#eden sisters
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minjeungsno1fan · 3 months ago
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A while ago I did a set of MILGRAM x DRDT drawings, so I decided to post them here as well, since most of my art deals in screenshot redraws (like the TDLOSK au I did)
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pippindot · 5 months ago
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pip 🤝 sivi: saying “no thank you” to the babies 😂
so excited for you btw!
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kuya sivi teach pip: be strong for mother
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edensfixations · 5 months ago
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hehe imagine if Deku had a twin sibling who was a big Hawks fan (but is more low-key about it) and coincidentally had a recessive quirk that gave them 2 pairs of retractable wings
AHH i LOVE these platonic au's!
we're going bullet point form!
• izuku has a twin sister? 🤨 her name? isaki!!
• isaki, just like her brother, doesn't hold much height! she's around 5 feet tall, very defensive about it! she's got the same green curly hair but longer! she has freakles and glasses (courtesy of her reading late at night in the dark and unlucky genetics.)
• anyway, contrary to her brother, she has a quirk. she got it when she was five and absolutely went batshit crazy when feathers sprouted out of her back a random saturday morning. she ran straight to izuku and he was no help whatsoever. he screamed louder than her!
• over the years her quirk has grown and developed! for a bit she ended up randomly floating causing a massive panic to her mother and amusement from her brother. her wings had grown into large black wings that resembles a crows.
• she's gained many nicknames from people. from her mother, dove. from her brother, saki and raven! katsuki however calls her shadow for an array of unfortunate reasons but at least she doesn't get the same treatment as her brother!!
• when the midoriya twins turned 12 a new hero made his way onto the scene! an 18 year old with his own company??!?!? suddenly in the top 10 in only 6 months???? WHAT?!?
• hawks having an amazing reputation like this immediately after debuting had him have eyes on him constantly! and isaki wasn't any different!
• while her brother was OBSESSED with all might since they were kids, she had only idolised him a bit. he was 100% her biggest inspiration and thought only the most highly of him but she never wanted to be a hero until she saw hawks! I mean she practically bounced off the walls when she saw someone with a similar quirk!
• over the next 2 years she had slowly built a merch a collection, a pathetic one really because she mostly used her pocket money for food and books while her brother never really used his money for anything but all might!
•her merch collection includes a few posters, 3 hoodies, an action figure and a bobble head as well as some limited edition sneakers that she'll NEVER admit she qued overnight for.
• similar to her twin brother, she also keeps a little notebooks. she however keeps about 4? 2 for hawks and 2 for everyone else. after deciding she'd like to follow her quirkless brother and his deranged frenemy to ua, she starts assessing some of her favourite heroes, namely hawks and his techniques and how to utilise them.
• so from ages 13-15 you'll just see an isaki midoriya flying around in her backyard practicing moves she learnt from hawks via the internet.
• when izuku had started his 10 month intense training with a mystery man izuku hadn't told her about, she decided to start her own 10 month training. hers however contained a gym and her doing combat training with whoever was training there too and up for it! there she met tenya iida! story for another time.
• however, about 5 months into her training, she had particularly drained herself that day. because of this she was barely paying attention to her surroundings. it was quite a shock to her when she had been suddenly grabbed from the ground and sped off about a block away when where she once was!
• who was it? pro hero hawks of course! naturally, isaki was completely star struck. she could not BELIEVE who was standing in front of her right now!!! she was barely listening to him warning her to watch where she's walking so she doesn't get run over by a car (she walked into traffic, whoops!) she snapped out of trance when she heard him say, "nice wings, kid" before he was gone.
•isaki flew home and screamed into her pillow!!! she couldn't believe that happened! HE COMPLIMENTED HER WINGS!!!!!! she was so close to him! practically hugging him! (delusion)
• upon her screaming her mother and brother enter her room, curious, afraid and wanting answers.
• she looks up from her pillow, pink faced and hyperventilating, "HE SAID I HAVE NICE WINGS!!" her wings start fluttering creating a small breeze. it's a small habit she picked up from when she was little. her little family chuckled at her words. "Who??" "That guy from the gym??" "NO HAWKS. I CAN DIE HAPPY."
