Wanderers,
No more fluff. :D Not for awhile anyway.
~Eliza
"You guys do this on a regular basis?" Riku nodded at Yuffie, who animatedly dragged her feet through the snow and acted as if another step would kill her. "This is horrible." She complained.
After Christmas Riku demanded a thorough supply run that would restock us for the rest of the winter so we wouldn't have to come back in the snow. There was only so much he could carry on his solo-trip, so he wanted to take as many people as would come. He managed to convince the four newbies into bundling up and coming along. Roxas and Axel also decided to come, and Larxene claimed she wanted some fresh air and a chance to stretch her legs.
It wasn't wicked cold, thank goodness. It was nearly thirty degrees outside and there was no wind chill to freeze our bones. We all tromped through the foot deep snow, tiring our legs in our heavy boots, trying to make it to the some-what larger town in the opposite direction that we had never traveled to before.
"So you're telling me that this could be a total dud?" Leon piped up while helping Aerith over a larger snow bank in their way. Riku scowled for a moment before replying.
"If we find even one thing, then it's not a waste. Keep walking." The Silverette picked up his pace and I sighed internally, moving my legs faster to keep up with him. It was better for me to avoid conflict with him while we were out on runs or while he was playing the role of the Alpha wolf. He was always so serious when we were in any sort of danger and it was unnerving to see; he was normally so wonderful around me. But now I was just another one of his pack he had to protect.
I shouldn't have cared though. Riku did his best to make sure we were all taken care of, safe, and we never went to bed hungry or cold. Without him, Roxas, Hayner, the girls, and I would have been on our own at the University, and we probably wouldn't have made it. He was quick on his feet, he never cracked under pressure, and he could make life or death decisions in a heartbeat. Riku was the perfect leader, in a sense, and he was very aware of the fact. I suppose it was his over afflicted way of showing he was in charge that bothered me. Any one of us would have followed him over a cliff willingly; he didn't need to flaunt the fact.
I slammed into Riku's back and let out an "oouufff!" when I landed on my butt in the snow. I must have been speedily traversing the snow in my deep thought and never noticed I had gone faster than everyone else. Axel snickered at me.
"Walk much, Shortie?" He offered me a hand to help me to my feet. I took it while avoiding his amused gaze and tried to ignore the fact that he had called me Shortie, again. I really wasn't that shorter than him! Only a few inches or so…
"Come on, let's move." Riku put the group back on track. I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him from behind while I stepped in his exact footsteps in the snow. Larxene chuckled at my display of childishness.
By the time we made it to the town everyone was exhausted. Riku split us up into groups to go look for supplies and we each had our own checklist of what to find. Mine had medical supplies written out in Riku's nearly artful scrawl.
Sora & Axel
Bandages, rubbing alcohol, medical tape, gauze, antibiotics, burn ointments, bite ointments, break-open ice packs, hand warmers, any other prescription drugs you can find that might seem useful. Grab anything you can out of the pharmacy. You never know what we're going to need.
Axel- Please don't fuck around. Get in, Get out. I need you to stay focused. Remember the promise you made me.
Sora- I love you and I'll see you soon. Stay safe.
~Riku
"Awwwwh! Seems our fearless little leader's got a crush on you!" Axel tousled my hair as we walked into the pharmacy after shattering one of the glass panels in the door. I shot him a dirty look and reminded him that Riku told him to stay focused. "Unfocused? Me? My my, Sora, you have it all wrong. Just because I don't keep a stick by the door of the Cabin to shove in and out of my ass every time I walk out of the fence, like Riku, doesn't mean I'm not just as focused as he is." Axel smirked at me and twirled a piece of his long fire-red hair. I couldn't help but crack as grin at his comment because it seemed all too true. Riku was one of the most stern and uptight people on runs.
"He does get a little crazy, doesn't he?" I laughed while searching through shelves for anything on the list.
"He separated Roxie and me because he figured we'd just have sex on one of the counters or something." He dismissed his best friend's assumptions with one hand while throwing a bottle in his bag with another. I threw him a package of bandages and after catching them he stuffed it in the bag too.
"I was wondering how I got paired up with you." I pretended as if getting stuck with Axel was one of the worst things that could happen, and swiftly received a bottle of pills to the back of the head in response. I laughed while throwing the bottle back to Axel.
After Namine's death Axel had spent a lot of time locked up in his room. The only person he would let come in was Roxas, so the blonde normally brought him his food and stayed to talk to him. I had always thought that Axel was rude, obnoxious, and had no sense of boundaries before Roxas had showed us his true self. My best friend had managed to bring the red-head back to the land of the living and let him show his personality far better than Namine ever did.
Axel wasn't rude, he was playful. He teased and taunted because he liked you, not because he wanted to hurt your feelings. The tattooed red-head had a shell as think as Hayner's fat skull, and nothing would ever hurt his feelings. He wanted playful and teasing banter because it was how he bonded with people.
He was still obnoxious, but that was just who Axel was.
