#chaosinfiniti: bastian rivas

[asterigos]

Characters: Esperanza / Bastian Status: Closed → ( @chaosinfiniti )

"Bas, it's fine, really," Ranza assured him, her lips pressing into a thin smile. Of course she'd be caught trying to sneak out, and of course it'd be him.

The crease in her brow said otherwise. She'd been wound up like a coil, tight and ready to spring apart. False words that spilled from her mouth like bile that she had to smile through was an accurate summary of her month. Esperanza was a councilperson and that meant trudging into war with her shoulders back and a polite, but sharp grin while armed with only her wit and diction from which she had to be able to analyze the possible outcomes from in a matter of milliseconds. That was the meaning of politics: battles conducted by words, but every politician was their own commander and army. Their strength relied on how many people they had to back them up when it counted most.

And it counted most always. Now, especially, with resources running low, patience even lower, and tempers like crazed horses chomping at their bits and ready to barrel out of their gates constructed of fragile self-restraint. The scavenger teams and hunters were pushed to go farther from the settlement to scrounge what they could manage to carry back, and oftentimes it wasn't much. Oftentimes it wasn't enough.

Esperanza felt the guilt sink its teeth in her as she tried to brush Bas off. He was the one person she had there to call a friend these days, and her friend he had been for longer than anyone else had through the best and worst of it all.

"Please, just stay here. I'll be okay." She wasn't a scout, she wasn't a hunter, hell she was barely much of a fighter. The last time was when she was a young woman fleeing bandits. But she'd be damned if she brought Bas along on a risky excursion that may have ended up being a waste of time. "Amigo." She placed a hand on his shoulder. There was a slight tremor to it. "I won't go far. I just have to find something to placate the people a little bit. What if you got hurt? I would never forgive myself."

[asterigos]

Esperanza kept one ear angled towards the door, waiting to hear the first sign of danger. Although from what she could tell there was no other exit from the back rooms that was still easily accessible. One door was blocked off by an overturned bookcase and a desk pushed in front of it. She briefly wondered if whomever had barricaded themselves in managed to escape or not.

Rifling through the file cabinet and desk drawers she found mostly crumpled, used pieces of paper, but she did swipe some pencils, half-used pens, a pad that still had some sheets of paper left, and even found a candy bar in the very back of a deep drawer. There was a half-eaten bag of potato chips, but she wasn't going to risk them not being contaminated with something let alone how stale they'd be by now. All these things were shoved into a backpack she'd brought along that had seen better days, but it was sturdy enough. She silently lamented over the fact she was unable to bring back the furnishings as they could've either been used as they were or broken down to use as scrap.

Taking a step towards the door she'd come through Esperanza paused when she heard the sound of glass grinding beneath what she presumed was someone's foot. Her first instinct was to call out to her friend, but she snapped her jaw shut before any sound could escape her and crouched down low. Inching her way to the doorway she peered around.

It was a single person, but she knew better than to be fooled by the sight of a lone figure. Where there was one there were usually more nearby. She watched them make a slow sweep of the store floor unaware they had company. They didn't appear to be listening to the call of any companions or waiting on anyone, but they did seem like they might've been in a rush. They only made closer inspections under some of the riveters and not bother picking through much. Esperanza searched for Bas, finding him tucked between two aisles. At least he hadn't been spotted either.

As her brain raced with worst-case scenarios and her options for dealing with this stranger, luck was on her side when they let out a curse and stomped out deciding they didn't find anything of interest. She hurried over to Bas' side.

"Maybe that's our cue to go, but there was so much more to check out. I don't hear anyone else so perhaps they were alone. We could take a risk and keep looking," she whispered, already wanting to do just that, but if Bas wanted to leave she would too.

It took far too long for his heart rate to settle, especially as Ranza’s careful eye continued to look him over as if there might be something he hadn’t noticed awry. Had he let them get too close? Had he gotten scratched without knowing it - or worse? No, no, surely he would know. He released a slow breath as her hand came to pat against his chest, the corner of his lips twitching with just a hint of a reassuring smile for her. It seemed that was often what he was reduced to these days; reassuring others, trying to make it better for others even while he struggled to keep his composure.

He’d already lost so much in this world. He wasn’t so sure he could stand to lose anything else.

