A/n: hopefully this makes sense – I had written this before I got terribly ill. Just found it waiting in my email.
Naghi-Tan: He's confident in his buddy, that's why. XD The rider will come in handy soon ;D
: : Twenty-One
They caught up to the vehicle nearly an hour later – Kid had intended on ramming them if it wasn't for Ussop's quick thinking. The terrified younger man snaked a leg over Kid's to hit the brake, then yanked the wheel to allow them to narrowly miss a surprised Luffy as he hurried out to the back of the truck to see who was coming up on them. He was sprayed with ash and dirt as Kid regained control of the car, but ended up overturning it over some questionable mounds that lifted up from the road like cartoonish hills. The three of them held onto whatever they could as the car rolled once, ending up on its side in a noisy spray of dirt, squealing metal against pavement and rock. After the vehicle settled Kid crawled out from between the roll bars, catching sight of Law giving him an unamused frown while Luffy clutched his own chest and shakily held himself against the truck's back bumper.
"Dramatic," Law commented as he waited for the trio to climb out. "Ussop? Where's Sanji?"
"Fuck that guy, this is all I found. And why'd you leave me?" Kid demanded, rising from the dirt and brushing himself off. "Why'd you stop here?"
"We hit something," Perona complained, leaning out the passenger side window while Law's expression changed stiffly at the news. She pointed to the front where the truck's grill was buried into one of the mounds – another tread had fallen off, the axle smoking slightly. As Kid ventured close to investigate, he saw that there was a greasy face imprint just above the dash where Luffy had connected. The heavy metal grill looked chipped but otherwise unharmed.
The mound had separated to reveal the remains of a safety pole to protect pedestrians from being hit by traffic. Looking around, he saw that what looked like a dirt canyon; the pole suggested that the entire area had years of loose dirt piling over a town that had once stood here. The canyon itself suggested that the 'hills' were actually crumbled structures overwhelmed by dust and debris. It was deceptive in its appearance. Without the appearance of a road, using a vehicle in this area would invite similar collusions and he grit his teeth with frustration.
'Why isn't he with you?" Law asked Ussop, tone dropping several degrees. Ussop took a cautious step behind Zoro, who was brushing himself off with an expression similar to Luffy's. "You left together, right? Did you leave him behind?"
"He'll catch up to us when he's ready," Zoro muttered, frowning at Kid for their entrance. He looked back to examine the state of their car, unsure of how they were even able to walk away from it.
"So he's alone? Out there?"
"No."
"Then - !"
"Shh," Perona whispered, reaching out to place a finger over Law's mouth. "Your ownership privileges will be revoked if you throw a fit out here."
She screamed when he bit her, extracting her finger with some wild flailing. Ussop thought he'd faint as he saw the appendage emerge with some rather intense bite drags. She blew on it with building tears while Luffy tried not to laugh at her reaction and Kid gave a disgusted cry of dismay to the tread's newest damage.
"Remember where we came from," Zoro said, crossing his arms stubbornly as Law faced him, spitting out the taste of Perona's finger. "I heard him hours earlier. We'd come through this just fine as kids."
"As children but the circumstances are quite different right now - !"
"So as an adult that we're relying on," Kid cut in with a nasty expression aimed towards the other man, "you'd think he'd be quite fine out there by himself, anyway!"
Law gave him a dirty look, Kid happy to return a gesture that Law had given him hours earlier, to mock him for staring at Zoro. It made Kid's day to see the other man's face redden, the scowl intensifying. But Law said nothing in response while Perona sneered at him from behind, blowing on her finger.
"Some animals are better suited to takin' care of each other than humans are," Zoro said, looking away from him to observe their surroundings. Law wasn't sure what he meant by that, feeling his face fall with sullen weight. "I don't remember this dirt pit ever being here. I don't think I ever passed through it."
"What we going to do, then?" Luffy asked, arms spread. "Where are we going to go? We should go looking for Sanji, he knows how to feed us. That's why we're here, right?"
"We're out of food," Perona mentioned, then turned her glare at Luffy. "Somehow."
"Since I have another car, I don't need this one," Kid said, kicking the truck. He leaned into Law to say, "You can fix it yourself. If you want to live."
Law glanced at him before making a gesture with his fingers. At the rattling sound of the car Kid had crashed minutes earlier lifting up from the dirt, he whirled around to see it being shifted slowly to face backside down. He grabbed Law's wrist with frantic action, recognizing what he was doing to do. Then he spun on his heel to catch the weight with his own ability – Zoro and Ussop watched them struggle against each other, their abilities fighting the other's to either save or damage the car.
