Okay! I actually forgot that I already had this chapter finished and forgot to post it…but I found it again, so…
Enjoy!
"Lions!" He repeated just loud enough so that Wally could hear him.
Artemis froze, lions? She grit her teeth and pushed forward along side of Wally, "How many?" She asked, Tim looked over at her and then back through the binoculars,
"One…two…three. At least three. One male, two females it looks. They're big to boot. They look well fed and now…" He added, "moving!" He snapped, "Go!" Wally nodded and broke into a sprint,
"Find somewhere to hide out!" M'gann instructed as the group attempted to keep up with Wally's pace. He wasn't running as fast as he could, they knew that, he could be a few blocks away by now if that was the case, but he didn't want to leave his troop behind, so he kept at a slower pace.
Soon enough Tim saw the first head poke out of the front door that was now several hundred feet away. The lions broke into a run after them. Tim cursed, spun around to face forward and gave those ahead of him a heads up on the situation. The others joined him in an array of colorful language as Wally finally reached where he had set his sites on. It was an old mall, heavy doors, and plenty of places to hide. He bolted forward in front of everyone to assure that the doors were unlocked. He reached the door, took the handle in his hand and pulled. The door shook, but didn't budge. Locked.
Wally got his sledgehammer in his trembling hands and slammed it against the glass of the door. It cracked but didn't shatter. He pulled the hammer back once again and yelled back at Tim, "Gimme some time!" He snapped and swung again, this time causing a chunk to come out of the window. He heard both Artemis and Tim give him a grunt of acknowledgement and then he heard the sound of weapons being loaded and loosed.
"Hurry up!" Dick hissed,
"It's a damn big door!" Wally snarled back at him and took one more swing at the glass. This time the entire door quivered. "On more." Wally whispered and slammed the hammer into it once again and the glass popped out of its frame and shattered onto the hard ground, "This'll have to do!" Wally called to the others and stepped back so that the others could slither through. M'gann went first without hesitation, and as soon as she did Wally heard the click of a flashlight and a squeak. Conner dove in without any time to spare. There was suddenly the sound of a scuffle, the others followed them in, flashlights on and weapons at the ready for whatever was in there.
"Art, go!" Wally said as the girl was about to loose her last arrow, she turned back and nodded at him, sliding into the hole, Tim followed shortly after, and then Wally.
"What happened?" He heard Conner question M'gann as the group started running through the mall in search of a safe place to hide. Wally motioned them all to go into the sporting goods store.
"Sorry, it was just a dummy." M'gann panted, "A dummy that now has a lot of holes in it." Conner let out a sigh of relief and they all continued bounding through the mall,
"Go to the Sports Authority!" Wally called over the commotion and the group gave him a call of acknowledgement. They reached the store within seconds and Conner kicked open the lock that held the gate down and then lifted the barrier between them and what might save them. Just as it got off the ground the lions were once again in sight, bounding towards them with scrapes and cuts from arrows and rocks that had hit them from Tim and Artemis' defense. The group all clambered in and Conner slammed the gate down just as the lions reached it.
"Can they open it?" Dick asked, searching for something to put through the lock,
"Dunno!" Wally responded and joined Conner in holding down the gate. It was then when he felt it. Skin was torn away from his arm by one of the over-grown cats. He yowled at the contact and still clutched the gate down,
"What happened?" Artemis demanded, scrambling to find more arrows for her bow.
"HELP!" Wally screamed through the tears that fought to come out of his eyes, Artemis blinked and noticed the crimson that was now dripping onto the tile floors, She quickly grabbed her last arrow and shot it right past Wally's head and into the skull of the male lion that had sliced open Wally's arm. The animal dropped, the arrow in its skull catching on one of the slits in the gate, holding the creature's head just off of the ground.
"Find me another arrow!" Artemis called to the rest of the group, M'gann ran towards her almost instantly with an armful of arrows, Artemis thanked her and shot two more arrows, taking down the last two lions. Wally and Conner stumbled back from the gate that was now splattered with the crimson leaking from Wally's arm and the craniums of the lions. The boy in question scrambled back, clutching a hand to his arm and laying back against the cool tile. Artemis leapt forward to him, taking his arm in her hand and removing his blood soaked fingers from the appendage.
