Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“If you looked at Earth now, the world would look like a mess.”

“Empty cities; some claimed back into nature, others left black as they are caked in chemicals.”

“Dead areas of land that not a single plant would dare stretch a root into and animals dare venture.
World roomed by monsters in the dark night as humans struggled to survive it.”

“Pockets of populations that are still able to hold on in strongholds, the last ditch plan of humanity for a chance to come back from. Underground cities that stretch out like ant colonies.”

“We will never know what really happened. The disaster happened when all parents' generation were children with very little memory of it themselves.”

“Over fifty years ago, as the world was still fighting political wars online when the most important thing to people was the fast flow of memes or tv shows to keep them distracted as resources were extracted and the world heated up.”

“That world changed overnight. Monsters attacked in the night, no one having an answer as the governments in the world keep these all under wraps.
The word vampires was thrown about even then before the panic and the eventual end of the internet as it had been.”

“At least that is what is taught to us. But with enough research of old forums from people that were far more insistent with recording the horrors that caused a war that totaled the world. Biomasses of flesh that overtook cities that the governments then bombed in the hopes of ridding them, learning the fire worked far better, far too late.”

A raven black-haired teen stood in front of her class, her power point behind her. One that she didn’t need to stick as many photos as she had in it playing automatically.
‘And now look at us here in our safe little classroom,’ she said and looked between the many faces that didn’t have a single interest in what she was saying.
All thinking the same thing, that she was crazy, that she should be happy living as she is.
She glared at them all, taking in a breath to prepare for her next part.
‘Which is why I think we should be picking up our firearms game since fire works so well. Why not make a gun with a concentrated beam of energy.’ She announced and whipped the gun she had strapped across her back, aiming it out into the room.

That would get them to listen. And it did in fact make everyone jump in their seats and gasp. All focused on her. A gun normally did bring attention to you.
‘Here with my newly improved gun that will surely cook the inside of any of the monsters out in the wastes,’ she said, chuckling a bit, letting her aim lower. ‘Calm down babies, it doesn’t even work.’
She froze as everyone looked at each other and started to calm.
‘Yet, it doesn’t work yet,’ she hissed out and aimed it up, scanning around. ‘Who said it didn’t work.’

There was a long sigh that cut through the moment, Uzi looked over to her teacher's desk. Who, she never did ever remember what his name was, he said it once at the start of the year and then never again when someone asked.
He was strange and Uzi couldn’t go asking anyone what it was. Not even, who she believed, were his kids in the class.
‘Firstly, this was a thought experiment assignment about watermelons,’ he started and Uzi sent him a glare. One that he didn’t even give a reaction to.
‘Oh and this Magnetically Amplified Photon Converger, can’t be considered much better than that?’ Uzi asked, trying to turn her voice sweet.
‘No,’ he sighed and she dropped the act.
‘Secondly, you can’t make a photon converger in your bedroom so rename that, again, and thirdly is it meant to be glowing red like that.’
Uzi barely managed to look down and gasp before an explosion blasted within the metal room, not only deafening everyone inside but also filling the room with smoke. The only one ready for it was the teacher, who did not warn his class when he plugged his ears.

The nurses' station was a simple thing, being stuck in the middle of the highschool for all the typical things that teens do.
Explosions didn’t used to be common till Uzi started to walk its halls, but they were prepared in advice from the primary school, even if things had been getting bigger from simple fires or tiny explosions that were just meant to scare someone.

Uzi didn’t have to say anything when she arrived, without a doubt there was a notice to explain it to the rest of the school because she arrived to have her hands given ointment to give it time to return from the burns. None of the nurses ever bothered giving chatter, most of them.
‘Well then dear, that should save them from future nerve damage. Luckily we still have plenty of this ointment but do tell me if something starts to react, it is a bit old after all,’ spoke the one nurse, she was there almost every time she arrived. Uzi wasn’t even sure if she had ever seen her anywhere else, maybe she just lived there and lived behind a wall attached to the room.
Uzi flexed her hands, there had been tingling for a few moments before returning to normal.
‘Thank you future magic goo,’ she hummed and the nurse tilted her head. Waiting for something else, she always did this. ‘Thank you.’ Was all Uzi said quickly to get it out of the way.
‘Good, you can wait outside if you want,’ she said and Uzi slid off the bed to make her way out. She should ask her name, but it's been so long. Years that she had been taking care of any burns or cuts.
Nope, would be far too awkward now. Uzi simply gave her a nod and exited. Maybe next time.

Uzi barely got outside to sit next to her errored gun, still on cooldown. She wanted to fiddle with it to find out what exactly had gone wrong besides the obvious. It hadn’t been ready to heat up, not without the final part that would have had somewhere for the heat to go instead of building up.
She just didn’t want to cover it with the goo medicine, but she could stare out into space and think on it.
She could hear two people snickering behind their hands in the hallway, Lizzy and Doll. Very quickly running off as they giggled. Uzi rolled her eyes, irritated but the two of them soon ran off.
Uzi barely got a minute alone before hearing someone else.

Thad walked in after calling out behind him.
‘Classic masculinity Chad,’ he called back out before turning in with a sigh. ‘That won’t end up problematic.’
He saw her and seemed to somehow brighten a bit more, he was naturally a cheery person.
‘Hey, Uzi,’ he called out and came over to sit on the bench next to her.
Uzi’s eyes narrowed.

‘What are you doing here talking to me Thad?’ Uzi asked with her arms about to cross fully before she remembered the medicine, fisting her hands to finish the cross.
‘Eh, need to see the nurse for personal reasons,’ he said, shrugging without a care but Uzi was sure there was more to that.
‘What, are your testosterone levels too high?’ Uzi said in a jab.
'That can happen?' he asked out in a panic before chilling right out and leaning back into his chair. 'Awesome.'
'Speaking about awesome, that project of yours is cool,' he said right after catching her completely off guard. 'I really felt the fear with it being aimed at me.'
'Oh right,' Uzi said slowly, she vaguely remembered his reaction being upfront but she had looked out towards the bulk of the class. ‘Sorry about that, but that was the vibe I was going for.’
‘No, no, I understand. Nothing interesting happens around here anyway,’ Thad said and raised an eyebrow at the gun leaning against the chair next to Uzi. ‘So what is it?’
‘You mean my sweet as hell railgun?’ she said and pulled it into her hands, forgetting about the goo to grab hold of it to aim it out into the room.
‘Tomorrow, I will be sneaking out with the scavenging crew to find the final part,’ she said and held a hand out. ‘To save the world and show my dad I was right,’ she paused to look at him. ‘But mostly to save the world and to be respected in this place.’
‘Cool but doesn’t your dad make awesome doors that keep us safe in here,’ he said and froze as the gun was turned on him.
‘No, no more comments on my gun or motives today,' she hissed and he raised his hands.
He was able to stay silent for just long enough for Uzi to pull the gun away.
‘I thought we already had guns here,’ Thad said and Uzi rolled her eyes.
‘Yeah, ones that are old and boring. We never even had any of the good ones, not ones that could kill a vampire,’ she said in looked ahead with a smile. Thad looked confused and she looked back when he didn’t say anything.
‘Like Twilight?’ he asked and she hissed.
‘No, real ones,’ she snapped and Thad raised his hands. ‘The ones that ended the world as it was, those ones,’ she glared at him. ‘Why was that your first version of vampires?’
‘Sorry, sorry,’ he quickly said and shrugged. ‘That is like the only version I know of.’
‘We have a whole archive of movies and shows, that can not be the only one you know of,’ she shook her head the moment she said that. ‘Stop distracting me.’ She huffed to her feet, grabbing her gun as she did.
‘So, how do you know the gun will even kill them?’ Thad asked out and Uzi paused before turning to look at him. She opened her mouth to speak and found nothing came out.
‘It has to.’ She could only say and Thad shrugged.
‘It's not like you will see one the next time you go out anyway,’ he said and nodded to himself.
‘If I see one then I will kill it and prove it works,’ she said and nodded with a grin. Thad looked up at her.
‘Well good luck with that,’ he said with a smile, a genuine smile without a hint of sarcasm. Uzi was already mad at the gun, now she had to deal with a good guy.
‘Ugh, bite me,’ she snapped and stomped out, only to turn at it to look back. ‘I am not actually mad at you by the way.’ She quickly added and left with a thumbs up.

She had the morning to prepare for.

Chapter Text

If Uzi had been anyone else she wouldn’t have set up an alarm for the weekend but if she wanted that part then the weekend is the only time to get it, it was hard trying to be a hero.
She had set her alarm clock under her pillow, trying to muffle it from her dad in the next room even if she had planned it for when he would wake up.
At the same moment a mimic of an alarm happened by his bed. She raced to shut it off before he would have.
She lay awake in worry, not able to move till he had gotten up and out of the house.
Still, she waited for him to move out into the main living space, waiting as he made every noise from a wall-rattling yawn to clearing his throat for the hundredth time.
She had to wonder every single time she snuck out how she never woke up from all the noise he produced every morning, it was maddening having to stay in bed and listen to him just go about the process.

Eventually, the torture had to end, he left and she sprang into action.
She had to rush out into the hallway, weekends made everything empty for her to get away with her bag. Even if anyone saw her, no one would stop to chat. All too tired to even pretend at the hour.
Her aim was a storage closet partway to the exit, perfect to hide into and change.

She hid everything that could identify her, her hair all hidden under an ugly dirt brown beanie and a scarf, just as ugly, wrapped around her mouth with goggles over her eyes. Her body was covered in new clothes, belts, and bags. All things she had slowly snuck into her room to hide from her father, some of it stolen from around the colony but she couldn’t have anyone know who she was when she left.

A true wasteland scavenger, no one wouldn’t agree that she didn’t look the part along with everyone else.
Now if someone actually talked to her, there would be a bigger issue. She had been approached before, sometimes people thought she was someone else and she just played along. She planned to get there just before the gates were opened for the day to avoid anyone trying to talk to her.

She exited the moment she was ready, the clocks on the way already told her that her dad took too long to leave that morning and she needed to rush now to get out in time.
Others soon joined up on the way to the front, she passed each of the doors that her father had become famous with. Each thicker than the next, all the better to hide behind in case of danger. She hated them but she could easily distract herself as she came to the waiting group, pushing forward to make sure she wasn’t in the back.

She just had to play it cool, get into the main group to give a few head nods to people and just head out so she couldn’t be picked out. It's worked the last few times she has snuck out.
All however when her father wasn’t on guard the first few times, he likely started to suspect that she had been sneaking out and started to take shifts on the weekend.
She got by the opposing wall to wait for the gates to open for the lot of them to head out for the day.

It was a short wait but still dragged on when you’re trying not to be caught.
Her father looked over the group, stopping over her, she had to do something unlike her.
If she looked away then the gig was up, so she did the only thing she could think of. She raised her hand, giving what she thought was a manly salute. Adding a nod with it to finish the act before looking ahead.
He bought it, or at least responded with his own before looking at the rest of the crowd.
The time ticked over to before six am, on time the gates opened.
The sun would be well into the air and it was shining down on the earth as the cityscape cast long shadows across empty space in front of the gates.

It opened out into the street, to the ruins of the skeleton of a city. One that was spared of the bombing, chemical caking or other destructive evidence of the war.

It was overrun with plant life, the roads and cement that once covered everything had patches of grasses and flowers. Trees even made themself at home in some spots.
The most impressive thing to Uzi was the plant life that managed to cling high up on the skyscrapers, vines covering up and far above the sky. She always wondered what it would look like up the top levels of a skyscraper, was there life even inside.

Now she had a far more important thing to do, stop staring up at the sight like it was the first time. It wasn’t, she had been doing this for a few months but it was still impressive.
Uzi walked out with the group, making sure to dash away and head around the side. To get out of sight of the smaller groups that all split up for the day.
The amount of actual scavengers was small, most of the people that left the colony were the hunters and gathers.
Red meat was special to come by, even if the colony had small animals being farmed inside. From rabbits, guinea pigs to chickens. All small and not much of a slab of meat, and managed by several families for something so small.

The few that did scavenge were already leaving and she needed to be too, she wanted to head back to an area she had been in before. Just had to make sure no one else was headed that way, no one was and she started to move off.
The only issue was that she was alone, most left in small groups and she hoped no one would take notice of that. There were rules for how people should be leaving, safely.
She ran off as quickly as she could just in case.

The walk was something else, every time she came out of the underground had her excited.
The sun was something no light bulb could ever replace, she was even sure that she had gained some colour to her skin. But she did her best to keep it all hidden, covering everything to avoid sun damage or just to hide herself when inside.
She couldn’t have it be brought up to keep it all a secret.
The air had scents, nothing like the unmoving air of the colony. There was greenery, life and not a single person around.
Perfect.

Sometimes there were animals that crossed by or ran off as she took turns, but nothing ever dangerous. Even if she expected it, she had a knife on her belt but she was sure to keep an eye out.
Also for any street signage that still stood the test of time.
Trips ago she managed to find a map of the area, it took her forever to figure out where she even was at first but now she could keep track of where she had gone and how to get home. Allowing her to just walk off in a direction for a bitter chance at loot.

She got back to the area she had been at last week, nothing looked different from then. Someone could have been there during the week.
She looked between the buildings, many would have long been cleared out of the bulk of items. She was looking for buildings that no one else would dare walk into, which also meant she had to look for the buildings that had long been marked as being unsafe to explore.
She just had to stop at one, she needed electronics but she couldn’t tell what used to be used for such things. Sometimes she found some bits in completely random spots, she would also like to try a few stores up a building if she could. She turned to one and shrugged, she could spend hours just trying to pick a place to start at. At this point, she just needed to start searching.

Hours of looking and she had hardly come up with anything, shifting from room to room and on to the next building. She kicked at the ground to some sort of can from the past, she found some people's homes, and some places trashed by past visitors. There was even food in some of the kitchens, she was willing to try some things.
At least she wouldn’t starve out there, at least maybe. The higher she went then the better the chances, likely people had already gone through some places.
She was sure the colony had to have done that early on before the farms started to produce. Some apartments had a drawn-up what she thought looked to be cans, apples, or straight-up just the words that food was gone.
No symbols for other things looted. She just grabbed some things for lunch, or multiple in case something seemed off.
She returned to an apartment that had large windows that showed the street below, a view to make something of the day worth it.
She had been happy to find that the mass of the room had been invaded by vines from outside, she walked over the mess to what was left of the furniture.
She found the sofa was nothing but a skeleton of wood.
Better to pick a chair that sat as a pair at a table, she pulled it and the little table itself to bring them both closer to the hole of a window. Setting up and sat down, pulling out what she would have for lunch there.

She wanted to do this as a job after high school, well she wanted to make guns. Ways for the colony to protect itself, but this was rather good too. A perfect second option.
That her father hated the idea of, both of them. Would rather her stay underground to be a part of the every day crafters. Or better yet, maintenance on the gates. Even make her own one day, as he always said.
“There is plenty of space to add in several more in the future.”
As if that was the only option to go with. She had her own goals for the colony, far more sensible ideas than just hiding.
Her stomach grumbled, bringing her thoughts back.

She looked at the first can, its label showed some sort of soup. Her only hope was that it didn’t need to be cooked first.
She opened it with worry, already having one explode on her. The smell of the rotted meat inside had made her throw out the shirt she had, she was sure it had lingered on her for weeks afterward.
She tested it with a sniff and then a sip when nothing seemed to be wrong.
Not the best, probably needed to cook it but she didn’t have that option, so she suffered through the grittiness of it as some sort of grain was in it.

She frowned as she settled, the area didn’t have many birds. Normally they are all about the place, going about their little bird lives. The skyscrapers had to be perfectly safe for them, far away from any animals that could get them at ground level.

Weird.

She didn’t feel right and she didn’t want the soup to be the reason for it, abandoning it part way through. She turned to the next can, the one she hoped with all her heart was still perfect.
Something she had quickly fallen in love with, peaches in syrup.
A quick plea and she cracked it open, finding it perfect.
Even if she found nothing else, this alone would make the day worth it.
More sugar than she could ever get at home, it would set her for the week.
All her previous worries just gone with the scent of goodness.

Chapter Text

Uzi was back down on at street level, belly full and ready for the next area, she abandoned the soup can off on the street side.
Maybe something else could make a meal of her leftovers.

She walked alone in annoyance, she had maybe two more hours of searching. She looked for old signs, anything that could lead to her old shops or someone's storage with a handmade drawing. Nothing of the sort or complete.

She soon got into a new area, just outside what she recognized. The building was blown open, something from years ago long passed but she was surprised that the building was still standing.
She heard the building shift, at least it meant a better hunting ground for her as no one would dare risk the roof caving in completely.
After all, what are the chances that it would be now that it would cave in after all the years.
She came to the entrance, she had given up for the day and she would rather spend it exploring something than walking the street unable to decide.
Finding it nice and dark inside she readied her touch, shining it in before heading in herself.

The place had been wretched by something years ago, walls had been broken down to allow access into rooms in the back or as a way through the building.
She frowned a moment, looking around. Some sort of substance covered the back area walls, she hadn’t a clue what it could be but didn’t want to approach. It looked dead, dried, and flaking but still not something she wanted to poke.
The rest of the room had some signs of living or camping. A campfire set up with rubble with the leftovers of a fire inside.

Abandoned in the dust sat something she would have ignored if it wasn’t for the camp, far too old but it did have a shape she rushed for. An abandoned old model of gun, clearly put together by someone in the past. She turned it right on to test it, nothing came of it. Not even the bother of warming up, she frowned. Blowing off the dust that had been caked on. It did clearly have the part she needed, she just hoped with all she had that it was still able to work. She ripped off the part with care and put it away into her belt pouch with a little pat.

She had been excited for not even a few minutes before Uzi felt something off. Something was wrong and looked around in worry, the building was wide with much of the inside having caved or broken down and becoming a shell of a building.
The place was empty of life, not a single bird song that she hadn’t heard in a long while, not even outside when she entered.

The feeling of being watched was strong. She looked behind her in a snap, she expected something to be there. Not seeing anything made it far worse. The building now somehow darker and harder to see.
She swallowed, gripping the touch tight.
She circled as she shone the light, but nothing in the immediate area seemed to be hiding anything.
Making her feel even worse, she had to look behind herself again. She was close to just yelling out for whatever it was to show itself, letting the pit in her chest jump somewhere else inside her instead of the bottom of her stomach.

A little voice in her spoke of something waiting to lunge down from above, it was nothing but dark upwards. She tried to reason that the roof likely didn’t go too far up, but now she had to look.
An image of a massive flesh monster that covered the whole roof, waiting for her to be able to snatch her up and into a large mouth full of rows of teeth.
A stupid fear, but.
She had to make sure, to just glance up, looking up on its own did show it was dark. There were some thin bits of light above, in the higher levels that had windows.

Uzi let out a large breath, nothing that large. She scolded herself but she still didn’t feel better.
She aimed the light up, just to make sure, and scanned across the rafters.
As she found nothing but cracked concrete, exposed metal, and the quick understanding that there was very little keeping the place upright.
She was starting to worry far more about the roof than anything else.

She blinked as she passed something not concrete, metal, or empty space, she brought back the light slowly.
A sort of mass was just there, as the light sat near it for a bit did the lump in the pit of her stomach jump up into her throat. She moved the torch right on top of it and froze it there with the rest of her, both body and mind. Just trying to understand what she was looking at.

It was fleshy, hanging off the exposed part of metal. She flinched as it seemed to be alive, swaying about as it shifted and opened up a bit.
To the point that something’s eyes reflected back.

Photos of the animal's reflective eyes crossed Uzi’s mind as she stared up as something stared right back down to her, it even blinked as she stared. She didn’t mean to but with a twitch of her wrists and a step back she sent the light directly into its eyes.

Making it flinch and it seemed to panic, arms coming out to block the light.
They were human hands at the end, she would have liked to think about that longer if it hadn’t disconnected from the roof. They tried to take hold of far weaker bits of cement attached to metal, only to snap it right off and bring a section of the roof down with them.

Falling right into the ground in a yelp, kicking up all the dust in the area as rubble fell on top. She backed right up, almost tripping on old bits of concrete on the ground as her back found the far wall.
She still held the light up but she also wanted her gun, the big one that needed both her hands to fire.
Uzi for once in her life regretted her weapon choice, she could have at least made another far smaller one as a side arm.
Something groaned as the dust settled, she tensed.

Uzi knew this wasn’t human, couldn’t be so the next logical step is that it's one of the many horrors of the outside. No one had reported anything around, sure a colony or two have fallen in the past but not nearby and with very little information. Barely a message on the web about their downfall.

She had to both find out what is close to the colony and take it out if possible. But also noting that there was a direct line to the outside to her right, just in case of an escape.

The dust cleared and the rubble that fell sat in a pile. She searched right away, the light scanning across. Looking for anything fleshy. For a moment of not seeing anything right away made her heart leap as if it hadn’t been trapped and creeping its way around.
But then something caught her sight, whiteness or more accurately a pale face with white hair all being backed by a black coat. A hand came up to block the light again.
‘Can you please stop that,’ came a voice, a young man’s. Uzi shifted it upwards.

The young man was in fact pinned down under the rubble facing downwards and once the light moved he was able to place his one free hand back down on the floor in front of his face. He looked human at the distance, she tilted her head in suspicion.
‘What are you?’ she asked right away and took a step forward. The man glanced back at the rubble before back at her.
‘Uh, human,’ he said with an awkward smile.
‘Don’t bullshit me, as if we hadn’t made eye contact not two minutes ago as you were hanging off the room.’ She threatened him by flicking the light over his face again. ‘Tell me.’
He flinched and as the dust landed to the ground, she could see he didn’t even have human eyes. Slitted like a cats, just not so thin. But they did dilate thinner as the light flashed over.
‘What would you think if even I didn’t know,’ he said and Uzi made a face, shaking her hand with the torch.
‘I swear.’ He hissed out and tried to push himself upright. Only to get stopped right away by a piece of metal stabbed into his back.
‘Fine, do you eat people?’ she asked and lowered down into a kneel, he wasn’t going anywhere for the moment.
The young man seemed to think it over, looking at her. He was taking too long and she sighed, inching the light to him.
‘Yes sort of, only really when hurt, otherwise it's just blood,’ he said and bit the inside of his cheek. He didn’t like being in this position, he should have gotten away. Or if he had been smart, should have jumped down on her before the light.
He had hoped he wasn’t going to be spotted in the first place.
‘So, you're a vampire then,’ Uzi said in excitement, he looked at her in confusion.
‘A what?’ It was her turn to become confused.
‘You have never heard of a vampire, have you been living under a rock?’ she asked and looked his face over. ‘How old are you?’
‘I actively try not to think about that,’ he muttered and she shuffled forward in interest.
‘So, you're old, like before the Fall old?’ she asked and he scratched at his face.
‘Don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said and she frowned. His face lit up for a moment.

‘You’re from the bunker aren’t you?’ he asked, completely passing by the last subject and Uzi narrowed her eyes.
‘And why would you like to know?’ she asked herself and the man nervously chuckled.
‘For reasons.’
‘Oh maybe like killing and eating people sort of reason,’ she said and he tried to keep his face neutral but it soon dropped into disappointment.
‘I need to stop talking to you,’ he said, more to himself, and tried to push himself up again, the pile above shifted enough to drop some dust that settled but otherwise didn’t let anything move off.
He frowned, realising the position he was in before looking back to her hopeful.
‘Could you help me out?’ he asked and Uzi laughed.
‘You have got to be kidding me, yeah no,’ she said and started to get back up. Something in his face fell before acceptance.
‘Fair,’ he muttered, dropping his chin into the dirt and she got herself up, brushing off some dirt that had settled on her earlier.
‘I will be back tomorrow, hang tight,’ she said and headed for the exit.

He lifted his head again, using his arm to prop himself up.
‘Wait, you can’t leave me here,’ he called out in a panic and she nodded, starting to head out but stopped at the gun she almost abandoned to pack it away into her bag before continuing out.
‘I need to get things to prove you exist so everyone doesn't just think I’m crazy.’ she called out. ‘Byeee.’ She raced outside, into the fresh air.
Once outside she smiled in triumph, looking back for a moment before racing off back to the bunker doors.
Her heart pounding, quickly reminding her that she had a bag of junk and was not fit enough to run the whole way back. Soon out of breath but smiling, it was at least the afternoon so it wouldn’t be uncommon to be back a bit early.

Chapter Text

Uzi had a mission, to get hold of the camera at home. One that was a part of her mother's things from back in the day. It's also basically the only one in the city.

Getting inside the colony was the easy part, back through the blast gates. She wasn’t the only one to the back already, but she didn’t find her father anywhere. She was worried that he would be at home but he shouldn’t be if he was already working in the morning.
She just had to make sure no one saw her change, which always wasted time. But she needed to get back to the storage closet and change as fast as she could.
No one was even around, at least no one that would care to report her behavior. Her continued strange behavior, a bit of a perk at already being seen as the weird teen.

She didn’t have a problem till she got to the front door of her place.
Taking in a breath, make sure she didn’t show anything on her face and seemed unbothered.
Opening the door and walking in.
Khan stood in the middle of the room.
‘And where have you been?’ Khan asked and Uzi jumped.
‘Jesus,’ she exclaimed and Khan raised an eyebrow.
‘In fact, where have you been in the multiple weekends passed?’ he asked and Uzi looked about, trying not to make eye contact.
‘Sneaking out to make out with a boyfriend I totally have,’ she said quickly and Khan fell into hysterics before cutting it off.
‘But seriously,’ he said and Uzi sighed again, trying to come up with something. Her gun weight behind her gave her something.
‘Fine, I have been sneaking off into the mines. The one that's nice and abandoned that no one would go into,’ she said and Khan looked at the gun in a frown.
‘Uzi, you know how I feel about them,’ he started, Uzi groaned and went to walk past.
‘Yes, you have been very clear about it,’ she said and Khan turned, his hand coming up about to hold her shoulder but bailed at the last moment to rub at his face.
‘I just want you to be safe,’ he said and Uzi stopped at her door to look back.
‘And I can be,’ she hissed and turned, the two of them stared at one another. ‘Mom would have been alright with it.’
‘Yes, if she was here, but she isn’t,’ he said, not able to look up but he did look over to the side of the room. To a framed family photo, an edge of it destroyed and obscured her face.
Uzi hissed and turned into her room, she did not want to continue this conversation any longer.
‘You always pull that card,’ she hissed and closed the door behind her, ignoring his exclamation for her to come back. ‘It's such a cheap shot.’ She yelled out and she knew that he would leave after that.

She would grab the camera later, now she just needed to lay face first into her bed.
At least for a moment but she needed to install the part she got, with a groan she rolled herself back over and got up.
Going to the messy part of her room, a workshop shoved in it. The scene almost mimicked the one corner of the workshops that belonged to her father. Same mess with tools about, mugs left forgotten. The only difference was the plans that covered the walls, firearms of all types on hers as her fathers was covered in doors and structural plans.

Uzi brought the gun from the bed after she shuffled the backpack off her, she pushed other items on the table out of the way to make room.

The part didn’t fit perfectly, but at least there was enough of a connection for it to interact.
She powered it on, watching for the start of it overheating, but nothing came or at least nothing was about to explode. She wanted to test it, fire it into a test target or some cans.
Uzi hadn’t fully lied to her father earlier, she did go to the mines to test her guns just not that day.
It was annoying to get to the abandoned mines though, going through the workshops to storage and then eventually to them. The middle of the night would also be perfect but she needed sleep for the morning.
She had to trust it would both hold and fire when needed, it did everything to start and was ready for it.
It shouldn’t explode, again. Hopefully.
She went and grabbed the abandoned gun, she might as well pass the time taking it apart. With any luck, find more pieces to repurpose, maybe even get it working one day and she avoids scavenging for too much else. She just needed to remember to set up her alarm before she started.

Uzi awoke with her alarm, at her desk with a thin piece of metal falling off her face. She quickly silenced it, sat with her eyes closed for a moment. Knowing that something else should have happened.
She expected a matching alarm to go off in her father's room, but it was silent. She had never tried both days, she wanted a day to rest before having to go back to school after all.
A worry did cross her mind, what if her dad looked for her when he woke up? She shook herself off worrying about it now, she had a vampire to rush back to and all before he had the chance to wake up himself.

She left the mess she made of the gun she worked on as it was scattered on the desk. It had been a waste of time, most of it being destroyed by water damage. Since she never got ready for bed she was at least still dressed for the day and exited her room carefully. Sneaking out into the living room.
Opening a closet attached to it that stored all the things that belonged to her mother, many boxes filled the shelves but she hadn’t ever gone here herself to look through it. There were other items about the camera being one that was between two boxes.
Just tall enough that Uzi needed to go onto her toes to reach for it, as she pulled it out just jolted the boxes next to it.

The box tilted causing pages from inside to slide out. She swore as they floated down, she managed to take hold of the camera as they passed, she hugged it with one arm as the other tried to catch one in the air and managed to crumble one in her grip as the others reached the floor.
She looked down on it in worry, scared that crushing it in her hand was destroying something important. She frowned in confusion at what she found.

Drawings, scribblings in black marker. A monster was the main focus of the page, a blob mess with multiple arm-like limbs that seemed to be dragging it along.
Uzi stared at it, it was still a drawing looking back but the little eyes on it seemed like it was staring on its own. She looked away in a flinch.
She did not want to look back down on it, she did see some of the others. A winged creature did take her notice first as she lowered down to try to collect them.
Something that was attacking out, it had a mouth full of teeth. A claw out. Humanoid.

She should have spent more time on it, and she would have if she hadn’t heard her father's cough from within his room. She quickly brushed the pages back inside and rushed to close the door as quickly as she could, running for the front door.
Getting out before he ever had the chance to get out of bed, maybe he heard her so she turned to rush away. Not looking back in fear, the camera still sat against her.

Uzi left with purpose in her step. Not letting anyone’s gaze make her slow down.
She made it outside in record time, the only stop was the front gates. She kept her hand on where she had hidden the camera in a belt pocket as she thought. To the drawings, to her mother, and what secrets that closet was likely filled with.
Only the grating from the gates brought her back and moved out, pushing past slower members. Ignoring the calls of annoyance. She needed to be away already.
She didn’t delay in going right back to the street she had left the vampire, she would have run back if she could.

Uzi found the building exactly where she had left it, looking up at it, thankful that it was still in place. That it hadn’t just disappeared in the night. She dumped her backpack by the entrance, leaving her gun on her back, and readied both her torch and the camera in her hands.
She took a breath before heading into the building’s dark.

Chapter Text

Uzi didn’t think of herself as a stupid person, she was smarter than her classmates in the things that mattered. She knew their history better, how to build things with what was left behind. While most of the class families were part of the backbones of the colony, not many were builders.
The one thing that was needed if humans were going to take back their world. She was laughed at for being weird for it.

In the moments of walking into the dark, she knew she was stupid, maybe she would be safe at home and with a better relationship with her dad if she listened. She supposed then it wouldn't be her.

Uzi shone the light first, seeing the pile as it was left with nothing moving inside. She sighed in relief, he would likely still be there.
Walking around to get to the front of the pile in a frown, trying to make sure her breathing didn’t get too loud. Getting ready for the encounter, she walked straighter. Ready to demand.

She found the spot empty, now with a grove scratched out in front of it.
She stared at it. He had a lot of time to escape, she supposed. She was a bit impressed but quickly realised that it only meant one thing, soon overcome with the feeling of danger. She went to back up if something hadn’t dropped off the roof, landing behind her. She spun in time for her arm to be grabbed and she froze looking back.
The vampire stood in place, looking down on her. Covered in dust and likely got out recently. Not even enough time to dust himself off.
She realised as she stared up that not only was he pale, but it was the complete lack of colour.
Albino.
His white hair was odd but everything made sense with his red eyes. She was sure the sun would destroy him the moment he got outside.

Uzi chuckled a bit in nervousness.
‘Hey, you,’ she said and her arm was let go, more out of the man's surprise than anything else. ‘Told you I would be back,’ she said and it only then realised that he had a foot on her in height, she swallowed and watched him continue to look down on her in confusion. Uzi frowned a bit.
‘What, have you never been talked to before?’ she asked and something in him clicked as if his situation came crashing down on him. He looked back out the way she came in.
‘More wondering how I got in this situation,’ he muttered and seemed to be listening out for something, causing his ears to twitch and since he turned his head Uzi clearly could see that his ears were a bit longer and came to a point.
She could have stared at that a bit longer if movement further down hadn’t gotten her to find a tail sway with quick movements behind him.
Uzi took time to back away, for now, trying to figure out what to do next. Her whole plan had been based on the vampire still being stuck. She needed to get out, to get out into the sun.
That would surely work, she hoped.

She didn’t want to turn to leave and not see an attack coming so she tried backing away slowly, in hopes she wouldn’t be noticed. It likely didn’t matter how quiet she was as he looked back to where she had been and then right for her.
‘No harm done, I bothered you enough,’ she tried and the man frowned.
‘I can’t let you leave and tell people,’ he said and turned to her. ‘I was meant to stay out of sight, you weren’t supposed to find me so now I can’t just let you leave.’
Uzi frowned.
‘You should have had a better hiding spot then, bit higher next time,’ she said and his frown deepened, he turned and took a step to her.
‘Hey no, stay back,’ she hissed out and held her torch ready to start swinging if needed.

She knew she couldn’t do much, and so did he, as another step was taken.
Uzi’s heartbeat lept, no way in her control as her fight or flight instincts fought each other in the back of her mind.
She lifted both the light and camera up, with no time to actually see what she was taking a photo of. The flash did go off as he took a step forward to grab her.
Directly into his eyes in a panicked move but she knew it had to work, he reeled back in a hiss.
Flight won and she dashed to start running into the building behind her, she didn’t see him cover his eyes in pain. How she would have had time to get around and out in the right direction, with how he couldn’t see with his eyes.
She had run into the building that could just be a dead-end. The vampire just managed to get some sight back to see her turn the corner of the building.
He had to rush after her, and couldn't let her get away. Ignoring the tripping hazard the ground was to open up his wings, jumping the obstacles with a beat of them to give chase.

Uzi ran looking for another exit, one that could appear around the next corner as she cursed whoever designed the building. As well as anyone from the past that had blocked doorways she tried to open, she had to keep moving with each unmoving door or a caved-in doorway.
Only to turn a corner and find the last two doors on either side at the end, checking one and having it locked. She turned to try to kick the other one to be knocked open with enough space for an arm to wiggle by. It was also being blocked but by something far more solid on the other side.

She turned, the dead end mocking her from behind. Trying to put away the camera in a rush as the vampire slid to a stop at the realisation she had been trapped, now there they both stood looking at the other.
The man didn’t seem happy about the whole situation, looking like he hoped she had gotten away.
A decision happened behind his eyes, shook himself out of it and he held out a hand, Uzi could see even at the other end of the hallway that the hand twisted in on itself to grow claws into its place to replace it. Making the fingers longer and white blades at the end. Maybe bone.

Uzi just dropped the light in shock, first trying to understand what had happened. If what she had seen was correct.
First the fleshy mass when he had been up on the roof, now transforming flesh.
She flicked her body around to make the gun spin around, to grab hold of it with one hand while having the other free. No better time to test what should work, a strong should.

She looked down on the part she had rushed installed last night, hardly good for it but time was running out. She could only raise it up to aim.
It should have been an easy shot, just down a hallway. But the vampire had jumped up and against a support beam to bounce off.
He lept off and right into the floor in front of her, meant to swing his tail around but the force was too much and the flooring fractured. The hallway crumbled into the one below, the vampire managed to scramble back up and looked down as dust filled the area.
A green light filled the area and if the vampire had known the danger then he would have ducked away, instead, he leaned forward more. Waiting for the dust to clear. Maybe he had already killed her with just the fall.
He tilted his head a bit as it cleared enough for both Uzi and him to look at each other, very much not dead and glaring up while aiming on her back.
‘Bite me,’ she hissed.
The trigger was pulled and a beam of energy blasted up and into the ceiling.
Only after recovery from being blinded did Uzi see the damage, right through the vampire's head.

It wasn’t centred. Having shot through the bottom half of his head cutting into the neck just leaving the top part of the head alone.
The man's body seemed to have figured out what had happened, as it started to sway with the loss of function. Swaying forward too far, the weight caused it to tip forward and into the hole with her.
Uzi realised far too late, as it came crashing down on her. Screaming out as she tried to rush out of the way, being far too slow and her foot caught on rubble to help slow her.
The bottom part of the body crushing down on her, pinning her right into place. Right into a crevice that had her trapped between larger pieces of rubble.

Uzi tried to push the body off her, shivering at the feeling of blood soaking her arm and shoulder, being the closest to be affected by the spreading blood puddle.
She looked up to hiss out a swear at it but froze at the mess that seemed to be growing back. She didn't know what looked like small tendrils seemed to grow out, it caused a panic as she fought again to push it away.
She only managed to get an arm out.
She looked back to the body as it continued to regrow. At a second glance, it was likely arteries, everything being regrown from the body. She was exhausted, she had to wait and hope to slip away.

Uzi was starting to feel sick, not only due to the smell of blood but as watched the blood that flowed out onto the ground crawl back to the vampire, and to top it all off. The body seemed to be shifting internally, whatever it needed to do to heal itself taking his whole body to work.

Uzi held her lips together as the vampire twitched and pushed himself back up in a gasp, claws having turned back to hands and he found a floor piece next to them to hold on to with one as the other held at his throat.
She watched as he struggled with being upright, eyes closed but seemed hollow. As if there was nothing in the space yet.
She was sure that the beam hadn’t even hit that high up, unless the heat alone just cooked the area beyond.
Not really a thought she wanted to have.

He was still alive however and trying to regenerate, would also likely become aware rather soon.
Uzi rushed to ready her gun, only to find a cooldown timer. She wanted to scream, but she wasn't even sure if the vampire could hear her. She got herself up, testing with a scuffle of feet. When nothing came of it she looked up to the floor above, finding a wall to climb back up. Luckily with the way the floor fell apart meant that there was a ladder of rubble to get her back up with ease, as long as she avoided the jagged pieces of steel that poked out.
She barely got her gun back over her shoulder to ready to climb only to hear a groan. Turning she found the vampire rubbing at his head and looking around. Clearly confused as he took in the damage.

‘You don’t happen to know what happened here do you?’ he asked and looked at her, he was squinting as if he still couldn’t see properly.
‘Do you remember anything?’ Uzi asked in worry, her foot up ready to climb if need be.
‘My name is…,’ he paused for a moment to rub at his forehead. ‘N.’ he sounded unsure and looked up at her. ‘Do I know you?’
Uzi gave a nervous smile.
‘Great, fried your brain,’ she mumbled and sighed out, partly out of relief and annoyance. He tilted his head in question, his hair did look a bit singed on the side he was blasted with. At least the part that hadn’t grown back properly.
‘What was that?’ he asked and she cleared her throat.
‘We only just met and I was about to leave actually,’ she said instead and started to climb. She looked back to find N following after, her heart jumped at the sight of him so close.
‘Don’t follow me,’ she hissed out and watched the vampire recoil for a moment, as he blinked in confusion.
‘Weren’t we working together?’ he asked, she needed to leave him behind.
‘Ah no, we really did just meet,’ she said and scrambled up, getting on top of and looked down to find him still stuck in the spot on the bottom. ‘Stay here, for like ten minutes.’
N looked up confused before following up either way.
‘Hey,’ she called out and he looked over as he got his arms over the edge.
‘I may not remember but, I am rather sure that I am meant to stick with you,’ he said and she backed up a bit. ‘What were we doing just before this?’
‘Really not all that important, actually better that you don’t know,’ she said quickly and found that she couldn’t turn to leave, ended up doing a weird side shuffle.
‘Are you okay?’ N asked in worry, taking one hand in the other and used his thumb to rub at the skin. Looking at her as if he had concern for her.

