Chapter 7: Grief

The news went on and on all night about the attack on Keller's office, and the manhunts of the green Octolings, the Executioner, and Agents 3 and 8. The constant whir of KRAKEN's helicopter blades could be heard in the air at any given location in the city, and several parts of the city remained on intense lockdown.

Pacing back and forth through her apartment living room, Rosalyn listened to all of the incoming news on the live channel that was playing on her television. The lights were off, leaving the television's glow to light up the room in a light-blue hue all by itself.

Struggling to even take proper deep breaths, Rosalyn checked her phone frequently for any calls and texts, but her own fiancé still had no response to her many attempts to reach out to him; At this point, she had given up entirely on even trying, and opted to wait for any good news… or more bad.

It was almost midnight when the front door finally opened, and Rosalyn immediately pivoted to look over as Johnson stepped into the doorway.

Johnson didn't even have a chance to push the door shut before Rosalyn ran up to him. "Grant!" She pulled him into a hug.

Johnson just put one arm around her, as the door remained wide open behind him.

"You had me so WORRIED!" Rosalyn suddenly leaned back and weakly shoved her fists into Johnson's chest. "Another terrorist attack is going on out there and you can't call, or text, or anything!? What is wrong with you!? You- You- You had me thinking you could've been out there in that office building on the ground with your guts hanging out!"

"I'm fine." Johnson replied, although the tone in his voice told the opposite.

Rosalyn shook her head, fighting back tears. "God fucking damn you." She pulled him inside and slammed the door shut.

After breaking off from her, Johnson slowly took off his belt as he took slow, agitated steps toward the couch. Seeing the news on the TV, he picked the remote up off the coffee table, slammed his finger on the power button, and threw the remote onto the couch. He plopped onto the cushions with a sigh as he leaned forward and rubbed his forehead.

With the apartment left dark, Rosalyn went over to the lamp and switched it on. "I've been calling and texting you for hours, just asking for one simple response that you're still alive out there. And you can't even give me that? You didn't find one second to send me one text, saying: I'm ok. I'm ok." She turned to face him, now choking back her tears. "You can't just do that to me."

"I-… I'm sorry… I just…" He trailed off, staring ahead at nothing.

"What's wrong?" Rosalyn asked nervously. As she looked him over, she finally realized that he seemed quite bare of his usual police gear that he typically came home with. "Where are your things?"

Johnson looked at her. Merely his eyes told her everything.

"Oh, my god…" She sat next to him, rubbing his left arm.

Johnson tenderly pulled her hand, and in response, she leaned in, wrapping her arms around him. She leaned her head on his shoulder, nuzzling him as she rubbed his neck and right shoulder at the same time. All the while, however, Johnson's blank gaze continued to stare outward, as his mind raced about what he was even gonna do next.

As the minutes went by, and it sunk in for both of them, Rosalyn faced his cheek, whispering. "You don't need that job… you never needed that job. We'll still get by."

Johnson didn't respond.

"Grant?" She pressed him. "Grant, say something."

Johnson's ears were ringing. Rosalyn's words were barely even getting through to him. The city was again in chaos. Jessica and Bridgett were on the run… that schizophrenic murderer Daniel was still out there as well… mysterious new green people were out there… and his own ability to help… had just been stripped from him, just like that.

With that thought, he slowly turned toward her, and looked her in the eye: The one solid thing he still had left. "Maybe now, I can just… try… focusing on you." He squeezed her. "On us."

Rosalyn stared back. Neither of their worried gazes had left them, and she could still see that conflict in Grant's eyes. Yet, she took the moment in all the same, and leaned forward to plant her lips against his. He softly returned it.

The Next Morning

In their damaged, now windowless car, Jessica and Bridgett had driven all through the night. Sunlight was beginning to pour through the sky by the time they decided to pull in somewhere and stop for an actual break, knowing they both needed rest.

They were now many miles somewhere northeast of Inkadia, in a much more barren, countryside region than what they were used to, where they pulled up to a small, rundown, roadside motel, and pulled to a stop in its parking lot. There weren't a whole lot of cars here, and the entire atmosphere was calm and quiet, even if somewhat dirty.

Bridgett shifted into park before she turned to Jessica, with her bruised, battered, somewhat ink-covered appearance, and the wound in her hip that she was still holding. "Do you think this is far enough?"

"Gonna have to be for now." Jessica grunted in pain as she undid her seatbelt. She briefly lifted up her Hero Jacket to check her bandage she had somewhat messily placed over her wound, which still had bleeding orange ink seeping through it.

Bridgett nodded and turned off the ignition.