• isaki is now laying on the ground while her brothers jaw is slack and her mother leaves, giggling to herself.
• "YOU MET NUMBER 3 HERO HAWKS??!!" "YEAH WHEN I ACCIDENTALLY ALMOST WALKED INTO TRAFFIC!!!!" "WHAT?!"
• needless to say, she wore her hoodie and limited edition sneakers to bed that night.
(pls send requests I loved doing this so muchhhh!!)
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yes-asil · 3 months ago
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Been playing Sky for a little while and Avery, a friend I made in the game, helped me out so much.
Had to draw us in memory of unlocking Piggyback mode and flying endlessly through Valley for fun!
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localceilingdevil · 4 months ago
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i have like nothing to post. have tournament doodle
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prommytheus · 2 years ago
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alright name poll
rb after you vote or it'll just be me and my 12 mutuals plsss
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whoishotteranimepolls · 2 months ago
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"Who is Hotter?" Dressed to the Nuns
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lilium-dragomir · 1 year ago
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kazu-naito · 7 months ago
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worst fucking "friend" ever
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sansan9 · 5 months ago
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ask-the-sagents · 3 months ago
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First Previous Next
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gnnosis · 2 years ago
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on acceptance
[ people we meet on vacation, emily henry / ted lasso 3x10 / east of eden, john steinbeck / boy (2010) / “growing sideways,” noah kahan / the west wing 2x15 / greywaren, maggie stiefvater ]
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pippindot · 2 months ago
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Little n Big
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melien · 6 months ago
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🌈The Astra-Fletcher cousins🌈 Gwen❤️Lydia🧡 Irene💛Taylor💚 Eden💙Harper💜
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bluestar22x · 6 months ago
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Finding Eden: Chapter 2
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Summary: You and Zach make your trek towards Canada
Pairing: Zach Wellison x F!Reader
Rating: 18+
Warnings: Fowl language, mention of reader needing period products, mentions of violence/blood
Word Count: 5,700(ish)
Author's Note: I'm annoyed with myself that it took so long to get this chapter out but it's done, yay! This chapter is mostly set up for the future. Going to have a lot more action coming up real soon. I'm excited.
xxx
To say you were curious about Zach would've been an understatement. The truth was you were downright intrigued.
First he'd saved you, then he'd proposed that you travel with him to the safe haven he was searching for. A perfect stranger.
You couldn't quite comprehend it. Yes, you'd had plenty of experiences where people had been kind to you for the sake of it before the war, but that had quickly become a bygone after the riots broke out. Ever since then your survival had pegged on your family ties and what you could do to convince others to spare you.
It was different with Zach.
You were certain he had a motive besides just being nice, but you were also sure it wasn't anything sinister. There was nothing about his behavior and tone during your first conversation that suggested he was being anything but honest with you.
You trailed behind him and Athena through the forest, pondering over the why. What it could be. An extra set of eyes? Companionship? Both?
Both were why you'd personally agreed to the journey you'd embarked on. You fully believed in group survival. The strength in numbers. You'd had a fascination with wolves as a kid. You knew lone wolves had it rough and many didn't survive long enough to form another pack. You did not want to be a lone wolf any longer than you needed to be.
Zach had to have been feeling the pressure to find someone else too. Sure, with his military training he was bound to have far more survival skills than you, but it also meant he had to be almost constantly on alert. Athena was probably the only reason he looked fairly well-rested. Able to get some sleep each night because her large, pointed ears heard everything.
You had an urge to ask him a million questions about himself after that thought but you had no idea how tolerant he'd be of unnecessary chit chat, so you settled on observing him instead.
Of course you couldn't see Zach's face from your position behind him, but you could watch his back.
His very broad back. For a man his height and weight Zach had a wide set of shoulders, so wide they threatened to tear the seams of the brown and tan plaid shirt he was wearing if he flexed too much. It was an impressive sight on a man you'd quickly labeled as slim.