"Like siblings," Ussop whispered to Zoro, who nodded with an exasperated expression.
"This is boring," Luffy then sighed as Perona looked up from nursing her finger. "There is nothing but dirt around here. I expected all sorts of terrible things to happen, not just getting stuck in sand. You guys lied to us."
"Yeah, I'm over it," she agreed. She looked to Ussop, banging on the truck door to gain his attention. "Where'd you come from, peasant?"
"I was kidnapped by a blood thirsty gang," Ussop answered with a heavy sigh. "If it wasn't for my quick thinkin', I could've died."
"Why didn't you?"
"I…didn't feel like it, today."
"That's my boy!"
Shaking his head, Zoro turned away from the scene. Scanning over the landscape, he figured they could just venture out from where they'd come in and move around it. It'd be easier on foot. He smacked his lips as he reached for his rucksack, pulling out a canteen. He took a long pull of it before a sudden silence caught his attention. He capped it and looked back at the others to see why they had gone quiet and realized all of them were staring at him with intense expressions.
He replaced the canteen with a severe frown. "Don't tell me ya'll didn't bring any water?"
"Did we?" Perona whispered to Law, who dropped his hold on the vehicle, Kid's opposing force sending the vehicle high up into the air before Kid regained control over it.
"We did," Law said, giving a puzzled frown.
"I am so thirsty," Luffy said with dawning realization. "Where is the water?"
"I lost mine back there!" Ussop exclaimed with horror.
"Fuck, now that you say that, I'm thirsty," Kid said, replacing the car neatly onto the ground. "Gimme some of that water, Zoro."
"If we don't find some, we're gonna die!" Zoro exclaimed, looking at them incredulously. "How did you not pack for this? I thought one of those crates had a barrel of it!"
"It did, but we drank it all," Luffy said with a shrug. "We was real thirsty since we didn't have any food."
"This is how it truly ends," Law said thoughtfully. "Drying up like skeletons – we can go a week without eating, but only three days without water. Who has to pee first? More than likely, it has a properly balanced quality to it with which we can drink safely – "
"I'm not drinking anyone's pee!" Perona roared, then regretted it immensely as she clutched her throat. She looked to Zoro. "Give us your water, or die."
"I'm not givin' up anything!" Zoro exclaimed.
"I don't want to die thirsty!"
"Weren't you trained on proper survival tactics?"
"Well, that was in our time," Kid muttered bitterly. "We didn't have to worry about stuff like that."
"I'm drying up," Luffy said dramatically, dropping to his knees into the dirt. "I'm literally turning into sand right now. If I don't have some water, I'm going to crumble."
Perona scrambled out from the truck, looking determinedly at Zoro. "I'll kill him first."
Ussop's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he saw her outfit, and he slapped his hands over his face, turning away from the sight of her. "Woman, where are your clothes?" he shrieked in dismay.
"Don't turn on me!" Zoro snapped at her, realizing that three of them were looking at him with thoughtful expressions. Only Kid looked conflicted, while Ussop gave the trio a panicked noise, turning to stand in front of them with his arms spread out. He kept his head averted from Perona, struggling not to look at her directly.
"Look, there's a solution to this," Ussop said quickly. "We can make and filter our own water, it's just gonna take a bit of time to do so! Do ya'll have any plastic?"
"Maybe if we ingest his body, we'll take on his characteristics, too," Law said thoughtfully, wiping his forehead. "It could come into handy."
"You can't eat him," Kid snapped at him. "Look at me, I haven't turned! It's a full moon, and even though I was bit, I ain't turning into a goddamn werewolf! You can't test that theory!"
"We can still drink his blood before it spoils."
"You guys are sick!" Zoro snapped, taking a wary step back as Luffy prepared to launch himself at him, Perona inching towards him with a crazed expression. "I told you guys it was going to be rough out here - !"
He cut himself off. The others' voices crowded out as his sharp hearing caught something from a distance, all instincts at high alert. He only had time to react and not think. He drew Wado quickly, moving into a sharp backwards step and a turning angle that allowed him to cross the space between himself and the others. Standing where he was, Law only saw the flash of Zoro's sword moving as the wolf suddenly appeared in front of a loudly complaining Kid. From the corner of his eye, Law registered Luffy's head snapping towards the right, throwing himself into a stretching reach away from them with a low growl.