She stared at this, no way this was the same person that just tried to hunt her down not ten minutes ago. It could just be an act, trying to get her to lower her guard around him.
‘Walk next to me,’ she ordered and turned a bit to show that she was about to leave, something in him lit up as he smiled.
Uzi wanted to question that but he stood waiting next to her without a complaint, his tail wagging a bit. She tried to ignore that to start moving, he moved with and easily within her sight.
‘So,’ N started, the silence hadn’t settled for long enough and it made Uzi jump. ‘Are you a new member of the team?’

Okay, she could work with this.

Chapter Text

‘Uh,’ Uzi said, she hadn’t thought she needed a backstory. ‘Yeah, just got here.’
N tilted his head, looking at her.
‘I have forgotten if I have introduced myself,’ he said and gave a little salute. ‘I am N, but you probably already knew that otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.’ he smiled and Uzi looked over with a wince.
‘Yeah, yeah. Uh, hard to forget. Say, are there others around?’ Uzi said quickly and N hummed.
‘Of course, J and V are around here. You remember them right, I can’t be the only one with memory issues,’ N said and gave a chuckle. ‘But they aren’t in this part of the city, I remember I was here for something.’ He said and Uzi kept a hand on the gun stock, looking at the countdown. ‘I am sure I will remember soon enough, hopefully, J isn’t going to find us before I remember.’
‘Yeah, hopefully,’ Uzi parroted, her grip on the stock tightened. They walked on in silence.

The two of them got back to the main room, N looked about in confusion.
‘What happened here?’ he asked once they got to the pile, at least close enough that he was able to see its blurry shape.
‘The roof collapsed,’ Uzi said and bit her lip. N slapped a fist down on an opened palm.
‘Right, I remember being stuck,’ he exclaimed and looked up to the roof. ‘It wasn’t very solid to begin with, I remember something bright but I don’t think it was sunlight.’ N hummed and rubbed at his chin.
Uzi held her breath before heading for the exit, he seemed distracted enough for her to slip away.

She headed right for it, turning away from him to go as fast as she could only to have N sliding in front of her. Blocking her way in worry.
'Where are you going, it's daytime?' he asked out in a panic, he rubbed at his neck.
Uzi paused.
‘I just need to get a thing I left out there?’ she asked and N paused.
‘Left it outside, you weren’t asleep? You sure you don’t want to tell me what happened before, it would really help me out,’ he said and Uzi frowned.
‘Nope, I need to go out, it's cool if you stay here,’ she said and sidestepped him. He looked at her in worry.
‘Just stay in the shade, I have nothing here for you to eat if you get burnt,’ he called out and looked down to the ground outside, seeing it rather dark.
Uzi gave a thumbs-up and turned to leave.
‘Oh, are there clouds out?’ he said and calmed, but still came forward in worry.
‘Of course,’ she hissed and looked out at how the area outside had in fact darkened, being at the entrance she could look up and see nice solid clouds float by.

‘As long as the clouds stay then we can move between buildings,’ he said as if it was common knowledge.
‘Right yes we can, but I need you to stay here for right now,’ she said quickly and N tilted his head, seemingly considering.
‘I should be fine, besides two of us would be able to notice when it clears,’ he said and pushed on. Uzi wanted to swear, to make him stay in place.
She slumped, he didn’t seem as if he was doing it with the intent to keep an eye on her.
Uzi went out to her backpack but was aware of how he watched.
‘I would be careful about collecting things out here, you won’t be able to bring much back. J could just destroy it all if she finds it,’ he spoke out and Uzi put it on her back, making sure she could still get her gun around.
‘I’ll be careful then,’ she said and N looked away to the sky, worried about something.
‘Just keep an ear out for either of them,’ he said and looked back with a smile, Uzi could just nod.
Uzi started to walk, she hoped he wouldn’t follow but he did. Right next to her as she went.

N wanted to question many things, several about his memory loss but he knew he shouldn’t ask without knowing fully who he was even with. She smelt of blood but not actively so she could have just come back from a hunt. Actually, he wasn’t even sure if he was with a she, his sight was still blurry with only a voice to go off. There was something off about her though, something he couldn’t help but quickly notice.
‘I hope you don’t mind me asking,’ N spoke up and Uzi frowned, cursing the sky for not clearing. ‘Were you made different?’
‘What?’
‘Your hair is dark, no one has ever had it like that before,’ he said and she reached up for it in worry. ‘I guess that makes you lucky.’ The words seemed to hurt him before he shook it off. ‘I just hope no one else will be jealous of it but it could mean some of us will be able to have it too.’
‘How about we don’t talk for a bit, yeah?’ Uzi said and N nodded, secretly disappointed but not sure if he stepped a line by asking. She didn’t sound mad but it would be smarter to stay quiet, just wait for when she would talk again.

Uzi had thought she had been going in the right direction back home, she had been so sure that she had allowed her mind to wander. Trying to piece together all that she had learnt so far, worrying about how to get away that enough time had passed before she came back to her surroundings.
Ones that she had never seen before.

‘Shit,’ Uzi hissed out, she looked back down the street in worry.
She was lost, she had been so focused on moving that she just went in a direction without knowing the way back.
‘What's wrong, we are almost back,’ N said and Uzi glared at him.
‘Back?’
‘Yeah, back to base further down the street. I thought you were leading us back,’ N said and Uzi bit her lip. ‘You have been there before haven’t you?’
‘Nope, lucky guess,’ she said quietly, N was looking up to the area above, she looked at him with a frown.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Listening out for the others,’ he said and his ears did twitch a bit with strain. ‘They should be ahead at base,’ N said and Uzi froze.
‘As in, nearby here, right now?’ Uzi asked out in panic, she looked up to the building windows.
‘We have been a bit tight on food so they each have their own section till we figure out the bunker,’ he explained. ‘But they should be back at base for the day and they should both be there today.’
‘Right, right,’ Uzi said quickly, frowning. ‘When did you get here again?’
‘About four weeks ago, give or take for us,’ N said cheerfully. ‘You, I can’t remember if you came with us or not.’
‘Ah no, ’ Uzi asked, her hands started to sweat. ‘On my own.’ she said and looked at the buildings around. ‘How about we quickly get into a building here?’
‘That’s fine, want to hide your stuff?’ he asked but Uzi already started ahead, he started to follow out of interest. They got inside but Uzi still headed in, looking for a different way out.

N had been watching before he stood up straight as something in him finished connecting, bringing back what had happened less than an hour ago along with his senses clearing up.
‘Biscuits,’ he whispered. It was barely heard by Uzi, who looked over as N had frozen in place and stared off into space.
‘What’s up?’ Uzi asked in worry, standing a distance away from where she had turned. N blinked, looking over slowly to follow the voice.
He yelped and jumped back from her at the confirmation, he stared at her like she was the blood-drinking monster.
‘Got your memory back?’ Uzi asked and N didn’t say anything, they stared at each other.
‘Ah, shit.’ Was all that she could think of saying.

Chapter Text

N pointed at Uzi before switching to the gun on her back, his mouth hung open as he had a million thoughts run through his head. 

‘You shot my head off,’ was the first thing that came out and important to state, Uzi looked back to it in worry, her hand still on it. She looked at him again and pointed back. 

‘Almost, I almost did,’ she hissed. ‘Besides you tried to kill me, or kidnap, both are bad.’ 

N stared at her like she grew another head. 

‘It’s my job too, I have no other choice. Youuu should have gotten away,’ he exclaimed, turning on her, she paused with a frown. 

‘It’s not my fault the building didn’t have an exit,’ she said, putting her free hand down on her hip. N seemed taken back. 

‘Why did you come back the next day? You walked back into danger. That’s on you,’ he said and pointed at her and then frowned. ‘And you blinded me, I would have let you pass otherwise. So it’s your fault really.’ 

‘You were trapped under a pile of rubble,’ she hissed, leaning forward. ‘Why couldn’t you have stayed trapped, I would have taken my photo and left.’ He wasn’t paying attention to her, as a thought passed through. A heart skip as he realised they were both being loud and the base wasn’t that far away.

‘Wait,’ he spoke up and turned his head to listen out. 

‘If you think this is ov-’ she tried to jump back as he shot an arm out to cover her mouth. She tried to pull away and he wrapped her in his other arm to stop her. She did, she also stopped breathing in a panic. 

Her head could be snapped in a moment, but he just held her still and silent against him. His hand was so warm, so much more than she would have thought would be possible.

Uzi had to breathe and took a breath through her nose, it was loud. 

‘Shh,’ he snapped as he still tried to listen. Letting loose some of his fingers for her to far quieter breaths through her mouth. She stayed still. 

‘Please don’t be them,’ he whispered, praying for whoever it was to not fly past. He started to pull her back, further into the building. Uzi looked up with a frown as she realised this. She tried to stop this only to have him lift her off the ground, she went to tell him off and he covered her mouth again by sealing his fingers. 

N rushed to pull Uzi into a nearby building as her feet kicked out above the ground, she made a point to kick back into his shines in protest.

‘Sorry, sorry,’ he muttered and placed her down but pushed her forward. 

‘What am I doing?’ he quickly muttered. 

The building seemed to have once been a furniture store, piles of broken pieces of items littered the place. Some that still stood the test of time were misshaped with age. One cabinet still looks as if it could work, N dragged her by the arm to it and opened it up. 

Uzi looked at it with a frown. 

‘How the hell am I getting in there?’ she asked and N looked back to her, if they had more time. Which ticked by fast as outside he could hear the incoming of a whistling sound. He pulled off her backpack from up and off her shoulders, putting it down before lifting her into the slot.

‘Just try not to make a noise, try not to breathe loudly,’ he quickly added and pulled up her bag to shove it into her lap and face. 

He didn’t even wait for her response as just closed it on her with a thumbs up. 

N rushed out trying to get to a different room, making his way back and jumped back in fright. He didn’t even get very far away before being stopped by the worst of the two options. 

In the closet Uzi could just see outside and into the other room, seeing him freeze in his tracks. She stilled and watched.

In front of him stood J, in all her righteous glory. She had to have landed as he finished with Uzi, having made it into the building to start searching. 

N looked at J in what he hoped was a calm smile, his nerves were burning bright as his chest seemed to tighten. 

‘J, great to see you,’ he exclaimed and J looked at him unimpressed. 

‘I heard yelling from around here, I hoped some idiots had made their way close. I thought it was perfect, then I found you,’ she said and Uzi strained to tilt her head to look out, she could barely see her.

‘Tell me you have dead humans back there or have you been doing something stupid like hiding stuff in here and talking to yourself?’ 

‘No, no humans or things,’ he said and swallowed. ‘Can’t say I have seen any, I was actually on the way back.’ 

J walked into view for Uzi, she scowled. Uzi could make out her shape and clothing far better. 

Her legs were different, set up like an animals. Standing on her toes as she walked and stood in front of N. Still shorter than him.

‘I told you to stay by the bunker, unless you have something to report?’ 

N’s stomach dropped.

‘I, uh, nothing really happened there,’ he started to say in a sweat.

She held up a hand to stop him. 

‘I am not dealing with your stupid right now, go back and sit there. Do you understand me? This is your only job, morning and afternoon watch.’ 

N just nodded, looking down. J turned to leave before having a double take. 

‘The hells happened to your hair?’ she asked and N’s hand went up to pat at the far shorter underside he had on the right. Where he had been blasted.

‘Uh,’ he could only say with a frown. J just rolled her eyes. 

‘You barely look presentable at home, it will be fixed once we get back. Raise up your collar, I don’t want to see it or I will cut your hair myself.’ She threatened and started to walk away as she opened her wings from the slits in her clothing back, N watched her leave and she looked back. 

‘Don’t do anything stupid, go back to your position and do your simple job properly,’ she threatened and N looked at her.

She couldn’t know the truth but N could smell the human on him, he hoped J didn’t get a sniff of it when she got close. But then again she wouldn't have let it go. He was free. 

He nodded and waited for when she turned away outside, lowering down for a moment to jump into the air. Beating down on her wings to get her airborne, flying away back to base before the clouds shifted to allow the sun. 

N exhaled only when he was sure the coast was clear and everything was silent.

He took a moment to look up at the cloud in worry, he should leave before they clear. He heard a small bang and a swear, he looked back slowly. Looking at the cabinet right in the other room, he was sure they were making eye contact as the area turned quiet. 

He walked back slowly, not a sound was made but he knew she was still there beyond the door gap.

N opened the door and found Uzi still stuck into place. She looked at him as he looked back. Neither sure on what to do or say. Uzi gave an attempt. 

‘Sorry about the hair,’ she said and N blinked. ‘I can try and fix it I think. Oh and about the whole head blasting thing.’ Uzi said and expected anger to finally show through, he just stared for a moment longer and turned to leave. 

‘Wait, where are you going?’ she called out and pushed her bag out so she could scramble out with a hold on the cabinet’s edges.

‘Away, back to my job and you go back to your home,’ N said, he raised his shoulders up as he pulled the collar on his coat upright, hoping to make it all disappear. 

‘Are you kidding me?’ Uzi hissed out and ran after swinging the bag onto her back. ‘You’re here to attack my home aren’t you?’ she asked and slid out in front of him, making him stop with a jump. ‘You are, don’t even try to bullshit me.’ 

‘If you want you can even go tell them,’ he said. ‘Or better yet, you could all leave during the daytime. We would never know.’ 

‘I wish, my dad won’t leave, my whole known life has been in there. Before two months ago I have never even been outside it, so no. Everyone can’t just leave,’ Uzi said and he frowned. 

‘Then what was the point in saving you,’ he hissed, trying to make an effort to keep his voice down as he turned away. ‘I am not allowed to save a human, I should have just handed you over right then,’ he said and made sure to not look at her. 

‘Wooow,’ Uzi hummed out. ‘Want to just drag me over?’ 

‘No,’ he said quickly, but he went to move outside. Only to flinch back as the sun had come back with full force, blinding him and he hissed. 

To Uzi it didn’t look that bad, just the sun returning as it had before. To N, he might as well have been flashbanged. 

‘You really don’t take light well,’ she said and watched him scramble back, trying to blink his sight back before heading into the depths of the building, Uzi looked back outside. She could leave him at that moment and go back home with the safety of the sun. 

She exhaled and lowered her grip on her gun stock. 

‘Stupid,’ she hissed to herself before following after him. 

Chapter Text

N had started to talk to himself as he walked into the dark, Uzi tried to follow and only found that the ground was becoming harder to see and navigate.
‘J might actually kill me, going to be left in the sun,’ N started to rant to himself, he didn’t have a problem walking ahead. ‘Oh and if Tessa finds out.’
Uzi tripped on something and hissed.
‘Hey,’ Uzi yelled out and it made N jump into a wall. ‘Did you already forget I was here?’
‘No,’ he said back and became sheepish. ‘I just don’t normally have to worry about someone hearing me, besides you should have left.’
‘I also can’t see and I am not having a conversation in the dark, I am going to turn my light on.’
‘If I break it you will have to leave won’t you?’ he asked out and Uzi made sure to point the flashlight away first before turning on her light.
‘Try that and I will blind you again,’ she threatened, she found him rather easy with how his eyes reflected back.
She remembered looking up at him on that roof, she found something twisted in her. Some sort of irrational fear jumped at her. She exhaled in an attempt to ease it.
‘So what now, I got lost getting here and don’t know how to get back. And you are stuck here.’ She said and looked at him with a hand on hip. ‘We can talk for a bit.’
N frowned and shook his head.
‘I really don’t want to,’ he said, sounding confident enough. Uzi looked down to his tail that wagged quickly, betraying its master. He willed it to stop with a frown but it didn’t work fast enough and he took hold of it behind him, he couldn’t look at her.
‘I am sure you don’t, really deep down,’ she said and put her fingers together. ‘Think of it as a thanks for saving my life.’
He opened his mouth and bit it as if it was to stop himself, he glanced up. Uzi didn’t miss the eye reflection again.
‘I can point you home at least,’ he said and turned back into the dark. ‘I am sure there is a way out this way.’
‘You don’t know?’ Uzi asked and started to follow as he started to walk.
‘A lot of places look similar,’ he said and brought his hands together, rubbing his wrist. ‘I didn’t really plan any of this.’
‘Well I don’t need to be back for a while,’ she said and looked at the walls as they passed.

‘So the blood drinking,’ Uzi started and N stiffened a bit, still holding his hands out in front of him. ‘Any good?’
‘Uh, its blood, tastes fine I guess,’ he said and Uzi gave him a look. He was starting to look nervous.
Whatever bravo he had when he got his memories back had slipped away with the stress, not a single thought was able to stay around long enough for him to use as a point of conversation.
Uzi needed to know more, she could see that he was tense again. Fine, she could change topics for the moment
‘How about telling me about J and V? Also why the lettered names?’
N made a face but he was ahead of her a bit to hide it.
‘I always wondered that as well, I don’t know,’ he said and looked over a bit. ‘J is our team leader, she's, uh, strict on how things should be done. She would rather be back at home than on a mission so she wants us to be done as fast as possible to get back.’ Uzi stuck close to listen. ‘V is pretty awesome, a perfect example for what I am meant to be. She can be a bit bitey and stabby but I am sure she is great to talk to, if she did talk, to me.’ N went quiet, even slowed to a stop. Uzi looked at him, it only took him a moment to shake himself out of it and started moving again.

‘You haven’t talked to her?’ Uzi asked and N glanced over, looking at her in a stare.
‘I have talked to her, she just doesn’t back to me.’ He let himself frown.
‘Dude, seriously. That is your team?’ she asked and turned to him, she made sure to aim her light against the wall. Causing it to light up his face a bit better. ‘I would have thought that a species that was going to kill a mass of humans would be like pack hunters or something, working together and not this. If it was so important then shouldn’t all three of you be on lookout for the door and attack at the same time.’
‘Why are you angry about this?’ N asked, he was genuinely confused.
‘Because I have been worrying about this whole situation,’ she said and kicked into a can. ‘It can’t be that easy.’
She looked at him looking back at her in confusion.
‘Uh, bite me, I thought this was way more serious than it actually was,’ she hissed out.
‘Bite?’ he could only said and Uzi swore to herself, moving ahead in a stomp.
‘Don’t actually bite me, its a saying.’
N chuckled and followed after.
‘No it's not, one says that, not even at home with the others,’ he said, Uzi stopped and turned to look at him.
‘There are more than the three of you?’ she said and N stopped himself.
‘Uh, hey look light ahead,’ he quickly said and moved to walk ahead.
‘Wait dude,’ Uzi said and rushed after.

The sun was still out but was blocked by something that Uzi didn’t understand till she got out to look up and found an apartment fallen into place across the roofs of the street.
‘That's trippy,’ she could only say as she looked up into a room through a broken window.
‘I was worried I went the wrong way but it is hard to miss this,’ N said and continued across the street.
‘Did you do that?’ Uzi asked and started to follow.
‘Hah, no. Was already like this when we got here, I was scared something really big lived here but nothing has shown up yet.’
‘Wait, you can’t distract me,’ she spoke out remembering and N took that moment to rush into the next building.
‘More than three, so there is something to worry about,’ she said and rushed after. ‘Hey!’ she snapped out and N flinched ahead, grabbing at his ears for a moment.
‘Please don’t yell,’ he asked out and turned at last.
‘Look as long as you don’t keep things from me then I won’t,’ she said and he frowned.
‘I should just leave you here,’ he muttered. ‘I bet you don’t even need me to lead you back.’
‘God damn it,’ Uzi hissed. ‘Yes I do, but I also want answers.’
‘But you can’t ask me anything about where I am from or things around it,’ N said.
‘That takes a lot of subjects away,’ Uzi hissed and N started walking again. ‘Can I ask why you didn’t kill me or give me to your leader?’
‘That seems close to what I just said I wouldn’t talk about,’ he hummed.
‘No, it's about me. Why didn’t you? I didn’t break something in your head and you're vegetarian now?’
That got a small laugh from him.
‘No, never been much of a savage hunter. Like I said I would have let you pass if you never had looked up,’ he said and his tail flicked. ‘I am not supposed to, but I don’t think you're about to tell on me to the other two.’
‘Oh I swear on my life,’ she said and N gave her a look.
‘Really, on your life?’
‘If you're not willing to kill me when I was an easy meal then yeah, sure. I doubt I would be let go even if I told them.’
‘Mmm, you might be right there,’ he said and cleared his throat.

Uzi let the silence settle, there was about a hundred moments that she could have been killed in the dark passageways. She was rather confident that she wasn’t about to be murdered. Still she looked over as N walked, trying to picture him even killing someone. Before something caught her eyes on the walls that they passed.
She looked at where groves were dug along the walls as they passed. Some overlapped and cut off, but they were deliberate. She glanced back to N.

‘You have to walk along this way a lot huh?’ she asked and N shrugged. ‘Used to when we first got here and I got caught in the daytime.’
She looked down at his hand by his side, she tried to remember how his hand had changed into claws. Probably killed with those.
‘You good?’ his voice came out and Uzi jumped, he had glanced over and found her staring.
‘Ah nothing,’ she squealed and cleared her throat. ‘Its nothing.’
‘We just have to cross one other street,’ he said as they climbed up a staircase. He leaned over and picked something out of the dark. ‘I just need this.’ Lifting up a piece of sheet metal.
Uzi looked out into the street, the sun still blazing in the sky.
‘You’re not going to cook are you?’
‘I only need to worry about my face and hands, I have long clothing on for a reason,’ he explained and lifted it over head. ‘Besides I am going to run across.’
He said and readied at the edge, Uzi watched.

He was fast, having put in all his effort to cross within four strides before there was a chance for him to burn.
Uzi followed after with a more casual pace.
‘Huh, if the floor hadn’t caved in,’ she muttered as N was putting down the piece.
‘What?’
‘Nothing,’ she muttered and she looked at the building they were at.
It was a wreck, a massive hole in the wall that caused a slope to be made of the pieces. There was a stripe of shade that could protect N to get up it. If the sun was directly above then there wouldn’t be that much luck on protection. He went into it and stuck to the walls as they went, Uzi stayed in the sun.
The two of them walking up part way before Uzi opened her mouth.

‘Do you like what you are?’ she asked, she wasn’t looking at him, she knew that he looked over but didn’t think she should look back. ‘You said I can’t ask, what, you are.’ She added in before he opened his mouth to protest.
He took a moment to think about it, he looked ahead.
‘Don’t know, do you like being human?’ he asked and the two of them looked over, glancing at the other.
Uzi snorted.
‘Compared to you, no I don’t,’ she said and N watched. ‘I mean we are weak as hell, can’t do anything about anything outside our little hole in the ground.’
N looked at the gun on her back.
‘I mean that works and I have never seen anything like it before,’ he said and gave a small smile. ‘Where did you get it?’
‘Get it?’ she asked, freezing up, a bit insulted as she turned on him. ‘I made it with my own two hands. And a few power tools, but I still made it.’ she said and he looked at her.
‘That sounds amazing,’ he said as his face lit up, this made her pause and take a step back.
‘Shut it,’ she gave him a look as he still smiled at her, it was odd. ‘Shouldn’t you be insulted by the fact I blew off some of your face?’
‘Which I find very impressive,’ he said and shrugged lightheartetly. ‘Never happened to me before so everything about this is new and exciting.’ He paused as some colour came to his face. ‘I guess that makes you impressive too, being able to make that in the first place.’ He said carefully, his tail wagged a bit as he looked at her.
Uzi flinched.
‘I am weird, not impressive.’ Uzi paused, feeling a bit odd as if she should be mad at him. She watched him a bit more before a thought came to her and she gave a raised eyebrow. ‘I guess you're weird too.’
N tilted his head as he thought.
‘I don’t want to be,’ he said and Uzi shrugged.
‘Yeah well, neither do I but it's not our fault,’ she said and frowned as her face went flush. She turned on him in embarrassment. ‘Bite me, we are not going to start talking about feelings or being weird.’
She started to stomp off, getting ahead in a huff.

N watched in confusion, a smile still on his lips. His tail still wagged as he watched her leave, he realised this and shot a hand behind him to stop it.
He was just pointing her back home, that was it.

N blinked as he remembered what the next part of the trail was and he sighed, he had to follow after her.

Chapter Text

N got up the slope before she got there but at least she had calmed enough that she was just walking normally and did seem a bit surprised that he had even followed.
‘You don’t happen to be able to jump well?’ he asked before she could say something.
‘Why?’ she asked and they got to the edge, N looked over as Uzi stepped forward carefully, N joined after her in looking down.

To the drop of several stories, the slope up was only building up to a sudden dropdown. The way forward was across this endless looking gap to fall on the broken roof of another, maybe a couple metres or so to make the gap. But the drop was horrible.
‘There doesn’t happen to be a soft landing on the bottom?’ Uzi asked out and N made a face as he thought.
‘Broken pieces of buildings mainly, I think a few pieces of metal stick up,’ he said as if he was being helpful, there isn’t much he knows and he shouldn’t have sounded so glad to be informing her. At least he realised that he shouldn’t be when she glared over at him, he took in a quick intake of air.
‘Sorry, uh, no. The answer is just no,’ he quickly said and looked away. Uzi took a breath and looked back.

The roof wasn’t its original roof, having had caved down a section and kept the walls around. At least she would fall down onto, better chance to get to it all. Well fall forward onto the roof. She shouldn’t miss it but the landing could just end with her on her face.
N looked at her unease.
‘I can take your bag,’ he said. ‘To help, how far can you jump?’
‘If I run up then I can,’ she said, she knew she could but looking down into the dark made the distance stretch out. She started to take off her bag, handing it off as she still glared at the drop.
‘I could just take you across,’ he started, he could see how her hands clenched and released.
‘No, I can do it,’ she hissed and N left her be as he turned to the gap.

N jumped across, he didn’t stumble as he landed at least till he turned to look back and his feet caught on a piece of cement. Flicking out his tail to counter it and stabilise himself, he paused and looked back up with a nervous smile. Holding out a thumb quickly and trying to assure her.

Uzi tried to prepare herself into jumping down. N looked up at her.
‘I can catch you?’ he called out trying to be helpful and Uzi hissed down.
‘You are not going to catch me like I am some child,’ she said and N continued to watch in worry.
She started to back up, to give her the space to run up. As she backed up her nerves settled, not being able to see the fall sure helped.

She shook her arms to rid herself of the rest of the nerves and started into the run. If she gave herself time to think then she would back out.
The edge came fast and she kept her eyes ahead. She jumped a bit before the ledge, the spike of fear that made her leap beforehand.
Time didn’t freeze like in the shows, almost felt sped up as the ground came in fast. At least she wasn't falling into the dark, but cement also seemed as bad.
She got one foot out ready to land, but the moment her foot touched the ground she already knew that she was going to smash into the ground.

N came forward, catching her with an arm out. Keeping her upright and they stilled as Uzi took in panicked breaths. She pulled away the moment she realised.
‘I said not to catch me,’ she hissed as she looked back to the ledge. N nodded and raised his hands.
‘Right sorry,’ he said and she sighed out.
‘No, thank you,’ she said and took her bag back with a yank. ‘You could have just let me fall, so I suppose a thank you is in order.’
N’s tail wagged, it started sharply before calming a bit as he cleared his throat to stop her from looking down on it, even if her gaze went right back down to watch it.

‘So, you ready to do that again?’ he asked and her gaze snapped back up.
‘What?’ she asked and N rocked on his heels.
‘There are two other gaps to get over, ones a bit bigger than this one,’ he said and Uzi closed her eyes.
‘Can’t we just get down to the ground and walk on it?’ she asked and N tilted his head.
‘Yeah, I guess we could have at the start, before getting up the slope even if I don’t know the path,’ he said.
‘N, you have got to be shitting me,’ she hissed and N looked at her in surprise. ‘What?’ she added in when he didn’t change his expression.
‘You know my name?’ he asked and Uzi blinked.
‘Yeah, you said it when we met,’ she said and he shook himself of his thoughts and started to walk, Uzi followed after in confusion.
‘Uh, I think there are stairs here,’ he said quickly and got to a hole in the roof. Where the stairwell had been. N let his mouth start to ramble.
‘Sorry about having to jump, I forgot about them and didn’t think you would have trouble with the gaps,’ he said and she frowned.
‘Okay now I don’t care about that, why wouldn’t I remember your name? It's one letter,’ she said as they started to go down into the dark.
‘I, uh, don’t want to talk about it.’ he said and she frowned but didn’t push it, only taking out her light so she could see.

The rest of the walk down was uneventful. Even if she chewed her lip to it being raw.
N was clearly in his own head, just walking down the several flights. Most of the place was intact even if it was dusty and unused. The ground level came and the door was partly there, having been broken in half some time ago.

N rubbed at his eyes, as the shift of light came with getting back outside.
He was tired, considering the time. Mid-morning and now about to go out into the streets. At least there was still a patch of shade for him, even if it was shrinking. He stepped out into it, starting to move along. Tilting his hat a bit to try to hide more from the blinding light reflecting off the concrete of the opposite side.
Uzi watched him and the faster speed he went at, she would have said something if it wasn’t for a look ahead showing her something she recognized. The massive hole in the building, she raced on ahead as N followed. They had to make the length of the street.
Both jumping into the dark cool building, the outside had been warming for a while for the max temperature at midday.

The moment they got inside did it seem like the outside dimmed.
‘Typical,’ Uzi huffed and headed for a fallen beam. N recovered from his eyes strain, he looked up as she started to pull off her bag.
‘What are you doing?’ N asked and Uzi glanced back
‘I am taking a break before I go back,’ she said and dropped her bag off her back. It kicked up dust and she stretched up.
‘I thought that you would just leave,’ N said and Uzi looked back at him. ‘You know, go back right away.’
‘Or,’ she hummed and turned to him once her arms came back down. ‘We can talk some more. I still have hours.’
‘We really shouldn’t,’ he muttered and she huffed.
‘What, worried about becoming friends?’ she asked and gave a cheeky grin. N blinked back.
‘Yes,’ he simply said. Uzi cocked her head with confusion. He looked sure but he was covered in a film of sadness. He didn’t want that.
‘Come on, you made friends with me rather easily when you didn’t know who I was,’ she tried and N frowned.
‘Because I thought you were another one of my kind,’ he said and walked in further, heading to the pile in the middle, he rubbed at his eyes again with how they stung.
‘And then you didn’t kill me after, saved me even. I don’t think being a different kind really matters, besides are you really so different to me?’
N looked over in confusion, growing in his claws and gestured to it.
‘Then why look so human, you just got extra stuff,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Just saying you had to have been human originally.’ she said.
‘But you can go in the sun,' he tried as his claw went back to being a hand. His arguments died in his mouth.

‘So we can be friends,’ she said.
‘I don’t even know your name,’ he spoke out softly, so much so that Uzi almost didn’t hear and N stood up straight. ‘Wait no, I don’t want to know.’
Her face reddened at the realisation that no, she hadn’t ever given her name. She did think some mythology rules were at play but...
‘Hold on, I know yours, that doesn’t seem fair,’ Uzi said and N made a face.
‘It wouldn’t make sense to learn your name if we never meet again,’ he said and Uzi frowned. ‘And we won’t meet again because that would be bad for the both of us if we are found out.’
‘Am I just supposed to forget about everything?’ Uzi asked. ‘Also is this because of J, the bitch, I bet she left you out here.’
‘She really wouldn’t like you calling her that,’
‘And I really don’t care,’ she said with a huff. ‘You obviously want to be friends.’
She cleared her throat to make sure she would be heard.
‘My name's Uzi,’ she said and his hands slapped over his ears. ‘Ohhh, so mature,’ she said. ‘Well now you know and now we have to keep talking because I did not just give you my name for nothing to come of this.’
‘You’re very insistent aren’t you?’ he could only say, his hands slipped from his ears.
‘I have an interest in continued talking, so do you,’ she said.
His eyes narrowed.
‘You don’t want to be friends,’ he said and Uzi tried not to shuffle. ‘You want to know how to stop us.’
‘Which can start with us talking to each other, who knows where it will go,’ she said, she was trying to be as convincing as she could be. ‘What could be the harm of it?’
N looked at her, tired of the roundabout conversation. Uzi was insistent, far more than his will to not want to talk to her.
‘We can be both our firsts,’ she said, she gave her best smile.

N looked at her before looking away and walking to a fallen beam to sit himself down, he brushed at his hair trying to think but he was so tired that he slumped in his spot.
Uzi looked at this with a frown, her smile had fallen and she was a bit annoyed. She was sure he had figured him out. She shook herself of her mood and cleared her throat.

‘I should go, I have school tomorrow,’ Uzi said standing herself up, N looked over in interest.
‘Huh, what's it like?’ he asked and Uzi groaned.
‘Bunch of idiots as classmates, classes boring with a teacher that doesn’t care,’ she said, getting her backpack on. ‘I am fairly sure I had homework to do too.’ She frowned as the thought came to her, she looked to N.
‘Did you go to school? You look like you're around the right age for it.’ she asked and he looked away.
‘I don’t know, I can read and write. I don’t know any history about earth though just things about whatever I find at the library at home, or find in ruins.’
‘Ugh, we are taught so much old history that it doesn't matter anymore, like why should I care about four world wars that happened to places that don’t exist anymore? Luckily now I get to do actual projects with what jobs we will have in the future,’ she said and N tilted his head.
‘What are you going to do?’ he asked and Uzi grinned, jumping up onto the beam in front of her.
‘Currently, I am hiding with the manufacturing section so I have access to the machines there,’ she said and pulled her gun around, aiming it out. ‘Just so I can make my own line in the field, weaponry.’

‘So,’ he started and looked at her in wonder. ‘You get to choose what you want to do or be?’ Uzi frowned and looked at him.
‘I mean, you can’t just do whatever you want,’ she said and lowered the gun, she watched his face fall. ‘You have to actually know about the field to get into it.’
A thought came to her.
‘What do you want to do?’ she asked and N shrunk into himself, pulling up his knees. He looked away. ‘There has to be something.’
‘Its dumb and not nearly as cool,’ he said and Uzi tilted her head. ‘Really it's fine, you won’t find it interesting.’
Her face frowned, now wanting to know but N clearly didn’t want to talk about it. She even looked at his tail in hopes it would give him away, but it stayed still and tight around him.

Uzi took in a breath and nodded, making a choice.
‘We should meet up again, in a week when I can sneak out again, well six days if we can keep to Saturdays. Meet you back here?’ she asked and N looked over, he bit his lip. Thinking it over.
With everything in him he wanted to say yes, to agree without worry but he made sure to stifle that.
‘You got six days to think about it I guess,’ she said and started to head for the entrance.
‘We keep talking, I find out how to keep my colony safe and you get to pretend to do your job and get to talk to someone,’ Uzi said and looked to him, he glanced back. He had placed his head down on his arms around his knees.
She only just noticed how tired he looked, she should have noticed a lot sooner.
‘Sorry, I guess I kept you up all day,’ she added and he nodded.
‘Yeah, I am meant to be asleep now,’ he could only say.
‘See you next week,’ she said and N didn’t say anything besides giving a small nod.
She nodded as well and went to leave, turned around and left.

This was the last chance for him to fix his mistake, he knew that and so did she. He had a thought past through his mind to quickly pull her back in but instead he just took hold of himself and watched her disappear.
Going back to her colony full of people, could tell everyone everything. Completely destroy his team's chances of getting inside, to complete their mission. Some part of him both cared and couldn’t care for a moment.

N sighed out into the empty room, everything far too quiet. He had quickly gotten used to Uzi’s presence, he recognized that something about that was pathetic. Wishing for someone's presence that he didn’t even know.
He should get some sleep, whatever he can get before dusk.
He got up and looked up, realising right away that he couldn’t fly up with how his body had started to feel heavy.
Stairs it was then, for the full trip up.

N’s lookout was simple, well at least as simple as the leftovers of an apartment. There had been people living there once but now it was left to crumble away. The broken parts of furniture long disintegrated, being that high meant there was no protection from the wind and rain when it shifted about. All the glass had broken away in time and left everything open.

N looked down from the tower from the broken parts of a balcony, he had picked the building originally because the sunlight never directly hit him with far taller buildings on either side protecting him. It gave him the ability to watch the entrance of the bunker with the help of binoculars. He was meant to be far closer, in the first line of buildings. But neither of the other two knew where he actually was within the mass of buildings and that suited him far better when he had to go back and control when he actually had to interact.
He only decided on the spot once he found the binoculars, it was more of a scope with only one side working.
He was still able to smell himself, he could still get Uzi’s scent. He couldn’t sleep yet he decided, not till he was sure she had gotten back. Looking through the binoculars to keep an eye out.
Down below he watched someone in Uzi’s clothing rush back, he was at least glad about that. When he shouldn’t be, he groaned and fell back into the flooring of the apartment he was in. Rubbing at his face with one hand.

Why couldn’t he talk and interact with humans?
Point one, he is supposed to help attack and kill everyone inside her home. Hard to make friends with that hanging over head and she is not even talking to him to make friends but to get information.
Point two, if found out the human could likely just be killed, unless… No, he shouldn’t continue that thought.
He shook it away.
Point two again, Uzi would be killed if found out even if it wasn’t by his hand.
Point three, if she survives the attack he would never even see her again anyway as they will move on making the whole relationship pointless. With a lot of dead for her to deal with, and him being the cause.

He frowned up to the roof as if it would give him an answer.
Relationships with humans only come in particular cases, none he liked and avoided. He turned his head to try to hide into his coat collar, only to be reminded once again of her scent.
‘Oh come on,’ he hissed out, pulling away and sitting up as if it would get him away from it.
‘No, no, you can’t do it. You know you can’t,’ he spoke out. ‘You may not remember why you can’t, but you know you can’t.’ He expressed outwards with a hand. The silence was deafening.
‘God, you’re lonely,’ he whined out and pulled up his knees to drop his head onto it, raising it and dropping it back down on the bone. Serving as a good distraction.
‘You can’t, you can’t, you can’t. You’ll get her killed,’ he muttered as he continued with the movement before shooting up with an idea. ‘I’ll just not show up, move to a different tower. And don’t make the same mistake with my sleeping placement.’ He said and nodded.
‘Perfect, a little bit of disappointment to save a life,’ he said but felt a pit grow, he leaned against the wall. Knowing that his eyes were starting to close and he should go somewhere safer to sleep. A moment to rest his eyes first, he should be fine where he was sitting. Just a few moments.

If someone found him, slumped against the top of that tower they would have found him with the start of a smile. His head rolled to one side, dead to the world. Peaceful.

-

The bunker doors closed with a screech, not exactly silent or secret to any creature nearby. But it did mark the end of the day. Everything locked up before the sun disappeared, before quickly turning the area dark. N awoke with a start, blinking out his eyes of sleep.
Remembering the day he had within a moment, he sighed out.
His neck hurt from where it bent against the wall he fell asleep at, he pushed himself back up and looked out into the city, the bunker just sealing up then.
No one outside of it with the area deserted as they plan for it every time.
The binoculars had fallen off his lap and he picked them up again to look through, making sure there wasn’t something he was missing. He made sure to put away the binoculars into a craves in the wall nearby for safe keeping.
N stood himself up and brushed off the dirt from himself.

He had to go report nothing again, while not showing anything on his mind or hiding the fact he spent the whole day with a human. Easy.
The moon wasn’t going to be up for a time but it didn’t mean the creatures of the night didn’t already start to steer, distant cries of animals echoed out from the further forests.
N took off his coat, folded it up and hid it away before adjusting his white undershirt, the long sleeves still could act as some sort of sun protection if he came back late but that wasn’t likely to happen. Better safe and leave it in his overlook then leave it back at base for one of the other two to pick up on the scent. He took off his hat for extra measure, placing it on top. Leaving it all in place. He wasn’t going to be at the ship for long, as long as he wasn't ordered to do something. He should be smart and leave as soon as possible. He was too tired to actually do work all night, napping would be good once he got away.

