From flood to monsoon
Ellie looks out her window and finds herself mildly upset at the progress, or lack thereof. The job isn't special, not fancy or flashy. Doing nothing but repairing the wall around her shop, installing a new security system. Its been hours and only half the wall has been raised. Growling to herself she marches out to chew off Axton's fuzzy little head for being so lazy. Instead of yelling right when she sees him, she pauses for a moment to examine the distant look on his face. He must be crap at poker, his anxiety might as well be plastered on his forehead.
" you seem distracted, you ain't never this slow."
Axton blinks in surprise, he almost forgot where he was. He stands up and looks around at his small bit of progress and winces inwardly.
"ah, sorry about that."
" you put that down and come have a drink with meh. Take a break al'rat?"
He sort of wants to say no, but he isn't really getting much done anyway. Maybe she's right, he should clear his head and refocus on the simple task.
Ellie leads him to the front of her shop and sets out a small folding chair, with the word 'scooter' scribbled on it in fading letters. She herself however sits down on the cement of the porch, letting her feet sit heavily on the dirt floor. She grunts as if she forgot something before twisting in place to lean over and grab the handle of a small blue ice chest by the door.
Axton sits down without really paying attention anything until he spots the beer she holds out, almost in his face.
" thanks"
"mmm hmm"
For a moment they sit together in a comfortable silence, the only sound is the vague screeching of spiderants in the distance.
" so whats eat'n ya?"
He looks over to her and says without thinking, his usual response.
" nothing really."
Ellie gives a slight grunt at the cheap answer.
"you got somethin' you gots ta say, gettit off yer chest. An' I figure what with all the options you got fer people to be gettin chatty with..."
Axton finds himself smirking her smart assed version of kindness. He tips his bottle upward, taking a long drink before deciding that shes probably right.
" I feel stupid"
"we're all stupid but no one seems to notice."
Axton looks at her curiously, she watches a few buzzards speed by overhead.
"your thinkin' about a girl ain'tcha?"
"eh... yeah. I can't seem to stop either."
"so jus go on an' tell er you thank she's real purty. Women like when you talk real nice like that you know."
" she's real strong and-"
"woman is woman, strong or weak. Even the strongest lady can get awful lonesome, they just hide it better."
Axton pauses and watches as Ellie stares rather wistfully into the sky.
"yeah, but I think she... I think she likes someone else."
" I like how you keep talkin' like I dunno who you're talkin about. I seen you. I seen your friends. You like that pretty little thing with them funny tattoos... but she dun look at you do she?"
"..."
" I seen her smile once, cause Morty was talkin to her on the echo. He din't even say nuthin' special. Just work. It din't look like nothin though, I wouldn't worry much."
"they had some time alone awhile ago. Now they seem different, she seems different."
" I bet he dunno she's even lookin at him. O'course she's lookin at him- she dunno know you're lookin at her. She ain't a mind reader you know. Are you scared uh tell her you thank shes purty?"
"... I don't know what I'm nervous about. I'm usually pretty good with women, heh you could ask my me ex wife all about it..."
Ellie pauses to look at him, examining him for a moment.
" you...didja love your wife?"
" course I did."
"why'd you do her dirty like that then?"
" Its hard to say no to women when they give me that look... like they're just so lonely. I hate it when women feel...less than...beautiful."
"didja learn your lesson with all that?"
"yeah, I did."
" do you thank maybe you don't feel like you could be good to her?"
" I have no idea, if I knew..."
" well, you better figure it out. That girl is a purty little thing, she's smart and strong to boot. You know she won't stay quiet forever, so you better hurry and give her something to thank about."
Axton finds himself surprised with the way Ellie looks at him, a distant calm. No judging him, no teasing him. Not at all what hes used to.
" An you gotta say something good too- or at least really mean what you say. Cause she got her eyes on a real good man, you can't make her change her mind. All you can really do is tell her whats true and hope its enough. But if... if it ain't enough, don'chu get mad at her. You feel what you feel for who you feel, that's something no one can change or even choose. If she loves him and she gets him , you just do your best to stay her friend. Cause that's what ya are right now. Friends."
He stares outward, her words rolling around in his head where they settle and sink in down deep.
"well now I thank thats enough uh that- so you get back to work. No more takin it easy either! I need this shit done!"
He laughs when she slaps him on his back and takes his empty beer bottle. Axton stretches his arms over his head, twisting his torso to pop his back. After that he jumps off the porch and resumes where he left off, this time more focused.
Even with the increased pace, the wall is still large and there is much work to be done and made up for. He doesn't finish til late in the evening. When he returns back to headquarters, Salvador is already dead to the world asleep on his bunk. As per usual Zero is nowhere in sight and very strangely Mordecai sits on the edge of his bed staring Mayas cold empty sheets. He tries blink away his obviously distressing thoughts, only for them to seep into the sound of his voice.
