Chapter Text
It was breathtaking.
Not in an amazing way, but the mix of the orange and purple lights that spelled the end of the city named July completely took Wolfwood’s breath away. He imagined the explosion took plenty of other people’s breath away as well.
There was a chorus of cries and wails as those who remained watched their homes and work crumble around them, not even the stern-faced military men were able to stop the tears coming out of their eyes.
“Vash...” whispered Meryl standing next to him with trembling legs, a bloodied pistol, and a much older look to her features.
Wolfwood wordlessly lit up a cigarette and looked up at the stars with clenched fists. He stayed like that until his voice finally decided to work.
“Let’s go” he mumbled as he grabbed The Punisher from the sandy ground.
“What about Vash?! I’m not leaving him!” glared Meryl.
“The blondie’s dead” (Wolfwood prayed to whatever God was there that he wasn’t.)
“We don’t know that...”
“Shortie, no one could survive that blast, not even him. I don’t care if he had some weird ass Plant biology, he fell from the fucking sky. You can’t walk that off”
Meryl looked to the ground; “You don’t know that”
The gears of a plan were already turning in his head as he spoke, “I promised him that I would get you to safety, so that’s what I’m going to do”
“Like you promised to help Vash?” she sneered.
Wolfwood ignored her, rolled his eyes, and grabbed her by the waist as he hoisted her up on his shoulder. Meryl did not take a liking to the action; “WOLFWOOD! Let me down!”
He didn’t answer as he walked over to where the military had set up camps for the new refugees while Meryl punched at his back; July had been lucky to set up its bus and sand steamer stations a far distance out of the city. Wolfwood did a quick look over the faces of the people he was approaching to make sure there was no one that recognized him; after he had accessed that it was safe, he walked up to a man that seemed like he was both in charge and completely out of his element.
Even Meryl seemed to have calmed down deciding to go limp as he still held her.
“Excuse me, but are you planning on getting some of the refugees out of here anytime soon?” asked Wolfwood.
The officer with a dazed look answered, “I-I don’t know....I...I think we’re waiting...”
Wolfwood sighed, “Okay, is there a place where someone can see my friend? She might be injured”
“There’s..um...a medical tent over there” pointed the officer to the left of him where he could see some doctors and nurses running around taking care of the injured and dying. He nodded in understanding and moved in the direction that was given to him.
“I’m not injured” mumbled Meryl.
“We...You don’t know that” answered Wolfwood sternly.
“Don’t sound so concerned”
Wolfwood didn’t answer as he got to the makeshift tent and plopped her down on the sand with a dull thud, Meryl grumbled some choice words as she rubbed her back with a grimace. He placed The Punisher on the ground and sat on it as he lit up another cigarette, letting the smoke cover the stars above him.
“What are you doing? I know you’re not injured” said Meryl.
“Restin’, even I need that” answered Wolfwood.
“We’ll get to you when we can!” yelled out a nurse in their direction. Wolfwood shrugged his shoulders; “Take your time!”
Meryl dragged her shoe in the sand; “What now?”
“That’s for you to figure out”
“I thought you promised Vash to protect me” wondered Meryl, “To get me to safety”
“First of all, I did get you to safety, I brought you here after all. Second of all, I didn’t promise needle-noggin' that although I’m sure the blonde idiot would've wanted me too”
“You call this safe? The completely destroyed city is still behind us! What about Knives? And his weird cult?!”
“There’s a sand steamer that will get you out of here, and I doubt the freaky fuckin’ doctor and his science experiments have stuck around”
“You’re still here, aren’t you?” questioned Meryl. Wolfwood glared back and nearly crushed his cigarette between his teeth; “Don’t make me regret it”
Meryl’s face frowned, “Wait what did you mean that Vash didn’t say that? Who did?”
Wolfwood didn’t get a chance to answer until the military officer from earlier ran up to them; “Excuse me sir!”
Wolfwood pointed at himself with a quizzical look. The officer nodded; “I noticed that you have a pretty big gun there and...well, I was wondering if you want to help us with the search? I-I don’t have many men left and we might encounter the Humanoid Typhoon while we’re out there”
Meryl fumed in silent anger while Wolfwood, This could make things easier.
He got up from his seat and said; “Sure, I don’t mind being put to the slaughter”
The officer looked bewildered; “I-I didn’t mean it that way...”
Wolfwood dryly chuckled; “I’m sure ya didn’t”
A nurse finally came up to the group right as Wolfwood hoisted up The Punisher on his shoulders; “Make sure she stays here and gets medical attention; she tends to be a runner” he said he pointed at Meryl.
“What is your relation to her?” asked the nurse giving Meryl a lookover.
“Brother” he lied with no hesitation.
“What?! Don’t listen to him!” yelled Meryl.
“We were coming here for some medical care of the psychological kind if you understand my meanin’. Make sure she gets back to September, it’s where the rest of our family is” said Wolfwood honeying his words and giving the nurse the tired, pleading eyes of a weary relative.
