Chapter 2 – Scars in the desert.
It had been at least 3 days since she had eaten. In this place there was no food so she was left to bask in the moonlight as this one wolf what was his name? had taught her. They had survived for weeks on that. Now she felt tired and weak. She wondered how much longer she would last.
"I could smell your blood from all the way in town." Kiba said. "So what are you going to do, nurse me back to health? Well I don't need your help." Tsume said defensively. "Besides I have a fight to finish with you." He added. "Come on guys, do you have to fight all the time?" Toboe said, holding his hands out. "Hate to stop conversation, but a huge stink just rolled in." Hige said, flattening himself against the wall by the window. "Let's get out of here, there's nothing left and if we stay here we'll have to go into hiding or worse." Toboe declared. "Well let's go." Hige said. And together they left the city.
The sun beat down on her as she walked through the dust. If only she could have some food. Then she saw it. A young doe, walking all alone. What was she doing here by herself, Rune wondered. Oh well. The chase was brief but bloody. The doe didn't go down without a fight, and Rune had little strength left. But in the end Rune dominated. She ate her fill which wasn't much and left the carcass for another animal to eat. Onward she walked, night and day, never stopping, until she reached a place where she could rest in peace.
Hige and the others found a cave just before the storm hit. "Man I am soo hungry." Toboe complained. "You can say that again." Hige joined in. "How long has it been since we ate anything?" Toboe asked. "I dunno. Probably been about three days." "Hhhhhhh. We've gone that long without eating?" Toboe sighed. "Will you two shut up, it's only been three stupid days." Tsume huffed. "But if we were still in the city we'd have something to eat right now." Toboe complained. "Well if worst comes to worst we can always eat each other." Tsume said laughing. "We could start with the runt, since he's gotten so weak. And then there's always little porky over there." He laughed again. "Hey, how come Kiba isn't on the menu?" Toboe said. "Because the guy's too full of crap, that's why." Tsume answered. Kiba just stared. Hige sniffed the air, caught the scent. A wide grin spread across his face. Venison.
"What is it doing out here all by itself?" Toboe felt sorry for it. Tsume sniffed. "A wolf's been here." He said, looking around. Hige smelled the air. Shock shot though his body in charges. There was no way she had been here, but then again he was glad of some sign of her after she disappeared. He just hoped she was holding out way out here. "Rune." He muttered. "What did you say?" Toboe asked. "Nothing. That's all." Hige answered. Kiba looked at him and knew without being told. Rune, he thought, where had he heard that name before? "Come eat Tsume! We still have a long way to go." Toboe egged him on. "Go? Go where exactly?" Tsume shot back. "To that Paradise place? Off in the direction you smell the flower?" He added. "Tsume…" Toboe said anxiously. Then he turned to Kiba. "Come on Kiba, tell us, what's Paradise really like?" He asked. Hige answered first. "Its an amazing place. The flowers are always in bloom, there's food everywhere and all the beautiful babes everywhere! He said dreamily. "Really, ya mean it!!" Toboe said excitedly. "Of course there are, at least I hope so anyway." Hige said sheepishly. Toboe frowned. "You don't know." Tsume was getting impatient. "Paradise is just some fool's unfounded fairy tale!" He said angrily. "So then why did you come with us then?" Hige asked him. "We'll never know unless we look for it." Toboe added. "How far are you going to let this guy string you along? How far are you going to follow him in pursuit of a place that doesn't exist?" Tsume asked, his voice barely distant of a growl. Kiba just stared at him. "That's it I can't put up with you losers anymore." Tsume said with finality. He turned and began walking away. "Tsume!" Toboe called after him. "Where do you think your going all by yourself?" Hige shouted. "To look for hell I guess!" Tsume shouted back. "Suit yourself." Kiba said to him. Tsume stopped and turned to face him. "Kiba." Toboe started. "You know, that set of rules you have don't apply out here." He said quietly. "It really pisses me off when a smug kid like you has that Know-it-all look on his face when he is actually clueless." Tsume scowled. Kiba's eyes narrowed. Toboe had a slightly confused look on his face. "Hm." Tsume grunted and once again began walking away, hands jammed in his pockets. "Tsume, don't leave now, we've finally made some friends!!" Toboe pleaded, trying to make him turn around and join them. "Play with your buddies all you want, I'm outta here." Tsume answered. "If you ask me, the only one acting like a kid around here is him!" Hige said. "Don't say that, I like Tsume, he's really nice." Toboe said innocently. Kiba stared in wonder. "Hang on, I'll go bring him back." Toboe said and he ran off in the direction Tsume had taken. "Hey wait for me Tsume!" Toboe shouted when he reached him. "What are you soo mad about? Come on and join us okay?" Toboe said. "Just shut the hell up!" Tsume replied angrily. "You know it's dangerous to move around out here alone." Toboe told him. "It doesn't matter does it, we're always alone?" Tsume snarled. "But wait…" Toboe tried to reason with him. Tsume struck him in a flash, knocking him off his feet. "Stop bothering me!" He yelled. "And don't follow me." He added and turned at a dead run. He left Toboe sitting there in the dust. The sun began to set and night drew closer.