Currently thinking about their situation and what all they had, Jessica felt around her pockets for whatever money she had. If they were indeed gonna be on the run from here on out, their credit cards were out of the question, and as she found, what little cash she had was drenched in her own ink. She felt just her latest panic attack come on as she dropped the bills with a huff. "God dammit."

"I'll check us in, babe, relax." Bridgett briefly reached to rub her hand before she opened her own door and stepped out.

Jessica waited there a couple minutes as Bridgett went up to the lobby, and eventually came back with a key. Jessica grunted in pain yet again as she shoved her own door open and stepped out with slow movements, slamming her door shut. She held her cut hip as she limped her way up to their motel room, where Bridgett unlocked the door and let them in.

It was an ugly green room with an old bed, outdated lamps, and peeling paint on the wall. It was almost a direct contrast to the much nicer orphanage that she was introduced to all those years ago…

Bridgett collected everything they had managed to escape with from her car trunk, including their Splatoon gear, her laptop, and most importantly in the moment, her first aid kid. She had thought ahead and managed to grab a lot of this stuff when she first heard about the attack on Keller's office, which wasn't the most she could have gotten, but enough to save their skins for now. Briefly glancing over all of the vehicles' smashed windows, she only bothered making sure the trunk was locked before she carried everything into the motel room and locked the door.

She held up the kit for Jessica to see, and in response, Jessica sat on the bed, hissing in pain as she reached to get her Hero Jacket off, then her bandage. For the sake of easing the pain on her bruises, she undid her bra as well, allowing Bridgett full access to her wounds.

The first wound Bridgett put her attention on was her knife wound, which she lightly pinched. It still wasn't too deep, but was nasty and gnarled all the same, and was absolutely drenched in her dried ink. "Jesus."

"Can you stitch it?" Jessica asked.

"I'll try." Bridgett got her kit open, pulling out the medicine, stitches, needle, and scissors. She took a couple moments to wipe and clean the wound before she carefully navigated the needle into the edge of her skin. Jessica softly hissed in pain as she felt her actions, but kept her noises to a minimum, not wanting to show her own vulnerability.

Noticing, Bridgett rolled her eyes. "You're allowed to grunt, Jessica."

Jessica didn't respond.

Upon finishing up and re-bandaging her wound, Bridgett then rubbed some medicinal cream on her other bruises and cuts, before allowing Jessica to slip on one of Bridgett's shirts as they relaxed.

As Bridgett went over to double-check everything they had, Jessica found the remote and switched on the CRT TV that was by the eastern wall, which she swiftly switched to the news.

Bridgett glanced over as they both heard the report of what was going on back in Inkopolis. The manhunt for both of them was very much still on, with the speculation already running rampant about their supposed role in the terrorist attack, and about how they may have already escaped Inkadia. KRAKEN was out there at that very moment, hunting them down diligently. Apparently, with intentions to put them down if need be. Furthermore, Jessica's hearts again leapt as they heard that Daniel had managed to slip away as well, and was actively being hunted alongside them. With the narrative KRAKEN had formed, Jessica, Bridgett, and even Daniel were all now partners in crime. Furthermore, the news didn't even bother sugar-coating the fact that KRAKEN indeed had intentions to put Daniel down once he was found.

Jessica abruptly turned the TV right back off, put the remote down, and stood up. "We've been here long enough, we need to go."

Bridgett put her things down as she turned her shoulder toward her. "Jess, we stopped here to rest. Come on, we both need it."

Jessica shook her head and limped toward the door. "Other people need me more."

Bridgett rushed over, got in front of her, and put her hand on her chest. "We'll help them. We'll do whatever we can. But we're not gonna be of much use if we turn into zombies along the way, ok? Give us a few hours, and we'll head back out. I promise."

Jessica hesitated as she stared her in the eye.

Bridgett gave her a reassuring, even if forced smile. "It'll give us plenty of time to cuddle in bed."

Jessica stared into her eyes for another moment before she slowly moved back to the bed, laying down. Bridgett joined her and pulled her close as they both leaned back against the pillows.

As she rubbed her arm, Bridgett looked around the room that was to be their temporary home. "So… this is gonna be the life of a fugitive, huh?"

The sad feeling that now lingered over Jessica again washed over her. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"This is another situation you didn't ask for that I dragged you into."

Bridgett stopped as she leaned her head up to meet her at eye-level. "You know I'm here voluntarily. We even agreed on the emergency text, remember?"