N got to the edge of the ledge, reaching out to get a hold before he climbed out, claws out and he leaned out with one hand and a boot on a ledge, nothing else to keep him from falling. The wind wasn’t that bad and he shouldn’t get cold but it was nearly impossible unless it was winter. He waited for the last of the day to disappear from the sky, he could at least watch it go.

His eyes wandered to the bunker, wondering what they did inside.
He did what to see Uzi again, it had been the best day in who knows how long. He frowned before shaking his head, the sunlight was dying out completely. Dropping everything into darkness.

He had to go, before he was questioned where he was, or told he wastes time. He looked down at his shirt. He will be given trouble for not having his coat but, he would rather be berated for not having it than being caught in it.
N jumped from the wall, opening up his wings as soon as he could.

Chapter Text

N flew through the city, he took extra time to enjoy a few minutes of freedom. The streets raced along below, animals rushed back into the sparse undergrowth as he came over.
Normally he tried to change how he got back, he didn’t really bother this time as he just followed the streets. Plenty to try to fly through, from buildings to signage. Some risky areas to try to get through, he passed by a sign that had been knocked clean over with a dent on one side. His shoulder ached in reminder, he had dislocated his shoulder thanks to crashing into that one while trying to get between it and its neighbour sign which still stood in place. He didn’t try much anymore, he always thought he was too tall for any sort of manoeuvrable flight and it only proved it to him.

N got back in a few minutes, not a long enough flight but the building soon came into view at the end of the street, sitting on a street corner. It would be perfectly normal looking if it wasn’t for the massive gap in the side of it. Not a rare sight but it still brought attention to it compared to the other buildings around.
He circled the area to aim in for the hole, the hole created by a crash landing. He headed right for it the moment he had an easy angle for it and flew in and kicked his legs forward. Landing on the ground with a sudden stop, he had to use his wings against the ground to help stabilise himself and to not fall onto his face. He stood himself back up right and his wings morphed away into his back sliding through crafted slits into the back of his clothing.

N looked over to the crashed ship, it having wedged itself between the two levels of the building and caused both levels to fracture, bending the levels to its shape.
N had only ever seen the same type of ship so he wasn’t sure if it was considered large. It was tall enough for two levels or halves of its hull. It had also seen better days, its hull having nothing but damage. Both from the crash with lines of scratches going along but also of age, areas of rust and sun damaged paint. He was sure it was meant to have been a light blue but it had all dulled to a grey, in what few places you could see that still had paint.
N never remembered it having been blue though. He blinked a few times, for a moment he remembers seeing it in a soft blue and in another blink it was gone. Back to broken and grey.

The area was mostly quiet, if he could ignore the start of growling.
‘Stupid, useless thing,’ came J’s hissed voice and a loud clang, N walked to the back part of the ship to where the flooring had taken the original hit before the ship slid further in. The cement there fallen away with only the rebar barely holding everything up and giving a view of the level below.
N looked down from above to find J there, next to the makeshift piping that N had to figure out how to put together when they first got there. Luckily it was just a pipe they used for waste water from the ship. The system that was meant to recycle water within broke during the ships crash with none of them able to fix it, no matter how much J hissed and growled at N to do so.
The pipe was not in its place and was driving J mad with it not being so, she was only down there in anger as the ship wasn’t letting the water flow out quickly.
She spotted him the moment he looked down.
‘N, you’re late. I needed you here to fix this an hour ago,’ J hissed up from below and started to climb back up.

‘Sorry,’ N could only say, making sure to bow his head a bit to keep her happy. He apologised even as he knew an hour ago he was meant to still be watching the bunker doors, when he and J would have just woken up. He wouldn’t dare voice that argument. He just held out a hand to offer his help, she slapped it aside to get up on her own. N took her place below, swinging down on the rebar having to hang down from a hand and swing a bit closer.

She looked him over, frowning.
‘Where is your coat?’ J asked and N tried to keep his attention on the pipe.
‘It got wet,’ he said a little too quickly, he didn’t look up to see her glaring but he could feel it. ‘Fell into a pool yesterday and I am still getting out the smell.’
‘Typical,’ J only said and N let himself relax.
‘What are we doing tonight?’ N asked, looking up hopeful. Moving the conversation along.
‘Patrolling, I have nothing for you here once the pipe is fixed,’ she said and N wanted to cheer out in celebration.
‘Before you go, wake up V. I need you both up and out, she has been testing me lately,’ J said and walked back into the ship, navigating over gaps of the flooring with confidence for someone that would have shoes or a foot. N kicked the pipe back into place and he climbed back up with a silent huff.
He followed after not having to worry about any gaps with his boots protecting him, coming to the side of the ship. To a ramp that was put down to be able to enter and exit the ship, J hated it. At least how it wasn’t even against the damaged floor and how they had to use the side entrance in the first place, that it was strategically dangerous.
N was careful to avoid the gap before the stairs started, he tried to push rubble under it all, to make his own stairs but it never worked right and ended up being more of a tripping hazard. So he went towards the middle, where there was a bit of a step up but it was more of a larger step with only part of a gap.
He looked down on the steps as he went up, counting them off before getting into the doorway, 20 steps.
Inside was clean, it needed to be with J but she couldn’t have it as she liked. She would want it cleaned everyday but it would mean nothing more important would be done. Well nothing for N, he walked in after making sure nothing was on his boots.

The ship was set up for more than the three of them to live in it, N couldn’t imagine it filled with people. The first area he got into was the area for lounging and dining with the kitchen and food storage area attached to it if you went down to the left. There was meant to be an entertainment area right in front but J had changed it some time ago, to her office and bedroom. Which she was inside making sure she was presentable for the day, N turned down to the right. Towards the living quarters.

N walked down along the hall, stopping for a moment to look at the room that was meant to be his. And he did use it when they travel but just this time around he never really had the chance to sleep in it.
There were eight rooms that were meant to be for living quarters, left full of dust and disuse.
V’s room was at the end, he sort of understood why but it also felt like he was being trapped into a corner.
He had to ignore the areas that were all scratched up, the walls around and on the door itself with a massive V scratching into the metal.
If you could ignore how deranged it all looked then it was rather nice looking, all flowing back to the door. J hated it all but at least there was something to look at in the place.
If he took too long J would wonder what was taking him, he came forward to knock first. Giving it a moment before opening it up with the wall button, he was met with a pitch dark room. Staring into the abyss. He was sure he was being stared back at, but even as his eyes adjusted he couldn’t quite do it fully as the light of the hallway messed with his vision.

‘V?’ N called out into the dark room, he heard something move inside. A figure jumped out from the dark not a moment after.
He didn’t even get the chance to say anything else before he was slammed against the opposite wall, a hand against his throat as the start of claws started to dig into his skin as her palm pushed forward and started to cut off his air flow.
‘Hey V,’ he strained to speak out and looked over with a smile. ‘Good to see you up.’ V just scoffed and flicked her hand away, her tail flicked out in annoyance as she turned. Stretching up, growing out her claws to be able to just claw at the roof with the tips. Right where it had already been damaged by her in the past. The clawing created a screeching that grated at N and J’s ears.
‘V!’ Came J’s snap from within her room, V chuckled and headed out right away. She had the exact same animalistic legs as J but just with more bounce on them, skipping out and ready to fight. N still had to recover from where he had been against the wall.
‘Good talk,’ he managed to get out as he checked if his neck was bleeding. Finding only a little blood speckled about when he pulled a hand away, at least something good. They would have healed the moment he had pulled away his hand.

He didn’t notice it but V did stop by the corner to look back, if only for a moment. Just a single moment before rushing out into the building and to jump into flight.

N pushed himself upright with a sigh, he was sure that no blood got on his collar. He walked out aimlessly, only freezing as he heard the sound of static. He went for the exit, if he kept walking ahead it would be the front of the ship. J heard it and came up behind him, pushing him aside.
‘Move it,’ she hissed and headed for it. ‘It might be an actual call.’ He was pushed against the wall, and J rushed ahead. N fixed himself back upright and watched her go in, he even crept forward after the door was closed behind her. He listened out at it, straining to hear anything. There was nothing but muffled talking behind. Some from a speaker inside and J responding. It sounded similar to past communications and he exhaled in a huff, backing up a bit to start sneaking away. He raced outside and headed for the front of the ship, where there was a broken window of the cockpit. Having broken in the crash, and the only one not crushed into the cement wall in front. He had to navigate some of the broken flooring to stand underneath.
‘-course we can do it,’ J spoke from inside, N being able to hear it better if not from a distance above his head. ‘As long as N is telling the truth, annoyingly he would be as the gates always close at the same time but they must make a mistake.’
Static came through for a moment.
‘J, you know how lonely it gets here. The three of you gone like this,’ a woman's voice came out of it in a groan.
‘Of course Tessa,’ J responded. ‘The moment we can, we will finish everything off and ask for that pick up. I have told them to bring me people, we search every night for anyone that gets left out,’ J said and N could hear her anger. ‘I swear we just need one, one of those rats left out. Get them to go get that door open.’
‘If you say so, I should have just come with,’ Tessa said and hummed. ‘Oh, I have got to tell you about some of the villagers. Brought the saddest excuse for a human-’
N was sure he didn’t need to hear the rest, in fact he shouldn’t be standing there when J finishes.
He walked off, leaving for his nightly patrol. He could manage to pretend for a couple hours or so till he hides himself away. Get some dinner before morning. Easy when no one cared where he was. N stopped at the hole and looked out, glancing back for a moment. They couldn’t leave till the mission was done, till everyone in the bunker was dead. He stopped himself as his thoughts quickly turned to Uzi.
He shouldn’t, should forget she existed, that they ever talked.

He leapt out of the building before anything like thinking that she had been relatively nice to him, talked to him like he was normal.
Maybe he would be patrolling the whole night, just to keep himself distracted. Anything besides how his heart ached, at least he will sleep well in the morning if he made it that long.

Chapter Text

Uzi awoke with a start, her alarm for the morning hurting her ears. She slapped at it before she sat up from her desk, her homework under her as a pencil stuck in her hair.
The last day's events came back to her, she hissed at it all to herself. For the many mistakes, for not finishing what she has started. She ran her hands through her hair, removing the pencil from within the tangles.
She was not going to be friends with N, no way. She just needed to be nice enough for him to spill the vampire secrets.
She needed to stay focused. Even if he was super nice about her gun, or didn’t actually seem interested in eating her. He could have just eaten or something before they met, could be completely different the next time they met.
He could have spilled everything last night. She groaned and pushed her chair back, and headed out the door of her room in one motion. Only to hiss as her body reminded her of the full day yesterday. The lower parts of her legs hurt from the jump and the walking, she pushed herself out the door and into the living room. Finding it empty and quiet, no one to see her limp for the kitchen. Her father would be well out of the house by then.

Last night she had managed to stay away from her father and in her room till dinner. Even then it was still a silent meal, quick as well as he had left partway when his radio went off for maintenance work. And there always was with it being an underground city, a lot more leaks and cracks showing up with the age of the place. They had celebrated its fifty-fifth year not long ago, the whole city had been in on the celebrations. The place was old in building terms even if some sections were newer.

In the kitchen she looked to the fridge. There had to have been leftovers in it, at least one bonus to having her dad as a de facto leader. Everyone just gave him food from their households, it at least meant that there was always something to eat.
She just found something inside, not knowing where it came from but she was sure it wasn’t there last night so it shouldn’t be old.
At least it tasted good, it normally did. People didn’t want to give something to her father that could make him reject their offerings.

She went back to her room after throwing out her plate into a green bin, later it would be given to the gardening section for composting, but she still had to clean the cutlery. Those were metal, likely from the old world. She had seen the same ones since she was born, Uzi wasn’t even sure if the colony could make their own if needed. Melt them down, sure, but she didn’t even know how they were made or remade. Maybe she should look into it in the future.
She headed back to her room and automatically started to shove her work into a backpack, she just cared about getting it to the class and not what it looked like.
Uzi looked down on herself, her clothes had been changed when she got home. Something more aligned with herself than the outdoor adventurer, but even if she slept in it, it was fine to go out in. She slung her bag over, checking the time told her she was just on time to leave. Perfect.
She left her home and headed away from her residential section of the colony. The housing was cramped with only so much underground they could dig into for them all. Not an area of space wasted or left bare.

Uzi had seen the first layout of the colony, nothing more than a survival bunker for a smaller population of people in the beginning. Right as disaster struck the place was quickly made into a small city with the founding population all leading in their own fields of research, creating the many branches in facilities. Only for the disaster to have taking many of them in attacks and fighting. Leaving some of the more advanced pieces of technology to have left to collect dust and no one able to use them.
It was the only history that Uzi was interested in, how the colony had ended up as it had. So gutting of its original purpose, used to be full of fighters for a new world only for it to all be sealed off with the three main doors.

There used to be space between the main sections of the bunker/colony soon had to keep being added to, more buildings and housing to fit in the population and away from the surface. Making blocks of apartments into the ground, as deep as they could go.
To call it cramped was an understatement. The housing block that Uzi and her dad lived in was a two hundred apartment block, all housing smaller families or couples that just started together. There were far bigger blocks, ones for larger families even if there was a limit to the number of kids if you even got close to the number of three. There was a section for families to have a whole floor to themselves, it was meant for multigenerational families and there weren’t many of them around for it.
Everyone else lived in these apartment blocks, Uzi knew some of her neighbours somewhat.
Even as she went up the stairs to get on the main road other kids had also started to leave for school. There was no way to not be surrounded by people in the hallways, if it was time for work or classes. People were all headed the same way, making a large crowd that all went up together. That was the same everywhere.

The main road was the worst, a continuous crowd of people headed in both directions. Carts of goods being pulled by teams as everyone else walked around them. Traffic controllers worked to make sure people kept flowing.
The worst thing about it all was joining into the flow of people. Uzi started to miss the early mornings on the weekend to get outside, no one was on this road then.
She was pushed forward by others behind, she took too long to get into the crowd. She stumbled to keep upright, being helped along by some stranger. At least people weren’t cruel like that, to leave her to fall usually.

There was a half of the population of the school going towards it, well, only from the current direction. The other direction would bring in the other half of the school.
Uzi just needed to follow the crowd and it would get her there.
They all got to the area after a few minutes of walking, making the crowd have to separate from the main road. Traffic controlers navigated workers around it, making it easy for students to keep to the left and off the road to the exit of a simple doorway.

Getting to the schooling area depended on what direction you lived in. Uzi’s path took her through the highschool first and when she was in primary school she had to go through the three stages. As a kid that did waste some time and often had her coming late as well as getting things that she shouldn’t have gotten her hands on. Now it was a far quicker walk and she still brought things that she shouldn’t but at least she didn’t give any of it away to the few kids that walked through.

The moment she got in the same area as other teens she was set on making it to her locker, which annoyingly was in the middle of the high school section. Right next to where the bulk of the population hung out, at least she could get the latest news right at the start of the day.
Most things she didn’t care about, who is dating or broken up for example.
‘My mum’s not a liar.’ Came a snapped response across the hall as Uzi got to her locker, she barely got the door open.
‘As if I would believe you, you lied about the biggest thing you killed,’ came a response, Uzi didn’t recognize the voices right away.
‘But my mum’s not, she came back all worried. Nothing just kills something as big as a bull for fun. It's meant to be the peak of the hunting season and there is nothing around.’
Uzi couldn’t help it, she looked over.
The teens talking weren’t in her class, the one defending she did know, was of the few hunting families. Was rather loud about it.
Uzi chewed her lip and turned back before any of them noticed her.
Had she heard of other weird things, she didn’t think so. It’s not like the teen was ever quiet about anything hunting or new animals outside that he got from his family. But Uzi could already guess what it could be, she didn’t think it was N personally but one of the other two. Likely V, with him having described her as a hunter.
Uzi is going to have to keep an ear out for any of that.

‘Hey Zi,’ came the delighted voice of Thad next to her, she jumped and snapped her gaze on him. She could never understand how he managed to sneak around, it was also always when she was busy thinking about something.
Thad waited for her to recover before he spoke.
‘So,’ Thad started and tried to seem subtle as he leaned back against the lockers. ‘Did you find the piece, does the gun work?’ he asked and glanced over, Uzi froze for a moment.
‘Yeah, you can say that. I did manage to do a test and it sure works,’ she said and looked at him. ‘Why do you care?’
‘Eh no one else does anything interesting,’ he said. ‘And a working gun in this place is sure interesting.’
‘What is it with people and finding it interesting lately,’ she mumbled and Thad lifted an eyebrow.
‘Who else could have if I am the only one talking to you,’ he said and Uzi paused, pleading for a moment silently. ‘You met someone outside?’ he asked and his eyes widened. He opened his mouth to exclaim and Uzi quickly shushed him.
‘No, no, don’t say anything,’ she said quickly, trying not to raise her voice to avoid attracting attention. ‘Whatever you think, don't.’
‘You met a vampire out there, did you shoot it like you said you would?’ he asked and leaned in, trying to keep himself calm. He looked her over. ‘At least you didn’t get hurt.’
‘No nothing, I am not telling you anything,’ she said and grabbed her books for the first lot of classes.
‘Come on, did you kill them but wait how could you have talked to them afterwards?’ Thad asked, he was more speaking his mind rather than to her but the question was still in the air.
‘I am going to ignore this and the fact that you said earlier that no one talks to me,’ Uzi said and closed her locker. She sent him a glare before starting to walk to class, which he followed right behind.

‘So who are they or how did they live through the shooting, did you miss?’ he continued right away.
‘No, I didn’t miss,’ she snapped and an idea came to her, she quickly took hold of the front of Thad’s shirt before pulling him into an open classroom. Closing it behind, Thad could only look at her.
‘I need you to shut up about this,’ she snapped. ‘I am still working on it alright, no I am not telling you everything. Yes, I shot at someone, they're basically a vampire but not like any I know of. I plan on getting more info from them and figuring that out first.’
‘If you shot them then how did the two of you talk?’ Thad asked, now far more serious.
‘Healed back to normal, also stop asking questions. In fact, I need you to tell me if you hear about anything serious,’ Uzi said and Thad looked back.
‘Like what?’
‘Like people going missing or rumours of the outside,’ she said and Thad thought for a moment.
‘You already heard it but like the murdered bull?’ he asked and she nodded. ‘Then there isn’t much else, if someone went missing the whole city would know.’
Uzi nodded but she chewed at her lip in worry, trying to think.
‘What I need is for my dad to listen to me, I know these vampires got here months ago so if I can get the info and we kill them off then the area will be safe for now. I have a meet-up with him next weekend.’
‘Are you sure it's smart to talk to this, uh, guy?’ Thad asked and Uzi frowned
‘I think he is the best chance I got,’ she said and Thad tilted his head a bit.
‘Just keep me up to date on everything, I don't want to miss out on this,’ he said and Uzi gave him a look.
‘Oh is this just some weird entertainment for you?’ she asked and Thad quickly started to hold up his hands to shake them.
‘No, no,’ he tried. ‘Look, I am willing to help because this could be good for us all, I would also love to be able to go outside.’
‘So it is a selfish reason,’ she said and Thad tilted his head.
‘Isn’t it for you as well?’ he asked and Uzi frowned. ‘To be able to go out.’
‘I guess,’ she huffed and turned to leave.
‘Wait,’ he spoke out. ‘Do you want someone to help you, I could come with.’
‘Yeah no,’ Uzi said quickly and saw as he flinched. ‘Do you even have a way to cover up to sneak out?’
‘I have headed outside before,’ he said. ‘I will just ask to head out then sneak away.’
‘No, I don’t want people to know and that brings way too much attention,’ she said and got a hand on the door handle. ‘And I don’t know what would happen if I brought someone else around, if I don’t show up for like a week then you can assume he killed me. People will listen to you if you tell everyone there are monsters out there.’ Uzi opened the door and walked out, heading for class. At least Thad had some thought and left a gap in time before he followed to class.

Thad didn’t bother her throughout the classes, but they also sat in different areas so he never got the chance to talk to her. He didn’t get a chance to till lunch, sneaking away from his friend group to the side benches that had tiny tables, finding Uzi in this area. Meant to be for people eating in small groups but normally they are left deserted.
He slid into the other chair at the table, Uzi was distracted again and playing with the food on her plate.
‘What are you going to do after this?’ he said, Uzi glanced over in a frown. She again didn’t expect him there.
‘What?’
‘After saving the city?’ Thad said and looked over.
‘Whatever I want,’ she muttered, pushing at her food again.
‘Yeah, but I remember in primary school that you wanted to take over the world. Is it still that or something more, uh, mundane?’ he asked, Uzi turned a glare at him. She held it long enough that he looked away.
‘Oh, like being a boring maintenance worker?’ she asked.
‘Maybe it's boring but isn’t it super important?’ he asked back, Uzi couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
‘Gods, you sound like my dad,’ she hissed and looked away to the general direction of the centre of the room. ‘Don’t tell me you’re about to say that it's honourable work and that everyone will respect you that way.’
‘I mean, doesn’t it? Everyone who works on maintenance is loved, your dad’s basically the leader because of it.’
‘Stop talking, seriously,’ she said and Thad did so as he sealed his mouth. ‘And stop talking to me, everyone is whispering and I don’t need people thinking we are friends.’
Thad frowned back, pulled away and left for the group he had been at before.

At last, she could be left alone and be able to eat.
Except she had become feeling off, she didn’t actually want Thad to leave. Wanted to take him up on his offer earlier. But something about putting him in danger didn’t sit well for her, while still a bit suspicious about why he does want to help.
It was not the first time he had spoken to her, he was likely the one that had the most interaction with her out of anyone else so it actually wasn’t that odd for him to be talking to her randomly she just couldn’t seem happy for him to do so. People picked up on desperation.
She ignored her food and leaned back, hoping to get back into her thoughts on how she could fix her gun. Waiting thirty minutes wasn’t great, not when she could have two if not three targets in the future in quick succession.
At least she had something to work on in the week before having to worry about the meeting. Something to distract herself.

Chapter Text

Uzi hit her head down on her table, a clang of metal came from the loose screws sitting in a mug. She grabbed at her hair, groaning out in annoyance before looking up at the gutted remains of her gun.
It had been days, nothing she seemed to do was making it any better. Arguably she needed more parts, having to find them out in the wastes but she wasn’t likely to have the time to unless she started to cut class. That would be the next few days if she was to have something by the time she met up with N again but it should be easy to avoid him before then.
Or, she could go hunting through the old weapon manufacturer section. As run down and deserted as it was. She sat up at this, at the temptation. She would need to keep away from the guards that briefly come through or scare them away, also avoid the chance of one of the other sections hearing her. She leaned back, thinking it over. Her dad wouldn’t be back in a while, time to get out there and mess around maybe even some testing.
She pushed herself out of her chair, catching it with her foot behind her before it fell over. She didn't need to worry about the noise but it was still smart to avoid making it. She just needed some food before she went. Headed out to the kitchen she swung open the door of the fridge.
She was going to grab a box till she saw the message on the side.
“For all you do for our safety” A heart decorated the message. She just rolled her eyes and grabbed a different one.
Sitting down with it cold, she barely got some of it in before ending up playing with it. Looking around the apartment with a frown. It was well after school by then, her father was likely staying out somewhere or hanging out with his friends by the gates.
She dropped her fork with a sigh, some sort of feeling bubbling up. Ones she didn’t want to unpack at the moment, so it was time to leave.

The hallways of her apartment block were relatively empty, a few kids played a ball game in the main hallway just before the stairs that exited out. The main hall was the closest thing to a public place there. Large bulbs of “sun” lights fell from the roof of the area as well as an open area that sat there replacing the space of a few apartments. The older and adults of the kids hung out there as someone was cooking food on the one stove.
‘Ah Uzi,’ came out a call and Uzi seized for a moment before turning to look over. A small group of older people sat around a picnic table, a game of chess sat in the middle. One of them had turned to look at her as the others stopped talking to take note. ‘I feel like I haven’t seen you since you were just learning to walk.’
Came the voice of one of the men, he was smiling but Uzi didn’t really know who he was, besides being a neighbour and always seeming to be in the communal area. She didn’t have to worry about a response for long before another man next to him leaned over with a frown.
‘Dear, leave the poor girl alone. Can’t you see that she is trying to get somewhere important,’ he said and the other looked back about to argue. ‘You’re disturbing her.’
‘But we should disturb her, girl has absolutely no people skills and it sure doesn’t help her place in the colony,’ came the voice of the only woman there, her husband next to her looked to Uzi in apology.
‘Your eyes must be gone if you can’t see that the girl is still standing there,’ came the second man in a huff. ‘You spend all your time on those little things and no one will mourn you when you die. She is a rather smart kid I'll have you know.’
Uzi frowned at that and looked at him again. She was sure that he had been her first teacher, maybe when they started to show all the jobs. Had been rather supportive of her weapon making dreams.
‘Go on,’ he said and that was Uzi’e que to turn and head up the steps. The afternoon into night time held little traffic on the main roads. Work and schools well over. This was the time for the small business and free time to do as you want.

If she could just get past the population of the colony without any other disturbances then it would-
‘Hey, Uzi,’ called out a voice and she froze. -be perfect.
She looked over with a snap, not wanting to be stopped anymore.
It was Thad, looking across the area showed an eat out place that had tables out front. What made her frown wasn’t Thad himself but the small crowd with him.
Within the group sat Lizzy and Doll, many of the others hadn’t noticed but the two of them looked over right away. She watched as Lizzy grinned and leaned over to Doll.
‘Ugh why do you have to be cousins with her,’ Lizzy sneared and Doll narrowed her eyes.
‘You already know that she isn’t actually related to me,’ she said her announce brought out her accent far more, she cursed out a few russian words. Only some that Uzi still understood. ‘So think of something new to complain about her with me.’
Lizzy just rolled her eyes but left it to look back to the group they were with.

From the years of knowing the two of them, Lizzy was just someone bored with her life and can only find joy in others' misery as Doll was full of misery herself.
Doll and Uzi used to be close friends before her parents were killed and she became fully miserable. Uzi was rather sure Doll blamed her for their deaths but had no idea on why and Doll hardly regarded her anymore to explain. But she joined forces with Lizzy and spread misery onto others, that was bad enough to become a bully.
The main reason Uzi started to hate her besides the sudden uncaring.
Everyone called her the weird one but they all scramble to be friends with Doll, maybe it was the help of Lizzy but still. Uzi had always had an odd feeling about Doll, or maybe it had developed later she couldn’t remember anymore, but it was a feeling that she should both trust and fear her. Like looking at some creature that was far more dangerous than at first glance but she had never actually experienced anything bad from her besides the indifference. And from what she could remember of Yeva, she was nothing like that. Off but nice.

Thad had crossed the distance to get to her, bringing Uzi out of her mind.
‘I have to always wonder, why do you bother with any of them?’ Uzi said and Thad looked back in apology. About to speak and stopped as soon as she narrowed her eyes.
‘Don’t tell me it's because of family, that doesn’t explain the others and not Doll,’ she said.
‘I was going to say, because we are meant to be meeting up for group projects, and that's going well.’ Thad looked back at the group and slumped a bit.
‘Told you to join me, you don’t have to help everyone else,’ Uzi said and rolled her eyes.
‘You told me to leave you alone and to dump the others,’ he said and Uzi looked at him. ‘You said nothing about grouping up, you did mention grovelling.’
‘And that was an out, you should have taken it,’ she huffed and turned to leave. ‘Now I got places to be, important work you know.’ Thad perked up a bit.
‘If you’re going to the weaponry section I heard that manufacturing is trying to salvage something from one of the original machines,’ he spoke up and Uzi turned right back around to face him. ‘I am guessing your dad didn’t mention it.’ He rubbed at his hands as she watched her face heat up.
‘How dare they, that's history,’ she snapped out. ‘I’ll need it in the future, whatever it is.’ she turned again and started to run, trying not to shove past others.
‘Don’t get caught,’ Thad could only call out, he watched her go till she disappeared behind a group of people. He could only sigh and come back to the group.

‘You have got to stop talking to her,’ Lizzy spoke out, playing with the straw of her drink as he came to sit back down. ‘You can’t be friends with everyone and she so doesn’t treat you right.’
‘She is rough, that's fine,’ Thad said, Doll just drank and didn’t add anything, not even when Thad looked to her for something. He just sat back leaving them all in silence.

Uzi knew that the colony wanted to gut the old sections, it slowly happened as time went, to pull parts out of others to make the ones being used lasted longer. At the expense of other machines. So years ago she made it a mission to make sure others didn’t think to explore the sections she wanted, she rigged areas to help scare others away. Be it teenagers looking to explore or the maintenance section, it did risk the structural integrity but better that then a team come through and remove parts as they fixed a section.
The rumours were that someone was living there, either some beast from the outside or an immortal being. It was perfect, as long as the series of traps and scares worked then no one was going to show up.
Now she was worried that some of them could have stopped working or someone saw through them. She should hurry her way to the area.

Uzi knew that the sections she wanted to get to were restricted, not fully sealed away as there were doors with simple locks and while she could steal the keys it could be noticed that someone had entered. Which is why she was headed for some ventilation, it was everywhere and you needed it to keep everyone underground able to breath. They could be locked but no one would think to use them, other than her and with her map of the ventilation system that she had in her mind she could go almost anywhere she needed though them. As long as she can fit the gaps.
She did her best to head into the storage closet, without anyone's notice, which was easy enough as the room sat between the warehouses and the woodworking sections. Not much traffic as most of the workforce is beyond that in manufacturing, woodworking is in one half of the warehouses but they have the least air pollutants.
Inside was just the simple clean up tools for the walkways. Nothing interesting, nothing besides the vent grate door that was against the wall by the roof.
Using the shelving in the room was easy to get to sit on top and shuffle the grate open.

Uzi had to pull out her flashlight from her side pocket of her bag.
There was nothing but the dark in front of her. Practically a void but with a light source on she was able to see the way ahead if a bit creepy, she started to get down to her knees to start to crawl her way in.
Making sure to close the vent door behind her, the space just giving her enough room to turn around in it.

A few intersections, a turn or two and up a slope and she knew that she had entered above the area. She just wished there was an easier way then to crawl as slow as she was.

When she got far enough, knowing where she was with a thought, stopped at the gap in front of her. The grate for it had fallen off some time ago, having been opened years ago thanks to her and collecting dust somewhere on the ground.
Since all the power was cut off, emergency lights used to work till the power grid was reworked and the place was fully cut off. It was simply cut, she found the wire they had disconnected and if she wanted to, could just fix it. For now, she had a torch.
She shone the light down to look and found the pile of crates, they had been stacked in place when the place had been abandoned. Purely by chance a perfect ladder down and far safer than any other jump. It was also past the doorway, safe from anyone noticing or thinking someone was using it. Uzi’s knees hurt from crawling through the vents and needed to get down to stretch.
She had to trust the drop down, landing on the old box that acted as the first step.
It was only a climb down to the ground. Checking the area with her light beam.

The abandoned sections of the city were just as abandoned as she remembered, the light of her flashlight barely stretched to the far walls. The dust below kicked up to welcome her to the area. She knew, somewhat, where she needed to go. The old map she had found once appeared in her mind to help her navigate.
A few lefts and a straight and she should be in the storage area, where the manufactured parts had been stocked up for assembly.
Most of it wasn’t anything she wanted or needed, the base shape and workings came out of there but the whole point as to why she needed to go out was for the stuff that the colony had used up early on or never made themselves. Like anything related to the energy power and regulators. Both normally found outside.
The warehouse was the one place, a chance for things she could have missed. If there had been a computer that had been used for stock management, it had long been taken and used elsewhere. So anything that was made or still around would need to be looked for manually.
There was a chance for there to be some unopened boxes in the higher areas, she looked up with a quick swallow. Climbing wasn’t exactly her forte. She needed to find something to use or risk falling.

Uzi could look for something as she checked on the traps, they needed a look over either way, maybe a change in placements were needed as well.
She left, back tracking a bit to find the first.
Simple creation that activated by a simple pressure plate that rattled cans in a smaller vent system nearby. Making the sounds echo off into the area making it double in sound by the network. She stepped on it and it activated with ease. Filling the room with overlapping rattles.
She liked the placement of it, not a direct path in but if someone turned early on it should work well. She moved on.
She slowly went around the area, hitting all the different pathing before getting back to the main storage. All of that area was the last lines of defence before getting to the real machinery at the far end. Most of the rooms in the early sections were for meetings or planning and a mini kitchen with a dining area. The storage area sat after with assembly being along this area before the machinery ran the full end with some testing area. The layout had something to do with safety and fire risks.
All her traps were sound or movement based, things to scare or unnerve people as they explored. Hopefully making them run before realising that some of them repeated or just sound and no one is seen.
If gunpowder wasn't both a pain to make and even more so to set up often, then she would be making fireworks and explosions to make sure no one ever came back.

Uzi was checking on one that shifted something up on a shelf, it had worked once. At her test it no longer made the correct distance and the motor seized, Uzi wasn’t sure when it could have stopped or how. Could be a piece broke inside or dust clogged it up. She could climb up the easy stack of crates, waste her night with it or just bring back a new one later and replace it.
Uzi heard a sound, a repeating sound. Making her tilt her head to hear it better.
She heard steps, not quite headed for her. Seeming to walk without purpose. She flicked her torch off, making sure to hide her. She couldn’t stop her throat from seizing as the area turned pitch black. She didn't have to wait long before light slowly showed in the distance.
Making her realise rather quickly there was nowhere to hide. She was standing in the middle of the shelving area, she looked around as the small light started to filter in. Sure there were some boxes littered about and she could hide between them but that won't stop someone from turning and looking. Hiding behind one big one was the only way it would work if you moved around it.
Nearby was also a pipe leaned up against a bracket of the shelving, a perfect weapon if she needed. Though using it on someone would be bad. It was bad enough if she was seen and reported, but being reported and having had attacked someone was even more so. It would just be used for scaring. A quick yell and a slap into metal.
She just needed to stay still and stay hidden.

A trap that was meant to scrap along a metal pipe on the wall rang out, this didn’t seem to deter whoever was coming, instead had them look around and at the trap itself. She tried not to flinch away as the light was searching about again. She went back behind the crate, only able to wait.
She held the pipe ready to defend if need be. It was more to make herself feel better.

She waited as the figure came into the area she was in, they were looking around still. She held her breath, till she noticed the familiar hair and cap on their head.
‘Thad?’ Uzi spoke out, she held the pipe in her hands tight. He twisted around and shone the light on her in surprise. Effectively blinding her as she hissed out and raised her arms.
‘Oh sorry,’ he said and flicked the light away. Uzi understood right away what she had done to N, it was a efficient torture method. No wonder it worked so well.
Thad looked around for a moment, looking back at the area he had come from.
‘Hey didn’t you make something like that in the fourth grade?’ Thad asked out in amusement. Uzi looked at him in confusion, she understood that he was talking about the trap he triggered earlier but her confusion came from something else.
‘What are you going here?’ she asked instead, only then getting up with the help of the pipe.
‘Came to help, the assignment work wasn’t really happening, so,’ he said and shrugged.
‘How did you get in here?’
‘Front door, I would love to know how you managed it though, it was still locked,’ he said and Uzi felt herself heat up.
‘This is why I don’t want you involved,’ she snapped out. ‘You just came without asking first and you came through the most obvious way.’ Thad watched in worry. ‘I got in through the vents, especially since no one is supposed to be in here.’
‘Oh,’ was all Thad could say, Uzi turned away in frustration.
Silence held for a time, Thad looked down to the dusty ground as Uzi sighed. She couldn’t actually be angry at him.

‘Why do you want to help me so badly?’ Uzi asked and looked at him again.
He could only shrug in response.
‘No, I want a real answer,’ she said and held up the pipe to point it at him.
Thad looked down on it, his mouth opened a few times before sighing. She lowered the pipe end back to the ground. Its sudden metal tang got him to look at her.
‘You know what you want to do,’ he said, Uzi looked at him with a slight eye narrow but let him continue. He took in a breath and crossed an arm over himself to grab near his shoulder.
‘Lizzy already has her apprenticeship with the clothing section, Brad will be able to get into the metal works easy, and Chad’s happy to be a hauler,’ Thad said and crossed his arms fully. ‘I can’t help the colony with dancing and playing sports and nothing else seems right and I want to do something proper.’
Uzi’s gaze softened.
‘Fighting monsters and guns isn’t really your thing either,’ she could only say and saw him squeeze his eyes for a moment before shaking his head and perking up.
‘But I can at least help to find your thing as I wait for mine.’
She exhaled and looked around.
‘Fine you can help me with this part,’ she said and he started to smile wider. ‘But not everything or all the time. Understand?’
‘Perfectly,’ he said, relaxing into a more natural smile. Uzi couldn’t help but to mirror it for a bit.
‘Since you are so fit, how about seeing what is in the higher levels?’ she asked and Thad looked up the shelving.
‘I can do that,’ he said with a nod before making a face and looking back at her. ‘What are we looking for?’
‘I’ll explain as we look, this isn’t going to be quick or easy,’ she said and he nodded again.

Chapter Text

N’s start of the night had been nice, weather calm and the stars shone above as he had taken a path that dropped towards an old shopping mall. Coming in through an opening, some sort of grand entrance to the large building. Maybe there had been glass doors and windows but it had long broken and left the front open. N didn’t know what was on the path ahead and came down to land, to slide to a stop in the middle of the path as his boots slid on the years of dirt and grime that was carried in on the wind. He looked back and found the path seemed to clear a bit from his slid, showing the old tiles below as a white with some sort of flak of grey to it.

Storefronts lined the hallway along. The insides were dark and left ransacked or destroyed, some of the shelving still in place with very little inside. He would like to go into each store later.
Even if the place had been left to ruin, there were still walls covered in old advertising. Areas that never had been affected by the elements or people never used again. He walked on, he had left a bit earlier from his tower to take a quick look at the place and he was going to at least look around. Passing by some large advertisement for a car, a large backdrop. With seating around.
N could only wonder why they were such a popular thing as he had seen cars everywhere.
Or rather, what has been left of them. Mostly all rusting out on the streets with the better looking ones having been underground, but most are damaged or at least had things written and drawn on.
This advertisement at least seemed to make it look good and N wondered what it was like to use one.
He moved on, seeing light ahead and once there the hallway opened up to a larger room, looking up he saw the dome that he had seen outside.

A medium-sized tree sat in the middle of the room. Its roots bulged out of the garden bed that had once been there, also being the only plant left. It's leaves spread as far as it could. N came closer and frowned. It looked sick or at least not like the ones he had seen outside, he looked down on the bed, there wasn't a bit of area left of the ground. Completely trapped within the area, N looked around the large space to the expensive area of concrete all sheltered in every other area except for the one spot. He looked up to the sky above, to the broken glass ceiling and the only way for water to get into the area.

He came closer as his eyes caught what looked to be writing on the bark of the tree. Most of it was old, some years were scratched next to names around.
But the dates were wrong, N frowned as he tilted his head. People from the different areas normally had years set up differently, as N knew the date as being the year 53.
But there were dates that were as high as 2220’s added next to names, that wasn’t in any way close to his one. He could only frown over this, he was told that dates restarted some time ago. No real idea why. He could only huff and add it to his list of things he didn’t know. He just looked it over again.
Counting back the dates, the last being the year 2223 and the earliest that he could make out started at 2200, with a few groups of names coming every year or so before stopping and new names were added.

