Warnings: Character deaths within. Gore and blood. Language.
Enjoy~
Artemis leveled her bow at the head of another Adult. Clenching one hand tightly around the arrow she drew the string back and sucked in a deep breath. Right as she was about to loose the arrow the top of the head was joined with several others. She really wasn't in the position to be handling more than one Adult seeing as Roy hadn't come back. She lowered her aim as even more heads joined the group. Blinking she realized the movement of these heads were different. Hell usually she could see the faces of the Adults walking by over the tall fence that blocked the café she was holed up in.
Sliding down from her perch on the windowsill she bolted across the room and yanked down the ladder that lead to the roof. Scrambling up to the roof her suspicions were reignited as she heard voices mingle along with the heads that bobbed away. Biting her cheek she did what Roy warned her to never do, she left the café. Pulling herself up to the very top roof she saw the group that she had seen earlier. Four people, four kids!
She gave off an elated smile and bounded across to the edge of the roof. Stopping before she fell off she was quickly reminded that not every kid was to be trusted. She had allowed a group to come into the café once, while Roy was gone, and by the time her brother had gotten back Artemis had been beaten and all of their supplies had been stolen from them. There were even several Adults in the café, they had nearly gotten her too. Roy had forbidden her to talk to anyone else since the incident, but in all honestly, Artemis would have avoided any more kids had he not.
Frowning and realizing that she couldn't call over to the kids and offer them sanctuary or even help them out she began to scamper back towards the ladder. Just as she had reached the opening she felt something flash by her head. Swirling around she heard someone curse and a voice laugh,
"Good job Dick, you can't even hit one from this close?" Artemis attempted to focus on the group that was throwing, what she guessed to be rocks, at her.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Artemis shrieked at them when another small rock was chucked at her head, she carefully dodged the projectile and went up to the edge of the roof, sliding her bow off her back and setting an arrow up along the string and aiming it at the dark-haired boy who had a handful of rocks.
"Oh! Oh my God I'm sorry! We thought you were a Grown-up!" The dark haired boy yelled up at her.
"Well I'm not!" Artemis spat back at him, "And be quiet, this area isn't clear!" The boy clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Sorry about him, beautiful." A red head beside the other boy winked. He was pretty, Artemis had to admit that, probably about 17 years old, lucky bastard just escaped the sickness.
"Whatever." Artemis growled, turning away from them and carefully attempting to get to the exit again. The more she talked to these people the more that she'd want to help them, and she couldn't risk that.
"Hey wait!" The red-head called up again, "You're just gonna leave?" Artemis froze and turned back around to face the beautiful boy.
"Yup." She nodded at him, "See yah."
"Don't leave!" The only girl of the group called. She was a darker haired ginger with a fair complexion and pleading brown eyes. Artemis groaned and came back to the edge,
"What?" She snapped looking around to assure that her brother or any Adults, wouldn't sneak up on the group.
"Are you all alone?" She asked, "We can help you."
"No! I'm not alone, and we don't need your help!" The dark haired boy suddenly turned to the girl and hissed something at her, she muttered something back before pushing off the boy and looking back up at her,
"Really, we have food, water, shelter, warmth!" Artemis pursed her lips; warmth would be nice…all she and Roy had was a large old quilt that had been dragged through hell and back. Food also sounded amazing, they had an amazing stock at one point, but after the mugging they were scavenging up whatever was left in the surrounding area. Water sounded good to…clean water especially. Drinking from boiled toilet water wasn't the most pleasant thing Artemis had to undergo during this entire experience.
"No." She said back before she could change her mind, "We're fine." She said again,
"Hear that M'gann, she's fine!" The dark haired boy snapped, "We hardly have enough food for our people, don't be giving it away to strangers!" Artemis sighed, that's how things worked now, she supposed.
All of the Adults had been wiped out from some disease. It didn't affect anyone under the age of 18. Something about brain development, Roy had explained to her. Everyone it did affect though, turned into mindless flesh eating monsters. Artemis was told that they were zombies by several kids she had run into but she refused to believe that, they were just Adults to her. Now, with all the adults gone it was a kid-ruled world. Meaning no laws, no rules, it was dog-eat-dog and she liked it that way. As long as she had Roy, she'd be safe.
"No. Go away." Artemis grumbled sliding back down the roof.
"Wait! Don't go, he didn't mean it!" The girl squealed at her, only to be shushed by her acquaintances. Artemis ignored her pleads and slid back down into the café. Sliding her bow back onto her back she sat against the wall and sighed, Roy needed to get home soon, and he wouldn't be happy with a group of strangers outside their house.
