Chapter Text
It was the end of the world, as they knew it. But neither of them felt as fine as they would have hoped.
They had trekked respective treks, fought respective battles, waged respective badassery whenever it was necessary. When the world had ended and they were the only ones left, a mutual decision of 'find me' had settled. Roxy, with her trusty rifle and a few bottles of her favourite vodka - and Dirk, with a stockpile of swords and as many bottles of Orange Crush that he could fit into his sylladex... they set out, agreeing to meet in what was once considered Chicago.
It was hard being one of two sole survivors of the Condescension. It was hard and very literally, no one understood. It was probably a bad idea for Roxy to have sprung her feelings on Dirk upon their decision, the five-minute silence from him had made her panic far more than anything else ever had. It needed to be said. He had to know. She had to tell him, he had to know in case... they didn't make it. To one another, to any point where it could have mattered. When he didn't outrightly put her down those arduous, anxious five minutes later she could have cried, but was too busy preparing her sylladex for the long trek she had ahead of her.
Dirk had similar sentiments, even with his feelings for Jake. The amplification of the 'we really are alone, aren't we' prospect had seated in him a sort-of desperation. He hadn't promised the girl anything but he hadn't shoved it out of his mind completely, deciding that once they met up he would be too tired, too lonely, too hardened and cynical to make anything but an honest decision. He'd told her this and she had been okay with it; the chance to meet with him, even under such dire circumstances, had given her something to hope for. He couldn't take that away from her. As the old adage came and went, love is all you need.
She'd only gotten a handful of hours out of the city before her mother's car had run out of gas, not bothering to try and refuel it she instead stopped off at an abandoned corner store, taking short inventory of her things and cramming as much food as she could into her own sylladex. Roxy didn't know how long this would take. She didn't know how much she would need, or what might be taken from her by the drones - if they found her. She'd avoided a few of them on the way to this location, having to put her mad driving skills to the test. The big secret was she had never drove anywhere at length before. Whoops. To help her out, Dirk had thrown together a program to let the AR inhabit her phone - and right now he was serving as a wonderful GPS for her. She was grateful for the company, but somehow it served to make her even more depressed about the whole thing.
Dirk managed to get further than she had, his truck ((and the can of gasoline he had in the bed of it)) getting him ten hours or so into his journey. When he gave up on the vehicle, he began hoofing it - AR helping him with directions, too.
-- autoResponder [AR] began pestering timaeusTestified [TT] --
AR: End of the world, huh.
AR: Tricksy business.
TT: Yeah, that it is. How's our time?
AR: You got a pretty good start already. Walking by itself would take 12 days. I think you've taken a considerable chunk out of that. You're in Alton, IL now. 3 days of walking for you.
TT: Good to know. How's Rox?
AR: Not so fortunate. She only managed to get about 4 hours driving time out of her mom's car.
TT: No refueling?
AR: A bit too despondent to learn how.
AR: She's never driven before.
TT: Shit.
TT: How's she doing?
AR: She's in Canada.
TT: At least she won't have to deal with Canucks.
TT: Canooks?
TT: Is there an actual spelling for that?
AR: You're an ass, Dirk. But you're heading in the right direction at least.
TT: No more of an ass than you are.
AR: Touché. Rox's got 7 days of walking ahead of her.
TT: Keep an eye on her, okay? Let me know if she runs into trouble.
AR: Will do.
-- autoResponder [AR] ceased pestering timaeusTestified [TT] --
Slinging his bag over his shoulder, Dirk gave his orange pickup a loving pat on the hood, sighing.
"We'll meet again one day, old girl. Be good." And he set off.