"Owowowowowowow." Wally moaned clenching his eyes shut and tightening his other hand into a fist and slamming it down onto the ground, Artemis looked at the wound carefully, it was deep. The claw had broken through muscle and Wally was lucky it hadn't hit any bone. There were three long slashes along his arm from the claw, and then a forth, shorter one along side those. The skin around it fell in ribbon and Artemis gagged away the urge to pass out or throw up.
"Is anyone here a medic?" Artemis demanded, everyone shook their heads,
"Zatanna is the closest thing we have to a medic!" M'gann informed her, "So she doesn't come on raids with us!" Artemis swore and began putting pressure on the wound,
"Get me a bandage of some sort, fabric, something! And there should be some kind of first aid kit in here! Get it, open it, bring it here!" She silently thanked Wally, who lay moaning in her arms, for choosing this store to hide out in, "And be careful, you don't know if there are any Adults here!" The group members all chorused a call of understanding and spread out in the room. "You're going to be alright Wally, it's just a scratch, okay?" Artemis reassured him and pressed harder on to his arm,
"Ye-yeah, sure." He sputtered, sucking in a breath and opening his eyes slightly, "It just- it hurts really bad." Artemis smiled at him,
"Well you chose a good store to treat this, so pat yourself on the back." Wally looked at her through his squinted eyes,
"Rather not." He grumbled and closed his eyes again, Artemis chuckled a bit and suddenly there was an armful of gauze being handed to her by Dick.
"Here!" He said, "I can help you with anything you need, just tell me!" He pleaded, Artemis attempted to send him a reassuring look, but must've failed miserably because Dick's frown dropped even more.
"It'd be even better if you could find me a needle and thread." Artemis said as she began to tear off Wally's blood soaked and tattered sleeve to get a better handle on the wound. She ripped open the gauze and began wrapping it around Wally's arm the best that she could.
"Would they have that in here?" Dick asked, his eyes flashing from Wally to Artemis to Wally's arm.
"I don't know, Dick, please, just go look for it! Tell the other's to, too" Artemis sighed, attempting not to loose her patience.
Part 2:
"Needle and thread, needle and thread." M'gann sang to herself quietly as she searched through the store. She brushed her auburn hair out of her face and slid a lock under her headband as she continued scavenging for the required tools for Artemis.
"Find anything?" A deep voice asked, M'gann turned a bright pink and turned around to face Conner looking right along side of her,
"N-no." She stuttered and went back to looking, occasionally sending a look over at Conner's concentrating face. "Have you?" He shook his head in silence, "do you think there is going to be any in here?" She whispered, Conner shot her a look and shook his head again,
"No, but I know there is a craft store just down the way from here, we could run down and there's bound to be needle and thread in there." He told her, M'gann nodded at the idea.
"Alright, let's go." She agreed and the two began walking back towards the front of the store, "We're going to check the craft store a little bit away from here." M'gann told Artemis while she pulled one of her kitchen knives from her bag and clutched it in her hand, Artemis didn't as much as look at them as she grunted an 'okay'. M'gann wished her luck and Conner opened the gate for them. M'gann slid by the lions quickly and pulled the arrows out from their skulls and torsos where Artemis had hit them. There was also a few knifes and blades stabbed into the male's back. Meaning they had run ins with other kids before they found them, it also meant that those kids must've lost. She gulped and then slid the arrows back through the gate. Artemis didn't look up from Wally's wound as she told them her thanks and the two were on their way.
"Do you know how to get there?" Conner asked, flicking on his flashlight again and shining it through the pitch-black of the mall.
"No." M'gann told him and began looking around for a sign of some sort of sign to direct them to the store in question. There wasn't as much as a mall directory around them to show them the way. Along with that, the floor they were on was silent, making the two of them extremely nervous. M'gann felt herself drifting closer to Conner. The boy must've noticed because he raised an eyebrow and slid a reassuring hand onto her back,
"It's going to be alright." He assured her with a smile, she grinned back at him and continued to look around,
"I wish I had come here more." She muttered, "Maybe then I'd know the lay out a bit better." Conner sent her a look from the corner of his eye,
"You mean you didn't spend all your time here?" He questioned, she shook her head, "I thought you'd be one of those popular girls that always hung around the mall." M'gann chuckled,
"No. But if you asked me the layout of Barnes and Noble downtown I could tell you." She said sheepishly, "What about you? You weren't super popular?" Conner scoffed,
"No way." He almost seemed to laugh, "I was too quiet." M'gann could believe it,
"Strong, silent type?" She asked Conner shook his head,
"I'm not this big because all I did was pump weights like the other guys. My grandparents had a farm, and so I worked it with them and my Dad, it was the only time we really ever spent together, because he pretty much denied my existence most of the time." M'gann looked over at him as if asking him to explain what he meant, he sighed, "I wasn't supposed to happen." M'gann let out an 'ahhh' and looked around awkwardly, "So yeah, I was just the weird, quiet, country-boy."
