A/N - Hey, just a heads up this MIGHT have a lot of mistakes.
Sorry man. It's about 12 in the morning, I have work, and I just wanted this posted for you guys to have something chill with on a Monday.
Please love me. I am human.
Alright, hope you guys enjoy. Get to get a bit of history in this one. Sorry it's so slow. Give it some time.
DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto.
Song used for this chapter - Sound Patrol & VDG - Paper Wings (feat. Voia)
Within the few days planned, we finally made it to the state highway. As predicted, the roads were clear. Unfortunately, more clear than I would have liked. There wasn't a car in sight, which really was unlucky. But I had no doubt further down the road we would at least find a few. My hope now that they were repairable.
Being mechanically inclined wasn't something that I had going for me before the world went to shit. Actually, I was just the typical highschooler with nothing going on but coming to and from school. Fixing up cars and other small things was something I learned along the way from the original people that saved me from the city and all it's hell. The man was a car mechanic locally that my family knew for awhile. His wife simply stayed at home and gardened her life away. I learned a lot from the both, and took in everything they sat down and taught me.
Without them, I doubted how I could have possibly gotten this far. For the longest time I was carried from one person to the next, managing to survive with their help and sacrifice. I only hoped that one day I was able to pay all I had been indebted to them by saving someone else as they carried on.
I sighed at shoulder of the highway, cupping my hand over my eyes as I stared at the sun. We made a couple of turns after waking up this morning, and I made the mistake of not keeping a mental note from which horizon it rose from. Now it hung in the middle of the sky, leaving me utterly helpless. The sun was my only way of a sense of direction, the compass that I owned now only an heirloom that had been gifted to me by the man who saved my life.
Noticing my huff of frustration, Ino paused her little antics with Warwick that kept them both entertained and walked over. "What's wrong?"
"We might have to stay here for a couple of hours," I replied with a frown, dropping my hand from my face. "I can't tell which direction we are going. I mean the highway signs would be a huge help, but it looks like we'd have to walk a while in one direction or another to figure out where we are heading. We need to go north so I don't like the idea of taking the chance and potentially wasting our time and energy."
Ino bit her lip, "Oh. Yeah that sounds like a problem."
I sighed as I crossed my arms, "It wouldn't be too bad I guess. We could look around for a river or something. We're running dangerously low on water. There has to be a creak around here somewhere. But that's the bright side of things. I really wish we didn't have to waste time, and it's my fault for breaking the compass I had to begin with. That and I lost my watch a time ago."
"A watch would help?" She asked curiously.
I nodded, "It's a bit more complicated to do, but I'd be able to figure it out if I had an analog watch with the proper time. Risky though, because it'll be hard to to have the exact time but gauging the sun from the horizon I should get the round about. It's finicky but we just need the general direction."
"Well I woke up with a watch along with the map, and I think it has the right time," Ino offered, digging in her bag and by the blessing of the few things good in the world she did in fact have a watch.
I carefully took the watch handed to me and inspected it. Blinking, I mumbled, "Has this been ticking since you woke up?"
"I haven't had it on, so I can't be sure. But I think so," she answered, peaking at my hand as I studied it closely. It was the nicer expensive kind, I could tell just by the weight and smooth feel of it. The brand name was foreign to me, but in the furthest part of my memory I knew I recognized the name.
Eyebrows coming together, I continued to run my fingers along the edges.
"What is it?" Ino asked curiously, eyes slipping to mine.
My focus was else where, concentrating hard. Then, realizing it had a hinge, I pulled carefully but forcefully on the front face of it. With a grin, I almost laughed, "You know, I'm starting to think you're just plain lucky."
Her eyes widened in wonder as I presented to her her watch. Whoever was traveling with her had the survival brand watch that came with neat, but otherwise useless back in the normal world, features. This one in particular held a compass just on the other side of it when unclasped.
But that wasn't the lucky part.
The lucky part was there was a small note inside.
Ino's eyes brimmed with tears as she quickly scanned the note. Covering her mouth with her hand, she choked back an oncoming sob. Eyebrows coming together in worry, I took the note and read it through.
They are taking me with them. They said north.
They don't know you are here.
