Work Text:
In a world already hot enough as it is, Heejin is glad to have Jiwoo’s warm hand holding hers.
Warmth means she’s alive, and that’s all that matters right now.
It’s not easy being on the run, especially having stolen Immortan’s favourite breeder. But all things considered, things had been going well for them until now.
Heejin’s eyes burn as she stares out at the endless desert landscape, pushing on the gas pedal as hard as she can.
Slumped beside her in the war rig, Jiwoo slips in and out of consciousness but still manages to keep herself tethered to Heejin through it all, hand over hers on the clutch. They had made it through the sandstorm. They had ploughed through the crow infested grey sludge of what must’ve been a forest before the bomb, before things just stopped growing. And they had safely driven through the marauder biker territory of the canyon.
What neither of them had realized was that a war pup had managed to sneak himself on board. Apparently he didn’t get the memo that Jiwoo was to be brought back to the Citadel unscathed. Not that it mattered; Heejin would’ve shot him dead anyway just for coming anywhere near her. But she couldn’t stop him from slashing Jiwoo’s side before pulling the trigger.
Heejin feels Jiwoo’s grip tighten and breathes a little easier.
“Thank you for saving me, Heejin. It’s better dying here with you than trapped in the Citadel.”
Despite the dry heat, Heejin feels her eyes become glassy. “Don’t talk like that. We’re almost there. We’ll get to the Green Place and you’ll be fine,” she replies firmly, blinking back the tears and refocusing on the gritty path ahead.
“Ok.” They’re both quiet at that. Heejin keeps driving, dust blowing behind them. The quiet doesn’t last when a terrible groan makes its way out of Jiwoo and Heejin skids the rig to a stop, jumping to properly check on her.
No. No, no, no, no, no.
Paying closer attention, she can see the makeshift wrappings are soaked through, blood staining the seat. Heejin pushes it back, moves Jiwoo to the floor behind them and sits her upright again. She tries her best to change the bandages quickly and ignore Jiwoo’s poorly concealed winces. Her hands were made to patch up cars, not people.
Putting a hand to her forehead, pushing her sweaty bangs back, she notes the clamminess of the skin, not to mention how pale she looks. Jiwoo’s fairness was one of the things that drew Immortan to her, her skin smooth and unblemished by the radiation that scarred almost everyone else, but now she looks close to spectral.
This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening , Heejin repeats like a mantra. She looks around the compartment for anything she can give Jiwoo to keep her warm. She has nothing left to give, but poor Jiwoo is shaking like a leaf in the white cotton dress she escaped in.
Shivering, Jiwoo opens her arms, and Heejin rushes into them, hopefully raising her temperature despite the ever present heat. She tries to ignore how weak her pulse feels, ear pressed to her chest.
She isn’t sure if this position they’re in is even good for Jiwoo, especially in her fragile condition. But Heejin thinks she’d do the same if she were dying.
No. Jiwoo is not dying. Not on her watch. Still, the thought plagues her.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. I’m sorry we had to meet like this, in this universe.”
“I’m not. Maybe we weren’t long for this world, but I’m still glad that I met you, Heejin.”
A wracked sob makes its way out of Heejin as she looks up. “No, there- there are healers at the Green Place. We can make it. Just hang on for me, please.” She laces their fingers together, Heejin holding Jiwoo’s hand to her cheek. She feels so small, so helpless as she listens to her shallow heartbeat.
She has to keep going. There are people that can help them at the Green Place. Jiwoo’s going to make it. She has to . Heejin can’t fail her now, not when they’ve come all this way. She carefully extracts herself and takes her place in the driver's seat and starts the rig up. Jiwoo still shuffles closer in the back, sitting behind the console and putting a hand over hers on the stick like before.
“If there was any way I’d want to go, it would be by your side,” Jiwoo whispers.
Heejin chokes back a whimper. “You’re not going anywhe- ”
“We had our fun, didn’t we Imperator? Sneaking out to the greenhouse, being with you there, it felt just like this Green Place you described. I’m glad I got to see part of your home with you.”
She remembers those nights well. On the occasions when Heejin wasn’t ferrying anything, done with her Imperator duties and able to stay overnight, they’d spend time among the living greenery. Jiwoo had a few special privileges, being Immortan’s favourite, and access to the greenhouse was one of them.
