Only when the sun started to peak over the horizon did Mat even think of shaking awake his little brother. A sleepless night for him was nothing, he'd had many of those, especially in the past two years. The only thing it was, was hypocritical but, at least he knew that.
With the fire dying now, he packed up what they had, and was sure to leave out something for Emil to have for breakfast and something for him to drink. He had already eaten, so it was alright. Once the bag was properly packed up, he gently shook his little brother's shoulder.
"C'mon, kiddo... It's morning, wake up," he said rather gently, poking at the fire now with a stick to get it going a little again.
Emil let out a grunt as his shoulder was shaken. Mathias's grasp was firm, though caring, careful not to shake him too hard. Emil just shifted his position and continued to lay on his brothers lap for another few moments. Eventually, he did lift himself up with his arm that was closest to the ground, his other hand raking through his mop of hair. He stretched and yawn, rubbing his eyes right after.
"Mornin', Mat…" Emil smacked his lips together, mouth drier than a desert. He was about to ask for something to drink when his eyes laid on an old granola bar and a bit of water to drink, about half a bottle full. "Oh, Thank you," he mumbled, reaching out to grab what had been laid in front of him.
"..Hey, Mat? Why didn't you wake me up last night? We were supposed to take turns watching over one another, remember?" Emil untwisted the water bottle's cap and guzzled half of what was left, saving the other for after he ate his granola bar which he was currently unwrapping.
Mathias yawned a little, stretched his arms up, and gave Emil a warm, happy sort of smile. "Decided to let you sleep! ...Plus, I wasn't really tired, so I stayed up, let you get some rest. There were also a couple little kids who came along so I had to look after them, too. They got lost, poor guys. Had a nap by the fire, then I sent 'em home, told 'em they could grab a snack outta our cupboards if they didn't have a place to stay... We got plenty of stuff that we won't be eating for awhile... Don't want it getting moldy, right?" He hummed, still smiling.
"It was also too hot to sleep," he continued, rambling a little now, "It's already hot, and then the fire was hot and I just decided that it was best to stay awake 'cause it's too warm... You sleep okay, kiddo?"
Emil nodded as a response, his mouth full of granola bar. He soon swallowed it so he could speak up. "I wish you would have gotten some sleep at least, Mat. You said yourself that sleep is more important than anything, you're going to get tired real fast…" Emil looked over and gave Mathias a quick glare, more caring than anything though.
"But, yeah, I slept well," he continued, reaching forward to grab the water bottle again and take a quick sip to swallow the few bits of his food he'd bitten off. "It was kind of nostalgic, last night. Sleeping with you, I mean… Thanks, by the way, I really owe you…" Emil looked up and over at Mathias, giving him a loving smile.
Mat smiled fondly back, seeming to be in a decent mood despite being obviously tired, heavy, dark bags under his eyes. "Nah, I've gone nights without sleeping before, I'll be fine…" Mathias dragged on with a low chuckle. "And I'm kinda surprised you remember any of that!" his laugh got louder. "You stopped crawling in with me when you were just little... then you went to Lukas, most of the time. Probably because I wasn't home a lot..." he shrugged a bit, dismissing the thought and moving on.
The next five seconds were spent double checking that they had everything in the bag, before he had something else to say, at which time he spoke up again. "You don't owe me anything for that! I'm your big brother, that's what I'm here for."
Emil just continued to smile and nod, sitting and finishing what was left of his breakfast. "Aren't you gonna have anything?" Emil questioned, shoving the now empty wrapper into his pocket and twisting the cap of the water bottle back on tight. They could always reuse it and they had plenty more water in their backpack.
He sat up and began to make his way onto his two feet, stretching again and giving his back a good crack, groaning afterward and rubbing his side. "You'd think I'd be used to sleeping in such bad conditions, but this still kills my back…" He huffed gently, hair flying up and out of the way of his face from the quick breath of hair he had just exhaled. "Man, I don't think I'll ever get used to this…" Emil admitted a bit sadly.
Mathias shook his head, laughing a little and leaning back on his hands. "Ate before I woke you up... And yeah, no one ever really gets used to sleeping on the ground! 'Specially when they've had a bed. Even if it was a lumpy, old bed." Emil just nodded in agreement, not bothering to verbally reply to that.
