Chapter Text
The wind screamed so loudly that Daniela swore what was left of the world could’ve hear it.
The lethal mixture of dust, debris, and disease swarmed every one of her senses. She was facedown, nose and mouth already covered with her bandana, head pressed into her backpack. It wasn’t as bad as outside the remains of 7 Eleven, but still awfully present due to the shattered glass and caved in walls.
Beside her, Lara had her cowl yanked up over her face, which was tucked into the crook of her elbow. There was no saying how long the storm would last. Daniela mentally berated herself for not taking the extra reddened sky and stench of rot more seriously.
She risked looking up from her backpack and found that it was at least simmering down. The corrupted air surely still circulated inside, but it was enough to finish the dig. She kicked Lara with her heel and pushed off of her backpack to explore the rear end of the store.
Lara just kicked her right back, splitting off to search anything that could be left in the busted freezers. Daniela was too impatient sometimes. Sure, Lara was used to it by now, however, she still had to keep her in check somehow. She didn’t know how Sophia did it—always getting her to think harder about her feelings.
Daniela kicked over some dead wires with her boot, clocking an old Slurpee cup. She reached in her small leg rig hooked to her belt for the multitool she kept amongst her dagger, granola bar, and bandaids. Megan would probably like something else for her collage. She carved the 7 Eleven logo out of the styrofoam and shoved it and the multitool bag in her rig.
Lara called from the other side of the store. “Found an old vitamin water. How did someone miss this?”
Daniela took one more look over the scavenged store. Even her and Lara had raided this place too many times to count on one hand, and there was somehow always something new.
They met up toward the center of the store, the candy aisle. The storm was finally ceasing. Both of them knew that it wouldn’t be safe for another couple hours, but which was more dangerous—nightfall or disease?
Lara looked expectantly at Daniela until hazel eyes met brown. “Let’s get out of this hellhole.”
Daniela made sure to measure her breaths when they started the five mile walk back to base. She wanted as little bad air living in her lungs as possible.
For the first two miles, there was just silence and heat.
Then, there was movement other than the bounce of curly hair and glint of several earrings.
Daniela saw it first. A dark hood. Moved as one against the shadows of old buildings, stoplights, and cars. When she turned, it would vanish into the depths of her peripheral vision.
She reached out with her hand, pulling the other girl off the usual path they took back to base. She didn’t stop moving until they both leaned against a broad piece of rubble.
The way the fabric covering Lara’s mouth moved indicated she was going to protest. Her fingers slid to the strap hooking her shotgun to her back.
“What the hell, Dani? It’s already getting dark. We don’t have time for games,” she muttered.
Daniela pressed a finger to the bandana covering her lips. Two crunches directly to their right. Then four more, then two, then—
CRACK!
The bullet whistled right over their heads, driving deep into the rock.
“Go! Go!” Daniela hissed, veering away from the rubble like it was burning her alive and taking off in the direction of the next crumpled building. Lara was on her heels, both bent low while they ran.
Another crack whipped beside them. They didn’t stop moving, not until they passed a fallen billboard that indicated there was only a couple minutes until base.
Daniela leaned heavily against the broken up post. The shooter was gone about a mile ago but they didn’t stop running. Now they paid the price. Both of their breaths came in sharp and shallow waves. Their masks restricted enough air from reaching them.
Lara pulled down her cowl, hand on her chest rising and quickly falling with the rhythm of her breathing. Daniela pulled it back up on her face when she noticed.
“Just five minutes,” she said reluctantly.
***
The door creaked then slammed as Lara pushed it open, still out of breath. The entire mile back she had an on-and-off cough.
Daniela was in only a slightly better shape, sweat dampening her hair and making her curls stick out even more than they normally do without any product.
Sophia whipped her head around, immediately stopping the pacing state they found her in. “Jesus! There you are.”
She rushed to them at once, taking Lara’s rifle off when she was engulfed in another coughing fit that made her double over.
The ruckus drew Yoonchae from one of the back rooms, carrying a stained bag with a faded red cross. Despite being just a kid, she was the one with the most medical experience, usually caring for Megan’s many cuts and bruises.
Daniela helped Lara get off her backpack, dropping it next to her shotgun and discarding her own weapons. Sophia didn’t like to see them around the base. Yoonchae ushered Lara to the ugly green couch to do whatever medical things she normally does.
Sophia’s eyes fell on Daniela next. Her hands went up to cradle both sides of her face, unintentionally wiping away a layer of grime with her thumb.
“What happened out there? The sun’s basically gone down.” Her big brown eyes were filled with heavy relief and the tight fear Daniela knew she was feeling in her chest.
“The storm. Did you guys block all the windows?” Daniela suddenly remembered. She started to look at the house’s open exits when Sophia gently pulled her face back down.