Less impressive was his nearly flat ass that barely held up his jeans, but that had a different kind of appeal. It was cute. It reminded you of a boy you'd dated in high school. The one you went to prom with who had been nothing but a gentleman with you despite his age. No prom night sex with that one. No, that had come months later, and you'd initiated it. You'd probably have married him if only the long distances between your colleges hadn't torn you apart.
Zach's brown eyes reminded you of him too. Though you obviously couldn't see them at the moment, you recalled them in your mind, dark, shiny, and expressive, more so than the rest of his face. What really stuck in your mind though was that his were still gentle looking despite the state of the world, the horrors he'd certainly seen and had probably done. They were in part why you'd trusted him enough to team up with him.
The similarities ended there though. While Zach still had some boyish features, his jawline was nothing but man. The same for his strong, sloped nose. You imagined he must have had an awkward faze in his youth due to their prominence, but at his maturity (late thirties, you'd surmised) they suited him perfectly.
Your cheeks heated up at your wayward thoughts about him, as if you'd spoken them out loud. You knew you hadn't, but it still felt inappropriate enough that you were sheepish about it. You'd just met him, after all. Not having had a boyfriend since a year before the apocalypse started was not an excuse to think about him like a piece of meat, analyzing every part of his body that peaked an interest in you (except for one in particular that you respectfully avoided with all your willpower).
Zach glanced back at you occasionally, on and off, for about an hour before your eyes locked by accident and you nearly stumbled over a rotten tree stump.
He's just checking in on you to make sure you're not lagging behind, nothing more, you reminded yourself. Cool your jets. Don't make a fool out of yourself over nothing.
Anyone who had a privy to your thoughts without having seen you first could have mistaken you for a teenage girl with a crush.
You weren't normally like this. Especially not after the country fell apart. But Zach was the first decent guy you'd run into the last few years who wasn't related to you, and he was definitely your type. At least physically, anyways. You weren't going to pretend you actually knew him enough for it to be anything else but basic attraction.
"You alright?" he inquired, hiking up an eyebrow as he did so.
"Yeah," you squeaked, flustering at your unusually high voice, even more so when you realized he was referring to your trip. "Don't mind me."
He nodded and continued on like you weren't behaving like someone half your age, but you decided then that silence wasn't the best idea for you anymore. It was better to risk annoying him to distract yourself and to actually get to know him than to continue to regress.
"Sooo...where are you from?" you began, walking faster to catch up with him.
"We're doing small talk?" he asked with some disbelief as you matched his pace and kept shoulder to shoulder with him, nothing but Athena between you.
"Sorry, are you busy?" you retorted with a huff, expression serious.
His eyes darted towards you, obviously surprised by your comeback, and he chuckled. "Got me there. Small talk it is. I was in Los Angeles. You?"
"Born and raised in Culver, Oregon," you stated plainly. "It's a small farming community. I went away to college in Seattle for a few years, but I returned afterwards. Found an accounting job with a local restaurant."
"That's funny," Zach mused, pursing his lips.
You frowned. "Why?"
"I worked as a building manager before everything went to shit, but for a brief time I worked for a friend's brother at his restaurant," he explained. "Nothing major, just washing dishes and helping the cooks out a bit, but it got me out of a bind, and I was considering going to college to be a chef before -."
"Everything went to shit," you quoted him flatly.
He sighed and glanced around at the trees surrounding you, looking for a distraction. "Yeah." You could hear the heavy regret that saturated that one word.
For the one millionth time since the bombs fell you thought about how unfair the world was. You'd do anything to be back looking through the books at Angel's Great Delights and you wished Zach had been able to pursue cooking like he'd planned to. It wasn't right you both had to pay for the mistakes of others.
"My cousin called it the preventable apocalypse," you informed him, tilting your head to the right, away from him. "I argued that most apocalypses in fiction were preventable. People just refused to pull their heads out of their asses. It was the most realistic part of those kinds of stories."