I hope you find this.
I will escape, I promise.
I will meet you at RI. I'll wait. Leave clues.
I promise I'll find you Ino.
My eyes darted to Ino, who was whipping her eyes. She smiled sadly at me when I continued to watch her in worry, "I'm fine. It's just... I thought that I traveled with someone but I always thought I could have been wrong... That I was just alone the entire."
I gave a grin, "Well this proves that you weren't. And we finally have a solid lead. Fuck scavenging the near towns, we have to go north. As far as we can." I expected her to agree immediately, or for me to at least receive a nod. Instead, she watched me with guarded eyes.
"I appreciate you helping me. But I think this is enough for me to go by myself," she said softly, carefully taking the note and pocketing her watch.
My heart seized as I watched her in confusion, "What? No."
"You've done enough Tayuya," she went on, ignoring me.
My face twisted as I became irrationally angry, "I've hardly done anything. A few days of feeding you and keeping you alive isn't shit."
"Tayuya..."
"No." I said firmly, now glaring, "Just no. You're not going alone."
"I don't see why you would have to go with me. We don't even know how far north we'd have to go, and you don't get anything out of it. It's pointless," she explained, giving me a frown.
Of course she didn't understand.
Fucked up world or not, being consumed with wanting her around wasn't natural.
Swallowing hard, I looked away and repeated, "You're not going alone."
I left it at that. I refused to argue about it anymore. Walking away, I sat on the railing on the shoulder of the highway and pulled out the map Ino woke up with, frowning as I concentrated. Unfortunately the map was regional, only showing the area near by. It would get us as far as the edges, but after that we would have to stick to the highway and somehow make it from there.
Walking aimlessly north could be worth a shot, but it was slow and finicky. I was sure we could find at least one working car to take us a decent length, the problem was what RI meant. Reasonably it could be the obvious acronym for Rhode Island, but sometimes the obvious answer was wrong. Despite my... mixed feelings, I didn't want to ask Ino what it meant. I didn't want to trigger or mistakenly guilt her for not knowing. If she had known, she would have said something.
As I stared at the map, planning our next move, Ino sat beside me. Warwick trotted towards me as well, but he could always tell when I was upset. Sighing, I mumbled, "I guess the best bet is just to follow the highway for now."
"Why are you adamant about coming with me?" Ino asked softly.
I frowned, "I don't want to talk about it anymore. Let's just look for some water before we go any further. Now that we know how far of a trip we are going to make, that's our top priory. Next is food."
She silently sat next to me, but I left it at that. Standing, I continued, "We will be able to search better if we split. So Warwick is going to go with you while I look around by myself. You've got your watch, so make sure you come back here in an hour."
"No," she said quickly, biting her lip hard when I watched her curiously. Quietly, she mumbled, "Can we search together?"
Another frown tugged at my lips as I glanced at Warwick, who was watching me. If I wasn't so sure Warwick would protect her, I would have caved right then. But with a shake of my head, I answered, "We need to spread out so this isn't an all day event. We seriously can't go any longer without it."
Eyes casting down, she rubbed her elbow but otherwise didn't argue. Sighing, I grabbed my bag and hers and moved to a near bush, "Don't get lost alright. One hour, and then I'm starting a hunt for you. But I'm sure if you ask, Warwick wouldn't have a problem finding me again. Keep him close and keep your eyes open."
With that, I hid our materials and began my walk in the woods.
And if I were being honest, I wanted to be alone to think.
I knew I was being irrational, but I just couldn't stomach the thought of Ino leaving. We hadn't been together that long, but already I couldn't remember how it was without her. What was I doing all day without much of a purpose? How many hours did I go without talking before she showed up.
How did I sleep alone every night...
Swallowing hard, I stared ahead as I aimlessly walked.
The problem wasn't that I couldn't remember how it was before. The problem was that I was terrified of going back. I didn't want to be alone anymore, and I guess that was the real issue. Here I was saying the same thing, that Ino wasn't going alone. But honestly, I just didn't want her to leave me alone.