Tsume kept walking on and on and into what looked like a machine graveyard. An echoing voice rang out. "Tsume!!" It was Toboe. He kept calling and calling. Walking around, calling and looking for the loner wolf. Suddenly he heard a crunch underneath his boot. He lifted his foot and at it. Confused he moved on. Tsume kept walking, ignoring Toboe's calls. Rusty, crumbling buildings rose up around him. The called turned to howls and they were very close to where Tsume was. He looked out the window and down. There was Toboe, standing on a ledge not 20 ft from where Tsume was standing.
What Toboe had stepped on seemed to be an activation button for one of the machines that lay buried in this graveyard. The machine had just been shut down so it restarted almost immediately. Smoke curled up into the air as the giant monster rose from the sun-baked dust.
Toboe saw the smoke and was puzzled by it. Yet he kept calling for Tsume. Tsume spotted something sparkling in the rubble below. Looking closer and saw it was a machine gun. It seemed to be in the angle to shoot at Toboe. He jumped down and raced forward and grabbed Toboe just in time. Unfortunately one of the bullets hit him in the thigh.
The two wolves moved along on a broken highway. Tsume was limping badly. "Are you okay?" Toboe asked. "Stay away." Tsume snarled. Soon they came to a dead end. The mechanical monster was still following them. "We're going to have to jump!!" Tsume said exasperated. "But." Toboe said. The machine began firing at them again. Tsume grabbed Toboe's arm and jumped off the highway and into the wreckage below. Tsume looked up to see the metal monster. "What the heck is that thing?" Toboe asked quietly. "How should I know?" The robotic creature moved back, disappearing from view. "Huh." Toboe sighed, relieved. Tsume tensed up in pain. "Hu." He grunted. "Tsume." Toboe said worried. His leg was bleeding badly. "Damn it." Tsume said, his voice ragged. "The stench of this place is staring to make me sick." He added. Skeletons of humans lay everywhere, abandoned weapons lay in ruins. The entire place seemed to have ripped itself apart. The two began moving again, Tsume limping worse than ever. The clouds parted to expose the full moon.
Hige and Kiba lay, basking in the moonlight. "Yah know, I was thinking, we should go ahead and ditch that guy. I mean it's not like he has to tag along or anything. It was just happenstance that threw us together and he just ended up with us that's all." Hige said. "It's the same with you." Kiba replied. "I don't know, that Tsume guy's been giving me a real dangerous vibe from the start." Hige added. "He's just different from us, that's all. He's always had someone else to blame. That's pretty darn lucky if you ask me." Kiba explained. "Give him a break and he'll come around." He added. Hige sat up. "Okay, so what the hell's up with you anyway, I mean your always talking like you got an answer to pretty much everything. What happened to you before all of this?" Hige asked. "Nothing much. Nothing much at all." Kiba answered.
Toboe glanced back and saw that the machine was still following them. Tsume was limping extremely badly. The two of them began crossing and Ice Bridge just as the monster fired and shattered the bridge. The wolves fell into the darkness below.