There was a space near the top, new growth that had gone past above the names. Maybe no one had returned for a while, it was a nice empty space ready for a name to be added.
N grew in his claws, bringing one forward to start scratching in his simple one-lettered name. He looked at it for a moment before adding in his known year.
It all looked out of place, off. From his name to the year he added in, like it didn’t belong. But it was sort of nice, being a part of something that had been done by others, as he looked down there was the obvious other issue, he was alone. Others had come in groups, names around the year. At least there were pairs of people.
His heart skipped, dropping his hand as he stared at it all.
Staring for an unknown amount of time.
The same hand started to be raised, determined to scratch out his section. He wasn’t angry, it was a shame that he was there alone before a thought came to him. Stopping him before he tore into his name.

N’s claw moved back to the tree bark, starting to scratch some more adding above the year.
J, V.
Looking at that did settle him a bit. He wasn’t entirely happy but he did smile a bit, it felt far better if still wrong. He stepped back.
He hadn’t meant to waste so much time in the mall, at this tree. He had been rather set on exploring the place once he was free for the night. But with the tree, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to come back for a while. A reminder.
With that his wings came out, not wanting to stay any longer. He bent down as his eyes still stared at the section, only looking away as he jumped. Having to see where he could exit above. And doing so rather quickly, he burst out above and had to check what direction he needed to go before heading in it.

All in all, not the worst start to the night. He just had to see what the rest of it would entail.

N landed back by the ship, he tried not to worry about being late. Maybe a time that J won’t be waiting for him by the front door. He looked up as he approached and was glad to not see her standing in the doorway.
Twenty steps up and entered with a held breath.

‘N, water needs refilling,’ J spoke out the moment he got in. She had been waiting just for him, off on the left side hallway. He didn’t mean to freeze but he quickly nodded to try to recover.
He had expected it soon with it having been some time since he last refiled it.
‘And all the way this time,’ she added in and looked over with a glare. N blinked, trying to not look confused, he stood himself up and at attention.
‘Of course, I’ll do it right,’ he could only respond with, even if he was sure he had, every single time he had.
While she wasn’t happy she was satisfied enough to move on from it, heading for the main sitting area. An area that he had never had the chance to use, V’s claw marks did litter one side of the bench against the wall that she would take when J wasn’t around and damaged it just to annoy J.
J stopped at the table as N waited for him to be dismissed, he couldn’t really just leave so he stayed in place.
J’s finger ran over the table of the dining room.
‘Ugh if we didn’t have to feed the damn things we should have brought servants, at least one so everything was clean. But no, she always tells me no,’ J hissed to herself. N just stayed silent, it hasn’t been the first time she has complained like this.
She looked at him, N just blinked.
J frowned, something was happening behind her eyes, processing and starting to annoy her. But he already knew that she didn’t want him to say something, he just had to wait for her to say what she wanted.
She huffed.
‘Ugh, just go,’ she spoke up at last, making him blink. ‘Just clean after the water. You're better than nothing.’ N nodded and she turned to glare down the hallway, as a door opened and V came skipping down toward them. J continued to glare at her as she passed to head right outside.
‘Why am I stuck with these two? I am perfect.’ J growled, meant to be under her breath but N was right there, V hadn’t gotten that far outside and could hear it so she rolled her eyes. J left back for her room, leaving N alone. He could only sag a bit before starting to move for his job. Water collection wasn’t a fast job and he still had cleaning to do for the second half of the night. At least he wasn’t all that disappointed in not seeing the rest of the mall.

N had found a place out by the forest some time ago, flowing water was the best and the location had a cute little waterfall that a bucket could be put under. He had been at the job for almost three hours, with only a large bucket as a way to move it. Even with how long he had been working he still had three more hours to go as he was only about halfway through with the refill. He at least didn’t have to wait long at the waterfall, and the flight was simple.
Taking off and landing with a full bucket of water was not an art he had mastered yet but at least somewhat better with time. It was not something that was efficient or ever worked well. There was a wet patch from his take-off and landing spot, from his spillage.
They should have landed in the woods and near water so he would have just had to have walked but things didn’t end up as they should have or better if the ship worked, there would have been a pipe to take to a waters edge. If the system needed it.
N didn’t actually know how it worked, how the ship knew things like water levels or that it could clean the water in the first place. All he knew was it was all broken now.

V was already back as he came this time, he tried to get her attention with a smile but she didn’t notice him after his landing. Laying out on some shifted flooring that sort of looked comfortably shaped.
N was walking up the steps to the ship as J had landed behind and entered up behind him, not caring that N had to step out of the way with a bucket (mostly) full of water. She was predictably annoyed, her first patrol in the night hadn’t come up with anything. She would search the areas of buildings around the bunker door, looking for any stragglers. Hard to catch humans if there were none around. Her first step to her goal to bring down the whole colony.
N just headed for the water tank after recovering from almost spilling more water. He headed down the hallway past the bedrooms for the stairs at the end of the hallway that went down for the storage underneath.

The underside was gloomy, no real reason to turn on a light to see if you had dark vision. The few small lights that let out dim light was all they had and needed.
He stopped once he got to the tank, he tried to give himself a moment to rest before having to lift the bucket up. He just leaned against the tank for a moment, he would be a bit sore for the next day after this. But he had to be getting stronger if he could make it to the fourth hour of the refill without his arms starting to strain.

He could hear footsteps above him as someone moving about, he would only hear J if she was stomping about as she was.
He started to pour the water, he didn’t know what number of bucket this was, but he’ll know when water either poured back out or he heard it. Likely will end up pouring out, which is why there were rags down with the tank.

He just got back up the steps and was about to get to the end of the hallway. When there came a scratching from outside, N winced cause he knew what it was. Soon J came stomping out of the office, right past him and he didn’t dare breathe.
‘V, I swear. Shut up,’ J yelled out the front door. N did come forward a bit, at least to be able to hear better.
‘But I am bored,’ V hissed back. ‘Nothing is ever out there.’
‘And am I supposed to entertain you?’ J hissed back out, her grip whitened into the metal. N was rather sure she was slowly bending it. ‘Go do your job and find me a human to question.’ Outside V snickered.
‘Oh yeah, all the humans running around here at night,’ she said and N came even closer in worry. ‘Let me just pull one out of my pocket.’
‘Maybe I should make you watch the damn bunker all day then,’ J snapped. ‘You can sit there waiting to snatch one up, bake in the sun a bit for it.’

N silently pledged to whoever could hear him, for that to not happen. No reason for her to be around the area longer than she needed.
‘Fiiine, only because I would rather die than sit around looking at stupid doors,’ V hissed out and ran off, first on all fours before pushing up onto her toes.
J glared at her as she left with a flap of wings.
She turned to storm back in before noticing N there.
‘N, at least that is one thing I am thankful about you. It's just your stupid that annoys me but at least it's not on purpose,’ she hissed as she walked past, N stepped back to get out of the way.
‘I am trying my best for you J,’ N spoke out, giving the best smile he could muster. He did see how she rolled her eyes a bit but went back to her room. Sealing the door behind her before she roared out into the space, only then did N go, hugging his bucket and exiting to continue working.

N had just gotten back thirty minutes later, every trip taking ten minutes, water in bucket and about to climb the stairs to the ship. When the sound of whistling filled the air, someone was coming in fast and J had still been in the ship the last time N had been back so there was only one other person.
V came in and right for the ship.
‘Yo,’ V called out and landed right in front of N, basically in the doorway.
J jumped inside from where she had been drinking some tea, turning to glare but paused as she noticed that V was panting a bit.
‘You’re never going to believe me,’ V said and J glared at the challenge. ‘Spotted a campfire on the travel road.’
J’s eyes widened.
‘N, forget that,’ she spoke out and rushed back into her room. ‘Get ready to go, right now.’
N looked down on the bucket and just placed it next to the stairs, out of the way of the path. V jumped over the stairs and headed for the opening, instantly impatient as she started to pace. N just followed behind but kept a distance.
J came back out soon after, still fixing her hair but it would never be perfect for her. At least she had a grin on her face as her wings opened.
‘If this is a joke you will be snatching up someone in front of the bunker, in the daylight.’ J warned as she got close, V just jumped off as J followed right after as N lagged a bit behind.

Chapter Text

The trip back to the location took some time, V wasn’t the best at directions and took them back the way she had gone for her patrol, much to J’s dislike.

J saw it first ahead of them, taking the lead the moment she did. Taking them to a large tree, one that was overlooking the area. Her smile widened. V landed up on the other side to her as N headed for the branch underneath. He wouldn’t be able to fit and there was a risk of the top snapping off. He would still be able to hear anything that J says.

The three of them looked down, N held onto the tree trunk as the two above shifted about. J in surveillance as V stood in boredom, having to wait on what she would be instructed to do. As much as she would like to have just done what she wanted when she found them in the first place, it was better to just do what J wanted.

The camp had a small group, several humans and the animals that pulled the cart. At the distance, J was the only one able to see it all.
‘V you will take the left side, two of them with one having a gun there. I do not want to have to wait for N to come back from his wounds, with our luck it would be a headshot,’ J huffed.
N winced from below them, he made sure to stay silent as he thought about Uzi.
‘N, you should be able to handle the right side. It looks to be a far younger teen and some older man. There is one on the far side, don’t touch them,’ she said and N tried to see in the distance but he could hardly see the shapes of the people, V didn’t even bother.
‘Do we all understand?’ she spoke out and N verbally agreed with a yes as V made a general sound of agreement.
‘Perfect,’ J sneered. ‘Go on then.’

The camp came in sight, people hanging out around the fire. Something having to be cooked in a pot at it, being managed by one on the right side with someone else close by. Others were scattered about.

V landed first, she always did. Making sure to hit the ground, fast and sudden, looking around in amusement. In the people's moment of confusion, none of them understood what had happened till V ran up to the one with a gun hanging off her side with a strap. Stabbing forward and lifting up, the gun slipped from her shoulder. Making a soft landing onto the ground.
Something about that small noise made the others realise, jumping back as their eyes grew wide. Panic building. N landed down behind the two he was after, the older one went to step in front of the younger.
They looked alike, likely closely related. N made sure to blink as he shoved his claws forward and into the man, seeing him start to fall over as N pulled his claws right out. The teen behind him hopefully didn’t register it before N sent his tail forward, sending it up and under their jaw. N blinked, opening to them falling next to the older man. He only flicked his tail of what little body matter had attached. J had landed a bit away and came walking through it all.
There was screaming from the other two, the ones that V left in pain but the wounds bleed too fast to allow them to stay conscious for long. Some sort of a silver lining. Even though she went to hold on to one with her mouth to drink, better than let it waste.

N looked over to the fifth, to the last one. N had seen his look before, the man’s brain still playing catch up. He was focused on the more violent ending to the two V had, he blinked and awoke looking right at J as she came forward.
‘As much as I would love for you to join them, that's not today,’ she said and N saw the recognition, the hardening of resolve. So did J and she rolled her eyes.
The man broke off into a run for the tree line.

V twisted to follow, about to bolt after him as he ran for the trees.
‘V stay,’ J snapped out before she could rush after. V turned to her in a glare. ‘N bring that one back,’ she ordered instead. V whined out and J sent a look to them both, it was final.
‘You’ll just kill them,’ J said to V as N removed his claws before starting to run after, stretching open his wings again to send him forward in a few beats.

N stopped within the forest, having to stop to know what direction the man had ran towards.
The man hadn’t been bleeding, but luckily leaving a trail for him to follow with broken branches and the continued sound of him running past plants. N wasn’t a tracker, but at least he had something. If he lost the man in the forest he would be at fault fully for it.
He ran hoping to catch up before the man figured out a place to hide, even hiding behind anything like a tree stump would be an issue.
N was faster though, soon seeing the man ahead just between some bushes. He had ran in a straight line in his panic.

N ran right after, the man was fighting for breath. Whatever he did, didn’t have running through a forest as part of his job.
N caught up and got to his side to body slam him, it shouldn’t kill him and leave him dazed in the dirt. The man flipped over himself before sliding into a fallen log. N slid to a stop with the leaves under him give way when he tried to stop, he had to walk back for him, coming close.
N leaned over a moment, checking to make sure he was still alive. N at least noticed that the shoulder he had slammed into had become dislocated. The man had cried out in the sudden pain and impact but now laid still, if a bit struggled for breathing, panicked. Eyes closed.

N looked away to look back the way they had come, he could either dragged him back or fly back but he couldn’t do that without making sure the man wouldn’t cause trouble. N would have to carry him back either way. He decided on that and came to kneel down, starting to shift him to lift him up. Normally people would stiffen if they were awake, and he was.
It was N’s first clue, the second was the man twisted around, digging a knife into his side, back peddling as N hissed out taking hold of the wound. He looked up as the other kept the knife up. It was all the man had, with the other arm hanging uselessly.
‘Why is this never easy?’ N moaned to himself, looking at the man at the realisation that he spoke out loud. ‘If I ask nicely, would you come with me?’
The man frowned deeper, just shaking his head in disbelief.
N fixed himself upright.
‘Look, if you just come with me you can-’ he started before he was rushed at with a growl. The man clearly not liking the idea as he swung his knife at N, making him have to jump back in panic. Just because he could heal, it didn’t mean that he liked being stabbed. ‘Live.’ N managed to finish talking once the man took a break.

N flicked a wing out as the man came at him again but he couldn’t risk putting effort in it or risk breaking him more.
This at least knocked him over again, making the man cry out as he fell on his dislocated arm. N could at least be sympathetic, he hasn’t had to knock anyone out for a while. He didn’t exactly have a way to practise. He looked down on his fist, debating what he should use when the man next got up but instead N frowned as he realised that something had changed, he looked back towards the man.
Who was far quieter than before. N came closer again, noting that the knife was not in the man's hand and had to have slid away. N felt more confident to look closer.
The man had been knocked completely out, breathing, if still pained. N couldn’t know if it was from the pain, from landing on his head or just stress. At least it didn’t look as if he was bleeding from a head wound. N looked around, now just needing to remember what direction he had come from.

N pushed by a branch, he sighed out at seeing the other two in the camp before coming forward. The man’s body under his arm. V was going through their things, throwing them around and making a general mess. The animals that were used for pulling the cart and been tied up nearby were dead by this point.
‘Don’t tell me that stupid thing got you?’ J asked out as N lowered the man’s body. He didn’t say anything and came over to the firelight to look under his coat, at the blood-soaked shirt underneath. His coat could be ignored and just washed as opposed to the lighter shirt underneath with little chance of it not staining. At least the wound had already sealed.
‘If you could not let them ruin what little clothing that look presentable on you,’ J spoke as she looked him over before looking to the man’s body. Smiling a bit at it.
‘V tie it up, the idiot has to find something else to wear,’ J said and got up in a huff, coming to the man to stand over him. V raced off to find some rope. N headed for the human’s cart, climbing under the low roof. Having to shove what shirts he thought could fit him into a bag, he knew he didn’t have time to actually check if things would fit. V had spread out enough for him to at last partly glance through.

‘Aww, he's broken,’ V spoke up as she tried to sit the man up, lifting up his dislocated arm. N looked out for a moment as V had moved it in an unnatural angle.
‘N!’ J snapped out and he ducked back in.
‘I didn’t mean to,’ he could only say. ‘He fell and landed onto it.’
J glared for a moment at him back over and came to V and the man.
‘All this will be pointless if it won’t be usable,’ J hissed and took hold of the arm before pushing it upwards and a loud pop was heard.
The man snapped awake, in panic and a cry of pain. J injected her tail into his thigh.
‘Shut it,’ she snapped and the man managed to look around in fright before slumping.
‘Let’s go already,’ J said as she stood, turning to leave. V finished up her rather poor knot to lift the man up. N went to rush out with the bag he had full of clothing, he jumped out of the cart.

One of the beasts cried out in pain, making N jump for a second. N looked over with a frown, the animal's bodies were both laid out meant to be dead but one was still breathing.
N tilted his head and came over. The cut over its throat was hardly deep enough to kill them. It looked up from the ground, he looked over to make sure he was in the clear to send his tail forward. Under its jaw and into the head, injecting enough to make it brain dead within a few seconds. He quickly wiped his tail into the grass below as its head dropped back down.
‘N, hurry your ass up, stop wasting your time,’ J yelled out and N came back to join up, avoiding J’s gaze before she looked back to the city and opened her wings. N looked to V.
‘I can carry him back,’ he said and V huffed.
‘I don’t need your help,’ she snapped and jumped off, while the take-off had been a bit off she did get into flight. J followed after with a smirk and N looked around the camp one last time, at the bodies littered about before taking off himself.

They were in the under level of the ship, a ship that had normal storage for crates; it also had cells off on one side able to store captives. N stayed on the stairs as the two of them were in a cell with the still knocked out man.
‘You going to mute him?’ V asked she locked on some shackles on the man's feet. J hummed as she leaned back, N looked over from the steps. His side still hurt even if the wound had disappeared, he could at least look through what he had collected to distract himself from it.
‘So much trouble to do it here,’ J huffed. ‘If we take it home after, I haven’t had anyone new in a while. Can stay gagged for now if it's really going to bother me.’
‘So I can’t play with him?’ V asked and leaned the man a bit with an elbow.
‘No, and don’t even think about it,’ J snapped out, N started to lean against the wall next to him as he finished with the bag, a small pile sat out on one side of the bottom of the stairs. Some of it in the bag could be usable but he would still need to try them to make sure.

‘N,’ J called out and he looked over. ‘You still have to do some cleaning and since you love humans so much, go clean up the site. Hide the bodies and burn down the carts. I want people to show up there again.’
N nodded, going to stand with a huff. His stomach did growl a bit so he rushed back up to throw the bag into his room as he passed, he would need to change clothes at some point soon but not tonight.
He stopped at the kitchen with a frown, having to grab what dried meat as he could to eat on the way.
The room wasn’t used very well, cans sat about needing to be packed back away as the one oven that could dry meat was the only thing usable. The fridge could only freeze at that point, no surprise it being broken but it was like that before the crash. Anything that went in to try to store for as long as possible, frozen solid.

He heard footsteps come up and he quickly grabbed more pieces before rushing off. Heading down the front door steps and opened his wings to fly off. It wasn’t till he was in the air that N looked at the sky for a guess of the time, he would still have several hours.
He would still have some time to do what he needed to at least make it back to some form of building before morning, he raced off back to the location. Trying to chew on his food as best as he could, only to drop some from his grasp. He could only sigh and continue on.

A few animals had scattered as he came in. Luckily they had been going for the far bigger animals and not the human bodies. At least he was rather sure about that when two of them had already been partly butchered. He supposed they would be easier to get into, at a second glance he wasn’t all that happy to find that something did seem to have gone after them.
He looked at the area, nothing seemed to have moved or anything hanging around but it could have also been something smaller like a cat or a fox. Both he had seen on the way in.
He looked for somewhere for the dead to go, he could always just dump them in a different part of the forest but that would both be time consuming and not proper.

There looked to be another clearing just beyond some trees and he headed for it. The area wouldn’t be a bad spot at all.
Its not the first time he had done some grave digging, and this time won’t be the last. Coming to one side of the area he grew out his claws and got to work, shoving out between his legs and out behind him into a pile.

Four graves were dug out rather quickly, trying to dig down deep enough to make sure nothing dug them up again and making it level was the harder part.
Once he was happy with that he went back for the bodies, the two he killed were far easier to bring back. One under each arm as he put them in laying on their side even if they were a bit stiff, he went for the other two. Who he had to be far more careful with, deciding on trying to pull them along by their arms. Having to drag them into the area and slid them each into one grave.
N sighed, overlooking the area with a tilt of the head. Maybe they didn’t look like they were resting in peace but at least resting a bit, especially those that V killed.

N came to the side that had the dirt piles, bringing out his wings and sat between two graves to use his to scoop the piles of dirt forward. Covering them both in one movement, he had to push the rest of it into a mound by hand but most of the work was done already.
He managed to move all that he could before getting to the other two to do the same.
He finished it and stopped, kneeling in the dirt as wind blew by. Threatening to take his hat and he had to hold it down, the smell of rain came hard on the winds. Making him have to jump up and rush for fire.

A fire from that the humans had started for the night it still burnt on even if it wasn't that strong, N added a couple branches to start it up again. Making sure to keep enough hanging out for a handle on one branch to use later. He knelt down as he did so, looking into the flames till his eyes hurt from the flickering light when the branches relit. Even then he looked down just next to the flames, even as the wind blew towards the graves. He could ignore them for now, trying to focus on something else.

There was the burning of food on the fire, the pot that had been left behind and just kept cooking with no one to watch over it. Nothing left inside, all evaporated and burnt to a crisp.
He got up once he was sure the fire would last just enough time.
He was racing against time now, he rushed about trying to throw everything back into the cart. Didn’t matter too much where it all went inside. Anything left behind was added in, even the dropped gun.
Coming to the front, N found the beams of wood that came out the front that was meant for attaching the animals to, how that happened N didn’t exactly have time to think about or try to figure out.
He took hold of a rope and started to pull, heading away and navigating between the trees. Getting as far as he could before the wheels eventually caught on a fallen tree.

N returned with a still burning branch as clouds started to block out the moon and stars, he panicked as he could feel the heat already starting to burn at his hand. So fast was the rush over that he had to just fling it in as he started to nurse it right away. Some form of reddening had started to form but he at least knew that it would heal underneath and flake off soon enough. For enough time to watch the cart go up in flames.

It was the biggest bonfire he had seen, things popping and get stronger as new things got included in it all. It had gotten so hot that he had to back away and shelter behind a tree.
Eventually the sounds, brightness and area heat made him have to leave completely, starting to walk away as his shadow stretched on ahead of him. He flexed his hand as he walked back in the general direction, but he entered a clearing that wasn’t the campsite. He looked over to the four graves again.
Thunder went off above him, somewhere in the sea of clouds above. Rumbling so deep that N would swear he could feel it in his feet, right through his boots.

Maybe it was the wrath of the dead, if you believed in such a thing or just the universe making sure to point out he did a bad thing. N didn’t really know for sure, but he had read up on something called mental health and he sure wasn’t having a good mental moment. Even more so as the sky finally gave out, letting its heavy droplets come down to pelt him.
He stood there for a moment, both because he would be protected for a few moments and because he thought he deserved it. Get a little wet for some murder, not the worst exchange and not very equal on the deads part.
Above lighting flashed along, followed up by a loud clap. Vibrating him to his core once again.
N looked down to the graves again, he had been glad to help in the hunt considering J would normally like it to last longer for herself and V as he was always right to the killing blow then to drag out hunt itself. He couldn’t even hunt an animal correctly. He squatted down, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes in frustration.

What it would it look like from the outside, if someone glanced at him then they would think he was praying.
He had read up on all forms of religions, none particularly appealing. Not even some really old historical ones that involved war and hunting.
He looked up to the sky, letting the lightning flash across his vision.

He knew this about his life and himself, the chase of a hunt was exciting but it was quick to disperse any form of enjoyment. He hated watching them die, so he finished them quickly only to be shamed for it.
Eating raw meat and blood always made his stomach twist in on itself. Depending on the amount.
He had once found a recipe book that had nothing but vegetarian meals.
There was no way he could ever be vegetarian. It would probably kill him. Though he had never heard of most of the vegetables in it, and there was a list of manufactured proteins that he had was sure he found one once in an apartment.

He wasn’t very good at what he was.
Not what he was expected to be.
N looked at the graves again.
He did do as he was told however, still killed when told or needed to.

N had enough, water was starting to creep under his coat, finding a way in from around his neck and wetting the shirt he still never changed from. He stood himself up and opened his wings. Leaping away and into the wind, wind that was still shooting water into his back and neck but at least he was getting away. Better to be wet than being stuck in a forest as the sun came up.

N ended up on autopilot, didn’t really realise where he was headed till he saw his tower ahead of him. The rain had eased up by this point, as the sky started to light with the clouds started to break apart.
He no longer felt like returning to the ship to report to J, he could do that at dust. Landing up on the balcony wasn’t great as he slipped on the wet flooring of the balcony and he had to reach out for a wall to catch himself. He slumped against it as the day's events seemed to rush him at once, he let himself slip down. Not even bothering to avoid the wet below, he will just change when he gets up again.
He’ll have to do laundry as well at some point and finish filling up the water before J realises it was never completed.
He pushed his head into the wall, moving his hat aside.

Slowly the sun came up, N couldn’t fall asleep for whatever reason. He was ready to but time passed till the bunker doors opened, the screeching of it made him wince and made his eyes open a bit. He barely looked at the people that went out for the day.

His mind felt dull.
Somewhere in his thoughts, he knew that he was being pulled away and that he should panic but it hardly seemed important in the moment.

He didn’t dream when he finally fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Class was hellishly slow, Uzi groaned out into the desk after glancing at the time. Her classmates either rolled eyes, ignored her or told her straight up to shut up. Lizzy being one of them. It didn’t matter cause she knew that they all felt the same way. So many of them have far more interesting things to go do afterwards.

What she wouldn’t give to be able to look out a window, to watch clouds or birds go by. Things she had seen in all sorts of old world media. Something that would never be possible so far underground.
Her teacher was going over the assignments, ones that people should have done already. He knew that most of the class wouldn’t have.

The largest light above turned on due to a timer, the room’s sun light started its hourly operation to attempt to give needed artificial vitamins.
Uzi knows that it's not the same, some cheap replacement with the colony not even able to make them correctly anymore. If a bulb is broken in an area, then it could be weeks till it is fixed.
The real sun was so much better, but most of the younger generation has never experienced it. Uzi now knows she isn’t the only one to want to go out, Thad straight up said it.
She looked at the back of his head, she still wasn’t sure what to think about him. When younger, several of them had a big friends group. As everyone got older it fractured a bit. As talks from adults spoke about helping the colony, to finding your place in the world. Teacher was guilty of that but he wasn’t as bad as many others. Uzi huffed into her arms, her dad coming to mind right away.

She looked at Thad again, there was no way that he didn’t know what he wanted. They hadn’t talked more after Thad had helped her find parts, it had gotten so late that he had to run off back home before they could.
Well if he continued to show up, then they would have that talk some time soon. The only issue was being stuck in class, one she didn’t need to be in if it wasn’t for keeping up her attendance record.
She only had two more hours till the end of day.

Uzi ended up staring down the clock, she was trying to will it to move faster. If she wasn’t sane then she could have sworn it was skipping forward a bit. Getting to the time she wanted but the bell didn’t ring.
She frowned, the time always lined up with the bell. She looked around to see if anyone else had noticed it.
No one did, Teacher still went along with the lesson.
Sure it has happened before but there had to be a reason as to why it has happened.
The bell came on suddenly and made her jump in fright.
Teacher stopped writing up on the board and put the pen down, looking up like he always did to the time. Seeing that the time had changed again, he just huffed. Turning to leave for his desk, leaving the board with what it had on it.

The class cleared, all leaving as a bulk group. Uzi waited till the crowd dispersed to leave last.
‘Uzi,’ came Teacher’s voice and she looked over as he stood at his desk, flipping through the pages of work. He didn’t look up from it. ‘Have you fixed that “rail” gun of yours?’ he asked, giving some more emphasis on the word rail.
Uzi sent him a glare, he stopped to look up at her with a raised eyebrow.
‘Why, you going to make fun of its name again?’ she asked and he blinked, only moving to fix his glasses.
‘Does it work?’ he asked instead, Uzi frowned and crossed her arms.
‘It works, it fires,’ she said quickly, Teacher just hummed and looked back towards the pages.
‘Alright then, you can go. Don’t burn off your fingers,’ he said and Uzi looked him over carefully. His words meant care but his monotone voice made it all off, she never knew what to think about him. He didn’t look up at her as she exited.

Uzi entered the hallway to the loud and bustling crowd. The entire population of the school heading out, if you wanted to get out fast then you had to move fast.
Having to weave between the people that moved slowly or just stood in the way. She had to walk through a few groups just to get by. Regardless of their words.
She entered the main road with the slim aim of going home, still debating with herself if she should do some school work first before leaving again or just drop off her bag.
She was able to get back to her apartment block, some kids ran past her in chase of each other down the stairs. She stopped before they crashed into her, she could only sigh as they ran off before continuing on herself and headed for her place.

Enjoying the slower pace home as she looked at some of the more interesting front of homes. Some with painted fronts, just bright colours or of naturescapes. Some people were rather determined to bring nature into the area, some places would have potted plants. A couple older people had their fronts completely filled. These areas always made the air smell of wet soil, with extra sun lights above to give the plants the best chance. The only other places to find plant were the park or if you went to an agricultural farm. People's fronts were more personal.
Uzi got to her place, in its dim purple. Even the door had been painted over, it was ugly but loved. Her parents had asked when Uzi was young what colour they should paint their place in. Her father couldn’t bring himself to change it even as it started to age and by that point of time it was starting to flake.

The reason was by the front door, a beautifully written signature of the Doorman name with the apartment number, painted by Nori when they had first moved there as Khan didn’t have a creative bone in his body and Nori didn’t want to commission a plaque. Just below the family name and added later were three handprints in a peach yellow that had turned more brown, an ugly combination but it was left over paint from the inside living room walls and seemed like a fantastic idea. A little baby handprint was in the middle of two far larger adult hands.
Over the top of everything was a plastic sheet that Khan had instilled several years ago to try to protect the whole thing from damage.
Which as Uzi came for the door she did touch her hand to it, keeping it safe as intended. Uzi headed inside soon after.

Inside was quiet, but with her dads boots by the door she knew he was home. There was a noise from his room before it opened.
‘Uzi,’ he called out and came out with a roll of blueprints under an arm. ‘I got some fresh food in the fridge, I might also be staying late.’ he said as he headed for the kitchen in thought.
‘Don’t tell me,’ Uzi with a sigh as she wanted further in and Khan turned in a grin, opening up the blueprints to head to her.
‘The colonies next door,’ he said and she had to lean back as he lifted it up for her. ‘It will be right after number three, I needed to make something new after it's been a few years since the last project,’ he said and Uzi had to push him back a bit.
‘How about adding my turret?’ she asked and looked at it with a frown. ‘It's defensive isn't it?’
Khan pulled it back in a gasp.
‘And taint the simplicity of it?’ he asked and looked at the drawing again. He glanced back at her and dropped his dramatics for a moment. ‘Maybe next time.’ he added quickly. ‘Besides we shouldn’t need it.’
Uzi rolled her eyes and huffed, turning to leave for her room.
‘Sure thing,’ she only said, Khan lifted a finger to say something after her but dropped it with a quiet sigh.
‘I’ll be going now,’ he called out instead, rolling up the plans. Hugging them a bit as he slowly headed for the front door, looking to Uzi’s door a moment before taking in a big breath to nod to himself. He had plans to finalise.

Uzi heard the front door close as she was at her desk, where her gun laid open and parts were about the table top. She was putting it all into a large duffle bag, it was as she grabbed at pieces that Uzi bumped at the computer mouse and caused the screen to wake up, showing the document page on the screen.
There was something she wouldn’t dare admit to anyone, she hadn’t finished the assignment. She knew what she needed to write about but when it came to a part she froze.

In basic terms the assignment was simple. Pick a founding member of the colony, connect it to what you want to do and how you would like to be remembered in the future with your goal. Some simple assessment Teacher wouldn’t spend more than a few hours on collectively, he knows everyone in the class regardless.

Teacher had thrown in a curveball for once and allowed people to use their own birth parents, if they can remember them. Most don’t.
Her class was special in that none of the members were born at the colony. All with them without living birth parents also them having come in from the outside, something about making a special case for them all since it was linked to tragedy. Not that it had mattered as most of the members were just as a part of the colony as any other class. Most of the population didn’t even know that none of them had come from somewhere else, seeing as all of them had been adopted across the colony.

Uzi wanted to use her mother, some parts of her could be used as an example but Uzi could never get out of her father on what Nori had actually done for the colony. There wasn’t even any record of her in the first place, which was weird but always explained that she hadn’t been there long enough for a record to be added.
One thing she had ever gotten out of her father, Nori had died saving the colony. Nothing else had ever been added to that statement or that he does avoid it completely.

Uzi stared down the screen, the line that indicated her spot in the document sh ecould only frown at.
She had picked the first Lead Weapon Engineer. A woman from the old world, who hadn’t been anyone before the world ended. She had a passion for it, was a low level worker at a gun plant trying to climb the leadership roles. Not much older than Uzi was at eighteen, only two years after the Fall for her to get her place in the colony.
Sometimes Uzi wished something liked that happened with the colony now, some sort of misfortune that made what she could makes something highly valued. An attack by monsters could work, which she guessed technically the colony was already in danger but that no one knows about.
Uzi rubbed at her cheek, it wouldn’t be wrong if she asked N to attack the colony with a plan to scare everyone into listening to her.

She went back to stuffing her stuff away quickly.
Yes it would be wrong, no matter how much she wanted.

Uzi couldn’t really sneak through the colony, not when she had a massive bag that just fit her railgun, tools and parts in it. Teacher be damned, it's a railgun.
People looked over, whispered. Everyone knew who she was when she stuck out so much and her bag was making noise. Her only plan was to move fast.

Transportation is difficult to get, personal ones are easier. Skateboards and push scooters are popular, anything with wheels was easy to make and easy to buy. If you wanted an engine, you had to be able to make it yourself.
Uzi could, she could make a living off making that for the colony if she wanted to. Of course she took the one path in the colony to get pushed back at.

Public transportation only exists in the form of the only main two tram lines that cut across the colony in the two directions. Both lines were starting to break down more, causing them to not be reliable or counted on. Both them and Uzi’s skateboard were made with the same technology, just not on the same scale. Talk had been going for a while to change it to something with wheels for ease in the future.

Hovertech, stuff that Uzi understood in a basic level but she knew that once one piece breaks in it then it has no way of being fixed. Well, if one of five pieces breaks, all linked to each other to work. A few of these pieces that keep breaking or wearing out on the tram lines all to high tech to fix it back to new.
It had taken Uzi years to find pieces that could all work together, she had the privilege to go to the colony's many storage warehouses to search for them. Less so now that she was trying to make weapons.
Regardless, she is the only one in the colony with it. And it was the fastest thing around.

She stepped on and away she went with a kick. Having to swerve and weave around people and groups, to do all the work to make sure she didn’t crash. Luckally the crowds disappeared rather quickly from the rush with a normal amount using the road.
People don’t normally have that worry and many of them would scare as she went by. At least she was away once they realised and started to yell after her.

Nothing but smooth sailing to an elevator to head a few levels down, she was headed for an area that was attempted to be used for mining. Attempted because it was abandoned rather quickly as the tunnels became more dangerous with little reward. Now just a place for kids to go to scare each other. Or test fire weapons if you’re in need of a large place for it.

Technically no one is meant to go to the mines but the lock was broken so often that it was given up on and allowed as an older teen hangout.
Uzi just skated through the opened door, hopefully no one would be in there to bother her. She stopped within to turn on the lights, still powering in sections for the safety of anyone that entered. She kicked off the wall to continue on, leaning over to head for the side that had tables and chairs set up for when people came to hang out. All of it mismatched but would work well enough to use.

Leaving her board in place she stepped off and swung her bag off onto the better conditioned table. It was time to work, but first she took out her phone to send a message off.

One thing she wished for, a smartphone. Like the ones that the old world had, something with a screen that could go on a large network that could connect with anyone in the world.
But no, it wasn’t possible anymore, parts and materials would have come from across that world. The colony had come up with their own far simpler devices, something that seemed like it had come from the 2000’s, over two hundred years ago. The only ones around and might still work are in the museums or stored away as research examples. People would be working on it for years, many given up.

A colony wide network was all they had, which she used to message away to Thad. Telling him that if he wanted to come then she could meet her.
She didn’t really believe that he would come but he had told her before running off to message him in case of anything. So she supposed that they could talk a bit now.
She had just put her phone away when it dinged, making her look and it was him telling her he was on the way.
Well alright then.
She just turned to her bag and started to open it, she might as well start while she waited.

Uzi had already gotten halfway through reconstructing the parts back into the gun when she heard the sound of rolling wheels, only one set which was a good sign.
It had to stop part way to become footsteps and Uzi looked over as Thad walked into the cavern. His skateboard under arm and backpack on back.
‘Zi,’ he called out and Uzi lifted her hand a bit.
‘Hope you don’t mind, I brought the assignment with me,’ Thad said and came to the table on the other side of her.
‘Don’t let your dad know,’ she laughed and Thad looked up from swinging his backpack off him.
‘Actually it's why I basically ran here,’ he said and started to get his notebook from within. ‘Didn’t want him to know, he asked me yesterday if I had decided on an internship yet.’
‘You could do trials,’ Uzi said and Thad deflated, making her look up properly with a frown.
‘I already have, done everything that people thought could interest me,’ he said and put the book down with a sigh. ‘Construction stuff like woodwork, metalwork. I am not very good at plants, or animals so I can’t work in anything food production or pets.’
‘You like people,’ Uzi spoke out and Thad nodded.
‘I guess, not really a skill though,’ he said and Uzi snorted, he looked up in worry.
‘Yes it is, hell yes it is. People are terrible,’ she said and Thad smiled a bit.
‘Some people,’ he said and Uzi rolled her eyes.
‘What about kids, you used to read to them didn’t you?’ she asked and Thad nodded.
‘I did it for the volunteer hours we had this year, I only did it cause we couldn’t do the same things and it seemed like a nice thing to do. It was deliveries to the elderly the year before then serving food at the mass hall. I remember you cheating,’ he said pointing towards her and Uzi huffed.
‘They said different jobs couldn’t be all crafts or related. Metalworks last year then technology repair.’
‘And maintenance the first year,’ Thad said and Uzi frowned.
‘I only did that because I didn’t have any other plan at the time, all it did was prove to me that I will never do it. Why don’t you try it then?’
‘Maybe I will,’ he said and leaned on an arm he played with a pencil in a frown, thinking.

‘Didn’t you enjoy it all?’ Uzi asked and Thad closed his eyes a bit.
‘I think that's the problem,’ he said and Uzi raised an eyebrow, he looked at her.
‘How is that a problem?’
‘I still don’t know what to do, and anything makes me happy enough but what if there is something out there that is perfect? I commit to something else and I see the perfect job or think I do only to keep jumping to the next job.’
Uzi could see he was looking for actual advice, nothing came to her.
‘I would never take this advice but you should ask your dad I think,’ she said and Thad smiled a bit, before he broke out into a laugh. Uzi frowned and huffed.
‘And if I still can’t find something with him worried about me,’ he asked, his eyes fell a bit.
‘He’s an actual dad, he’ll help,’ Uzi said with a bite. ‘Besides, it's not like there is a timer.’
‘Most people have a job or know what they want to do when they leave highschool,’ Thad said and looked down on his book before opening it. ‘We are almost half way there.’
He was quiet as he fell on the right spot.
‘Who did you even decide on, for the role model thing,’ Uzi asked and Thad smiled a bit.
‘Well none of the founding members worked well with me, so I asked dad if I could use my parents. What little I could use for it, or what he could tell me about them. Did you know Teacher and my mother were siblings, it's why I am with him now with Lizzy and also why Brad and Chad are with my other uncle.’
‘I think I remember that your dad is technically your uncle, still must be the worst thing about school with him as the teacher.’ Uzi huffed. ‘At least he tells you about them, my dad doesn’t want to tell me anything about her. I wanted to use her as well.’
‘I think she would have been perfect, you know if he gave some actual information,’ Thad said simply, he seemed to have been out of energy to talk.

They had fallen silent for a bit as Thad read over his work, Uzi went back to the gun. She did a bit of reconnecting as Thad stared at the pages in front of him.
Uzi looked at the parts that Thad had been able to get, smiling a bit that he even bothered to help at all.

