Radar
by. Poisoned Scarlett
"Be very quiet," Nygus' lips barely moved as she said this, her footsteps absolutely silent as they moved through the forest grounds. They used the forest to their advantage, Soul saw, blending in with the dirt and shrubbery as if they were nature themselves. Sid made no noise, his finger on the trigger as his eyes stared stonily at the group of rowdy men a few yards off. Nygus made even less noise; it was as if she were not there, only a ghost walking over the land.
They had everything set and packed. Sid and Nygus had suggested they return to the abandoned cottage they had found in the forest for their own supplies, only to discover it had been broken into by the gang they had been looking out for. From there, Nygus and Sid had taken control, and Soul had no problem letting them call the shots when it came to a gang of rogues who would shoot a cottage until it was all holes, no cover.
"Oh, no, look!" Liz whispered in outrage, clenching her fist when one of the men shook out a bag and stomped on it once he realized there was nothing of value inside. "They're going through all your things! Should we...should we tell them to stop?"
"No," Nygus murmured, staring at the group. "Everything that matters is on me." She was not focused on the gangly teenager going through her things, however, but rather the one looking over him from above. She recognized him, the monster with the piercings and tattoos they called Giriko. He was sitting on the roof of his truck, sand blonde hair matted and dirty, his arms covered in what seemed like thick rubber gloves. They were big on him, making his arms seem longer than normal, but judging by the black streaks that stained the gloves, they served their purpose. It would be hard to bite through that industrial rubber. He was not all gears for brains after all, Nygus thought as she moved away from the tree and crouched next to Sid.
"We didn't have anything important in there except clothes and some minor supplies," Sid told them. He shifted when the truck's headlights came on, keeping his eyes locked on the rogues. "We had some medical supplies, too, which was what we really wanted. But picking a fight for the hell of it isn't the type of man I am," he told them all with a slanted smile. "Let's—!" he was cut off by shouting, vulgar curses that grew steadily louder and more violent.
"Stay down," Nygus quickly ordered.
"What's happening?" Maka whispered, squeezing Soul's arm. She set her teeth when two men started to shove each other, their voices growing rapidly. That man that sat on the roof of the truck did nothing more but look on, drinking out of what looked like a canteen. He seemed amused, and Maka really wanted to know what was so funny about two men threatening to feed each other to Walkers. "They're too loud; they're going to bring in Walkers if they don't stop!"
"Watch," Nygus quietly said.
Maka grimaced but did as she was told, watching their shoves grow into a fist fight. It did not last: to her horror, one of them pulled a gun and shot the other when he stumbled. Maka was not sure why she felt so shocked at the sight of a man gunning down another. It shouldn't have made her sick but it did, watching him shoot him without batting an eye and pulling on a sneering smile at the sight of his once-friend twitching on the floor, strangled screams causing a flock of birds to leave their nest in the trees. Maka wanted to look away, but she couldn't: she watched the man writhe on the floor, gripping his stomach with both hands and screaming curses.
She had killed more Walkers than she could count without batting an eye.
But there was something so inexplicably inhumane about killing a Survivor, a living and breathing man.
She remembered Stein in that instant, and she remembered being told the difference between a Walker and a Survivor: none, save for the infection that ran in one, that made them sick but not monsters. But she did not want to die for that. She did not want somebody to bury her corpse without knowing who it was, without a single prayer. She did not want to be buried among the bones of nameless others. She wanted to live, and when the time came she wanted to be buried next to the ones she loved.
"Hey!" the monster on the truck shouted, waving his canteen around. He grinned and she swore his teeth were sharper than knives. To Nygus, he looked like a real demon, his eyes blacker than shadows and his grin extending wider than a Glasgow smile. "Finish the job, shithead, I don't wanna' have to deal with 'em coming back and fucking things up!"
"Got it, boss."
"Oh, my god," Liz covered her mouth when he shot the body four more times. The laughter that followed made Liz nauseous. She watched him snatch the hat off his dead friend and pull it on his head, walking away no more affected than one was after killing an insect. She swallowed her nausea and looked back at Maka, whose fingers were digging painfully into Soul's arm. Soul hardly seemed to notice.