Mat hummed, hauling himself up to his feet with a little yawn. "Which way d'you think we should head first? I mean, it's not like we have any real leads... Jus' wanna find him and go home, yanno?"
Emil sighed gently and picked the backpack up off the ground. With a quick move of his arm he slung it up and over his right shoulder with a bit of a huff. At least it was getting lighter, but then again, lighter meant less food and supplies.
He took a moment to look around the tree scattered landscape that was beginning to overgrow; many plants were now dying. Soon there would be no vegetative plants left, Emil was sure. The natural cycle of life was beginning to cave in on itself. "I suppose we should just keep going the way we were headed." He scratched the back of it head, taking a moment to think over their current situation.
"Theres so much distance to cover, I'm not too sure we'll ever find Lukas…" Emil finally mused, voice hushed.
"...I hope we find him," Mathias muttered, reaching down to grab his gun that had been propped up against an old tree and slung it over his shoulder. That was the reality of the situation... There was just so much space, so many places Lukas could have wound up dead or alive, that it was entirely possible that they could spend the rest of their lives out here and never find him.
Before starting on his way, Mathias kicked out what was left of the fire, stomping on it with his boots a few times before he was sure that it would stay out. With that, he started to walk, not bothering to look if Emil was following. He would follow, so there was nothing to worry about.
Emil followed right behind Mathias, making sure to keep close to his eldest brother. He kept an eye out for anything he deemed suspicious as well and always made sure to keep one hand close to his pocket in which he kept his pocketknife at all times, for safety reasons, of course.
There was a certain soreness in his bones, something he had come to expect from long nights of walking and fighting and whatever else. It was worse today though, likely due to the fact that he hadn't slept. His bones felt heavy, his muscles seemingly straining to get them to move. He wouldn't stop though, no... Not until he found Lukas, or his knees gave out. Whichever came first, he supposed.
They walked for hours with no clues, with no leads. The sun was set high in the sky above and it beat down on the both of them, although the foliage from the trees shaded them. It was probably the hottest day so far this year and the fact that so many old factories from years ago had combusted and let so much CO2 into the air didn't help with the suns radiation with what people decades ago called Global Warming, which many people now believed was a total myth. Though the two of them kept treading through the grass which was up to their knees now with not much more than a simple few moments of rest scattered about.
It wasn't until the late afternoon that Emil tugged at Mathias's coat, quietly telling him to stop in his tracks. There was rustling and grunting-like sound coming from their right that was all too familiar, along with a trail of splattered blood on the blades of grass beneath their two feet. Emil could hear a bit of a moist sound too, most likely that of the blood and raw meat of the victim. His eyes went wide and his body became absolutely stiff, though his voice quivered with fear.
"Mat," Emil whispered hoarsely. "Mat, I think ones here… It...it's eating someone…!"
Mathias turned his attention to the sounds, studied it for a moment, and quietly slid his gun from his shoulders. He crouched, hefted the gun up with the back against his shoulder to prepare for the recoil, and took a few moments to carefully aim. It was hard to kill these things, and if one were to hit them in the wrong place, they would just get angry, and the last thing anyone wanted chasing them down was an angry Soul Mongrel. It was difficult to see if, off in the brush, but he managed.
A few moments later, after taking a long, slow breath and calming his unsteady hands, he pulled the trigger, the sound echoing through the vast forestry. The beast screeched when it was hit, black blood splattering from the beast onto both of the brothers, and oozing out of the wound. The sound was piercing and unearthly, haunting but far too familiar. It wasn't as though it was something Mat was hearing for the first time. The wailing hardly bothered him anymore, really. It fell to the side with a thump, and Mat stood up again, slinging the gun back over his shoulders and going to see who- or what-, the ugly, gnarly thing had been snacking on.
Emil cautiously stepped in for a closer look at whatever poor, unfortunate soul had fallen victim to the best, but upon closer inspection, crouched down close, Emil noticed something that made his stomach do flips and felt like he was about to be sick, and it wasn't just the gnarly odors coming from the victim or the now dead Soul Mongrel.
His shaky hands moved about the space beside him, though his wide eyes did not remove themselves from the mangled carcass before him. He searched blindly for Mathias, whispering his name over and over again, frightened, voice cracking. Once he found part of Mathias, most likely is long coat, his spare hand went to cover his mouth in fear of being sick and vomiting all over the dead body in front of him.