(Those privileges became extra useful when they decided to break out, exact plans slowly becoming realized. With access to food that contained actual nutrients and the prized aqua cola reserves, over the course of a few weeks of smuggling materials, Heejin’s rig was stocked better than even the nearest bullet farm. Was it unfair to pilfer resources from an already starving city? Maybe. But nothing’s fair anymore, like how Immortan manufactures scarcity to starve the Citadel’s citizens into obedience.
Or the way he treats Jiwoo and the other breeders like things he can toss aside when they lose their lustre, as though Jiwoo could be anything less than beautiful at any age, regardless of whether she could bear children. To think he would even consider getting rid of her because he was tired of waiting for an heir... Screw his stockpile and screw him, Heejin had reasoned. Though in retrospect, leaving a note saying exactly that in Jiwoo’s old room may not have been the best idea. Hindsight is 20/20, and she had to say something before they left.)
When not with Immortan, Jiwoo was even allowed to tend to some of the garden plots on the rooftop of the Citadel headquarters. So naturally, that meant Heejin would be there to help too.
Heejin hadn’t had strawberries since she was a child. That hunger streak was broken when Jiwoo fed her one night, hands stained sticky and sweet. That night, Jiwoo listened intently as Heejin told her of her home. Jiwoo had looked at her with such tenderness and said it sounded beautiful. That she’d love to see it one day, to leave this place behind.
The green thumb to her black thumb, time spent together like this made Heejin feel like they fit together perfectly. She always thought Jiwoo’s penchant for nurturing life was inspiring; it reminded her of home, before she was taken. With people like Jiwoo, maybe they’d be able to grow back the earth to what it once was. And with the seed of that idea planted by Jiwoo, Heejin let it grow, thinking through the logistics of what they’d actually need to get them out of there.
Heejin’s vision for them hasn’t changed. She steels herself and returns to the present, keeping her eyes on the road ahead but still engaging with Jiwoo in the back. “You’re going to see the actual Green Place soon, I promise. I just need to you keep-”
She feels her grip slacken before she sees Jiwoo’s head loll in the rearview mirror, her body falling over and onto the floor of the rig.
“No! Jiwoo, please, please stay with me!”
Heejin can’t afford to stop now. She's almost there. She just has to hope Jiwoo can hang on just a little longer.
She drives on, willing herself not to break down.
The rig is going dangerously fast, orange-red flecks of sand kicking up with bits flying through the windows and stinging past her face but Heejin doesn’t care. She’s so, so close.
Finally, she sees someone. A young woman with black, messy hair standing on the remains of a rusty transmission tower.
The woman looks down to her but doesn’t reach for the automatic rifle strapped to her back. Heejin takes this as a sign to approach.
She quickly hops off the rig, sans weapons. She doesn’t want whoever this is to get the wrong idea. Despite every fiber of her being telling her to run and beg for this woman’s help, she slowly and cautiously approaches. “I am one of The Lunar Women! From the mothers of the night!” she shouts. “My initiate mother was from the Jeon line and clan of Threes!"
Please help me! she doesn’t say. The black haired woman looks down at her before belting out what sounds like a howl.
Suddenly, she’s surrounded by dirt bikes. She counts nine of them and eventually, they stop and dismount. The black haired woman from before climbs down the tower to join them as well. Heejin tries but can’t make out the features of any of these new people, with the scarves and riding goggles covering most of their faces.
The riders look at one another, then to her, then back to each other. Almost as though silently asking who would be the one to approach first. Heejin swallows back the urge to run. Hesitantly, a woman walks towards her. She lowers her face covering and removes her specters, and then so do the others. The woman has the most familiar cat-like eyes.
“Heejin?”
That voice. She can’t believe it. Hyunjin, her old friend, is still here. “I’m home,” she croaks out.
The two run to each other, embracing tightly.
Hyunjin pulls back. “How long has it been?”
“7000 days, I think. Plus the ones I don’t remember.” Heejin doesn’t even notice she’s smiling, the feeling so foreign to her after all the close calls on their trip.
Hyunjin smiles back, her canines showing. It’s incredible that she’s managed to keep all her teeth, Heejin thinks. “Where did you come from?” she asks in disbelief.
“The west. The Citadel, past the mountains.” She doesn’t want to think about that place now though. She’s here, reunited with her soul friend. She has to introduce her to-
Her thoughts are interrupted when Hyunjin grows serious. “You came alone right?”