Uzi tried to connect the last wire but the thing was having trouble. She hissed at it.
‘You have how many days left before you met up with this vampire?’ Thad asked and Uzi sighed.
‘Two more,’ she said, ‘Three, if you include today.’
‘And is it working right?’
‘Yes,’ she hissed and Thad looked over. ‘Just not how I want it to.’
‘Do you want me to help you find more parts?’ he asked and Uzi sagged.
‘Yes.’
Thad winced.
‘Big problem though I won’t be able to help the next two days though, got a game and then we are meant to be doing house work but it’s just going to be me.’
‘Again,’ Uzi hummed.
‘Again,’ Thad repeated with a nod.
‘Lizzy sucks,’ Uzi said and Thad shrugged.
‘Sometimes.’

Uzi yanked it a bit till it could make the connection point to clamp down into place.
‘Lets see if this baby works,’ Uzi said and tiled the gun first to make sure nothing fell out before getting up. Aiming it out toward the wall. Thad stood in panic.
‘Wait, in here?’ he asked and Uzi hummed.
‘I have no other open areas to do a test on,’ she said and Thad looked around in worry.
‘Right,’ he could only say.
‘Think about it this way, if both die here then we don’t have to worry about the assignment,’ she said in a smirk.
‘That’s not funny,’ Thad could only groan before a thought came to him. ‘Wait, you haven’t finished it?’
‘We aren’t talking about the assignment anymore, got it?’ she asked and powered the gun up without an answer.
She aimed down the sight, Thad lowered down so he was hidden behind the heavy looking table.
Uzi pulled the trigger as the machine hadn’t blown up yet or seemed to have issues.

A wide beam shot out of the end, over triple the size of the first time she had fired it. Uzi almost celebrated right then if it hadn’t staggered out a bit before dying out. She tried to pull the trigger again. Nothing came up, only for the display to show a forty minute timer, longer than the last.
‘Nooo,’ she whined out. ‘Come on.’
She looked inside the open case, everything seemed to still in place, so some sort of bonus.
‘Are we dead yet?’ Thad asked out and Uzi looked over, confused that she couldn’t see him before his head peaked up a bit. ‘I thought it blew up with how bright it was in here.’
‘The beam was way bigger this time, but really short lived,’ she said and laid it back down onto the table, leaning over it for a moment. ‘And I need it that big for this to work.’
‘Why?’ Thad had to ask.
‘Well, the vampire lived from that last hit. It doesn’t really work as a monster killing machine if they just heal back from it.’ Thad stood himself back up and looked down on it as well, Uzi went to poke at a wire only to stop when she felt heat.
‘And now I have to wait anyway till I fire next, annoying,’ she frowned and went for some tweezers, something she was meant to be using normally instead of her fingers but it was rather finicky.
She started after sitting back down using them to try to disconnect the wiring again.
Thad watched her for a moment before looking at the blast spot, it seemed to be burnt a bit. He sat back down slowly and watched her work a bit more.

‘Why did we stop hanging out?’ Thad asked without really thinking. Uzi stopped and looked up at him slowly with a stare.
‘Really?’ Uzi asked and glared. ‘I know you’re not stupid.’
‘You didn’t have to stop hanging out with me,’ Thad said and stared down on his pages to avoid her gaze. ‘Just cause Lizzy changed, that Doll got messed up cause of her parents. What did I do?’ He asked, so quiet at the end making Uzi pause in her raising anger.
‘It was easier,’ she said and shrugged, but the action was weak. ‘You would be left alone if I left you.’
‘You didn’t need to.’
‘You had way more important things to be worrying about while you transitioned, you did not need to be worrying about me,’ Uzi said and Thad deflated a bit.
‘There wasn’t that much, the only people I cared about already knew. Like you,’ Thad said and Uzi nodded.

‘I kept asking you why you were lying to yourself, trying to be one of the pretty girls as you followed behind Lizzy. You were just trying to fit in too much then,’ Uzi said and went back to the gun, yanking out a couple cables before continuing. ‘I’ll give Lizzy that, she saw that you weren't happy and made you change.’
‘Still not a good reason, we still could have hung out.’ he said and frowned. ‘Did you ever find out why Doll hated you?’
‘Did you, you had a far better chance to find out,’ Uzi said and looked up again, Thad made a face. Debating with himself.
‘Maybe,’ he said slowly and Uzi stopped working immediately. ‘It just doesn’t make any sense.’
‘Well you better tell me now,’ she said and glared at him, at which he deflated and nodded. He knew he couldn’t back out now.
‘Just don’t go demanding answers, I don’t think you will ever get them,’ he said and took a breath. ‘Lizzy made me swear not to tell you but that was years ago, really don’t go after anyone.’
‘I don’t feel like promising anything with how you're telling me not to,’ Uzi said and Thad now glared back.
‘Do it, I want to do the right thing but Lizzy will know right away,’ he said and crossed his arms. Both of them stared at each other but Thad was determined, Uzi caved first.
‘Fine, I won’t.’
Thad relaxed.

‘From what Lizzy could tell me, Doll doesn't blame you but your mother,’ Thad started and tilted his head a bit. ‘Something about the past, that there was something she did to attract some sort of monsters that ended up hurting them both and dying right outside the gates. Lizzy never found out what sort of monster it could have been or how she brought danger in the first place.’
‘Thats stupid,’ Uzi snapped. ‘My mum was already dead years before they died and they left the colony on a trip.’ Thad raised his hands in worry.
‘I know, that's what I mean, it made no sense,’ he said. ‘Maybe Doll doesn’t actually know what happened, or she only got part of the story.’
Uzi huffed and leaned forward on her elbows.
‘Whatever, it's not like she will tell me. Yeva never hated me,’ Uzi said. ‘But then again none of them ever told us where we all came from, why do they have to be like this?’
‘All dad has ever explained is that we used to be at another colony, one that was connected to the old world. There was something that made us have to run, lots of people died and whoever is here is all that is left,’ Thad said and paused. ‘He has diaries.’ He paused to think. ‘Some of them look rather old.’
‘Would he notice it if they go missing?’ Uzi asked and Thad paled a bit.
‘They are all on a shelf next to his bed, not exactly hidden but he would, so, notice them gone. He rereads them a lot.’ Thad chewed at his lip.
‘Great,’ Uzi huffed. ‘Maybe he knows about what happened between my mum and Yeva, or even the place before.’
‘There are a lot of books,’ he said slowly. ‘They are dated but we don’t even know when this happened.’
They fell silent again.

‘I can try,’ Thad said at last, not happy with the idea but willing to help. ‘Skim through what I can.’
‘No,’ Uzi quickly said. ‘It wouldn’t be right. Besides, I have to worry for the next few days first before any past stuff.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with?’ Thad asked and Uzi shook her head before talking.
‘No, just us meeting up is going to be tense,’ she said.
‘Fine but you are going to let me know as soon as you're back,’ he said and Uzi smile a bit and nodded. She looked down to the gun in worry.
‘I just hope I have this ready,’ Uzi said and Thad hummed.
‘Only two more days huh, oh and the assignment to finish before monday.’
Uzi groaned.

Chapter Text

J awoke excited for the first time, she had someone new. Something to occupy her time and distract her. A goal besides mindless flying or waiting for a colony bug to be captured by N.
She came out into the kitchen and looked at their supplies with a frown, she would need to send V hunting and N scavenging.

Oh how low they have all fallen, with scraps from old humans and nothing able to be cooked skillfully with only having dried meat and canned food as options.
As she thought about what to make N do for the day, she heard the income of wings. At least he was good for his timing.

She heard the landing and she waited as footsteps came up the stairs only for her to quickly realise that the steps up were different. It could only mean one thing.
‘Good evening everyone,’ Came a cheery voice, and in popped N from the outside. ‘J, I am here to report that nothing new or weird has happened at the bunker's doors.’ He stood in front of her, adding in a salute. ‘What would you like me to do today?’ he asked right after, the smile not leaving his face as he lowered his salute arm.

J scowled. She hated him like this, more than his normal self. Nothing made him falter from the smile, not the glaring or the amount of time.

‘Go make some breakfast for us all,’ she said and N saluted again quickly before heading off to do that. J watched him past, she already knows what the next few days would mean. There were benefits to him being the way he was, but none she wanted to deal with.
She noticed him standing waiting, if she wanted to micro manage something this was the time to.
‘Cook up those dehydrated eggs,’ she instructed and went to sit herself down, she couldn’t leave him yet. Not till she could hand him off to V herself. Which once N mixed some water in there was some start to the cooking. If you could call it that since the pack itself was several decades old from some apartment in the city, something seemed to sizzle in the pan.

V was standing in the hallway, since she could smell cooking she had come out sooner then she wanted to. V barely got into the room as J glared over at her.
‘I should have made you do it,’ she hissed and V frowned, about to bite out. ‘I do not need him breaking while we are out here, back in the manor I couldn’t care for a moment. Tessa is going to chew me out if she finds out about this.’
‘It's been a while,’ V said and frowned, watching N go about stirring the mush.

‘And all it took to break was four dead bodies, I bet he spent way too long at their graves. It’s his fault really,’ J said and looked towards his eyes. They never were able to focus properly when he was in the state. ‘I don’t even have anything for him to do.’ she hissed and looked around, N worked as V came closer to look up at him.
‘Could just tell him to stay in his room,’ she suggested and J huffed.
‘Or you can take him hunting, he is better like this anyway and you might as well use him before he comes back in a few days,’ J said and V frowned, not only because of that but of a particular smell that filled the room. J smelt it and snapped her head over.

‘N,’ she yelled out and from where N was looking ahead to the wall in front of him. Completely zoned out as his hand had been placed next to the cooker, V lept at him and lifted his hand away from it.
The only response was that his eye seemed to twitch, his hand shook a bit and V looked down on it. Seeing that he had started to burn the outside of his hand, whatever had been closest. Already red with parts of it having had started to char. Her nose wrinkled at it. He pulled it away all at once.
‘Oopsie,’ he said cheerfully, far more than anyone should be. ‘My mistake, seems I wasn’t paying attention.’ V watched him as he smiled down on her, hiding his hand away against himself.
‘Move it,’ she only hissed and pushed him aside.
‘Still wonder how long he would have kept it there,’ J said all of a sudden as V started to take over the cooking, N just stayed standing next to her. V glared back to J.
‘You know he wouldn’t move it,’ V said and glared ahead, J sighed from her spot and started to leave towards the stairs.
‘Whatever, finish that and go hunting. Keep him with you to carry everything back, ditch him somewhere when he starts bothering you but not here,’ she instructed.

Once J’s footsteps disappeared V looked over to N, she could see that his arm shook. His body likely realising the damage he had taken, looking at his face he did nothing but smile a bit.
‘Run your hand under the tap, might just help with the pain,’ she said, turning away and N looked over before headed to it.
‘But it doesn’t hurt,’ he said and V snapped her gaze at him, set to yell only to see his small smile and she flinched.
‘Just do it, even if it doesn’t,’ she said instead, looking to the goop that was meant to be the eggs. She didn’t relax till she heard the tap start running, she looked over to watch him for a moment as all he did was hold his hand under the flowing water. It wouldn't heal him, he would have to do that himself but it should help with the pain at least for a bit.
She let the eggs keep cooking till they were done, done was a loose term. Solid and she moved it aside, turning off the cooker. She turned to him. Maybe J would feed it to the human downstairs.

'We are going out,' she said and N looked to her. ‘Turn that off and come on.’ V said and took hold of a couple of the jerky pieces from the shelving to take with them.
N followed after only for V to throw back a piece for him.
‘Eat,’ she ordered, looking back to make sure he did. He started and she walked down the steps with a sigh, headed right for the opening. Opening up her wings as N finished up she took to the air, knowing that he would follow behind.

It was only when they were away that V led them up and into the many open apartments. The place likely only had them as their first visitors in years. While the railing was gone the glass was still in place, the inside frozen in time as when the last owners had it.
V just landed by an actual landing, it was well practised and solid. She sat right now as N came in.
He was never agile, the only guess is that he was too tall for it. He could fly fast, faster than her but anything with tight turns was a big issue. Even more so when he was like he was, unfocused and uncoordinated.
He slipped, crashing into the glass. Yet somehow still held, he froze as V winced. He turned and stood nearby, almost acting as if it had never happened.
‘Sit next to me,’ she said as she looked out to the area. N delayed but came down next to her.

V let him settle for a moment, instead of being on the edge with his feet over he sat with his legs cross legged. V spotted his hands placed down on his legs, he was hiding the injured one under the other.
She held out her hand to him, he looked at it before back towards her.
‘Give me your left hand,’ she said and he looked down on them before handing it over. She grabbed hold of it and pulled it into her view.
It was still pink, which wouldn’t be weird if it wasn’t for the pale skin. Making it so much more noticeable as a backdrop. She let it go to be brought back under the other.

‘It wasn’t the bodies was it?’ V asked out and N blinked, he smiled a bit.
‘Burying them, what about them?’ he asked. ‘I did that before I burnt down the cart.’
‘What causes this, you have to know,’ she said and turned towards him fully, her tail flicked out.
‘I don’t understand, nothing is causing anything. Did something happen?’
V winced internally, she was thinking many things. Anger was on top. Most of all she just wanted to know a simple thing, something she can’t get a direct answer to.
‘About the bodies, did you feel something while it happened?’ she asked, her voice strained from trying to stay calm. N tilted his head and seemed to think, properly think. At least it looked like it if he still couldn’t focus on her, sort of looking past her.
‘No,’ he said at last, a simple answer that she didn’t want.

V groaned and fell back, her hands came up to grab at her hair. She wanted to scream and shout, aim it all at him to try to force it out of him. But she knew it wouldn't work. She gave up and let her arms fall away.

‘Do you know what's worse, you will never remember this,’ she said and N looked over from where he had started to look at the area but tilted his head down on her. ‘We can have this conversation every time and you never remember when you go back to normal.’ She said and frowned. ‘Yet I keep trying, for some reason.’
‘I don’t forget when we talk,’ N said and she couldn’t bare to look up to him. ‘But maybe things will change soon.’
She looked at him in surprise.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘I have a good feeling about the future,’ he said simply and V huffed.
‘Do you know about a way into the bunker or something?’ she asked and N laughed a bit, his legs stretching out.
‘No not how to get in, but I would like to,’ he said and V made a face.
‘Why would you ever want to, since when we finish we will be going back. To the walls, no more free flights or exploring.’ she said and sighed out,
‘I think it will change when we go in there,’ he said and V huffed out, barely the start of a laugh.
‘You really are delusional,’ she said and crossed her arms on top of her. ‘Things aren’t just going to get better.’
‘I trust you to help,’ he spoke out and V looked at him carefully. ‘You’re smart and strong.’
‘Well,‘ V hummed. ‘Someone needs to be.’ she pushed herself upright, looking over the edge. ‘Enough of this, I want to chase something and dig my claws in. Stay with me.’

After a half attempt at a scan of the area around the bunker doors V lead them away to the forest, for an area that she hadn’t been in a while. N stayed close, finding him below.
She wanted to bring them low she she could see anything that came up but she might as well use N.
‘Tell me if you see something,’ she called down to him. He already pointed off in a direction, she looked in it but didn’t see anything to her frustration.
‘Well lead ahead,’ she hissed and fell back behind him. N looked back but smiled to lead on, she could help but glare at him a bit for his sight. So what if he could see further then her, it was just lucky of him.

They got above and then she could smell them, even hear the large cow creatures bellowed between them. Always a guard on duty to help protect the herd. Not that it helped, or at least it allowed the group to disperse. She dove, now flying low. Making calls go up for the herd to move.
Exactly what V wanted as quick movement made her zone in on the creature, grabbing at it and climbing towards the end that cried out in pain. Slashing at what had to be its throat, the beast ran for as long as it could while trying to throw V off. She wouldn’t kill it right away, more wanting to play as it attempted to live.
Only for it to start to tire, becoming sluggish and heavy. V wasn’t all that impressed anymore and she leapt at its neck, making sure to grab on with her mouth to at least get a drink before it tumbled to the ground. She rolled off into the grass before the thing rolled on her in its death, as a last moment payback.

Getting out of her rush did she bother to pay attention to her surroundings, to the cries of another beast. She looked over in excitement just as N closed his claws down on its neck just at the base of its skull as it struggled on the ground.
Its body sending out its last spasms before stilling. V looked at his kill and then her own, hers was rather bloody and torn along its back where she had held on. N’s was far cleaner, but it also seemed that he had wrestled the thing to the ground before finally finishing it off.
She watched him stare at the beast for a moment longer, as if it would jump up and make a run for it.

V whistled in impressiveness.
‘You really are a better hunter like this,’ she said and N looked up, his tail doing a bit of a wag behind him. He was smiling so there was no way to be subtle about it. ‘Shame you can’t be like this always,’ she said and his tail stilled as the smile stayed on. Far creeper than anything she did, at least to her.
‘I can always do better, I am staying as useful as I can be,’ he said rather quickly and V nodded.
‘Right, yes you are,’ she said and that seemed to calm him a bit, lessening the smile as V turned to the next part. She formed her a claw together, the bones forming together before coming back up in a blade. Time for the next part, she lifted a leg up on her animal.
Having to cut at the limb or hack at it when it wouldn’t remove nicely.
If they had to drag the whole animal back then they would, they didn’t need to when the limbs were the easiest to bring and deal with.

Once one side was disconnected did she sent N away with them, reminding him about collecting blood as well. He nodded to it all and she could only hope he wouldn’t become distracted on the way.
Twenty minutes and he was back, V was just ready for him. It was nice being able to just focus on one thing as pieces were transported, she had to flip them both to get the other two legs. N was coming back at the same rate at least so it was consistent.
Eventually all eight limbs had been taken, V felt weird to not have anything on the way back and took one with N.

It had been nice, working in an actual team. Some sort of form of it anyway.
V looked over at N on the flight back and couldn’t help but to feel shame, they could do this more often. J wanted each person to pull their own weight but it mostly had her and V doing most of the large area searches, leaving N the more simple tasks. Stuck watching a door every dawn and duck that he couldn’t even come back in time to sleep in an actual bed. Even if they could just hang out from some rafters, that was only good when the temperature got up there.
They weren’t animals, she huffed before becoming aware of the weight under her. Regardless, beds were nice to lay on and V wasn’t even sure where N spent his day at.
Wonder if he had been caught yet being alone. She hummed as she looked down on him. If he had he hadn’t said it but he also shouldn’t say it with J around.

Once landed at base she went to ask him about it.
‘Hey, where do you-,’ she got to before there was a cry of pain from within the ship, distracting V as she rolled her eyes before she went for the area that has been getting set up with rope about. The other six legs hung out, buckets underneath with a couple of them having to share.
The last two were hung up and a bucket kicked underneath before V went to lay out in a spot that was curved to act as a seat.
The limbs slowly still bleeding out, needing to be as drained as possible for a fast drying later. Some of the buckets were partly filled, a few drinks for later before they clotted too badly.
‘If J wasn’t so high class to just drink this then she wouldn’t need to go out to the villages so much, as much as she loves to complain about doing it,’ V spoke out, now starting to feel the drying blood and fur fuzz that had started to become noticeable on her hands. N didn’t say anything as he watched the dripping of blood.
‘I am going to wash,’ she announced and used her weight to roll forward up onto her feet. N didn’t stir from his couched position.

V walked into the ship with a frown, hearing static from the cockpit, which could only mean one thing. J trying to connect the communicator. Her interest peaked and she stuck her head back out.
‘Yo N,’ she called out and he moved his head a bit to look at her. ‘Go shower now.’
He came in and headed for the room, V kept an ear out as she heard the start of talking.
V made sure N got into the bathroom, before heading to the cockpit. The sound quality wasn’t great even for her so she headed back out, heading around and for the front of the ship. She just leaned up against the ship itself to listen.

‘Anything interesting happened yet?’ Tessa’s voice spoke out, being clear enough to hear that she was clearly bored.
‘No mam, been dreadfully quiet,’ J said and V narrowed her eyes. ‘Nothing of note has happened beside capturing a roach, not of the colony but I am sure we can use it to get them to open up. After all, what monsters would leave another outside?’
‘Or you can stop wasting time on this already,’ Tessa’s words rang out, V could practically feel J’s wince. ‘Its been months, you could just force down that door or I can send the others over to get this dealt with within a night.’
‘As lovely as that is,’ J spoke up with restrained bite. ‘We do not know what sort of weapons or defences there are within. Things must have changed the last few times we have been here. I would rather not have large damage that will only slow and possibly give time for the rats to organise.’
Tessa hummed from the otherside.
‘You have a month, one more month to do it your way then we move on,’ she said and within J had to have nodded.
‘Of course, I’ll get it done,’ J said and V started to move, headed back inside.

Even if V heard J swear, yell out her anger from deep within V set up outside the cockpit door.
J opened the door soon after and found V standing there, making her jump.
‘What in gods above is wrong with you?’ she hissed out and V kept her glare.
‘You didn’t report to her about N,’ she said, it wasn’t a question but a call out.
‘Correct,’ J said and went to walk past if V hadn’t shifted in front.
‘You are supposed to, meant to be marked down to be kept track of,’ V challenged.
‘I know when these things are supposed to be reported, you don’t need to tell me. Besides, I want us to actually complete this mission. We have already failed twice, I will not have this as our third attempt destroyed because we had to return because of him,’ J said and leaned forward.
‘We have only been here once,’ V said and glared. ‘Before we started in different areas before ending up here cause we have chased them here.’
J growled into a smile.
‘Oh suddenly you have good memory,’ she said and lifted her head up, which still didn’t get above V. ‘Doesn’t matter what the circumcises were, it's still the third time dealing with this colony. We have a time limit now and I will not have it shared with someone else.’

‘Your glory?’ V asked and J narrowed her eyes carefully.
‘Cementing our place and our continued effectiveness. I am sure you would rather us be kept at home all the time, sleeping away the hours and only hunt for the fun of it. We aren’t here to enjoy ourselves.’ J glared her daggers, V decided she was done and stepped out of her way. Adding to her act as she flourished out her hand with a little bow, resting the other over her heart.
‘You are, of course, right in every way. I should never doubt your excellent leadership,’ she said and J closed her fists.
‘Watch yourself V, you wouldn’t want me telling Tessa how you don’t follow my orders that delay our work,’ she growled out. V smiled from her spot still bent over, she tilted her head to make sure J could see her. The spitting image of the cheshire cat that Tessa loved all so much from a younger age.

‘You wouldn’t want me to tell her about N now would you,’ V said and righted herself and J continued to glare, but this time it was laced with fear. Her only able to try to cover it in her anger.
V leaned forward a bit. ‘I listen to Tessa far above you but also both know who she values the most between the three of us, despite your complete loyalty.’ V said and turned to leave, her tail swang a bit but she stopped with her hands being held behind her. Looking ahead with a smile.
‘Your fantastic leadership did teach me one thing, how to act,’ she said and held out her hands in jazz hand spray, shaking them out before moving forward to leave J behind.

N just getting out of the shower and looking down at them with a smiled but it turned confused, V smiled as she came up. She passed by to go wash herself.
J still glared after V but then brought her attention to him, he could only blink back.
‘Lucky bastard you are,’ she hissed and came forward. ‘Nothing to worry about, your brain just turning off whenever and leaving you carefree.’ She stopped in front of him before sighing out, long and hard.
‘Can I help you with something now?’ he asked and that brought back J’s rage for a moment.
‘You can go smash your head into that blasted door,’ she growled and N went to go turn to leave, J realised what she had said and quickly went to grab him to yank him back.
‘No, no. Can’t have your brain scrambled more than it is,’ she hissed before digging into her pockets, pulling out a list. ‘Here is something nice and simple for you, you god damn liability. Shopping, go out into the buildings to find everything in there, Stock up our shelfs.’
N smiled as she handed it off to him.
‘Will get it done quickly,’ he said and J made a face.
‘Not too quickly,’ she said but let him go.

N just snapped back into reality, a reality that was in the middle of flight. The sudden awareness made him freeze up. His wings that he realised were out stiffened.
Making him drop down as a stone, twisting him out of control. Only a moment of this before crashing down on a hard surface that he only briefly registered as a building roof, having to wrap himself up in his wings to protect himself and wait till he stopped rolling. Feeling places all over that had taken the original impact.

N waited within his cocoon. Trying to control the panicked breathing that came from it, his chest felt tight. He held onto his coat, he couldn’t feel his hat on his head when he dropped his head onto the velvety wing he was on.
Slowly he opened them and got onto his back, looking up into the starry sky.
He looked up at the clouds above, only then registering that it was raining. He was completely soaked, underwear fully as his boots most protected his feet. It was uncomfortable but he would live, besides he had far more important things to be thinking about.

‘Well,’ he spoke out. ‘That hasn’t happened for a while.’
He sat up in worry, looking around he didn’t seem to have been in the middle of a hunt or the like. If he had been, they would be able to get away by then. Nearby he spotted his hat, he could feel the rain start to wet that last dry patch that had been on his head.
He didn’t think he had to be in a rush, but a moment of panic did shoot through him.
He didn’t know how long he had been out for or the time, he scrambled back up to his feet and looked around. Hoping he knew where he was.
He couldn’t see anything that could be a land icon. He rushed for his hat and put it back on. He needed to get back to the ship.

N raced into the ship after landing in a run, looking around and headed right for J’s room in front of him.
She was brushing her hair and humming to herself in a good mood, or had been till he came in panicked. She heard him come in before ending up panting in the doorway.

‘Good, your back in your head,’ J hissed, looking back at him in the mirror. ‘You were really starting to annoy me.’
N leaned on the doorway as he recovered, J turned to look at him.
He opened his mouth to ask questions.
‘It’s only been two nights,’ she said, already bored. N looked at him. ‘You joined V in a hunt, somehow you both managed to bring back enough for the week even though you have already eaten half of it but V was smart for once and brought back extra.’ J stopped to watch him taste his mouth. ‘You spent yesterday on the hunt and on goods searching, and a bit today. While I question some of the herbs we have, salt sure can’t go bad. Retoped the cans as well for desperate times, or just to feed the pet.’

As if on the mention of that N heard a door open and out shuffled the human man. One look at N and he jumped back and over the bucket. N stared in a frown only for J to appear behind him.
‘Grow up,’ she snapped out, looking to N to say something but he looked back in confusion.
‘You only scared him,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘I told you to keep an eye on him today, I forgot to tell you for how long.’ she said and N blinked.
‘You stared at him for almost four hours,’ she said, more out of amazement than to inform him. ‘I know you get all weird but I almost considered to see how long you would go if I left you at it.’
‘I don’t actually know,’ N said. ‘I think that's the point.’
‘It would have been a perfect time for us to get into the bunker, you would have woken up and it would have been all done. You kept asking me if there was a way in today as well,’ she elbowed into him. ‘Good to see you are committed but I swear if you had asked me again I was going to rip out your tongue, I had to send you on a scout.’
N blinked, he had no actual reason to get into the bunker besides his own interest.
‘Did I say why I wanted to get in?’ he asked and J looked up at him oddly.
‘What do you mean, to do your job,’ she said and frown, watching him as he tried to look at the ground.

N knew right away why he would have wanted to get in, all cause he met one human. At least he could only guess. His heart skipped a beat, he hadn’t told had he.
‘N,’ J spoke up and he looked to her in worry. ‘Go clean up before you create a pool in the hallway, leave the mess to the pet.’
‘Right,’ he said and she turned away. ‘Sorry about the last two days.’ he said and J rolled her eyes before he pulled away. Looking back to the human, he got himself back to the ground trying to recollect the water he had spilt. N just passed by but didn’t miss the man's jump.

N had just gotten out of the shower, getting into the hallway as V walked in angry and wet. She saw him and she held her face in a stare that N couldn’t place, he could only guess annoyance.
‘I’m sorry if I annoyed you the last couple nights,’ he started and that seemed to be the wrong thing as she came forward in anger, glaring at him as she pushed him aside to head for her room. N just closed his eyes as he hit the wall and waited, only opening them again when he heard her door slam.

J poked her head out of her room.
‘Move it before the sun comes out, you're pushing your luck as it's about to be sunrise,’ she yelled out and N pushed himself upright.
Only to pause as he looked back to V’s door, he could have sworn there was something else going on with her. Her glare at him seemed off.
‘N,’ J yelled out and that jumped N into moving, getting his coat back on as he went down the steps.

The rain meant he would be get a little wet on the way back, better than before. He got back and up into the tower with little discomfort.
He looked around in search, making sure nothing had been moved or disturbed. Hopefully he hadn’t told anyone about the place but it didn’t seem he had.

N spotted his notes right in their littley hiding hole and went for it and opened it up.
Flipping to the latest page wondering if he had written something in his state, it's happened before. Well it had been words, scratchings of words where he had overlaid it quite a bit to make most of it unreadable. N had it somewhere separate, along with the others. He looked back at the pages.

N frowned at the last date, he was rather sure it had been six days since he had seen Uzi. He counted them back, four dates were there. Adding in the two days he was mentally away. His tail started to move on its own, he was sure he was happy to see her. There was little this week and with his absent days it had at least seemed fast.
He also didn’t really think about Uzi coming back, if she would even bothered to come back. Why would she now that she was back and safe? Might have told her colony about him and the others. He felt his gut twist at the guilt. But he did have one thing to be thankful for, that he came back in time.

How he managed to come back before she could have stopped by was a miracle. A day longer and she would have met with someone else and he wouldn’t have remembered it. Or would have controlled anything if they had even met.
He closed the book, besides writing in he skipped a couple days he didn’t really have anything to add to it. He hide it back.

He realised that it was cold up high as he was and headed further into the building to take the stairs down. He might as well be in the area for the morning either way, wait for the meeting since he doubted he could sleep.

Chapter Text

Uzi had awoke that morning as stiff as she had been going to sleep, hardly got a good rest but she was as ready as she could be.
Thad had asked once again last night if she really didn’t want backup, she had declined but willing to meet with him when she got back. So she had some reason to come back.
She got up with a huff, looking to her desk to her railgun laid out. Ready to be fired, she’ll only get one shot. It's the best she could do.
Uzi took in a breath before jumping into action, ready to rush out.

Uzi had made it out of the colony and down the streets to the area in record time, it helped having a location in mind.
She looked up into the building, she was so close to bailing as her stomach twisted. She took in a breath and pushed herself forward. It was stupid, she could be walking into a trap, again. J and V could be there just waiting for her, with N having had spilled everything.

Uzi walked in and looked around, she almost hoped he would have bail and kept hidden, wherever he spent the day.
He shouldn’t have been hard to find, but the inside was dark. She still almost missed him on the rubble pile, her first instinct was to look up on the roof. To look for the mass that had been there last week.
He stood up in nervousness, she looked up at him.
No one moved or said anything.
‘Hey, again,’ Uzi finally gets out, she glanced outside and took a step in. ‘I didn’t actually think you would be here.’
‘I don’t really have anywhere to go,’ N admitted and cleared his throat. ‘I mean, I thought it be nice to talk to someone.’
‘You know I am only here to get information,’ Uzi said and frowned to herself, doubting her words for a moment.
‘Yeah, I know. That’s fine,’ he said and Uzi continued to frown for a different reason. ‘I sort of wanted to do the same.’

N walked down in worry, trying to be slow on purpose. He didn’t want a reason for her to run off, but he didn’t come any closer than getting down. He looked outside.
‘We can’t really leave here, walk and talk,’ he said and Uzi nodded and went for a cement beam near her to sit down, she put down her bag but left her gun strapped behind her. N sat where he was, staying away from the entrance.
‘So,’ Uzi started but nothing came out next.
‘What's it like?’ N said, breaking through. Uzi looked at him in question. ‘Being human.’
‘You asked that already when we met besides weren’t you one before?’ she asked instead and she saw him frown. ‘Before this?’
‘I don’t know, I don’t think so,’ he said, the end part almost getting lost in the distance between them.

Silence fell again, his face fell. Looking down to the ground.
‘Right, humans,’ she just spoke out and N looked up. ‘Ugh, how do I explain it.’ She was stumped, trying to think of if they were ever explained in a class.
Why would anyone have to explain their own species?
‘We were the top species in the world before the Fall happened, end of the world still didn’t kill us all,’ Uzi said and N perked up.
‘The Fall?’ he asked, Uzi paused.
‘The end of the world as it was?’ N looked back with a blank face. ‘The world has only been like this for about fifty years.’
‘It has?’ N asked worried. ‘Thats a long time isn’t it, or is that short?’

Uzi looked at him in a frown, she leaned forward and started to watch him.
‘What have you been told?’ she asked.
N opened his mouth to speak, but he was still trying to put everything together. Uzi stood up, leaving her bag behind as she walked closer to a beam part way to the pile. Sitting on that to listen, N was still stuck in his head.
‘Just that we are trying to rid the world of humans so we can have it, that we are better,’ he said and noticed that she was closer. ‘That we have to otherwise we would be killed.’
‘By who?’ Uzi asked and N looked at her, he brought his knees up. ‘You three have a leader?’ Uzi stood up. ‘Did they make you or turn you into what you are now?’
‘Uh,’ N said, the subject had turned on something he didn’t want to touch. She sat back from her excitement, she shouldn’t have been but her foot now bounced with the excitement she felt for a moment. She should leave it.

‘Okey,’ she huffed. ‘The human stuff, I don’t know there is a whole city underground. I am rather sure we aren’t meant to be stuck underground though and we haven’t spoken to any other place outside, is there any town nearby?’
‘Well its a night’s trip, for us and we fly,’ N said and Uzi frowned making an “oh” sound. ‘What do you do all day underground?’ he asked and she looked back with a shrug.
‘Everything we need is there even though everything is falling apart. Have been living down there since The Fall, we used to have people leave for the day and come back at night and now have barely three handfuls go.’ Uzi said and N tilted his head.
‘How do you build houses in the ground, are you all in a big cave?’ N asked and Uzi snorted.
‘Nope, just dug into the ground. Everything is all squished up against the other,’ she said and smiled a bit. ‘Your turn to tell me something, how many of you are there?’
‘Three of us,’ N said and Uzi narrowed her eyes.
‘Just here though, are there others somewhere else?’ she asked and N made a face.
‘Yes,’ he said slowly, looking around in case he was being watched somehow. Uzi looked around in her own mini panic.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked in demand N jumped a bit at her outburst. ‘I thought we were being snuck up on.’
‘Sorry,’ N said quickly and raised his hands. ‘I am just not meant to be telling anyone that, if I was found out…’ Uzi sighed out, glad that she hadn’t been betrayed.
‘What ever, so you guys have been here how many months, you said last week two months?’ she asked and N nodded.
‘Almost three now,’ he said and let his legs fall to a cross sit, he left his hands to drop onto his lap. He thought for a moment, Uzi beat him to the next question.

‘That town you mentioned,’ Uzi started with a frown and N tilted his head a bit. ‘What’s it like, are there a lot of people? Or a lot of towns out there?’
‘The town is big I think, more dead ones out there then the few other towns,’ N answered and frowned. ‘I have only been to a few as we traveled.’
‘More than me, it must be nice out in the fresh air. Be able to look out windows,’ she said and N made a face of confusion.
‘You don’t have windows?’
‘What would be the point, to look at dirt or to watch the hallways. Its all there is to look at,’ she said and rolled her eyes. ‘No, I have had enough of the underground for life I think.’

Uzi got up and went back to her bag as she remembered something she packed that morning, she held it in her hands as she turned a bit, looking back to him.
‘Go sit where I was before,’ she called out and N sat upright as she came back with a pair of scissors and a comb. N got up slowly and Uzi frowned at this but let him, watching him shuffle over to the beam to sit down.
‘Turn around,’ Uzi said before starting to come over.
‘Why?’ he asked and Uzi held up the items for him to see.

‘I was serious about fixing your hair, seems like the least I can do about the head blasting,’ she said and N looked at the items for a bit before turning in one motion, he glanced back after his ears twitched from hearing her starting to come back. She came to a stop behind him as he looked to the scissors for a moment and looked forward.
‘Have you never had your hair cut or something?’ she asked and looked down on the scissors in thought. ‘I am not going to stab you,’ she finished with and he took a quick breath of air and gave a small laugh.
‘I didn’t say anything,’ he said quickly and looked around the room. Uzi frown from where she stood.
‘Have you ever cut your own hair then?’ Uzi asked, he didn’t do anything but tilt his head a bit.
‘Not really allowed to.’
‘So I shouldn’t let you do it yourself and we don’t have any mirrors for you to look in, I’ll be quick,’ she said and went into place behind him, having to make a choice with using both hands before a thought came to her and she leaned over to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
‘Can you see your reflection?’
‘Yes, is that the vampire thing?’
‘Never mind,’ Uzi quickly waved him off. ‘Okay last chance to tell me no, I won’t touch anything else but the lower part and just match it up.’
N reached his hand up, feeling the back of his neck. The week hadn’t fixed it much, still highly noticeable at least his collar, he nodded for her to continue.
‘You’ll need to pull that down too,’ Uzi said with a hum and tugged at the fuzz that was the collar.

N took a moment to realise what she wanted before starting to mess with the belt in front, the thing was easy enough to undo if it didn’t also have a lot of buttons to undo. Uzi had some time to kill.
‘Do you think either of the two you told me about know what happened when I almost walked into your house?’ she asked and watched N freeze a bit.
‘No, or at least no ones mentioned it or gotten mad,’ he said and pulled out an arm from a sleeve. His undershirt was a tan, he hoped that J would never see him in it but his white shirts were few in number by that stage of time and not all that clean anymore. He had on one of the scavenged ones. His other arm came free and he tried to resist needing to cover himself back up, he rarely if at all took it off around others. He pulled it in front as a way to make himself better, Uzi was distracted by looking at the back of his neck.

She couldn’t help but to whistle a bit, up close the damage was rather noticeable. Just the area looking like an undercut, something that didn’t really work with the mess of hair he had on the other side of his head.
‘How do you feel about an undercut?’ she dared to ask and N frowned as he looked down on his coat.
‘What's that, a hairstyle?’ N asked and Uzi nodded before realising that he couldn’t see it.
‘Yeah, hair that's shorter on the lower part. Ear height and lower, luckily I didn’t hit higher than just above the neck. So not much of a cut,’ she said and N hummed.
‘It should be fine, if I hide it,’ he said and started to play with a sleeve.

Uzi started to work, brushing his hair downward as well as she could to cut it. It was a difficult thing to do as his hair naturally seemed to curl a bit, going to be rather noticeable if it's not even for how short she had to go to even it all out. She took a breath to give herself the confidence, its not like he would be able to see the back of his head. She started to cut, waiting for any reaction but none came and it was her sign to continue.

Uzi got to the middle as she went across to the right, the cut hair fell away to the ground below.
She saw onto his skin which to be fair was pale so easy to see anything on it. When she saw what looking like writing she brushed the hair aside with her comb hand.
‘What are you-’ N started before Uzi pushed his head down to see it better. The shorter hair made it rather noticeable at the right angle.
There just past the hair in the middle of his neck looked to be a serial number. Something similar she had seen on old world manufactured machine parts.
SDN-001.
She frowned at it, something twisted in her.
‘What are we doing?’ N asked out in complete confusion, his head still being forced forward and Uzi let him go all of the sudden. He touched his neck in question and turned to look back at her, trying to feel what she had been looking at.

He didn’t know. She swallowed away a lump.

‘Sorry, I was trying to be as close to it as I could,’ she said quickly and came back. She tried to wave it away, to not be asked about it.
‘Its alright if you messed it up a bit, as long as it looks close and doesn't feel weird,’ he said and tilted his head as she seemed a bit stressed.
She nodded cause she didn’t know what else to do, she could tell him but something stopped her. His complete innocent thoughts to it all.
‘Right, I’ll try to fix it,’ she only got out and N turned back around.
She continued, trying not to look at it too much. But she kept finding her eyes landing on it.

