Deliquesce

Chapter 21: Melt

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Warnings: Violence idk

A/N: TheDoctorsTrueCompanion: Here's some more

Guest: *breathes some more* Thank you.

Turrislucidus: Thank you! That whole cliche of girls buckling under pressure, returning to their true loves, letting bad things happen to them and 'resolving' the situation with unequal morality is pretty tired. Throughout the whole story, writing Ember and exploring ways to challenge that whole stereotype of women, the question of morals has always been at the forefront of my mind. What's right and what's wrong in a dead world? Do we stick to the values we once had? Do we evolve in order to survive? Do we abandon them? I think Ember is in the middle on the whole scale. She has an idea of what is right, and not all of those ideas conform to what we think is right. Wonka and the rest of the group are at the ends of the spectrum. Wonka's have gone out the window, and yet he is the person working to save what's left of the world. The group has a grounded sense of morality, and yet their only interest is survival. 'To rise above monsters, we have to abandon our humanity' - Captain Eyebrows/Erwin. My conclusion: Morals are confusing without a structured society. I have no conclusion.

I would have liked to crumple down onto the floor in a pile of ashes and embers and stay there.

But I couldn't. I left the door open as I went out, they didn't deserve to rot there in peace.

With numb legs, I carried myself back onto the main road and jogged after the tracks their car had left behind. They were still fresh, but they would be gone by morning with this snow if I wasn't quick.

Time seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time as I walked after those tracks. It seemed that nothing else existed in the world but those indentations in the snow. I could see no more than a few feet in front of me, the blizzard was too strong. Dense sheets of white surrounded me from all sides, and I followed those tracks as if they were a candle in infinite darkness.

It was only when the dawn broke and I had reached the end of the grasslands covered in snow that I realised just how long I had been walking. I was hungry, dehydrated. My face was numb, eyelashes coated in ice and lips so cold I could barely move them. I should have brought something along with me, but somehow I didn't account for this whole scenario when I first set off.

I removed the gloves from my hands. They were blue and shaking. My throat was dry. I needed some water. There was snow all around me, but I couldn't even melt it down to water with the warmth from my hands because it was long gone. I followed a road surrounded by abandoned, desolate farmland for about a mile before I came upon a small city. The roads were empty, I couldn't hear anything walking around. The tracks continued on through the city, and the snow had calmed down somewhat. The tracks wouldn't disappear too quickly, so I had a few minutes to spare to find some water. I ducked into a small store, the window had been smashed in. Most of the food had been looted already, save for the perishables that lay frozen and decayed on the ground. I walked to the front counter, where they usually sold lighters. The little stand had been knocked over, and there weren't any in sight, but I eventually found one that had been kicked under the counter. It took a few goes to spark it up with my stiff, frozen fingers but I got it to go.

I walked outside, found an empty tin discarded on the side of the road and walked around to find some bricks. I got four, good enough. After scooping up some snow with the tin, I returned to the store and ripped some pages out of a magazine. I screwed them up and placed them on the floor. Wood would have been ideal, paper burnt far too quickly, but all of the wood was soaked with the snow. I positioned two bricks parallel with the paper in between them, and another two facing the opposite direction on top. I grabbed another piece of paper, lit it up and chucked it into the center to ignite the other bits of paper and threw some more scrunches for good measure before placing the tin on top of the bricks. It wouldn't take too long to melt. I waited for a few minutes, warming my hands and my face near the fire. It felt good.

Once the water had melted, I chucked some snow on the fire to put it out and sipped the warm water as I began to follow the tracks again. I kept low and quiet, keeping close to the buildings in case I was seen. Eventually, I was able to see barricades up ahead. I ducked behind a car and saw two men and a woman pacing on top of the barricades, guns held ready in their hands. I couldn't see much behind it, just the tops of more buildings.

I didn't know where the ute drove in, but I guessed there must have been a gate or something around the other side.

My heart fluttered nervously in my chest as I watched them, tried to examine what was behind them. Maybe it was the stench that emanated from those buildings, a stench that I had come to be quite familiar with in my encounters with decomposing people. I knew it wasn't coming from the infected, maybe that was what made me want to get out of there as soon as possible.

With one last glance at the site, I set back off to the factory.

I still had the key in my pocket, and with that I unlocked the smaller gate to the side. I was familiar with the factory by now, but it never failed to amaze and intimidate me, staring straight up at the towering building.

I jogged up the steps, my breath quick and jagged from the fast walking I had to do, and pounded on the door. I didn't have the key for it. It was unlocked from the inside, but you had to open it with the key that Jackson had to get in from the outside.

No one answered, but I knew he had cameras and microphones set up. He'd mentioned it to me, and that he kept a beeper on himself at all times that alerted him if someone was trying to get in. He also had another room full of surveillance monitors. There was no way he wouldn't eventually know I was there.

I pounded on the door for about ten minutes straight until it opened. Wonka stood there.

"Back so soon?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You need to help me." I panted. "Everyone was taken by some group of people. Cannibals. I don't know if they're still alive. I followed them, I know where their base is. I don't know if they're still alive, but please help me."

"Are you okay? Did they see you?" He asked me. I couldn't answer. "Ember?"

I shrugged, and promptly broke into tears.

"I killed two men. They were trying to.. trying to.."

"Oh, god." He pulled me close and hugged me for the longest time before I pulled away, wiping the tears almost angrily off my face.

"I can't let them die. We need to hurry."

"Yes, we do." He nodded, and shut the door behind him. He began walking down the steps and toward the sheds to the side of the factory.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

Wonka smiled at me, but said nothing. "Stay outside."

He went over to one of the sheds and unlocked it.

"Why?" I asked. He rolled up the door and sauntered over to one of the shelves.

"Alarms. Anyone who isn't me that goes will be uh…" He picked up a gun. "Gotta be careful."

I waited while he armed himself, tucking away knives into his pockets, guns into his holster and other things that I couldn't identify.

"Ember, what weapon would you like? AK-47, pistol, assault rifle or revolver?"

"Um." The AK-47 and assault rifle sounded a bit too much for me. "Pistol or revolver. Which is better?"

"Well… I tend to prefer revolvers. But we'll need more than 6 rounds and magazines may be easier to reload. Do you know how to shoot?"

"I've shot before, I'm not skilled though." I answered.

"Well, you're gonna have to be. They're armed, yes?" He was tucking away more things, putting some into a bag and others into a holster on some sort of modified motorbike. It was a deep purple, almost black with silver adornments. There were two seats on it, with slots to store weapons. At the front were the bars, along with an assortment of buttons and levers. It looked pretty mean, honestly.

"Heavily. They have people patrolling the barricades with guns, and I think they all have their own weapons on them. I know the guys that took the group had guns on them. Not sure how many of them were inside, I couldn't see well.

He walked further down into the shed, and I couldn't see him well.

"Ah! Here we go." I heard him exclaim. He came back with two bags of… candy?

"Want one?" He asked.

"Sure." I said.

Suddenly, he laughed. "I'm just playin'. Don't eat this."

"Why?"

His eyes were brighter now, mischievous. "You'll see." He put them into a slot on the side of the motorbike.

"Ready?" He asked, getting on top and starting it up. It revved loudly and he drove forward a bit, out of the shed. I nodded. He looked pretty badass, with two guns slung over each shoulder and knives peaking out of his coat.

"Be a dear and close the shed for me, will ya?"

I pulled it down and it clicked shut. I hopped on the bike behind him and gripped him tightly.

He pressed a button and the gate opened, and then we took off.