"This is why we were so suspicious of you," Nygus quietly told them. She had her eyes trained on the monster that sat on top of that truck like a king on a throne. "They're monsters."
"Let's go," Sid turned away, tapping his wife's arm gently. "Before they find us. They're not the type of people you want to fight, not like how the world is now."
"You don't have'ta tell me twice," Liz muttered, already heading back with the pair. Liz noticed Maka and Soul had yet to move. "Soul, Maka? We're going, c'mon!"
"Let's go," Soul nudged, studying her conflicted face. He wanted to smooth out the creases between her brows, the way her eyes watched the scene with a frustration he understood but didn't act upon. "Maka?"
"...Right," she forced out and turned away, deciding this was not a world where justice existed and she was the last person who could make such a decision. This was a world collapsed of rules and order; this was a world unlike anything she had ever read before. It was different and there were new rules instated, most of which she did not agree with. But that did not make them any less real. She looked up at Soul and smiled, the smile not reaching her eyes. He squeezed her hand. "Let's go."
The trip to the North was more lively now that they had two added members to their group. Nygus had a lot of war stories to tell, a lot of skills that she taught them while Sid and Soul alternated driving. Soul even listened in sometimes when it wasn't his turn to drive, often commenting that if Black Star knew half the crap they did, they'd have made better decisions. Nygus had only smiled at that, saying her son was not one to sit down and learn—he needed to take things into his own hands and learn from that.
"No shit," Soul muttered, to her amusement. "That was basically all that guy did. He got us into some real hot water sometimes."
"Things happen for a reason," Sid told them happily. "It taught you to be more aware of your surroundings, and to exhaust all possible outcomes before committing to one. If you think about it, after all this mess passes, you'd make a real handy member in the military."
Soul snorted. "Not in your life."
Sid glanced at the rear view mirror, catching sight of a smiling Maka. "She can handle herself."
Soul flicked his eyes to Maka, too. He looked away when she caught his stare. "I know she can. Just don't like waking up at the crack of dawn everyday."
Sid smiled at that. He was a good kid; he was happy that Black Star had met him, even if they both seemed to have butt heads most of the time. Sid knew better than to think they really disliked each other; someone who was levelheaded like Soul was just the right person to befriend his headstrong, hot-headed, son. Sid glanced at the map after another hour of driving, making sure he was going the right way. By the look of things, in a few more hours they would be at the northern border. He did not know what to expect, but he did know that he was glad that he had kept his credentials on him the entire time. If those thugs from before had found them, no doubt they would've been burned or worse: that monster of a leader could have kept them and hunted them for the sake of entertainment.
"Sid," Nygus spoke up after a few minutes, her eyes crinkled. She was smiling and it surprised him. How long had been since he had the pleasure of seeing her eyes crinkle that way? Too long, he decided. "We'll take a break a few miles up, the girls want to—!" She jerked when Liz shrieked and Sid barely had time to glance at the rear view mirror, catching a flash of a white truck, before it smashed into the back of their van and nearly drove them off the road. He could hear his wife's harsh words in his ear, urging him to take control of the wheel, to stop.
"MAKA!" Soul roared, holding a hand out.
She tossed him a rifle, opening a box of bullets and tossing him a few. She tried to pick up the ones she dropped. Soul reloaded and cursed when the truck smashed into the back of their van again. He very nearly collided with the glove compartment that time. Soul aimed at the back of the truck, snarling at Liz and Maka to get down on the floor, now, he was not going to wait. Liz shoved Maka down and covered her ears, shutting her eyes, and cried out shrilly when the gun went off. She felt tears spring to her eyes; so loud, she could hear nothing but ringing. But sound came crashing back, the shatter of glass and Maka's cries of Soul's name before another jarring crash came and things went dark for her.
The next time she awoke, she was on her back and her eyes locked on stars. She jerked upright but hissed, holding her arm.
"Relax, you're hurt. Don't move too much," Sid's voice drifted from her side. Liz looked to find him kneeling, his gun out and his eyes gazing steadily ahead. "You've been asleep for a few hours."