Zach laughed again. "Couldn’t have put it better myself.”
"So where were you when it all began?" you pressed on.
You could see it in his eyes, the way he withdrew into the memory. "I was at work, saw the news on the lobby's flatscreen TV. Washington D.C. was gone. It was surreal. And then after the riots began, it wasn't. LA was in the thick of it. I fled the city and lived in a trailer after it became too much. You?"
"I was alone in bed," you recalled, furrowing your eyebrows. "I was recovering from a severe flu. My boss had sent me home. Said he'd rather see me the next day or so when I wasn't half dead and ready to puke on the paperwork."
"Solid boss," Zach remarked.
"The fact that he could be considered solid just because he let me have a sick day when I was hardly in any shape to work, further proves how awful society was before."
"As opposed to now?"
It was your turn to chuckle. "What society?"
He hummed in agreement. "Why don't we talk about anything but the events that led to the current status of the world?"
"Okay, but the ones I have in mind are going to sound super trivial," you warned.
The edges of his mouth twitched up. "Perfect."
So that was how you both spent the rest of the day, talking about your favorite movies, music, animals (his was dogs, big surprise) and anything else that came to your minds intermittently (there was plenty of stretches of peaceful silence in between).
It was nostalgic, and for a time you could both just pretend you were hiking with each other on a day off from work. Like you'd run into each other in less dire circumstances.
Though only time could ever truly allow you to get to know someone, learning the basics was a start, and with every piece of personal information he entrusted you with you felt more and more comfortable in his presence.
It was pleasant, you thought. Zach wasn't super chatty, but he also wasn't aloof either. At least he wasn't with the things that didn't hit any sore spots, but that went for you too. Who would want to talk to a stranger about the painful memories they buried deep inside themselves? Even those who sought therapy didn't blurt out their deepest darkest secrets to their therapists until they had built a trusting relationship with them.
Your old trusty digital wristwatch read six eleven at night (probably inaccurately considering you hadn't touched it since you had to abandon your hometown) when Zach decided to stop for the day and set up a makeshift fire pit with some rocks, dried leaves, and old broken branches. You were so impressed with how neatly he'd stacked the wood and how easily he'd lit a match he had on him and got the fire going that you forgot to try to pretend to be useful. You did look for more branches and some logs to feed the fire for when it slowed down later on while Zach started pitching his forest green and tan tent.
"You should get yours up too," he told you when you came back from your third round of fire fuel hunting. He was busy zipping the entrance up. "Judging from the clouds, it might rain tonight."
You tipped your head back to stare up at the dark, angry clouds covering most of the sky above you and sighed. You hadn't wanted to ask Zach for any favors so soon, but if it was going to rain you had no choice.
"I don't have one," you admitted to him. "My cousin had a tent in his pack. I've been sleeping in whatever shelter I could find ever since his death."
"Well, you can share with me if you want," Zach offered without any hesitance. "It'll be a tight squeeze, but it's supposed to be a two person tent."
You didn't know much about tents, your parents had never camped out with you, but your cousin's had been a three person and it definitely had not felt like it had actually been made for three. You were sure a two person tent for two people wouldn't be any better.
Why did that make your heart jump a little?
"Sure, yeah, thanks," you said in return. "It's better than sleeping without anything over my head but the trees."
They were sparsely leafed due to the season and weren't particularly well bunched together where Zach had decided to set up. You knew if it downpoured you'd get drenched and that wasn't appealing with how cold the nights were starting to get.
You walked over to him and helped him finish setting up the tent, shoving and kicking the spikes that would keep the securing ropes taunt into the firm ground. You at least knew how to do this.
Once you both were finished you sat down cross legged by the fire, pulling out cans of old vegetables you both had in your backpacks. Yours was sliced carrots, his was green beans.
"I wonder how long we can eat these before we're recklessly risking our lives?" You peered at the label curiously, like it would tell you anything beyond the expiration date that you were already well past.
"Guess we'll find out," Zach stated dryly as he tipped his can's contents into his mouth, green bean juice spilling from the corner of his mouth.