So if it meant leaving the community they’d found themselves living within in order to stay with Esperanza - even if it meant going back out into…this. “So then…we’ll take that if and when it comes.”

He hesitates as they approach the buildings, his eyes shifting across the scene in search of any unexpected movement. The undead were enough of a problem to face, but they weren’t their only concern. In fact, after all these years… the dead might be rather low on the list of problems.

“Yeah, maybe so. But remember the candy bars? They were like, 25 cents each back in the day. Besides, the changing stock lets you try new things. I could…perhaps see why you wouldn’t appreciate that as a child.” He follows her footsteps, ducking through the opening torn through the wall from years of looting and destruction. There were hints of what the place once looked like; advertisements faded and crumbling from the walls, shelves in disarray, product scattered across the floor.

“Ten cuidado,” he says in an undertone, fearing what might be lurking behind hidden corners as she wanders towards the back rooms and offices of the former corner store. There had been times he’d been on the opposite side of these types of things, squatting among the shelving and falling silent, looking to catch them unawares. If he were lucky he’d be able to sneak away without causing a scene. But there were plenty of times things hadn’t turned out so well. He was the one still standing, after all.

His fingers curl more firmly around the gun in his hands, double checking that the weapon is ready to be used should it be needed. It’s clear that they’re not the first to come through here in search of supplies; the shelves are practically cleared of anything remotely useful. Emptied packaging, broken bottles, and scattered debris. Bastian moves along the aisles slowly, picking through the shelves as if something they were in dire need of might suddenly appear beneath the rubble.

A crunch of broken glass draws his attention, gun lifted at the ready as he spun in the direction of the noise.

[asterigos]

Despite his insistence that he was fine she still lingered as she was, hands on his shoulders, as she scanned him once more from top to bottom just to be sure. She was a worrier by nature, but more so when it came to Bastian. He was all Esperanza had now, and while she could endure loss she was not willing to endure his absence. She feared who she might become then. It had been a grim thought that drifted in and our of her mind like a dark tide beckoning to her to take a dip in the murky depths to discover who she could be and leave the safety of the shore where she knew who she was now. Esperanza already had a vague idea of the kind of person she could morph into and she felt both a fear and loathing at any fleeting thought of that, like now. But she masked her frown as concern and gave him a pat before letting him go like some kind of security guard.

They waded through silence, thick and crushing, while Esperanza slipped back into her own head for several long minutes. Her feet guided her towards the dilapidated buildings and cracked streets where weeds pushed upwards to free themselves from their concrete chokehold.

“I think,” she finally spoke up in a hushed voice. Esperanza pushed some loose locks out of her face where it had stuck to the drying beads of sweat that had formed during the small fight more out of anxiety than overexertion. “It’s a very real possibility that we will have to consider.” It wasn’t a definite yes or no, although it leaned more heavily on the affirmative. The curse of speaking to a politician. They always knew how to say a lot of nothing in as many words as possible while making it sound like they spoke anything of substance. Never committing to a yes or a no, it was always hard maybes that suggested one or the other but left room to backtrack. It was a habit she’d picked up over the years and one that annoyed even herself on many occasions when speaking to the other councilors.

She was grateful for the change in scenery as the grass gave way to rough pavement and sturdy trees turned into skeletons of concrete and brick buildings.

“Oh, I remember those stores.” She pointed over to what was once a chain convenience store. “I hated them as a child because you never knew if they’d have the same snacks you liked the week before. They were always changing their stock on you.” There were the remains of a few residential buildings scattered about as well, which always felt a little eerie to venture into and rifle through what were once someone’s personal belongings, or what remained of them, but also a fascinating adventure in their own ways.

“I wonder if anyone else is here, but I hope not.” Esperanza remained vigilant as she crossed the open road and ducked into the store. There wasn’t much there but perhaps something had rolled under the riveters or there was a lockbox or anything that had been overlooked. “I’ll check the back rooms, call me if you need me.”

There were so many pluses to being a part of a community. It meant safety in numbers, security at their borders, a room, a bed, a home…But alongside all of those pluses were negatives, too. Pooling resources, relying on the others in the community, shouldering the burdens all in one. Survival was tricky business. There really was no good way to slice it. That lesson was learned very early on in the outbreak of this horrific disease.

