World War IV

World War IV

Rated M

WARNING: Character Death, Supernatural, Violence, Homosexuality and Graphic sex later in the story.

Summary: SLASH. World War III left the earth in ruins, as well as the people left behind. The survivors have to fight a different sort of war all their own.


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Chapter One- "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is all comprehensible." -Albert Einstein


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Parker had been waiting for this all week.

He and three of the other fellas that had been doing espionage work as security inside the camps finally got the okay from Sevetta, the big cheesebread of this whole rescue effort thing, via an old radio. He personally didn't like the idea of having to mingle too much with the rads, but they're still human, too, right? He checked in at the old retina scanner. The only ones who have any of the high-tech stuff anymore are the feds up in New Quantico. Everyone else got fifty-year-old equipment or worse, none at all. One would think they'd have done something about it by 2061.

He sighed and entered the compound, his grip tightening on his .40-caliber pistol, steely blue eyes scanning the numbers on the barracks. F-42...F-42...this was where they put the newest refugees. Why was Sevetta making him go get the new rads? He shook his head and input the code for unlocking the door. It was always easy to get to the place--the hardest part of a rescue mission was always the rescuing bit. Running a hand through closely-cropped light brown hair, he walked in and flipped the light switch, banging his pistol loudly on the tin walls of the old modified warehouse that was the barrack.

"If anyone's still asleep, wake 'em up, newbloods. I'll be escorting you all on down to a certain checkpoint. Don't talk, don't pack, just do as you're told and all will be explained at the destination. We'll be there in about an hour. Keep me waiting and I will shoot you down." They had to make it seem like they were going to detained elsewhere or executed to get them past the actual security.

He hated to do it, but it was for a good cause, so...

Dyami shook Elu awake, and he groaned slightly and swatted at him, but Dyami just gave a serene smile and pulled him into a standing position. Elu had quite a bit of strength as a rad, but the men kept him so drugged he couldn't do anything with it. He was a small man, short and stout, and Dyami was about the same height but long and slender with strong runner's legs. Elu was black with rough features and a gruff personality, so people assumed he pulled the gentle mannered Dyami around, but it wasn't so. They'd escaped from the last holding cell together, but they'd been captured again after a couple weeks on the run, and here they were again. He helped Elu walk with a couple others from the warehouse and twigs crunched under the flat of his shoes.

Dyami led him out, front of the line with an easy expression on his face, he was not a violet person, and the trees that he could see calmed him even more. He was a lover of nature, it was in his blood as a Native American, straight black hair choppy around his ear on one end and nearly to his shoulder at the other end, fair and so dark it was nearly blue. His tanned skin shown with a faint layer of sweat, because Elu was heavy, and Dyami's strength was in his legs, not his arms. He paused a good distance away from the short haired man with the gun, and Elu gave a sneer in the man's direction as some of the grog seemed to clear away.

"Fuck you, man..." Elu spat, standing up by himself and swaying slightly, though Dyami gripped him to make sure he didn't fall.

"He doesn't mean that, sir, he's just very high." Dyami told the armed man easily, golden eyes flickering to him briefly, before moving back over to Elu to make sure he was alright as the few other rads joined them.

The first couple folks out, a dark kid with the physique of a marathon runner holding a heavier fellow (you don't see many of those anymore, either, unless they're politicians or CEOs...) followed behind him along with the rest of the rads. Parker was used to being insulted and spat at. Newbies were usually more malicious, though. If they weren't hopped up on whatever it was the feds were shipping to the scientists, they've killed guards before. Feeling kind of the bad for the kid, even if he should've been strong enough to carry one guy, he went back to help him anyway, taking the man's other arm and reholstering his gun before using his now free hand to support him.

He didn't say anything, because he wasn't really comfortable talking with rads, either.

Parker only been doing this for less than a year, and even one wrong detail could get him killed faster than he would even realize. Parker ignored the cries of protest behind him-- angry shouts of obscenities and his mother's sexual predilections for swine and the like-- and walked on until they were back at the entrance, five armored trucks awaiting their arrival.