Shaking my head, I ran my fingers through my hair as my heart started to hammer. What would I do if she was adamant? If she truly wanted to leave, I couldn't stop her. One night, in my fit of dreams, she could disappear from me forever and I wouldn't know until the moment I woke up. Even right now, as she went off with Warwick, she could leave with Warwick trotting back to me by himself.
The more the truth I began to realize, the more terrified I was.
I glanced worriedly behind me, feeling an urge to walk back.
Swallowing, my fist pulled tight as I fought the urge back.
Turning back, I kept walking in search of more important matters. Like finding water, and hopefully food.
From the clearing ahead, I hoped the dirt road would lead me right to it.
X
Before I was using the word terrified loosely. Freely tossing it around without considering what would truly be horrifying, what would truly run my blood cold.
In the heat, as I ran as fast as I could, the coldness from the absent of blood chilled me to the bone. My throat felt constricting as I choked back the urge to scream out Ino's name. Instead I ran faster towards the highway, sprinting as my lungs screamed in pain instead.
Being alone wasn't terrifying.
Seeing that diner I came across as I wandered that dirt road was terrifying.
Reading in horror the sign that was written in deep red letters was terrifying.
Realizing my mistake of leaving Ino alone in this area was terrifying.
KEEP AWAY. INFECTED.
Another chill ran through me as I pushed ahead.
No fucking wonder the only group near this area were a bunch of savages.
No wonder they were killing everyone in sight.
I no longer blamed them, I no longer found their violence senseless. They had every right to kill everyone that came near their community. Anyone that wandered to close to their village. Christ, even I would do the same. They couldn't tell who would be infected or not. As far as they knew, they were the only ones that were clear of the sickness.
I needed to find Ino, I needed to drag her away from here.
If I hadn't kept searching after I found that creek, I would have never known the area was this dangerous. Fuck, I was even considering of staying here the night. And then, for the second time, I was stupid enough to leave Ino alone. At least she had Warwick, he knew how to keep her safe, but against infections...
He couldn't do much. A single bite by him, and he would fall ill too.
The clearing from the concrete road on the highway was relieving to see, and I felt so weak from gratitude of see Ino sitting there with Warwick on the railing that I almost collapsed right then.
She noticed me as I jogged towards her, a small frown on her face. Adverting her eyes as I neared, she began, "Listen, I was thinking and-"
"We need to go," I cut her off, gulping in a breath as I felt my sides beginning to cramp. My mouth was dry, my tongue feeling like sandpaper. I was dehydrated from running that far that fast, but I couldn't afford to gulp down the water without boiling it first.
Ino stood immediately as she asked with panic in her tone, "What? Are they back? Are they behind you?"
Shaking my head, I took her hand and rushed to where I hid our bags. She stumbled behind me as I took long strides, knowing any second I might pass out from exhaustion but still keeping my quick pace. Slamming her bag into her chest, I did fast work of latching the gallon of water I managed to grab before tossing on my bag as well. Turning to her, I snatched her hand again and began to quickly move down the road.
Warwick followed without any look of tension in his jaw.
That was good, that meant we were alone. Yet my eyes were scanning as we walked. I was nervous, I wanted to travel inside the woods around us to keep us hidden, but I could no longer trust them in this particular area after what I had found searching them just minutes before. We were out in the open, but that was something that we would simply have to deal with. I'd rather go against a random traveler attempting to steal everything off our very back then deal with infectious.
I shivered at the thought and tightened my hold on Ino's hand, tugging her to move faster.
"What is going on?" Ino asked, obviously wary if there were still imminent danger as she struggled to keep pace.
"I found a diner with a sign that warned it was infected." Shivering again, I continued, "What was worse... I didn't hear anything inside. Which means whatever was in there, got out. We need get as far away as possible. I'm not stopping until at least the sun starts going down, after that hopefully we can find high ground to sleep at."
"What does it mean if the diner said it was infected?" Ino asked with complete and utter confusion.
My eyebrows came together as I turned to her, stunned.
It wasn't possible that she didn't know. The probability of her never running into infections, even after she woke up, was improbable. Yet there she was staring at me with wide worried eyes. I realized that she was serious.
Looking away, I weighed my options. This world was scary enough as it was, and I didn't want her to feel like I was tricking her into traveling with me up north, but I couldn't leave her defenseless without the very important knowledge of what she would be up against.
