“Something tells me I’ll enjoy the show,” Lara said, crossing her arms. “At least, I’ll hope to. So what do you call your little settlement up there?”
“I don’t think we’ve exactly named it beyond calling it home,” Thom admitted. “I gave it a really terrible name once, when we were facing down some raiders, but it was just something to call it in the heat of that moment.”
She smirked. “What was it?”
Thom smiled sheepishly. “It was really bad.”
“New Hope,” J.T. said, shaking his head. “Could’ve been much worse than that, Thom.”
“Could’ve,” Thom agreed, grinning at J.T. before he looked back at Lara. “What about here? Still calling it Holland?”
“Actually, we were thinking about calling it Hope,” Lara said. “Of course, that was before most of us got wiped out.” She shook her head and sighed. “I begin to wonder if naming places is still important.”
“It is,” Cameron said quietly. “It has to be. It’s not enough that we keep a sense of self, but we need to have a sense of place—of where we come from, where our home is.”
Lara arched a brow. “It needs a name for that?”
“I feel like it does,” Cameron said quietly. “A place can only be nameless for so long. I mean…eventually, people begin to ask where you come from. You could say “Oh, I live in the ruins of the old university north of here.” Or you could give a name. A name feels more permanent.”
“More real?” Seamus suggested.
Cameron looked at him, then nodded slightly. “Yeah. More real.”
Thom smiled wryly. “That’s something we’ll have to talk about when we get home, then.”
“You assume someone back home hasn’t already come up with something, Thom.”
He glanced toward J.T. and grinned. “If someone has, then it makes our job easier. I just wish they’d shared it with the class.”
Good idea, naming the homestead/fort they live in. It adds a solidness to the present and future.
Thanks for another update. I do so like this story.
I wonder if they can work the name into the wards as one more anchor for them?