"I fell for their trap, I couldn't even protect Dana, I…" She trailed off, her bottom lip quivering. "This is only happening because of what I've done, who I… am… I've been dragging you into my shit since day one, and I dragged Dana into it… I… I…"

Bridgett closed her mouth as she stared her in the eye. "You were there for me every step of the way with what happened with Pearl and Marina. In a way, I dragged you into that whole situation, too. But you picked me back up onto my feet, and kept me going." She reached forward to cup her cheek. "Let me do the same for you."

Hearing her words, and feeling the comfort in her eyes, Jessica again allowed herself to break down. She broke down into an ugly sob, no less, as she let all of her feelings flood through. She leaned her head toward her.

Bridgett tenderly pulled her head into her chest, and rubbed her hair with soft thumb movements. Jessica wrapped her arms around her as she cried into her chest.

"You can still make Dana's legacy proud… I promise." Bridgett whispered into her ear.

As Jessica let all of her tears out, Bridgett squeezed her. They had both been here before, comforting each other in each other's arms to convince each other it would all be ok, just with the roles reversed now. It was familiar to them, like home… and with that comfort, they both fell into sleep's embrace.

Inkopolis

Tenta-General Hospital

The emergency room still hadn't calmed much from the previous day. Nurses were still rushing back and forth trying to treat these different patients, and were trying all sorts of different medicines to treat those infected by Zodiac. Nothing was working, and over the hours, several more of them had entered cardiac arrest and passed away. Truthfully, the nurses and doctors just didn't know what to do, except let it happen.

Senator Keller, still alive in his own bed behind a curtain, was shifting in his sleep, tilting his head from side-to-side as he unconsciously wrestled against his bonds. The nurses were giving him the most attention of all due to his important public figure, and he was under constant surveillance and care.

As it happened, one of these nurses was changing out his IV fluids when an Octoling doctor opened the curtains and came in. "Got orders to move him."

The nurse looked at her in confusion. "To where?"

"Wing D. It's quieter down there and there's better equipment."

She tilted her head, squinting her eyes. "Let… me talk to security-" Her eyes widened as a silent but piercing shot of high-pressure ink fired into her abdomen.

Again hiding the high-pressure Splattershot with a silencer muzzle within her coat, the 'doctor' stepped toward Keller's bed. The nurse choked as she sank to the ground, holding her wound as she bled all over the floor.

"There, there." The 'doctor' patted Keller's shoulder as she unplugged him from everything except for his IV, then pulled the lever on the bedside, converting the bed from its locked position to its wheeled portable form. With a second Octoling 'doctor' coming in to accompany her, they wheeled Keller's bed and the IV stand out from behind the curtain and then out of the emergency room entirely, taking him out into the hall.

"Hey." One security guard in the team that was guarding the emergency room entrances turned toward them as they passed him. "Where are you-"

A sanitized Octoling, with a knife in her right hand and a large grin on her face, leapt out from behind the guard and sunk her knife into his neck. He gagged as she was pulled out of view. Two other security guards, looking over in confusion, found themselves jumped as well before they were pulled away by two more green Octolings in the same exact manner.

As the 'doctors' nonchalantly wheeled Keller into a quieter hallway, they pushed him into an empty utility closet, and locked themselves inside.

Keller, in his sleep, remained completely unaware of all of this, until finally, both of his cheeks were smacked, one after the other. "Wakey, wakey~" He heard the same voice that had called him right before the attack on his office began.

As he eyes drifted open and he looked up, he was met with Ayesha's terrifying, smirking face, a mere inch from his own. In immediate panic, he started struggling to no avail. "Aaaagh! No! No! GET AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY FROM-"

"Ugh, you stupid Inkling man!" Ayesha got onto his bed, straddling his chest as she covered his mouth with her left hand and pulled out a knife with her right, holding it toward his cheek. "Can't help but be afraid of every stupid little thing around you, even if it's just someone who's trying to help. We even decided to take the friendly approach, we showed you Zodiac and its beautiful effects, just like you wanted, and we bought your ass more time before your boss decides to have you shanked just like they shanked Garrett. I even took out the Hodgson Syndicate for you, which is sure to ease up some tension in that gang war. I would be fucking thanking me if I were you."

Unable to do anything else, Keller desperately turned his head to the side, avoiding eye contact at all costs.

Ayesha then shrugged. "Oh, but I guess this does remind me of when my daddy used to come into my room every night when I was a kid, and my mommy was asleep… and allll the games he loved to play with me. While making me swear never to tell anyone~" She wagged her finger. "See, that's what this is, it's just all one big fucking game. Your daddy ever come into your room at night? Huh? Huh?" She clenched her robotic fingers around his cheeks as she aggressively pulled his face back toward her. "Hey. Look at me."

