Now Two Instead Of Three

After travelling through some streets and rooftops, Nat, Dylan and Tess were now close to the Capitol Building, now reaching mid morning.

They jumped down onto a rooftop, seeing the golden tipped building clearly.

"It's right around this corner. C'mon." Tess said.

They walked down some stairs that led all the way down onto street level and Dylan turned to talk to Nat when he saw a body covered in blood in the corner.

"Uh, guys…." He said, pointing at the body.

Nat and Tess turned to it and were a bit surprised.

Nat walked up to it and found two bullets for her revolver, which she pocketed, before spotting a Firefly logo on his arm. She glanced down at a sheet of paper, which she picked up, which read:

ORDERS: Patrol the rendezvous area. Ensure no military presence before moving the boy to the next safehouse.

Make sure the boy is well fed and in good health. His safety is of the utmost importance.

"Could all the Fireflies in the Capitol Building be dead if this one's dead?" Dylan asked.

"They won't be." Tess instantly shot the idea down.

"How would you even know that?" Dylan questioned her as Nat dropped the note and stood up.

"I just do. Look, it's gonna be fine. It has to be." Tess replied.

This made Dylan and Nat glance at each other for a moment.

Tess has been acting out of character for a while since the museum. She's been antsy, getting snippy and urgent to get to the Capitol Building.

Nat then walked to see a fenced door that was locked and a construction frame on top, which they could use to get going, so she turned and saw a dumpster, which she walked up to and pushed over to the door.

Once in place, all three, one at a time, climbed up onto the construction frame and jumped down, entering the street.

They were now right by the Capitol Building, but the street had sunk and was now overflowing with water.

"Uh, do we have to swim, because I can barely do so." Dylan said as they neared the water.

"It looks like it's shallow on the right side. Follow us." Tess told him.

And so, all three went on the right side of the street and trudged their way through the water, which reached their waists, as Dylan was pretty tall for his age.

"I honestly wished you guys kept escorting me." He admitted.

"What do you mean?" Tess asked.

"Well, I don't feel comfortable around and trust the Fireflies and Marlene. And I actually trusted you both." Dylan explained.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Tess said to comfort him as they neared the steps to the Capitol Building.

Eventually, they reached them and got out of the water.

Only hearing silence, they all cautiously made their way to the front door.

But then Nat opened the door and they entered, finding only dead bodies of the Fireflies they were supposed to meet.

"Jesus." Nat muttered in shock.

"No." Tess said with horror before she approached one of the bodies and started searching it. "No, no, no!"

"Now what?" Dylan asked Nat as she closed the door, now feeling unsure of what will happen.

Nat didn't reply as she walked right up to Tess, who kept searching desperately.

"What the hell are you doing, Tess?" She asked her.

"Oh, God." Tess muttered to herself before replying to Nat. "Maybe they, uh, maybe they had a map or something to tell us where they were going."

"How far are we gonna take this?" Nat questioned.

"As far as it needs to go!" Tess replied frantically before she stopped and looked up at Dylan. "Where was this lab of theirs?"

"Marlene only ever said it was somewhere out west." Dylan replied.

"Tess, what are we even doing? This isn't us." Nat reminded Tess.

"What do you know about us?" Tess questioned as she stood and faced her. "About me?"

"That you're smarter than this." Nat said.

"Really? Guess what, we're shitty people. Nat. It's been that way for a long time." Tess replied.

"No, we're survivors." Nat corrected her, starting to get heated.

"This is our chance -"

"NO, TESS!" Nat yelled at the top of her lungs, even shocking Dylan with her display of anger. "We've tried, it's now over! Now we just go home!"

"I'm not - I'm not going anywhere." Tess replied, making Nat sigh in frustration and turn away from her. "This is my last stop."

"Excuse me?" Nat questioned.

"Our luck had to run out sooner or later." Tess reminded her as she took a few steps to her left.

"What are you -" Nat said, reaching for her.

"NO, DON'T -" Tess cut her off, flinching from her hand and stepping back. "Don't touch me."

Dylan frowned until his eyes widened with shock and realisation.

"Shit." He muttered, drawing Nat's attention as he stared at Tess. "She's infected."

Nat's eyes widened as well, beyond shocked to hear this, as she turned back to Tess, who didn't even bother trying to correct Dylan.

"Nat…." She said as Nat stepped back.

"Show it." Nat demanded calmly.

"I didn't mean for this -"

"Show. It." Nat coolly demanded, cutting Tess off.

Tess moved her shirt to reveal a bite mark on her right collar bone.

"Jesus." Nat gasped before she turned away, not wanting to look at it.

"Oops, right?" Tess said with dark irony. She then turned to Dylan and approached him. "Give me your arm."

She grabbed his right arm and pulled his sleeve up to show his bite mark.