He looks sideways at her, chewing on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. "So you think we should leave?” His voice is low, careful. It’s a sensitive topic to be discussing, even between just the two of them. Deserting - it wouldn’t be taken very lightly, they wouldn’t be welcomed back. At least, he doubted he would be. Esperanza - she was valuable to the community, a figure in their council, a decision maker. Bastian was just a member of the society, one who tried to help make ends meet as best he could.

Could they do that? Restart? Go back into the world where every passing minute was spent questioning whether they’d turn a corner and run into the dead - or the living. Both were threats, especially when you couldn’t truly trust anyone…or at least, most anyone. Ranza he’d follow anywhere. If he couldn’t trust her then he certainly couldn’t trust anyone…

The conversation stalls, if only temporarily, as they reach the edge of a clearing. Bastian’s finger lifts to his lips as if to be reassured about the both of them keeping silent, not attracting any unwanted attention. They’d both been through this enough times to know that the gesture was hardly necessary, and yet…

They dropped the undead with something of practiced ease, though it didn’t stop his heart rate from elevating, a wash of adrenaline racing through his veins with fear. No matter how often he faced them it still didn’t get any easier - at least not mentally.

He pulled the blade from the temple of the creature (not a person, not a human, because if he started to think along those lines he’d spiral again and again down a rabbit hole he’d visited far too many times –) pulling the body away from where it had been coming for Esperanza and dropping it unceremoniously to the ground at their feet. He swallows as she reaches for him, a flicker of a reassurance forming on his lips. “Yes, yes - I’m fine,” he tells her, touching her elbow and drawing his fingers down her forearm to clench her hand. “Please, mi amor, I’m fine. Lead the way.” He gestures towards the nearby buildings with a wave of his free hand.

[asterigos]

She sighed again and shook her head. "We don't have much choice anymore if we want to survive. I've seen others sneaking out as well to see what they could scavenge for themselves that they wouldn't have to put into the community's collection of resources.”

As they neared the edge of the clearing they could see the roaming zombies ambling about. When they weren't in pursuit of prey they seemed almost docile. It was eerie to think that perhaps someone out there in the world might have recognized any of the zombies shuffling around before them as a lost loved one. Esperanza closed her eyes and let out a slow exhale forcing herself to push such thoughts aside.

Scanning their surroundings she wanted to find some way around them where they wouldn't have to engage in any combat, but the herd was too spread out. There weren't many, a manageable number at least, but fighting them always unnerved her. Esperanza turned to her friend and gave a nod. She'd swiped a crossbow from the armory and the guilt that had gnawed at her as she'd done so receded as she reminded herself why she was going through the trouble in the first place. Esperanza preferred to follow the rules, she liked order, but she preferred fairness above that and right now she couldn't have both.

Esperanza was not much of a fighter. Even when she'd been younger and lived in a smaller colony the combat had been left to others -- she was just an aspiring medic -- but even she had had to learn the basics just in case, and as she got older she found herself in more situations where she was grateful she did. Hefting the crossbow up she took aim and the arrow gave a hushed whistle as it was loosed, a dull thunk as it hit its target.

Between the two of them they felled the zombies, with a little more struggle and effort from her own side than Bastian's, she was certain, as she'd needed his assistance on more than one occasion. The thought crossed her mind that she should squeeze in time to train more.

"Gracias." She nodded to him trying to hide the faint rosy blush of embarrassment from her own shortcomings. "Are you okay? Not hurt, are you?" Esperanza placed her hands on his shoulders and gave him a once over. It didn't matter how far they were into their small quest, if he had so much as a scratch she was going to turn them around immediately.

In many ways it was fortunate that he had stumbled upon Esperanza in the midst of her plan. If he hadn’t, what would’ve come of it? He had no doubt she would’ve followed through on her claims, gone out there beyond the walls and safety of the community, alone. What if she’d never come back? The guilt that would’ve been pressed upon his shoulders knowing that she’d been out there without him, that she’d risked her life for perhaps nothing at all…

No, they were a team. At this point everything they did they did together or not at all.

“Yes, ma'am,” he agreed to her demands, though adhering to them was debatable at best. Obviously he wasn’t going to turn around and head back if anything at all happened; that would essentially be turning around barely stepping beyond the border. But he knew what she meant - if they encountered trouble. If something happened to her…

He shook away the thoughts just as quickly as they’d come. He’d survived in this damn world for how many decades now, things weren’t about to change in that regard. They made a good team. They knew how to survive. Just because they’d been behind safer walls for a little while didn’t mean that changed, right?

