Work Text:
Zack wakes up, like he has done every morning for the past few days, in Melissa's hideout. It is small, and dark, and unfamiliar. He misses his parents. He likes having a little more freedom, being able to say what he likes without fear, but he misses his family.
This morning, when he wakes up Melissa is already up. He sits up, rubbing his eyes. She is leaning over something on the table, brows furrowed in concentration. He watches as she writes something, then goes back to furrowing. "Morning, Melissa."
She jumps, dropping her pen. "Morning, Zack." She replies. "I'm never gonna get used to having someone else in here."
He gets up and shuffles over, yawning. "What's that?"
"Map." Melissa says. Zack gives her a look. "It's a map of the south side of the city. This building-" She points at a building circled with red pen. "-used to be a resistance base. It got destroyed a couple years ago. Some people died; some people scattered to other resistance cells. We think it was the Murphy Weapon." She screws her face up a bit when she says that. "We went over it with a fine-toothed comb when it happened, but we didn't find anything."
"And you're looking at it now because..."
"Because of this." Melissa turns over a piece of paper on the table. "Someone wants to meet me there."
Zack reads the note. "This stinks of a trap."
"Exactly." Melissa agrees. "It's totally a trap. But whoever's doing the trapping knows where I am, because this note was pushed in through the window." Her brow furrows again, this time from worry. And no wonder. Melissa's hideout is supposed to be totally secret. Apparently, even the resistance doesn't know exactly where to find her. "I don't think it's the government. We would've already had the Normbots here if it was."
"Or the Murphy Weapon shot right at us." Zack shudders.
"I want to say that they wouldn't risk collateral damage... but they totally would. I've got a comprehensive record of every confirmed or suspected use of the Murphy Weapon, and there have been people killed who weren't resistance. The emperor doesn't give a fuck, and neither do any of those bastards who work for him." She clenches her fist, while her other hand reaches down to touch her ever present backpack.
"What's the plan, then?" Zack asks, trying to distract her.
She sighs, turning back to the map. "We'll head there early. I'll wait where they asked me to, and you go in here." She circles the building next door in blue. "There's a window that overlooks the rubble. As soon as it looks like it's gonna get nasty, you ambush."
"This seems dangerous." Zack says, frowning. "What if there are lots of them? I don't like you being out there alone."
"Me being alone will lull them into a false sense of security. If there are too many, I'll just bolt." Melissa says. "It is risky, but we need to handle this now. If they know where we are, we need to know who they are, what they want, and what we're gonna do about them." She stands. "So come on, let's head out."
"I haven't had breakfast yet!" Zack complains.
"Take some rations and eat them when we're there."
———
Zack pushes open the door to the abandoned building. It looks like it was a shop, once. But now the shelves are empty, coated in dust. And the counter is devoid of people.
"This isn't creepy at all." He whispers to himself. He lets go of the door, and it slams behind him. He jumps. "Gah!"
He continues forward into the room, dust swirling around as he disturbs it. He clambers over the counter and opens the door behind it. Now he is in what was probably once a staffroom. One of the windows is broken, so he creeps over to that one and looks out.
Melissa is standing in what was once a building. Now it is rubble, with barely any walls left standing. She turns to see him in the window. "In position?"
"Yup." Zack glances around, reminding himself that this building is mostly safe. Melissa is the one in danger. "The Murphy Weapon did this? Geez." The old resistance base is so destroyed, he is surprised that anyone survived.
"Yeah, it's bad." Melissa crosses her arms and looks around, glaring at an enemy who isn't present. "Now duck down, you need to stay hidden."
So Zack ducks down underneath the window. He tries not to stand on the broken glass, but some gets trodden into his shoes despite his best efforts. And he waits. And waits. And waits.
"How long?" He calls out.
"Ten minutes to go." Melissa calls back. "So shh, 'cause if they have any brains they'll get here early."
"They messed with you, so they can't have many brains." Zack jokes. He isn't entirely joking. Melissa can be a bit scary.
Melissa laughs. "Damn right. But seriously, shut up."
More waiting. More waiting. And more waiting.
