Chapter Text
“Yami, you can kiss my ass. I’m not going in there.”
“Will you just fucking go?”
“Do I look like grub meat to you? No. We are not going in there. Absolutely not. No.”
Yami sighed, impatient. His armor was getting heavy, and Joey was being a total wimp. They
were standing about 50 feet in front of the opening, blocked east and west by big-ass gray cliffs.
Dust and sand were flying everywhere. Everything was gray and brown and ugly. A bleak, dirty,
grungy-lookin’ desert spanned out behind them and Yami was tired of looking at it. He grumbled. “It’s
just a cave.”
Joey snorted, heaving his gun to point at the cave. “A cave full of fucking monsters, you mean.”
Yami rolled his eyes. “Stop being a pussy. We can-“
“Oh my god, no. And it’s not even a cave, you dipshit. It’s a tunnel. Full of locust shit. We have
no backup, we’re running out of ammo, and I am fucking tired, Yami,” said Joey. Yami winced at the
childish whine of Joey’s voice. He’d been stuck with it for the past ten years. He was so done right
now.
“If you’re not going to go with me, I guess I’ll just have to ask Kaiba if he’ll come. He’d probably
handle it better than you.” Yami challenged, pursing his lips and raising his head as if looking over
Joey’s shoulder. Also looking as if asking Kaiba to accompany him was something that could happen,
as if Kaiba wasn’t hours away in god-knows-where. Joey groaned.
“Don’t even mention that dickwad’s name to me. And jesus christ I thought we ditched him like
two mountains ago…or whatever we’ve been doing.”
Yami hefted his gun and walked down the uneven slope toward the cav – uh, tunnel. It was too
late in the day for this shit. He looked back, calling Joey’s bluff. “Are you coming or not?”
Joey threw his head back, a growly whine leaving his mouth. Sighing, he looked back down at
Yami. Midget, he thought. I’m taking orders from a midget. Scoffing, he threw his pack over his
shoulder and stalked toward Yami, muttering obscenities under his breath the whole way.
“If we die, I’m gonna eat your soul or some shit for getting me killed.” Joey said as he slapped
Yami painfully on the back.
Wincing, Yami nodded. “Got it. You get first pick.”
Joey glanced at Yami, his wry smirk smacking of sass. “Just the first pick? Don’t I get your whole
stupid soul to myself?”
Yami grinned. “You know how many people are waiting for me down there? You’ll be lucky just
to get my nice ass-cheeks.”
Joey sniggered. “Fuck off, Yami”
Mock-grinning as wide as he could with five layers of grime on his face, Yami led Joey into the tunnel.
The tunnel was pretty dark. Very dark. So, so dark. Couldn’t see a thing.
Joey and Yami were dead silent, tense and ready to shoot at anything that moved. They moved
slowly, crouching as they positioned themselves back to back, rotating around so that nothing could
sneak up on them.
The tunnel was wide, maybe 50 feet across. Brown, ridged columns arched over their heads
and large red boulders were scattered across the floor. Stalactites hung from the ceiling. The air was
dry, arid, devoid of moisture, and pained their chapped lips and parched throats to breathe in. There
was a thin, foot-trodden trail suspiciously – and conveniently – down the middle that they were
following. Slowly.
“This is taking fucking forever,” Joey hissed.
Yami grit his teeth, exasperated by Joey’s bitchiness and extremely paranoid that they were
about to be attacked at any second. He exhaled a quiet, “Shut up,” and hoped that would be enough
for Joey to shut his trap once and for all.
It wasn’t. It never was.
“…I’m bored.”
“Shut up.”
“And it’s like, really dark in here.”
“Will you shut your fucking mouth!”
They both jumped at a faint noise from Joey’s right. They were in the heart of the tunnel now,
where the light was dimmest and either end seemed miles away. A beat of silence passed, and they
waited, listening for any sounds of movement. Gripping their guns tighter, they strained their ears.
Nothing. Reluctantly, they both relaxed and returned to their positions. Yami sighed, the tension
palpable in his aching arms. “Thank god.”
“DUCK!”
Joey tackled Yami out of the way as bullets erupted from the south end of the tunnel, back the
way they came. Shouting, Joey scrambled up against a rock, pulling Yami with him as bullets
whizzed past their heads. “I fucking told you! I fucking told you!”
“I KNOW I KNOW!” Yami yelled, pulling himself up to return fire. Joey unloaded into the
darkness, screaming.
“Take that, you mother fucking insect bastards! And that, and that –“
“JOEY!”
“WHAT!?”
