MAKA
They camp out the next night at the base of a crest. It isn't much shelter, but at least it's enough to break the wind. Tsubaki attempts to light a fire using a collection of grasses, but it never takes for very long. It's a cold, miserable night for everyone that night. Maka, in an uncharacteristic bout of weakness, finds herself wishing that she, too, had someone to cuddle up to – had someone to share body heat with like Blake and Tsubaki, Kidd and Liz and Patty. Her eyes light upon Soul, but she quickly pushes the notion from her head. He's an Evans, she reminds herself.
So Maka pulls her second all-nighter in a row, despite Tsubaki relieving her halfway through the night. She simply cannot sleep, even though the thermal sheet certainly does its job. She realizes she should have told the others about the kee-shin creature she encountered the night before, but at the same time, she doesn't want to worry them. In the light of day, she started to believe it had only been a figment of her imagination. To her relief, all is silent that night but for the susurrus of the tall grasses in the breeze and Blake's snoring.
The next morning begins slowly. Perhaps she should have appreciated that time more than she did, because when the group of seven finally reaches the crest of the hill, they're able to see what became of the Shibusen. Maka hears a gasp and, with no small sense of mortification, realizes it's hers. Her knees go weak, and she barely registers the hands around her upper arms lowering her safely to the ground.
"Maka," someone says, "Maka, are you okay?"
But all she can see is the destruction laid out before her. The debris goes on for miles, spread in all directions around the epicenter of the crash. She cannot see the ship herself, only a long skidmark in the distance where it slid across the ground, but pieces of the once-smooth hull of the Shibusen are now cracked, shattered, and crumpled, strewn alongside gash in the earth, and all around … oh, god. "Those are escape pods," she whispers in horror, a work-roughened hand covering her mouth. "None of them … we're the only ones who …"
The events of the past two days catch up to her, as do the two sleepless nights, and she can no longer hold herself together. As she falls apart, she's dimly aware of a second presence by her side. Although the extra heat in the already warm morning is unpleasant, she leans into it, allowing its solidity to ground her once more.
"My ship!" Kidd cries, "My perfect, symmetrical ship! She's ruined!"
"Do you really think that matters much right now?" Liz asks impatiently. "Maka told us the ship went down yesterday morning – we all felt it, remember?"
"Kaboom!"
Maka sniffs and attempts to pull herself together. They're all relying on her, goddammit – she can't afford this weakness. It's not the first time she's been faced with mass casualty, and this time, it's not even her fault. As she comes around, she gradually realizes she's being held against ratty, grimy pinstripes. She tries to pull away, but Soul stops her.
"Are you okay?" he asks in a murmur, and she can feel his breath ghosting across the top of her head. She flushes and wrenches herself away.
"I will be," she says brusquely, hoping that the redness in her cheeks will be attributed to either her crying or the heat. She has no time for this shit – not now, not ever – and tells herself to cut it out. She needs to get them off this planet. She uses the cuff of her ruined uniform jacket to swipe at her tears angrily as she turns away in a perfectly executed about-face.
"What now, sir?" Tsubaki asks quietly. Maka takes a shuddering breath.
"This changes nothing," she says. "We knew the ship went down – we should have expected this. We need to find any survivors, and we need to salvage what we can."
She feels more than sees Soul step up beside her as he looks out over the wreck. "It's almost … beautiful," he says shakily. "I mean, in a really, really morbid sense of things, you know?"
Maka nods. "When it came down last night, it was all I could do to stare at it. I just couldn't look away."
"I still can't look away."
When she glances over at him, she cannot determine whether she is grateful or disappointed that he's still staring forward at the ship graveyard before them. Major Albarn is extremely grateful; eighteen-year-old Maka is slightly disappointed. When he does look down at her, however, she turns away as soon as his sanguine eyes meet hers.
She doesn't have time for this shit.
"Okay team," she says gently, though pitching her voice so that she'll be heard, "everyone grab what you can, and let's move out. We're not doing anyone any favors by lollygagging around here, that's for sure."
And thus begins another grueling hike through the unforgiving foreign sunlight. This hike is longer than any of the others they've taken, and the day is hotter. At last, Maka can take it no more and removes her navy uniform jacket entirely, awkwardly sliding it out from underneath the scythe holster on her back. She's had it unbuttoned for the past couple days, but has not wanted to break uniform protocol entirely. It's only when she feels as if she's about to pass out due to heat exhaustion that she removes it and shoves the sleeves of the dress shirt she wears underneath to her elbows.
"Kiiiiddd," Patty whines behind her, "my feet hurt!"
"I'm sorry, Patty," Kidd says, "I – I don't know what to do about that …"
Maka halts the group. They've been walking for a couple hours now – she's not exhausted, but she's used to much longer treks across much harsher territory with her platoon. I'm leading a group of socialites, she thinks as she takes a deep breath to calm herself.
"Okay," she says, "we'll take a quick break. Patty, let me see your feet."
As everyone else tramps down the grass around them to make a space to sit, the shorter Thompson gingerly picks her way toward Maka. Even from where she stands, Maka can see the damage done to the other girl's feet – they're bruised and even bloody in places.
"Why didn't you say anything?" She asks as she instructs the younger girl to take a seat. She then crouches down next to her in order to get a better look at her battered feet, laying her scythe and jacket beside her.
Patty shrugs. "I didn't wanna slow everyone down," she says. "Sissy's feet are ugly, too."