"Well it looks like we're the same boat." She said shyly, brushing more hair from her face and into her hair band, she never thought Conner could ever be unpopular, ever. He was too pretty.
"Sh!" Conner suddenly hissed, and slammed M'gann onto the ground. She landed with a thud and Conner planted himself next to her and then scrambled under a bench, he pulled M'gann over with him and brought her close to his chest with his arms wrapped around her. M'gann blinked, and looked up at him, his eyes were focused on several pairs of feet that were now coming around a corner, the group was staggering and stumbling forward, two of the eight feet were missing shoes and several toes. While the others simply had worn holes into the shoes or no longer had what could be recognized as feet because of the shambled combination of fabric and flesh. M'gann almost gasped but Conner's hand clamped tightly around her mouth.
The feet began walking forward, towards the bench. M'gann quietly prayed that they would continue walking past, but they began to slow when they got about four feet away from them. Conner and M'gann both held their breath, but suddenly a mangled face appeared inches away from M'gann and the two acted, M'gann took her knife in her hand and punched, then sliced. The creature fell back for but a second as it's blood spurted from it's face, Conner swung upwards with both hands and pushed the bench up and into the four bodies that were around the bench,
"Run!" Conner yelled and kicked the bench once again into the Adults, causing them to stagger backwards, land on their rear and smash their heads onto the hard tile. The bench was shoved off and crashed on the ground with an ear-piercing clatter, there was an enormous screech of all the Adults within the mall as they heard the noise and began rushing towards it.
Conner swore and grabbed M'gann's hand, pulling her up and booked it down the mall. "There!" He veered towards the vitamin store and shoved the gate up. "Clear it!" He instructed M'gann as he went to secure the gate,
"Gotcha!" She called back to him and took a knife in either hand. She looked down the first isle and saw nothing. She turned the corner and went down the center isle and was met with a large Adult. He was lined with muscles and stood nearly six foot, if not taller. His bald head was partially scalped and he only had a portion of his lips left revealing rotting and black teeth, the rest of his face was half torn away revealing the muscle and bone beneath.
She gulped and stared up at him, as he ran forward. M'gann couldn't think as she reacted, leaping up she sent a kick into his chest and sent him spiraling to the down into one of the shelves. The stand broke and shattered to the ground with another loud clash, sending the Adult to the ground. M'gann took the opportunity and jumped up, she landed on the Adult and straddled the his arms to his side, attempting to get her knife at the ready so she could finish the fight before it got anymore loud or dangerous. He sneered and clacked his broken teeth at her, attempting to close them on some part of her flesh. Suddenly she felt a pressure pressing against her thighs and the man shoved them open and off him.
M'gann flew backwards into another shelf, but she didn't knock it over until the Adult slammed himself into her, she gasped at the sudden impact and fought to make sure his jaw was no where near skin. She jabbed her fingers into his eyes and gagged at the squelch that they released when her nails dug into them. M'gann couldn't get her finger's loose from the spot and thrust the man's head backwards as he writhed around, attempting to get some of her soft flesh into his mouth.
She heard her name called several times from the gate as Conner continued making the gate as secure as he could possibly get it before the wave of Adults got to them, "I'm fine!" She panted at him and finally got her knife into her hand and stabbed it into the skull of the man again and again. Soon enough the writhing and wiggling stopped and the Adult was simply 200 pounds of dead weight.
She was being crushed under the man, she was blood soaked and exhausted, but otherwise unharmed, she turned to Conner who simply stood there, awestruck at the fight and she sent him a weak grin. "Help…" She gasped and attempted to get the body off, while struggling to pull her fingers free of the man's cornea. Conner lurched forward and shoved the man off, prying his head away from M'gann's hand. "Excuse me." She gasped and fell over on her hands and knees and vomited,
"Are you alright?" Conner demanded, pulling her hair from he face M'gann didn't respond with anymore than a groan and a thumbs up, "The gate's all secure, the best thing we can do now he get behind the counter and wait it out." M'gann nodded and lifted her head, wiping at her mouth.
