Ice in the Desert Chunk 9

Maybe wandering off in the morning wasn't the smartest thing our used-to-living-solo-pair could do.

 As we approach the bunker, I feel more and more like someone was watching us. It makes my skin crawl, my muscles tense, and my eyes dart around the flatter part of the desert. I could've sworn that I heard other footsteps, and at one point I might have heard a small giggle. I look up to Ghost to see what he thinks, but he seems as cold as ever, settled down after the intense anger in the store. I try and tell myself that it's just my imagination and that my mind's doing funny things to me because of the lack of sleep I've had lately. I see something move out of the corner of my eye, and I whip my head around to see it, but there's nothing there.

“Ghost.” I whisper. “There's someone else here.” He stops and glances around. He shakes his head.

“You're crazy. Take a nap or somethin' when we get back.” he says, and continues on.

“I'm not that crazy. We're being followed.” I mutter, a bit more urgently. He ignores me and keeps walking. Frustrated, I pick up a rock. I throw it as hard as I can to the place where I thought I saw something, and it lands in the sand with a thud. Ghost looks back at me, still walking.

“What the hell are you doing? No one's here right now, and we don't want that to change by making noise. Cut it out.” he growls, annoyed. My shoulders sag, and I plod along after him, embarrassed for acting so childish. It's all silent now, save for our footsteps.

I can see the rock overhang from where we are, and I feel relieved to know that we're so close to home. It's surrounded by people, even though there's no noise, no chatter or laughter. Someone sees us and waves, so we use that as a cue to start jogging. When we near, I recognize Scorch as the one who waved, her twin Crimson standing next to her.

“Hey! Where've you two been all morning?” she demands. “You don't even know what's been goin' on!” she pauses for a moment, letting her brother take over.

“Yeah.” Crimson agrees grimly. “Hope you grabbed all your things before we left.” As he says this I realize that he's holding a small bag, a few small cases of ammunition, and his own mask, a shiny orange thing with a yellow flame pattern.

“We were just down at the shop. What happened here?” I ask. Ghost, instead of being curious, just listens to everything with a neutral expression on his face. Poison climbs out of the entrance hole with a bag swung over his shoulder, and kicks the cover rock over it. He heads to the front of the crowd. I guess that there's about twenty to thirty people standing out here, waiting for him to speak.

“You'll hear about it in a moment.” says Scorch, putting a finger to her lips. I open my mouth to ask her to just tell me right there, but then Poison yells out over the crowd.

“Everyone, prepare to start moving. We're heading far over to the other side of the desert. We don't want BLI to track us down ever again.” he says darkly. “Get your masks, bandannas, whatever it is you use to hide your identity on and your guns ready, this might get dangerous.” He concludes his short speech with an order. “Now get walking, all of you.”

Everyone gets moving immediately. I think of the radio. We lost the radio. I figure someone else probably has one, but it was our radio! I look back to the bunker as we walk away, wondering if someone else took it or if it was just sitting there in the dark. I don't known that Poison had dropped to the back of the crowd where we were until he spoke up. “Missed all the fun.” he says in a falsely cheerful tone. “So, mind telling me where were you two on this fine, fine morning?” Ghost and I don't say anything, suddenly taking great interest in the scenery. Scorch and Crimson sigh in unison. “Let me rephrase that. Tell me where you were.” he says, much more serious. “There aren't so many of us that I can't keep track of everyone.”

My partner has no intention of answering, so I speak instead. “We went to get the sleepin' pills for me. I couldn't sleep very well last night. I didn't want to spend another night like that, so I made 'im take me.” I say, looking at the ground guiltily. Now I wish I had stayed at the bunker instead of going on that dumb shopping trip. Now I've lost the radio, my first kiss, and probably Poison's favor. It seemed like he liked us, too. “It's my fault, I made him go.” I plead, hoping to keep Ghost at least out of trouble. It felt like he was always help me out of trouble, so now it was my turn to help him.

“Hey, I could've stayed if I wanted to.” says Ghost, trying to defend me in the way that he always does. Poison doesn't care much about it though.

“I was going to take the both of you when I could anyway. I wouldn't have cared if it was a normal day. But it wasn't. That's why we stick around and listen for my orders instead of running wherever we want.” he says. I thought he would've been angrier, but he just seems a little irritated.

“So,” I venture, “We aren't gonna be punished?” It never killed to be hopeful.