"This was three weeks!" She told Nat, walking up to her, pulling Dylan. "I was bitten an hour ago and it's already worse. This is fucking real, Nat!" She then let him go and stood in front of Nat. "You got to get this kid to Syd's. She used to run with this crew, she'll know where to go."

"No way, that was your little crusade, not mine!" Nat shook her head, not wanting to do this, while Dylan pulled his sleeve back down.

"Yes, it is!" Tess argued. "Look, there's enough here that you have to feel some sort of obligation to me. So you get him to Syd's."

Before anyone could say anything else, they heard a vehicle approaching from outside.

"Oh, crap." Nat muttered.

Tess approached a window, seeing a truck of FEDRA soldiers parking outside.

"Watch the exit!" One of the soldiers barked as they got off the truck, armed with guns and starting to approach the building.

Tess pulled out her pistol and turned back to Nat and Dylan.

"They're here." She said, walking up to them. "I can buy you some time, but you have to run."

"So you expect us to just leave you to get killed?" Dylan questioned her sanity.

"Yes." Tess replied.

"I can't just -"

"I will not turn into one of those things!" Tess cut Nat off, walking right up to her. "Come on. Make this easy for me."

Nat was silent for a moment, staring at Tess with a hardened look, clearly in conflict about what to do, before she came to a decision.

"Dylan, move." She ordered.

"I'm so sorry." Dylan apologised to Tess before he turned and ran.

Nat soon followed after him.

Now all alone in the large circular chamber, Tess took a deep breath, steeling herself for her approaching death, before turning to the door with her pistol ready as she heard the soldiers approaching.

"We know you're in there!" One of them yelled. "Drop your weapons and come out with your hands up!"

Nat closed the door behind her, closing her eyes for a moment to collect herself, before she turned, seeing that she and Dylan were now in a chamber with stairs leading up.

"Now what?" Dylan asked, trying to keep his voice steady, considering they just left Tess behind.

"Stay close and move." Nat coolly replied before heading for the stairs on their left.

As they ran up, they heard the soldiers enter the building, yell, and then heard gunshots before Tess screamed.

As they reached the top, they approached the balcony that overlooked the chamber they just left, where they crouched to avoid being seen.

They looked down and saw Tess' dead body, as well as two FEDRA soldiers she shot down.

"Oh, God." Dylan muttered in horror.

They crept towards an open doorway on their right as the soldiers moved further into the building to find them.

They entered a courtroom, with part of the wall in the far left corner broken apart, where they also saw the wall for another room broken apart as well.

So they charged at it and jumped across from one room to the other.

Upon approaching two doorways that led into a large corridor, they found a dead body in between them with a bolt action hunting rifle.

Nat picked up the rifle and pulled the bolt back, releasing a used shell casing. She then searched the corpse, finding five more bullets for the rifle, which she loaded, as it had a magazine that fits five bullets. She then put on her back, strapping it around her left shoulder.

Upon entering the corridor, the pair had to duck low and hide behind some cover, as FEDRA soldiers came in from the other end of the corridor.

"What do we do?" Dylan asked Nat.

"Stay close and keep low." Nat whispered.

She moved out from behind cover with Dylan following right behind her, moving through two rooms on the left, hiding behind a couch for a moment before moving ahead through the room they were currently in, narrowly avoiding being seen by a couple of soldiers as they hid behind another couch.

Dylan nudged Nat and pointed to her left, right at a doorway, which they heard footsteps coming from.

With this, Nat crept up to the doorway and upon getting a glimpse of a soldier, she grabbed them and choked them out, placing their body behind the couch they were hiding behind.

She and Dylan then entered the other room, which was an office space.

They crept out from there, reaching the other end of the large corridor, approaching a doorway that led towards some stairs, which upon reaching, quietly ran down and then jumped down when the last set of stairs were found to have fallen apart.

"There's so many of 'em. How are we gonna get out of here?" Dylan whispered as they moved into a large rectangular chamber, hiding behind a display case when seeing more soldiers coming in through a hall and the door that led outside.

"Sneak around 'em. And if they spot us, shoot and take 'em out before getting out." Nat replied matter of factly.

She then led Dylan towards a door to their left and crept down a small corridor and got out further down the hall, hiding behind a display case covered in a tarp.

There, they kept silent as they listened to most of the soldiers moving past them.

Once they were distant enough, Nat and Dylan kept going further towards the end of the hall, where some more soldiers were searching.

With careful timing, waiting for them to not look their way, the pair crept through the cover that was scattered all over and eventually made it outside.

They continued down the stairs silently, but once they reached the bottom, they instantly ran towards the entrance to the subway.

They raced down it until the stairs stopped and broke apart, making them jump down.

"Do you hear that?" Dylan suddenly asked before they continued on.