"Alright." She muttered, and pulled herself up. She looked around, "If we didn't attract them here with all that." She gestured to the fallen shelves and toppled displays that the brawl had resulted in. Conner nodded and went over to her, sliding an arm under hers and helping her over to the desk. He saw on top of the desk was a box of free samples, he picked it up and settled down against the ground with it, next to M'gann who had planted herself down and was now holding her head between her knees, "Ugg that was horrible." She muttered and accepted the small taffy-like candy from him and popped it in her mouth, she chewed it a bit and swallowed, "At least this is getting the taste out of my mouth." M'gann tried to laugh at this but couldn't manage anything other than a hoarse chuckle. Conner nodded at her and grabbed a roll of paper towels that was kept behind the counter. "What are you doing with –" M'gann began as Conner ripped one of the sheets off and began wiping at her blood splattered face. M'gann flushed a deep red and starred up at Conner who was concentrating on the ruby splashes on her.
"You were amazing." Conner said, not looking into M'gann's bright brown eyes, "I don't think I could have finished that so quickly." He commented again,
"Thank you." She blushed again and reached upwards, taking Conner's hand in her own as it moved along her skin. Conner finally looked up into her eyes and smiled, moving a bit closer to her. M'gann closed the distance and they pressed their lips together. Conner moved his hand and brought M'gann even closer to him, deepening the kiss and pushing himself slightly back against the front counter.
Part 3:
"They're here." Conner grumbled as Adults began to stagger around the store, M'gann scrambled up and clasped a hand over her mouth, Conner did the same and the two went entirely silent as the Adults began to surround them. There was one exit that Conner could see, and that was blocked off by a flimsy gate and what appeared to be nearly 40 Adults. M'gann noticed this as well and sent him a frightened look as if pleading him to come up with some sort of solution to the Adults that were scraping down the gates. The girl suddenly got up onto her hands and knees and began searching through the desk to find some sort of escape mechanism. Failing, M'gann grabbed a pencil from the desk and began writing something on the floor.
We can't take them. She wrote and then looked up at the group that was now begging to get in, pressing themselves against the gate and attempting to break through. Several of them hand their fingers and what was left of their hand shoved through the hole.
Not all of them. We could go out with a fight. Conner suggested, although, he honestly didn't feel like dying tonight, especially not right after he had just gotten his first kiss.
Well we have to get out another way then. M'gann jotted down and then began looking around, now not caring whether or not the Adults saw her,
"Conner, you start putting stuff into your bag, medicines, food, energy bars, health stuff, anything." Conner nodded and unzipped his backpack and began crawling around the fallen stands. While M'gann began to think of a way out. She started to pace around the room, looking for another door, some back room, some way that she could escape. There was nothing! Nothing but locked cabinets and walls. It was then that she saw it. A large safe in the back of the room hidden by one of the stands, she tapped her finger against her lip and thought. Pulling the stand aside she saw that the safe was huge, probably about three feet by three feet, enough room for both her and Conner to cram themselves inside. Now all she had to think of was the way to get some sort of explosive. Or find another way out, seeing as she wasn't sure she wanted to be locked in a safe.
"In there!" Conner suddenly said from the ruins of the display stands. M'gann looked to where he was pointing, the back storeroom. She raised an eyebrow but suddenly realized that there were now several arms protruding from the gate as the Adults broke through.
They had about thirty seconds, if that, to get into that back room and have it blocked off. She nodded and booked it into the room. There went her explosives idea.
The two locked themselves inside of the back storage room just as the Adults broke through. They could hear the sound of the stumbling feet across the hard floors as well as the sound of bodies falling over and striking the ground as they tripped over the isles.
"We have to get out of here." M'gann began sobbing, coming to the realization that this was a horrible mistake, and no matter what, the two would not be able to fend off forty Adults.
"We're going to get out." Conner assured her and pulled her into his chest, regardless if he knew that they were going to die.
"Conner! A door!" M'gann smiled suddenly and pushed off of Conner's chest, pulling the large shelf out of the way and showing a large door. "Can it open?" She asked as she got the shelf the rest away out from in front of the door and Conner wiggled the door knob. It didn't budge. Without any hesitation he took a step back and slammed his foot into it, causing it to fall forward and open into the next store over.