"She's not coming." She heard them whisper amongst themselves. "Don't bother with her, she'll die like all the others." "Dick, how could you say that?" "I'm just being real with you! I know you don't wanna admit it M'gann but get whelmed! You can't save everyone!" She grit her teeth and crossed over to their small food supply. Three granola bars and a Gatorade…
"Please hurry up Roy." She whispered and snagged one of the granola bars unwrapping it she took a small nibble at the edge of the granola. This wouldn't hold her off. This was the only thing she'd eaten in the past two days. She chewed the bar slowly and then bit into it once again.
"Last chance!" She heard the red head holler at her.
"Just leave! You're calling the Adults!" She grumbled to herself and was about to go to the window when she heard the back door unlock. A grin spread across her face as she pounded down the stairs to the ground level to see her brother coming in.
But when she bolted down the stairs it wasn't Roy who came in, but the dark haired boy who she had heard was named Dick. Freezing she opened her mouth to protest his being there but instead drew her bow from her shoulder.
"Whoa!" Dick gasped holding up his hands to show he was friendly, "We're just here to help!" Artemis didn't lower the bow as Dick began to step forward. "Put it dow-" The boy was cut off in a shriek of pain as an arrow ripped through his arm, although not from Artemis.
"Roy!" She yelled and rushed over to the now bleeding boy in front of her, "What did you do?" Roy appeared from the doorway and stomped over to Dick, ripping the boy from Artemis's grasp he pinned him against the wall. "Stop!" She yelped. Dick winced and sputtered at the sudden contact with the wall. He scrambled to snag onto his bleeding arm and the shades that had at one point been firmly planted on his nose tumbled to the floor.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Roy hissed at the boy who was now struggling against Roy's grasp. Shockingly enough the seemingly senseless scrambles seemed to pay off as Dick got a good hold of Roy and managed to twist his arm away from his collar.
"Ble-bleeding." Dick hacked after landing on the floor with a thud. It was then when the other boy the group had been with ran in. He was tall with dark hair and furious looking blue eyes. Older brother, Artemis supposed.
"Get away from him!" He growled and plowed into Roy.
"Stop it!" Artemis growled drawing her bow and aiming it at the two. "Stop it or I'll shoot!" The much larger older brother of Dick froze first, his fist still clenched and only inches from Roy's nose. Roy on the other hand used this as an opportunity to lift his feet up and under the enormous boy's chest and to kick him off. "Roy!" Artemis snapped, her brother staggered to his feet and wiped at his bleeding mouth with his sleeve.
"What the hell are these people doing here?" Roy demanded going to stand over by his fuming sister,
"They're trying to help." Artemis scowled at him,
"Well they should leave, we don't need help."
"Welp…" Dick groaned from the flood, "We need fighters like you." He looked up at Roy through his wince and stumbled to his feet his hand still clenched around his arm.
"No." Was all Roy snapped as he turned away from the two. Artemis huffed, usually she would agree, but these guys looked like they could actually help them.
"Roy." Artemis warned, "I think we should give them a chance." She whispered, "I mean, they said they have food and water and shelter, we need that." Roy rolled his eyes and swung over to pick his bow up from the ground.
"No." He said again.
"I'm going whether you're going or not!" Artemis told him and went to go up stairs to grab her bag of valuables. Roy scoffed at her and followed her up, warning the two to stay there if they liked their balls where they were.
"You're full of shit!" Roy snapped at his sister who was frantically gathering up her belongings.
"Does it look like that Roy? No. I know you're doing your best to take care of me, but maybe that's not enough for both of us! We have two granola bars left Roy, we're going to die if we don't go with them." Roy rolled his eyes in anger but didn't say anything, she was right.
"I can supply for you Artemis! I'll go out more! I'll go further! Scavenge more places!" Artemis whirled to face him,
"You mean go farther away so I don't know whether you're alive or dead longer? No thank you." She grumbled, "Listen, I know you might think it, but you aren't indestructible Roy! Remember the time you came home with your arm nearly broken? No? Maybe that's because you lost so much blood that you passed out and almost died! Roy what if that happened further away, huh? I'd much rather you have someone with you when you go out on your little adventures, seeing as I'm apparently unfit to do so!" Artemis threw the last bit of clothes she had scattered around the room into her bag and turned to face her brother.
"Listen, Art, if you want to come, come! Obviously you can't handle yourself alone and…"
"Roy! That's not was this is about! This is about both of our survival. Now, stay or go those are your choices, because I'm gone." Roy groaned but went to pick up his belongings,
"If we get mugged, or raped, or whatever after we leave, I'm blaming you." He snapped at her strapping his bag onto his back.