Keller kept tilting his head to either side.

"LOOK AT ME BEFORE I GUT YOU!" Ayesha's face briefly turned to pure rage as she clenched her knife.

Keller paused before he darted his eyes toward her.

"Yes, yes, yes…" Ayesha's playful attitude swiftly returned as she rubbed the knife against his cheek. "I'll give you credit, you played your role in my game well enough. I turned the Syndicate into pawns to lead the Splatoon to you, I used you as a trap to lure the Agents in, and now they are the most wanted Squids on planet Earth." She smiled widely. "But apparently… they're both still out there. That's no good. They should at least be in KRAKEN custody by now. Don't you agree?"

Keller mumbled something inaudible into her prosthetic hand; Sweat barreled down his face as he stared up at her in fear.

"So here's my deal." Ayesha continued. "You work for us now. Your boss doesn't own you anymore, I do. We stay in touch, you keep the KRAKEN manhunt alive and well, and you find Jessica and Daniel Murdock. You keep increasing the bounty on their heads until the job is done. That sexy Octo-chick? Dead. Daniel Murdock? Dead. Jessica Murdock? Deeeeeaad." She growled hungrily. "Under alll these conditions… we give you the anti-toxin to the Zodiac gas that is killing you as we speak… we give you protection from your boss and his threats… and you get to keep making chaos." She got in real close to his face, wriggling his tongue just by his eye.

Keller clenched his eyes shut in response.

"So what do you say?" Ayesha finished as one of the Octoling 'doctors' behind her pulled out a vial with an unfamiliar blue liquid inside. "We have a deal?"

Keller barely hesitated before he desperately nodded his head yes.

"Goooood." Ayesha patted his cheek. "Good boy. Very smart choice. We're gonna have a lot of fun together~" She smirked.

The 'doctor' unhooked Keller's IV from the IV bag on the stand, and instead injected this new blue liquid into it. Keller watched on as it swiftly flowed through the needle and into his veins. As the moments went by and it took effect, he could already feel Zodiac's horrifying symptoms start to fade; His adrenaline went down, and his eyesight started to clear. His eyes rolled upward in relief as he sighed loudly.

"Shh, shhh." Ayesha again patted his cheek. "The woozy feeling and the vomiting should clear up soon." She finally let go of him and got off of his bed. "Be seeing you~"

As they unlocked the utility closet and stepped back out, the 'doctors' pulled Keller back out, before they suddenly shoved the bed aside and walked away down the hall. Keller started groaning senselessly to himself as his bed aimlessly drifted toward and then bounced off of the wall.

Some security guards, hearing Keller's moans, rushed over in confusion as they looked over the situation. When they peeked into the utility closet, they found nobody inside.

The Roadside Motel

When Jessica's eyes fluttered open next, the soft tapping of a keyboard filled her ears, along with the quiet, barely audible voice of a weatherman on the TV. With a ripping headache still pulsating through her head, Jessica brushed her hair out of her face and sat up, looking around. Indeed, Bridgett was sitting with crisscrossed legs on the bed right next to her, where she tapped away on her personal laptop in her lap. The news was playing on the TV in the background, on low volume.

Jessica took a moment to clear her vision. "How long…?"

"You got three and a half hours." Bridgett glanced at her before she turned back to her laptop. "I got three."

She looked over at her, seeing that Bridgett was on an internet browser. She squinted. "We're on the run from pretty much everyone and you connected your own laptop to the internet?"

"It's got special VPN software, Marina programmed and installed it, like, a couple years ago. It's constantly changing my 'location' and my IP. It's basically untraceable, I promise."

Jessica sighed. She didn't really know what she was talking about, and didn't really care. She just rubbed her forehead as she sat there, letting her brain wake back up.

"I do have news." Bridgett continued. "Keller's awake."

Jessica glanced at her, waking up a bit more from that alone.

"The officials still don't know what infected him, but if it was Zodiac, well… I think someone cured him." Bridgett told her. "And just him. Everyone else infected in the office building are still showing symptoms and eventually passing away."

Jessica huffed a bit as she looked to the side. "Ayesha described this as a 'game'… I bet she's making a pawn out of him. And of us." She looked back at her. "What about Daniel?"

Bridgett looked back at her laptop, not responding.

Jessica sighed, then looked down as her stomach rumbled. It was loud enough that the sound reached Bridgett, who glanced over at her.

Jessica sighed. "What're we doing for food?"

"There's a convenience store just a block to the west." Bridgett replied.

As Jessica stood up, Bridgett pulled out some cash and handed it over. "Here."

Jessica pecked her forehead as she took it. "I'll bring you back a soft pretzel."