‘Why were you out?’ N asked out after some silence had passed. ‘As in, looking through buildings. You didn't know I was there and hunting me were you?’
Uzi snorted at the idea.
‘I mean there are stories of monsters in the city, to not explore too deep into it. Vampires was an old world story that has been around since the Fall, most don’t believe in you. I wasn’t there for you, but I was making my railgun to be able to fight any monsters I found. You just sort of dropped in on me,’ Uzi said and poked the comb into the back on his head. ‘Again, your fault for falling.’
‘I didn’t mean to,’ he muttered, Uzi snickered a bit. ‘I also didn’t think that you would look up.’
‘Why were you even close to the ground floor, seems like a dangerous location,’ she said and N deflated a bit, trying to sink into a coat collar he didn’t have on.
‘Its windy up there, I was trying to be so low down as well,’ he admitted and Uzi hummed.
‘So you weren’t down there trying to catch someone?’ she asked and he shook his head, forgetting that Uzi was working and made her miss the cut. Risking her to cut at his ear.
‘Hey, don’t move like that,’ she scolded and N stilled with moment of fear, Uzi raised her eye at that. ‘Like I know you have super healing but you sure you're supposed to be a monster with how you act.’
N turned his head a bit to look back at her, making her jump from the stare he gave her. He turned away soon after, staring ahead with a frown.

Uzi just continued on in silence, she wasn’t sure if she struck a nerve with him so she played it safe to just finish as fast as she could.
When she was done she huffed out, she wasn’t exactly well practised in giving other people hair cuts. Or even as short as it was but she was happy enough with it.

‘There,’ she called out and N sat up straight. ‘All done, tell me what you think.’
‘Ohh,’ he hummed out. ‘I have never had it this short before.’ He ran his fingers through it all with the start of a smile before it dropped off in a realisation.
‘Does it look believable to say I did it?’ he asked as his eyes widened a bit.
‘Yeah I guess, you really not allowed to cut it yourself?’ she asked in suspicion and N turned a bit, his hand fell to his lap.
‘I could, if I knew how to. Been told I don’t look presentable,’ he said and looked off for a moment. ‘Thank you.’

The words had came out and it jolted Uzi out of her calm demeanour. Making her frown.
‘What?’ she asked her arms fell from the cross she had just put them in. N turned more to look up towards her, his smile returning.
‘Thank you for fixing my hair,’ he said clearly and Uzi stared at him, N’s smile fell a bit but that nudged her out of it. She turned away.
‘I was just paying back for the blasting and letting me live, don’t think too hard about it,’ she hissed.
‘Alright then,’ N said and beamed up at her, Uzi needed to turn away more as she felt her face heat up.
She needed something else to focus on, to get away from this moment.

‘I know you said we can’t go for a walk but I really need to move my legs,’ Uzi huffed out and turned to look at the room. She never did get to finish exploring the place but if N lives here he has likely seen it all.
‘Oh I know, we can explore this building,’ he said and Uzi looked back to him. ‘I have never fully looked everywhere so it could be fun.’
Uzi relaxed a bit.
‘I never got to since, you know,’ she said and cleared her throat. ‘As long as we are going to be chill with each other, I won’t shoot you again if you don’t try to eat me.’

N hummed.
‘I would already be in trouble if anyone found out, I should but I don’t really want to,’ he started then looked at her with a slight narrow of his eyes. ‘Have you told anyone about me and the others?’
‘No one would believe me,’ she sneered, that made N blink. ‘Everyone at home will just pretend like everything is alright but no one wants to leave. Hypocrites all of them.’
N frowned for a moment before shaking himself out of his thoughts.
‘Then let's go exploring,’ he said, perking up and getting up rather quickly. But he did jump away so Uzi only jumped for a moment, watching him in a snap of anger that he didn’t notice. Starting to walk away for the otherside of the building.

‘Hey, wait,’ she hissed out and rushed to put away the scissors and comb before getting her bag back on in a struggle.
She had to rush after him as he was walking backwards out of the room.

Chapter Text

N had taken the lead, leading Uzi to the stairwell. He waited just up a few steps as she came around the corner and into the doorway.
‘You could wait,’ she hissed out and N smiled a bit.
‘I could move faster,’ he hummed a bit and his smile dropped as she sent him a glare, not even entertained with the idea for a moment.
‘We are not playing tag,’ she hissed and fixed her bag strap, huffing out from the rush. ‘Where have you even been in this place?’
N looked up the stairwell, the gap in between was just enough for him to climb through.
‘Only seen the higher levels, people used to live here. Some things have been left alone.’
‘I am not climbing this whole building, that will take me all day,’ Uzi hissed and looked up. ‘Maybe like four up, there is normally something to find that high up.’ She looked to N as he hummed with a nod, his tail moved aside as she came next to him.
Uzi only took in a breathe and started up, N followed next to her.

They had barely gotten up two levels when N started to huff, it was only slightly. As if he was trying to hide it, Uzi looked over with a grin.
‘Tired are we?’ she asked and N froze a bit, her grin went a bit wider. N cleared his throat.
‘Don’t normally go up slowly like this,’ he admitted and she raised a eyebrow.
‘I know stairs are torture but really, you can dash across a room but not walk up flights of steps?’ She frowned a bit in thought. ‘How do you get up then?’

N’s eyes shone a bit before he scrambled for the railing, something that Uzi didn’t realise what he was doing before jumping up for the next level’s railing and pulled himself up. His tail whipped up after him. He had only gone up the next two flights and looked down as Uzi went to stare upwards.
She had at first looked up in surprise but N’s grin down made her huff out.
‘How is that not more tiring? She asked and N shrugged.
‘Stronger arms?’ he asked and looked to the levels door.
‘And now you have to wait for me to get up,’ Uzi said unimpressed as she turned to continue the way up, N just leaned on the rail to watch her go around.

Eventually she got up and looked at him in a glare.
‘I can’t believe I am thankful that the colony is full of stairs,’ she huffed and N tilted his head when Uzi grinned a bit. ‘At least I’ll know that you wouldn’t be able to run around too well.’
‘We would fly around,’ he said and Uzi rolled her eyes.
‘No I am sure a few sets of stairs would be enough to stop you all in your tracks,’ she said and N looked at her in concern. ‘Sarcasm, as if that would stop anything wanting to kill.’ N blinked and nodded as Uzi headed for the door, one that was still intact.
‘Lets get going then,’ she said and pulled it open, going in with much thought. N having to follow after.

The hallway might have been nice once, maybe a higher class apartment block. Some of the paintings still sat on the walls as other had fallen to the ground, the art choice was questionable. The floor was meant to be a white material, some sort of tile with the walls painted a dark blue or maybe it was meant to be. No power in the place did make the place dark. Uzi pulled out her flashlight, letting her look around far better.
Uzi had classes on the history of art. The place seemed to be of the early modern art era, lines of paint across the canvas or shapes just layered on top.
It had been something people had to have thought looked good or meant something. N looked with far more interest than Uzi was, she just stopped at a door that was already opened with the pieces of the door just on the ground.
‘This level looks different.’ N spoke out as he still looked down the hallway. ‘Or the higher ones do.’
‘Maybe they were richer,’ Uzi spoke out and N looked at her. ‘Spent more on it to pretend they were better on top.’
‘Maybe, there are statues up there instead,’ he said and Uzi shrugged before walking in.
‘What I learnt from history, yeah they thought they were better,’ she simply said and headed into an apartment.

The apartment had the same white flooring, walls covered in some sort of wallpaper that had mostly started to peel off with time. Some of it showed some sort of blue waves, it at least looked nice.
Any furniture that should have been around seemed to have been taken long ago, the place being empty of anything.
‘We might need to go higher,’ Uzi huffed as she started to look between whatever rooms she could find. All of them shared the same issue. N had disappeared at some point and Uzi looked around in confusion. Back tracking a bit and found him in a bathroom, the only things that seemed to be attached was the toilet, bathtub and a mirror that seemed to have been attached to the wall, part of it broken off with someone's attempt to pull it off.
N seemed to be checking out the hair cut, he only jumped after seeing Uzi look at him through the reflection.

‘What do you think?’ she asked as N turned on her in nervousness.
‘Its fine,’ he said and didn’t want to look at her, it had to have been a lie.
‘No seriously, is it uneven or something?’ she asked and came closer, she sent the light into the roof to be able to see N properly.
‘No,’ he said quickly and Uzi raised an eyebrow at him.
‘Spill, what don’t you like about it?’ she pushed and N squirmed a bit.
‘A bit short,’ he whispered and Uzi just managed to hear it.
‘Oh is that all,’ she said and came forward to look at him in the mirror a bit.
‘No you're right. The look doesn’t really suit you,’ she said but shrugged. ‘All I did was match the bit that regrew. It would have been nice if it had just grown back to the same length, but at least it's not too noticeable.’
‘Oh,’ N said quietly and looked back to himself. ‘Good.’

‘Have you always looked like that?’ Uzi asked and N blinked before looking back to her.
‘Like what?’
‘Being albino; the paleness, the red eyes,’ she explained and N shrugged.
‘I don’t know, I don’t think so,’ he said slowly as he thought. ‘But we all look like this.’
‘You don’t think so?’ Uzi asked and N frowned but was silent for a while.
‘I don’t look at my reflection much, feels wrong and I think that it's someone else,’ he said, Uzi looked at him in surprise, turning from the mirror. ‘I think I am the only one that thinks that. J works on her appearance all the time, V doesn’t seem to care I think.’
‘I don’t know, I think it's cool and very on brand. There is like a family that has albino members, so it's not like this is my first time seeing it,’ Uzi said and N looked over, snapping his gaze from the mirror to her. Uzi looked away first, his pupils had slitted a bit from looking in her direction and light. She had stepped back as well in a clear of her throat.

‘Who knew you have insecurities, would have thought that being strong like you are would help,’ Uzi said, and made a point to cross her arms, the light pointed away and to the wall next to her. ‘If you think I am about to spill anything about me then think again.’
N just smiled a bit, she just saw this from the side of her vision.
‘No you don’t need to, but thank you for listening to me,’ he said instead and turned his body a bit. ‘We should move on. This place isn’t very interesting.’ Uzi nodded and started to move, heading out as N watched her go for a moment before glancing back to his reflection to then follow after.

The rest of the apartments on the floor had a very similar issue, being some of them had broken furniture but uninteresting. Not a can of food in sight but some places had their balcony windows broken as wind blew in.
There was one room that was interesting, one that had a big cross with a skull over the door.
‘Wonder what's behind here?’ Uzi asked as she tried to open the door only for it to be stopped by something solid, barely opening for an arm to enter.
‘I can push it open,’ N spoke and Uzi stepped aside for him to come up. He shoved at the door and it did jolt forward a bit, only for him to jump back in a frown
‘What’s up?’ Uzi asked.
‘Something died in here,’ he muttered and rubbed at his nose. ‘It’s old though.’
Instead of using his shoulder he kicked forward. Forcing the door the rest of the way. N looked in with a frown and Uzi leaned over to look in with him, before heading in.

Five bodies sat inside.

Four of them having had been attacked in some way, bleeding out or torn at with pools of blood sat underneath. It all looked rather fake with how dry and decayed it all was. Like special effects that Uzi had seen in movies.
One noticeably seemed completely fine, if you ignored how their head was separated with an axe stuck in between, Uzi had overlooked it more as it looked more intact.
‘Wonder what happened in here, they seemed to have trapped themselves,’ Uzi said as she looked back to the shelf that had been moved out of the way that N had push along.
Uzi glanced around, to the four bodies, to them having had been cut at in some ways. Some deeper than others, many of them had to have died due to it. The only one that was different was the decapitated one. She looked to say something only to pause.

N had stopped and stared at the disconnected head, to its mouth in particular, at the larger canines that sat in their open mouth, and fingers that seemed to have grown in claws just at their ends.
He knew what they had to have been, it made a shiver run through him.

‘Why do you keep looking at them like that?’ Uzi asked and N blinked. ‘I would have thought that you would have seen a dead body before.’ She watched him in confusion, trying to figure out what was happening.
‘It’s not that,’ N said slowly and shook himself before looking at her, thinking to himself. ‘I just haven’t seen one this old.’ He said instead of what he should have.
Uzi sigh and left that as an answer and headed back out, the air did smell a bit weird and she regretted her sighing. Gagging a bit as she got out into the cleaner air.

N looked back to the body in the middle of the room, to the axe before he looked out to Uzi’s back to the gun that sat there. He looked down to his tail that tapped into his leg as if to remind him of it, he looked back and ended up looking at Uzi’s back.

Instead of acting on anything that crossed his mind, he closed the door behind him as he left and took a deep breath.
‘You alright?’ she asked out, having turned and spotted him. ‘The room really just freaked you out huh?’
‘Yeah,’ was all he responded with, but Uzi could see his tail twitch behind.
‘Alright then, we won’t be pushing down any other doors I guess. It’s fine I think I have seen all I have ever wanted either way,’ Uzi said and started to move on. ‘Come on, I want to head upstairs.’
N nodded and started to move, to follow after.

The next level looked basically the same with just a maroon colour paint on the walls, at least it looked to have had some of the rooms still had their bigger pieces of furniture, sofas and cabinets. As well as some carpets that still sat around. Many of them were falling apart.

‘Uzi,’ N called out as she was looking through a bookshelf. Most of it had already been gone through, nothing of interest to her was there but if she could likely trade some of them back at home. She looked up from it as N also looking through what she had pulled out, he still had a book open with a frown.
‘What other monsters do you know that are out here?’ he asked and Uzi frowned a bit.
‘Like from stories in history or actual mythology?’ she asked and N closed the book with care.
‘How you knew that we are out here, what else has been told about?’
Uzi sat back with a hum.
‘It was reported by people while in the middle of the Fall. Let's see, let's go in order of reported sightings and photos.’ Uzi said with a smile, glad to finally be able to share this specific interest as N gave her his full attention. ‘There were the flesh mass monsters. Just absorbing masses of people, just adding them to itself but they were super slow. Then people starting getting sick, sort of like zombies, people dying and coming back trying to attack and eat people.’ N frowned a bit, thinking back to the room. ‘Making more of them turn more to continue to create themselves. Then you all came in after the main population was already gone, and were supposed to have come and started to kidnap people. Eating them so on and so forth. Nothing really got added after like the first three years, some people made it their lives work adding in everything together. Which is what I read through, so really I am an expert.’ Uzi looked pleased with herself. N blinked as Uzi looked at him.
‘There are other things out there but they are just normal animals, like things just got wild after humans left. Stuff from zoos got out and sort of ended everywhere.’

She turned on him in interest, bringing her hands together.
‘How much of it was true, are there zombies out there and flesh monsters? Or anything else that is out there that we don’t even know about?’
‘Uh, I don’t know about flesh monsters but the Zombies sometimes show up. We call them Spreaders though,’ N said and Uzi perked up.
‘Why call them that?’ she asked and N frowned a bit.
‘Cause they spread themselves, I think,’ N said a bit stiff before stumping. ‘I don’t really know, you only really see them around every so often. Only a problem for you humans if you’re bitten, that's all I really know.’
‘Ah ha, the one with its head cut off,’ Uzi spoke out so loud that N jumped in his spot. ‘That was one of them, a zombie or whatever you call it wasn’t it?’
N only gave a small nod, he was grabbing hold of his wrist as he watched her seem proud of herself.
‘I mean of course, if someone in the group had turned and attacked the others,’ she was saying, her hands going out as she spoke. ‘Bit sad though, none of them ever left the room.’ N nodded along and Uzi leaned back on her hands, glad to have solved a mystery.

‘What do you think about them, the Spreaders?’ N asked out all of a sudden. Uzi looked over and couldn’t help but note that he looked nervous.
‘If the story is the same as every other zombie movie or show, then it's rather depressing to be turned. No control over yourself, basically dead that anyone you’re with has to deal with.’
The answer seemed to have made N a bit better.
‘I never like seeing them,’ he muttered.

Uzi would have said something to that if a small noise hadn’t come out.
Uzi’s stomach made a noise, it was something small and easy to miss but the sound that came right after was far louder.
Her face brightened a bit, looking away as N looked at her in question.
‘I forgot to grab something on my way out,’ she said quickly, going to stand. ‘I had hoped that we would find something by now. Or I would have been back already.’
‘If I still had left something from last night then I could have given it to you,’ N said and Uzi made a face.
‘I am not eating human,’ she huffed and N almost replicated her face.
‘We don’t, don’t really need to and I am rather sure we aren’t actually allowed to have anything but blood.’ N paused. ‘When we are meant to have it anyway.’
‘Wait you don’t live off human, that's sort of lame,’ Uzi said and made N look up in surprise. ‘What do you eat then?’
‘Plenty of animals out there, leftover foods from the buildings. Blood is just an extra thing that we need every so often since it's harder to find people out here.’
‘I need to figure out if there is a better myth to name you all after, vampires are only on a blood diet. This seems like cheating,’ Uzi started to head out and N got up to follow.
‘You can’t just track down cans of food can you?’
‘No,’ he answered and Uzi sighed a bit but continued on.

The two of them went up another flight of stairs before they came upon a room with something. Whatever attracted people to this building seemed to have made them take everything in it and with how high they were, had to have taken anything edible.
The cabinets still even had pots and pans, something of high value. Uzi bent down and looked on the bottom level of what had been the pantry cabinet. Seeing the glint of metal within an open box.

The cans that Uzi started to pull out had to have been sorted through, leaving her with vegetables, mixed fruits and one soup. Some sort of stew, beef and vegetables, it could have been missed or just not needed. She didn’t really have any options, at least it was something. She made a face down on it all, but not really wanting to search more.

With their haul they returned further down, to a room to sit at that still had furniture in the lounge room. Uzi went to work opening up the cans, hoping for it to not completely be inedible.
‘This place would be sick to hang out at, maybe we should just meet up here in the future. Clean up a bit.’ Uzi said as she looked around the room as her hand looked for her can opener in her bag.
Once she opened the soup can, did Uzi lean back on some on the stiff cushioning, the room had been left rather perfectly from the last time it had been lived in. If a bit dusty.

Uzi started on the soup and found that it was fine, likely would have tasted better warm. She looked over to N as he sat on the other two seater sofa next to her family sized one.
Uzi gave him a look.
‘What on earth was your plan?’ she asked, pointing the spoon she was using towards him and N looked back in question. ‘When you asked if I was from the bunker?’
N gave an awkward smile.
‘We are meant to find a way to get in, one of J’s ideas is to find someone from the bunker to use as bait.’
‘To open it at night so the three of you can just fly in?’ Uzi asked and N nodded a bit.
‘What a simple plan,’ she hummed.
‘Simple plans can work,’ he said as he pulled his lips tight.
‘Ever tried and have it work before?’ she asked, a small shake came from him.
‘Humans in bunkers are harder to get to, we barely get the ones that travel,’ he admitted and looked over at her. ‘Some humans still have towns that we can get into at night, but they are getting more guarded as time goes along.’
‘What people don’t like being eaten?’ she asked and his face shifted to a frown.
‘Drink from,’ he insisted. ‘If we kill them then people would know.’ He bit his lip. ‘If they are drunk then they are none the wiser as long as they are knocked out.’
‘You understand that is exactly what vampires do, sneaking around people and slip into buildings to drink people,’ she said and he sent her a look. ‘You really don’t know huh?’

‘I am sure I have read stories with vampire characters but they aren’t the same as us,’ N said and she hummed.
‘There are different versions. Different points in time authors have used them in storytelling.’ Uzi said with a shrug. ‘The oldest ones were simply that they are undead, cursed to live off the blood of the living to live in the night with a bunch of weaknesses like a stake through the heart.’
N made a face, he did his best to ignore the skip of his heartbeat skip from the word undead.
‘Who doesn’t have that as a weakness?’ he spoke out and Uzi laughed a bit.
‘Well okay there was a second step to it, you staked them to make them unable to moved and depending on the verson, you just decapitated them to completely kill them.’ N tensed completely, unseen to Uzi as she looked down on her food. ‘I doubt that's an issue for you though, it probably just healed back.’

‘Would you shoot me again?’ N spoke out all of a sudden, Uzi looked up with a blink. ‘Knowing everything you know now?’
‘Nah,’ Uzi huffed and leaned over on th armrest next to her. ‘You seem more human than some of the people that live in the colony. Is me knowing so much making you want to kill me?’
N’s shoulders fell from where they had stiffened, he followed her eyes down to his tail ready to spring out between his feet. With the distance he could easily hit her, at least in the leg.
‘I…’ he started but couldn’t think of words. ‘No, I would rather not.’
N slumped against his armrest, leaning on his arm. Almost resting his head down on it in his tilt, he trapped his tail under a boot.

Uzi sighed a bit. Eating a bit more in the silence, at least till she got most of the way through with only a quarter left.
Uzi handed over the can, over the gap of the sofas between them. N looked over with a bit of a head twist, he shook his hand.
‘It's alright, I am not really hungry,’ he simply said.
‘Well I am not going to finish it, so it's either going to waste or you finish it,’ Uzi only said. N huffed out a bit and reached out a hand to take it, their fingers briefly touched and N pulled it to himself. Looking down on it in thought.

‘You’re nice,’ he spoke out. ‘Even if you just want to know about us.’
‘I am not nice,’ Uzi hissed and N glanced over. ‘You’ve been far nicer, you didn’t have to save my life. Didn’t kill me the several moments you have gotten.’
‘You have talked to me like I am normal,’ he said and frowned. ‘I don’t get much of that.’
‘I don’t really fit at home either. Guess we are both weirdos.’ Uzi spoke and N hummed before a smile came to him.
‘Then I guess we need to stick together,’ he said and leaned over his tail wagging a bit. ‘You can visit again.’
Uzi nodded a bit and a small smile came to her.
‘I would like to,’ she said and looked to the room. ‘If we are going to do that then I think we should clean up before I leave, then let you get sleep.’ She stood up, N put the can aside.

The cleaning only had Uzi and N finding brooms they had found earlier to try to move the dust around, for the sliding door that had stuck a bit to allow fresh air to come in.
It was in the middle of this that Uzi needed to ask a question that was bothering her.
‘How come you were in some building instead of being at base with the others in the day?’ Uzi asked and N opened his mouth and shut it again, his brushing had stopped.
‘Reasons?’ he started with but Uzi looked at him unimpressed.
‘Besides the whole stacking out the bunker bit,’ she said with her eyes rolling. ‘You really can’t keep that a secret anymore, I meant besides that.’
‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ he said and seemed to sigh out. ‘I like this more though I think.’ he looked out to the room. ‘As long as I report back in the evening then it doesn’t matter.’
‘So you are going to be lying?’ Uzi asked and N looked over a bit.
‘As long as I am not caught then it should be fine,’ he said, Uzi continued to look at him.
‘And if they did, what could happen?’ she asked.
‘If you come in the day, it will be fine,’ he just said and Uzi nodded a bit, leaving him to go back to work.

It hadn’t taken N long before he started to use the broom more to take his weight, Uzi couldn’t help but notice and came closer.
‘Alright, I think we did enough. I think I should go,’ she said and looked him over before a soft chuckle came out of her.
‘Jesus you are covered in dust,’ Uzi commented. ‘You practically look dead, skins all grey.’
N patted himself down in a sigh.
‘If there was snow then I could get this off quick,’ he said and swatted away the small cloud that came off him. ‘Hopefully it falls soon.’
‘What does snow have to do with it?’ she dared to ask.
‘To clean off, so much easier to just roll in it to clean up quick.’ Uzi sent him a look of interest.
‘I haven’t actually seen snow, I have just seen photos,’ she said slowly, frowning a bit to herself. ‘Do you know when it will fall?’
‘Not for here, I can’t think it would take more than a couple months,’ he said and looked towards the balcony. ‘Been the same temperature for a while but it has to be near the end of autumn.’
‘Huh, I thought it's been getting colder each week I leave,’ she said and noticed as N started to lean on the broom again. ‘Alright, I'll leave you to actually sleep. I have probably kept you up longer than I should have.’
‘No, it's fine,’ he tried to say only to yawn into his hand. ‘You can stay longer.’
‘Not if you won’t be able to hold a thought,’ Uzi said and went for her bag, leaving her broom by a wall.
N could only watch as he got ready to leave, looking to him as she got to the doorway ready to go.

‘I’ll see you next week,’ Uzi said carefully, now lagging by the door. ‘I’ll meet you here right?’
‘I like this more than my original plan,’ he said and nodded, smiling. ‘I’ll be here.’
Uzi turned away and smiled a bit.
‘See you,’ she said and started to walk off, not wanting to delay it any further.

N felt how his body sank the moment she was out of sight, wanting nothing more than to drop to the ground. He was at least smart to lean the broom on the sofa before falling onto the sofa cushioning. Its stiffness didn’t feel fantastic but far better than standing or the ground.
He practically relaxed into it all, falling asleep before Uzi even made it out the building.

Chapter Text

Uzi took time on her walk back. She sort of wanted to go back, even with the scares and issues that came up.
“He was scared.” she hummed in her mind, her feet stopped and she looked back. She could still see the building from where she was.
What a very strange guy. All that natural strength and power.
Uzi continued to walk as she chewed on her cheek. At least it all meant she wasn’t in any real danger, at least not from one of the three things in the city that could kill her.
Would she even be able to get rid of the other two without upsetting N, he seemed to still care about them even if he was currently homeless. She could only assume the ship they had was better to live in.

What Uzi wouldn’t give to get to that ship. She loved history on what humans had managed to create, everything that was left behind that could be recovered. But first thing first, the other two “vampires”.
The best plan would be to get them on their own. Uzi sighed out without a plan even formed, no way to do one without N’s help, an issue for later. Maybe she will be able to convince him once she learns more.

Uzi once safe inside the colony and with cell service, sent a message that she was back after she had changed out of the clothes. Thad had responded practically right away. Stating that he wanted to hang out to find out everything, Uzi agreed but to a location that wasn’t public.
Thad had the smarts to suggest the library, Uzi went right for it.

Outpost 3’s library was one of the oldest locations in the colony. Filled with books that had been originally stored there before the Fall for safe keeping, or people brought what they thought was important for future generations. And scavenged books, mountains of salvaged books from city wide. Things from manuals or guides to the large amount of physical fiction books. Most of the liberty was in a second warehouse section. With that divided again with the most protected original books.

While the library was a public location, the amount of public being there was slim. Particularly as most of the fiction was already in a digital form and people didn’t need to go there unless it was for the books themselves. It was more of an archive than an actual public location but no one ever thought to close it off from anyone that took interest in looking.
It had the bare necessities, areas around for sitting, desks for research. A help desk to guide people to the areas they needed. There were quiet a few older people about, those that would spend their free time just reading but their eyes were too gone to use screens.
There were also computers, desks of them for students and others to use. Having your own was a difficult thing. It was the most filled area for anyone of the younger range.

At the entrance she waited for Thad to appear and together they headed in, finding a good corner to hide out in. A place where no one could listen in without either of them seeing. Though Uzi didn’t miss a librarian that followed the two of them with a squint, likely thinking that the two of them were up to no good.

Uzi leaned against a wall as Thad paced a bit in a circle, he was just trying to figure out what to say. He could only turn to look at her, go to open his mouth before closing it. Only to turn with his fingers touching and leaning forward in interest.
‘So, what was he like? Any threats of death?’ he asked first and Uzi sighed a bit.
‘Sort of but I think I stressed about him too much,’ she said and shugged it off, Thad blinked in surprise. ‘The dude could be a student in school if you can ignore the tail, filled with as much doubt as some of us.’
‘Wait, how old is he?’
‘No idea and that was the first thing I asked,’ she said and frowned. ‘But he doesn’t know about the Fall, I hardly think he is any older than us. Maybe at most in his mid twenties if it was a guess.’
‘But if he is a vampire wouldn’t he have stopped ageing?’ Thad asked and Uzi looked at him in surprise. ‘What, I read up on the basics.’ he explained.
‘Well any of that info is out the window, he can’t be. One he has a tail with a stinger on the end, and most importantly the dude apparently can eat normal food. I need to look more or he is something else that came after the vampires, I have no idea,’ Uzi said in a huff kicking into the ground with her boot.

Thad thought for a moment before his face uplifted.
‘So the guy is chill, if you don’t have to worry about him then isn’t the outside safe?’
‘There are two others, those two we need to worry about,’ she said and looked to Thad. ‘I know they want to break in here and wipe everyone out.’ She hissed and stared out into the book shelves. When nothing came as a response, she looked to Thad looking nervous. As the information that someone out there wanted them all gone.

‘We do still have the gates that are going to keep us safe in here, right?’ Thad asked and Uzi glared at him.
‘Really,’ she hissed at him and went to leave. ‘Fine I guess I have to come up with something so we aren’t just hiding here.’
‘Want me to get a bat to help fight them off?’ Thad asked out and Uzi just turned back to him in the alley.
‘No, I will come up with a plan,’ Uzi said and turned to leave again. ‘Talk to you later.’ She offered, Thad smiled a bit before remembering something.
‘Remember you still have the assignment due on monday,’ he called out and she stopped right in her tracks.
‘God damn it,’ Uzi growled out far too loud and there was a series of shushes from nearby that Uzi glared towards.

|~|

N awoke far better then he had before, at least since the team had come to the area Better than the mattress that has been falling apart in the apartment he had taken up in his outlook spot, not really something to use and hanging upside down was for the times you couldn’t lay down.
He looked around, sort of hoping Uzi had stayed but that would have been stupid since it was night. He just pushed himself upright, going to rub at his face only to fine he was still all dusty. He made a face but it was better than being wet so he can survive till he got to the ship to wash and change.

The can of soup was still on the small table in the middle of the sofas, it couldn’t have gone off in an afternoon.
Shrugging and swinging it to drink it, it was, fine. N looked around the room with general interest. The place had kept him safe and outside it looked like a normal night. He left the can behind as he headed for the balcony, might as well use it as an entrance.
He headed upwards, looking towards the bunker in a quick look over before heading for the ship.

N sucked in a breath before walking up the steps, he hoped to make it to the bathroom before he was found out. Walking in he found that J sat at the dinner area, the moment she saw him did he flinch at her glare.
‘What is gods name, did you sleep in a pile of dirt?’ she hissed out, she put down a cup of tea so hard it spilt some. She ignored it but narrowed her eyes more. N tried to walk by.
‘Going to shower,’ he said quickly, trying to get out of her gaze. Her tail shot out to block him from passing.
‘You should know how to use that tail of yours by now, you are meant to stay hidden and away that means you don’t fall to the ground like a child,’ she said and N bit his lip.
‘I may have fallen on a sofa,’ he said. Not a full lie, he has fallen before and likely will again in the future, at least he wasn’t lying at the moment.
‘N it's embarrassing you have a tail so use it properly. At least no one saw you like that, unlike back at home. Oh how the servants love to laugh about it when they find you crumbled up in odd places or fallen. I would like to think you have the practice by now.’ J said but was muttering by the end, no longer talking to him directly. She lifted back up her drink and pulled her tail back to herself, letting him go.

N hadn’t fallen in front of someone for a while so he wasn’t sure when she was thinking about, also how he slept changed some time ago.
He had stopped and thought about it for too long, he realised this when he was snapped out of it with her throat.
‘Any day now,’ she said and N jolted before rushing forward.
Heading to the back part of the ship, to where the living quarters were and the bathroom was.

N opened the door and looked in to find the man servant scrubbing away, he stopped and looked over.
‘Could you leave for like three minutes?’ N asked, he could hear J sigh out loud to make sure she was heard.
‘Order him, he isn’t one of the trained ones,’ she called out, N’s eyes flickered over.
‘Leave for now?’ N meant for it to be an order but the end twisted into a question.
The man looked him over for a moment before a smirk came to his face, he knew that N wouldn’t do anything to him besides partly scare him. Throwing the rag away and got up. Coming to walk by, still in a limp with the foot that was never going to fix itself correctly.

‘How nice of you to ask,’ the man hissed with sarcasm. N was pushed aside as J growled out.
‘I told you not to talk,’ she hissed, grabbing hold of him to start drawing him away. To the man's fright. J didn’t get far before looking back to N in a glare, making him jump as she grabbed his shoulder to make him turn away before she pulled down his collar.
‘I told you not to try to cut your hair,’ she said and N froze a bit. ‘Looks terrible and uneven.’
N was about to bite back a remark that it looked perfect, but he strangled that in his throat before it got out.
‘I didn’t want to feel it how it was,’ he said instead, looking down to the bathroom floor. ‘I’ll have it fixed when we get back and I won’t touch it again.’
‘Good,’ she said and shook her head as she left, bringing her attention to dragging the man away.
N watched them head below and N sighed out, a smidge of stress leaving him. At least his worries were over, he could almost ready himself for a shower if a cry of pain wasn’t heard. Rather hard not to.
So much for a relaxing shower, he closed the bathroom door and it helped mute the sounds a bit. Running water helped even more so.

Shower done, but J wasn’t back upstairs when N went looking for her and he knew where she would be. If he didn’t need to check with her then he would have already left. He looked towards the stairs downstairs with a frown, willing his feet forward, one step at a time.

N looked down, he at most heard some heavy breathing from within. He took each step slowly, coming down into the gloom. Turning towards the side that the heavy breathing came from.
It was struggling by this point, obviously in pain.
‘Oh shut up will you, a grown man like you about to start crying,’ J’s voice spoke out before N found her sitting up on a crate, wiping down her hands of blood with a cloth. Sitting in front of the cells, N found a sort of comfort in seeing a slight reflect in her eyes.

‘Come back and check on him throughout the night,’ J said as N got within her peripheral view, she didn’t turn to look at him as she still worked on not missing a spot on her hands. ‘Wash him down before you leave before morning and only tell me if he stopped breathing,’ she instructed, throwing away the cloth to the side and looking to the man. She sighed and jumped back down, she turned to leave with nothing else. He did nothing but nod, watching her leave before glancing back.

The man, if anything, was brave. Barely letting out a sound to show how much he was in pain. N should try to clean him up before stuff starts trying to seal.
Yeah, he could at least do that and headed back upstairs. Making sure that J had left for a flight, taking her aggression somewhere else. He had some time and some work to do before he came back down to the prisoner.

N walked back down stairs, he didn’t want to be there. Didn’t want to be doing what he was, the weight of the bucket of water reminding him. He had come in and only listened out to breathing and never actually went to the cell itself, to look in. Now he had to.
He was slow in his movement, sort of like being around a scared animal. People worked at least a bit similar. Coming to the cell.

He took a breath and looked in. He already knew the man was alive, no matter how silently he tried, the area made breathing echo even a little bit. N should be used to it by then, seeing blood around the small space. He knew there was, smelt it fresh that earlier and now as it was flaking dry. The leftovers of a shirt laid in pieces around, having just soaked in the blood around.

‘Came to gawk?’ came a voice and N jolted a bit, looking to the person itself. He was hunched with his knees up and arms around, glaring at N. It wasn’t the first time or the last someone would.
‘No, just doing what I was ordered to,’ N answered. The man exhaled, seeming to ready himself mentally.
‘Is that all you do is it?’ he asked, N blinked. ‘Listen and lose your mind.’
N wasn’t able to look away, the two of them stuck in a sort of staring contest.

‘It's easier,’ N spoke without meaning to, the man’s glare deepened. N was dared into continuing. ‘If you listen.’
‘I am not going to be some pet,’ he hissed and kicked forward a foot, making the bars rattle. ‘You’re pathetic,’ the man hissed. Running a hand through his hair in anger, scratching at a spot. N couldn’t disagree with him.
‘What’s your name? Mine is N.’ N said, ignoring the fact that it wasn’t the time or place for such an introduction. So calm like.

‘You should have just killed me,’ he spoke and N nodded. ‘Could have at least let me die with the others.’ N watched him for a moment.
‘If you try to get away she will,’ N said looking away from his face. ‘Other things she will punish but if you try to run, it will anger her but I can’t promise she will be quick.’
‘Why can’t you just do it now?’ he asked, crawling to the bars, taking hold and stared up. N couldn’t look back, and ended up looking down to the floor.
‘I can’t, not with our rules,’ he could only respond. At least the man took the hint, he also looked at the spot that N was looking at.
‘Lance,’ came the small voice and N looked at him. ‘My name.’
N smiled a bit, even if it was small. Lance seemed to come back to himself, hiding away his low moment.
‘I still don’t like you,’ Lance snapped out, and now looking at the bucket. ‘What's that for.’
‘I am supposed to drench you,’ N said and looked down on it. ‘But I have a cloth that you can just use to clean yourself instead, as I clean the rest of the place.’
Lance looked at it all.
N pulled the lock, there was a key lock as well but this was a quick way and besides J had the only key. The lock was behind a walled section to avoid someone inside freeing themselves.

N just placed the bucket down inside and closed everything back up to rush back upstairs to grab the other bucket he had left behind at the sink. He should have just come down with them both in the first place.
Once he got back, N was glad to find that even if Lance was in pain he was still trying to clean himself off. Though everything on his back would be difficult to get to, he solved that quick by just letting it drip down over his shoulders. None of the movement were without a hiss, as the water aggravated the wounds again.

N headed in again, Lance barely looked at him as he could only just swing water in.
‘She’ll make you clean it tomorrow most likely,’ N stated and wanted the water pick up on the blood to make it flow away towards the closest drain.
N was focused on the water for a time, making Lance look to the room. Towards the exit. He put the cloth down, looking at N and how he wasn’t paying attention of him.

Lance took a break for it, trying to brush by him but the doorway was too small considering N just had to shoot a tail out to make him fall right into the ground. N bent down to take hold of an arm before pulling him back upright, pushing Lance back into the cell.

‘You bastard, you could let me go,’ Lance growled out as he turned on N standing in place.
‘I can’t let you get away,’ N simply said, he looked back down to the water to the trails of that ran out the cell.
‘What, would they kill you?’ Lance asked in anger but backed off to sit on the bench in defeat.
‘No, but there are worse things,’ N said and Lance looked up in question before shaking his head and hitting his head back into the metal wall. There was a thunk that N didn’t like but Lance hadn’t seemed to have been affected.

‘How are your wounds?’ N asked, trying to see one that ran down his arm.
Lance went to speak before frowning, looking down on his arms in question. Test squeezing his hands before rolling his shoulders a bit.
‘Did you put something into the water, medicine or something?’ he asked and looked up to N, who smiled a bit nervous.
‘Something like that, i’m just glad it works,’ N said and Lance looked up at him, in confusion.

‘N was it?’ Lance asked and N nodded. ‘You’re certainly better than the two of them, you should be better than this.’
N looked at Lance with a sad smile.
‘Maybe someday,’ he said and Lance frowned a bit. ‘For now, I am just doing the job I was given.’
‘What a sad life,’ Lance spoke out and N flinched a bit. He opened his mouth to say something against it, anything but no sound came out.
‘Have a good rest, I’ll bring a shirt later,’ he said instead and started to leave, using his tail to pick up the bucket next to Lance and dump it on the ground before backing out. Locking it all before walking off. Not looking back as he headed back up, Lance was staring at him the whole time and N could feel it even as he was up in the other level.

He spent the rest of the night in flight, only going back to the apartment at the last moment. As he started to feel the sun's light give his wings a light burn, he would have time till it would hurt for real but better to just hide.
He didn’t even bother to go look out the tower, just came in and headed for the sofa. Landing on it without a moment to think about it. At how dust bounced back up at him, he had to hide his mouth and nose into his shirt to avoid breathing any of it in.
He just stayed like that, only throwing an arm over his head as the light came in.

Chapter Text

After the assignment submission. Uzi felt as if she had spent the next two days groaning, everything was just so stuffy and limiting. As if she was slowly going insane for being stuck in such a boring life, stuck being given another assignment about planning life after school. 

It did lead her to stare at her teacher after class, he didn’t even look up at her. 

‘If you don’t like the assignments then find an internship to do,’ he said, Uzi glared harder. 

‘I know what I want to do, you have read them all.’ 

Teacher finally looked at her, leaning on an arm after doing so. 