"Go ahead." Artemis said in retort, a wide grin spread across her face.
Part 2
Artemis blinked up at the enormous building. It was an orphanage that was somehow still kept by the Kids. She glanced over at the group of Kids that had recruited her and Roy (she had learned their names were M'gann, Dick, Wally, and Conner on the walk over) and pointed at the facility,
"Is this it?" She asked, M'gann nodded and linked their arms,
"It's not much, but it's home." She grinned, "We have a lot of children to take care of in here, it has to be big." Roy suddenly stiffened,
"…how young?" He asked, Wally frowned at him,
"Some are infants others are older, do you have a problem with that?" Roy shrugged and didn't respond to the nearly threatening tone of Wally's voice. Artemis shot the two of them a look.
"Yeah! It's typically the girl's job to look after the young one's but some of the guys help out every once and a while." M'gann informed her and began walking Artemis into the gates that surrounded the building. "It's not to be sexist or anything! It's just, the guys are better fighters, us girls are more…tactical with our moves and tact, well, it doesn't work out there." M'gann added The make-shift gates creaked open as they approached, pulled open by several teenagers. Artemis nodded at them as a few began to swarm around the group.
"Who's she?" "She's pretty!" "Whoa, you found others?" "I thought we were the only ones left!" "You have nice arms!" "How long is your hair?!"
M'gann shushed all the rambling kids long enough to speak, "This is Artemis and Roy, we found them over by the café, now we're going to bring them up and get the situated, you guys get the gates closed… Hey Bart, were there any accidents?" She asked a smaller ginger boy, he looked up through a pair of goggles he was wearing,
"Nah, nothin' happened." He shrugged at her and went over to talk to Wally about something. Artemis smiled at this, they looked really similar.
"Are they brothers?" She asked M'gann once they had gotten out of the crowd. M'gann shook her head,
"No, something like cousins or Wally's like his uncle… I thought… Bart's grandfather is-was Wally's uncle." She informed her matter-of-factly,
"Kay…" Artemis nodded attempting to work out in her head how that worked, "So umm…what do you want me to do around here?" She asked as the two continued up the long path-way to the actual building,
"Hmm? Oh, well, are you good with kids?" M'gann asked pulling out a key from a bracelet around her wrist and unlocking the large double doors that led inside,
"Kinda." She bit her lips attempting to remember the last time she and a child had been within 20 feet of each other. Oh yeah, he was in the group of muggers. Artemis shivered at the memory but blew it off as she continued along the hallways. "And…shouldn't we wait for Roy?" She asked, M'gann looked behind her,
"Oh, I thought he was following us." Her lips pulled down into a thoughtful look "He'll catch up!" She smiled and the two had reached a large cluttered room full of sleeping bags and backpacks,
"This is where the girls sleep." She told her,
"All in this big room?" Artemis asked a bit worried about that,
"Yeah, see a lot of the little ones don't like to sleep alone, and personally it makes me feel safer." M'gann told her, "But we could find you an empty room if that's what you want! You and Roy could share it!" Artemis pondered this for a moment,
"I don't think Roy would do good in a room filled with a bunch of strangers." Artemis excused herself, seeing as she didn't find the idea of sleeping in an enormous room next to a bunch of people she hardly knew very appealing.
"That's alright!" M'gann clapped her hands together and began dragging Artemis back into the hallways, "We can find you an empty room! The other rooms are being used as storage and such, but there are still a few untouched rooms, I suppose a few of them even have beds left in them if you would like that." Artemis beamed at her,
"You mean sleeping on something other than the floor? That sounds like heaven right now." M'gann squealed and nodded at her,
"I thought you'd like that! Okay, I think this is one." She said, and pressed open the door, "The locks don't work very well, but I think you guys can make it work." Getting the door open the two stepped into the room. It was decently sized, there were two twin sized beds on either wall along with a dresser that had been ransacked and a bathroom shoved into the far corner. The kitchen had been torn apart, leaving a few scattered counters and appliances still attached to the walls.
"This will do perfectly, thank you." Artemis flashed a smile at her as Roy and Wally came up from behind the two girls.
"Hey beautiful, this is the room?" Wally asked and leaned against the doorpost. M'gann gave him a small "mmm hmm" and lead him away so the two new comers could get situated.
A lot more action in the next chapter! And I would love some feedback to let me know what you guys think about the idea~ it's kind of out there. Any questions just lemme know!
And you guys have any couples you want to see? Tell me!