"W-what happened?" She croaked, clearing her throat. She was sore all over and her head felt split open. "Sid? Where's Nygus—and Maka, Soul? Where is everyone, where am I?"
"They're looking for Maka," Sid told her evenly. She felt her heart speed up and she licked her lips, hoping it was not what she thought it was.
"Looking for Maka?"
"Soul got a clean shot at the driver," Sid began, grimly. "The truck lost control and crashed into us again at full speed, so we veered off the road. We crashed, and I managed to drag you out first. Nygus took you into the forest, and I stayed behind to pull out Soul. He got the worst of it trying to protect Maka from the glass...except I didn't account for those in the truck to recover so soon. They took Maka before we could get the van straightened and Soul out. I would have gone after them, except they were armed," Sid looked down, his jaw clenched tight. His eyes were stone. "I came back for Soul after they left, told him what happened. He left with Nygus. I stayed behind to look after you."
Liz felt sick. "Maka...Soul and Nygus, are they going to be okay? Can they really...?"
"Nygus was in special forces with me," Sid revealed after a moment. Liz stared at him. "She's more than qualified to take down a couple of fucking thugs."
Sid's words rang true, as Soul watched Nygus calculate the distance between them and Giriko. He could not see Maka but he knew she was there, with him, somewhere. He felt like puking his guts out at the thought of what could have happened to her, but he knew better—she would not let him hurt her, wouldn't go without a fierce fight. He could only hope she had not run out of fire yet, however, as Nygus motioned for him to follow her and they snuck around the perimeter of the camp. Most were asleep, but there was a few on lookout—two looking like they were falling asleep as well.
"Stay," Nygus hushed. She silently tread onto the camp and, without making a sound, she whipped out her knife and grabbed the dozing mans neck. She slit his throat without a sound, covering his mouth tightly with her hand and snapping his neck to ensure he would not blow their cover. She did the same with the other one on the other side. Soul would have looked away had he not been feeling the rage that bubbled beneath his skin, made his eyes gleam with a sadistic sort of pleasure as Nygus continued her silent execution. She did the same to another, bringing him down quietly and giving him the sign that it was clear.
"Follow," she shortly told him, holding her knife out in front of her cautiously. "We have to go through the back, take out Giriko and get Maka first. Do not make any noise. Do not attack anyone inside the tents. If we can do this before waking up the others, that would be best."
"If we can't?"
"Kill everyone," she evenly told him. "Don't take chances. Don't hesitate."
Soul stared.
She flashed her eyes to him, slit them and hissed, "Now is not the time to get soft on me, Soul, these men are monsters!"
"But, to kill everyone... some of them are just doing it for survival," he hissed back.
Nygus grabbed his face roughly, her fingers digging painfully into his cheek. She caught his arm when he tried to move and stared fiercely into his eyes. "Do you want to save her? Or do you want to see her die in front of you again?"
"...Save her," he grit out and jerked out of her grasp. He wanted to follow what he knew was right, but he found it difficult against such a reality. They had taken her from him without mercy, and kicked his face when he tried to take her back. A chill ran up and down his spine, and his dark thoughts made it hard for him to find his god. He let Nygus lead and he rounded the tent, freezing when he heard a familiar shout. He snapped his head to the SUV, not the tent. His eyes widened and he felt...unhinged, a violence he didn't know he possessed fueling his steps. He saw the truck, heard more cries and curses, and his breathing was loud in his ears and his knuckles cracked around the handle of his rifle. He tore the door of the truck open and he saw a foot—leg, familiar boots. His heart came to a complete stop when he found him on top of her, holding her hands over her head, hissing such vulgar and foul things at her as she turned away and tried to knee him—
"Get the fuck off her," Soul snarled, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and shoving him out of the truck. He heard Maka gasp his name before he brought his foot down on Giriko's arm, a sickening crack following.
Bat—he told her a rifle was like a bat and, well, it worked as well as one as he bludgeoned Giriko's head with it.
"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, SHITHEAD?" Giriko screamed wildly around a spit of blood, his eyes wide and wild. "YOU WANNA' FUCKING FIGHT, I'LL KILL YOU—!"