Heejin gasps. How could she possibly forget? “No, I- my-” she stutters, pointing back to the rig. “Do you have any doctors with you? Healers? My… my friend, Jiwoo, she’s really badly hurt… she has a wound at her side and I tried to patch it but she keeps losing blood and she collapsed on the way here and-”
A grey haired woman approaches her then. “My mother passed a few things on to me. Take me to her and I’ll see what I can do.”
Heejin nods and races back to the rig, the grey haired woman and the others following. “Thank you,” she pants when she comes to a stop. “Thank you so much…”
“Chaewon.”
“Thank you Chaewon.” Heejin climbs up and opens the door. She pulls Chaewon up and into the rig.
It’s a bloody mess where Jiwoo’s laying. Heejin feels sick looking at it, but can’t look away. At least it looks like she’s still breathing, seeing her chest rise and fall.
Chaewon gives her a pitying gaze. “Why don’t you wait outside while I take a look?”
Heejin wants to argue, but acquiesces.
She hops out of the rig and joins Lunar Women. “Hey,” she broaches, settling beside Hyunjin. She hears Hyunjin let out a small hum, and knows she has her attention. “When Chaewon’s done, I can’t wait for her to see it.”
“See? See what?” Hyunjin asks.
“Home,” Heejin breathes out. The thought keeps her going, finally getting to show Jiwoo this missing part of herself. “The Green Place. Jiwoo’s so good with plants, I swear.”
It feels like everyone around her has stopped breathing. The silence is deafening, and Heejin grows queasy wondering what they’re all bracing for.
A rough hand brushes against hers. Without looking at her, Hyunjin hooks their pinkies.
“Heejin,” Hyunjin starts. “If you came from the West… you passed it.”
“What? I don’t understand,” Heejin says. She thinks back on their journey, but she saw nothing that looked like home.
“On your way here, did you pass by the…” Hyunjin says, struggling with the words. “The place with the crows, the grey place. Did you drive through it?”
Heejin nods slowly. Hyunjin looks away.
Heejin looks to the other Lunar Women for an explanation. All of a sudden, they’re talking over each other.
“The soil-”
“We had to get out-”
“We had no water-”
“It was sour, it was poisoned by the war boys-”
“The men from the west tried to take us-”
“We lost so many and now we just have the seeds-”
“We’re the only ones left-”
“We couldn’t grow anything.”
It can’t be true. Heejin’s head hurts thinking about it. She looks back to the horizon where they came from. The place she once called home… is it really so unrecognizable?
Chaewon suddenly appears behind her, tapping her gently on the shoulder. Her face looks purposefully blank, like she’s hiding bad news. Though she tries, Heejin can’t make out her expression. So she asks, heart racing. “How is she?”
Chaewon averts her eyes. Heejin thinks she looks guilty. She stays quiet until Chaewon meets her gaze. “She’s awake now. I- I’m sorry. She’s lost too much blood. I’m not sure how long she has left. You should go see her.”
Heejin doesn’t need to be told twice. She practically sprints up the rig and into the back, stopping dead in her tracks when she sees Jiwoo.
She’s so pale, and her breathing is obviously off. But she’s still here. Jiwoo gives her a tired smile and Heejin takes a second to compose herself and moves to sit beside her. She can’t resist the familiar comfort of leaning into her side but keeps most of her weight to herself knowing how fragile Jiwoo is right now.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes, you know that?” Jiwoo says. “More like sore everything, really,” she laughs weakly, breath coming out short.
Heejin’s jaw clenches. “You don’t have to pretend with me. You don’t have to lie about your feelings to make me feel better. I know you know what’s happening. Back at the Citadel you were a full-life and now... now you’re-”
“I know. And I’m not lying. Having you beside me is enough, Heejin. I- I don’t want to die but I can be content like this. We made it this far together, isn’t that incredible?”
“Yeah,” she replies, faintly. Heejin glances at Jiwoo through the corner of her eye, unable to look at her directly.
For a moment they both just sit there, arms brushing. With how perpetually hot the air is, sweat is an annoyingly permanent state of being. But right now, Heejin doesn’t mind the way they stick together, feeling the warmth from the contact. She wishes they could stay like this forever.
She feels Jiwoo nudge her, sticking her head out ever so slightly, and who is Heejin to deny her headpats at a time like this? Not that she ever could deny her, of course. Heejin can feel Jiwoo melt into the touch as they lean their heads into each other. Heejin still can’t look at her, staring at a random spot on the floor in front of her, but it feels good closing the distance. As good as it can feel given the circumstances, anyway.
