Author's Note: Hey guys! I got a recommendation from a reader to write a sequel to Immortal Smosh about Sohinki and Lasercorn, so that's what I'm going to do! Fear not, fans of Ian and Anthony, the Smosh boys won't be totally absent from this story, but they're not going to be as important as David and Sohinki.
This story will probably be both darker and shorter than Immortal Smosh (about half the length, actually). David and Matt have been through a bit more hell than Ian and Anthony did in the first one, so their character arcs throughout the story will be... interesting.
I'm really excited to start this fic. Hopefully I can update it often- unlike with Immortal Smosh, I don't have a buffer of pre-written chapters, so you may have to wait a little while.
It was both absurd and pathetic to admit, but a bag of nacho cheese flavored Doritos were the best thing that had happened to Matt Sohinki and David Moss in the last month.
They'd found the bag of chips in the kitchen of an abandoned house, shoved to the back of a cabinet where previous raiders hadn't noticed it. It was the only food in the house, and normally Sohinki would have been disappointed. But he'd be damned if those stupid chips didn't seem to cheer David up as soon as he saw them. He and Sohinki ate the entire bag in less than five minutes, relishing in the salty, artificial flavor that reminded them both so much of life before the apocalypse.
"All I need now is a bottle of Mountain Dew and an Xbox and I'd feel almost like Lasercorn again," David commented as he licked the orange powder off his fingers.
Matt's eyebrows rose. That was the closest David had come to talking about Before in a long time. The Doritos must have put him in a really good mood. "Yeah," he agreed. "That'd be awesome."
"We should go, though," David said, glancing out a nearby window. "We've still got to find some food before tonight."
Sohinki nodded and set the empty red bag on the counter before following David out of the house.
As they walked over to the house across the street, Sohinki realized that he had the perfect opportunity in front of him. With David's mood improved by the chips and thoughts of better times, it was likely that he'd be willing to listen to Sohinki's insane idea. He might not agree with it, but if Sohinki could even get him to listen, he'd have won half the battle.
"Hey David?" he asked as they stepped up to the house's front door. It was locked, unsurprisingly, so the two men headed around the side of the house, looking for a ground-floor window that they could easily reach.
"What?" The older man stopped a few feet from a window well set in the ground.
Sohinki got straight to the point, lacking the patience to try beating around the bush. "I think we should go look for Mari."
David threw him an exasperated glance before jumping down in the window well, landing heavily on the rocks at the bottom. "Matt, I know how you felt about her, and I know you've always felt shitty about the way she left," David said as Sohinki joined him in the well. "But let's be honest—Mari's dead."
Sohinki flinched at his words, but forced himself not to show it as he swung his backpack off his shoulders and pulled a hammer out of one of the outer pockets. "We don't know that," he argued as he stepped close to the window and took a swing at it. The first hit had no effect, so Sohinki swung the hammer harder. It clanged against the glass and formed a spiderweb at the point of impact.
"Yeah, we do," David said, his voice flat. "There's no fucking way Mari could have made it all the way up to San Francisco without getting killed."
Another solid hit shattered the windowpane and Matt jumped down to the basement floor, feeling glass shards crunch under his shoes. "She had a car," Sohinki reminded David. "And guns and supplies. She could have made it."
David shook his head as he followed Sohinki into the basement. "The car would have only lasted about a day before running out of gas—after that she would've had hundreds of miles to travel by herself with hardly any protection. There's no way she could have done that."
Matt shook his head adamantly even though David wasn't looking at him. "Anthony made it from Sacramento to L.A., and he traveled the whole way on foot. What makes you think Mari couldn't have managed it too?"
David scoffed harshly. "Mari didn't have a fucking vampire bodyguard like Anthony did."
Sohinki winced. He should've known better than to bring up Anthony; it was impossible to talk about him without reminding David of Ian. "Okay, sure," he admitted as he joined David in searching the basement. "But Mari had enough weapons and ammo that she could've taken care of herself. She knows how to fight rabids as well as we do."
"Stop being naïve, Sohinki," David said unkindly as he opened a door that led to a laundry room. The only thing in it was a bag of cat litter, but David and Matt still walked in and gave the room a careful search. "Mari's either dead or got turned into a rabid or a bloodsucker, in which case she's as good as dead. Trying to convince yourself otherwise is just idiotic desperation."
"You're only saying that because you don't want to risk looking for her," Sohinki snapped as they moved back into the main room of the basement. "You're too much of a coward to risk your life looking, so you keep telling yourself she's dead so you won't feel guilty."
And just like that, they were fighting again.
"Yeah, maybe I am a coward," David spat as he squared off against Sohinki. "But I don't want to risk my life looking for someone who's probably dead and was stupid and selfish enough to leave us in the first place!"
"What if she needs help, David?" Sohinki challenged, glowering at the older man. "What if she's hurt or in trouble but nobody comes to help her? What if the only people who could do anything are too scared to show up until the sun scares away the danger and all they find is a body?"
The words had the effect Sohinki knew they would: David's jaw tightened and his brown eyes filled with repressed memories and feelings. Matt knew it was pretty damn low to make David recall what had happened to his wife, but Matt had to make his friend see sense.
"Even if she is alive and does need our help, how are we supposed to find her? Do I need to remind you that four hundred miles of rabid country separate L.A. from San Francisco?" David's voice was still angry—low and almost a growl—but at least he wasn't shouting. Sohinki knew that the right words might be enough to persuade David now. He just didn't know if his next proposition would cut it.
"Maybe we could get some help," Sohinki said, turning back to the shelf he was supposed to be searching.
"From?"
"The only person we know who has experience traveling four hundred miles through rabid territory," Sohinki said in what he hoped was an even enough voice.
"You're talking about Anthony, aren't you?" David didn't wait for a response. "No, Matt. I'm not going to ask that vampire pet for anything, much less help."
Sohinki forced himself not to lose his temper. "Just because Anthony chose to hang around a vampire doesn't make him as bad as the pets. I know you might not like it, but talking to Anthony could mean the difference in whether we make it to San Francisco or not."
David scowled. "All this effort for a girl who might be dead? Are you really so sure about this, Sohinki?"
"David," Matt said, softening his tone and looking imploringly at the older man. "It's Mari. Don't try to tell me you don't care about her anymore—she's the only friend we have left."
David deflated. "Fine. I'll help you look for Mari, and I'll even go with you if you insist on finding Anthony. But don't blame me if I end up punching him, and don't expect me to stick around if the vampire's there."