Marcus shot Lex a look, which the other didn’t know to reciprocate, so he just stood there looking a mix of confused and catty. “We were actually lamenting about that,” Marcus interjected before his brother could say anything. “We barter extra supplies for parts, and finding supplies in a 25 mile radius of this place is rare these days.” The speeder could no doubt take them 25 miles or further on what little fuel it had in the tank, but it couldn’t get them back; that aside, they needed that fuel to run the engine and get that nice and hot so they could bear the cold. They were pretty much stuck.<br/><br/>Lex used to be their bread-winner. Their father worked in Venture Corp’s Research and Development division, overseeing the development of Realians of all varieties, from transgenic types to ones with more combat-oriented purposes. Needless to say, he was one of the first ones to die when the Song hit. It hadn’t been a<span style="font-style: italic">song</span>, per se; experts told them that it was a radio frequency that wasn’t audible on the human level. No one knew where it came from or what happened - no one could even hear it. But the Realians did. Marcus could vividly remember watching Realians in the street clapping their hands over their ears, screaming about the noise when there was no noise to scream about.<br/><br/>That night was also the last time that their mother was lucid. She was still alive, if only due to the intense measures that they took to keep her healthy and as content as possible. She didn’t talk anymore, and her muscles had atrophied quite considerably from lack of movement, but she was all they had left. After she was rendered inept, something that Lex adamantly attributed to the Song, he took to his medical practice, treating survivors who could afford to pay him in rations or supplies, and some survivors who couldn’t. Losing his sight was a devastating blow to his pride and their source of makeshift income.<br/><br/>Now it was a struggle to make it day to day, let alone support Marcus’ rather expensive hobby.<br/><br/>“Is that what you do, then?” Lex asked rather abruptly. “Opportunity-seeking?”