Alex Reid

31, Someday, Alex will find his brother, but until then he's biding his time, secretly using the city's resources to gather supplies, and planning to leave when the time is right.

[alexanderreid-blog]

Alexander Reid Moodboard 1/?

[anxstatia]

                  “Then why do you do it?” She mused curiously, before                   pushing herself off the wall, “Well, I found the usual.                   Old unused tech. Most probably damaged. Some jewelry,                   some clothes, and—-” She stopped as she dug into                   her messenger bag, “I actually found a diary. It seemed                   pretty fresh too. Like someone who’s recently went insane,                   fresh.” Ana announced almost reluctantly as she handed it                   to him, “It’s been fun to read.”

[alexanderreid-blog]

“Why? Because not working in this city is a great way to get myself banished.” As much as he acted like he hated his job, it really could have been worse. In the city, he was far more comfortable than he was during his time outside the wall. “Should we really be reading—- “ he stopped himself as he took the diary and turned it over in his hands. If its owner was now out of their mind, what was the harm in reading it? It was like that whole Anne Frank deal. “Anything to identify the writer?”

[gabrielwynne-blog]

He leaned in and whispered into the other man’s ear. “I thoroughly plan to earn these, promise.” He stepped back with a laugh and moved back to his original place leaning against the other table.

[alexanderreid-blog]

The space was a relief, because there were certain things Alex really shouldn’t be doing or even thinking about while at work. Not that it would be the first time. If walls could talk...

He chose to turn away from Gabe, in an effort to keep his mind off the past, and put on his best totally-unaffected voice. “So, when are you planning to leave so I can get back to work?” Alex said as he vaguely motioned toward a tray of unidentified bones that sat in the corner.

[kiycong-blog]

“No, you’re right.” Ethan agreed, kicking his leg and jumping away from his own shadow: in the corner of his eyes it had looked like a huge arachnid –– honestly it was just his mind playing tricks on him. “I– I mean, not that I mind the job, it’s real easy. Digging up stuff seems dangerous, what if you find a poisonous object. Or worse, a bomb. What if more of those things go off?” His mask muffled his voice yet Ethan kept babbling. “I dropped out of school. That was a choice.” 

[alexanderreid-blog]

He chose to ignore Ethan’s flailing, because at this point he was used to it. “The aftershocks of the large bombs already set off any live ones around the world. And I’m very careful. Anything sharp or deadly that could poison me gets picked up with the special gloves,” he nodded toward a pile of supplies where his super-thick rubber gloves sat, almost entirely unused because he wasn’t quite as careful as he’d like the kid to believe.

[anxstatia]

                   Ana giggled as she watched him dance to tuneless silence,

                  “You might want to get your language correct, miláčku.”                    She held her hand out in demand for the bottle,                    “Well, are you going to share?”

[alexanderreid-blog]

“Mila- what?” Still dancing, he first turned his eyes full of confusion to Ana, then his bottle of whiskey that had taken him a long time to save up to trade for. “What will I get out of it?”

[wcstlcys]

“You’re still a lightweight, don’t think you can handle your booze as well as you think you can.”

[alexanderreid-blog]

“If I was drunk, could I do this?” He poorly executed a complex dance move that ended with him flat on his face, so he took another drink, “Fuck, this stuff is stronger than it used to be.”

[jaggerwinston-blog]

“Yeah sure. Goodluck trying to remember whatever you do today, in the morning.”

[alexanderreid-blog]

“Then tonight is a night for doing shit I normally couldn’t!” He sat down quickly, leaning a little too much on Jagger, because everything was spinning, “Wanna make some memories I’ll regret forgetting in the morning?”

[saskiavcss-blog]

      “I’m not sure how good of company I’ll be.” Saskia mumbled at the other, dead eyes staring straight on. It’d been a solid two days and that she was sure sleep had only come to her for two hours. Spending most of her time working, excessively at that, it left little time to take care of herself and it showed.

[alexanderreid-blog]

“You all right?” The girl looked like someone had hit her with a bus, and Alex would be lying if he said he didn’t know exactly how she felt. Lately, he’d been sleeping in his office, at his desk, trying his hardest to actually have something to show for the work he’d been doing.

[alexanderreid-blog]

“I’m not as think as you drunk I am.”

[kiycong-blog]

The younger smiled as he picked up a couple of the useless rocks, piling them into a wheelbarrow. He had a surgical mask around his face, hoping not to inhale the dust. “You picked it, didn’t you?” He certainly didn’t choose to work with rocks but there was barely anything better suited to him. He was seated a few metres away, only standing to retrieve the rocks and place them in the barrow before he took a seat again and waited for more. “I agree though, we’re never going back.”