" hey, has Maya said anything to you?"
Crap. Axton unclips various belts and straps, until he can finally remove his pack.
"about?"
Mordecai curls his lip slightly, looking across the floor until his eyes find their way back to Maya's unusually empty bed.
"anything. I haven't heard from her in a while."
" you just saw her this morning."
Mordecai rubs the back of his head awkwardly, not really knowing how to go about this.
"well she was kind of pissed off when she- okay I completely pissed her off so she up and booked. I haven't seen her since."
Axton finds himself smirking at the man sitting awkwardly in the bed across from him. Looking worried and … kind of scared.
" She's probably with Zero then."
" I just saw him,he said he hasn't seen her since this morning."
After dropping his pack, Axton kicks it under his bed and begins peeling off the layers and layers of his uniform.
" you must have really pissed her off. She's gonna go blow it off, we'll see mushroom clouds and you'll know where she is."
The night passes, its is the most restful sleep Axton has had in almost a week. Mordecai spends it staring at the bottom of the bunk that hangs over his. Sleep leaves him completely, panic is there keeping his heart beating far too fast. His mind is flooded with self destructive thoughts of 'why' and 'what if'. He tosses and turns finding that no matter what position he takes for some reason he keeps taking only one side of his own bed.
Morning comes and the first person to speak is Salvador. He wakes rather confused as to why a pillow isn't being thrown at his face. He isn't being forcefully woken...something is amiss. He looks around the room finding Mayas bed still perfectly made. She was gone all night.
"who pissed her off?"
Axton lays on his stomach, his face still buried in his pillow. He hears this even through his mild slumber and lifts the hand that hangs off his bed to point lazily at Mordecai. His hand flops back down after a moment and he continues sleeping, Salvador looks at Mordecai and shakes his head.
" I'll miss you amigo, promise not to eat whats left when she kills you"
Eventually they all roll out of their various beds and go about their days. Lilith sets Mordecai on security and goes to fetch a number of old files from her abandoned base in that faraway cave. Security. And he's alone. His usual chair remains empty as he paces around the room, paying more attention to the Echo net than anything else.
He doesn't hear her, not even her name.
A day passes with no sight of her, no word of her whereabouts. Another day creeps by at glacier speed, the silence is deafening. By the third morning both Axton and Salvador appear nervous, Salvador waits til Axon is called away before ignoring his own mission to ask Mordecai in private.
"Amigo, what did you do?"
Mordecai looks at him not sure how to answer, it isn't simple. He has no idea how to explain what happened, as he thinks back it is simple.
" If you only said something, she would have come back by now. What did you do?"
Salvador looks at Mordecai right in his face, as his eyes are aimed at the floor. Shame settles across his features, his mouth stays shut and lump forms in his throat. He opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out.
The silence drags on and it becomes apparent Salvador will receive no answer. Mordecai watches him walk out the door. Today he hears Mayas name in Axtons voice. Has anyone seen her? The question is repeated, this time in Salvador's voice.
He's sick of sitting here and for some reason he can't stop thinking that something is wrong. More wrong than it seems, his stomach flips and twists and proves that there is never really a good time for any of it.
On the morning of the fourth day panic has settled firmly in his chest writhes in his empty stomach, it prevents him from thinking clearly. He tries to dress in a hurry, he wont stay put today. He wants to look for her, to make sure she's alright. He wants more than anything to apologize for acting like such an ass. His hands tremble with anxiety and guilt. Nothing feels like it fits right, too tight, too constricting, too hard to breathe. Why does he wear all this crap?
Axton watches from the place where sleep eluded him, he watches Mordecai struggle with himself.
Both of them freeze at the sound of a heavy rhythmic thumping, is it coupled with the sound of something heavy being dragged unwillingly. Axton bolts upright and Mordecai whips around to face Maya. Blood drips from an open wound on the side of her head, from various half closed bullet holes. It is spilled across her body as if she where some form of modern art. Some of it is dried to a clumped up dark brownish maroon mixture, clinging to various parts of her torn up clothing.
" I got it."
As she says it a wave of warm ruby blood spills from her busted lips and splatters against the layer of dry blood on her chest. She holds out her right hand, sitting in her scabbed up palm is a gray data drive. The one Mordecai was supposed to go get that first day.
Axton darts out of bed, snatching the lump of plastic from her hand and cramming it into Mordecai's. He places an arm behind her back and the other under her knees before lifting her too light body up and running to see Dr. Zed.
It takes a second for what just happened to sink in, Mordecai drops the drive and bolts after them. When he arrives Dr. Zed is taking Maya from Axtons arms and laying her into the one bed in the room. Mordecai pauses when he hears the sound of his boot splashing in something wet. He looks down and sees a thick puddle of slowly drying blood,a second later he finds Axton being shoved against him.