Eyebrows coming together, I explained as best as I could.
"If you see a sign that says infected, it means one more of the infectious are in there. Usually. I can't explain what the infectious are. They are just... really sick people." Glancing at her, I frowned, "You haven't ran into anyone who just... seemed a bit odd? Overly aggressive? And I don't mean like the men we saw back at the town, I mean irrationally aggressive. Like they aren't even thinking, their moving with instinct to kill?"
She looked terrified as she shook her head.
Another frown pulled my lips as I looked away, "I honestly am glad to hear that. That's... well that's incredible. Maybe it means whatever infected the people in the first place is dying down. But... I mean it's still out their. It's a threat. I think that's what started the whole downward spiral of everything that happened."
"But what happened?" Ino asked as she followed me, now gripping my hand tight. Warwick trotted next to her, "I still don't know."
I stared hard ahead, dreading the task I would have to do. I hated talking about what happened, it brought back memories.
I licked my lips and began, "I can't be sure. But... there were signs, you know? There were hints of all the shit that was about to go down. The news is shitty to watch anyway, someone is always killing someone in the first place. But... I can't even say it started to happen more often. It just... started to get more and more senseless. The violence. The news went to school shootings to mass outbreaks of killing at random places."
Taking a breath, I felt my chest tighten with fear all over again as I thought about the past. Swallowing I forced myself to continue, "The first sign was this guy playing in a world soccer game or something. One of the players just... stopped running in the middle of the game. They had footage. It went viral. You watched this guy go from full on sprinting to just... standing there. No one noticed... until the guy turned around and went for the closet person and starts choking him."
My eyes nervously scanned around us as I thought of the memory, "And it wasn't just like... I don't know. You could tell by watching. It wasn't the average nut case cracking under pressure or something. No. They had 3 people on this guy trying to drag him away from killing the dude. Next thing you know the entire team is on him trying to pry his hands off the guys neck but the guy just doesn't let go... He ended up dying."
I really hated talking about them. It made my legs weak from fear.
"After that they are attempting to figure out what is up with him. World star soccer player just cracks and they were evaluating him. The world kind of stopped caring after awhile. We didn't hear about him again. Until a kid at some school went on a rampage. With her fucking pencil Ino. She gets up in the middle of class, stabs about three students before they get a hold of her, and even as they restrain her she's trying to kill one of the guys on top of her. After that, there was an incident at the mall... that was the worst one... I don't want to talk about it."
Taking a shaky breath, I mumbled, "A bit after that, when it just kept happening, the government tried not to start panic, but panic was already settling in when they canceled every flight in the country. Every fucking plane was grounded, Ino. They sent the president into his air force one, and after that we didn't hear anything, because when shit started to actually set in that something was terribly wrong, major cities were falling..."
I thought about my home, how I was locked in the closet where my father hid me when mom came home one day screaming and punching at him.
Fuck... my eyes were starting to sting.
"I don't know what the infection is or does. Maybe it's become more calm now, because they don't just attack the people who aren't sick but even the sick as well. I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't have ran into them, even I haven't ran into them in about a week. But... Ino their out there and if you're telling me a whole team is holding a man back and he was still able to choke a guy to death, imagine going against one alone..."
We were quiet for a couple of steps.
Slipping my eyes to her, I begged quietly, "Can we please stop talking about this..."
She gave me a worried look as she nodded silently.
Thanking her softly, we made the rest of the trip in silence.
Okay there we go. Yeah it's a pretty slow moving story, but we're going to start jumping ahead to some action here soon. Hopefully some more Ino and Tay moments. It's just a bit hard to do right now because the story is still be set up. So we gotta be patient.
Hope you guys like it so far. Again sorry for all the mistakes. I know they are there.
I'm really hopping to get into these Tay Ino moments sooner. Sigh such hard work.
But there you go, another update to make up for my lack of updates for this one for so long. I might be looking into Dawnstar next, so keep a lookout.
I know this isn't the usual, but I hope you're enjoying it.
So read review, tell me what you think. I need some opinions on if this is going well. Like I said. New thing I'm doing.
Shycadet loves you all. Out.