"Run." Conner said and the two began to bolt from the store they had found themselves in, dancing around displays and racks of clothing.
"Grab some clothes for the kids!" She called to Conner as they booked it through the store, and while they ran they scooped clothing of all sizes off of the racks and of no particular types into their arms and continued to dash away from the zombies. "Craft store!" M'gann called as the two got out of their saving store. Conner nodded at her and booked it to the gate, dropping the clothes, throwing it open and then sliding the clothes inside,
"Run in, run out!" He called to her. She nodded and ran forward to the check out where small sewing kits sat hanging up nicely along the register, they each held several colors of thread, an array of needles, and small scissors to cut the thread with. She called this good and grabbed all of them sliding her bag over her shoulder and shoving both the clothes and the sewing kits inside and zipping it up. She slung it back over her arm and ran to the door,
"Come on!" She told Conner, who dropped the gate and sprinted to catch up with her. He had also shoved his clothes into his bag and was now attempting to get his club back into his hand, as they ran passed a few scattered Adults that were too slow to get to the vitamin store. But soon enough, even those that had reached it were now flooding out of the store Conner and M'gann had escaped from. The duo joined hands and continued to run as fast as they could possibly manage to get back to the sporting goods store.
The destination finally came into sight and they saw Dick at the door, ready next to the gate. When he saw then the black-haired boy threw up the gate and yelled something back to the others, M'gann and Conner slid under the gate and Dick let it shut behind them,
"We-we got it." M'gann panted and threw her backpack at Dick, who ripped it open and pulled out the first sewing kit he could find. "It wasn't-It wasn't a medical one, but it was –it was the best we could do." She told them as she leaned back against the cold tile.
"What happened to you guys?" Tim demanded, looking at M'gann's blood soaked appearance, she smirked at him and sat up a bit,
"Had a run in with the Adults." Conner muttered,
"We heard." Dick commented, what made them all wake up so suddenly? We just heard this crash and then a whole bunch of Adults just started running towards it. I'm guessing that would be you." Conner nodded,
"We were locked in Vitamin World." He informed them, "Had to escape through some little kid shop."
"Children's Place." M'gann corrected him, and motioned to the bundles of clothes that they had inside of their backpacks. "It was fun." She lied and crawled over to where Wally was lightheadedly falling in and out of consciousness,
"He's lost a lot of blood, thank God you guys got here when you did." Artemis commented, getting the sewing kit open with a steady hand and handing it over to M'gann, "Thread me a needle please, make the string the black, but make sure you thread it through a couple times so it's thick." M'gann nodded and picked out the largest needle, thinking that it would make things easier for Artemis. She threaded it through the small hole as Artemis began undoing the dressings on Wally's arm. "Now, this is gonna hurt." She told him, "We got him some pain killers, but those only do so much." She sighed, M'gann nodded attempting to think of what Conner had grabbed in the Vitamin place. She couldn't think of anything that might help him.
"Don't hurt me too bad, beautiful." Wally slurred and clenched his eyes shut, motioning for Dick to come over, Dick scrambled forward and let Wally take his hand in his own,
"You got this, dude." Dick grinned,
"I hate needles." Wally whimpered, "hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em." He sucked in a deep breath as Artemis began.
Artemis held the needle as steady as she could, taking Wally's wound into her steady hand and poking the needle through. She worked carefully, trying to sew as calmly, quickly, and carefully as she could. Suddenly Wally went limp in her arms,
"What the hell just happened?" She demanded, looking over at Dick who was gawking wide-eyed at the now unconscious Wally.
"I- I just told him it looked cool and then he looked and then…" He motioned over to him and then backed up slightly, "I'm just gonna leave before I kill him."
"Are you kidding me?" Artemis moaned and continued working, "He's fine with getting his arm split open, but pull up a needle and he faints!" she continued to grumble to herself as she sewed. "Get me the scissor." She called to M'gann, the freckled girl blinked up at her but then rustled through the hand-held bag for the mini scissors. Artemis accepted them and took them into her hand sliding her fingers through the small handles she began to attempt to cut the bloodied thread. She cut just above the knot she made at the end of the first cut.