The body was hardly recognizable, half the face had been ripped off and the stomach was torn open, guts sprawled across the body and the green grass underneath. Though there was a trait left that he just couldn't ignore. The hair of whom the body belonged to was blood splattered, though there were few strands that weren't tainted by the now dried blood. Blond.
Emil's voice began to raise in fear, along with his breathing.
"Mat, Mat, no, no, no!" He started to scream, a hand raking through his hair before clenching a good clump of it, as much as his palm could take. "No, this can't be!"
Mathias, who'd followed him in after, spent a long time just staring at his little brother's ruined body. He could, honestly, hardly even tell if it was Lukas or not... and it would have been so easy to convince himself that, no, the dead man, no, boy, he was still just a boy, he was only twenty five, he was so young, on the ground was someone else, that was not Lukas. It couldn't have been Lukas! Certainly Lukas was alright, certainly he was just... hiding somewhere, maybe hurt but still very much alive. No, he couldn't be dead. He wasn't dead. Lukas couldn't die.
He felt like he was stuck, like he couldn't move forwards or backwards from where he was standing, like there was a weight in his stomach that had sunk down, down, down to his toes and held him in place. If he didn't know, deep down, who the body on the ground was, he would have gagged, would have probably thrown up at the sight, at the smell of rotting flesh and bile... He could feel Emil grabbing for him, for his coat, but for a moment, he just didn't react.
And then, all of a sudden, he was unstuck, and as much as he wanted to scream, wanted to cry and beat at the dead body of the thing that had killed his brother, instincts took over, and the first thing he did was grab Emil and pull his last living family member tight to his chest, hide his face so he didn't have to look at what was left of Lukas... Not that Emil couldn't handle it, not that he hadn't already seen it, but more so he didn't have to keep looking... so maybe he could pretend he'd never seen what lay on the ground at their feet.
Emil clung desperately to his brother, hands gripping at the fabric that was worn on Mathias's chest. It wasn't until now that he let out a loud sob, nearly screaming and holding on tighter to his only brother left. He bawled his eyes out, tears streaming down his face as his body shivered and quaked, chest heaving from just how much air he lacked in his lungs. The hot, dry air didn't help his breathing either, just making it harder and harder, until he practically couldn't breathe anymore.
His knees begged, wanting to buckle underneath his own weight and just give to the ground beneath him, to crawl beside his dead brother's mangled body and cry, sob, but he couldn't, needing the comfort of Mathias right now more than anything.
Eventually he calmed down and his sobs weren't as loud, but they were still there. His breathing stayed frantic, voice hitching as he tried to speak, but nothing audible came out through his hurried breathing. The only thing that Mat could make out was the sound of his own name and that of their lost brother, nothing more.
Through the whole ordeal, Mathias managed to limit himself to tears and quiet little sobs. His eyes never left Lukas's carcass, as much as he wanted to look away. In a way, he was punishing himself, showing himself that this was completely his own fault, and if he'd been paying more attention a few days prior, Lukas would be alive and they'd be at home, probably asleep in bed. Hell, if he'd been paying attention last year, or two years ago as well, Ber and Tino would still be alive, too.
He held Emil close, gently smoothing down his shock of messy, nearly white hair. Though it was an attempt to comfort him, he was well aware of the fact that it wasn't going to work. Lukas was dead, and now, they were alone. That would be another body buried in the backyard, in the corner behind the tree, another makeshift headstone with nothing more than a name carved into it, and another day of the year that would be marked by nothing more than the addition of flowers over the makeshift grave, if he could find them, or a handful of pebbles as a meager replacement.
Once Emil had calmed down, at least a little bit, Mathias scooped him up off the ground and carried him out of sight of Lukas's body. The kid was having trouble staying on his feet, and if Mat didn't move him himself, he thought it would have been entirely likely that Emil would never have moved. He didn't blame the poor kid, though. He had always been so close with Lukas, they both had. It was hard to admit that he was gone.
Eventually, he set his brother back down on his feet, gently peeled him off, and took his hand. They would have to come back around to get the body, because the soul mongrels were sure to be coming now, after the horrible noise the dead one had let out. They would have to figure out how best to bring what was left Lukas home... Tino hadn't even been that much of a mess when they found him, and Ber had been almost completely recognizable... Lukas was a whole other story... He was already starting to consider just burying the hair pin. There were logistical problems with that, though. If they buried the hair pin instead of Lukas, they would have no physical thing to remember him by like the did with Berwald and Tino. If they left his body out here, he would never be properly at rest... It made more sense to take him home, but home was so far away now.
