Chapter Text
“And I thought,” she shrugs, a wry smile on her face, “this is it; death had come for me.” Her hand lands absentmindedly on the roamer's shoulder. He makes a noise, a gurgle in his throat and leans his head on her leg. “And it did come for me. In a way.” Her smile pales, a faraway look in her eyes.
Her voice loses its strength, now a small whisper. “I thought that when he came out of some alleyway.”
Pain, pain as her insides are exposed to the air. Those things bite at her, she has no power to fight them off. The most she can do is stare at the sky. Waiting for it to come, whisk her away, sitting in a pool of her blood as the roamers feast off her dying body.
Another one joins from an alleyway and she is ready to embrace it, sweet death. She, who spent so much time running from the end. Still, the regret od never seeing Tony again weighed on her.
It stands behind the others, blanked in harsh shadows. She can only make out its eyes, staring her down.
Why isn’t eating her?
A squelch is heard, like a rotten orange bursting.
It… it killed the other, brought a rock over its head. The other one turns, a mouthful of her flesh hanging off, only to be met with the same fate.
She never saw them fighting over food. Or killing each other. But at the same time, she never cared about analyzing them, too busy with her daily grind for survival.
Her would-be savior towers over her, shambling closer. She can see its eyes fixed on her. Fixed…? This can't be right.
It…just stands there, tilting its head. ah, in the end, it didn’t matter, even after waiting for a few seconds it made no move to eat her. She didn't have minutes, not with how much she was bleeding. If life has given her this second chance, she shouldn't waste it.
With trembling fingers, she stuffs back her intestine in her abdomen. She feels detached like she is watching a movie. A shitty horror flick. Searching her pockets she retrieves a sewing kit and tries to sew the wound. It's ugly, botched, and will never hold if she starts to run. But it will hold now.
The thing turns its back to her, roaring at any roamer who approaches. It kills them.
She should try to get away, scurry away, but how? She has no strength left, exhausted and in pain, as she is.
….somehow she managed to rise, slowly painfully. The thing notices this and follows her as she shambles away into the alleyway, leaning on the walls. It presses close to her, shoulder to shoulder. With a shaking gasp, she tries it. She throws an arm over its shoulder and it tumbles for a second. But it makes no move to bite her, attack her. Instead, it turns its head and watches her with pinprick eyes. They’re white and clear, not the milky red of the other roamers. What is this thing?
A roamer, but it doesn’t act like them, a mutation?
… she has other pressing matters, she can spend as much time on this after. If she survives.
She – they continue to walk, to shamble. On shaking legs, she tries every window and door they pass by. They pass other roamers, and she tenses every time preparing for death. But they only chuff at the air, walking away. Of course, she stinks of dead, she must smell like them, clinging to the one who …saved? her.
Eventually, one door opens and she stumbles in, collapsing onto the couch. She begins to fade away, yet a wave of panic jolts her into awareness for a brief moment —she hadn't closed the door! The other roamers could wander in at any moment. But she is already fading away, on the verge of consciousness. The click of the lock pushes her over the edge.
… …
She doesn’t know what happens, or if time has passed at all, only hunger. Something wet on her lips, tickling down her throat. The hunger gnaws at her. She fades once more in those murky dreams and nightmares.
She blinks. “So yes, somehow I made it alive. And Percy stuck to me like my shadow after that.”