" I can't have any distractions! I'll send for you guys when I get her out of the red zone!"
The large door rolls down and slams shut in their faces, leaving them both stunned and unsure what to do. Axton quickly turns to glare sharply at Mordecai, who doesn't notice til Axton yells.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?"
Before Mordecai can answer Axton slams his palms against Mordecai's chest, shoving him violently backward- almost off his feet. Axton is strong and well trained but Mordecai is fast clever and experienced. He catches Axtons fist in its wide path turning his body and flipping Axton over his shoulder. His body land heavily, knocking the wind out of him. Before he can regain his breath and get back up Mordecai has twisted his arm around his back. Axton almost pushes up with one arm only to find a bony knee slam between his shoulder blades and ram him back down to the floor.
"She told you she loved you and you broke her heart didn't you!? DIDN'T YOU!"
Mordecai remains impassive as he watches the way Axtons face turns red and contorts with rage and jealousy. The way he refuses to let the bottle up tears spill out.
"this isn't helping. Calm down and go back inside."
With that he lets go of Axtons arm and steps off his back. Mordecai walks away, heading back towards headquarters only to find a mass of speeding weight slamming into his back. His body slams into an already cracking wall, Axton looms over hm holding him by his wrists against the wall.
" I will not calm down and WILL tell me what happened!"
Mordecai slams his forehead against Axtons and kicks one foot out from under him. On the way down Mordecai manages to flip Axton face down again, his bony knee back in the center of Axtons back. Mordecai sighs in irritation as he holds both arms twisted backward, threatening to rip them both out of their sockets at the same time.
" Now is not the time for this amigo"
" I am not your damn friend!why don't you tell me when is the time for this shit!? Did you?! Did you fuck her and then tell her to fuck off?!"
Mordecai twists Axtons arms sharply, effectively silencing him for a moment.
" you like her, why doesn't she know? Don't you come crying to me for what you never told her. I got nothing to do with that pendejo!"
With that he quickly shifts and slams his knee down on the back of Axtons head knocking him unconscious. Afterward he drops Axtons thick arms and wonders if he should just leave him there. Nope. Not gonna happen, glares straight ahead as he lifts one of Axtons arms over his shoulder and drags him back to headquarters. After dropping Axtons heavy ass carcass onto his bead Mordecai finds Salvador just looking at him, his brow furrowed with disdain.
"not going to tell me what happened this either?"
" you can ask this puto when he wakes up."
Looking down he finds the data drive has been picked up, so he leaves the room not bothering to glance backward. On his way in he slaps his palm over a small green screen to the left of the frame, a thick steel door slams shut. On the other side of the room Lilith sits beside the center console staring at the small gray data drive she has placed on the edge of it.
Dark red fingerprints smear its surface along with a few scuffs and scratches. Mordecai stares at it, he shifts his gaze and looks at her. Her expression is solemn although it reads clearly that her patience is wearing thin.
" talk to me."
"lil I-"
" lets get this straight okay- I have no time this dramatized bull shit. Do you want her or don't you? I can't have this dragging on and on. Its getting in the way."
" Lil..."
"three days shes been gone and you've been too damn distracted to be any fucking use. I need you back- I can't- I can't do this alone. I am not Roland, I don't just have answers for you and I won't tell you everything is gonna be okay BECAUSE ITS NOT!"
She slams her small fists against the console and takes a long shuddering breath.
" We are responsible for these people, all of them and their starving. They are not just hungry- they are dying because we can't- I can't. There's no food and scooter says he's having trouble with the engines. Sanctuary is going to fall if we can't fix this, he can't fix it because it's just to much. We don't have the resources to stay in the air and the hole we left is flooded with cannibals and psychos. If we drop we cant clear it- I don't know what to do. I need help, I need you back. You need to be...yourself again. So do whatever you need to do to get your damn brain back."
A whole lot of very bad news, to hear in one sitting. She's right though, he's been far too distraught to be any help. In Roland's wake all that weight rolled off his broad shoulders and landed on hers. Dark rings sit heavily under her eyes and all he can think to do is put his arm around her.
" I'm sorry, we'll figure this out. I promise, I won't let you do this alone anymore. So count on me alright."
She swipes at tears that didn't fall and shakes her head to rattle away the moment of weakness.
" Is she gonna be alright?"
"... I...don't know."
Now is not the time for the panic and guilt to well up and splatter against the porcelain, like it did a few hours ago. Mordecai glared the reflected image of himself in the broken mirror over the sink and realized how haggard he looks. Now is not the time to have some kind of epiphany about things he can't change. After cleaning his face and taking a walk around town to examine things, hes noted the piling of unsorted garbage. The emancipated physique of children who have given up the search for food.