"Three more to go, you're doing good, Wally. M'gann, can you get me a new needle and thread it!" She instructed M'gann and started cleaning the wound out the best she could. "Wally, are you awake?" She asked and was met with drooping green eyes,
"Sure, beautiful." He mumbled and looked away from the cut the best he could, focusing on Artemis' light brown eyes. "Has anyone every told you that you have pretty eyes." Wally smiled up at her, Artemis moved her gaze from the wound to Wally's face for a moment and grinned at him,
"Thank you." She then held out her hand for the needle again and went back to work on Wally's arm. "Yours are nicer though. I always liked green eyes." She commented, Wally beamed weakly,
"You can have them if you want, I like yours better. But, I can't really tell what color they are." He noted,
"Brown." She told him,
"No, no, they have like gold streaks in them. There's some green too." Wally reached up with his free hand, and placed it on her cheek.
"Really?" Artemis sounded unconvinced, "maybe you're rubbing off on me." Wally crinkled his nose at her with a sneer and then closed his eyes again,
"Are you almost done?" He asked as she switched out her needle and thread for the next cut.
"Going as fast as I can, but yes." She gave him a reassuring pat on the chest and then finished sewing up his arm. "Annd…" Artemis muttered, "We are done here!" She wiped a damp cloth along the wound and bandaged it back up. Wally attempted to pull himself and Artemis put her hand on his back to help him up,
"What time is it?" Wally asked,
"Around nine." Dick called back, from where he was hitting a dummy with a baseball bat. Wally ran a hand through his hair,
"Staying here tonight." He called to the others, there was a few grunts of acknowledgement, "Do we have any food or something to hold us through until morning?" Conner held up his back pack,
"We have energy bars." Wally flashed a thumbs up at him,
"Good job"! He called over to him, "Now the idea is, be as quiet as possible, and try and sleep. We'll take watch in shifts, two at a time, okay?"
"Me and Conner can take the first watch." M'gann told him, Wally nodded at her and went over to a winter jacket section. He picked two out and curled them up, making one into a pillow and the other into a blanket as he lowered himself to the ground again.
"We're taking some of these clothes." Dick commented and began stuffing his bag with a few before moving over to the children's section to grab a few pairs of clothes,
"You can fit more in if you roll them." Artemis told him, walking towards him and taking the shirt he was holding. "Like this," She sat down on the floor and folded the shirt long-ways in thirds and began to roll it. Dick let out an 'ahh' and continued handing clothes down to her, as did Tim.
"Here, I'll fold with you." Tim smiled at her, she gave him a 'thank you' and showed him how to roll the shirts and pants up. He watched her carefully and repeated all the steps on the clothes Dick was handing to him. "So…" Tim mumbled after a few minutes of silent work, "What's your story?" He asked, Artemis looked over at him with raised eyebrows,
"What do you mean?" Tim shrugged,
"You and your brother survived all by yourselves, right? Or at least that's what I heard." Tim looked awkwardly down at the clothes,
"That's true." Artemis nodded, "Well when it all started we were already kind of on our own, dad was never around, or he was in prison, mom was in a wheel chair so we were pretty self-sufficient." Tim nodded, urging her to go on, "wait, Tim, why do you care about all this." Tim flashed her a pair of white teeth,
"Helps the time fly by faster, and besides, the more you know someone the better you can trust them, and when you're out on a raid like this, trust is all we have." He told her with a shrug. Artemis blinked at him,
"Huh…" She pursed her lips in thought, "Good point." She nodded, "So well, I guess when it all happened we ran to the place we knew best and that was the café. It was two storied and we knew every in and out of that place. Roy always went out to find stuff, I stayed behind and held up fort. This is actually the first time I've come out of the house in months. Or, however long this thing has been going on."
"Only 67 days." Tim told her, "I've been keeping track." Artemis blinked at him and turned back to her folding.
"How?" She questioned, "When you're out on these runs don't you loose track." Tim shook his head and rolled up his sleeve, showing her small nicks in his arm,
"Those are to keep track when I'm gone. I used to use sharpie, but then I lost it." He shrugged and pushed his sleeve back down,
"Doesn't that hurt?" Artemis demanded,
"Nah. I mean, at first it was difficult. You aren't supposed to be able to inflict pain on yourself, there's like this little switch in your brain that prevents you from hurting yourself. But once you get past that it's quick and easy. It's not like they're scars or deep or something. I got it just under the skin. They heal in about a week or so."
"Then how do you know how many days it's been?" Artemis questioned looking over her own bare arms and trying to imagine the little nicks lining them,
"I record them at home, carve then into a wall."