In mere seconds Law heard the sharp crack of metal upon metal, and the soft thump of impact into the dirt. Perona was still moving towards where Zoro had been standing mere moments ago, not realizing what was happening. Law couldn't believe how fast the wolf was until he put together the moment after it had happened. Someone had fired at them from an incredible distance, and Zoro's sword had merely redirected the sniper's bullet from Kid's head into the dirt. Kid wasn't even aware of what was happening until he saw Zoro standing in front of him, Wado lowering as he then shot off into a sprint away from him.
Sputtering with confusion, Kid wheeled backwards as Law looked at him with surprise.
"We're under attack," he said slowly. "Too bad you didn't die."
"WHAT?" Kid shouted furiously, Perona whipping around to look back at them with a confused expression. Kid then froze for a few moments, looking at the imprints of Zoro's footsteps. Law watched his normally pale face suddenly bloom with what looked like a blush, and he made a revolted sound. "He…protected me…?"
"Gross," Law said with dripping disgust, earning Kid's embarrassment.
"SHUT UP!"
Ussop turned with a slight stagger as he grew aware of the situation, then hastily dove behind the truck for cover. Perona joined him as bullets tinged off the truck's back bumper, Law crouching up against one of the wheels while Kid pushed his hands out, pausing the hail. He finally saw several men, possibly survivors from the small colony he'd upset running for cover behind a dirt mound. Zoro and Luffy were already attacking a group settled behind another, gun shots and shouts ringing out as their attackers realized they'd been spotted.
"Maybe they have water," Law commented, examining his nails. He heard Luffy's maniacal scream about having guns aimed at him, the dying screams of men as they fell prey to his Gatling-Gun attack.
Newly motivated, Kid headed into the other direction. "I'm going to kill them all and take the spoils of this war!"
"Ah, wait for me!" Perona cried, rising to her feet hastily and using him for cover. "If we're going to be attacked like this in the damn desert, then it'd make sense to form our own army!"
"Put on some clothes!" Ussop cried uselessly after her, horrified over her lack of modesty.
"So, are we working together, then?" Law asked, standing up cautiously as bullets pinged over the truck with noisy fanfare. Ussop kept himself into a tight ball, covering his head as he heard the shift in the gunfire. Alarmed shouts rose up, the sound of shredding and crumbling metal screeching through the still desert air. Law sat down to examine his nails once more, Perona's shrieks of laughter rising just behind Kid's angry shouts. Screaming commenced seconds later, Ussop cringing at the distorted and mangled noises that told him a gruesome scene was occurring. Law looked at him.
"Where's Sanji?" he then asked.
"He wandered off while I was sleeping," Ussop answered nervously. "I couldn't tell ya when. But Zoro said he heard him hours earlier, calling out as an animal. Maybe in that form he'll be fine."
Unwanted images came to mind based off what Law understood of Sanji's human behavior. These things must have caused a certain expression to cross his face, for Ussop then said, "Animals work different from people – males will fight each other, so I'm pretty sure he's out there fighting other males. It'd be different from when he's human an' wants affection."
Law considered this, settling the images away with a slow nod. "But if so, that would mean his aggressive nature would challenge other beasts."
"I wouldn't worry about it," Ussop assured him with a waving hand, suddenly confident. "Sanji has his moments but he's just as tough. He'll come back exhausted and battle scarred but be hisself after some rest."
"But only if there aren't other humans available."
Ussop nodded slowly to confirm this.
"Then where'd these people come from?"
"They're a small group, but Kid destroyed their entire living space," Ussop said with awe. "Some must've escaped in the mess, but that's how the wastelands are. Made up of smaller groups. Colonies are rare in between because of the mess they need ta support themselves. So if you ain't unified with them, then these small groups don't want'cha."
"Is that how you survived?"
Ussop gave a sheepish shrug. "I thought just until Sanji found me. He always does."
"But everything matters if we don't have water in hand," Law said.
"Yeah, we'll die out here without it," Ussop answered shakily. "I was hoping you guys would've come out prepared! After all, we'd warned ya what the wastelands was about. It wasn't gonna be easy."
"We were but we're also relying on you three to get us through this, as agreed," Law said, rising to see where the battles were going.
"I'm pretty sure we agreed to nothing," Ussop mumbled to himself.
"Then to proceed any further would be a disadvantage for us," Law decided, looking at the other car. Ussop watched with horror as Law's hand raised, the car that Kid had used lifting into the air. With a crunch of sound, metal twisted and curled, crushing inward like an aluminum can. Parts fell down into the sand, raining down with puffs of ash rising in their descent. He then turned to the truck and ripped away the tread, tossing that into the dirt canyons furthest from him. He gave a satisfied sound and sat back down, Ussop looking at him with soundless shock.
