Work Text:
After Seth died, there wasn’t much to do but just put one foot in front of the other for as long as they could.
And Jed was going to make sure that “as long as they could” lasted until he found Danny Bilson and made sure he was just as dead as poor old Seth.
“Hey Heyes?” he asked, knowing he was using precious energy talking as they trod along in the heat of the late afternoon, but needing to talk anyway. “You ever want to kill a man. I don’t mean have to kill, but…”
“Are you asking if I’ll think any less of you if you shoot Danny down in cold blood?”
Jed shook his head. “When you put it that way—”
“Well, I'll tell you, Kid—”
And then Heyes fell on his face.
Jed had just enough in him not to fall on top of his partner, but it was a near thing. He crashed to his knees and reached out with shaking hands.
“Come on, now, Heyes,” he murmured, rolling him over. “Don’t do this.”
Heyes opened his eyes once Jed had him flat on his back and stared at the sky. Dirty and sunburned and dry as a bone, Heyes was still alive, and that was all that mattered to Jed.
“You ever heard of zombies, Kid?” Heyes asked, sounding remarkably normal for a man who was probably a day or so from ending up like old Seth.
“Zombies?” Jed replied. Heyes knew the damnedest things. “What are those?”
Heyes continued, starting to sound a little dreamy. “Read about them in a magazine. Dead people who’ve been brought back to life.”
Jed shook his head, looking around for shade. Of course there wasn’t any close by. They were never that lucky. “You sure that wasn’t a dime store novel you were reading?”
“No, no, it was a legitimate magazine,” Heyes assured him. He still hadn’t moved and Jed was kind of worried that maybe Heyes just couldn’t anymore. Sun would be setting soon. Maybe if they cooled off some overnight… “Said these Voodoo priests dig them up and cast spells on them, make them do whatever they want them to.”
“Huh.” Jed didn’t actually care about any zombies, but it kept Heyes talking. “What if you don’t tell them what to do?”
“See that’s why I thought about them. I’m guessing they’d just keep going,” he said. “Kind of like we are. Mindless and plodding and going in whatever direction you set them to.”
“Heyes, you have a strange mind,” Jed told him.
The man smiled that smile. “I know. Kind of feel like a zombie anyway, though.”
Jed kind of felt like one himself, but hell if he was going to tell Heyes that.
“It’s just plain unnatural, if you ask me,” Jed replied. “Only one who should decide whether a man lives or dies is God.”
“Yeah,” Heyes agreed, his voice softer now, more reflective. “Not you.”
Jed sagged back a little. Heyes’s body might be baking, but his mind was still as fast as ever, unfortunately. “I know.” He snorted. “It’s funny, Heyes. I’ve always been the fastest draw I know.”
“Fastest I knew, too—until Danny.” Heyes was fading. He’s just tired is all, Jed tried to convince himself.
“Fastest draw doesn’t always have to shoot,” Jed reminded him. “Fear of being shot is better than actually being shot, isn’t it?”
“Seems to work pretty good for you.”
Jed bowed his head, wished the damn sun would just go down already. Heyes was fading… “Never wanted to kill a man. But Danny…”
Heyes nodded, the motion jerky and barely there. “You know,” he breathed quietly. “Technically, he’s already tried to kill you first.”
Jed chuckled, but it was a cold thing, bitter and angry in a way he didn’t think he’d ever been before. If Heyes died out here, too, Jed wasn’t sure what he’d become—but he knew what would become of Danny Bilson.
Heyes’s eyes closed and the sun finally started the horizon on fire.
“You’re not going to leave me out here alone, are you Heyes?” Jed asked when the silence went on too long. He tried to make it sound normal and… just like a joke or something. If he thought seriously about the way Heyes was just lying there, boneless, he’d go insane.
“Would I do that to you, Kid?” Heyes didn’t open his eyes, but his answer held that stubborn optimism that Jed would never, ever get tired of. Even when he wanted to wring his partner’s neck for it. “Give me a couple of hours... and I’ll be ready to go.”
And then he slept. Jed knew he was sleeping because he put his hand on Heyes’s chest and felt the rise and fall of it. God, he was tired. He wondered if those zombies of Heyes’s ever got tired, or if they just shambled along, forever.
Well, he could do that, too. At least until he found Danny Bilson.
He settled down as darkness fell, stretching out next to Heyes so he could keep his hand on his chest and maybe wake up if his friend slipped away.
“You promised me you wouldn’t do that, though, didn’t you, Heyes?” he muttered, unable to stop it as sleep pulled him down.
And Hannibal Heyes never broke a promise.
Well, almost never.
******
the end