He has more boundaries than any of us in the cabin, though. I thought he couldn't understand that some things were off-limits for others, but to him, that just meant he needed to break those walls down. Roxas explained to me that he had spent so much time guarding himself while with Namine and after her death that he forgot how to be open with people. It's a daily struggle that he goes through, hiding behind a sarcastic and wild persona, while on the inside he has to fight his demons without letting it show. I felt pity for Axel, in a way; because he never wanted to let on just how affected he was by all that had happened in the past nine months.
I trusted him with my life. He had proved far too many times that he would have my back no matter what. At first I had thought it was because I was Riku's boyfriend, and if he let anything happen to me his best friend would tear him to pieces, but as time had passed I realized it was because Axel was my friend. He was truly and faithfully a good friend of mine. I'd risk my life to help him, too, and I hoped he knew that.
"Shortie, duck!" Axel hissed to me while hitting the floor. I flattened out and turned my gaze to the red-head, mouthing a question to him. He answered my curiosity by pointing to a biter that was just outside the door with its foot inside the pharmacy where we had broken the glass open.
"Attack?" I whispered to Axel, wondering what course of action we should take.
"We need more supplies!" Axel responded as quietly as possible. I nodded my head and made a decision.
"I'll take it out. The last thing we need is a horde of them at the door." I grabbed my knife and began army crawling my way over. The zombie didn't notice me, since its gaze was on Axel, who was trying to stay as still as possible. I made it a few feet from the opening and then bit my lip nervously. The biter had its face up against the glass of the door, and I had no way of reaching its brain with the glass in the way. I didn't want to shatter the other panel though, because it would keep other biters out and the thin metal bar across the door dividing the glass wouldn't hold them.
I grabbed the zombie's leg and pulled with all my strength. It snapped off in my hand and splattered me with gore, causing Axel to hiss in disgust.
"What the fuck are you doing?" He whispered to me in confusion. I dismissed him with a wave of my hand. The monster had not even noticed that I took its leg off because it was still focused on Axel. I motioned for the red-head to come closer to me so that he could keep the biter's attention. He solemnly agreed and scooted a few feet closer to the door. The monster's attacks to the glass became more urgent as its food came nearer. I shuddered at the sound and reached for the other leg.
Through my glove the skin still felt squishy and weak, as if I were holding raw meat that had been out on the counter for too long. I tried my best not to gag at the experience and pulled with all my strength. The bone didn't snap, but my fingers did slip through the flesh until I reached the brittle grey-white support. Axel looked at me with his face turned into a grimace and he dry heaved a bit before motioning for me to hurry up.
I took hold of the bone and pulled the biter's foot out from underneath him. He fell to the ground and began dragging himself inside the pharmacy before I stabbed through his skull.
"Well, that's enough of that for one day." Axel looked a little green as he stood up and began filling the pack once more. I shook the gunk off of my gloves while trying to keep my breakfast down and went back to help him.
We worked for another fifteen minutes before we heard a scream.
"What was that?" I asked, my arm frozen mid-throw.
"I'm not sure. It sounded like…" The scream came again. It was definitely a girl.
"Oh shit, I think that's Yuffie!" I cried out before darting for the door. Axel shoved the contents of an entire shelf into his bag and ran after me while zipping it closed. We climbed over the lifeless zombie in the panel and exited the pharmacy into the winter cold. I looked around for the source of the scream but could only find Riku, Leon, and Roxas on the other side of town, nearly four hundred feet away, staring at us.
Yuffie screamed again and came barreling with Cloud out from behind a building.
"Yuffie, what's wrong? What's going on?" I shouted to her, but she kept running right on past us. Cloud whirled around to face me and Axel, since we were closer than Riku, Leon, and Roxas. Aerith and Larxene exited their building across from us with their packs, whipping their heads around to find the source of the screams, just the same as we had.
"Run! RUN!" Cloud shouted to us and motioned for us to follow him.
"Where's Leon?" Aerith called to me and I pointed to where the three boys were charging toward us.
They couldn't have made it in time. I heard the moans before I saw them,a dn I shivered in fear of what would round the corner. Axel grabbed my arm and we took off running toward Yuffie and Cloud. The horde of zombies emerged behind us.
There had to be at least fifty of them. They all were moving in one large mass, and I had never seen so many in one time since we had left the University. Axel shoved me ahead of him and prodded me to keep running. Larxene and Aerith ran behind their building and then kept going in our direction. I huffed and I puffed, pushing myself to close the distance between Yuffie and Cloud. They were only a few feet in front of us and I reached out for Axel behind me. He grabbed my hand and we whipped ourselves forward, nearly tumbling into the couple in front of us. Larx and Aerith had managed to catch up to us too, and we all put at least twenty yards between us and the horde.
"Where's Leon?!" Aerith asked frantically while sprinting next to Larxene. The two girls were about thirty feet away from us.
"I don't know! Roxas?" Axel shouted back. The horde moaned and shrieked behind us. The noise was terrifying.
"Riku?" I called out; grabbing my side where a cramp had begun forming. I tried to mentally will it to go away, but I couldn't.
"Oh Shit!" Cloud came to halt suddenly and let us crash into him.
"What? What?" A chorus of confusion greeted him.
I saw it then. Not only did we have the horde behind us, but in front of us, coming out of the forest at the sound of our shouts and screams, were more biters. They trickled into the path so that the road was nearly blocked. We were trapped.