“I didn't say that. This isn't the time or the place right now. We'll wait until we reach our new house.” he sighs. We walk for a few minutes with the rest of the crowd in a bit of an awkward silence. Then he speaks up again. “Can I the four of you back here in on a little secret?” he asks, but before we can say anything, he continues. “I haven't told the others yet at the risk of them being friendly to the wrong people, but a small gang will be helping us take a quicker route to the new base. We're going to run into them soon enough.”

“Why're you tellin' us this?” Ghost asks.

“Because I like all of you. It's like having two sets of twins instead of one. You've surprised me so far, and I want to see what else you can do.” he replies nonchalantly. I'm not sure how the others feel because of his words, but my spirits are lifted by the praise. I listen to see if he says anything else, but he doesn't and we resume our previous silence. The crowd makes it's away across the desert, heading into the rockier half. I entertain myself by playing with a loose string on my shirt, using it to pass the time. In general, everyone was preoccupied by something, making the group quiet.

We walked like this for a little while, then someone in the front cried out, “Hey! Who're you?” to someone we couldn't see. Poison uses that as his cue to weave through all of us to the head of the group, one hand on his gun. He yells at us all to get in a circle so he could show us something, so we do. In the flurry to get everyone to a spot, Ghost ends up on the opposite side of the circle from where I am. I'm displeased with this, but I can't tell what his opinion is.

The we shift to make a little opening for Poison and the kids he's leading. They all wear bandannas over their faces, with only their eyes and hair visible. All I can make out of them right now is a redhead, two brown-hairs, and a kid, probably a girl, with long black hair. Not much to go on.

“Killjoys, these are a few wanderers that will be helping us travel to the new base.” Poison announces, and the group starts murmuring doubtfully, in distrust of the new kids. “They're trustworthy, believe me.” he says, trying to reassure us. “I'm not rewarding them until we're there, so they aren't leading us to a deathtrap. I know them anyway, and that should be enough for all of you.” is his argument, and it quiets us down a bit. “They're just going to hang around in the crowd and take us down the right paths when the time comes. If you're still uncertain, just talk to one near you or something.”

We fall back into our tangled group and start walking again. Ghost finds his way back to me, and Poison once again drops to the back, with one of the brown-haired kids with him. “Okay you four,” Poison starts, referring to Ghost, Scorch and Crimson, and me. “This is their leader. He doesn't look like much, but he's got potential. He's going to stay back here with me to help me keep an eye on everyone.” I twist my head to get a good look at the kid, a red bandanna pulled tight around his face. Our eyes meet for a moment, and I stare, swearing that I know that gaze. My gaze flicks to Ghost for a moment, who continues to walk, not caring about Poison or the kid behind him.

When I look back, the boy's pulling the bandanna down, and my eyes widen when I see who it is. “I said we'd meet again, didn't I?” Dust said with a grin. I open my mouth to say something, but no words come out. My face heats up, and I can hardly do anything but walk and stare.

“Well, Ice, it seems you two have been previously acquainted, for better or for worse. Scorch, Crimson, this is Dust.” How come Ghost hasn't noticed anything yet? What's he doing? Scorch and Crimson nod at Dust, but otherwise don't seem to be overly interested.. I don't say a word, I want more than anything right now to be ignored. My fingers fumble to my pocket, feeling the pistol. However, I don't think I'd be able to fire it, even if I was give a chance. I'm not sure why, but I don't think I could. I've never killed anyone before. I know I live in this deadly life, but no one's ever died by my hand.

Scorch, Crimson, and Dust start talking casually. I don't open my mouth for what feels like a couple hours, and Ghost's gaze out in front of us never wavers, his stony expression never changing. I know that we're well past the shop, and that we've got to be close to wherever we're going. We've been weaving in and out of the canyons for a while now, not covering any distance very quickly. I finally speak again. “Are we nearly there? We've been walking for a long time.”

Poison answers my question with an announcement to the group, his voice betraying hints of weariness. “Killjoys, we'll be taking a short rest for a little while.” As he says this, everyone wearily collapses onto the ground. Ghost slowly sits down, and only then observes who joined us in the back. He sees Dust, and I can almost see the fire in his eyes, burning with rage. He can't even do anything right now, not with everyone nearby like this. He just has to sit and tolerate it like I do.

I try to relax and I lean back against a canyon wall, pulling my mask down around my neck, shutting my eyes, and starting to get comfortable. I hear a little shuffling next to me on the rock, but I don't open my eyes, knowing that it's Ghost. The words, “Surprised, blondie? Or should I say, Ice?” make my eyes fly open. I scoot away from the menace known as Dust, and hope that if I ignore him, he'll go away. It doesn't work. I feel the sand shift next to me.