"That's a good idea." She smiled at him, "But why don't you carve them into your pole or something when you're out on raids?"
"Poles are easy to loose. I've lost about five in the past 43 days. It's harder to loose an arm, although Wally seems to be bent on proving me wrong on that." He commented just as Wally came over to the two and planted himself down next to Artemis.
"Dick, how on Earth are we going to carry all of this?" Artemis demanded, throwing another bundle of clothes into the bag,
"With this," Dick said as he walked up with a large red wagon. The blond cracked a smile when she saw it,
"You guys think of everything." She laughed and began loading up the filled duffle bags into the wagon.
"I know." Dick winked and sat down next to Tim, "I think we've got as much as we can carry with the two wagons we got." Artemis nodded at this, "Best if everyone hit the hay before M'gann and Conner switch off with one of us." The others gave a yawn of agreement and all plopped down wherever they found room on the floor. Turning off their flashlights and the lanterns that had been lit around the room. Wally settled himself down and tried his best not to hit his hurt arm,
"How're the stitches holding up?" Artemis questioned and laid down next to him,
"Alright. It's kind of hard to move my arm, but I guess that makes sense." He whispered back.
"I'm sorry I couldn't fix it any better than that."
"Sorry I passed out on you," Wally reached over and poked her nose. Artemis crinkled it under his touch, "But thank you," He said and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to him, in a hug. Artemis wrapped her arm around him as well, careful that she didn't bump his other arm. Neither of the two moved as their eyes began fluttering shut. Artemis had her head laying on Wally's chest and Wally had his good arm wrapped around her waist and his bandaged one absentmindedly stroking her hair.
"Tim…Tim look." Dick hissed once he was sure that Wally and Artemis had fallen asleep, Tim cracked his eyes open to see what Dick was pointing to, he chuckled when he saw the two,
"Man I wish we had a camera." He cackled, Dick nodded and leaned back against Tim's arm, "Hey, bro, do you think Bruce is still out there?" He said after a long while, Dick looked over at him,
"Maybe…" He whispered, "He was always one to be able to do the impossible, wasn't he?" Tim nodded,
"What about Jason?" Tim mused, sleep no longer a thought in his head,
"You know Jason's gone." Dick murmured, "He fell in that lake, there was no way he could have survived that." Approximately a week after the entire endeavor the three adopted Wayne children, as well as the only actual child of the billionaire Bruce Wayne, had thought it would have been a good idea to head to the mountains on the terms that, there was less people that way. They had made their way halfway up one of the only mountains in Gotham with their brother Jason in the lead. Everyday was a long walk, and every night was sleepless camping, watching the trees and paths for Adults. Every night there would be nothing. They assumed all was clear. That was until they were crossing an old bridge, over the river that was nearly seventy feet bellow them and an Adult began plowing his way through. Tim had reached for his sling shot, attempting to load it as the Adult was joined with others and began running through the bridge. Jason had drawn the steel baseball bat he kept as a weapon. Tim was too slow, the Adult had reached Jason and was now forcing him back against the thin rope that held up the bridge. Jason had screamed for them to get off the bridge before it collapsed, and Dick had ushered Damian and Tim away from the bridge while Jason fought of the Adults. He was pushed back, up and over the rope within seconds of Dick attempting to go back and help him, Dick lurched forward and scrambled to grab his hand, ignoring the scrapes and claws from the Adults he tripped on the way, but Jason was gone. Splashing into the river. Dick destroyed the other Adults in seconds, tearing through them with the two poles he had at his side and throwing them up and over the rope.
They waited for Jason. Waited and watched the river, hoping his head would come up from the waters.
It never did.
Dick blinked away the memory and closed his eyes, still resting against Tim's back. This was one brother he'd never let go. Damian either, he hated having the little one out of his sight, but it seemed that at this point that was unavoidable.
Part 4:
Zatanna looked out over the vast stretch of city and bit the inside of her cheek. She had spent all day treating boo-boos and owwies with the little kids, and Dick and the others were out there risking their lives. Along with that there was dark, menacing storm clouds floating towards the city. She frowned, why couldn't she be out there with them? She was sure that there was something she could do out there. Help someone, fix some boo-boos out there for once. But no, she was stuck on the inside, never allowed to leave the walls in fear that their one and only medic might be lost. She was hardly able to leave the building.
