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Braeden finished his cigarette, flicking it at Tsurai's chest, exhaling nonchalantly. "Kid, what do you want from me, huh? You want to die? Because it can be arranged. Real easy. Without your guard dog around, I could tear your limbs off. Even if you had your arm." He laughed a little, shaking his head. "******** crazy.. You ARE Brian's kid."

Braeden laughed. "How old are you? Sixteen?" He couldn't recall the years. Before the fall he had abused marijuana so profusely that his long term memory was beginning to blend together and suffer for it. "That's normal for kids your age. You sure he's gonna be okay down there by himself?"

He laughed again. "I take what you give me, kid. I figured if I was mean to you, you'd run to mama and have him solve your problems. Whaddya know, it worked." He refolded his legs uncomfortably, bones creaking. "And cigarettes don't do s**t as far as that goes."

He shrugged. "It's a poor replacement for pot, but whatcha gonna do? I'd rather drink water than feed it to a marijuana plant." He yawned, shaking his head back and forth, watching people mill about. "You're lucky. We just did spring cleaning."

Braeden shook his head back and forth. "Look, kid. I don't know if it's a Denzien thing, or not. But I got a belief that the strong should live and the weak should die. I dunno if your buddy's real talkative about it.. but that big wave tattoo down his shoulder, the great migration? They ate their fallen comrades there, too. They had to. So do we, huh? Why let the elderly or the sick suck up resources, when they have nothing to contribute? They give more dead than alive. And I figure I'll know before I become too weak to be of use, and make my way out of here, out where I can die alone." He shrugged, as though cannibalism was logically infallible. "There aren't any hospitals around here kid. Once you're gone, you're gone. That's how it was hundreds of years before the bomb, and that's what it's gonna be like for hundreds of years afterward. Die or deal with it."

He laughed. "Tastes like pork. Y'know, the gamy kind you get real cheap. Depends on how old they were and how much muscle mass they have, really." He watched Tsurai's face, expecting him to either gag or choke back a gag.

"I think he's dangerous, and I think you're edible if you don't pull you're weight. That's why. That what you wanted to hear?" The same smile hung on his lips. It was hard to tell if he was joking.

Braeden recrossed his legs again, licking his lips slowly. "If I killed you, you think he'd do any work? Nah. It's better to have the threat hovering over his head. You bein' down there would be a good reminder. Kid, think for a second before you talk, huh?"