Yami shouted hysterically, pointing his gun at the ground and shooting. “TICKERS!”
Joey cursed, trying to keep aim while stomping on the crawling, spider-shit creatures. “Yami, no!
Don’t fucking shoot them! They’ll-”
BOOM
boomboomboom
Small explosions surrounded Yami and Joey, dead ticker bodies littering their feet and riddling
their skin with stinging burns. Joey took the time to knock Yami upside the head with his elbow.
“They fucking explode, you idiot! Just throw them back!”
Yami nodded, and started hurling the tickers at the locusts with Joey’s onslaught as cover fire.
The ticker explosions scattered and ruined the horde’s position and left Joey satisfied, hearing
soft thumps as locust after locust fell dead after eating his hot bullets. Dumb, freaky zombie-looking
bastards, he thought viciously. He was running out of ammo, though, and getting antsy. Soon they’d
have nothing left and they’d be hanging out in the open with their asses flapping, about to become
grub-meat or preferably, just really, really dead. Joey started to hop/walk backwards, getting ready to
–“RUN, YAMI RUN!” he bellowed, turning around and sprinting into the darkness.
Yami dropped his last ticker and took off after Joey. They rushed down the tunnel, firing
haphazardly behind them. They glimpsed dark, locust-shaped shadows following them. The pounds
of their heavy footsteps thudded in their ears, the bulky, thick armor pressing against their chests and
stomachs as they tried to move faster – their massive guns weighing down their arms. It was painful,
and they were tired.
Fuck. Joey couldn’t even aim right he was trying to run so fast. And, he could feel it coming…he
was running -
“Shit! I’m out of ammo!”
Yami, much shorter than Joey and having a hard time keeping up, gasped out “then…CHUCKit!”
Never one to let a friend get away with saying something stupid, Joey bothered to turn and look
at Yami with an incredulous, I-can’t-believe-you-just-said-that look. “Are you fucking crazy? Lancers
are the fucking best.”
“CAN WE NOT TALK ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW!?”
“OKAY, OKAY!” Joey yelled, his voice hoarse. Fucking prick.
Yami grit his teeth, and forced himself to keep running. To both of their dismay, the tunnel was
only getting louder and louder with the rumbling sounds of locusts lumbering after them and the
scratchy scuttles of the tickers. Not to mention the ominous cracking sound of the stone ceiling above
them.
Oh my god. “THE TUNNEL’S COLLAPSING!” Yami shouted. Shitshitshit.
Is this tunnel going to fucking end?
“I see it! I see it!” Joey panted between gasps. “The light! It’s there!”
Gradually, Yami was starting to make out a faint glow. The moon? He’d like to see the moon
again. He hoped. God, he hoped.
Despite their best efforts, they were slowing down considerably and their adrenaline was
tapering off. “Fuck!” Yami gasped. “I think we can – do you have any?” Yami gestured wildly with his
free hand.
Cottoning on, Joey nodded. “Last…one.” He fished out his final flag grenade and spun around,
flinging it towards the ceiling.
BOOM
CRACK
“AHHHHHHH!”
They dove forwards, landing headfirst in the dirt.
The ground shook as massive slabs of rock slid out from the ceiling and crumbled underneath
its own weight.
They crawled forward, trying to get as far away as they could from the debris. Yami hastily
scanned above them, and violently kicked Joey in the gut, sending him rolling across the floor.
Stalactites rained down on them, huge ones that could’ve broken their spines and smaller
ones that would’ve pierced their skulls. Yami curled into a ball and waited for it to be over.
They weren’t even completely out of the tunnel. God, please let this be enough. Please, he
pleaded. With god or with himself he didn’t know. He didn’t care about those kinds of things anymore.
And as usual, right before he thought he was going to die he could only think of one person.
Eventually, the cracking noises stopped, and dust settled around him. Yami coughed.
Ow…for all his dodging, he still got nailed by a broad-tipped stalactite on his leg. He tried
moving it, and stopped because of the pain. He sighed, straining to hold himself up by his elbows.
Nnnng…”Joey?” he tried to say. It came out like a dry rasp. He licked his lips, his ripped, bleeding
chapped lips and tried to cough. He heaved, coughing, a hacking cough that burned and seized up his
heart - he couldn’t stop - his gut doing its damndest to throw out his intestines and his throat ripping
with the force of his lungs. His back convulsed under the pressure and his leg hurt and his lungs hurt
and bile was dripping out of his mouth and there was blood all over the floor and oh my god.
“You sound like shit.”