‘I feel like I need to point something out to you,’ he started and Uzi waited. ‘What if you won’t be allowed to get to the facilities, to restart the industry like you want to. Who would you trade the work for, feeding yourself for example if no one sees value in what you do?’ 

Uzi was about to bite, bark out that she doesn’t care what others think. But she froze. 

‘What is your backup if the colony bans you from it,’ Teacher asked and Uzi stared. ‘We don’t always get to do what we want, but there are sometimes ways around it to avoid following what others do.’ 

Uzi blinked. Teacher went on.

‘Since I have been hearing that you have been sneaking out on the weekends and I can only take a good guess where, how about taking a look at the salvaging guild? If it gets you out of the colony, it also gives me peace the next few months with you out of my class and not glaring at me.’ 

Uzi started to smile, it wasn’t the worst idea and it did sort of work for what she wanted. 

‘Oh and take Thad with you,’ he spoke up and Uzi whipped her gaze back to him. ‘I’ll let the two of you run off after break, just come here first so I can put the request in and hand you a paper.’ 

Uzi walked to the cafeteria in worry, thinking over what Teacher had said, if he was right. Something about the way he said it all rubbed her the wrong way. 

She always thought he disliked his job, or at least didn’t find it interesting, she couldn’t blame him for it but what had he wanted to do in the first place. Maybe Thad knew. 

Which speaking of him was at his group's table, them all chatting away. Uzi just went to get her food, trying to think of how she would even approach him. 

She got to her little spot on the side, managing to sit down before Thad materialised out of thin air. 

‘What’s up?’ he asked and Uzi jumped, glaring up at him as she recovered. ‘I saw you looking at me when you came in.’ 

‘You just looking at the entrance for fun?’ Uzi asked.

‘They weren’t really talking about anything interesting,’ Thad said with a shrug, he raised his eyebrows in wait for her answer.

‘Your dad wants us to join the scavenging guild,’ she said and Thad blinked. 

‘Didn’t expect that,’ he muttered and quickly pulled a neighbouring chair closer to sit backwards into it. ‘Why?’ 

‘I understand why he is telling me, does he know you want to go outside?’ Uzi asked and Thad leaned forward on the chair back with his arms crossed on them. 

‘Probably, I am not exactly subtle,’ he said and frowned a bit. ‘Isn’t the guild hard to get into, like they don’t like outsiders just joining.’ 

‘He said we need to go to him after break for some papers, maybe he knows someone in it,’ Uzi said but Thad frowned more. 

‘My uncle was in it for a time before going to metalworks, wait he wants us to go right away?’ Thad asked and Uzi nodded as she wanted to start eating,Thad slumped a bit in thought. 

‘Alright, I’ll give it a try,’ he said and he looked at her with a smile. ‘You’ll be able to sneak out far more than and I am going to guess you aren’t going to tell your dad about this.’ 

‘Nope,’ Uzi said and Thad started to get up. 

‘I’ll see you in class then, I’ll head there early,’ he said and started to head off, leaving Uzi to be able to eat.

Uzi and Thad made the track across the colony, a single sheet of paper to protect them from anyone that would stop them for skipping school even though no one did.  Just a few adults whispering to each other. 

The scavengers guild wasn’t a very big group, barely a hundred members and tightly kept that way. One of the few to go outside, they go out to find anything interesting before returning with an array of items. Mostly house goods were brought back and orders could be placed for things the colony desperately needed, it was then up to them to find them. If they could. 

Uzi was always interested in them, far more than being a hunter or gathering which was the far larger guild. While they both had dangers the scavengers were harder to get into. 

As Uzi and Thad got into the area they found they didn’t actually know where to go, they had a clue and looked to the hand drawn map that Teacher had given them. 

Finding a hallway that had broken lights above that flickered. The place was a warehouse shoved behind others, having to take a path that circled around one of the main ones with a long hallway that hugged around. It was at least close to the entrance of the bunker. 

At the end of the trip sat a lone unmarked door with a light bulb shining strong overhead, the two of them looked at each other before nodding and heading to the final stretch. 

The start of music could be heard beyond it, something rock and high energy. 

Uzi went forward to knock, trying to be loud enough to be heard. There was no sign of anything coming from it, no talking on the otherside or door being opened. Uzi took the risk and went to open it. 

The handle turned but the door was a pain to push open, heavy and thick, Thad helped and once it was open a bit the two of them were blasted with the music. So loud that the two of them flinched, they pushed more and found the inside bright and full of stuff. Shelves all around holding an array of things, they both stared. The only space available was in the front where there were carts lined up on a side with there being an open area before the maze ahead. 

‘Hello,’ Uzi called out but even she could hardly hear her voice, Thad leaned over. 

‘Do we just walk in,’ he spoke out, hardly able to whisper to her.

‘Oi,’ came a call behind them, making them jump and turn. Finding a woman there, glaring at them and with her hands full of bags. 

‘You Teach’s son?’ she yelled out as she came closer the music inside hadn’t decreased in volume, Thad nodded before Uzi was glared at. ‘And you are Doorman?’ Uzi felt her own anger come and the woman rolled her eyes before walking between them to head inside, disappearing within the shelving. 

The music was cut off all at once. A whine of someone came though. 

‘Shut it, the two were at the door and you didn’t even know it.’ the woman’s voice came through from within. ‘You two get in here.’ 

Uzi and Thad walked in, trying not to get close to the shelving as they walked past. A lot of it looked about ready to fall off if bumped into. 

‘I haven’t got all day,’ the woman called out and the two of them came out to a different opening. Tables laid out with all sorts of electronics in different states of salvaged, one wall had several stereos and players. A tv was even in place above it all. 

At the tables sat a small group of people, some of them weren’t much older than Thad and Uzi. 

The woman was handing out packs of food to the others who didn’t even notice them either of them walk in. Once done the woman came over to them as the room spread out to separate tables to watch the events about to play out. The woman cleared her throat, to make Uzi and Thad look at her. 

‘Names Ava, Ava Braken. Been already told about you two but I can’t understand why. How the two of you ended up here?’ Uzi and Thad blinked back.

‘Dad told us we should,’ Thad said in confusion, looking to Uzi. 

‘Thought we would be good to go outside,’ she said and Ava started to laugh, it split her face into a grin. She even wiped at her eye as it came to an end. 

‘As if we would send the two of you outside, Teach is a comedian. Sending fresh blood out, why do you think this lot is here? You two are not going to be learning the rotates or even stepping a foot out the colony when it will just kill you, in the off chance you will be staying you will stay in here and breaking things apart.’ 

Everything coming out of Ava was demeaning to Uzi, words bubbled up out of her control.

‘Well I have already been outside, I have been just fine,’ Uzi hissed and Ava’s smile dropped, looking at her. Coming forward in a careful glare, others in the room glanced over.

‘You’re the little snot that has been slipping out,’ she said in a hiss, Uzi kept herself in place. 

‘It can’t be that hard, and I am not here to slave away to something so boring,’ she said. 

‘Do you even know what is out there?’ Ava shot back and Uzi narrowed her eyes. 

‘I know of what used to be out there, the monsters and such. I made a gun for them,’ Uzi said and Ava looked her over carefully. 

‘You’re either completely stupid or mentally stunted,’ she said at last and Uzi felt anger shoot through her but Ava lifted a hand to stop her. 

‘I don’t want to hear it, I should just throw you out,’ she spoke up, stopping Uzi before she started yelling. ‘We don’t take the outside lightly, if you want to go out there without any knowledge then be my guest we won’t stop you.’ 

‘What are you scared of?’ Uzi asked and they felt the room still, all the ones at the tables stared. 

Ava glared at her. 

‘Things that the colony wants to know nothing about,’ she growled and Uzi kept herself in place as Thad backed off. ‘If someone dies out there it's just an unfortunate accident. If the gathers and hunters had to go crawling into buildings and into the dark then everyone would care, take things seriously but no they just need to worry about simple animals.’ 

‘Then fight back, I know my gun works, are you seriously going to act as if we can’t do anything,’ Uzi snapped out, Ava paused and looked at her again. Seeing something that Uzi didn’t know, she softened a bit.

‘What’s your name again?’ Ava asked and Uzi took in a breath. 

‘Uzi,’ she said and Ava rolled her eyes. 

‘I almost forgot how silly it was,’ she said and Uzi frowned, she had hoped they were making progress. ‘Well then Uzi, you’ve sure piqued my interest but I have a question first. Why do you even bother with going outside, what is out there that is worth the risk?’ 

‘I just want to,’ Uzi hissed out, she was holding back but she wasn’t lying. ‘I don’t want to stay here my whole life.’ She added in to try to convince Ava’s stiff face. 

‘We’ll see,’ Ava said to herself and nodded a bit. Uzi waited, wanting a direct answer but she wasn’t going to get one. Ava looked between them both, looking at Thad in interest. 

‘What about you?’ Thad blinked, he wasn’t expecting himself to be noticed. ‘Why does your father even want you here? Your uncle was here for a bit but even he saw the dangers.’ 

Uzi looked at him but Thad thought about it for a time. 

‘I like being in the sun,’ he simply started to say. ‘I remember my uncle talk about other jobs besides salvaging. Talking to people that want to order.’ 

‘They are a right pain,’ Ava hissed and the room nodded. ‘Thinking we can just find something within a few days. I might just have need of you then, if you are willing to talk to difficult customers. How is your bartering?’ 

‘Can’t say I have done it much,’ he responded.

‘Annoyingly people like him, he’ll be fine,’ Uzi spoke up and Ava nodded, looking around the room. 

‘Well we aren’t dealing with the two of you till next Tuesday,’ Ava hissed and sighed. ‘We normally we don’t take students but you could have your uses. So be here on time, get out of your class and here and Uzi bring that gun of yours.’ 

‘Yes mam,’ Thad spoke out and Uzi nodded. 

‘Now get out, you’re distracting them,’ Ava spoke out and the others ducked their heads, some of them still eating as others played with what was on their bench. 

Uzi gave one last look around before heading out, Thad gave a wave before following. The two of them worked together to get the front door open again and out they went.

The door closed behind with a heavy thud and Thad looked over to Uzi.  

‘That went surprisingly well,’ he spoke up and smiled a bit. ‘Seems like you will fit right in.’ 

‘I just hope this isn’t going to be a waste of time,’ she said and started to move, Thad glanced back and followed. 

=0=

The next two days were hell, she needed out and it was only half way through the week. Her foot wouldn’t stop moving under her desk, tapping so much that she had developed a bruise on her knee. 

Just a few more days but she didn’t even think she could last that long. If she just didn’t have class to waste time on, she could just leave. 

Sure she would be noticed but if her teacher didn’t care then it wouldn’t matter, who was she kidding, if he already knew she was sneaking out then he should be smart enough to know where she would be. 

Uzi watched the bell for break, it wasn’t going fast enough for her. She wanted it to be the time already. In an eyeblink and it was, she stared at it. The teacher continued to explain some old world trading system, Uzi barely heard it as she looked at the simple piece of machine. She blinked and the thing flipped back a couple minutes. 

It was almost time to go, with a minute left but out in the hallway the bell went off for lunch, she took a moment as her brain was stalled out in confusion before snapping out of it to start gathering her stuff up and left right ahead of anyone else. 

She just managed to hear Teacher’s normal announcement.

‘For those of you that have their internships, remember that it doesn’t exclude you from your schoolwork,’ Teacher said and Uzi was already gone. He did glance at her as she left but didn’t say anything to stop her. 

Uzi got to her locker, putting away anything she didn’t desperately need. Her skin started to crawl at the crowd of people around her, she slammed the door closed and took off. 

Thad at some point got to her side but her vision had narrowed to the path ahead. 

‘Uzi?’ came his voice and she snapped out of it to glance over at him. With her attention on him he smiled a bit. ‘I didn’t think you heard me.’ 

‘Thad what, I need to go,’ Uzi quickly got out and Thad looked at her in surprise. 

‘Oh alright, it’s just that I have heard some stuff about outside,’ he said and Uzi stopped all of a sudden. 

‘Why didn’t you say so?’ she asked and Thad was about to speak before she dragged him out of the hallway and into a classroom. The room empty of anyone else. 

‘I did, you didn’t hear me,’ Thad defended. ‘What’s going on?’ He asked in worry. 

‘I just want to leave, now what did you hear,’ she said and crossed her arms, her foot already starting to tap. 

‘Right well, just that some bulls have been found by the hunters. Legs cut off but I was wondering if the vamps out there are the ones doing it. I guess it makes sense if they have to eat,’ Thad said and Uzi blinked. 

‘Was that it?’ she asked and Thad looked away a bit. 

‘Also that the hunters have complained, but since no one has seen what caused it then they are keeping the doors open for them to go out since it could be a night thing. I’ll tell you if they are going to shut the gates since your dad likely won’t tell you.’ 

Uzi groaned. 

‘They better not, I guess I could always steal the spare key in case,’ she hummed. ‘Alright I am out.’ Uzi said and started to back for the door. 

‘Uzi, be careful.’ 

‘Yeah, yeah,’ she said and tried not to roll her eyes. ‘Thanks.’ 

She exited the room and rushed away, ignoring anyones gaze that followed after her in question. 

Uzi had gotten to the stairs that head up to the main street, she was about to start jogging up the steps if someones loud voice hadn’t come from in front of her.

‘Where are you going?’ came a russian accent and Uzi looked up at the first step, finding Doll half way up. Uzi glanced around to make sure no one else was around. 

‘What does it matter to you?’ Uzi asked back, taking another step to glare up. Doll took a step down, crossing her arms. 

Uzi rolled her eyes and went to pass by, getting next to her before Doll’s hand snapped out to grab onto Uzi’s wrist to stop her from leaving, Uzi sent a glare back. 

‘Are you trying to get us killed?’ Doll snapped, gripping Uzi’s wrist tight making Uzi flinch. ‘I know you’re going out there. Why are you?’ 

‘Why do you care what I do?’ Uzi snapped back, turning around on her place just above Doll. ‘Unless you’re about to tell me why you suddenly care then let me go,’ She hissed and yanked out her hand from Doll’s grip. ‘Just leave me alone like you always have.’ 

Doll closed her fists in anger, wanting to scream and yell but held it all in. Only letting out a growl. 

‘You’re stupid for going out there, you’re making a mistake and you will just end up killing everyone in here,’ Doll said again. 

‘Then you stay here, you don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do,’ Uzi hissed back and started to leave. 

‘You’re just making the same mistake your mother made,’ Doll said and Uzi stopped in place before turning slowly. 

‘So did your parents, don’t act as if my mum was the only one to go outside and die and considering no one is telling me what actually happened then I guess I will find out on my own,’ Uzi said and Doll glared. 

‘My parents died cause of your mother, I am sure of it and I don’t trust that you won’t end up dragging everyone down with whatever it is that you’re doing out there.’ 

Uzi rolled her eyes, so obviously that she tilted her head into it. 

‘Cool alright, just stay here then. I won’t be stupid enough to bring back anything back,’ Uzi huffed and saluted out to leave. ‘So leave me alone unless you’re going to help me figure out what happened with them.’ Uzi tried and glanced back, finding Doll looking back in anger but she let that slide, looking away and going neutral. With that Uzi left, headed up the steps as Doll watched her go whether she wanted her to go or not. 

Uzi wanted to go outside, maybe stop at N’s. She shouldn’t show up unannounced, it might not be good for her health if she went in while he was sleeping.

If she stopped there she could at least bring what she had planned on bringing him on the weekend. She raced off home to get ready to leave. She was sure her father wouldn’t be home to bother her and she can finally settle her nerves, plus whatever urge she had been feeling to go out. 

Chapter Text

Uzi walked out the colony gates, no one paying any attention to her. Even as she looked around for anyone from the salvaging guild, not that she would know who would be from which guild.
She just headed out right away and didn’t delay in case someone approached.

Uzi was in a weird thought process. She knows there are monsters out in the city, it had been confirmed but unlike earlier she didn’t feel so worried about it all. She wouldn’t head into any dark basements alone though.
She also made sure no one was following her, but it was the afternoon and no one was even outside the doors besides a couple talking over a bag of goods, seemed that they had a good find.

Uzi took her time outside, looking at all the plants that had forced their way between the road, sidewalks and up buildings.
The city was different to look at when not rushing past everything for gun parts or worried about something hunting you.
It was almost as if she could enjoy the walk but knowing the time she should move on or risk night and being locked out. She had a few hours for that though, and she was going to use it all up. Eventually she’ll head for the apartment.

Uzi headed for the place a couple hours later and made it to the building without any issues. She looked up the side, trying to count up the levels but she wasn’t even sure if the apartment was on the side that she was looking at. She should pay attention when she goes up.
She walked in through the broken entrance, she was rather sure this had once been the building's front entrance but the front had been broken in with the gapping hole being all that was left.
Walking into the dim building, she couldn’t help but to look and check the roof above even if it was silly to. She chuckled a bit to herself before heading further in.

Getting to the stairs did her mood flip completely. She looked up the middle with a groan. She fixed her backpack straps before starting up.
Getting to the level with a groan, sure the colony had stairs but somehow these ones were just far worse.
The trip up seemed far longer then it should have been.
‘N?’ she called out in a huff once she opened the stairwell door. hoping to give some warning of her arrival, no sounds came from inside. She came to the apartment doorway in worry, looking into the room. The light in the room was dim, more than what had been days ago. Her answer came as she found some sort of sheets having been put on the old curtain rods above the balcony door. Nothing moved inside or any form of life showed. She guessed the place looked cleaner.
She looked around more, having to wait for eyes to adjust to the gloom as she slowly walked in. Passing by a bedroom which seemed to have more pillows and blankets added in but no one was within.

After looking around the hallway corner did she find N in a corner of the living room, wings around himself just as she found him the first time just far closer to the ground as he hung off the ceiling. Looking like a growth of something but she could just see his boots at the top. She held her breath for a moment, listening out and quickly hearing soft snoring.

Uzi wanted to approach and get a better look, in particular the wings that seemed to have a silver shine to them. In the soft light they looked almost metallic, Uzi held herself back. She very much doubted that she could just walk up without the risk of getting hurt.

Uzi knocked on the wall next to her before doing something stupid like touching N while asleep.
‘N?’ she called out and the wings twitched, in some sort of muscle reflex. She tried again a bit louder.
N’s wings snapped open.
‘I’m awake,’ he exclaimed in a panic, looking about in his upside down view of the room. He quickly honed in on where the noise came from, making him panic once again.
‘Uzi?’ he asked in worry as his tail had to have slipped from his movement, making him fall onto a sofa that had been under him. Uzi was about to say something if he hadn’t jumped back upright, he stumbled and ended up leaning over the sofa’s armrest.

He tried to recover himself but it was rather easy to tell he wasn’t fully awake and was running off the panic.
N blinked, still not sure what he was meant to be doing. Uzi winced.
‘Sorry, middle of sleeping huh?’ she asked and he managed to nod a bit.
‘It’s not saturday yet is it,’ he said, sounding confused.
‘Oh no, it's wednesday,’ she said and that seemed to get him to focus a bit.
‘Then why are you here,’ he asked, his brain still muddled.
‘I am skipping some class today, plus I brought you something to do before I come next,’ she said and she watched in real time how he started to lean over on the sofa more.
‘I won’t stay too long, I should have just left it in the room and left you to sleep.’ She said.
N’s body dropped onto the sofa, falling face first into the back cushions. This awoke him in a jolt. He pushed back up quickly into a sit.
‘No, no. it’s fine, I can wake up,’ he said, rubbing his face and Uzi came into the room some more.
‘I am starting to question how I keep finding you asleep,’ she said with a hint of amusement. ‘You weren’t that high off the ground in here either.’
N blinked, the words still processing.
‘I wouldn’t think someone would walk in here,’ he said, the reality of it being the afternoon as he looked between the balcony sheet curtains to look outside.
It was early for him and felt similar to a 2 am wake up.

‘I came up flights of stairs with nothing in my way, how has someone else not found you yet?’
N blinked again.
‘You said you have something for me?’ he asked instead.
‘So I wasn’t the first?’ Uzi asked instead and N sighed, eyes squinted and went to rub them.
‘No, not the first. But the last time it happened it was in a different place,’ he said and laid his head down on the cushioning. ‘I just didn’t want to leave this place, its warmer in here than the high open areas.’
Uzi looked about.
‘At least you managed to add more to the place, where did you even find blankets?’ she asked looking at the sofa covered in them.
‘Storage, underground,’ he said before yawning, the most he had ever opened his mouth around her. Without thinking about it, showing off his teeth which Uzi watched in fascination. All too quickly hidden again. He slumped in place, leaning on an arm.
‘I don’t mind you visiting, just no way to plan ahead.’ he muttered and closed his eyes a bit.

‘Right, right,’ Uzi said without really thinking, realising that she shouldn’t be staring at his mouth. ‘I don’t exactly have a way to warn you if I want to show up, I should figure out if I can find a phone somewhere and set it up to message you.’
‘Like using an intercom?’ N asked, looking over with an eye and Uzi frowned a bit.
‘Sure, I’ll teach it to you,’ she spoke as she took off her backpack to look around the apartment a bit better.

She ended up looking up at the spot in the roof that seemed to have been destroyed in order to get to some rebar, making a spot for N to hang off. She came over to sit down on the same sofa.
‘What is that about, you need to hang upside down?’ Uzi asked and N looked up.
‘I change up how I sleep, I like them both,’ N said and Uzi looked at him.
‘I don’t remember a section of the ceiling having been missing, your handiwork?’
‘Yep,’ he perked up with a smile and flicked out his hand, it shifted around a bit under the skin.
Uzi leaned forward, making N blink a bit at how close she was.

‘Can I have a look at how you do that?’ Uzi asked.
‘At what?’ N asked confused for a moment before following her eyes to his hand.
‘At how they turn into claws.’ she clarified and N blinked again.
‘Uh,’ was the only sound that came from him as Uzi took a breath, starting to get flustered at her directnes but she couldn’t back down.
‘I’ll let you look at the railgun, even tell you anything you want to know about it or humans,’ she quickly got out, not stopping before all the words got out.

N rubbed his thumb against his index finger before slowly holding out his arm for her. Her face shone as she shuffled a bit closer. N chuckled a bit out of his nerves,
he didn’t know what to think but there shouldn’t be harm in showing.
No, there would be but he had already accepted that he was going to share information.
First he made himself more comfortable by lifting his feet off the ground and hugging against him with his other arm.
Uzi looked to his hand in expectation, trying to concentrate on it. To watch for any change or shift.

‘Can you just change it whenever?’ Uzi asked and he nodded. She came closer, now ignoring personal space once. N’s ear tips reddened as she took hold of his offered wrist.
‘So can you do it now, make them into claws?’ she asked and glanced to him, it made him jump a bit in his spot. Uzi looked back at him with a steady stare.
‘Yep, I can do that. I love doing anything, this is fine,’ N blurted out and looked down and onto his arm, something to distract being so close to someone.

He couldn’t have gone so long without someone just being close and gently holding his arm.
Something in the back of his brain silently shouted yes but he was just blaming that he woke up not that long ago on his reaction.

Uzi had been spending this time to conclude that N had to have been uncomfortable with her and let go of her grip, shuffling away a bit in her own embarrassment. More out of her behaviour than the closeness. She could argue that he was the closest she could ever get to one of them, but she had hardly asked him before doing so.

‘Sorry, can I still see it change?’ she asked after some moments of silence, her speaking seemed to have brought N from his thoughts. He flexed his fingers before holding it back out to her.
She looked at him in a grin, he was looking down to his boot tips. He didn’t need to look at his arm to make it shift, making Uzi startle as it started to change.

The area heated up at first making Uzi worried for a second before everything started to shift, his wrist widened upward from his elbow. Hand widening outward with his fingers grew out longer, becoming bone claws at the end fingertips.
N tilted his head a bit to watch her.

It was done within a few seconds, Uzi blinked down on the limb. She wasn’t even sure if she had seen correctly or not what she had expected for the process.
More blood, bone slitting its way out of skin like some sort of grotesque monsters growth? Maybe.
The area heating up and expanding from within itself. Not really.

‘Does it hurt when you do that?’ Uzi asked and N shrugged a bit with his other shoulder.
‘I think it used to, must have gotten used to it. Don’t really think about it much anymore,’ N said and continued to watch her as she overlooked his hand and he gave his fingers a bit of a flex, seeing her flinch a bit but tilted her head in fascination.
‘Dude,’ Uzi breathed and glanced at him. ‘This is so sick.’ She let out a laugh and overlooked his arm with more excitement. She looked over and lost her smile, she was a bit worried by what she found. She expected something, nervousness or embarrassment.

Not N being completely still. Just staring at her in some mix of disbelief and worry, most of the emotion clashing and him looking rather blank. But his eyes were rather telling.
‘You alright, I feel like you have hardly even taken a breath?’ Uzi asked with a raised eyebrow, she loosened her hold on his wrist. Giving it a little pat with one hand.

‘Have you-,’ Uzi started in worry but decided to change her sentence, hoping that he could hear her. ‘People haven’t treated you good huh? This really is cool to me, really.’ Uzi checked him over and took a small breath. ‘Um, sorry I haven’t ever done this before or be very good at it. You can hear me right?’
A small nod came from N and Uzi gave her own back.
‘Cool, cool,’ she said and bite her lip, restarted to give his hand a pat.
‘I wanna hang out more after this, I know someone that would be perfect to be friends with if you wanted. Real chill dude, sure he would be willing to hang out as well,’ she was saying with a light chuckle.

N pulled his hand away in panic.
The movement had been fast, so fast that Uzi barely registered that something had brushed by her hand.
‘You two don’t have to met any time soon, don’t worry,’ she said quickly. But N was shaking his head and shuffled away a bit.

‘Listen to me Uzi, this is a bad idea,’ N started, he looked at his hand before it morphed right back into a hand. He grabbed hold off it with his other hand. ‘We shouldn’t even be talking to each other, I am still meant to be breaking into your home and kill everyone inside. I think its soon too.’ N stood a bit and wandered out into the living room space, his tail didn’t stop moving with his thoughts. Uzi followed the tip as it flicked about with her eyes.

‘I can hurt you, rather easily,’ he said and turned to her, looking down to her hand only then did she look down to find a cut there under her index finger. Just starting to bleed along the line, not particularly deep as it was the result of a light graze as N had pulled away earlier.

Looking at the cut should have made her cautious but instead anger flashed through her.
‘No, you listen to me,’ Uzi snapped out and stood, N jumped back from the act and became nervous as she glared at him. ‘You can always choose not to do this.’ Uzi stepped forward in a stomp, closing up her fist and barely registering the pain as fury circulated.
‘Since you are so willing to continue then at least give me as much info as I need to defend against the attack.’ Uzi took another step forward and N backed into the other sofa, falling back into it.
A rather cometic situation from the outside as he could only stare up.

‘You are either going to help me or you should just kill me now, make sure none of this is a problem for you and I don’t have to worry about everyone else. So do it,’ she growled and took steps forward, trapping N into place as she got closer.
‘What's your problem?’ she snapped out. ‘I am trying to keep those bastards alive, and I know you aren’t evil or something. I was just trying to help before.’ She stared him down from his spot he could see the start of tears fall. Out of what N could only guess as stress cause he had never heard of anger tears.

N blinked after it all, his hands had come together some time ago but they just held the other. He watched her as she looked him over. She hadn’t seemed to notice the tears yet.
‘Uzi,’ he asked carefully, he wanted to both speak and seal his mouth closed to be quiet. ‘Are you alright?’ He managed at last.
‘Yes,’ Uzi snapped back before taking a quick breath, looking away in guilt. ‘No.’ She paused for a second. ‘I don’t know.’ She admitted and backed up before she fell back on her sofa, letting her head fall back as she looked up at the ceiling.
‘I need this to work,’ she groaned out, covering her face. ‘But I feel like I don’t even want to be there anymore.’ She noticed that her face was wet and trying to quickly wipe them up.

N made a noise of thought before she pushed herself up to look at him.
‘At the same time, I want to be right and I want to be making weapons cause I would guess that there are more then the three of you so future fights to worry about but I have never fought anyone before. Like fighting with you was disgusting, and I don’t understand what happened before with you. You probably don’t even like me or want to help me fight you all off.’

N scolded himself mentally for a brief second before deciding to speak.
‘I don’t want to,’ he spoke out, barely getting the words out. Worried about being heard by someone else. Uzi looked at him in confusion. ‘Kill everyone in the bunker, I like being here but I don’t know what happens if we fail and we never have before.’
N obviously wanted to say more so Uzi bit her tongue for the moment.
‘I want to have friends,’ N spoke out, sure of himself before slumping a bit. ‘But I know something worse than being alone will happen if the others find out, I don’t want that. But can we even try to be friends, what happens after we fail and you survive, I am sure we would be stuck here continuously trying to get in.’

Uzi hummed a bit.
‘Then at least you would be able to stay I suppose, would give us more time to get to know each other and stop these shity talks,’ Uzi spoke out and N raised an eyebrow. ‘Come on we both know that what just happened was a wreck.’
Uzi let out a quick yell, throwing her arms upwards in s huff.
‘What am I doing complaining like a baby about home and what I want to do, you’re the one that just had some sort of panic attack or something.’ She started to go for her bag, getting up to where she had left it. N would have argued the panic attack point if he hadn’t been instantly interested in what she was doing.

‘I told you I got something for you, I didn’t want to come here empty handed.’ Uzi spoke up.
Uzi started pulling out books from her bag.
‘You brought me books?’ he asked before he practically crawled to hang over the edge of the sofa, over where she was on the ground. His tail twisted about as his eyes were wide. Uzi chuckled a bit as she glanced over.
‘I mean, if you want to understand my vampire references. I also included other monster stories in case, tell me if anything clicks,’ she said and she hummed.
‘Just checking real quick, are you a vampire?’ she asked and looked over as she gathered the books in hand. N shrugged a bit.
‘No idea, no I don’t think so,’ he answered and Uzi huffed a bit before handing the first stack over, N took it with a grin to start looking the covers over.
‘I wasted some time on it all but nothing came up, everything you got is so mixed up,’ she sighed and gathered together the second smaller pile.

Uzi decided to go back to her questioning, she came back with books in hand. To put them down next to N.
‘So what do you actually do all night, since no one gets caught out what humans are even out here for you three?’
‘Others come on a main trail just a while into the forest, just past the thick of it all, otherwise not much to be honest,’ N answered as he was distracted reading the back of a book. Uzi grinned a bit before a frown came in.
‘So people could be visiting but you all have killed them coming in here?’ she asked, N shook his head.
‘They are all out past the forest, none of them have ever even come into the area, we would have noticed by now,’ N said and blinked, taking a second before looking to her. ‘There is a town nearby if you didn’t know that, well it would be a long walk for you all but about an hour's flight for us. I have only been there once but V has gone with her more.’
‘Damn they just keep you out of all the fun huh?’ Uzi asked and N shrugged.
‘They have said that I wasn’t good at blending in,’ he said and Uzi rolled her eyes.
‘You know the more you tell me about them, the less I like them. At least I won’t feel bad when I blast them, I should be a better shot by then,’ Uzi said and N looked over about to say something but stopped himself in worry and when Uzi started to wander the area.

Uzi looked around the place with a nod.
‘This place is way better than being stuck in a stuffy classroom, I just wish we could actually go somewhere,’ she said and looked out the window to the light, N understood the feeling. ‘I can’t even find out if it would be cloudy till I am out and a walk along the shade for you or into a building doesn’t sound all that exciting with what little time I have.’
Uzi huffed and placed her hands on her hips, looking back to N.
‘Ugh, maybe I should stay the night out here,’ she said and N stiffened before hardening his gaze on her.
‘No,’ he practically shouted and Uzi jumped, glaring at him before seeing his worry. ‘No, that's a bad idea, you wouldn’t be able to go anywhere without one of them being able to find you. V can track scent and J could spot you from streets away.’
‘Okey fine, it's a bad idea,’ Uzi said and N sighed out in relief.
‘Don’t come out here at night, I don’t always stay in the area,’ N said and Uzi nodded with a sigh.
‘If the other two weren’t such an issue,’ she huffed, with nothing else to do she wandered back and joined N on the other side of his sofa.

The silence was nice for a time.
At least N thought so till he could feel Uzi’s leg start bouncing, giving away the fake calm laid back lounge that she had going.
N looked over at Uzi, he had put the stack of books together before turning to her.
‘Uzi, do you want to talk about why you are here?’ N asked and her grip tightened on the cushioning below her hands. ‘Not that I don’t enjoy us sitting in silence but I think you need to and I am not going to be telling anyone about it if that's what you were worried about.’

‘Please, I need to go soon and I am not going to waste it talking about myself,’ Uzi answered, she crossed her arms and tried to push herself further back into cushioning back.
N waited. Sitting himself back a bit to get comfortable.
Considering he had little experience in comforting people, he could only wait in hopes Uzi would lead.

And she would with an exhale.
‘Just stupid school annoying me, if I was allowed to do what I wanted then I could already be spending class time on learning about gun engineering.’
N smiled a bit in encouragement, looking back to her to give his attention.
‘Around this time of the year we are meant to be getting ready to leave school, to be training in what jobs we want. Finding our place sort of thing. I am still in the class with the deadbeats since I am not allowed to restart a section of manufacturing cause I am meant to have a teacher but there are none left to teach me.’ She started to rant, some of this N had definitely heard but most of it was new. ‘I want the respect, people to listen to my ideas after all this time but.’
N waited, her mind catching up with what she had said.
‘But, being outside. Just building together something from parts out here just seems much more exciting than sitting inside trying to get everyone's attention. It's peaceful, quiet and nothing has annoyed me out here, not even you.’
N tilted his head a bit.
‘Thank you?’ he said and Uzi smiled a bit, nodding with it.
‘It really is good, I wouldn’t have visited today. I guess I would have just explored since I know the city is safe in the day.’

‘Well as long as you didn’t find our ship,’ N said with a nervous laugh and Uzi stared at him. He stopped and blinked. ‘Yes?’
‘Did you just say a ship?’ she asked with narrowed eyes. N nodded. ‘Like one on water or, one that can fly?’
‘One that flies, or it used to before getting stuck in a building,’ N said and blushed a bit but Uzi didn’t notice as her jaw dropped, jumping up to move with a shot of excitment.
‘Like those old world flying ships, one that could go anywhere in the world?’ Uzi asked and turned to him to answer with a nod. ‘Oooh I wanna see it.’ She said and came closer to him. ‘I need to, can you sneak me in?’
‘And practically give you to the other two, no,’ N said and Uzi groaned.
‘The one time I will ever get to see one,’ she complained, N distracted himself a bit with the sofa edge.
‘Did you say it's stuck in a building?’ Uzi asked and N blinked and stilled a bit. ‘What happened?’
‘It, uh, crashed,’ N said and looked away a bit, Uzi didn’t miss it but left that for later.
‘Can it fly again, or is it destroyed?’
‘It's mostly still intact,’ N started with and glanced back. ‘We don’t know how to fix it but we also can’t move it out, its sort of stuck between building levels.’

Uzi admitted defeat and went back to her seat, flopping down on it. Ignoring the little bit of dust that had kicked up.
‘Fine, no free ship it is. It's near the spot where we almost walked back to it when we first met, isn't it?’
N nodded and Uzi let out a noise.
‘If I ever find myself in the area, I guess I will have to ignore it,’ she said and let her head drop back.

It was back to silence after that, N was looking ahead as Uzi looked up. But silence didn’t suit her at the moment.
‘Since I talked about my wants and dreams before, what about you?’ She asked and N looked over in question. ‘If you were human and weren’t doing this whole bunker breaking in, murder thing, what would you want to do?’ Uzi dared to ask.
N looked down.
‘Nothing, I don’t have anything I am good at,’ he said and Uzi hummed sadly. The mood only broken as a large yawn attempted to rip from N’s lungs, he did his best to suppress it.

‘N, you should go back to sleep,’ Uzi said and N hummed unsure. ‘I have probably been here too long anyway.’
‘Doesn’t matter, I don’t know if I would even be able to wake up at nightfall now but at least I got something to pass the time,’ he said and lifted a book, waving it a bit.
‘I suppose if I want to live I better go before being locked out,’ Uzi said with a roll of her eyes, N nodded to it.

They started to get up slowly, Uzi going to her bag and put that, and her lonely gun on her back. The poor thing had been left alone the whole time. She was adjusting her shoulder straps as N came over.

‘I’ll see you later, this time on saturday, I need to figure out something first so I won’t just drop by like today. For your sake,’ Uzi was saying and N heard most of it but then he came forward without thinking, wrapped his arms around and wrapped her in a hug. Uzi froze for a second before realising what was happening.
‘Hey, hey, let go,’ she snapped out and he pulled away in a second.
‘I’m so sorry I-,’ N started before Uzi held out a hand, making him freeze.
‘Save it, it's fine just don’t go making that a habit. I am not a fan of them,’ she said and N backed up while he hugged himself, laughing in some sort of nervous tick.
‘Yeah, no I understand,’ he was saying and rubbing his arm. ‘I can walk you back if you want, as a sorry.’
‘You already said so, no, I’ll be fine besides you’ll be blind by the time you go back,’ Uzi was saying and looked to the door. ‘I’ll just go.’

N watched the door close behind Uzi, he stood here a bit longer as he kept replaying the moment. It had been a reflex, he should have thought about whether she would have been comfortable at all. He let his arms drop with a sigh, heading originally to the sofa but he spotted the book pile and his feet pivoted to the bedroom. Getting to it and dropped forward on it, it was more stiff with age but the discomfort was appropriate. He grabbed at his hair with a groan, at his own stupidity. There he wouldn’t get much sleep but he would only be there till night.

Uzi had gotten out into the stairwell before letting out a long sigh. The hug at least hadn’t been the worst but it had been unexpected. As long as he didn’t try again. She just started on the way down.
At some point on decent did she remember about her finger cut, she looked down at her hand to see if it needed any first aid once she got home. To her surprise there was hardly a cut left, a thin barely visible line was in place. Like a healed wound just fresh of its scab. She kept checking the mark as she headed to the bunker, forgetting about it for a time as she snuck around.

Before bed she would look again and find no mark there at all, much to her confusion and worry.

Chapter Text

When N got up for the night there was a feeling of want, the want to know things and there was plenty he didn’t know.

He could read through the books of Uzi’s for answers but why do that when he can be far more direct to find out what he was. 

If the tail and claws was anything to go off he wasn’t human but a look into a mirror told him he was rather close. Sure his ears were a bit more pointed, plus the larger canines but cover them both and no one could tell. As well as ignoring the albinism, his red eyes in particular. 

Fixing his hat into place on top of his head had him as ready as he could be to leave, he dusted off his coat as he went highly aware he needed to change clothing some time soon. He hadn’t had a shower in a bit but the water tanks also needed to be filled soon. N barely opened the balcony door to look out, leaning on the railing with a sigh. He had hardly gotten anywhere and he was already tired, but a rumble came to his stomach to remind him he also needed to eat. 

He had to jump over the rail edge to get started on the night. 

A direct flight over the rooftops and N headed for the ship. Landing into the building with repeated ease and his complete attention.

N walked up the steps slowly, listening out for the inside. Everything was quiet except for the scrubbing from a chained Lance in the hallway, there was humming coming from J’s room so N took time to try to eat something. Sitting on the ground in front of the cabinet, as he went through for the quickest and easiest way to eat. A few pieces of meat and that was really it without having to make noise. 

It was all he could do for the time, he could just go looking for cans as the next best thing when he was free to search buildings like he normally did. 

Next thing was to face J, he dusted himself off more. Trying to met some sort of standard before quickly giving up to head for his room to change. Having to side step through Lance’s work, the man deflated a bit and N whispered an apology. 