Ussop was pretty sure that if they all didn't die from the lack of food or water, they were going to die at the hands of the quartet's bad decisions formed out of childish action towards each other. When Kid returned, hauling a barrel of water, he saw what had happened to the car and truck. He dropped the barrel with a startled curse, Ussop putting everything he had into reaching out and cushioning the barrel's fall with his body.
"What the fuck?" Kid cried, hands to his head as he whirled around to look at Law, who stood and leaned against the truck stubbornly. "What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?"
"Were you successful in securing some water?" Law asked instead.
"Why did you do this?"
"It must've happen during your fight. Ussop and I were just sitting here."
"USSOP!" Kid roared, looking at the man as he carefully set the barrel aside, sweating nervously as he did so. He jerked at the sound of his name. "Did this asshole just pulverize my car?"
"I…I…I don't know," Ussop stammered, looking everywhere but him while twiddling his thumbs together nervously. "I…wasn't here – I didn't even notice!"
"You're a jerk!" Kid snarled at Law, striding up to him. He then caught sight of the tread, and looked around with an incredulous expression, hands out. "What the hell happened to the truck? Where's the tread?"
"It's going to take some time to repair it, I suppose we should just set up camp," Law decided, walking away from him. "Until we give a thorough examination of the area, we should at least wait here a couple of days."
Hands to his hair, Kid's mouth hung open as he twirled in a small circle, searching in vain for the missing part. Then his neck and face reddened, Ussop watching cautiously as Luffy and Zoro returned to them, the wolf carrying a couple of barrels over his shoulders and Luffy lugging a crate over his own back.
"We found food and water!" he said breathlessly, tossing the crate carelessly into the back of the truck. "We're good! Those guys were no match for either of us! There sure are some sissies out there, I don't think we're going to have a problem with anyone else."
"We're going to have a problem with another situation," Kid growled out, turning to face Law once more. "This jerk sabotaged our vehicles. We can't go anywhere!"
"We still got legs," Zoro said with a shrug, setting the barrels down.
"We can't lug all this stuff across the wastelands on our backs!"
"You got powers."
"I'm no pack horse," Kid growled, standing close to Law, seething with visible anger while the man dismissed him with a look into another direction. "You did this purposely! You had no right to fuck up our shit just because you ain't happy!"
"What's going on?" Perona asked, shrugging on a light poncho. A group of men with grievous injuries stood unsteadily behind her, their mouths twitching with unsettling noise. Ussop looked at them uneasily, looking to Zoro for some direction as the wolf glanced around, seeing the confrontation taking place. He then noticed the state of the car, the truck's missing tread. He then gave Ussop a shrugging motion as Luffy opened up one of the barrels and tilted it over his face.
As water splashed down uselessly around him, Zoro hastily jerked the barrel out of his grasp and held it off to the side as Luffy coughed and sputtered, wiping his face with dirty hands.
"Don't waste water!" Zoro snapped at him, popping the cork back in. "All of you need to stop with this useless fighting – it ain't getting us anywhere!"
"He sabotaged us into dying out here," Kid snarled, Law averting his head to flick dirt from his shoulder. "Which makes me think we don't need him."
"Are you going to kill him?" Perona asked excitedly. "Then I could see if I can control him with his powers!"
"Because we can't use them on each other," she then added to Ussop, who looked worried. He looked at her with a puzzled look. "They expected that we'd turn on each other, so it doesn't work if we try using our powers on each other. But if I can have one of them as my ghosts, it might give me an advantage!"
"We're not dying out here," Law said with a roll of his eyes. "Not because of my actions, but because we're ill-prepared."
"We have food, we have water. I have a hunter to bring us meat," Kid snarled, grabbing an arm to force Law to face him.
"Who's going to cook it? And stop breathing on me, that stench is making me sick," Law said, shoving his face aside. As Kid stumbled, Law asked Zoro, "Can you cook that thing, there? It's time to eat."
"I really…don't know how," Zoro admitted, Luffy stretching an arm out to retrieve it hastily. He took it by its back legs, the animal dangling uselessly in front of him. "I could skin it and toss it over the fire, but that's the end of my cooking."
"Then do it. Instead of bitching about things, do something useful," Law then told Kid as he walked away, examining a narrow pathway where the poles aligned with the sidewalk. Kid strode after him, grabbing onto the back of his collar to face him once again.
"This ain't your show," he snapped. "Quit making it about yourself! We're trying to get out and away from shit, and you want to stay and wallow in it! Just like you wanted to do about the base!"
"I'm doing more than that, you moron," Law snapped back at him, hitting his hand away. "That idiot over there can't cook and expects us to survive on bugs and roots – can you imagine doing that for the rest of this trip?"