“Yeah. We used the old towels and a couple jackets. Protocol.” Sophia let go of Daniela’s face, instead coaxing her over to the bar stools at the counter.
She briefly vanished down the hallway and returned with a rag and two of the other girls in tow.
“Jeez, you’re looking rough,” Megan chimed.
“Thanks, Mei,” Daniela quipped. She gratefully took the towel and started to wipe down her face.
Another one of Lara’s coughing fits took over the house. Manon’s brow creased in worry. Daniela didn’t stare—Manon had this crazy soft spot for Lara just like Lara refused to ever let Manon on a dig.
Yoonchae popped up from the sofa, supporting a very weak-looking Lara on her shoulder. Manon instantly rushed over to help and the two of them hauled Lara up to her and Manon’s room.
“So, was the dig at least a little successful?” Sophia leaned against the counter, and Megan followed suit.
“Not really. Two vitamin waters.” Daniela jerked a thumb in the direction of Lara’s bag. “Oh, and there’s something for the wack-o in my rig.”
Megan’s face lit up. She scurried over to the pile of discarded bags and weapons and rummaged through Daniela’s rig. A high-pitched squeal indicated she’d found the styrofoam logo.
Then she was gone. Up the stairs to her and Yoonchae’s room—presumably to hang it up like a shrine.
“Aw, you do care,” Sophia teased.
Daniela briefly shot her a look. “Stop it. Not in the mood.”
“You’re never in the mood.” Her tone was light despite the lesson laced underneath. Just like always.
The two of them retreated upstairs to their own room, if it could be called that. A flat mattress and a couple sheets in the corner, a vanity with a mirror and hairbrush and a couple trinkets, and a dresser missing its fourth leg.
Daniela peeled off her jacket and long sleeve, leaving on her base tank top since it had no contamination with the storm’s ickiness. Then her thick cargos and boots that she wore despite the heat, replacing them with the only spare pair of shorts she had.
Sophia didn’t look while she changed, just took the contaminated clothes and piled them up to hopefully be washed later if they could find more water or another pond of some kind.
Daniela finished toweling off and dropped down to the mattress, leaning her head back.
“Are you okay, Dani? You don’t have a cough, do you?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Sophia kicked off her own boots and slipped onto the mattress. “Okay. Do you want to explain why you guys were so late? Even with the storm?”
Daniela visibly took a breath, despite no exhale audible.
She slowly walked Sophia through a reenactment of the shadow with the gun. Sophia didn’t respond—there was always the morning.
Instead, Daniela pulled the sheets up over her shoulders, pressed to Sophia’s side. Sophia gently traced her fingers over Daniela’s hip. Eventually, her breathing slowed into the steady rhythm of sleep.
They would need to call the Unnie Council tomorrow.
***
The Unnie Council was originally created when Yoonchae and Megan were having a fight over one of Megan’s numerous gadgets and collages. Since it ended up that Megan had actually lost her missing gadget while on a dig with Daniela, it was now used for serious matters.
Sophia woke Manon early, who was now constantly wearing a blue bandana around base. Her poor immune system was bad enough pre-end-of-the-world, and now Lara’s potential sickness was incredibly more dangerous to Manon than any of the other girls.
Daniela was waiting for them at the counter, wrapping her hands and forearms with old strips of cloth, bandages, and tape.
“Alright. Unnie Council’s in session. Minus Lara,” Manon breathed.
“Good. I’m going out on the dig alone. You and Manon need to focus on helping Yoonchae and healing Lara. She can’t do it all by herself—she’s scared—you can see it, the way her hair’s all tangled from her twisting it.” Daniela cut herself off. Too vulnerable, too quick.
“Woah. You aren’t going out by yourself,” Sophia commanded. Despite the heavy pull to mention the comment on Yoonchae, she skipped right over it. Her tone left no room for argument.
Without looking up, Daniela answered smoothly, “I am. With Lara sick we need more supplies. Medicine.” She had a way of finding cracks in Sophia’s words. Loopholes Manon wouldn’t notice until it was too late.
Manon nodded, appearing behind Sophia. “I actually agree, Fifi. We need to talk to Yoonchae to see what kind, but Lara needs medicine.”
Sophia pressed on the bridge of her nose. “But you can’t go by yourself. We have to skip the dig today. Focus on reinforcements, inventory, training.”
“I can do it, Sophia. I know this turf. I know the wasteland—you know that I do.” Daniela stood up, palms pressing into the marble.
Manon stilled. Watching. Daniela was a time bomb and Sophia needed to cut the wire.
“No. You will stay here. You and Megan will focus on physical reinforcements of the base. Manon and I will take inventory and mark out rations and the next dig plan. Yoonchae will give us a list of possible meds.”