“C'mon, don't be like that. We've had such a good time together so far.” he says.

“Back off.” I growl, looking the opposite direction. I hear him chuckle, like the whole thing is just a game for him. “I mean it. Go away.” I say as menacingly as I could, which, for someone small like me, wasn't very scary at all.

“Look at me.” he says softly. I sigh, tired and not wanting to argue, so I turned and looked. With my fist clenched and ready if he tried anything. There he was, grinning confidently, a shark's smile. “That wasn't so hard now, was it?” he says, and starts to lean in. Already tensed, I instantly react, swinging my fist around. He can't move back in time, but right before I hit him, someone shrieks in a shrill voice.

“Exterminators!”

I freeze less than an inch from his face and turn to look, but I shrink down once the sounds of bullets rip through the air. I throw myself to the ground, with nowhere to run and hide, and no time to find a place anyway. I hear shrieks all around me, and a ton of dust is kicked up to the point where I can't see anymore. The ground starts shaking for some reason that isn't clear. A discordant symphony of screams, bullets, and some deep rumbling fill the world around me. The dust slowly settles, still lingering a little bit. I don't get up, and just lie there, face pressed to the earth.

I spend some time there, it could have been minutes, it could've been hours, just lying there, eyes wide with shock. I hear footsteps approach and prepare for the worst, for the gun to my head. But it never comes. “Found one!” a familiar voice cries. “Hey, Ice. You okay?” says Scorch above me. I look up at her, relieved to find that we still had people alive. I grin a little bit in response.

“Yeah, I guess I'm 'lright.”

“Gees, I've never been through a scrap like that before.” she says, cracking a weak smile. “I mean, I've fought Vamps and all that before, but cornered? With the hole group? Heck, if I had let any of my bullets fly, I would've hit the kid in front of me.” she sighs and plops down next to me. I sit up.

“I've never been in a fight before.” I confess. I've never killed anyone, to tell the truth. My life may seem rough and violent, but I usually avoid trouble. Either that, or Ghost takes care of it. He doesn't mind things like that. The most I've done is shoot animals, that's how I have a good aim. The closest I've come to truly hurting someone was when I shot at that group in the desert a few days ago. “Do ya'll get into things like this a lot?” I ask curiously.

“Often enough so we know what we're doing. I've mowed down my fair share of BLI forces.” she says, almost bragging. “How can you 'ave avoided a shootout for so long?” inquires Scorch.

“I don't know,” I start hesitantly, “It was just Ghost and I. We never really got into any trouble and were real careful when we went out to search. I only messed up once, 'cause I went out too late and took too long. That's when ya'll found me.” I conclude. It sounds right to me, at least. Scorch sighes.

“Lucky. My bro and I, even on our own, got into trouble all the time. We didn't have a lot of experience. We left just a few months before we found the Killjoys.” her voice cracks when she mentions her twin, and I realize that for once, he isn't with her. “Well, we oughtta search for survivors. I was with a few other kids. There isn't many of us out there, maybe four or five. We really got destroyed.” she stands up, and right before I do, the moan a couple feet away from me makes me stop. I watch as Dust pulls himself off the ground, coated from head-to-toe in sand. He wheezes.

“Didn't get down fast enough.” he croaks, then starts coughing again. I say the first thing that pops to mind, and it wasn't a note of concern or sympathy.

“I see that ya finally lived up to your name, eh, Dust?” I giggled. Scorch snickered, and Dust, well, if looks could kill, I'd be dead.

“Shut up Blondie.” he says ominously, brushing himself off. “You don't have your bodyguard with ya now.” I shuffle away from him and stand up, holding his stare. Scorch speaks.

“Look, I don't know why, but you two clearly ain't good friends. But get it together. We have to find everyone else that's alive.” she says, trying to resolve the conflict, to quench the fire burning in our eyes. We look away.

“Whatever.” he says, then stands. “Where do we even start? The place is filled with rocks on the ground and dirt in the air. Might as well be blind.”

“Cheery, aren't you?” I retort, and once again we stare, daring the other to try something. I, a little embarrassedly, turn away first. “We gotta try. We'll just poke around, look for a mask, an arm, something.” I say, and start walking around, a little aimlessly. Scorch was right, there are a few other kids looking around. It's a little disheartening to admit that we found quite a few corpses. I step over a body, stomach churning. I won't be able to deal with this for much longer. I take another step, and accidentally step on one of the bodies. Instead of silence, however, this one speaks.

Author's Note

Typo check, as per normal request.