He pauses to look over the edge of the place through his scope and watches as hundreds of bandits scuttle about in the impression that the city left behind. They'll have to go. The gun is set over his shoulder bobbing slightly as he walks past the still shut door of Dr. Zed to have a visit with Marcus.
Salvador scavenges through the remains of New Haven and Fyrestone in search of leftover medical supplies. Both place have been taken by various bandit clans, neither do more than irritate him. He isn't about to rely on anyone else to take care the makeshift family that adopted him. He isn't about to let the closest thing to a sibling he's ever had die bloody because he was afraid to leave. It would appear the sentiment is shared, as no one asked him to, but Zero has joined the untitled mission and ravages various Hyperion outposts. Namely the animal exploitation preserve, beneath the helmet he grinds his teeth as things leap in his way. Nothing more than a bump in the road and then- jackpot.
In a tightly locked room behind the office are several chests and lockers. All of which are filled to the brim with specialized medicines bandages and various unused pieces of equipment. He sends a far from poetic message to Salvador who arrives in mere moments to assist in the move.
They take as much as they can push in the dulled chrome carts to the nearest travel station, Zero darting ahead to wait in Sanctuary. From there Salvador pushes one crate of medicine at a time in front of the screen before tapping the destination and watching it pixelate. Zero catches the items before they can slam against the ground, shattering everything inside. After nearly two hours of work Salvador himself appears in front of Zero to guard the medicine he can't carry to Zed's place.
It is only moments later that Moxxi hurries along with her tightly closed bottles of triple filtered water over to Zed, not really sure why. When she knocks on the door the sound of shuffling can be heard before the door rolls open to let her in. Her breathe catches in her throat at the image before her. There she watches as Zed unwraps plastic tubes from baby blue envelopes and shoves one in Mayas mouth. He pushes it carefully down until he's positive it has a good connection to her lungs. With the other end of the tube he screws a strange white plastic connector and screws that piece onto a bulky machine that sits beside the bed. Zero sparks a mounted generator to life, the machine stirs and begins pulsing of its own accord. Breathing in Maya's stead.
Various plastic bladders of a watery liquid are hung into a metal hook hanging from the wall. A small thin catheter is pressed into the plastic bladder, the other end is tipped with a freshly unpacked needle. Zed carefully pushes the needle into the most undamaged vein he can find, in the bend of her right elbow. Zero darts past Moxxi back to the travel station. To bring back the last item, the heart monitor.
Zed glances up, and catches sight of Moxxi standing there completely shocked at the image of Mayas body wrapped in splints and impaled with various needles.
" Thank you very much, I will have to ask for more later on. I don't think she can handle the tap water right now, I 'll call for you later- for now I have to ask you to leave."
Moxxie finds herself being forcibly ejected from the hospice and winds up watching every available member of the crimson raiders on the move. She catches sight of Mordecai not to far away shouting instructions that she can't seem to hear. Off to the right she finds Tannis handing out what appears to be pickle jars with with dirt, each raider takes one jar cradling it carefully and darts to the fast travel station. On closer inspection, the only citizens in sight area small hoard of children that linger behind Mordecai.
He catches sight of Moxxi looking bewildered and mildly upset in front of the tiny hospice. Moving quickly Mordecai marches up to her, getting a quick glimpse of Maya before the doors slams shut.
" Morty what the hell is goin on!?"
"we gotta ready to move- is your bar empty or close to?"
" its deader than clap traps birthday party"
The joke goes unnoticed as Mordecai turns to count the children following him.
" I have fifteen children here with no parents- I need you to watch them-"
"WHAT?! No way not a chance in hell!"
She turns to march away, only to find a tight grip on her wrist.
" Please. I need your help- we need your help."
Moxxi's glare is sharp and strong.
" you people never needed shit from me before and suddenly now you-"
"Moxxi I started this morning with 23 children. The others died in the time it took to walk from headquarters to here, they need food and shelter."
She wants to scream at him, instead she finds herself staring down at the skeletal figure of a little girl who clings to his right hand. The girl has her forehead pressed against his leg hiding from Moxxi.
"fine, but this is temporary"
Mordecai passes the small girl over to Moxxi's gloved hand and motions for the remainder of the orphans to follow her. He watches her herd them into the bar shutting the door behind them. He doesn't budge til he hears the sound of her heavy deadbolts turning with a loud 'thump'.
Hours pass in the slowest frenzy. Lilith stands with scooter pointing at the body of a stolen buzzard, telling him exactly what needs to be done. A woman called Daisy acts as a stand in medic while Zed is occupied, bandaging up the worst of the citizens before allowing them to evacuate to overlook. Which is now heavily guarded with crimson raiders.
The needs seem endless and the resources already stretched far too thin. As the sun sets Mordecai and Lilith go back to headquarters, where only Axton remains sitting anxiously in his bunk...just waiting.