The other guys had already gotten back. Then again, the barrack Sevetta assigned him was a bit far out. Keeluf turned to him, ebony skin shining in the moonlight with sweat. He smelled and looked like his uniform had been burned. "Hey, man, what took you? I'll get Garrish to load up these guys, I'm having some problems over here getting these kids in the truck. They're the kind that spit fire and shit, man."

Parker shook his head. "Fine, but you owe me for this later."

And the kids were quite a handful. They were already pretty good with their powers, but, he had to wonder if it hurt their throats after a while. About twenty minutes of struggling and cursing later, though pretty burned up, it wasn't bad, he supposed. Imagine how it would've been if they were adults. Keeluf patted him on the back and handed him some gauze and rubbing alcohol.

"It burns about as bad as the fire did, but it'll help. Thanks again, man." He nodded in return before getting in the truck holding the detainees from F-42 and driving to the checkpoint. Hopefully nothing'd happen on the way there. If they got pulled over, they were fucked. Everbody'd be in line to have nanbots put in them or injected with lethal viruses or just shot. Maybe even worse than that. Parker had decided long ago that he'd rather not know till it happened.

It did not take Dyami long to realize that these men where not going to harm them. He had threatened to shoot if they talked, but the entire way there the others had been shouting the words of the crudest sort, he had yet do so. They paused at a spot with several trucks, and Elu seemed to be getting more and more coherent by the second. It did not surprise Dyami when his attention was brought from the two armed men over to the darker man with one of his escape attempts.

“C’mon, c’mon, Aurora, I think I’m good enough to take them. They’re stupid, I can tell, bro, c’mon-”

“We should not be so hasty, Herc, They have kind hearts. The trees are not threatened, we should--” They spoke their code names, because though they knew their real names, they had no need to tell the government agents such.

“The trees aren’t--? Fuck, you say some weird shit, c’mon, they have guns. How much you wanna bet they have gun powder in there, I can start a little fire, and you can--”

“Herc,” Dyami cut him off, looking at him kindly as he concentrated on the oxygen in the man’s lungs and pulled it away, letting Elu choke for a few moments, airless, before giving it back to him and petting his head. “Sh. I won’t risk lives like that. Trust me on this, they are not going to harm us.”

Catching his breath, Elu grumbled at the calming technique that Dyami had used on him several times before. It was the only reason that they were allowed together, because Dyami was the only one that could calm him, because Elu had a hell of a temper. The men thought it was just his voice, just a friend talking a friend down, they never assumed that his power had anything to do with it. They all thought that he had control of fire, one that was not common per se, but a simple power nonetheless, and he had no intention to tell one of them just how broad his powers were.

Elu glared at him and swatted Dyami’s hand away, “Trust the fuckin’ trees, man, fuckin’ spacey bitch…”

Dyami just patted his shoulder and smiled calmly, eyes rounding up to the sky, because he hadn’t seen it in a couple of days and the clouds felt like home.

Parker heard a lot of talking in the back, mostly hushed voices, a couple kids crying, but he was pretty used to this, too. When they finally reached the checkpoint, he let the rads out when the other guys did. Point Sorita was in itself nothing more than an abandoned warehouse with a radio sitting on a crate. There, other rescue team members awaited them. The rads were kept outside with some other members who were from a maximum security facility out in West Tennessee, while Sevetta assigned them their refugees, her arch monotone slowly putting him to sleep, until...

"From Stanton Lake Internment Camp: Keeluf, you take Raj and Indra."

At which the dark man cursed, "You mean those fire-spittin' kids? Fuck, man, I'm down on my luck..."

"Garris, you take Herc." He didn't seem to have a problem with it, but deep down, he probably was. There was no such thing as a guy who wasn't completely unshaken by having to accompany a rad.

"Parker, you take Aurora. If you are having any trouble finding your refugee, please go to Afir and he will help you..." An Arabic man with long hair pulled back raised his hand as Sevetta spoke. Rather than sit around for the rest, he went out to find his rad.