"We're expected to adapt and overcome! If it means we gotta do that, then hell with it, we have to! Just because your toy ain't here to entertain you don't mean you have to take it out on the rest of us!"
"You're an idiot that won't last long on that imagination of yours, considering you couldn't even adapt to the colonists' food. Continue wasting your breath on this useless subject, maybe you'll die faster."
"As much as I like the thought of ya'll offing yaselves and saving us the trouble of any more babysitting, fighting each other ain't getting us anywhere," Zoro cut in, Perona and Luffy crying out with disgust as they watched Ussop yank the rabbit's skin completely away from its body. At the sight of its scrawny, muscular body in full view, both Kid and Law blanched. Fur fluttered around Ussop's hands as he tossed it aside, Zoro opening up the animal from neck to genitals with a knife and releasing the innards onto the dirt below. Luffy turned to the side with a heave.
"That doesn't look like it'll feed all of us," Perona said with uncertainty, judging the animal's smaller body with a critical eye. "It's rather boney."
"It's enough for a snack," Zoro said with a shrug, waiting for Ussop to hurriedly construct a fire. He examined the body for himself, then looked around for a spit to use to roast it with. "But we're gonna need more than that for the days after."
"You brought back some food," Kid said, walking over to the crate. He opened it, revealing packages of vacuum sealed food. Luffy's hands were immediately into it, causing him to slap at the younger man impatiently. "A pack for each once a day – if we keep it to that, we can stretch it to at least three days."
"Then we'd still have to hunt a little," Zoro said with a sigh, fitting the rabbit's body length-wise onto the spit, tearing into muscle with a slight shredding sound that made Law fell ill.
Imagining that he'd have to eat the thing gave him a queasy feeling – not because he remembered the last time he'd had rabbit, but because the thing was handled so carelessly. Because it had been alive and breathing hours ago – which made him think of congealed fluids and open cavities influenced by matter that shouldn't mix together. It wasn't the same as depending on already packaged meat ready for the stove or oven; it was different actually seeing it being prepared so sloppily right in front of him.
He heard Kid swallow hard as he closed the crate. He was struggling not to look in that direction, Law noticed, vaguely green around the gills. Perona didn't show much of a reaction, already conditioned to such things while she pulled out her umbrella from the truck and sat down in the open passenger side with a huge sigh.
"This is boring!" she sighed. "I miss city sights and the convenience of things already at hand! If we woke up in our time, we wouldn't have to be worrying about this type of thing! We'd only need a cook for the nuggets we'd find at abandoned fast food places. I really miss nuggets…"
"None of that should matter now," Zoro said impatiently, crouching aside the fire and wiping sweat from his face. He rotated the animal slowly as Ussop hastily put together a support structure for the spit. Once he had it finished, Zoro adjusted it properly, then eyed it with distrust. He'd seen Sanji operate this type of apparatus for cooking, but he'd never paid attention to what the fox actually did.
"I didn't even see any fruit or berry brush anywhere," Ussop sighed. "I'm not sure what type of roots Sanji looks for out here."
"It's different from over there," Zoro agreed. "Different environment."
"See? We need Sanji," Law told Kid petulantly as Kid reddened once more.
"We can do this without him!" he declared. "Zoro has it under control! We just have to trust in him! He's the only one we can depend on, right now, there's no point in wasting time on a guy that's whoring around animaltown for shits and giggles."
"I don't even trust myself," Zoro mumbled, turning the animal once more. Ussop looked at it with a thoughtful expression, crouching next to him.
Nearly a half hour later, everyone was crunching down on what remained of the animal. The blackened meat made Luffy's eyes water as he sought to swallow down what he could tear apart with his teeth, alternating between ferocious growls and small whimpers as raw juices touched his tongue. Law didn't bother with his share as Kid tore and swallowed, his eyes red with tears of effort. Perona examined her blackened chunk of meat with a critical eye, tearing off what brown slivers she could find before putting it delicately on her tongue. Zoro and Ussop chewed with similar frowns.
"We need Sanji," Luffy said, cleaning off the bone, nearly vomiting as he did so.
"Stop eating it if you're going to get sick," Law told him impatiently. He looked over the charred bone in hand, lip lifting with disdain as blood pooled around his fingers. "Perhaps the fire was too hot."
"What a stupid thing to say!" Kid snapped at him, then clapped a hand over his mouth.
"I told you I'm not a cook," Zoro said with a shrug, tearing into the parts that weren't charred black.