He wasn’t washed clean but it should do for a quick fix. It was time to face J, he shuffled past Lance again as the man just waited for him to pass. N gave a quick wave before getting just to J’s open door.

Questions are dangerous, they are in theory fine to be asked but not if the question is the wrong one to be asking. Which in itself is a problem, not knowing what can’t be asked. N slumped a bit in the doorway. 

He took the step into the doorway to look in, J was in a good mood as she hummed to herself while she brushed her drying hair. He timed it perfectly. After she had gotten out of the bath, distracted for a bit and happy. 

It didn’t last long as she stopped and N saw her stare through the mirror in front of her. 

‘What?’ she asked and N tried not to hide himself behind the wall.

‘Can I ask you about something?’ he asked, glancing away as she stared at him more. 

‘Will it make you leave me alone?’ she asked and N nodded. J exhaled, willing to deal with him for a bit.

She stood, N looked up in worry. More so as she walked over, he made sure to look at her face as she hadn’t bothered to wrap around her towel. She didn’t take kindly to people staring further down, whether it was on purpose or not. She also did it more around him as if it was a test. Not like he got anything out of it personally but she found it to be harmless fun, to watch him squirm when he made sure to look at her face.

J stopped at the doorway in front of him, she placed a hand down on its frame and stared up at him. 

‘What?’ she asked and N took a breath. 

‘What are we called?’ he asked and J frowned, partly out of confusion. 

‘What do you mean?’ 

‘Like, a species. We hunt humans but what are we called?’ N asked, J didn’t expect something like that but her eyes soon narrowed. 

‘Why do you ask?’ she asked as she watched him. 

He was easy to read, so much that it was laughable but his nervousness was good for masking a lot of it. Hard to know when he is lying when he starts nervous at the first question. 

‘I, uh,’ he started and leaned against the frame, his eyes looked away from her and into the room. ‘I found a book.’ 

J looked at him a bit more, he could start running his mouth. 

And he did as he took in a quick breath.

‘It was about myths from the old world, and I know we aren’t human so I was wondering what we are and why we are here killing them.’

‘Why does it matter?’ J asked and N looked at her, she lifted her head a bit. ‘We aren’t human, we are better than them. Above them. That is all that matters, besides,’ J said and she crossed her arms. ‘Why would any of their stupid myths mean anything?’ 

N was looking at her but thoughts were circling around his head, J raised an eyebrow and brought up a hand to click fingers in front of his face. It was enough to jolt him out of his mind to focus on her properly. 

‘You can ask Tessa when we get back if you really want to,’ J said and N froze for a second. ‘She would love to talk about us.’ 

J sighed, she was at the end of her willingness to entertain this conversation. 

‘N, all you need to know is that we have a job,’ she said and leaned forward. ‘You don’t even need to think about it, just do what you are told. You do it perfectly fine so far, don’t go weird about this all now.’ 

‘Yeah but.’ N spoke out in a break of desperation. She sent him a glare and his mouth shut. 

‘N get out, we aren’t talking about this,’ she said carefully, N closed his eyes and pulled himself away. J got the door to slide closed on him. He opened his eyes to look at his vague reflection in the worn metal. 

He sighed out. 

N felt eyes on him, he looked over to Lance, who was meant to be scrubbing at the floor but the man was leaning against a wall while looking at N. 

Clearly wanting to say something but they both knew it wasn’t smart with J nearby, even with the door closed. Lance seemed to have been thinking about something before looking away, turning back to the mindless work. 

Scrubbing away without any real care.

N nodded to himself. He could just leave now, J was probably too annoyed to give him anything to do. 

“ At least I got a free night. ” he thought and turned to walk out. 

Free to read the mountain of books, maybe start committing to bringing down all his belongings to the apartment. 

N was about to take off if he didn’t hear the income of wings and he jumped aside before V came in for a landing. Just missing him as she slid into a stop. 

‘Yo,’ she called out into the ship. N internally sighed, he had been so close to get away before she had returned. He recognized her excited shuffle on her toes, she had found a group of humans. 

He was likely not noticed and could have slid out before J got to the doorway, but he left that far too late as J came to the door in a glare. Having gotten mostly dressed in lounge wear, 

N just squatted down by the entrance as V huffed. 

‘Humans, I am doing my job like you oh so want,’ she said and J grinned. 

‘Finally,’ she hummed and spotted N. ‘Why don’t you ever find anything useful?’ she hissed out and turned without an answer. ‘V, lock up the mop while I finish up.’ 

V groaned but followed after, N just stayed in place. 

There was a reason N never found any humans because he was tasked with surveillance at the best of times, or mostly left to wander. Uzi had been a surprise.

V had far more to do then him, arguably he should be tasked with looking outside as he suspected that V had something wrong with her vision. Being an ongoing issue that N had noticed for a time. 

He didn’t really have time to dwell on it as both of them came out in excitement. 

The three of them overlooked the new camp, they were set up on a tree in the same way they had been last week.

‘Oh, how interesting. The rats seems to be wanting to make new nests,’ J spoke out with a smirk. The group below was far larger, with several fires. A group that was out to move to a new area, migrating for some reason. 

‘Ugh, why can’t you just talk normally?’ V hissed out and shook the tree a bit. 

‘Because, we are better than normal scum. You talk just like your pets, you are far better than them,’ J turned and opened her wings in anger. V just rolled her eyes. 

That seemed to set of J far more than anything that V could have said. 

N looked up in worry. 

‘You ungrateful worm,’ J practically growled, as she turned on V, growing in her claws

N swallowed all his resolve.

‘Would me capturing another help?’ N asked out, and he dodged back as a tail stuck into the tree near where his head would have been. 

‘Don’t bud in,’ J hissed and looked down, she used the end of her tail to point towards him to make the point. ‘Why not make me happy and you get a pet of your own?’ 

N looked up at her in a frown as she poked into his chest, she glared down as he looked up. 

V looked between this, she groaned out and made them both look at her. 

‘Are we still going to be sitting here talking for much longer or can we go kill?’ she asked and J finally looked back, pulling her tail away and N watched it in case. 

‘Yes whatever, I can’t even be bothered managing another. Just leave some of them alive. I want to make sure the bunker plan is still going to work,’ she said and squared her shoulders. ‘Make sure none get away.’ 

V jumped from the tree right away, part way through J finishing her last sentence. 

‘That little,’ J hissed and followed after. The tree top shook as N grabbed hold of the trunk to avoid falling, it took so much time that the start of screaming began below. N followed once he was steady to do so.

V was efficient to rush the group, landing down on a few grouped together before rushing at the others without a thought. Heading around the outskirts of the camp, breaking through tents and making them rush towards the middle. Where J landed down on the main group, many of them panicked with only some reaching for knifes. 

J just rolled her eyes before flicking her tail to the crowd, using her tail to spray out onto them all. A bright yellow liquid that mostly went out in a spray, but some of it fell as heavy droplets. 

They recoiled, going to rush to get out but many of them stumbled to the ground starting to choke on their own destroyed lungs trying to yell out in pain. At least the ones that got the full blast. 

The ones in the back of the group only got a bit and became disoriented. Making them unable to move further away after falling to their knees, also grasping at their throats but it was all simply a reaction that was causing all sorts of problems. Starting at airway inflammation and affecting sight with a slow agonising burn. 

J looked at the group with a passing glance, she shook the tip of her tail. Want almost looked like she was shaking the contents of her tail, the normally yellow sections in the tail shifting hue to a white. 

N hand finally got to work on the other side of the camp, stopping a group from running out into the forest. A few were cut down in a swipe and that made the group turn tail, running for escape right by J. Who flicked out ahead of the group and sprayed out a white mist that they ran into. It had a far different job, as people scrambled out. Some getting away a bit before becoming confused and crashing into each other, some had simply falling to their knees and stumbled continuously to attempt to get up. 

J looked at N as he started to simply gather up a few of them that got away from the group. Bringing them back, V was still cleaning up and J nodded with satisfaction. Overlooking the bloody field she left N to baby sit the group, she only needed them but went looking for someone else. 

J found what she was looking for soon into the bloody bodies. 

Coming across one woman that V had attacked, not well enough as she hadn’t killed her. Only left her in several cuts, none deep enough to kill maybe bleed out in a few hours.

J might as well use it to her advantage. The woman was awake and starting to try to drag herself, unaware of J looking down on her. 

J sat down on her back, making the woman jump in a panic before trying to defend herself by covering the back of her neck. 

J ignored that as she went searching into her coat. Finding a little vial, the woman had stilled out of fright. Didn’t matter as J unscrewed the top, and let it it drip down onto the scratch that was on the woman’s shoulder. With that J got up while closing the small container, she made sure it was away before looking down on the woman in thought. J raised a foot before bringing right down on the wound and making it bleed, increasing the blood circulation.

The woman hissed out in pain but she did what she needed before taking hold of a leg to start dragging the woman back to the main group. Weakly she had tried to stop herself but soon gave up. 

‘N go find us food, they must have something worth,’ J called out and N looked at the woman for a moment before nodded. He walked away but glanced back at the woman with a worried look. 

‘Cry baby,’ J muttered and over looked the drugged out group, most of them just sat in a spot and stared off to something; hands, trees or sky. Their eyes blown out, J had time till they came out of it so she grew in her claws and got to work making sure they won’t run after it wore off. The back of the ankles would work. 

Time was wasted that night, normally J would like to leave soon after dealing with humans but having to watch the one for a reaction was starting to annoy her. At least the ones that had been drugged up had started to come down, coming to a realisation on what had happened. V taunted the ones that were aware, teasing them with claw ends poking into them. 

N tried to keep J happy, coming back with containers of things to ask if she wanted it. It kept some boredom away, sniffing at unlabeled things and throwing some of it away that smelt off or odd. 

V had taken to going through the personal belongings of the group, making a general mess of things as N continued to fill bags of food. If they take everything back then it would be a couple months till they would need to go looking for anything else. 

J watched group start to fret over the woman and her injuries, J was starting to worry. Not only was there no reaction, she was starting to get weaker with time. Having spoken to others in low voices but now having gone to sleep.

V was getting bored and came to J, with her hands on her hips. 

‘Hey, what are we wasting time here for?’ she hissed out and J flashed her a glare. 

‘Our plan seems to be having problems, we aren’t going till I see if our bunker plan still works,’ J responded with and V narrowed her eyes before glancing off to the group. 

‘And what is your plan if it doesn’t?’ V asked and J turned completely to glare at V. ‘Just saying.’ 

‘Then we will break in ourselves, I am sure you will be happy with using our own claws for the job,’ J said and stood, V just had the height on her to be taller then J but she did slump a bit naturally while J stood up straight. V rolled her eyes at the display. 

‘Didn’t we already try that, we just going waste how long on trying to melt down the metal,’ V said and J crossed her arms, leaning up close to V. 

‘We are going to do it no matter what, we need to get in there,’ J hissed and V glanced away in disinterest. 

‘Oh, lucky you,’ V hummed out and J looked over to the group of humans. ‘We still don’t have a way in for this.’ V left once she said that, headed away. Going to the carriage that N had been at. 

Strangely smelling blood as she came closer, glancing in she found N licking his own hand. On the ground the shattered glass of some container that had some pickling. V slipped away before he would have noticed her, waiting up against the outside to watch the coming drama. 

‘Finally something to watch,’ she called out and that got N’s attention from inside, coming out a bit to look out. He still nursed the injured hand, some of the glass had dug in deep. 

‘Hey,’ came the scared voice of one of the ones captured. N looked over as the group all seemed to be panicking over something. ‘Somethings wrong.’ 

J looked over from her spot with a smile, chuckling a bit to herself. 

‘Good, means it still works,’ she hummed and the group just seemed more worried. Even more as the woman seemed to spasm a bit, J was too distracted to see V and N. 

Both of them divided from the other by the cloth wall of the cart.

N flinched a bit, hiding himself back a bit in worry. Leaving him with one eye to look out to watch. 

V watched in discomfort, it looked like a smile on her face but the hands that she used to cross her hands had started to shake. Staring at it all with an unwavering glare. 

The changing woman had started to groan, blood coming out of her mouth as the group had put her on her side. Fingers dug into the ground as her skin started to whiten in patches. The ones in front were trying to talk to her, asking what was wrong. 

The woman was obviously in pain as she started to curl in on herself, twisting onto her front as she ended up down on her knees but still in a curl. Her fingers continued to dug a hole into the ground. 

She was well hidden in place, people coming closer in worry. 

Then like a string came forward a hand coming out of the ground with far longer fingers then before with the ends with claws. At least J knew what had happened, to the poor people there. A hand went through the first person in a blur before the woman came forward for the others neck. Biting into the side of it in a animalisic fury, Growling out that gurgled as blood filled up her mouth.

J nodded in satisfaction. Turning to the two of them. Ignoring the screaming that started and soon cut off as the changed woman turned on and cut off the sound.

‘Finally we can leave, get these bags back,’ she said and came walking over with a sigh. ‘Happy to say it still works.’ She stopped as she saw N hiding a bit. 

‘Oh please, you have seen this before. I thought you had grown N,’ she huffed and found one of the smaller bags to take, V had turned away and was fixing two bags in her hands. Looking like she was testing the weight. 

N glanced off behind before J stepped into his sight again, particularly cutting off the sight behind her. It couldn’t cut off the crying and pleading, or a large crunch of some bone. 

‘Its been a while J,’ N could only say and J came closer to grab hold of his front before pulling him out. 

‘Then get moving, you're lucky that I don’t want to waste more time otherwise I would make you stay here and watch,’ J hissed and let him go with a dismissive wave. ‘Move it, get this stuff back if you don’t want that.’ J pushed him towards the pile near V. N stumbled a bit but started to go for some. 

Something did take his attention, as he glanced over at V. She had quickly rubbed at her eye before opening up her wings to take off. It hadn’t been a clean take off but she got away before J took off behind N. 

Leaving him with a few seconds of looking at the group, finding that one of them had managed to crawl towards where he was. Clearly begging for help. 

N looked at the stranger's face before back at the others, many were already dead with the one at N’s feet being one of the last ones. Reaching out for him.

He sucked in a breath and jumped up into flight, too worried about J still being close or watching him. 

When he was in the air he was proven right, as J turned and headed off ahead of him. N didn’t look back and just shifted the weight in his arms for the flight back.

N had landed with a strain in his arms, coming in as he heard J already complaining to V. 

‘You can’t just eat it right away,’ she yelled out and V giggled inside, jumping to the side on the dining tables bench as J tried to grab a string of sausages in her hands. V just took another bite with a shiteating grin, N came in with the bags he had and J turned on him. 

‘Just put everything away,’ she snapped, so clearly agitated by V that N could only blink. She turned back with a growl as he went for the kitchen counters.

‘And you, go deal with clean up before daytime,’ J spoke out and V glared down. 

‘What,’ she hissed and J smirked. 

‘We are not dealing with N again so soon, just do it,’ J ordered and walked off, V stomped a foot after her, throwing the sausage string on the table but turned and rushed out. 

N had stopped in his spot, hearing everything he waited till he heard both J’s door close and V’s take off. Only to let his head fall forward, falling against the edge of the cabinet. Letting a breath he felt that he had been holding in since before leaving the camp. Leaving the humans with that thing. She shook his head through, not letting himself stop to think. Not yet. 

He just had to finish putting everything away before he’ll just leave. 

It wasn’t till he was back at the apartment that he let himself think about what had happened. Having stopped on the balcony before even entering the apartment. Thinking about the bunker, Spreaders/zombies, and N’s only job to let it all happen. He had leaned out on his arms, just looking out onto the surrounding area. 

‘Uzi,’ he huffed out looking down on the pink lines of his hand, barely visible by the time and it would be gone by the time he got up again. The sun was starting to come up, but N was not in mind set to sleep yet. His tail hadn’t stopped moving behind him and he rubbed one thumb against the other. 

‘I could take her to the closest village,’ he spoke out, lifting his head a bit but soon dropped it down. ‘Is that kidnapping, even if I don’t keep her here?’ he pushed away from the rail and started pacing. ‘Yes, of course.’ He confirmed with himself. ‘But she would be safe and away, she wouldn’t know how to get back and so safe.’ He flinched in himself. ‘She would hate me. But safe. Well safe enough if J doesn’t chance upon her and we will destroy that too after the bunker.’ 

He bit at his lip, a dangerous thing to do as his canine already started to hurt against the inner thin skin of his mouth. 

‘I don’t need to do anything right away, I am sure I have time. She seems reasonable to talk to… to figure something out.’ 

He looked inside, coming into the doorway with some sort of new worry. It gnawed at the back of his head and only had one thing to really distract himself with. He glanced off to the stack of books Uzi had brought him, still in place on the sofa. 

He can avoid thinking about issues by reading and reorganising the place with his things from upstairs the next few days. Things will figure themself out, won't they?

Chapter Text

Uzi had spent the days bothering Ava, the woman wasn’t pleased that she was just showing up. Letting herself into the guild warehouse with not so much as a knock and walking to the work areas. It was mostly fine if Ava was even around, otherwise the others in the room tried to ignore her. Eventually Ava would show up to deal with her, sometimes she knew what time Uzi would show up and sat in wait by the door.

‘What are you doing here?’ Ava asked in anger when Uzi pushed her way through the scavenger guild door. Ava had been waiting there and right on time did Uzi push in.
‘I just wanted to ask something real quick. Have any of you gotten phones to work outside?’ Uzi asked and that seemed to cause some sort of misfire in the woman’s head, she was quick to recover.
‘What, no,’ Ava said and Uzi huffed a bit. ‘First off, its well out of the range of anything down here and second we don’t have any working infrastructure outside for it to work. What are you trying to do?’
‘Making myself useful, I get this to work and you all listen to me,’ Uzi said and Ava raised an eyebrow.
‘You’re wastin’ your time,’ the woman huffed before leaning up against the doorway. ‘We have asked for it in the past, there used to be one but that was damaged so long ago that no one wanted to go out there to fix it.’
Uzi perked up.
‘Wait really, well I can get it fixed. Just tell me where,’ she said and Ava paused to look at her, it took so long that Uzi waved her hand in front of the woman.

‘Whatever, work on this then. I’ll even find you the old plans and you can knock yourself out working on that,’ Ava said with a chuckle to herself. ‘Get this to work and I’ll give you a spot in here right away.’
‘You’re being serious, just for something like that?’ Uzi asked, standing up straight in suspicion.
‘You would be hella useful, if you can do that then why don’t you join the smarter parts of the colony. Hell, maintenance with your dad would be better than here,’ Ava said.
‘Yeah, no thanks. My dad doesn’t even know I am here and I want to keep it that way,’ Uzi huffed and spun to leave. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow for the plans.’
‘Just give me your number, I might even find it tonight,’ Ave hissed out and Uzi spun with a smile, Ava knew right then that there would be no avoiding her after this point.

Ava did find the plans not a couple hours after Uzi had gone home and already started to look up older plans for towers that had been in digital storage. She had something to do, something to start getting the respect of the colony. No more hiding underground in a dying colony, they were humans not ants. Of course once Uzi could make sure that they didn’t have to worry about the very real issue of human monsters that lived in the ruins of the city then she would be a hero. Uzi pulled away from her plans to look at her railgun, leaned up against the table. Only to turn quickly back to the plans. A later problem to solve.

Uzi was rather happy for once, she should have everything to fix the tower tools wise after hours of hunting for the bits and pieces she might need from the warehouses and the back rundown factories.
She was ready to go out, to start getting things done. And all in time for her next meeting with N in a few days. Putting together an old version of a phone had been child's play, even used it as a class presentation to avoid Teacher’s bother. Much to the annoyance of the class.
After all, why talk about old phones when they have new ones or bother learning how they are made when someone else makes them. Uzi should have brought her railgun to keep them all in line.

A hiccup came along very soon after, as things were going far too well.
She came home from a sneak in from the store rooms for parts, hardly through the door as she was able to hear something cling from the direction of her room. Her gaze snapped over to her doorway. She couldn’t help but tense at seeing someone in it, faced away but it wasn't hard to tell who it was.
‘What are you doing in my room?’ Uzi snapped out and stomped forwards. Khan turned in surprise and then back at the plans in worry as he put down a random bolt, looking back and forth from her to the plans a few times before clearing his throat as he tried to think of what to say.
‘The door was still open, I saw the blueprints and got curious on what you were working on,’ he said and gave a nervous smile. ‘I see you found some of the plans for the development of the communication towers, a project for school?’ he asked and Uzi frowned a bit but nodded.
‘Sort of, it's about the colony’s history of phones. I just saw that we had plans for outside communication at some point.’
‘The ones inside are cool as well, you know getting them to work so far underground is far more impressive then the far more primitive ones for outside,’ Khan said and swung his arm with a smile.
‘I already did a project for that years ago, I would hope that you would have known since you helped me then,’ Uzi huffed and Khan froze a moment, his arm slowly coming to his side. She continued to get back on subject.

‘You still can’t just walk in here when I am not here,’ she said and Khan started to nod his head right away.
‘I know, I was going to close the door but I can’t resist,’ he said but started to side step out of the room to get out. ‘I know, you are a young lady getting ready to be an adult.’ He gave a lame chuckle but that faded rather quickly. ‘To move out. Have her own life.’ He had frozen part way out the doorway.
He shook himself out of it as Uzi started to get uncomfortable with a grimace, they were face to face by that point.
‘How is school going anyway?’ he asked with new strained hope, his foot tapped in nervousness. Uzi just shrugged.
‘Same as always, I am just looking forward to it being over,’ she said and went to her desk at last to put the backpack she had with the acquired goods on her chair.

Khan hadn’t left in that time, Uzi looked back in surprise as he was still in the doorway. Looking very much like he had something else to say. Uzi couldn’t help the sigh that came out of her as she gestured with her hands for him to continue.
‘Hahaa, you know I used to do more than just fix lightbulbs and oil the gears of the bunker doors. I could help you with this one,’ he said, it came out rather rushed as if he had been holding it in. The laugh had been abrupt, making her jump.
‘It’s been a while after all and I can’t imagine you have many other school projects, when was the last time your old man gave you a hand?’ he said, a tad more calmly.
‘The last one on the internal phone system, when I was thirteen,’ she said and slowly started to shake her head.
‘And I so don’t need that sort of help anymore, this is like ten times easier than that,’ she said and Khan’s face fell a bit. ‘You’re busy anyway.’
‘Right,’ he said slowly. ‘Busy, yep so busy keeping this colony running.’ He stood up straighter in some sort of sense of pride. ‘I’ll just leave you to it.’ He added in and started to back out. ‘If you need me then I am just a call away, I can fit you into my busy schedule,’ he said and paused, some sort of hope that the offer would be taken right away but Uzi just nodded and turned to her table.
‘Yep, when I need you,’ she just said and she didn’t see how his shoulders sagged. He backed up and nodded to himself.
‘I’ll be seeing you then,’ he said quickly and took that moment to rush away, right out the house and Uzi didn’t register it till she heard the click of the front door.
Uzi moved to her doorway to look out into the main room of the apartment, looking around as if he would just be there.
She just took a breath, stepped back and closed her room’s door.

The next morning Uzi was getting ready for a trip outside the colony, a backpack full of wires and tools. Anything that she might need for the reported repairs, she would be missing out on class but she used the excuse that she needed the time to do a big project. She didn’t even need to get into more lies out before Teacher just waved her off.
The man had been very lenient with her missing class time; she suspected that the man was more than happy for her to do as she pleased if she was building things, not that she could tell from his voice or the way he acted. He had no way to know what she was doing after all.

Uzi managed to make it into the crowd right in time with the rest of the main crowd. No one else seemed all that excited, after all it was just another day of work for most there. Uzi tried to keep her energy down but her leg bounced under her, she didn’t realise it till someone cleared their throat next to her in annoyance. She went still right away and gave a glare under her goggles. Turning back to the gates to try to will them open.
She glanced up to the large clock they had mounted to the roof for everyone’s convenience, she still had to wait a few more minutes. She glared at the doors, imagining them to open.
With a large mechanical start up it seemed to do just that, everyone in the room froze. Looking at the clock for the time and then back at the doors that started to rise at the odd early time.

She barely even had a moment to think about that before an ungodly screech rattled through the tunnel. The crowd all panicked and covered up their ears.
It went on for so long before a solid thud finished it all off, after so much noise the place fell dead silent. People slowly unfurled from their hunched positions, looking up at the doors.
Uzi opened her eyes as one of the last ones as it wasn’t till she stood back up fully that she could see that the massive doors hadn't managed to complete its opening, left partly raised. The bottom part was shorter and just needed to lower onto ground which ran on a gravity system but even that was still sticking out some with enough to climb over.

Shit.

People only then started to panic, starting to speak and getting progressively louder. Soon people started to argue with each other.
To head out or shut everything down.
Uzi was pushed forward as someone was shoved into her, she was luckily caught by someone else.

A horn was blasted out and it got everyone to pause again, commonly it was used in the colony to signal an announcement. It didn’t get much use at the gates as the old speaker glitched out the sound to the air.
Everyone turned to the raised platform that ran along one side of the open tunnel that they all stood in. The defence army was up there normally but there was now the engineers for the gates, maintenance seemed to have started to swarm the area.
Someone came up to the front with a microphone. Uzi couldn’t help but to sink down as she recognized her father up there. On the off chance he managed to spot her in the crowd she went behind someone ahead of her, she was hardly close enough but you could never be too safe.

“Hello everyone,” Khan spoke out and the sound pitched at the end, he shouldered on. “What a morning huh?’ He tried to put humour into it but the microphone sure didn’t help. “Now we are going to take a look outside and then that should be enough time to figure out what we will be doing.”
People seemed to agree out loud before the people in the front started to move, starting to head outside.
“Wait no, we aren’t all going,” Khan exclaimed but it was too late as the crowd started to push forward, everyone's interest taking control and get them outside to look for themselves. Uzi wasn’t going to miss this chance and moved forward with the crowd, only a small percentage of the crowd had stayed inside.

Climbing out, Uzi joined everyone else to get out a bit of a distance before looking up.
There on the normally perfectly flat metal looked to be a dimple inward. Metal that looked to have melted on the spot. It oddly also looked as if the bottom had dripped down a bit like wax.
People were talking among themselves, ideas that something had to have been melting at the door in the night and deforming it.
Uzi stared at the damage. It was far too smooth, unnatural for it to have been dug at. It also wasn’t what stopped the door, looking up some more seemed to show some other mass above which would have caused the stop, something bigger from the looks of the same sort of melted drip sticking out and wedged the door from being able to continue upward.

The crackle of a microphone played out continually as Khan looked up at it with his mouth opened, the crowd turned to look at him. One of his workmates elbowed into the man and made him jump, making the sound worse as he gripped the handle where the button was. He pulled it up quickly.
“Would you all just give us a moment,” he managed to get out before he rushed back inside. The crowd watched him leave and ended up looking at each other.
Uzi huffed, rolling her eyes watching him disappear. Even if his reaction made sense with him being so scared of the outside, Uzi would have thought that as a leader he should have hidden that far better.
Not several minutes later did the crackle of the microphone start again.
“We will continue today's operations, by the time you all return then a full plan will be done for the next few days’s operation.” The voice was someone else's, with it however seemed to be the sign that everyone needed to start their days. The crowd dispersed but some did return inside regardless.
Uzi stood in place for a second to think, her eyes came back up to the melted metal.

Uzi told herself she was going to go do her job, to go and fix the tower right away.
But why wait for answers, she could get locked underground for the rest of her life after returning tonight.

*

The trip to the apartments had been a blur. Uzi was going up the stairs before she realised it.
‘N!’ Uzi yelled up the stairwell, she still had a few levels to climb. But it was the only warning that he would get as her breath was starting to go ragged from her rush.
She didn’t really have a plan or any proof that N’s group had even done anything.
She was up on the level only for it to all press into her.

Uzi had to take a moment to breathe otherwise she was going to break down the door and faint in the doorway.
She managed to hear the squeak of the door to the floor, looking over as N’s reflective eyes seemed to show through as he looked out.
He went to close it again in a yelp only for Uzi to shove her boot in the gap before it closed. There she continued to catch her breath.
‘Uzi?’ N asked from behind the door in an attempt to sound surprised. ‘What brings you here?’ A very bad attempt to sound surprised. Uzi pushed against the door but it didn’t budge. ‘You weren’t supposed to be here for another two days.’
‘The hell did you do, what happened to our door? They almost didn’t let us go for the day, we could be in lock down tomorrow. How did you all melt metal?’ Uzi was out of breath again by the end and hit weakly against the door with a fist.
N was quiet for a moment.
‘You all noticed finally?’ he could only ask and Uzi glared up at the door, she couldn’t yell yet till she got a drink of water. ‘Does that mean none of you will leave, that you won’t be here in a couple days?’ She had time to breathe, the way he said it at least made her think.

‘What are you even doing awake?’ she managed to ask and she heard him sigh on the other side, the door handle had been let go and it naturally opened out into the stairwell.
‘I couldn’t sleep anyway, I knew you would notice it soon enough and then I heard the noise. Normally the gates just rumbled but it screamed, if I had been asleep then it would have woken me up eitherway.’
Uzi opened the door to find N against a wall, sitting down on the ground.
‘Imagine what it would have sounded like inside, I would have thought that if you three tried to get in it would be with claws. N, how do you melt metal?’
N himself didn’t really move to get up or look at her, he looked ashamed and Uzi couldn’t understand why.
His tail lifted up to show itself.
‘Your tail?’ she asked and looked down on it, in the gloom there did seem to be something glowing under it all. Something close to a yellow, just under the skin of a mass that sat above the sharp stinger. N looked to his surroundings, some small table that had to be decoration. His tail twisted around and pressed into the flat wood with the stinger tip, there was a moment before a spurt hit the material and the tail moved away as the material started to be eaten away. Burning a hole in the wood. N was silent, watching it eat away before Uzi turned on him.

‘You tried to stab me when we fought,’ Uzi spoke up in accusation and glared over but she dropped it as he seemed to avoid looking at her. ‘And that can melt metal, are you all going to do it again?’
‘In a couple days, J doesn’t like how slow it was going but we don’t know of any other ways in,’ he said.
‘How long have you been trying to melt the doors?’ Uzi asked and N started to count some fingers.
‘Two weeks, but we had stopped after the first try. The second time, last night, she wouldn’t let us leave unless it was to work on that, she really wants to get in soon. I think she is getting in trouble with back home.’
‘We have known each other for just over that time, N when were you going to tell me?’ Uzi asked and N blinked.
‘I didn’t think she would try again,’ he just answered with. ‘That we wouldn’t be able to get through and none of you seemed to notice the first try.’

‘Well that answers that,’ Uzi sighed and brushed back her hair from her face. ‘Still a lot of time before getting through even if you tried everyday, that door is rather thick but it freaked everyone out.’
‘I am sorry,’ N spoke out and Uzi didn’t manage to stop the sigh that came out.
‘Don’t, you didn’t exactly get time to warn me,’ Uzi said. ‘Which is why I was even going out here today works in our favour, I fix a tower and I even brought the phone that is meant to be for you to test. I’ll go do that and leave it here afterwards and we should be able to talk without this long wait between visits.’
‘I can come with you,’ N spoke up and wrung his hands together. ‘As a sorry.’
‘It's daytime,’ Uzi said and looked into the room more to where there was a gap in the fabric that acted as a curtain. ‘Is that alright?’
‘I just need to stay out of the sun,’ N said. ‘I can at least join you.’
‘Alright, you can come with me but as part of the apology you show me your tail, I need to understand how it can melt through metal,’ Uzi said and N froze a bit. ‘Not now, we don’t have the time. If I come when I am meant to show up in a couple days then we talk more about this all.’
‘If?’ N asked worried.
‘You need to promise me that you are going to tell me everything I want to know, anything small that J thinks of,’ Uzi said and words shot out of N’s mouth the moment Uzi had finished.
‘She has some liquid that turns people into monsters.’
He had frozen after saying that even covering his mouth with a hand, Uzi stared at him with her mouth still open from talking. Silence stretched on for a moment.
‘Right,’ she started with and blinked, closing her mouth and looking at the peeling walls of the apartment to think. ‘Yeah, stuff like that. Let's go look at that tower first.’

The walk to the correct building took longer than simply walking the streets, Uzi had agreed to it now she had to commit to the fact that her companion was avoiding being out in the open.
It had been a bit funny the first time, but now Uzi’s day was becoming longer as a result. She didn’t really have it in her to talk to him about it, not with his previous words bounding around.
A liquid that made monsters.

Through building doorways and windows to try to follow the map that uzi had and very few street signs left made the moment that they came to the correct building more relieved than excitement.
Looking up at it however showed the thing used to be a sturdier building. One side of it was missing, it made it distinct but on the other side the buildings were touching. The one meant to be climbed up was tilted against the other.
‘Who would put a communication tower on a building about to fall?’
N looked up from the opposing building with her.
‘I can help you up,’ he said and Uzi huffed before folding the map up with some anger.
‘She could have told me half the building was gone, what even happened with all these broken buildings?’ Uzi was letting the anger get to her. They headed forward. Before they got to the entrance to the bottom did N open his mouth.
‘Uzi, do you like it there? You wouldn’t want to leave would you?’ N asked and Uzi paused before looking back at him. Confused as to what even brought it up.
‘What are you talking about?’ she asked and he looked away nervous. ‘Are you asking me to run away with you? That's weird man we practically just met, I am not running away with you.’
N stood up straight and turned to Uzi with his hands up.
‘No, no,’ he said quickly before clearing his throat and lowered his hands to grab at his coat’s edge. ‘Not with me, no but if you wanted to leave. I could help.’
Uzi stuffed the map away and adjusted her bag on her back.
‘And leave everyone to you three, no way. You aren’t getting me out of the way that easy,’ she said and looked at him. ‘I will stop you from attacking with my amazing plans and you are going to help me.’
‘Me?’ N asked now confused.
‘Yep, help and you won’t have to live in that apartment all alone for example,’ she said and she started to head across the street to get to the building. ‘You help me and I’ll help you.’
N looked down to the ground. It did sound nice.
‘Hey, you said you were going to help me,’ Uzi called out and snapped him out of his thoughts.
‘Coming,’ he said and took the dash across the street as the location was in the shade.

The building stairwell up had been mostly intact, many of the steps had been damaged but still usable as stairs. N only had to help pull Uzi up a few spots. Near the top he practically had to carry her up as the steps had been crunched up against the wall breaking them, and the only path had her holding his hand as they went along the edge that was between the stairs and the gap down, at the end he pulled her up onto the final level.
Uzi noted the old rope that was tied up along the path. So someone had put in some sort of safety but it seemed so much safer to trust in someone else.
She didn’t mean to make a face but he was a lot warmer then she would have liked when he grabbed hold of her arm to help. Even through the gloves she had, the warmth from his hand hold was still there. It was odd she supposed but that was a question for later.

It didn’t take long to find the structure right in front of the door’s view and out in the open with the sun shining.
Uzi looked up the tower as the structure creaked in the wind. Her eyes came back down and fell on the ladder that was attached up the middle of the structure. Rusted and not protected by the elements at all. A whistle of wind came by and pushed her back a moment.
The tower was close to falling apart and she didn’t have a clue of what had even broken on the structure but from a distance it mostly looked intact just weathered. The original report was that it was the last to fail and simply left to rot as time went on.
‘I can try to fix it tonight,’ N spoke up, voice small and unsure. ‘You could leave me instructions. You don’t have to go up there.’
‘No offence N but do you know anything about this sort of thing?’ Uzi asked and looked over to N shrugging.
‘No, but I wouldn’t want you to go climbing that either,’ he said and Uzi took in a large breath. Readying herself with all the courage she needed.
‘I will be fine, what is there to even be scared about?’ she said and N tilted his head.

Uzi’s arms were shaking, she had been able to get a few rungs up into the air before it all came crashing down in her mind on what she was doing. Then she got half way up before she made the mistake in looking down.
‘Are you alright?’ N’s voice came out from the roof door, hiding within it while trying to look out to her.
‘Fine!’ Uzi snapped back, she had frozen in place. Her legs felt as if they were lead as she tried to lift up a step. Uzi started to look around, trying to spot where a solar panel should be to give power to it all. In it however she had ended up looking over the edge of the building. The tower was well away from the edge but the sight of open air twisted her insides.
She had hardly been so high in the air before, not much height to worry about when living underground after all.
She snapped her head the other way and was glad to find what she had needed. Looking towards the roof’s direction did help to settle her some.
There she went to climb a bit more to get high enough to take a look at the wiring and other bits. The solar panel had managed to stay in relatively good shape, getting a new one would have been a bother.

She did find what she needed for a check as she got higher up, wires had been torn or cut through. Having hit the metal behind, four strikes and a chunk of wire missing. An easy fix if that was it, she had brought plenty of wire with her.
It was easier to just think of the job then what was happening around her. Going into her belt pouches for what she needed, wires and tools all within reach.
‘I did it,’ she called out in triumph the moment the last wire was tied into place. Looking to the door with a smile as the sound of electricity started the hum in th air. N shared it for a moment before standing up straight in alarm.
‘Uzi, I hear cracking,’ N called up and Uzi froze to listen as a slight sound was heard. Just under her as something was crumbling away.
She heard the snap before her foot rest dropped away.
Enough that her weight bounced off the next one and in her panic lost her grip, not managing to grab on before tilting back and away from anything but the air.

She was sure she had just been falling, mid scream before she was yanked aside and into arms. There was more movement in the seconds after before a solid sudden stop.
There was heavy breathing, from Uzi and who was holding her.
Uzi looked up dumbly, looking at N as he sighed out slowly. Releasing all the stress.
‘Are you alright?’ he asked and looked down on her, rather close as she was still in his arms. Uzi’s face was heating up, making it darker.
‘I thought you couldn’t go out into the sun?’ he asked out and she was confused before her eyes clued in on the wings behind on his back that looked half burnt.
There was a particular scent that managed to get to her then, burnt meat. She yelped and that made N almost drop her fully but kept her upright.
‘Are you okay, why are they burnt? Wait, are you actually a vampire?’ she asked all at once. ‘I thought you were just sensitive to light.’
N winced as his wings moved.
‘I am sensitive to the sun, I am alright. It will heal soon,’ he just said and his wings ended up awkwardly held up behind him, he couldn’t fold them. ‘Besides better them than my face.’

‘I want to change what I look at,’ Uzi blurted out. ‘Wait but the tail has the acid.’ she turned as her face darkened more. She muttered out some more about how she wanted to see both either way, and then there were the claws. She was holding her face by then as she felt her head heat up from the options.
N’s head tilted as he smiled watching her, she caught it and recoiled a bit.
‘What!’ she yelled, crossing her arms and stepping back outside a bit. That had gotten him to shake himself out of it and take a step back into the building.
His own embarrassment showed far more clearly on his face and turned it, along with his neck, red.
‘Yeah ugh,’ Uzi started with and her foot started the tap as she rubbed her forearm. ‘Thank you for the save, I probably should have brought rope.’ N just nodded, his mouth was sealed shut. Uzi also nodded and let out a breath.
‘Back to the apartment, and I should try to get you some lessons with the phone but first thing first. Does the damn thing work?’ she asked and went to grab it from her bag along with her own.
N looked over Uzi’s shoulder, while she was distracted he looked at her and frowned before trying to follow what she was doing.
A ding followed after she pressed along and she did a celebratory yes under her breath.
‘Perfect, at least it works here. If you can't get it to work then you will have to come here,’ she was saying and handed the device up to him. She continued to mess with one with her and was given another ding for her trouble. ‘Yeah, this is connected to the colony.’ She looked up all of a sudden and looked over to point to the screen.
‘Do you need help?’ she asked and N blinked back before looking down on the device.
‘I don’t know what to do with this,’ he admitted and Uzi checked the time.
‘How long can you stay awake?’ she asked as he went to rub his eyes.