He swung the gun to the side his head one last time, snapping his head to the right, a home run his thoughts laughed. Soul watched passionlessly as he fell over, gasped in a bloody breath and held his head. He flipped the gun, reloaded and heard Nygus in his head. She said to kill them all because mercy was just another word that had been forgotten in time, and it had been proven when he told them to leave her alone and take him instead. He had to kill them. And he was okay with that, completely okay with that. They were not undead, but it wasn't some staggering corpse he needed to be afraid of. It wasn't getting bitten, getting ambushed, becoming surrounded by a hoard. It was people like him, people with wild eyes like animals, with mouths twisted into snarls like beasts and the hunger of demons in their hearts. Those were the people he needed to fear, and kill.
"FUCKING SHOOT ME, FUCKHEAD, I FUCKING DARE YOU," Giriko screamed, wiping the edge of his mouth with the back of his hand. Wild eyes like an animal, his mouth twisted like a beasts, with a savageness that belonged to a demon burning in his voice, Giriko snarled, "THAT BITCH CAN'T TAKE MY COCK ANYWAY!"
Soul aimed and shot and the blood was red this time.
Nygus cursed when she heard the shot ring out. She grabbed her knife tightly in her hands and backtracked, her eyes flicking to the tents that were shuffling with men. She heard voices rise and she was quick in her kills. Experience taught her better than to hesitate in such a crucial situation. Her hands moved like clockwork, and bullets were too slow for someone like her. Guns were messy and awkward, hard to use in a situation where a split second was all that was needed to kill a man.
It made things easy for her.
She was already used to killing men.
This was no different, in the end.
By the time she managed to take down the little men Giriko had recruited, the danger had passed. Some wisely fled upon realizing they could not kill her with brute force alone. She drew her gun and shot those down before they could run too far. Once she was certain everyone had been accounted for, she ran toward where she heard the gunshot and stopped a few feet away from the pair. Nygus Maka was holding Soul, stroking his hair and whispering things that sounded like you're going to be fine, you had to do it, he would have killed you if you hadn't and, most importantly, I'm fine—you saved me. He gripped the back of her shirt, his face buried in her neck, his arm crushing her to his chest. She did not know exactly what happened, but it was easy to imagine when she saw Giriko's dead corpse crippled on the floor by the truck. His head was blown off. It was splattered around, and she looked down and lifted her foot to find a piece of his skull there.
She gave them a second, watched Maka stroke his hair and squeeze him tight to her chest, before she spoke up.
"We have to get going. We can't waste anymore time here, the noise from the guns will attract Walkers."
Soul let go of Maka and pushed himself to his knee, resting an arm there. He helped her up, placed a hand on her side and gently righted her when she wobbled. He let go once she nodded at him.
"Are you hurt?" Nygus asked.
Maka smiled weakly at her. "He hit me a few times on the way here. But it's nothing major," Her hand came away bloody, dark—black? Nygus narrowed her eyes but before she could ask, her ears caught noise coming from the other side of the camp. The shadows cloaked them when they backed into the woods. Nygus' directions were quick and straightforward: follow her and make no noise.
Soul offered his hand to to Maka after a few moments.
"Let's not get lost like that again," he told her quietly and she took his hand tightly. He then looked at Nygus. "Let's go, I have her. There's no use killing anyone anymore," Soul said. "Not even Walkers." Nygus watched them go for a second before she followed them this time, making sure to keep a look out. The area seemed clear, however, and Nygus made note to return to the truck after she dropped Soul and Maka off at their camp. They had supplies they would need for the way North, as well as a working vehicle. It was a long walk and Soul took it upon himself to carry Maka on his back when her steps began to get sloppy. He breathed no complaint as he walked back, and tried to ignore the blood he felt bleed through her shirt and onto his. She was not breathing hard or making any noises. But he still hurried, wanting to patch her up as soon as possible.
"Wait here for my signal," Nygus told him, stopping him. She motioned for him to hide behind a tree. "I'll be back shortly." She went on ahead to check if Sid was still there or not.
"...Are you okay?" Maka mumbled against his neck.
Soul looked up at the stars. They were bright tonight, washing away the darkness of the land with every roll of the clouds. "Yeah, now that you're back."