They heard a vehicle from above, making them turn to see the truck from before parking right outside the subway entrance.

"Move!" Nat yelled and they both sprinted further into the subway, avoiding some gunshots from the soldiers.

They ran through a winding path through the ticket gates and down a corridor.

"Spores!" Dylan called out to Nat, as he was ahead of her.

She instantly put on her gas mask and tightened it just before she reached the spores.

When entering the station itself, Dylan grabbed her from her left and pulled her behind some seats next to a fallen stall in time as they heard a soldier ahead of them.

Nat then glanced over at Dylan, seeing he wasn't wearing a gas mask.

"How the hell do you breathe in this stuff?" She asked him quietly.

"I wasn't lying to you." Dylan whispered back,

They went silent again just as another soldier ran in, coming from where they ran in.

"Did you spot 'em?" The soldier asked the one already in the station.

"No. Place is empty." The other soldier replied as they joined up. "I didn't see anythin'."

Nat grabbed the molotov she got earlier, managed to light it and then threw it at the two soldiers, engulfing them in fire, which had them screaming in agony and flailing around until they dropped dead from the pain and burns.

"Shit." Dylan muttered in shock.

"C'mon." Nat told him and jumped down onto the railway itself, making their way down the tunnel until they reached a section that was flooded.

"Great. I can barely swim and we have to make our way through all of that." Dylan said in annoyance, pointing out all of the subway cars and rubble ahead of them.

"Don't worry. There's a pathway and railing to the left. We can use that." Nat pointed out, pointing at said pathway and railing.

"Oh, okay." Dylan said.

They made their way over to it and moved onward, ducking under some water when some rubble hung right over.

Eventually, they reached some steps that led onto a platform that rose above the water.

On the other side was a platform that could lead them to a way out. And there was a ladder there, as well.

"Looks like you're gonna have to swim." Nat told Dylan, who sighed in defeat. "Don't worry, I'll be right by your side to help you."

"Alright." Dylan nodded, grateful for that fact.

And so, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, Dylan gently lowered himself into the water, followed by Nat, and she grabbed onto his shoulders before they swam across.

Nat understood why Dylan was hesitant about swimming, as he flailed like a cat that suddenly got dropped into water and wanted to get out instantly.

Thankfully, the swim wasn't that long, as they reached the platform within seconds.

"Okay, put your foot on my hands and I'll lift you up." Nat then told Dylan as she put her hands together.

Dylan put his right foot on her hands and she instantly lifted him up. Dylan grabbed hold of the edge and with Nat's help, he pulled himself up onto the platform.

After getting to his feet, Dylan lowered the ladder into the water, and Nat climbed up onto the platform.

"Let's get out of here." She said and they instantly made their way forward.

They left the platform and made a left turn, seeing stairs that led up, which they ran up, heading for an exit that led outside.

Upon reaching the top, they climbed out and entered a random street that was covered in grass.

Nat took off her gas mask, attached it to her hip and sat down on a tire, while Dylan stood some distance away from her.

He noticed the look on her face and guessed what she was thinking.

"You're blaming me, aren't you?" He asked.

"What?" Nat asked in confusion.

"You're blaming me for what happened to Tess." Dylan elaborated.

"Who said I was -"

"Don't bullshit me, Nat." Dylan cut her off with a glare. "I didn't ask to be immune and to be taken west to have a cure be made. And I know you didn't ask to do this job. You wanted to get your guns back and had no choice but to do this. If anything, you should blame Marlene for all this, I know I am."

The two stared at each other for several seconds in silence.

"Alright. And you're right, Marlene is to blame for what happened to Tess." Nat agreed with him. She took a moment to collect herself before she continued talking. "Since I'm taking you to Syd, there's a few ground rules we need to establish."

"Okay. And what are they?" Dylan asked.

"Firstly, don't tell anyone about your… condition. The moment they see that bite mark on your arm, they won't hesitate to shoot you in the face." Nat replied.

"No problem." Dylan instantly agreed. He's aware that people would do that.

"Secondly, we should keep our histories to ourselves, at least for now." Nat then said.

"Alright." Dylan nodded, knowing that this is just a job for her.

"And thirdly, as you've done before, you do what I say when I say it." She then finished off. "We clear on that?"

"Crystal." Dylan replied, she's the professional, she knows what she's doing, so he'll listen to her.

"Alright, then." Nat said, standing up. "There's this town called Lincoln, it's a few miles north of here. A couple of guys I trade with can help us on our way to find my sister, like lending us a vehicle."

"Okay." Dylan said.

"Then let's get a move on." Nat replied.

And so, they headed off.

Short, I know, but I realised that this chapter should end when Nat and Dylan establish themselves as a duo before they go off.

Btw, expect some stuff from the HBO show to incorporated into the next chapter, if you've seen the show, you'll have a good idea what that stuff is.