"Aurora?" He looked around, not totally sure who was who. He wasn't much for names, really. He called out the codename again, louder, and if the guy didn't come, he'd go in and get him, because he was not about to stand there like a dumbass all night and wait.

"Hey. The fuck, why didn't they call me with you?" Elu's eyes widened when Dyami looked up. He began walking forward slightly but Elu grabbed him and pulled him back, which, as his name suggested, this was not a debating matter. Dyami stumbled slightly and he sighed a bit as he raised his hand to the man that had called him, the very same that had brought them from the warehouse.

"No way man! You don't split us up, ya hear me? Ya hear me?" He shouted, words still a bit slurred from the drug as he began dragging Dyami over to the man. "We're going with you. We. Not just him!"

Dyami looked at him, giving a soft sigh and murmured, "Herc, calm down please. If the men say that we're to be split up, there is nothing we can do about it--" "Fuck the trees, A, Imma knock this guy out! Let me--"

Dyami watched him rear his arm back and he'd seen that punch kill a man, so he closed up his lungs once more, taking away his oxygen and watched Elu pause, "Calm down, Herc. Please, calm down. They will shoot you. Do not make this harder than it will already by."

Dyami spoke, voice soft and serene as golden eyes peered at him. Elu could do nothing quietly, and that was fine...but not if it got him killed. Elu lowered his arm, and Dyami gave him his air back, and Elu panted for a moment and let go of Dyami's arm, glowering at the armed man and spitting once more.

"Fuck you, ya gun toatin' bastard! I could rip yo' head of with mah pinky!" Dyami trailed his fingers over the trees lightly as he crossed the few yards that still separated him and the official looking man, hands in his pockets and eyes in the overhead canopies.

He frowned at the dispute between Herc and his newest rad. When the man came up to him, he sighed. "I'm sorry about that. Orders are orders." Blue met gold, and for a moment, he felt entranced. He'd never seen eyes like that. Anyway, we're real short on vehicles right now so until we can come across one that still works, there isn't going to be a lot of driving. No bikes, either." He headed down the pathway with Aurora in tow. "The name's Parker, and I will be taking you to your freedom." He always felt stupid saying it like that, but it is what it is. "I'll be attempting to get you out of the country and up north. It'll be cold as hell and the people aren't much nicer, but they won't put you and your kind in prison camps." He strode on and grabbed two knapsacks and a sleeping bag.

"The trip should take approximately two weeks on foot. I'm bringing only one sleeping bag as there's not a lot of development up there, and while one sleeps, the other is to watch for any threats or obstructions to our destination. We will do this in four to six-hour shifts depending on our location." He continued to recite what he had been told to say to any refugee being taken up north. "Any and all information shared between both parties will be kept confidential and as though it never happened. Before we leave," he tossed the other man a knapsack.

"Do you have any questions?"

He licked his dry lips. With the food shortage crisis, which of course called for extreme rationing, he hadn't had anything to drink besides that sludge the camp called coffee in probably a week.

A bright smile stretched across Dyami’s face as he heard this news. The trees never failed him. He continued to grin, rolling his shoulders under the straps of the knapsack once he’d put it on. He’d known they hadn’t been out to harm them, and it was nice to be proven correct. Elu was probably cursing his name under his breath as he spoke with his own leader, which made light flash in the molten amber of his eyes.

“Are we all going to similar places? Up North? I will want to contact Herc when I get back up there,” He told Parker easily, because rads were not a rare breed no matter what the ‘normal’ people liked to think, but Dyami was an odd one for even them. Elu was his best friend, the only one able to look at him and think something besides ‘rad’ and ‘freak’. He looked to the sky again, because he couldn’t wait for nighttime. He wanted to see the stars. “And since you are not one of the government men, my name is actually Dyami, Mr. Parker.”