Finally, finally, Zack hears a noise. A voice. "Hey, kid. You're the Wildfire?" A man's voice. Zack sniggers a bit. That's her secret resistance name? But he stays silent.
"That's me. And you are?" Melissa sounds harsh, suspicious. Zack has been on the receiving end of her suspicion before, and it was definitely intimidating. He really was expecting to be skewered.
"Dakota. And that's Cavendish." The man says. "You're alone?"
"Yeah. You're not."
"I'm not."
Zack can't see anything, but the tension is so thick that he could cut it blindly.
"What do you want?" He can imagine Melissa's slight step forward, her hand on her stick in a silent threat.
But he is distracted from that by a noise behind him. He turns to see the door opening, and a Normbot coming towards him. And then another. And another.
"I want to help you. I-"
Whatever 'Dakota' was going to say, he is interrupted by Zack's panicked yell as he tumbles out of the window. "Sorry but it's urgent!" He yells to the three, right before a horde of Normbots burst straight through the wall.
"Let's put a pin in that." Melissa says to the pair of men, before grabbing Zack's arm and sprinting off with him. "Damn bastards, it was a trap!"
"You think that they're with the emperor then?"
"I don't know, let's work that out when we survive!"
"You're awfully confident!"
They run through the rubble, followed by blasts and yelled orders. Zack is pretty sure that those men are yelling, too, but he is more focused on surviving. They run up what used to be stairs, but what is now more like an obstacle course. Melissa leaps the gaps with practise ease. Zack keeps up.
At the top of the stairs is damaged and crumbling floors, debris, rubbish. They stumble and trip, but manage to stay away from the Normbots, which are flying towards them.
They duck around a corner, out of the Normbots' sight. "Left!" Melissa yells, while yanking him right and into a room. She shuts the door and starts dragging debris in front of the door.
Zack steps backwards and takes a deep, shaky breath. "That wa-"
"Shh." Melissa puts a finger on her lips.
Zack nods, closing his mouth. He steps back again, this time stepping on something squishy. He turns around.
He claps his hand over his mouth to muffle his shriek of surprise.
Melissa spins around, finger on her lips. When she sees why he made a noise, her face goes as white as a sheet.
Zack takes a step backward, hands over his mouth. He keeps making funny noises, frightened and disgusted and horrified noises. His stomach turns, and he is sure that he is going to puke.
Melissa puts her hand on his shoulder and gently guides him to turn around and sit down. He is trembling, and his stomach is squirming, and he can't stop picturing it. He is trapped in a room with a dead body. He can't do this.
Hands over his mouth, his breaths come short and shallow. He tries to be quieter, which only makes breathing harder. Tears prick at his eyes.
Melissa sits next to him, rubbing his upper arm. He relaxes against her, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to pretend that they're just back at the hideout. That everything is fine. That everything is normal.
Finally, Melissa squeezes his hand. "I think they're gone." She whispers, standing up and holding out her hand. He takes it, grateful for the help as his legs shake like leaves in a hurricane. He hurries out as fast as possible, then collapses against the wall.
"Oh my god. There was a... a..." He retches, clapping his hands over his mouth in case he throws up. But despite the twisting, turning, jumping, somersaulting, flipping, and all of the other gymnastics his stomach is performing, he doesn't throw up.
"I know." Melissa leans against the wall, exhaling loudly.
"You are worryingly chill about this!" Zack exclaims, his voice several levels higher than normal.
She sighs. "I don't like it. I feel freaked out too." She says. "But I knew there was a chance we'd see something here, since people died. And I've seen bodies before." She shudders. Zack sees the look in her eyes, and immediately feels awful.
He takes a few more deep breaths, and then leans over the broken floor to look down at where they started. "Hey, where'd those guys go?"
"Where'd those kids go?" Zack jumps when he hears a noise, right around the corner. "I swear that they came this way."
"This was not a good idea." Another voice. That must be the other man. "They very likely ran away, and we are not going to be able to persuade them to meet us again."
Melissa draws her stick, and Zack jumps to his feet and catches his from her. When the men round the corner, they are immediately greeted by poles pointed right in their faces. They yelp, taken by surprise. "I think I was pretty reasonable before. This time, you get one minute to explain."