You did the same with your can since you didn't have any utensils either. You missed utensils. But even if you found some again, they'd be a waste of space in your backpack. Essentials only.
You grimaced as you chewed and swallowed what you could fit into your mouth. Eating cold canned vegetables was getting real old.
"We really need to find a cooking pan," you decided.
"I have one," Zach said, feeding Athena the contents of the bottom of his can before tossing it into the fire after.
You blinked at him incredulously. "Then why didn't we use it?"
He shrugged and leaned back against the black cottonwood tree behind him. "I was hungry. Forgot to mention you could use it. Sorry."
You sighed and slouched forward like a wilting flower. "It's alright. Next time."
"At the risk of sounding like an old man, I think I'm going to turn in," Zach decided a few seconds later as he peered over at the distant mountains the sun had disappeared behind during your meager meal. "I'd like to head out at first light."
"I might as well too then," you figured. "I don't want to lose any sleep I can get. It's rough enough waking without coffee."
He groaned a little. "Ah, I miss coffee."
"Same."
You both straightened your legs out then pushed yourselves into a stand and went through your bedtime rituals, yours a lot shorter lately, now that you didn't have any luxuries like face washes and lotion. You simply brushed your teeth with only water from your drinking bottle and removed your belt. Zach also did the former, but not the latter, slipping into the tent as is. He didn't even take off his boots until he was inside, to your dismay.
You took your sleeping bag off your pack and unrolled it before also crawling in barefooted, doing what you could to flatten it out beside his.
You brushed shoulders with him when you crawled into it. "Yep. This is definitely tight. Are you sure this is okay?"
You weren't sure what compelled you to give him a way out of your new sleeping situation. You really didn't want to sleep out in the rain.
He nodded, eyelids already at half-mast. "I promise it's fine. Sharing a tent with you is much better than some of the guys I had to share tight spaces with in the military. You smell a whole lot better, for one."
Your stomach fluttered. You knew he was just stating facts, but Zach thought you smelled good. Or at least better. You'd gladly take the compliment.
You were still absorbing it when Zach whistled and Athena came charging into the tent. "Hope you don't mind sharing with her too."
"Of course not," you said, giggling when the dog nosed her way between you and wedged herself into the small gap between your sleeping bags.
He grinned at your laughter and how you fondly scratched at the base of Athena's ear after she settled down. "Make yourself at home as always, girl."
"Typical dog," you added, shaking your head before rolling onto your side to face them both and closing your eyes. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Zach returned, slinging his left arm over his stomach, getting comfortable too.
It wasn't long before you both drifted off to sleep.
x
The next morning you heard and felt Zach moving around beside you before you were even conscious of the nippy air seeping into the tent.
You wrinkled your nose, trying to get back feeling in the numbed tip of it as you blinked up at the inside of the tent top.
It was barely dawn, but it was light enough to see everything around you, which meant that it was time to go.
You crawled out of the tent as Zach began to pack up his belongings and you searched for a private spot to pee. You only had to wander a few yards away to find a big enough spruce tree to squat behind.
When you returned Zach was sitting by a newly lit fire, Athena lying by his feet, her head resting on her front paws, ears twitching with the sound of him opening another can of vegetables, this time peas, with the multi-tool that he kept in one of his back pockets.
You quietly sat down a few feet from them and opened your second can of carrots, using the tab already provided on the top.
"I'm not eating cold again," you said, glancing at Zach's backpack, which was right behind him. "Can I use that pan now?"
"Sure." Zach reached for and rummaged through his pack, pulling the pan out from the bottom it. "Do you want to throw our food together; peas and carrots?"
"Sounds good," you replied. "Just don't expect to get a bigger portion out of it."
He raised a hand palm up in a pledging gesture at you. "I solemnly swear it'll be split right down the middle."
Satisfied with his promise you dumped the contents of your can in the pan and he did the same with his before placing the pan over the fire. After several minutes he removed it to check how cooked the food was, sampling a few peas.
