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I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.
-JRR Tolkien, Return of the King
They came with the cold, in the dead of night.
They came with snow and darkness, same as they always did, and Dany’s mind wandered briefly back to those first few days of blessed ignorance and confusion, to her and Daario’s idle speculations back when it all seemed just some meaningless freak news from the other side of the world. A curiosity, nothing more. Nothing threatening, Dany remembered thinking, and Oh, how wrong I was.
This time, however, she knew exactly how threatening they were, how dangerous, and didn’t waste time in heroics. The beacon first, she decided, We have to few of them left to leave one here now, and she went looking for the tank right after that.
They sure had enough petrol, at least, the millions and millions of litres left in some forgotten car or another, tens of thousands of metal skeletons rusting where they’d been forgotten, remains of a dead civilization. Dany sometimes found herself wondering what would happen if they were to burn all at once. She could almost picture it, reds and yellows, the whole land burning in a warm flame, beautiful and pure.
She let the match fall and the fire came to life all around her.
“Done,” she called out, and heard Aegon’s voice scream in answer.
“Go!”
And she did, running towards the small backdoor and Jon, who was waiting inside, engine running. He handed her a weapon first thing, small and cold against her fingers. It was too dark to see, no light but that of the fire in the house before them, but she couldn’t have recognized the model even in full light. Daario would have, and Jorah too, she thought, but to Daenerys Targaryen, the young girl, every gun was just a gun.
She knew how to fire it well enough, though.
“How long?” Jon asked, and Dany shook her head furiously in answer.
“I don’t know. Soon enough.”
Jon drummed his fingers against the wheel in impatience, and Dany didn’t bother to hide her annoyance. Who died and made you king? She wanted to say, but Jon would just laugh. Take over if you will, little Princess, he would answer, and nothing would change.
“Stop that,” she said instead. “I am worried as well, and you don’t see me being a bitch about it.”
He gave her some sort of half-amused glance that made Dany glare at him in anger. Right. Jon Snow probably didn’t care about his brother’s health half as much as he cared about losing Aegon’s skills and being left alone with her.
Aegon joined them some couple of minutes later, and Jon had already pressed on the accelerator as hard as he could before his brother could even slam the door shout.
“Hell, slow down, would you? Escaping won’t do us any good if we end up a smear on the road.”
But it would, Dany thought, and she was pretty sure she wasn’t the only one. A smear on the road didn’t come back to life. A smear on the road didn’t get up and kill, and…
“How far behind were they?” Jon asked, and Dany felt grateful for the interruption.
“Some four, five hundred metres when I came out,” Aegon answered, and he didn’t need to clarify what he was referring to. The Walkers were swift and fast, faster than Dany would have ever believed, but they always let their dead men fight their battles for them, and the wights walked on the frozen legs of dead men.
“I locked all the windows and set the timer for two minutes after they open the door,” he continued, and Dany took a minute to imagine how it would look like. Like the fires of her dreams, maybe. It would blow the wights to pieces, that much was certain, and then it wouldn’t matter that they never seemed to stop. Can’t really kill when you’re dust.
“Will you show me?” She asked abruptly, to the surprised looks of the boys. “How to make a bomb. I want to learn…” If Aegon really doesn’t come back, next time. If Jon gets himself killed at the next petrol station. If we became two, where now we are three.
She didn’t say as much, not out loud, but it was clear that they all understood.
“Sure thing,” Jon answered, his voice lighter than Dany had ever heard it. There was a soft glim in his stern grey eyes, and whether he was thinking of his dead girl or his lost family she could not tell. “We’ll show you everything, soon as we get to the safe house. How does it sound?”
It sound as you’re talking to a kid, she wanted to say, but she didn’t, because Aegon is smiling for the first time in what seems like a lifetime and they survived yet another day.
“We can teach you how to make bullets, too,” Aegon added. “Obsidian bullets. Do you know, they can kill the Walkers?”
The air felt suddenly warmer in the car, and Dany let herself fall against her seat, content. It felt almost good tonight, better than it ever had in months. The funny thing was, she found herself reflecting, how they normally couldn’t even stand each other on any given day. Too much history, too much bad blood, too much everything to ever get along… or so she would have thought, before everything.
But then again, if there was ever anyone to be left with in the complete and total collapse of humanity, well. It should be family, right?
“You know,” she heard Jon’s voice call to Aegon in the backseat. “There should be half a bottle left of something down there. Pass it over, would you?”
He took a generous sip before complying, and laughed in delight. “I won’t even ask how you managed to find Albor Gold in this frozen wasteland, brother.” He pressed the battle against Dany’s hand, and only then she realizes she was still holding the gun. “Have some, Dany. It’s good.”
Good it was, and sweet, and warm. It tastes like summer, she thought.