Maka wants to scream. She appreciates their desire to keep up with her and not to be a hindrance, but at the same time, who knew how long they would be stuck here? They needed to take care of themselves, too! Who knew what sort of nasty foreign bacteria there were on this planet?
She ignores the hypocrisy of her thoughts, as she's the one who hasn't slept for two nights straight now.
"Elizabeth Thompson!" she shouts over her shoulder, "Get your ass over here!" She doesn't check to see if Liz is actually coming or not before she's fishing in her grab bag for what limited first-aid supplies she had stocked it with. She pulls out some antiseptic wipes, some gauze bandages, and a length of wrap bandages usually used to support twisted ankles or temporarily set broken bones.
"This is going to sting a little bit," she tells Patty as she rips open one of the antiseptic wipes. She casts the packet aside and runs the disinfecting wipe over the worst of the cuts on the other girl's feet. Patty flinches, but giggles all the same.
"It's cold!" she says.
A shadow falls over them, and Maka looks up to see Liz. "I'm doing your feet afterward," she says. "You can't be out here with open wounds."
"Sorry, Maka," Liz says as she sits down beside her sister. "I didn't even think –"
"It's fine," Maka dismisses her as she covers the worst of the open wounds with the gauze and begins wrapping Patty's feet with the wrap bandages. "I get why you didn't say anything, and I can respect that. But out here, what happens to one of us affects all of us – you need to remember that."
"Yes, sir," Liz says, grinning sheepishly. "If I'd known we'd be trekking across a foreign planet, I would have worn better shoes to that party," she jokes.
Maka laughs. "There," she tells Patty. "It'll feel a little weird, but the bandages should protect your feet. We'll have to stop and rewrap them every once and a while – let me know if they're getting loose."
"Yes, sir!" Patty says enthusiastically, bouncing to her feet and saluting cheekily with the wrong hand. "Sissy's turn now!"
"If you don't mind," Liz says, "I can disinfect my own feet. If you could just wrap them for me, then that would be great."
"Sure," Maka says, handing over a new antiseptic wipe. Liz rips the packet open, and Maka takes the time to put both empty packets back into her bag. She doesn't want to leave any trace of their presence behind.
It doesn't take long to get Liz's feet wrapped up. Maka pushes herself to her own feet, wiping sweat from her brow before holding out a hand to help Liz up. The older girl takes it gratefully. "This feels much better," she says. "Thanks, Maka."
"No problem," Maka replies. She turns to the rest of the group, who have been waiting patiently. "Alright, break's over. I hope everyone got some water. We'll stop again in an hour or two." As everyone rises to their feet, groaning and protesting, Maka grabs her jacket and scythe from where she laid them on the ground beside her. When she sees that everyone's ready to go, they move on.
"Hey, Maka," Soul says, jogging up to trek beside her. She looks at him inquisitively.
"What's up?"
"I, uhm, well … you didn't get any water while we were stopped there," he explains haltingly. His pinstriped jacket is once again tied around his waist by the arms, and his hair is even more ruffled than it had been a few nights earlier. Even so, he still looks the very epitome of put-together. It takes her a moment to realize that he's trying to hand her one of the canteens of water.
"Oh," she says dumbly. "Yeah, thanks."
Maka takes a swig, but not much of one. They're going to have to seriously start rationing the water soon; the escape pod's emergency supply is the only supply they have. She's military – she's dealt with unpleasant situations like this before – but her companions, save for Tsubaki, have not. She's incredibly impressed with how well they've taken everything up until now, but she's not counting on their luck to hold out.
"How are you holding up?"
She glances over at Soul and sighs heavily. "I should be asking you that question," she says. "I've handled this shit before; I'll handle it again. How are you doing?"
"Terribly," Soul answers frankly. "My suit is ruined, I'm sweaty and gross, my hair is more of a mess than it ever has been in my entire life, and these shoes were not made for long hikes – I think I'm starting to blister. I'm constantly thirsty, and hungry, and those nutrition bars are glorified cardboard, but I'm also having fun, I think. Apart from Blake, this is the closest I've been to having friends since I officially joined Society."
The red in his cheeks darkens past 'sunburn,' and he looks away. "Sorry," he mumbles. "I didn't mean to go off like that."
"No," she says, "it's all right. It's better you get it off your chest." There's something about his words that makes something flutter in her own, but she does her best to ignore that. Evans, that sensible part of her whispers. She glances over her shoulder at the gaggle of people that follow. Blake and Kidd are arguing over something silly, while Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty exchange hushed words – no doubt Tsubaki is telling them about some of the antics the enlisted men get into. She turns back to Soul. "If we all get off this planet alive, I'm sure you'll stay good friends with them," she says. "There are some things you just can't go through without being friends afterward."
"You said 'them,'" Soul says, "but what about you?"
Crap. She had hoped that he would overlook that. She shrugs non-committedly. "Tsubaki and I will probably be going back out on the front lines," she says. "After this dumb press tour is over, well, after the next dumb press tour is over, I'll fade into obscurity. At least, I hope I will. I'm not cut out for life in the limelight."
"Oh."
His face falls so hard, and Maka immediately feels bad. This is a bad idea. This is a really bad idea. She's already in too deep, and she's just digging herself deeper. "But I mean," she amends, "we have to get off this planet first. Then we'll see how it goes from there."
A smile creeps back onto his face. "Of all the people to get shipwrecked with, I –" he cuts off, shaking his head. "Never mind."