[alexanderreid-blog]

Alex had initially rolled his eyes at the boy and his mask, but now just accepted it as one of his many quirks. Another one of which being his tendency to do as little work as possible. “I didn’t choose this. I passed out beyond the wall, woke up here, and was given the only job similar to the years of schooling I’ve had. Clearly you didn’t choose rocks.”

[anxstatia]

                “ I’d certainly be depressed too if I had to sift through old,

                   damaged crap all day.” Ana had her arms crossed over                    her chest, leaning her back against the all.                                    “You’re really wasting your time. –                                     We’re all going to go lunatic in the end.”

[alexanderreid-blog]

“I’m glad someone finally agrees. Thank you,” he smiled, wondering if she’d brought him anything good this time. Such was the nature of their relationship. She scouted, he collected, and occasionally others traded with him. “So, find anything new? I know I haven’t.”

[mcmarlenes]

Catching the phone, she turned it over in her hands. It should have felt familiar, but didn’t. Then again, instead of an infinite network of communication and information it was just dead weight. “Gives you something to do,” she replied with a shrug. “They want people to have hope and thinking that we’re getting somewhere gives people hope even if it’s fabricated.”

[alexanderreid-blog]

“Ah, fabricated hope. It’s something we’ve been doing since the dawn of time, so at least I’ve been trained to study how humans have reacted to that.” He didn’t look back up from the dirt where he dug, his brow creased with concentration. He’d reached something large in the ground and couldn’t identify it just yet. “So, what about you? Still optimistic?”

[taylordausin-blog]

“Hey, I know how to handle myself.” Sophia squinted her eyes for just a moment before retreating her gun from her back and proceeded to check how many rounds she had. “Alright, I’m good. Let’s go.” She smile.

[alexanderreid-blog]

Alex grabbed a crowbar, his go-to form of defense, and stepped carefully around where he’d been digging. “Just don’t expect me to save your ass if something gets mad at us for inspecting its lunch.” Scout or not, the girl looked fragile.

[gabrielwynne-blog]

Gabriel walked toward Alex until he was standing way too close for the other man’s comfort. “All of them, thanks,” he said almost sarcastically as he took the cigarettes from his hand and stuffed them in his pocket. 

[alexanderreid-blog]

“I hope you plan to earn those this time,” he took a slight step backwards, hoping to escape. However, there was another shelving unit in his way and he didn’t go very far.

[deceivingxlarson]

Seeing the Archaeologist move about, he did have a right to move about with his things. However being a smart ass was Axel’s job not his. “Oh, is it that time off the clock for you?”

[alexanderreid-blog]

Alex sighed at the continued conversation that was keeping him from leaving, “Listen, it’s quitting time and I’m sure you have better things to do. If you let me go, I’ll, uh,” he surveyed the items in his hands, “give you a steering wheel or something.” Anything to get the hell out of there before he ended up talking himself into trouble.

[darkestxryder-deactivated201704]

She revealed only what she wanted, everything else had to remain on the back burner. Ryleigh was a tough girl, knowing when to keep her emotions at bay. Looking back at Alexander, she sighed “I’ll be sure to see if any of the Scouts can find that among their travels. Fruit, sounds good. Plant life, any sign that this isn’t all that is left.” she dusted her fingers. Wondering what else he finds “Being an archaeologist everything you wanted to be?”

[alexanderreid-blog]

He would kill to see a tree in bloom. Or maybe even just an apple that wasn’t freeze-dried and in a vacuum sealed bag. Something fresh and alive, because then maybe he’d start feeling alive again too. “It’s not. I aspired to be the guy that studies ancient civilizations, long since dead. Not dig up things from a few years ago that I was alive to witness. It’s surreal, you know?”

[jaggerwinston-blog]

His only response to their flying cars topic was a grunt, something he knew Alex would let pass. That’s how these two men communicated most of the time anyways. When he heard Alex make that intonation in his voice one makes when standing up, Jagger went over to the edge of the hole Alex had been digging on and took a peek. He immediately regretted it as he found himself clueless of whatever was going down there. He didn’t like being clueless. He wasn’t a brilliant kid in school. He was always average. He didn’t need to be reminded of that now. “Above anything else, yeah. I need a hard one. After seeing this.”

[alexanderreid-blog]

Alex reached up and pulled himself out of the hole, almost reaching out to put a hand against Jagger to steady himself, but thinking better of it at the last moment. The time he’d spent outside the wall had removed the touchy-feely part of him and he’d learned quickly to stay outside people’s personal bubbles unless invited. A drink, or ten, would help. “Ah, tis the nature of our new lives: witness something horrible, and then drink to forget. I think it’s a pretty successful process.”