Daniela’s veins thrummed with early signs of rage. She always woke up angry—it was just who she was now—and sometimes it was just not getting her way that could tick her off.
Manon could feel it. It made the room hot and sticky with tension. She dismissed the Unnie Council and went to get an update from Yoonchae.
Yoonchae didn’t talk much anymore. Her attempts at learning English had slowed and when she did speak, it wasn’t always nice. Daniela was rubbing off on her, not Sophia. Yoonchae fed on her rage; her bitterness at the world. Sophia knew, Manon saw. She was disappointed.
“Yoonie?” Manon rapped on her door, not also wanting to stir Megan in the process.
Yoonchae opened the door quietly, stepping out with her med kit and notebook. They padded into Manon’s room.
Lara laid propped up on the mattress, shivering every couple seconds despite most of the blankets in the house being piled onto her. Her normally warm chocolate skin was paled and cold. Fever.
What really gave away the storm-induced sickness were the thin red lines that outlined her major veins. They were even more present down her neck and forearms.
The sight made Manon feel sick. Her insides twisted up then flipped upside down. Lara was so tough and grounding—confident. Manon strived to be her. Now she wasn’t her perfect image. Just vulnerable.
“What kind of medicine does she need? Dani is going on a dig tomorrow.” Manon broke the uneasy quiet.
“Coughing kind. One for fever…” Yoonchae trailed away, thinking. “Benadryl. Fluids—water, not vitamin.”
Manon didn’t laugh. She nodded slowly. “She’ going to be okay, right?” she whispered, voice cracking in the middle.
Yoonchae nodded without a smile. She felt guilt bubble up in her throat, then a swell of anger. She didn’t know what she was doing, only slightly more than everybody else did. Her eyes traced over Lara, racking her brain for any memories of reading something about sickness or injury treatments. Nothing. There wasn’t a vaccine for the sickness anyway.
Manon led Yoonchae back down the stairs, waking Megan along the way. Her hair was all disheveled and the two pink strands in the front of her face faded by the day.
Daniela was already off somewhere. The left wall shook with the force of something being nailed to it from outside. Sophia was digging through the pantry.
“Dani’s outside, Megan. Can you help her with fixing up the base?”
“She’s in one of her moods, isn’t she?” Megan whined. Then her eyes perked up—this was the perfect opportunity to do absolutely nothing while Daniela brooded in her work. “I’ll be great company, don’t worry! Maybe I can show her the new grenade I’m working on… I named it after her, since it’s a…”
Megan’s voice faded with distance as she continued to ramble on the way out the door. Yoonchae wondered if she was like that before the blast and invasion. The only times she wasn’t crazy was when she was listening to her old Walkman her sister gave her.
Sophia sighed. Daniela might kill Megan.
“Yoonchae thinks anything we can get for fever and cough is good. Lara’s got a good immune system from all the digs, but that doesn’t mean she should recover with a good week of doing nothing,” Manon piped up when the silence returned.
“That’s not good to hear. The issue is when we can go out there to grab it. The closest drug store is farther away than the old 7 Eleven. Dani can’t go out without a partner.” Sophia subconsciously pinched her nose bridge again.
“I could go out,” Manon said with haste.
Sophia shook her head, pointedly looking at her bandana. “No. You’re already at risk with Lara being sick—maybe you should switch rooms with Yoonchae.”
Manon’s voice came back even quicker this time, head shaking so violently her dark curls swayed with the force. “No. I’m staying in there.”
Yoonchae raised her eyebrows with interest that faded slightly into disease.
“Fine. Then I’ll go out,” Sophia suggested. “I can use the handgun—I think that’s great protection,” she said dryly.
“Dani won’t like that,” Yoonchae suddenly spoke.
Sophia and Manon tilted their heads towards the younger, slightly startled with her outburst. They couldn’t tell if that was meant to defend Daniela or push for Sophia to go.
“You guys don’t listen to her.”
“Yoonie…” Sophia warned to no avail.
“No! That’s why she’s so angry all the time! She sees the most out th—“
“That’s not why she’s angry, Yoonchae.” Manon placed her hand on Yoonchae’s shoulders just to be brushed off like it hurt.
“Yeah. She wants to help Lara and you guys won’t let her. You’re being selfish—“
“Enough!” Sophia snapped. She abandoned her place in front of the pantry to close the distance between her and Yoonchae. “I am your leader, the one that you voted for. Don’t talk about things you know nothing about, Yoonchae.”
“Fine! Then tell me!”
Manon clenched her jaw. Yoonchae had an inch or more over Sophia when she was so close. The same beginning of fire Daniela always had in her eyes flickered deep in the brown of Yoonchae’s.