She tightened her arm around his neck, pressing her lips to the back of his hair. "Thanks, Soul."
He pressed a hand to her arm in reply, heaving her up on his back when Nygus signaled for him to follow. Sid was quick to take out what little medical supplies they had, motioning for him to lay Maka down on the sleeping bag Nygus had rolled up and packed into the backpack she took from the camp. Soul hadn't noticed she had raided it as well; he wasn't quite all there, numb to most things as he knelt by Maka and watched Sid and Liz patch her up. If he were being honest, Liz looked more beat up than any of them—even Maka, who had her back split open because Giriko had hit her with some sort of whip. A split cane, Maka would later clarify.
For now, as they patched her up, as Nygus conversed quietly with Sid and glanced worriedly at him, as Liz said she would try to get some sleep and they should, too, he slumped tiredly beside Maka and wrapped a comforting arm around her, burying his face in her neck and knowing he would relive the moment he pulled the trigger and went against his promise not to kill a Living.
"I'm never going to get rid of these bags," Liz murmured three mornings later, sighing as she looked away from her deadened reflection in the window. The gray SUV was rather cramped and smelled of whiskey and tobacco, but it was better than nothing. They were lucky those thugs had two cars with them, one of which was suited for travel unlike the white truck, which they had wrecked along with their van. She found Maka dozing soundly against Soul's chest, of whom was yawning widely in his hand and trying not to fall asleep himself. He looked more tired than usual and Liz knew it was because he hadn't quiet recovered from what happened three days ago—none of them had. Nygus had a loaded gun in her lap, Sid refused to allow anyone but himself drive, and she had yet to see Soul let Maka go aside from letting her take a piss. And she was sure if he could hold her hand then he would, too.
She didn't blame him, though.
Even she, herself, was jumpier than usual. She was always looking over her shoulder, her nerves anticipating a tailing car. But nothing would approach; it was a long stretch of empty road both ways. She was not sure if they were heading the right way, could barely read a map herself even if she was in charge of it, but the suitcase she carried on her lap was their only chance. She tightened her grip on it; the vials inside remained unharmed despite their tousle during the crash, and for once she was happy Kidd took such over-the-top precautions. She would have to thank him the next time she saw him.
"Do you think we're close?" Liz asked Soul, who cracked an eye open and looked out the window.
"Doesn't look like it."
"We still have another days travel ahead of us," Nygus supplied, giving the girl an assuring smile. "Since there's no traffic, we should make it there even sooner!"
"Ha," Liz forced a laugh out, sinking in her seat. She clutched the suitcase to her chest. "Right, no traffic. Because everyone is dead," she added to herself, letting her head bump against the window.
Soul shifted his eyes down to Maka, who slept soundly against his chest. He rubbed her arm gently and opted for looking out the window, watching the desolate forest scenery blur past him. It seemed that the comfort he usually derived from the forest couldn't help him now, not with the horrors the forests hid. The once ambient habitat had become a breeding ground for the morally barren, the humans who had reverted into rabid animals all from a single viral infection. His eyes flashed to the suitcase Liz held tightly to her chest. All of mans woes and terrors could be cured by that single vial in that suitcase. It was almost enough to make laugh, how such a tiny thing could fix everything. But even he was not foolish enough to believe that a vial could fix the societal decline, the madness that had spread over the land and infected everyone. No one was safe from this sort of savagery, not even him.
It had been proven to him when he shot Giriko.
He still couldn't find it in himself to regret it.
"What's that over there, Sid?"
"Looks like...barriers? What?"
Soul looked out the window and sat up straighter when he was the barriers were not makeshift: they were military barriers, with tanks and jeeps and what he could see as the Canadian military stationed outside. He heard Sid murmur something about them having made it much sooner than he anticipated when Soul saw one of the guards wave them back. Although he was sure the pair did not notice the rifles aimed at them all of a sudden, he was relieved that Sid still had his credentials on him. It was enough for the guards to consider them, and Liz wasted no time in explaining the situation—showing them the suitcase, reciting what Kid had firmly ingrained in her mind since they left for the border, and Soul would have laughed at their wide-eyes and slack jaws had he not been as exhausted as he was.