She smiled at her. "Appreciated, but we should probably be saving this money, babe."

She sighed as she turned to the door. "Fine."

After briefly making sure that she was at least somewhat presentable in the motel's dirty bathroom mirror (she really wasn't, but she shrugged that off and resorted to merely straightening her hair and shirt, and wiping some dried ink off of her face), she headed out and walked down the road to the nearby Splatco convenience store.

Aside from a Jellyfish cashier, there was barely anyone in here, either, which further added to just how isolated Jessica felt. That was a good thing in this case, right? Keeping her head low, she scanned the area for any potential secondary exits and suspicious figures before she went down the shelves, and looked around for any options that seemed cheap, healthy, and filling all at once.

Her attention was pulled as a ding dong sounded at the front door, and an Inkling walked in.

Jessica peeked over the shelf toward this man. He had dark skin, along with his blue buzz-cut hair, and was looking around the convenience store before he locked eyes with Jessica.

Jessica immediately darted her eyes away and took a couple steps down the aisle. She glanced over as the Inkling slowly walked down, where he briefly stopped, looked down the aisle toward her, and then continued on. Jessica squinted. With that brief encounter, she definitely saw the slight bulge in his jacket that was most certainly a weapon. Playing it cool, while frequently glancing in his direction, she too walked out of her current aisle and inched her way down the store.

What followed was a cat-and-mouse game as they both shot glances at each other, while playing it cool and pretending to be searching for food. That was just it, though, he was definitely only pretending to be shopping. Then, only adding tenfold to Jessica's suspicion, that man suddenly walked toward the back exit, opened the door, and walked out.

Jessica glanced over at the Jellyfish cashier, who was clearly half-asleep at the front desk and not paying attention. Stealthily whipping out her own Hero Shot from the back of her pants, she rushed over, opened the door, and swiftly aimed outside as she looked around. Yet, even as she checked around the corners… the man was already gone. Jessica lowered her gun partially as she stood here, squinting.

A slip of paper, flipping over on the ground in the light breeze, caught her attention. It was clearly freshly dropped, being not too dirty from the dirt it now rested in. With her gun still poised for attack, Jessica inched forward, and picked it up, unfolding it. It was… coordinates, and a crude, vague drawing of a piranha.

Jessica again looked around and aimed her weapon to see if the man was still watching him anywhere. Whoever this guy was… he might've just made her match. She nervously huffed out of her nose.

From there, Jessica quickly found her food, paid for it, and rushed back to the motel room with the slip in her pocket. She looked around the room, seeing that Bridgett was still in the exact position she had last seen her. She closed and locked the door. "I think we might've been made already."

Bridgett sat up and looked at her. "How so?"

Jessica carried her bag of groceries over and plopped it on the bed. "I don't know, there was just this guy, who definitely had his eye on me. Might've been following me."

She thought about that. "Maybe like the mystery guy who helped us on the road?"

Jessica just shook her head, pulling out the slip and handing it over. "He left this."

Bridgett took it and looked it over, before she immediately turned back to her laptop, pulled up an interactive global map, and typed in the same coordinates. It brought up a specific lot in: "Conch City." She announced.

"Where's that?"

"Half a thousand miles southeast, in Conch County." She then did a quick search for piranhas and their relationship to this specific location. It didn't bring up much, but it did bring up results of different piranha graffiti drawings; They all looked identical to each other, and looked similar to the drawing on the slip, that had appeared in recent years throughout Conch City. There were images, and even a couple online forums chatting and speculating about the mystery of it all. Then, after digging around some more, Bridgett found a website, that itself, only showed an image of that same general piranha design, and… a bare Zodiac wheel.

Bridgett squinted as she clicked Inspect to look through the source code. Running Marina's old code-breaker software through it, she was able to pull up a sling of different, sprawled words:

IF. YOU. ARE. LOST. SEEK. HIS. HELP. SEEK. THE. ZODIAC.

Bridgett rubbed her hands together as she looked up at Jessica. "This all looks very sketchy, Jess."

Jessica shrugged. "Still the kind of sketchy that's worth investigating."

She sighed and closed her laptop. "It's gonna be a long drive."

Jessica picked the bag of groceries back up. "Better get going, then."

Hey everyone. Just wanna once again humbly request feedback from whatever thoughts and feelings you have about the story so far, to help me know if I have the story on the right path. These stories are still worked on completely by myself so any feedback will help a lot. I'll have another AN with an announcement a couple chapters from now, but in the meantime, thank you so much for the comments and favs/kudos so far and as always, see you next chapter! *waves*