#post gyjopocalpse au

[plagueofsquid]

Wind-Up God Ch 3 Preview

Hey, you guys wanna see something self-indulgent?

It was a perfect darkness, a true pitch black, too dark for even shadows. The sky overhead was thick with clouds, as it was most nights, burying the stars in the same dust as the ground. Only the moon peeked through, a sickly pale thing that wavered as clouds passed. Valkyrie’s single headlight shone a million times brighter than normal, casting a long oval of gray in front of the bike.

Gyro loved the night. It felt like diving deep, deep into the ocean, letting his body sink so far below the waves that the water became a still blanket that surrounded him on all sides.

Of course, there were downsides.

It was dangerous to travel at night. This close to the coast Gyro didn’t worry about animal attacks or roving groups of bandits, but the road slowly decayed as he went further inland, crumbling into dust like everything else. Combined with very limited visibility, it created a serious hazard for a motorcycle. And then there was the temperature.

Gyro was used to the cold. Not impervious or anything, but he knew what to expect and dressed for the weather. He couldn’t say the same for the boy huddled against his back.

Johnny wore a threadbare sweatshirt and faded pants made of worn denim, and they seemed the limit of his worldly possessions. Cities generated heat, all those people stacked on top of each other, so even when they got cold they never really got cold. Not like the wasteland did. The wasteland was stripped naked under the sky, and bare dirt did little to store heat so when the sun dipped below the horizon, all warmth was simply gone. One layer wasn’t enough, you needed something to trap the heat against your body.

And it didn’t help matters that Johnny was in no shape for traveling.

Gyro had always been shit at medical stuff. He was better than the average guy simply because he’d actually received training, but he wasn’t exactly a master surgeon. Even he could tell Johnny wasn’t doing well. The boy was underweight to a worrying degree and he looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, even after a full eight hours the previous night. On top of that, Gyro had heard him coughing a few times since leaving San Diego, and it didn’t sound good. The sort of thick, wet cough that tended to serve as a big warning sign that hey, this is something serious.

If Gyro’d had a choice, they would have spent a few nights at Soleil just to make sure Johnny was okay if nothing else. Traveling across the wasteland wasn’t without risks from external threats, but the real danger was the lack of supplies. It was thousands of miles where nothing grew but weeds and desert grasses, which were pretty much the closest plants had to actual shit for all their usefulness, and it rained about once a century. Gyro had basic first aid supplies packed, but there hadn’t been room for much else once food and water for two was included. He’d planned on having the chance to scrounge whatever else they needed before entering no-man’s-land.

What Gyro hadn’t planned for was two bounty hunters on his ass.

Gyro had enemies, now more than ever, but it hadn’t been an issue before. Normally, his surname would provide enough of a threat to keep him firmly on the ‘don’t take this job’ list for anyone who knew their shit. Normally, he wouldn’t think twice about fighting back, even if it was two on one. Normally, he didn’t have someone to protect.

It was the classic mistake men had made since there had been men to make it. Gyro couldn’t say no to a pretty face.

Johnny was fucking adorable. He was as mean as a feral cat and hadn’t bathed in God knows how long, but at least he was cute. Gyro had always done stupid shit in the pursuit of sex and this latest escapade shouldn’t have been any different.

It was. Sure, Gyro wanted to fuck Johnny, but even more than that he wanted to see him smile. And that was new.

But that would have to wait. For now, they had to survive.

There were about a hundred miles between them and Soleil by this point and it was the middle of the goddamn night. They would be hard to find, even for experienced trackers. Gyro began to slow Valkyrie, scanning what little he could see in front of them for a suitable place to make camp.

He found what he was looking for almost immediately. A small patch of grass next to the roadside. As Valkyrie rolled to a stop, Gyro reached back and found Johnny’s arm through the blanket. “You doing okay?”

“Jus’ tired.” Johnny definitely sounded it.

Gyro got off his bike and turned around to pick up Johnny. He didn’t mind carrying his companion. In fact, as shitty as the thought might be, he almost liked it. Johnny was light and easy to carry and the way he instinctively snuggled closer when held was quite possibly the most adorable thing Gyro had ever seen.

Johnny looked even smaller wrapped up in a blanket. He reached out and Gyro lifted him off Valkyrie, one arm on his back and the other under his knees. His upper body shook, and Gyro again felt panic bubble in his chest. Johnny was more susceptible to hypothermia than the average person since he couldn’t regulate temperature in half his body. Hypothermia was a constant concern in the wasteland, one Gyro was plenty familiar with already, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous.

The grass Gyro had found was dry and dead, the blades twisting into stiff spirals. He put Johnny down and ripped out tufts by the handful, piling it in front of the boy in a disorganized heap. Johnny curled up in a ball and pulled the blanket over his head.

“Don’t want dinner?” Gyro added a couple small bricks of charcoal to the pile and struck a match. The flame caught easily on the dried grass, and he watched as the bricks too were consumed by fire.

A hand emerged from the folds of the blanket and was thrust vaguely in his direction.

Gyro laughed and fulfilled Johnny’s demand with a piece of jerky, which he immediately pulled back under the blanket. The boy wasn’t exactly shy about taking Gyro’s supplies when they were offered, but he didn’t mind. It made things simpler.

They ate in silence at first, and as the fire burned higher and higher, Johnny let the blanket slip off his face. There were dark shadows under his eyes, but at least his cheeks had some color.

“You doing okay?” Gyro handed him another piece.

“Why do you keep asking?” The jerky was gone in less than a minute. Johnny ate like the food was about to be stolen from his hand.

“Burying a body is hard work. It’s more convenient for me if you stay alive.”

Johnny looked around at the darkness that surrounded them. “You wouldn’t have to bury me. There’s no one here to keep you from just leaving a corpse.”

“If I did that, you’d haunt the shit out of me.”

“I would.”