Once Emil was set back on his own two feet and was forced to let his grip go, his knees finally gave out beneath him, and with a thud, he fell to his knees. His hand stayed in Mathias's, though it was a very nimble type of hold and Emil's body still shook in fear from what he'd seen. He knew that the image of his dead brother lying there in the grass was going to be burned into his mind forever, and that no matter how he tried to shield himself, it'd always be there in his recurring nightmares.
It was going to be nearly impossible to bring home Lukas's mangled body, it was already torn to shreds and only hanging together by torn tendons. So the logical explanation would be to leave Lukas's soulless and lifeless body to decompose naturally.
With his head down, Emil finally spoke his mind, calm enough to get coherent words out from his chapped lips.
"We can't bring him home," He mumbled, taking a deep breath. "The monsters are surely coming from the screams of their own dying brethren… So if we drag Lukas back home it will slow us down, and just give them another reason to attack us, not that they wouldn't if we didn't have Lukas…," Emil grew quiet, sniffling and starting to compose himself a bit better now. "We can place markers out for him like we did for dad, and grab some wild flowers here…" At the thought of Lukas's dead, rotting body he started to shake again. "P-place them over his chest…"
"...There probably isn't enough time to do even that," Mathias replied gruffly, carefully hoisting Emil back up to his feet, "They'll be coming any time now, we have to leave... Maybe we'll come back and put flowers down later, but right now, we should go." Despite the roughness in his voice and the general sourness of how he spoke, there was still caring there, and if Emil wanted to place flowers down before they left, well, he wouldn't argue it.
Sighing, he spoke again, sounding rather concerned. "Are you alright to leave...? I can carry you for a bit if you need.."
Emil stood up shakily, holding tightly to his brother's hand, not sure if he could go on quick enough. With how shaky and weak his legs were he didn't know if he could keep up with Mathias and how fast they needed to go to. He sheepishly looked to his brother, not wanting to say he needed the help, but he really did. He was nineteen now, he should be able to take care of himself. Though he finally gave in and realized he was going to need the help.
"Please?" he spoke quietly, wiping his tears away to rid his face of the dry feeling his prior tears left.
He smiled gently, tiredly and rather sadly, before passing Emil the gun, getting him to sling it over his back, and crouching to get him to climb onto his back. He would be able to move faster like that, so that was how he was going to carry Emil.
Once his brother had clambered up into his back, he set off running, back in the direction that home presumably was, careful to go as far away from the rising sounds of screeching and ethereal barking as possible. He wasn't in the business of getting eaten at the moment... Especially not today. He wasn't losing his last brother today... even if losing him meant dying himself.
Emil kept nice and close, arms tightly around Mathias's neck and his face hidden in the crook of his neck as well. His eyes were closed tight as he felt his brother beginning running through the forested landscape, out into the prairies and rolling hills that were present a few miles before their own little walled in town of Vilborg.
Once their town was in sight, graffiti lining the cement walls around the town, Emil was told it was time to get off and that they could walk the rest of the way. With that, he grabbed his brothers worn out, rough, calloused hand that was certainly much bigger than his own, and held it gently, squeezing it for a moment just to make sure he was still there.
They walked into the town, gates opening up for them, and it was back to the crowded gravel streets. They found their way home, not saying a word to each other along the way. Before entering the rusted door of their worn down home the two of them found two wooden planks and leaned them in an 'x' shape against the exterior of the house next to Tino's grave as a makeshift marker for Lukas, just like their father's. After a moment of silence the two of them went into the house and decided it would be best to rest their weary heads.
Emil, after trying to sleep in his own bed, found that he couldn't and shuffled his way into Mathias's own room. He didn't ask if he could, knowing Mat would know exactly why he was coming in, crawling under the covers and gently moving Mathias's arm so it was gently over top of him and one below, which moved with ease into a simple, tight hug. And with that, yet another night fell that Emil found himself sleepless, crying silently once again over another loss of another brother, though he praised the Gods that at least he had Mathias, and let himself drift away into a deep slumber in the early morning.