Curling his fingers around the handle of his blade he followed in her footsteps, chewing on the inside of his cheek as she explained the situation they found themselves in. “Desperate enough…should we consider risking it out on our own again?” The thought alone sent a shiver up his spine; He didn’t miss the days of constantly being on their toes, no promise of food or shelter between morning and night. As much as communities were difficult in some aspects, at least there were luxuries that came along with them. Usually, anyway. A guise of safety, a bed to rest their weary heads, food to fill holes in their bellies.

Even though the words had died on her lips without being voiced he knew where she was going. They were on the same train of thought, as per usual.

The dead are one thing - he’s not particularly fond of them by any means - but people? They’re usually far more trouble. The dead are at least predictable at this point - drawn to noise, clumsy, easy to fend off in most scenarios. People, on the other hand? Bastian would always have a hard time predicting their next steps in almost any scenario. These days not many were as forgiving as he was.

“You, too,” was his simple response to her words, though as the trees began to clear Bastian’s footsteps slowed, boots picking out places on the forest floor a little more mindfully so as not to risk drawing unwanted attention. Leaning up against the truck of a nearby tree his eyes scan the horizon. The buildings mentioned are in view, as well as a handful of roamers spread far and wide in the cleared area. His head turns to find her, his voice spoken barely above a whisper. “Clear ‘em out quietly?”

[asterigos]

She knew this was going to be his response and she had tried to avoid it. The community, if it could even be called one at this point, was in shambles and she was on thin ice with several of the council members. Dragging someone else, especially Bastian, was a plan she’d been trying to steer clear of. Esperanza should’ve known better than to think he wouldn’t catch onto her.

Esperanza shook her head, sighing again. “Fine, you win, but if anything happens – anything at all – you come back here. Okay?” Her words fell in an exasperated breath, but there was a panicked pleading in her eyes as she spoke them offsetting the harshness of her tone.

“Come, but stay close. We’re looking for anything that can be of use, including scrap. Bas,” she lowered her voice as she led them out of a inconspicuous entranceway in the wall, “Things here are desperate. I haven’t seen them so bad before. We’ve already begun using the backup food stores and they’re running low. As long as no one gets any serious injury we should have enough medical supplies for a few more months. We’re down to the last few crates of basic first aid though. Aye, dios mío.”

There was a lull of silence as she pushed away some undergrowth to step through, the sound of leaves muffling their footsteps and twigs snapping beneath them both.

“Priority goes to the most favored of the community, not by who needs it the most. It’s all nepotism. Maybe we should…” She trailed off, mouth twisting into a frown at the mere thought. Bastian wasn’t made for fighting and she didn’t want him to be. She saw the way it changed hunters, usually for the worse. Esperanza desperately wanted to protect him from that, which meant they couldn’t be reckless and simply leave because things were getting hard. Right?

“The scouts reported zombies beyond those trees, but it’s the fastest way to where some abandoned buildings. Better than nothing for a place to start, but I’ve heard of other people riffling through there as well. Stay on your guard.”

"Ranza," Bastian spoke her name in an exasperated tone, dragging out the vowel at the end. "You are not going out there alone." It was a death wish, at a minimum - for death wasn't the worst result in the world they lived in anymore.

While he didn't know all the details that were discussed in council meetings, nor the full story of how dire the situation of their community really was, he also wasn't blind. They needed to expand their searches to find more resources in order to keep going. It was either that or risk it out there indefinitely, in search of a new community with more resources, without walls keeping them safe.

But if Esperanza was going to take that on herself, he was going to be going along with her. There was no question about it in his mind. At least she wasn't going to be going out there alone.

He stopped as she put a hand to his shoulder, his jaw tensing at the words that spilled from her lips. No one who knew anything about him would consider him a fighter, that much was true. He certainly wasn't made to survive beyond the walls of a community, at least not for very long. But he was still here and he certainly wasn't about to let his only friend - his family - go without him.

"What if you get hurt?" He repeated her question back to her, his voice softening. "You can't go out there by yourself - there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise. If you're going, I'm going."