“I understand” smiled the nurse, “Thank you for helping”
“Wolfwood!” screamed Meryl as the tanned skin man walked away, “Get back here! Don’t just leave me here!!”
“S-Shouldn’t you be with your sister?” asked the officer, the daze in his eyes having gone away, replaced with worry.
“She’ll be fine” grumbled Wolfwood pulling out yet another cigarette, “Plus, we’ll come back, right?”
The officer nodded and they finally reached a medium-sized military truck with two other people leaning up against it, one a black-haired man and the other a dusty-haired woman both holding up ancient AK-style rifles in their arms, the two gave Wolfwood a strange look as he approached.
“You weren’t kiddin’ about his gun, Lieutenant” said the man in awe.
“You sure that’s a gun? It looks like a cross to me” said the woman.
“Crosses are weapons too, ya know” said Wolfwood blowing out smoke, “Guns or crosses, it doesn’t matter. They can help or kill anyone”
The three military officers were uncomfortably silent at the words. Wolfwood shrugged his shoulders and threw the weapon on top of the truck, “It helps that it converts into a rocket launcher, now are we gonna go or not?”
The first man (or the Lieutenant) fumbled with his orders to get into the truck, but they soon got on their way to the ruined city. The truck’s interior was small, not as small as Roberto and Meryl’s news van, but Wolfwood was hunched over with his knees tucked up to his chin compared to the latter where he could stretch out a bit, at least the front seemed to be a little spacious.
It’ll have to do but I’ll...we’ll have to find somethin’ better along the way, thought Wolfwood.
The small square windows in the back didn’t show much of the city but his glances at the front windshield didn’t show a pretty picture outside. Buildings were completely leveled; the skyscrapers had fallen straight into the ground causing their own earthquakes with chunks of earth and machinery scattered everywhere, parts of the ground were bloodier than others, and there were limbs sticking out whenever the truck’s light pointed in a certain direction.
Pure destruction. That’s all it was.
“It’s all lost...” whispered the woman soldier beside Wolfwood.
“Lost July...” agreed the unranked soldier in the passenger seat.
“Damn that man! It’s all his fault! If we find that fucking monster, I’m gonna kill him!” growled the Lieutenant.
Wolfwood didn’t comment. The pistol inside his suit jacket felt much lighter knowing what these people thought of the man that risked everything to save their lives. His life. He almost wanted to laugh in bitterness, the man they should point their hatred and weapons was already sitting right next to them.
Eventually, they reached the center of where the explosion happened, the group got out of the truck right on the edge of the giant crater. One of the soldiers pointed the light in the middle of it to see a man lying face down with some debris covering him.
Despite the purplish-colored jacket, the blonde hair made it no question who it was.
The woman and Lieutenant were standing in front of Wolfwood as the latter chuckled; “Guess we didn’t need you after all, this will be easy! He’s already injured-”
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Lieutenant turned slowly to see the woman beside him dead on the ground dark red blood flowing out of her forehead, the light pointing at their target now a shade of red with the sound of a body hitting the ground behind him.
A pattern of footsteps started.
He looked down to see a bullet hole leaking out of his stomach, his knees gave out on him with a dull thump and blood trickled out of his mouth.
The man with the cross appeared in front of him with a disinterested look and a pistol pointed at his temple.
“W-Why?”
“It’s nothin’ personal, just rightin’ some wrongs”
BANG!
Wolfwood dragged the bodies away from the truck and slid down the crater until he got to the blond. He pulled off the debris and other than the dyed jacket, slightly different hairstyle, and his protistic arm looking like it got chewed up by a rabid dog.
Other than that, it was clearly Vash the Stampede.
“What? Decided to get a quick makeover while fighting that manic?” grumbled Wolfwood as he pointed at the blondie’s face.
No response. Wolfwood checked his pulse-
Did Plants even have pulses?
-and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt one.
“Okay needle noggin let’s get outta here” said Wolfwood as he hoisted Vash up on his shoulder and hiked back up to the truck. He lifted the trunk and gently put him on the flat surface, he looked around for a chest under one of the benches he had sitting on and pulled out some blankets which he put over the blond.
“Sorry blondie, but it’ll have to do for now”
Wolfwood lit up a cigarette as Vash’s eyes fluttered open, “J...July....?”
“Blondie?!”
“...o-okay...?”
Wolfwood’s eyes widened, his teeth and fists clenched as he quietly said; “Yeah, blondie. You saved them....They’re all okay”
“Nai...?”
I hope the bastard is burning in hell.
“He’s alive”.
Vash smiled weakly and whispered before his unfocused eyes closed again; “Good...”
Wolfwood knew the blondie would hate him for lying to him, but he figured that would be a later problem. First, they needed to get far away from the remains of July.
He looted any pistol bullets he could find off the soldiers and muttered a quick prayer before getting in the truck and speeding off into the unknown.
The moon illuminated the bloodied sand.
Hopefully, God would put their souls to rest.
He hoped that God could forgive Vash.
He hoped that he would rot in the deepest pits in hell for what he had done.