Yami tried to stop breathing, and was given a few moments of respite where he looked up at
Joey towering over him, covered in brown dirt and his dark blonde hair matted around his face.
“….you look like shit.” Yami managed to wheeze out. Joey sighed.
Joey kneeled down next to him. That bastard didn’t look injured at all.
“You kicked me pretty hard back there…asshole…” Joey prodded Yami’s leg. Yami groaned. It
felt so bad. I hope it isn’t broken.
“Hope it’s not broken,” Joey muttered. Joey raised his head to look outside. “Looks calm out
there. C’mon, let’s go.” He said wearily.
Joey hauled Yami up by his armpits. Ignoring his dignity, Yami wrapped his right arm around
Joey, trying to keep his weight off his bad leg. Joey graciously half-dragged Yami’s ass out of the cave.
Tunnel.
Joey set them both down on the walls of rock that the tunnel was embedded in. He tilted his
head up till it hit stone, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he tried to swallow any spit he had left.
He felt like shit. Not just because they had just been attacked, and he was exhausted and
bruised and on the brink of death…no, he was used to that…but what where they going to do now. He
knew that they had…kind of somewhere to go, but he couldn’t get his hopes up for that. His eyes got
wet, but he bit his lip and closed them. He sighed, a shaky, quivering sigh that spoke volumes to Yami.
Clearing his throat, Yami spoke. “…we got any water left?” Joey pursed his lips and nodded his
head. He dug out his flask from around his belt and handed it to Yami. “Here, you can have the rest.
I’ve already had some.”
Yami saw through the lie, but nonetheless accepted the offer. “Thanks,” he grunted, rolling the
water around his mouth, trying to regain the ability to speak properly. They sat in silence, watching
the last rays of the sun disappear. The moon sat in the sky, waiting.
When it came, Joey’s voice was barely above a whisper. “…do you think he’s still out there? Do
you think that…it’s him?”
Yami couldn’t stop the raw emotions that plagued him when he thought about it. He just wanted to pretend that he knew the answers, or that he knew where they were going or that they had a
plan and the world hadn’t completely fallen around them. “I…I don’t know. I…” Yami’s voice trailed off,
low in his throat, coming out guttural. “I just…”
“I know.” Joey replied softly. “You have to know.” Joey glanced at Yami out of the corner of his
eye. Yami looked miserable. “…I miss him too.” Yami shuddered, rolling his head away to look at the
ground or into the distance. Joey let him, and feigned ignorance at the grief he knew was clawing at
Yami on the inside. He knew, because it was clawing at him too.
Yami broke the tension, though his voice came out low and unsteady. “Th-thank you…for
coming with me. I’d be dead by now or would never have left or…yeah.”
Joey tried for a smile. “Ya’ didn’t even have to ask. No matter what, remember?” Yami’s lips
quirked in what might’ve been, in another time, his trademark smirk. Joey laughed feebly.
“Sorry,” Joey said. “I know I’m no good at the…” his voice caught in his throat, “…speeches,” Joey
mumbled, gaze fixed on the ground. The light mood he’d tried to bring back shattered under the
weight of the past.
Yami spoke quietly. “…I know. It’s okay.” Just don’t think about it. Don’t.
They both locked their gazes firmly on the horizon, trying to think safe thoughts. It did no good
to dwell on the past…it was the past, and it wasn’t going to change, and - it’s not going to bring them
back. Yami caught himself mid-thought, and sighed. How many times had he told himself that? How
many times would he insist to himself that anything was better than remembering the war, or the life
he’d had before it?
He kicked a pebble away with his boot, trying to concern himself with the pretty way the sand
looked when it wasn’t filled with locust-shit or blood, or how nice the sunset looked with all of its nice
colors. He almost buried his face in his hands. Fuck this.
“I fucking hate this whole world. If…if we can’t find what we’re looking for, then that’s it. That’s it.”
Joey snorted in agreement. “I hear yuh. I’ll help you burn it to the ground.” Snickering, Yami smiled.
He patted Joey’s shoulder affectionately. “You’re a true friend, Joey. Couldn’t have asked for
better.”
“Damn right you couldn’t’ve…” Joey mumbled, his eyelids heavy and begging to be shut. Yami
tried to do the same. He leaned back, staring at the sky and grateful that it wasn’t filled with reavers or
gas barges or any other shit he’d have to kill. He stared out onto the open land, frustrated by the
sight.
Another…fucking…desert.
In Yami’s opinion, it was even uglier than the last one. And they had to cross it. And whatever
else was on the other side, and then that and that and…he sighed.
Tomorrow is going to suck.