Even though it had only been a week of travel, all of the new adults felt like they had been traveling for months.  Seeing the Nightmares on the top was a draining experience for them.  Before this trip, they “knew” that there weren’t monsters like this in the world.  The stories were just to keep them from going to the top and frying under the deadly sunlight.  Or at least that’s what they thought even at the beginning of the trip.  None of them were left doubting that the top could be deadly anymore.  This was a good trip for the Scouts, all of the new adults had survived and they were now just a bit wiser for it.  They would all question every story they had ever heard as children and would give heed to even the most insane and impossible of them.  The Nightmares were probably the most common creature they had all heard about and right now they seemed far more awful than the stories told.  Any new adults joining the scouts this year would be able to face their fears and wouldn’t put everyone in danger with false bravado.
As the town in the distance came closer in to view, the sound of the train slowing grew louder until it finally stopped just a few hundred meters from the outer edge of the town.  Once the train came to a complete stop, the sails high in the sky began to be pulled in, when the sails reached a few hundred feet above them, the small drones they were attached to wrapped up the sails and simultaneously started back up so that the line would stay taunt while it was pulled in.  Once the drones docked and the solar panel opened up, the train continued at a crawl toward the entrance of the town.  They could see the patch-work dome that covered the city as well as several other smaller patchwork domes away from the city.  The closer they drew in, the more it became obvious that this was not a dome created before the collapse, it was made with both a jigsaw of artificial materials and large areas of tunnel spider silk attached so that there were no gaps in coverage where they met.
The immense size of the town was also coming in to view.  There were areas with tall buildings reaching to the height of the dome with walkways between several levels and there were areas that were only a level above ground, but several level were hidden below.  During the parts of the year that trade was heavy, this place was filled with enough people to call it a town.  The rest of the year it was almost a ghost town, the few people left were the residents that lived here year round or the caretakers for the merchant areas that required specialized help during the down time for repairs, upgrades and general maintenance.  It was now obvious that any wind train coming in to the actual town would need to be able to propel itself using something other than wind.
Sanity was granted access to one of the closer loading depots not only because of it’s self propelled train, but also because the cargo it held was always in high demand.  Sanity was one of the few towns that not only had enough food for it’s citizens, but also had plenty to trade and some of the items, like lettuce just wouldn’t survive in the sterile soil found at the top.  The high demand for their foods allowed the Sanity trains one other perk that no other trader received.  Once they pulled into their dock, rather than the scouts or even the new adults unloading, a dedicated crew met them to unload the passengers, their luggage and finally all of the produce.  It hadn’t seemed like much while it was being loaded, probably because only a small amount came up to the top at a time, but seeing the long parade of dock workers unloading all the food items seemed utterly unreal.  There must have been more dock workers at Junkton that all of the residents of Sanity.

The new adults were being gathered together, they were about to go and have their home town information embedded under the first few layers of skin near the base of their skull.  This was similar to tattooing, but used an very different method to achieve a similar result, a permanent visible marking.  That’s where the similarities ended, rather than using an ink, self-replicating nanites were used.  Instead of ‘drawing’ with a device that used a bunch of jabs, a small injection was used at the center of where the hometown symbol would form.  It would take the nanites several days to make the mark visible, but without healing ointments a traditional tattoo would take weeks before it finished healing.
None of this had been explained to the new adults and even if it had, none of the would have heard a single thing, both literally and figuratively.  The sound of the crowd would have drown out whatever was being said to the group by even the loudest of the Boys.  The new adults were also so busy looking around, that it was all the Boys could do to make sure none of them wandered off before getting this done, without the hometown symbol, the new adults wouldn’t be able to do much  Nearly every thing in Junkton would require a symbol check, or at least anything that required a currency transfer.