The smile didn't surprise him. He'd never admit it, but he always felt really awesome, like he had powers, too, when he could get a rad to smile just by saying they were going to be free. "No. There are several bases for our organization in the Federal Provinces of Canada, so the most you can do is cross your fingers. It's too dangerous to stay or have anyone wait, because while they haven't gotten here yet, it's inevitable that the feds will eventually find us. When they do, well..." He looked away from those eyes and shrugged. "Anyway, just call me Parker, Dyami. Formalities are useless when the world's like this, and I'm no better or worse than you or anyone else." He pulled the exiting gate open. "So, let's get a move on before they get a chance to find us, yeah?" He smiled a bit.

"I don't have to cross my fingers, the trees will lead me to him." He replied wistfully, nodding slightly and repeating as thought it was a foreign language. "Parker. It is nice to meet you. And yes, please, let's move." The long section of his hair got in his eyes and he brushed it behind his ear, moving along beside the man with a cat like grace. He felt free already and they weren't even a mile away from the site where he had left Elu. "Hatred is useless too, but that doesn't stop other's from participating in it." He said in an airy tone, trailing his fingertips over the trees still as he passed them.

Parker nodded. He wasn't even going to ask about the whole tree thing. "Well, tell that to the people who hate." He shrugged, ice blue connecting with amber. "That is, if you can get them to listen. Sad thing is, they probably wouldn't." He looked back down at the trail. "Good thing about the world is that nothing in permanent. Everything's in constant flux, so maybe soon they'll find something more constructive to hate." Being in such an organization, he knew it was frowned upon to lean too much one way or another, so he tried to stay in that middle ground while expressing his view. He was already pretty moderate as it was, though, which was good for saving him from the wrath of not only the rads, but regular humans. Now all he needs to do is learn to talk to animals.

"Most rads hate those who hate us, but I think that's about as constructive as..." he thought for a moment but could think of no comparison, "Well, it's not very constructive at all." He met those eyes briefly as well, because it was lucky that one such as him had gotten this power...the ability to manipulate oxygen. He could suffocate someone without blinking, but he wouldn't Couldn't. Birds passed over head and he took in a deep breath of fresh air, smiling still because there was nothing else to do. Then licked the flesh of his full lips, it was dry out here but Dyami liked the sun. Like everything about anywhere that wasn't the cold walls of those facilities.

He turned his head back to Parker, tilting his his head slightly and asking, "Why do you do this, Parker?"

"Well..." Parker shrugged a little. He got this question every time.

"...At first, I was a legit security guard at Stanton Lake. The pay was good, and I needed the money to ward off all the loan sharks. I just did what I was told for about two years. Then, when I got promoted to interior security, I was often one of the officers invited to executions. Terrible stuff, Dyami, no one deserves to see that..." He shook his head.

"Anyone. Keeluf was already a rogue guard when he pulled me aside last year and asked me if I'd help him get some folks outta here. After I did that, Sevetta asked if I could join, and I said sure." He sighed, looking up at the sky. "And that's how it happened. Dangerous stuff, but it's worth it. I'm betraying the government to help save the country. Sounds good when it's put that way doesn't it?" He chuckled some. "I mean, I know I'm not gonna go down in history or anything, but I know I'll be remembered as the guy who helped some other guys save some rads. And that's good enough, I guess.”

Dyami listened intently, interested in the man’s tale, walking beside him easily and raking his fingers through the short end of his hair where it tickled his ears. He had been on the run pretty much all his life, alone save Elu, in and out of facilities whenever he got caught. It was a hard life, and he remembered screams coming from down the hall, in his longer stays, though he had always managed to get free. Oxygen could speed up the corrotion of metal, and therefore metal bars never lasted more than a few weeks in his company. From there it was just making the guards pass out and getting Elu to throw him over the wall…

They had it down to a science, and now if this went well, there would be no more of that. Subconsciously, he ran his fingers over the mark on the back of his neck, the tatoo all rads in captivity were forced to wear. A630287, that was Dyami’s and he knew Elu’s by heart as well, and he supposed it was a small miracle they had put it in a place he wouldn’t have to see whenever he looked into a mirror.