He smiled. "Perfect."
He quickly split the pile of vegetables in the pan in two and dumped your share onto the plastic plate you always carried around.
It was the best meal you'd had since your cousin had gotten himself killed and left you with only the supplies you'd been carrying on your back.
After you and Zach had scarfed down your portions and both shared a palm full with Athena, you packed up and resumed your trek north.
It was still cloudy out, but the clouds were a light enough gray that you did not think it would rain again anytime soon, thankfully.
Unfortunately it meant you'd need to use landmarks instead of the sun's position to guide you, or so you thought until Zach pulled a compass out of his coat pocket.
"Of course you know how to read a compass."
He twisted his body to look at you as he continued to walk. "You don't? What have you been using to find your way on days like this?"
"The mountains, mostly," you answered.
He huffed. "Good way to get lost."
"Well, it's not like it mattered before," you told him. "I didn't have a destination in mind then."
"Want me to show you how it works?" he offered.
You shrugged. "You can try."
"It's easy," Zach promised, invading your personal space so he could show you the face of the compass. "See the white end of the needle?" He pointed it out. "That always points south. And the red end always points north. If you make sure the needle stays steady, adjusting the path you take when you need to, you won't wander aimlessly."
"And this is always accurate?" you questioned doubtingly.
He hesitated. "Usually. Sometimes they can be thrown out of wack, but I check this one regularly and it hasn't failed me yet. In any case, it's better than going off scenery alone."
You nodded. You weren't much of an outdoorsy person before, but you had heard plenty of stories of hikers getting lost because they only used their sight to guide them. It was easy to get turned around in a forest. Your rational side knew that a compass was a lot more reliable, and fixable if something ever screwed it up. You hoped Zach knew how to calibrate one.
Zach pocketed the compass and continued forward, Athena ever glued to his side, rarely wandering more than a few feet away from him to sniff at something or do her business.
Occasionally you observed him scratching her head or stroking her back in passing and it made you smile.
You liked people who liked dogs. You'd been raised around them, and while they weren't perfect at letting you know who you could trust (sometimes they did trust the wrong people), you firmly believed dogs were at least a pretty good first indicator. The fact that Athena was so relaxed around Zach, and that he made an effort to give her affection, reassured you that you'd chosen your partner well.
"There's a highway ahead," Zach announced as afternoon neared, surpassing the twenty-four hour mark since you'd teamed up with him. "We should follow it a bit. Check to see if the closest town is safe to scavenge. I'm running low on supplies."
"Me too," you admitted. "But I'm not going to go into town if it's going to be a fight."
"I won't force you to put yourself in danger," he vowed. "If there's still people there and I believe I can slip past them but you're nervous, you can stay hidden. I'll share whatever I find."
You blinked at him in surprise. "Really?"
"Of course," he replied.
"You're not going to label me a burden?"
He pursed his lips. "I've been labeled that before. I would never do it to someone else. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, a team works with them."
That made you curious. You couldn't figure out why someone would call Zach a burden when he'd been anything but since you'd met. You supposed it was different times before, but still. He seemed so goal motivated and had so many skills, what would drive someone to suggest otherwise?
You approached the road slowly and Zach tentatively stepped out of the cover of the trees to study the sign alongside it. "There is a town nearby," he informed you as he ducked back into the trees to stand beside you. "It's a mile out from here. It's out of our way, but it might be worth it."
You sighed. "Well, that's not too bad. With it being so close we've got to at least see it for ourselves."
He nodded in agreement and started to walk parallel with the road, keeping just out of view of anyone who might be dumb enough (or had enough ammo) to be strolling down the highway without a care in the world.
To your relief, when you finally passed the town line nothing changed. There were no working cars in the road, no voices, no signs of life. You could feel the emptiness of it, even though the road was littered with abandoned vehicles and other items, none that would be useful to you, unfortunately.
You and Zach left the safety of the forest and carefully made your way into town, his hands cradling his shotgun, ready if he needed to shoot to protect you both if the situation changed.
