Road To Recovery?
“Hi.” He wakes up. They lay on a tangled heap in the snow, Marie half under his body, smile on her face.
“Hi, kid,” he croaks and clears his throat. He tries to sit up, he knows he must be crushing her with his weight, but she doesn’t let him.
“Don’t. I missed you.” He sighs and lets his head fall back to her stomach.
“I missed you.”
“Are we alright now?” She asks.
“Better than alright,” he whispers and snuggles even closer to her. His presence in her mind is rapidly fading, but it confirms his words. Tiny image of him, hauling branches and little sturdier pieces of wood to make a nest, pausing only long enough to give her thumbs up.
“Hungry?” He asks when her stomach growls.
They fall in to easy camaraderie on their way back to his campsite. Skinned rabbit has frozen solid, but he lops it to smaller pieces while she makes a fire with the matchsticks they took from the dead men.
“As good idea it was, to stay clear from settlements, I think it’s time to head back to civilization. Or what is left of it. We are not exactly equipped for life in outdoors,” he says, mouth watering for the delicious aroma of cooking meat.
“Is it safe?” She asks. He shakes his head.
“No. But we don’t have a choice. It’s a miracle you have survived on your own this long,” he says, poking the fire.
“I haven’t been alone.”
“Yes, you have. I wasn’t quite here. But now things are different. I look after you,” he renews the promise he made all those years ago. Stab of guilt pierces him when relief floods her face. Should have been doing that all the time.
After a few days they stagger to a small town. Place looks deathly silent. Pun intended. Few cars scattered on the streets, drivers slumped on top of the steering wheel. Instead of pure chaos he expected, townsfolk seem to have passed away relatively peaceful. No broken windows, no fires or ransacked shops. Just quiet and empty main street.
“But stay close. Just in case,” he says and wraps his hand around her shoulders. He doesn’t really need to tell it to her. She has been practically glued to his side for the past few days.
“Lets see… We need to find some place that sells camping equipment, first,” he mutters, scanning their surroundings.
After an hour they have suitable clothes, sturdy shoes, brand new tent and all the other items one could need for a long trek in the wild. Now all they need is food.
“And lots of it. From the looks of it Legacy harvested animals too. Not much of them left to hunt,” he says. They have taken several pouches of dried rations from the camping store, but they will need more. He has a pretty good idea that this winter will be rough and long.
“Funny. And weird. Before this I couldn’t have done that,” she suddenly snorts when they enter to a market. He quirks a questioning eyebrow, taking a tentative sniff. Rotting food, rotting corpses, but nothing alive. Good.
“If you left something unguarded to a public place, it was most likely broken or stolen after a few minutes.” Oh, she meant their sledge. Well that was in the past. This is now. A world where you can leave a sledge filled with expensive equipment and other goods outside with no need to worry over it.
“Yeah. Look, there are some corpses in here. Do you want to wait here while I go see if there’s anything we need?” He asks, not really wanting to part her company for even a few minutes it would take.
“No. I’ll come with you.”
There really are few corpses. And first signs of a struggle and violence. These people didn’t die peacefully to the Legacy. They are literally shredded to pieces. Cartons of milk, broken boxes of eggs and few packets of now spoiled meat lay amidst the fallen bodies. They had been fighting over food. Winner didn’t stick long enough to collect his prize, or he lay now among other participants. Shelves in the market are nearly empty, but they hit a jackpot when he picks the lock to the storage room. Row after row tinned food. Meat, vegetables, fruits, even milk.
“We need another sledge.”
That night they camp just outside of the town. First decent meal in ages, full stomach and warm place to sleep. They are in heaven.
“How do you feel?” Logan asks. He lies on his back in the tent, Marie curled to his side, her head propped on his chest. They share a king-sized sleeping bag.
“Good. Tired,” she sighs, fingers rubbing his chest absentmindedly. He would like to take off their clothes, and rub her scent to every inch of his skin, but that can wait. He knows she would understand that urge, might even take it as a compliment for what it is meant to be, but it’s better to wait. He has waited from the moment he pulled her out of his trailer all those years ago. He can afford to wait some more. There are still things they need to discuss.
“Umm… Where are we going?” She asks when they are packing up their camp. He frowns.
“I haven’t really thought about it. What would you like to do?” He asks. He really doesn’t have a slightest idea, although he has been thinking to go and check up the cabin he was going to move in with Aislin. It would be a good place to live. And not too far. They have been wandering aimlessly, but out of pure luck to right direction. Two, three days more and they’ll get there.
“I have been thinking… I would like to go back to Xavier’s,” she says, and surprised gasp escapes from him.
“Why?”
“To say good bye. I wasn’t exactly in the land of the living when they took me from there. I would like to say good bye to everyone.” He nods. He can understand her need for closure. He had his when he found her again. It’s only fair that she can put her past rest, too.
“Maybe in summer we could go. I had a cabin here, close by. I thought we could check it out, and if it’s still standing, we could hole up in there over the winter,” he starts carefully. He really doesn’t want to return to the place where she died, where he died along her, but he will do it.
“We could both use some time off. Just lay low and enjoy life,” she admits, but he can hear slight disappointment in her voice. He knows he’s probably going to regret this at some point, when he hears his own voice continuing.
“… Of course we could go now.”
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