As if sensing Heejin’s shift in mood, Jiwoo pipes up. “Chaewon showed me all the seeds she’s keeping. You should ask her about them. She seems nice, maybe she’ll share them. So much variety, I can’t even imagine what would grow from them all. Much more than back at the Citadel, huh?”
“Yeah,” Heejin chokes out.
“Promise me you’ll do something with them? It’d be a shame not to see what grows.” She holds up a pinky to cement it, but Heejin doesn’t move. Can’t move, really. Jiwoo puts her hand down.
There’s nowhere left to grow them , Heejin thinks. They came all this way, made it this far, for nothing. The home she once knew doesn’t exist anymore, not like she described. She can’t bear to break the news to her like this, but feels like she owes her the honesty. “Jiwoo, the only place we could use them would be The Green Place. And, well…”
Jiwoo turns to face her. “Ahh, yes. The Green Place… so lovely.”
She’s frustrated that she can’t just spit it out. She tries to be direct. “Jiwoo, I’m so sorry, but you won’t be able to actually see it. We didn’t- we won’t be able to make it to the Green Place,” Heejin admits, head hanging in shame.
“But we did, Heekie.”
Confusion paints her face. “Wooming,” she starts, guilt building, “it’s gone. The Green Place is gone.”
“No it isn’t, silly,” Jiwoo responds so gently, bringing trembling hands to Heejin’s face and pulling her down. Their lips meet in the softest of kisses, too soft for this world.
“You’re my Green Place. As long as you live, your home will never die. Thank you, thank you Heejin for sharing it with me.”
Heejin leans her forehead into Jiwoo’s, breathing her in. God, this is all she’s ever wanted, but not like this. Never like this.
It’s as though Jiwoo can read her mind. She lets out a short laugh that leaves her breathless for a second. “I’ve wanted to do that for so long too,” she says once she’s caught her breath. “I think I can die happy now. I’m free and with you, what more can I ask for?”
With that, Jiwoo slips away, taking her first kiss to the grave. Heejin watches her in real time, the way the light leaves her eyes and her body grows limp in her hold. They say that before you die you have one last moment of complete clarity. One last chance to be present before moving on. Heejin hates that she knows exactly what that looks like now.
Some say the world died when the bomb dropped. Heejin knows this isn’t true, because she just felt the world die in her arms.
For a while, Heejin just holds Jiwoo’s lifeless body. She fears if she lets go, she’ll disappear completely. It’s so strange not feeling her heartbeat like it once did, so full of life. And she’s just so cold. Heejin feels untethered, lost. Eventually, the hushed voices outside the rig bring her back to earth. She gently brushes her fingers over Jiwoo’s eyelids and slowly tears herself away.
When she steps off the rig, the voices cease. She knows they’re looking at her but Heejin can’t focus on anything. She walks past them and drops to the sand, letting out the most guttural scream her body can produce.
Nobody comes near her. She’s glad. She needs to be alone.
She wants the ground to swallow her whole. It’s not like there’s much left of her anyway. When Jiwoo died, she took a big part of her with her. No amount of screaming will bring that back, though giving into the primal urge does grant the tiniest bit of relief. Eventually, the tears stop when her body has none left to give and her throat grows unbearably hoarse.
What was the point of this journey? What was the fucking point ? She had wanted to take Jiwoo somewhere safe, somewhere better. She wanted to show her that paradise can exist on earth, that life still exists on this ravaged planet.
She had failed.
It would’ve been better if they had never left at all. Jiwoo wouldn’t be free, but maybe she’d be alive if she could’ve kept her hopes in check.
Heejin’s knees are numb from kneeling in the hot sand for so long. She stares out into the west and thinks about Jiwoo’s last wishes. To plant and see the fruits of the seeds.
The Green Place is gone . There’s nowhere to plant them, to see what would grow. The only place left that could even remotely work is…
Heejin gets up and shakes the static out of her legs and sand from her pants. It’s crazy. It’s absolutely insane. But what does she have to lose, now that she’s lost everything?
The Lunar Women eye her carefully as she walks back. Hyunjin approaches her first but Heejin doesn’t stop. She keeps walking until Hyunjin tugs at her arm.
“Heejin, are you alright? Where are you going?”
For a moment, Heejin just stares at her. Then at the others. Then back to the rig, where Jiwoo lays. Time to make their escape worth it or die trying.
“I’m going to take back the Citadel. You coming?”