Suddenly a door opened up behind here. She turned and raised her eyebrow to see an unfamiliar red-head walk in, he had sunglasses up on his nose and a mean scowl plastered to his face. Still Zatanna smiled at him and stood,
"Hello." She greeted him, "Can I help you with something?" She moved over to an old desk that she had claimed as her own.
"Where's my sister?" He growled, not sitting in the chairs in front of the desk even as Zatanna motioned to them,
"Who? Oh! You must be Roy, the new guy! I'm sorry, but I don't know, what's her name?" She asked and flipped open the notebook that held all the check-in, check-out logs of the orphanage,
"Artemis." He snapped, crossing his arms and glaring,
"She left earlier today." She said, "Went with the scavenger party it looks like." Roy's jaw clenched shut at the news,
"She…left?" He yelled, Zatanna nodded, crossing her arms and resting her elbows against the desk,
"Yup. But I wouldn't suggest going out there after her. She went on a long distance raid, meaning they're probably long gone, yup, wont be back until tomorrow or the next day. We send a search party after the third day." Roy gapped at this,
"I'm leaving, check me out, or whatever the hell you do here." He grumbled, Zatanna sighed and scribbled down his name and the time,
"Alright, I'll let you go." Roy went to turn around, "On one condition." He froze and looked back over his shoulder,
"Excuse me?"
"I want to come."
"Excuse me?!"
"I haven't been out of this place since all of this started, I want out for a little bit. Besides, I'm a medic and a damn good fighter, if you get in a jam you'll want back up." Roy sighed but nodded,
"Fine, I'll sneak you out or whatever the hell you want me to do. But, you gotta follow my lead." Zatanna shrugged,
"I'm cool with that. I just hope you know your way around the streets at night." Roy nodded again,
"Born and raised." With that he left the room, "be ready in 10." He called back to her and was gone. Zatanna let out a quick cheer and went to go pack what she would need.
She got to the back room and scribbled down a note,
Barbara, I'll be out for a while. Don't let anyone else know. P.S. thanks for covering me, I owe you one big time.
- Zatanna
She finished writing the note. Barbara was her part-time helper with the medicine. She was getting good with the medicine names, what they did, and how to use them, but unlike Zatanna she hadn't been raised by two surgeons that gave her only medical books to read for fun, so she hadn't gotten the training Zatanna had. Still, whatever happened when she was gone Barbara would be able to handle. There was never really anything horribly wrong with the kids. An upset tummy, headache, sniffles, cuts, bruises; Barbara could handle it. Zatanna reassured herself that she could do this and packed a few medicines into her pack as well as the weapon she hid behind the cabinets. It was an old rifle, still had a few rounds in it too. She picked up the gun and placed it in her bag. That was for emergencies only, but she wanted to be prepared for the worst out there. She grabbed a hatchet that was supposed to be for amputations (thank God she had yet to have to use it) and laced it through her belt. She was ready just as Roy came back in ready to go with backpack and a bow and arrow.
Roy didn't know this building too well, but he was able to follow Zatanna to find secret exits without having to go through the gate in front. There was a small door in the kitchen corner that Zatanna unlocked and the two slid through.
"We'll have to jump the fence." Zatanna hummed at him, as they slipped outside and shut the door behind them. Roy nodded and ran up to the fence, cupping his hands so Zatanna could step onto them. She did as she was instructed and leapt up onto the hands and clambered up onto the fence,
"Come on!" She motioned, holding her hand down so that Roy could grab onto it and hoist himself up. The two flew over the other side of the fence and landed on their backs on the grass. Zatanna coughed a bit and pulled herself up, Roy did the same and began looking around,
"Do you know where they were supposed to go?" He asked looking at the streets he had around him.
"Supposed to be going downtown." Roy blinked at her,
"Are they stupid? Downtown is horrible! Not a clear building in it!"
"You've been there?" Zatanna asked as the two began walking,
"Almost died there!" Roy scoffed back at her, "It's not safe, we have to get there soon, otherwise I wont have a sister and you wont have a boyfriend." Zatanna's eyes widened,
"How'd you know-" Zatanna stammered,
"Educated guess." Roy sneered.
So! Zatanna and Roy are going off in search of our little stranded group. Hopefully something good will come out of that.
Relationships are going places! Your opinion on that?
Any questions, comments, concerns just leave me a review and I'll get back to you!
REVIEW! LEMME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
Bye, till next time bros!