Chapter Text
“What now?”
Looking at the ruins, motionless, Dani only realized she had spoken out loud when Illyana answered.
“Well first Roberto, please get some pants.”
Rahne stuck her head through the door.
“Want some help? I finished my bag.”
“Nah, don’t worry. It’s not like I had a lot of things to begin with. But I don’t have a bag.”
Her girlfriend -were they girlfriends? she would have time to worry about that later- made a grabby hand motion and Dani handed her the few clothes and toiletries Reyes gave her only two weeks ago. She played with the hem of the thin blanket, suddenly unsure. She had managed to stop herself from really thinking about the future while showering away all the blood and gathering her stuff, but the questions were gnawing at the back of her head. Where could they go? Maybe everyone would want to go their own way. Then what? Her reserve was destroyed. Her dad- And Essex Corp would probably try to get them to come back, and she didn’t even know how to use her power-
“Hey.”
She looked up, swallowing the traitorous lump in her throat. Rahne stroked her cheek gently, holding her gaze steadily.
“We’re gonna be okay. Let’s see the real world now!”
Dani took her hand and slammed the door behind them.
The others were nowhere to be seen but Rahne led her to Reyes’ office, following her heightened hearing. Sam and Roberto are rummaging through drawers, the latter straightening up with an exclaimed “Ah!”, a small key in his hand. He turned to show it to Sam and jumped upon seeing the girls.
“Found the key!” he said proudly.
Rahne and Dani looked at each other. Sam grinned excitedly.
“Yay. The key for what? Wasn’t everything controlled by her voice?”
He brushed her questions aside and strode the room in three steps. He opened the huge metal cupboard in a corner and got out four cardboard boxes, each marked with a name. Rahne reluctantly let go of Dani’s hand to get closer, brushing her fingers over her name.
“Is that…”
“The things this bitch took from us,” finished Sam disdainfully. It was weird to hear him, ever the peacekeeper, speak so harshly of the woman he used to trust wholly. “Dani, you don’t have one? She wouldn’t let us keep anything other than clothes. Said it was for our own good, so we’d actually finish the therapy.”
“I only had my necklace,” she answered, sitting on the desk to watch.
It seemed somewhat intrusive but she didn’t want to be alone right now. This being said, maybe she should go see where Illyana had disappeared.
“Is that what I think it is?”
No need after all. The blonde tore her box open unceremoniously, Lockheed on one hand. She held up a piece of paper in front of the puppet -well, by now they all knew it was not really one-, whispering in Russian. Dani had realized that although Illyana talked English with the dragon when wanting others to understand, like during her very first day, she usually spoke to him in her mother tongue.
Illyana snickered and put the paper in her pocket.
Rahne finished putting her things into her backpack and came to sit next to Dani, kissing her on the cheek.
“Alright ?”
“Perfect,” she made a gesture towards the old box, “I realized I never asked how long you all have been here.”
Four pairs of eyes -five if she counted black plastic eyes- fell on her and she wondered if she had once again been tactless. But Sam simply shrugged and said “about ten months, but I was the last to arrive” so either they were too tired to care, either saving each other from a giant dream bear and subsequently freeing themselves from their golden cage got them close enough to forget tact. Perhaps both.
“A year, like Illy,” commented Roberto. “But there were other people before, right Rahne? You’ve been here the longest.”
“Yeah. I arrived two years ago I think? At the very beginning of the program, actually. We were five, the others moved one by one. Now I wonder where they were sent to…”
“Remember Mike?” said Illyana, “man, the boy was dumb as a brick. It doesn’t surprise me that he left first, he already had the whole brainless part of brainless killer.”
It wasn’t really funny but they laughed shamelessly, the light tension defused.
His box now empty, Roberto sat backwards on the desk chair and rolled himself towards the others.
“So, what are we doing now? Anyone got an idea?”
“We can’t stay near,” answered Sam. “Essex will probably come looking after us and I won’t go back in their program shit.”
“Let’s already go to the first town. We don’t even know where we are.”
Dani touched the photo of her father in her pocket, cautiously folded with her necklace. These may be her only belongings, but looking up to the others, she thought she didn’t need more. All the questions turning in her head were useless ; she had her friends. They would be okay. She jumped from the desk, taking Rahne’s hand in hers.
“She said thirty miles away, uh? Let’s see for ourselves.”
They had been walking in companionable silence for about fifteen minutes when Sam spoke up, slightly out of breath.
“Hey. Reyes lived in the hospital with us, right? She never left. So there were deliveries for food and whatever. You don’t think she had a car?”
“Nah, I looked everywhere,” said Illyana. “And none of us know how to drive anyway.”
“I do,” said Dani. “My dad taught me.”
“Do you even reach the pedals?” said Illyana, her voice mocking like always but her smile warm.
Dani shrugged, swinging her and Rahne’s linked hands.
“I only drove the truck around once or twice though.”
“Still, we’d be faster,” mumbled Sam.
“If you really wanna go faster, go for it, fly away,” teased Roberto half-seriously. “Wait, you could do that, no? To see how long we still have and if we are even going in the right direction.”
Sam gestured helplessly towards his broken arm and slight limp that persisted since the battle against the giant bear, what seemed like an eternity ago but was only a few hours.
“I’d rather not right now.”
“Nobody had a phone?” asked Rahne.
“Nah. And Reyes’ got eaten with her.”
She hummed.
“I can’t smell anyone except us.”
“Probably because of Roberto’s obnoxious shampoo,” commented Illyana.
“You told me it smelled good!” he cried out, clutching his chest in mock hurt.
“Don’t we all have the same anyway?”
“Maybe it’s his own body odor then.”
Roberto shoved Illyana lightly, which started a ten-minute long shove battle involving all five teenagers.
“Once we’re up that hill we’ll be able to see further away,” said Dani, rubbing her forearm. Sam had apologized profusely for not measuring his strength with his cast.
They looked at each other, a puppy-like excitation still reigning.
“Last one at the top is a loser!”
They took off running.