"Soul?"
He looked down and found Maka looking up at him, her eyes still sleepy. "What is it, Maka?"
"Are we going to be okay now?"
He stroked her hair gently for a second, looking up at the guards who flagged down the rifles. Sid's window scrolled back up and they were driving past the barriers, into land that was much brighter than the one who had been gloomily gazing at previously. "Yeah," he smiled down at her. "We're gonna' be okay now. Look, it even looks better on this side," he lifted her up and let her peer out the window, to the greener forests that were bleeding into a metropolis. He could see guards stationed every few yards, attentive to any unnatural sound.
"Do you think Black Star and Akane made it here?"
"Yeah. Black Star would never let some dead guys push him around," he grinned down at her, relieved at the light that had filled her eyes. He was always saying the wrong things, he was glad today he said something right. "Once we get settled down over there, we'll look for them, alright? They can't be that hard to find."
"Not with someone like Black Star," Maka giggled.
"Oh, my god! I can't wait to take an actual bath! With hot water and soap!" Liz sighed out dramatically, sinking back into the car seats with a giddy smile. "I'll never take a bath for granted ever again!"
"Or toilet paper," Soul added, grinning when she made a face at that. Maka giggled in his chest.
"We're gonna' have to pass through decontamination," Sid spoke up, looking at them from the rear-view mirror. "Considering we look alive, they won't shoot us. But we're gonna' spend most of the day getting checked through." He grumbled out a few more things, Nygus placing a gentle hand on his arm in silent comfort.
"You don't sound too happy about it," Soul commented.
"It's a pain in the ass, and being in situations that are pain in the asses isn't the type of man I am," he sighed but looked at him with relieved eyes through the rear view mirror. "Good news is, considering this is a pandemic, at least we're assured some sort of shelter and food. I can't say it'll be good, but it'll be better than what we've been living in. And since that lady back there has something very important, maybe they'll even let us sleep in an actual hotel."
"We lived in some decent places before," Maka spoke up, smiling at Sid. "Aside from sleeping in the car on our way here, we haven't had the bad luck of camping out int he forest or worse."
"Ain't you lucky," Nygus cheeked and her eyes crinkled at the sides when Maka smiled. "At least we know that if we get into some trouble down with the guards, we'll have you to cutesy your way into the city."
Maka pinked but beamed and Soul rolled his eyes, ruffling her hair but not breathing a word; not that he could deny it, he would kiss every inch of her face in that moment if his cool didn't hold him back, scolding him for such mushy thoughts.
"Ngh," Sid grunted, slowing down.
"We here?" Nygus asked gently.
"Yeah," he groaned. "I hate gettin' shots."
"Maka comes with me!" Liz quickly spoke up. She rose the suitcase, beaming at them all. Soul wanted to squint his eyes and tell her to turn down the sunshine, but decided, since Maka seemed happier than she had been the past three days, he would tone down his attitude for once. "I have the papers that explain why her blood's black!"
"So she does have black blood," Nygus said. "Like them."
Liz smiled, uncertain. "Yes, but, she's not...like them. Because of the cure, you know, she's not rabid or anything. She's perfectly fine," she assured. "We've observed her and made sure she's okay. She's not going to...to turn," Liz held Nygus' eyes as she said this, knowing that the next few hours were going to be either hellish or easy-going. Because she could see the mistrust in Nygus' eyes when she realized Maka's blood was black. She could only imagine what she'd think when she heard Soul's blood had been black for a long, long time.
"She hasn't tried to go for the neck, so no sweat off my back," Sid deadpanned. "Now let's go get this over with...hate shots..." he grumbled as he got out of the car.
"Let's go together," Maka told him once they were out, their fingers loosely linked. "We both have black blood, so, they might want to take us aside for extra tests." She looked up at him and smiled, her eyes glowing. "We have to stick together, right?"
Soul smiled softly. "Right."
As long as they didn't lose each other again, they would be fine wherever they went or whatever happened.
He believed that.
A/N: This is not the end. There will be a short epilogue that I will post within the next few days :)
Scarlett.