"We should head to the supermarket," he suggested.
"That's always the first place picked clean," you argued before gesturing towards the town library that stood next to the town hall, both buildings once painted white, faded yellow and chipped since. "The library would be the best place to try. The one in my hometown had food and a bathroom, drinks too. It's worth a shot."
He scoffed. "Nobody raids libraries."
"Precisely," you said, smirking. You were pretty confident you'd find at least a few useful items.
He chewed his lip, silently debating, weighing the risks and potential benefits. "Fine, we'll check out both. Then we head back out. Don't want to overstay our welcome."
"Fine with me."
A part of you was tempted to make an attempt to convince him that checking out every business and house possible would be worth it, but you understood why he was clearly set on only a couple places. A town like this was valuable. Anyone traveling nearby would likely want to pass through just as they were, and running into a large group would be disastrous.
One man with one gun could only do so much. Same went for a dog with no protective gear and a woman with a limited set of survival skills.
Zach lead you over to the local supermarket first, using a crowbar that a previous raider had left behind to pry the sliding doors open enough so you both could squeeze through.
Once inside you both scanned the shelves up and down for anything useful.
As you'd predicted, the store was pretty barren. There were some non-survival items scattered about - a variety of novels, toy animal figurines, and different brands of pet stain remover - but none of those items would be beneficial to your survival.
You passed the pet food aisle and even those shelves were wiped out. You knew it wasn't because so many people were worried about what their pets ate. No, they were definitely eating the food themselves. Just thinking about people doing it made you gag. You understood the concept of desperate times, desperate measures, but oh did you pray to high heaven you'd never be forced to eat any kind of dog food.
The next aisle was themed health and beauty and you wandered down it with Zach in hopes of finding a toothbrush to keep as back up for your current one, but had no such luck.
You were about to enter another row when you noticed Zach had lingered behind and looked over your shoulder to see him on his knees, stretched fully out, reaching for something in the very back of one of the bottom shelves.
When he pulled back and sat on the heels of his hiking boots he had a five pack of men's disposable razors in his right hand.
"Yeesss!" he exclaimed triumphantly, expression gleeful, before he studied the package. You grinned, infected by his enthusiasm.
It was the first time you'd gotten a glimpse of the boy he once must have been.
"I take you don't like letting your beard grow out."
Zach rocked himself back onto his feet and shook his head at you. "It's not my preferred look. Honestly, it grows in kind of patchy. But the real issue is it gets itchy after more than a week of growth. Drives me crazy some days, and anti-itch cream is hard to come by nowadays."
You hummed in understanding, cutting off when you noticed a small bottle on a nearby middle shelf.
You had to reach all the way back for it, like Zach had with the razors, but you managed, and for your grunts of effort and overstretched muscles you were rewarded a bottle of Tylenol.
"Now, this made the trip worth it," you declared.
Zach chuckled. "See? Not completely wasted."
You sighed dramatically, for show. "Yeah, yeah, you were right. Now, can we hurry up so we can hit the riches at the library?"
"Sure."
Six more aisles later you left the store with only the razors and the pills, but at least you and Zach had both gotten something out of it.
You exited cautiously, Zach leading with Athena as per usual, but for once they could not ease the anxiety you felt being in a place that used to be populated with people again.
All you could think about was the sharp crack of a bullet, the last split second you saw your cousin and his wife alive before they'd slumped to the ground so suddenly lifeless that you'd frozen like a deer in headlights while their bodies leaked blood into the cracks of the worn asphalt. Helpless to do anything but stare in horror as their killer dragged their bodies into a pile on the side of the road like they were just another dead animal to clear out, until you finally felt your legs again and bolted.
Civilization was no longer a place that comforted you.
Zach broke into the little library by shattering the glass of the front door with a sharp, heavy stone and turning the lock blindly. As soon as it clicked open he stepped aside so you could enter first.
You choked on the dust and had to cover your mouth with your jacket sleeve, but you pushed forward, determined.
Luckily the building had a lot of frosted windows so you were able to maneuver around easily without the lights.