The new adults followed the boys down what seemed like a main street until they came to a street much larger than they had seen.  The street had markings that the traffic seemed to follow, and there were large sections in the middle that separated one direction from another.  There were all manner of carts being pulled by people and beasts that the new adults had never seen.  Although they were a short distance from the docks they could no longer hear the loud sounds of freight being moved by large machines, it was replaced by sound of wooden wheels on stone, hundreds of feet and a hum of conversation.  There was more sound, but it wasn’t as sharp and it was almost possible to hear the Boys talking loudly amongst themselves.  The new adults were still silently taking in their surroundings, sometimes stumbling into other folks since their eyes were anywhere but where they were headed.
A few minutes of walking finally led them to a street that was far less busy than the one they had just been through.  This street was only wide enough for a few of them to walk shoulder to shoulder and with so many of them they could easily block the way.  If it weren’t for all of the young gawking faces in the group, they might mistaken as a mob out for justice.  The Boys at the front weren’t quite comfortable in the tight conditions and stayed a bit in front of the group to give themselves just a bit more room; they wore their discomfort as a firm frown and furrowed brow. If there had been anyone on these streets, they probably would have turned back from where they were coming or ducked into one of the shops.  They certainly weren’t the friendliest looking bunch, but they were far from dangerous.  Outside the Canyon, it was best to give even the friendly looking plenty of space.

None of the new adults had taken notice, but they had been standing relatively still for the past several minutes or longer, there was still far too much to take in from their surroundings.  They had ended up in front of tiny tattoo shop, the entrance was just a door with a simple sign that said ‘Tattoos and Symbols” in tidy hand painted works.  There was no indication that it as open, but on this street none of the shops had open or closed on their doors.  There were a few doors that had covered their sign with a cloth that hung from the top of the door; these shops didn’t keep normal hours, most of them were available when when the owner was there and closed otherwise.  Unlike the trade shops on the main street that had all types of times for sale, these shops offered their expertise for a price.  The nanites required special equipment and the knowledge to work with it.  While there were plenty of devices that would read from the symbol, there were very few that could manipulate the data in it and even fewer people that could work with the old tech and nanites properly.
When it was finally Randall’s turn, he went through the door and up a few flights of stairs.  An elderly gentleman was sitting in front of an ancient computer terminal, despite he poor condition of the casing, the display was crisp and clear and bright enough to light the room.  Next to the monitor sat a device that had a large cylinder of liquid that was somehow black but giving a light glow of purple.  There were several vials on the front of the machine that were currently empty.  The gentleman looked up and seemed to be just a bit startled by Randall, he raised an eyebrow, “Aren’t you a little bit old for this?” and before Randall could answer, “ahhh yes, you are.”  He was looking at the ancient monitor and his fingers moved on the keyboard without him so much as glancing down.  Randall had never seen a working before and started to lean in close.  “Woah there boy, you don’t want me making a mistake here…” Randall stepped back. “Yuuup.  One little mistake an instead of a symbol, your brain gets cooked…” The old mans eyes met Randall’s for a moment, he seemed like he wanted to say more, but a ‘ding’ sound drew his attention back to the machine with vials.  One of the vials had filled with the odd glowing black goo and the old man pulled it out and placed it into a syringe.  He stood up, motioned for Randall to sit and as soon as he did, he felt a little sting on the back of his head followed by a warmth and slightly itching feeling just below the surface of his skin.
“It’ll be ready to use in about an hour.  If your try to use it too soon, it’ll hurt and won’t work, so don’t do it.”  As he spoke, he placed the vial and syringes in different containers and tidied his workspace.  “You’re my last customer of the day, so on your way out do me a favor and hang this over the door,” handing Randall a long cloth with a few rings at the top.  “I recommend you go by the ‘Memories’ shop on the next street over.  Wait until your symbol is ready.” He started to motion to the door, which Randall took as time to go.  “If any of your relatives left you a ‘postmortem message’ you can retrieve them there.”  He turned around as he said the last word.  Randall was pretty sure no one would have left him one, but he would check it out if he happened to pass the shop later.
Once outside, he hung the cloth on the nails he hadn’t noticed above the door before. The cloth over the door must be like a closed sign, so any uncovered signs meant the shop was open.  Looking around he saw that more of the doors on the street had cloths up now.  He didn’t see any of the new adults, but there was one of the Boys waiting for him.  Now that Randall saw him, he looked directly at him, “Wander around for a bit, but be at the train by nightfall.”  Randall nodded, wondering why nightfall was important but he’d ask later.  He wanted to look around town and see how it was different from Sanity.  His legs were moving before he even knew where he wanted to go first.