“You aren’t ready, clearly. What you are ready for is helping Manon and I take inventory of all the supplies in the house.”
Yoonchae’s knuckles turned white with frustration balled up in her hands. Unlike Daniela, she still had the fear of Sophia that forced her to submit this time.
She backpedaled, taking four long strides to the cabinets above the island counter and focused her glare inside.
Manon and Sophia had a silent conversation with their eyes. The memory of finding Daniela in the wasteland two years ago had resurfaced to the front of their minds, and clearly it made both of them sick. A different sick than when they found Lara, then Megan and Yoonchae together.
The rest of inventory was quiet. The beat of their hearts would have been the loudest things had Daniela not been hammering on the walls.
Megan was perched on the roof, kicking her feet back and forth and toying with some kind of trinket in her hands.
Daniela held two nails in between her teeth, a flat sheet of wood in one hand, and a hammer in the other. The base wood layer of the house was finished with this last piece, most of the rotting holes covered. Next she would go over the still-sensitive areas with sheet metal. Then repeat times four.
Megan hummed above her. “They were talking about you.”
Daniela didn’t stop hammering, choosing to ignore Megan. “Can’t you go help with the fence or something?”
“Please. You know I’d do it wrong and get yelled at anyway.”
Daniela scoffed. She was right, and for some reason that didn’t make her feel good.
If base was in the middle of a neighborhood, Daniela wouldn’t bother reinforcing it. Draw too much attention. Since it wasn’t, rather positioned down a long, winding driveway covered by an old forest determined to grow back, it was less likely to get raided like the old place they had last year.
When nightfall started to approach, Daniela didn’t go back inside. Megan didn’t either, but given the lack of rambling stuffing Daniela’s ears, she guessed she was sleeping on the roof tonight.
Daniela’s hands were blistered and cracked, littered with splinters in her palms ranging from little to one especially large one. She shouldn’t have taken the wrapping off her arms.
There weren’t even any walls left to fix. The fence and traps could use work. Unfortunately, the one strip of barbed wire they had left wasn’t going to cover much of it.
A creak that sounded like a little more than the wind alerted Daniela that she wasn’t alone. Her eyes searched for the intruder. Maybe it was the shadow with the gun.
Panic spiked in Daniela’s chest, winding down to twist up her stomach. What if she lat herself and Lara get tracked? The storm distracted her so much she didn’t check thoroughly.
A crunch. Squeak of the sheet metal. The shadow with the gun was just around the corner. Daniela inched towards the corner. Surprise was still on her side.
“Dani?” somebody rasped. Not the voice of a shadow. The voice of Sophia.
“I’m here.” Daniela pushed herself off the wall.
“Come inside. I know you’re done with the walls. The banging stopped hours ago.”
Daniela balled up her hands, winced, and quickly released them. Sophia must of heard her hiss, even in the dark and the wind.
But she didn’t say anything. She took a couple steps forward. Daniela hated to be babied—to be nagged. Especially when she was already upset or feeling unheard.
“Okay,” Daniela replied, just over a whisper.
They headed back inside. Sophia closed the shutters and lit a candle with the lighter Megan found and nearly burned down the house with.
“Let me see,” Sophia ordered. Then she checked herself, gauging Daniela’s reaction. “Please.”
Daniela sat on the sofa beside Sophia when she finished her base-check. Very reluctantly, she held out both of her hands.
“Dani…” The words died in Sophia’s throat. She was gone for a second, up the stairs to grab the tweezers, before settling right next to Daniela again.
“You should’ve stopped. You still have a dig tomorrow.”
“I should’ve gone today.”
“No. You can’t go alone. If something happens to you, we wouldn’t have any more fighters.” Sophia held Daniela’s wrist tightly, plucking the smaller splinters first. “And it’s not just that. I wouldn’t forgive myself.”
“Lara needs that medicine. You aren’t listening to me. It wouldn’t be your fault if I—It would only be mine.” Daniela exhaled sharply, from the force of getting her words out or the splinters coming out of her skin Sophia didn’t know.
“I am listening. I’m deciding that you can’t. Tomorrow, I’m coming with you.”
“You can’t decide that for me!” Daniela shouted, breaking the quiet tone set. She pulled her hand away.
“Dani. You have to look at this differently. We need you—not just you to do your job, but you as a person. Everybody here looks up to you, admires you. Think about Yoonchae, think about Megan. Think about Lara, for God’s sake, who might just stop fighting if she knew you came to harm while searching for her medicine.”
Daniela dropped her gaze, unable to bear the electricity that buzzed between her and Sophia. Her anger bubbled up as shame. It normally felt right, justified—not good, but comfortingly present. This was different. It was nauseating.
But she wasn’t going to apologize. Not now. All she could manage was giving Sophia back her hand.