he dismissed it. He took the risk of encountering a monster, but then that was a fate he would accept, because the search for the former Runner was ultimately the only thing Spike had left, the only thing that kept him alive.

He waited...