"Then we wait for Sanji," Perona said impatiently. "We made enough noise, maybe he heard us."
"I hope he finds us soon," Luffy said, spitting onto the ground, unsure of whether or not the food was going to stay. His stomach rumbled noisily and he looked to Kid. "Can't we have a packet, now?"
"No! We have to ration them until either the full moon dies or we do," Kid growled, looking at his share with a tearful expression. He couldn't finish it – his stomach was signaling upset as the unfamiliar taste intermingled with his saliva, making it difficult to forget. He lowered the bone to his knee, sitting crouched against the truck to hide from the sun's hot heat that made it difficult to ignore. Even as it started to lower, the desert's high heat made it difficult to weather – the glare off the sand was painful, and all of them were squinting or glaring at each other. All of them were lined up against the shade of the truck, listening to a bird of prey screech high up above them.
The ghosts Perona kept were still chittering away, standing in solemn poles in a half moon away from them – in the hot sun, they were already starting to smell.
"We're going to die," Luffy whispered, head tilted up. "Whose dumb idea was it for us to come out here?"
The other two pointed at Kid, who grew flustered. "We all did! At one point, we all wanted to leave that ugly place to forge our own destiny!"
"We should've done it in cooler weather," Perona complained.
"We should've had a better plan," Law muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"You're the dumb ass that was driving Iceburg into a corner!" Kid snapped at him. "If anything happened anyway, we'd still be shit out of luck, doing things on our own!"
"Stop complaining, all of you!" Zoro complained, tossing his bone aside. "It's not doing anything for us."
"We could find shade somewhere, leave the truck here," Kid then said. "Staying out in the open like this will kill us!"
"I'm so thirsty," Luffy panted, reaching out and capturing one of the water barrels. As his arms snapped back, the force of the barrel's momentum knocked him into Perona, who sprawled out into the dirt with a gasp, dropping her meat. She reached back and socked him upside the head, then shrieked with outrage as she saw that ash and dirt had already permeated what meat she had been nibbling on.
"Then find shade," Law told Kid, pushing Luffy aside for the barrel. "Don't dump it, numb nuts. Find a cup!"
As Luffy shuffled to the front of the truck to find the pitcher that they'd been sharing during the ride, Law looked to Zoro. "How do we set up camp?"
"It'll have to be enclosed because of the cold. It's hot now, but it'll probably be colder later," Zoro said uneasily. "It's been awhile since I been out here, I'm not sure how it works."
"With the way the sand is holding onto the heat, I doubt it'll be that cold. Night will allow it to release the heat, so we should be fine," Law said impatiently. "But regarding other predators and marauders…"
"I'll set my ghosts around us," Perona said. "Because I don't want to be disturbed from my sleep by some assholes raiding our camp in the middle of the night."
"I'm sleeping in the truck!" Kid announced. He looked to Zoro. "You can have the back seat."
"Negated!" Perona bellowed, watching as Luffy dumped water into the pitcher he'd found. Only Ussop was outraged by how much was wasted as water escaped the sides and soaked into the soft dirt. Luffy hastily straightened the barrel and set it aside sloppily. "I get the back seat, I'm the only girl out here! You guys need to protect me, I'm valuable."
"Shut up, no one wants you!"
"What kind of animals are in the area?" Law asked Zoro and Ussop over their bickering. No one was paying attention to Luffy as he saw that they weren't watching him, so he set the pitcher full of water aside and climbed into the back of the truck to open the crate of packaged food, his stomach growling noisily once he saw the packets.
"Sand spiders, snakes, coyotes – they're smaller than the wolves, but they're smarter," Zoro said. "Might not come in this far, though – it still smells of wolf territory. Wouldn't trust the lizards, either. Some of them get curious to come in close. They will bite."
"Are there ways marauders can communicate with each other in the open? Perhaps the ones here had sent a distress signal to others."
"I dunno. If they did, it'd be a flare or something, and I ain't even seen that."
Law tried to get over the headache he felt forming. He pushed aside Perona as she leaned on him to kick at Kid, snapping at him for not letting her sleep in the truck. Rising to his feet, he ventured to the back of the truck to catch Luffy in mid-stuff, looking at him with a surprised expression.
"There goes the rest of our food," he muttered bitterly, Luffy hastily swallowing what was in his mouth.
"Not uh!" he cried as the others protested noisily, rising to see him in front of the opened crate. "I have like, three left!"
"That was supposed to be rationed out over three days!" Kid snapped at him, yanking him from the truck bed as Law climbed in, peering into the crate. He held up two packages with a disgusted shake of his head. "Damn you! Damn it! How are we supposed to eat, now?"