Hige sniffed the air. "Hey do you smell that?" He asked Kiba. Kiba sniffed too. His eyes widened as he had a flashback of his past. -Lunar flowers bloomed and then were burned to ashes. The first time meeting Cheza.- He took a step forward and felt something under his sneaker. He bent down and looked at it. "What's that?" Hige asked. "Maybe there used to be a military base around here." Kiba turned and began walking in the opposite direction. ""Hey, Kiba. Huh, what a drag-whatever." He said and ran after him.
Tsume was drifting into consciousness and found he was in a cave. Toboe was cleaning his wound. "Stop that, don't ever touch me." He snarled, and knocked him back. "What's it doing?" He asked. "It's not following us, I think we gave it the slip." Tsume laid back and closed his eyes. "Wow. You covered in scars." Toboe said in awe. "That one, there on your chest, man it's really cool!" Toboe said, a smile on his face. Tsume rolled to the other side, his back to Toboe. "I wonder what happed to Kiba and Hige?" Toboe said, almost to himself. "I'll bet there worried about us by now." He added. "I don't trust anyone." Tsume said suddenly. "And because of that no one has to trust me. That way it keeps it nice and simple." He added. "I don't care, I still like you Tsume." Toboe replied. Then they heard a crash of metal on Ice. Tsume sat up at once. The robot had found them. "ah, damn." Tsume said, tensing in pain. "Forget about it Tsume, you'll get yourself killed." Toboe reasoned. "well then you'll finally have something to eat." He smiled. "Don't be stupid!" Said Toboe, standing to block his path. "I'll act as a decoy and distract it while you get away." Toboe said firmly. He turned and started to walk out. "Don't do it!" Tsume yelled after him. Toboe stopped. "You can trust me it okay." He said, a smile on his face. He ran out. The monster shot a round of bullets in his direction. Then it turned its attention towards the opening of the cave. Tsume had just limped out. Limping as fast as he could he avoided the bullets aimed at him. He ran behind an ice wall. The machine fired a missile and blew apart the wall, knocking Tsume onto his side in the snow. He was laying helplessly in the snow. He turned his head. Towering over him, the giant metal creature was poised to kill him. A howl broke the stillness. Kiba had arrived. He attacked the machine causing it to take its attention off of Tsume. "Tsume! This way!" Hige called from above him. Kiba ran up the mountain and the monster shot uselessly at him with missiles and bullets and only breaking up snow. Kiba grabbed an ice sickle that had broken off and used it to block off its main gun. The ice below the machine gave way and it slipped off the cliff and landed in the ravine below, half buried in snow. Another gun appeared and shot at the ledge Kiba happened to be standing on, shattering it. Again Kiba ran up the cliff and the monster followed him with bullets, only hitting the cliff wall. The creature's ammunition ran out. A rumble sounded, growing louder by the second. The machine looked in its direction and saw the avalanche it had caused that washed it away.
The next morning, the monster drove out of the snow and saw the white wolf standing a few feet away. Gradually everything shut down, shutting it down forever.
"hey, you okay?" Hige asked Kiba as he joined the group. "It's just a scratch." Kiba replied. "Yah right, ever since I met you guys, nothing but trouble." He said, rolling his eyes. "I knew it, well I wasn't sure, but I had a feeling you guys would come for us." Toboe said gratefully. "Well don't get too used to it, kid." Hige snapped. "I didn't ask for help." Tsume snarled. "Why would you do that, risk you life for me? And don't try telling me it's 'because we're friends'." He added, growling slightly. "that's easy, it's just instinct." Kiba replied. Tsume stood and wobbled slightly. Toboe rushed forward and helped him stand strait. They all began walking together.
The wind blew roughly, swirling rain and ruffling her thick fur. Rune moved forward, looking up occasionally to see if she was going to land into the sea or not, but otherwise keeping her head down against the wind and rain. It was surprisingly cold and the metal under her paws was not helping matters any. All of a sudden, her nose caught a scent. A sweet compelling scent, it sent chills to her bones. Lunar Flowers. The scent was faint, but it was there. She vaguely wondered if she would be following this scent forever and end up dead somewhere because it got her nowhere. She looked up and in the distance she could see an outline of a city. Her heart leaped at the sight and her feet pounded the ground so hard it felt like she was driving it into the sea. When she reached it, the air seemed heavy with dread and it had dead and an unwelcome feel to it. She had reached it, The Dead City.