You started at the main desk, searching every drawer. All you found were a few pens, which Zach pocketed.
Next you tried the janitor's closet. "Oh, well, now this will certainly be a luxury."
You pulled two rolls of individually wrapped toilet tissue off one of the shelves and threw one to Zach, purposely trying to catch him off guard. Impressively, he still caught it. He laughed. "Okay, so we're already even scored. Think you can find more stuff?"
"For sure."
You headed into a corner that had once acted as a little self serve café, littered with rotten food and a reeking coffee machine. You found four unopened water bottles still in the cooler by the back of the space and nearly jumped with joy.
"Never doubt me again," you said as you handed Zach two of them.
He made the motion of crossing his heart at you and you smiled.
"One last place to check."
As Zach shoved his bottles into his pack you slipped into the unisex bathroom adjacent to the coffee corner alone and glanced around. There wasn't much in the room besides the sink and toilet, not even a window, so it was hard to see, but you found one more roll of toilet tissue and a half used bag of pantie liners you could use for when your period rolled around. You hid them both in your pack and rejoined Zach.
"Any luck?" he inquired.
"Just another roll of toilet tissue," you lied, not feeling comfortable talking to him about period products even in passing. It wasn't just because you grew up around men who didn't want to hear a thing about it, who preferred to live in ignorance over the female cycle. It was also because Zach was still just an acquaintance, and that just wasn't something you typically talked about loosely in front of people you hardly knew, no matter their gender.
"I'll share if you admit the library was the more productive stop," you added with a smirk.
"I can't deny it," he said.
"I actually want to look at the books for a second if that's okay?"
Zach nodded. "Hurry up though."
You raced over to the how-to section, scanning them almost desperately for a book you had in mind. You found it on a top shelf, a book on North American plants for survivalists.
You were plucking it from the shelf when Athena barked suddenly and you flinched.
"What's up, girl?" Zach asked her, warily turning in a circle in hopes of seeing what set her off.
She was staring at the back window, suggesting she'd alerted to a shadow or sound from that direction.
Athena wasn't a barker. You'd only known her for a day but it was long enough to know if she was barking there was a reason. That knowledge made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
"Follow me," Zach whispered.
You nodded quickly and slowly made your way to the front with him, creeping out of the door as soon as he gave the hand signal to do so.
You didn't breath properly until you were a good quarter of a mile back into the forest, back on track north.
You kept up with Zach. "Do you think she heard people?"
"Her warning bark is the same for people and animals so I have no idea," he said. "It doesn't matter. In either case, we got away safe. And if it was a false alarm, somehow, well, it's not like we weren't already leaving."
"True."
You turned the book you'd carried out in your arms over and skimmed the information on the faded back cover. The book had been published in 1985, but that was alright. Plant survival books didn't tend to get outdated too often.
"What's the book about?" Zach asked you when he noticed you studying it.
You told him and he looked pleased. "Great idea bringing it. I know about a few edible plants, but probably not as many as there actually are."
"All I know is berries are usually okay, and never eat the mushrooms," you said. "Even experts used to poison themselves eating wild mushrooms sometimes. Mushrooms look too alike and the risk is too great to be worth it."
"Noted."
You took a moment to stop and slide the book into your pack before running to catch back up with Zach again. "Are you nervous about the crossing?"
"We're still probably a few days out from that," he told you, "But yeah, I've been nervous from the start. Day one. I've heard as many rumors about the Canadian border patrol as you have. Micah said they have a zero tolerance for Americans crossing over. They will try to shoot us if they see us."
He halted to face you. "Are you still okay with this plan?"
"No," you said firmly. "Of course I'm not, I never was, but if I don't go with you to Alaska, I have no future."
He nodded, understanding what you meant. Entering Canada would be dangerous, but not necessarily more dangerous than staying behind, and if you wanted any sort of peaceful living you had to risk it.
Alaska here I come.
xxx
Tagged: @harriedandharassed @love-affair-with-fandoms @morallyinept
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