"We have to go find Sanji," Luffy decided, brushing himself off as he rose from the dirt. "That's the only way we're going to survive. Zoro, can't you change and sniff him out?"
"No," Zoro muttered, rubbing his temples. "It don't work that way."
"But you recognized him that night," Law said, stuffing one of the packets into his cape pocket. He was dribbling with sweat – he had a bottle of water hidden away in his backpack, but he didn't want to show it off in front of the others, just in case. He was aware he was putting himself into danger of dehydration, but with the way things were going, he had to be careful hiding what supplies he could sneak away from the others.
"I did…but we weren't apart this far. And with you guys so close, who knows what I'd do. I won't have the right mind to avoid mauling the lot of you."
Law reached into one of the trunks packed tightly against the side of the bed, and retrieved the backpack Sanji had left. He pulled out rolls of clothing, everyone looking over with curious expressions. Hopping off the truck bed he held it out to Zoro, who took it with a curious frown. "Does this have enough of his scent to turn you off?"
"It better," Kid couldn't help but mutter, Perona rolling her eyes at him.
Zoro took the shirt with a frown. The scent of his friend was present, but it wasn't as strong as it would be if Sanji were wearing it. He shrugged. "I don't know, maybe. We've all been baking out here in the sun, the smell of you guys might be stronger than the smell of this."
"We need water to take a bath," Law decided, snatching the shirt out of his grasp. "Find a river."
"Yeah, okay!" Kid said mockingly. "Idiot! We didn't just go and kill all these other chumps for water and food!"
"Then a barrel should be enough."
"We're not wasting a barrel of water to take a damn bath! If Zoro says he'll come here on his own, then he will!"
"I said he might," Zoro corrected. "Our scent ain't everywhere, and the wind is blowing down away from him. If he runs into us, it's either luck or whatever that brought him here."
"Shut up, Zoro."
Kid's mouth dropped open as Law started to take off his clothes. Ussop screeched at Perona, "Don't look!"
"I've seen everything, before, there's nothing on these guys that ain't new to me," she told him impatiently. "Privacy? What's that?"
"We're not wasting our damn water on this stupid ass plan!" Kid shouted impatiently, trying to shove Law's tunic back onto him. They struggled against each other, Ussop sighing as he rested his chin against his palm. He noticed that Luffy was eating the last of the packets, watching the pair with a bewildered face. Zoro looked like he wanted to cry.
"FINE!" he shouted. "Don't do the bath thing! Just – whatever he gots in that bag, put it on! We can only try it and see if it'll work."
"You can be the only one doing this," Kid said, pushing Law off to the side as he struggled to pull the material away from his face. He found the backpack that Sanji had packed, upending it down onto the ground. At the sight of small containers, baggies and clothing, Ussop perked up. He darted over and gathered them up. Kid spotted the bag full of green, giving it a puzzled look. "Oh wow, this guy is a pot head?"
"Is that what it looks like?" Perona asked excitedly. "I've always wanted to try some!"
"We could've been in much better moods if we'd known this was here!"
Ussop snatched it away from them, saying indignantly, "I don't know what you guys mean by that, but these painkillers will come in handy! It's used only for pain!"
"I've got a lot of pain," Kid complained, holding his head.
"Something you've caused yourself! If anything happens to us, we'd need this to get through it," Ussop said, shoving it down in front of his overalls. "I'm sorry, but seeing how crazy you guys are, I can't trust you with your own decisions."
Law removed his tunic, and dumped the pitcher of water over himself, scrubbing in an attempt to remove his own sweat smell with the effort. Zoro was alarmed at how casually he wasted so much of the water that they might need for later. Law then struggled to pull on Sanji's shirt. It was his nightgown, and it was incredibly tight around Law's shoulders and chest. Part of the left sleeve ripped as he forced it down, and he stilled as Perona laughed loudly at him.
"You look like such a dork!"
Shaking out other pieces of Sanji's clothes, Kid grumbled as he headed to the truck. "Get in, assholes. I'm covering the windows with this shit, and that should discourage Zoro from attacking us."
"You guys are all flights of fancy," Zoro complained, watching them roll the windows up to trap articles of Sanji's clothing there. Ussop gave him an uncertain look, Zoro struggling to remain somewhat confident. "This ain't gonna work."
"Just try it," Law said impatiently. "If you don't hurry, we're all going to die because of Kid's decisions."