Beaming at his savoir, and feeling almost selfish for not having broken out others with him in his own escapes, though it would have been impossible with his limited knowledge and forces, he said earnestly, “You’ll go down in my history, Parker.” His eyes crinkled at the corners, he smiled so big, before turning his attention back to the birds.

"Thanks." He smiled back, but he'd never be as happy as Dyami seemed to be, he couldn't even begin to imagine that. "Anyway, we'll be taking this trail for about six hours, with two fifteen minute breaks every three. This isn't how I'd want it, but this is so we can hopefully make it to base sooner than two weeks." He looked around at the dense growth of trees around them. "Colorado's beautiful in the spring."

He remembered the days he spent as a kid in East Tennessee, running around in forests like these, getting lost, looking for treasure, hunting with his father...man, those were the days. "So, you have any plans? You know what you want to do once you're home free?"

“Plans…” Dyami said thoughtfully, smiling just vaguely in a airy sort of way, his t-shirt was oversized and dirty, spotted with dirt and dried blood in a few places.

He was already missing Elu, but he knew they would be reunited sooner or later, Mother willing. But that brought his mind back to plans. Plans, for the future…that had never really been his forte, more content to lounge in the grass and gaze at the clouds or stars and talk to the birds, merely because they sung to him, and that was all the encouragement that he needed.

“I will be free, that’s all. I’ll experience living freely for the first time I can remember…But any plans other than living my life too the fullest? Not really. I prefer to go where the wind takes me.” A rocky incline in the ground forced him to ripped his eyes away from the sky to watch were he was going.

Parker nodded. "Hey, whatever floats your boat. Besides, when things are like this, you gotta be ready to die at any moment." He looked back the man whose head seemed permanently stuck in the clouds. "Rad or not, people will kill you for everything you have, no matter how little or how much you have."

Shifting his backpack a little to ease the pain on his broad shoulders, he stopped a moment at the fork in the road. Which way were they supposed to--left. All right. He trudged on, silent still, listening and watching the other man in his general strangeness, even by rad standards. Finally, he broke the silence. "We still have another five hours. Right now it's 19:00, so the sun should be setting in the next hour and a half to two hours. We'll stop then at the nearest clearing to rest a about fifteen minutes, then head on. We'll stop for the night at midnight, and get going again at dawn. There should be a river along the way. If you want any fresh water to cook, clean, or drink, I suggest you get it then."

As he spoke, he really wished he had something more interesting to say to a guy who liked to listen to the trees.

“A river? Really?” Dyami replied, almost in awe, because it had been months since he’d seen a river, on his and Elu’s escapes. There had been one, a beautiful thing, with a waterfall and rocks…he shivered at the thought. It was second only to rain on his list of things that he love about nature and his spirits were even higher at the thought of getting to drink from a river again, hear it flow, taste it on the air, swim in it…Dyami grinned at the man again, sort of wanting to hug him, but they were in the middle of walking…maybe later. He laughed to himself at the thought, hoping the man didn’t think he was insane. Oh well, most people did, even Elu did, but Dyami preferred to refer to it as in tune with the earth. It was hurt now, but slowly, slowly healing, and just happy it had survived such a blow. Much like Dyami himself.

They continued walking until even Dyami’s legs hurt, and he was used to running for quite a while, but such a long time without sitting was not doing well for his rather scrawny shoulders. His legs were sound, so he had no qualms with the walking, but his posture was poor and the bag was heavy, thought not as heavy as Elu. In fact the weight there reminded him of his separated friend, and so he didn’t mind it at all. The sun began to set, and the sky was painted orange with it, the hue tinting Dyami’s eyes a shade brighter until the amber nearly glowed. “The rest point is close, Parker?”