"WHO IS THE ONE THAT WRECKED OUR SHIT?" Kid bellowed from the truck. He reached out towards Law, fingers squeezing together as he imagined force-choking him. Perona pushed him back onto the seat as Luffy closed the driver's side door over his own fingers. Amidst his screams of pain, Kid said to Law, "I hope you die, chicken shit."
"Whatever," Law muttered with a roll of his eyes, then looked to Zoro as various truck doors opened and slammed. "Get it over with. Our future is at stack."
"You sure you want to risk it? Even if I smell Sanji on it, there's no telling what I'll do," Zoro said with uncertainty. "I don't even know what I might be capable of doing. I can still smell you over that thing."
Law considered his words, then shrugged. "I can stop you."
He activated a Room, and Zoro exhaled uneasily. He removed his clothing with a reluctant expression, folding them neatly into a pile. Faced with his naked body, Law couldn't help but make a repulsed face, looking up to the sky to avoid seeing various parts. Zoro then faced him, feeling the hot desert air slap his exposed parts, and he hid himself self-consciously. He then talked himself out of feeling so reluctant – if he removed just one of the troublemakers, then maybe his life would be easier.
He changed form and the world around him changed. He instantly caught scent of a predator, and instead of picturing the man he'd grown acquainted with, he saw a challenge standing in front of him. He wasn't in any immediate danger – but he was confused with the smell of his fox friend all over this man. A part of him recognized that his instinct didn't like this man – but another part of him knew that if Sanji's scent was on him, then Sanji had accepted him. There wasn't any lingering smells of distress from Sanji – just the manifestation of his presence that made Zoro feel as if Sanji was comfortable with this man. He leaned down to sniff at the parts of Sanji that were present on the man in front of him – it made Zoro's fur ripple with unease, catching the strength of the man's scent compared to Sanji's. He caught a slight trace of tension from the man's scent that seemed to overwhelm Sanji's – he prepared to fight, baring his teeth and tensing his muscles, eager to win.
He didn't receive a response so he reluctantly turned his head, sniffing the hot desert air for any sign of his companion. Sanji's scent was less in this direction, and it confused him – he couldn't find any present traces of him anywhere. Anxiety set in him as he scanned his surroundings, finding that it was a different landscape from what he was used to. He stood up, examining the smells around him – the fresh scent of a kill was present so he investigated those. They were human men, an unidentifiable tribe that made his senses spark with revulsion as he recognized that they were already dead. He turned away from those, looking around – though man was just a blur of shape recognizable only as a threat, there just wasn't enough danger around it for Zoro to further investigate.
He sniffed around the truck, smelling more people – but also more of Sanji's scent. He couldn't find any traces that would tell him the fox was nearby – there was none lingering on the metal that was recent. He could usually trace the fox's movements if he were around, but while his scent was old, there didn't seem to be any of his recent presence in the vicinity. He grew worried, uttering faint whimpers as he scanned the horizon once again, trying to pick a destination.
He heard the voice of a man and stiffened – it was a familiar voice, one that made his hackles rise as he ventured towards the source of it. It had come from the man was wearing Sanji's scent, and it confused Zoro all over again. The man wasn't as tense as before, and the gesture of his arm was pointing in a direction Zoro automatically looked to in case he'd missed seeing Sanji.
"Stupid mutt," he heard uttered, and he bared his teeth at the change in tone. Restlessly he pranced around, sniffing at the campsite and around the charred meat that he immediately lapped up, crunching noisily and appreciating the weak taste of meat. It made him cough and hack as the charred remains caught in his throat. As soon as he was able, he released a sharp bark to at least get an answer from Sanji if he were able to hear him. Hearing his own voice echo throughout the barren area, Zoro's ears perked, interested in a potential challenger. Whining when he heard nothing, he paced around the truck restlessly. In the distance, the faintest of sounds caused him to straighten up at full attention.
It was far, but he definitely recognized the fox's shout. He darted off in that direction, ears perked. Racing away from the campsite, he released a series of barks to let his friend know he was coming. The answering cry was faint, but Zoro knew with confidence he could find him.
Law watched the beast charge off back in the direction they'd come, and released a slow exhale. As he did, the nightgown around his chest stretched and popped, thread breaking and material separating to allow parts of his upper body to show. Kid slowly cranked the window down.
"Did it work?" he asked in a low whisper.
"Am I still alive?"
"Enough of your shit!" Kid snapped at him as he opened the door, Perona and Luffy spilling out as he exited the truck. He looked off in the direction Law was looking, then frowned. "So…how are they going to come back if Sanji lost his mind and Zoro doesn't know his way back?"
Law frowned.
"…We're going to die out here, and it's your fault," Kid hissed at him, retreating back to the truck.