"Yeah. You'll see it in a moment. There's a makeshift bridge and maybe some beaver dams. Across that's a good-sized clearing, and---" He looked ahead, and there it was. About time, too. Parker was dead tired already. He hadn't done this in about a month and a half, two months at best. He felt out of shape. Rather than worry about the clearing, he set his bag down and sat on the ground for a moment before rising once more to refill his canteen and wash his face. He'd kind of missed this place. There should still have been some pretty good game around here, too. Maybe some deer, or hell, he'd settle for a field rat. "If you want, I can go grab some dinner." He pulled out a hunting knife. "I wouldn't suggest eating the berries, by the way. Choke cherries."

He took out a silicone-covered cloth to polish the blade, looking at his reflection in it pensively for a moment. Something felt a little...off about the place. He wasn't much for instincts, though, unless it was for hunting, so he shook it off.

Dyami sat down as well, settling himself in the grass on his back, crossing his arms behind his head and wincing at the thought of killing a deer like that…but he knew, of course, it was needed. It just still irked him, but he was glad the other was willing to go out and kill it…he had once, a rabbit and he hadn’t stopped crying for a week, and since then Elu had been the one to go out and find the food. He stretched out on the grass and gave a little groan as his back tensed and then relaxed, sighing a bit, and agreeing amiably, “Alright, no berries then.” He was content to lie there and watch the sun set, see the pink and purple beginning to seep into the orange… But he shifted briefly, lolling his neck back and tilting back his chin to peer upside down at Parker and give him another small grin, “Thank you.”

"Don't thank me yet. I have to find the food first."

He got up, sheathed his knife, and pulled the hunting rifle out of its case, which had been strapped to his bag. Making sure he had extra clips, he went over to Dyami and handed him his .40-cal. "Just in case, I want you to hang onto it."

And headed for the woods. It was getting dark, and fast. He had to hurry if he didn't want to meet up with anything unpleasant. Animals had been affected by the radiation, too, and coming in contact with one was never a good experience, especially the nocturnal ones. Their senses were heightened and their bodies strengthened to extraordinary extents if the radiation didn't kill them. The best and worst part was that the latter occurrence was becoming less frequent.

Taking shallow, quiet breaths, Parker snuck carefully through the woods, and it had probably been longer than fifteen minutes (damn him for being such a pushover about this sort of thing) before he came across anything. Taking out his night vision binoculars, he zoomed in to find that it was a fawn, possibly alseep, possibly dead, and alone. He got closer so he could zoom in more, make sure the thing was breathing, and it was. God, how lucky could this be? He pulled out his rifle, aimed, and was about to fire when he heard a feral growling behind him. Parker turned his head slowly, accidentally dropping the binoculars.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT. The grizzly bear looked him dead in the eye and he was paralyzed for a moment, trying to get himself to move, just do anything, as long as he gets away--and then the damn thing bit him at the juncture of his shoulder and neck, and there was blood, oh God, he wasn't used to this, he was never the greatest hunter at night, he'd never had to kill anything much bigger than him, and he was scared.

He screamed from the pain, because how could you not when a fucking bear is sinking its jaws into your skin and letting all the blood out and--he managed to fish out the knife as the bear pinned him down, and he slashed the fucker. Slashed at it till the blood covering him wasn't just his own. This seemed to go on for a decade, a century, and yet it ended in mere minutes. God, that...He still had the first aid from Keeluf, thank God. He needed to do that. He looked back after he had finally pulled himself out from under the bear carcass--the fawn was gone. He couldn't drag the fucking bear, what should he--oh.

Knife still in hand, Heavy and rigid, shining in the encompassing darkness with silicone polish and blood, he carved up the damn thing.

He hoped Dyami liked bear meat.

-

Dyami smelled the blood before he ever heard the other coming, his nose wrinkling slightly and sitting up, turning his head to-- “Oh! Parker, what--” He jumped to his feet, rushing over to help him carry it, looking at the gouge in his neck with a wince. The smell made him nauseous, and the sight of it even more so, but it was nature and so he tried not to think too much of it. The teeth were large but not too deep set, sharp but not overly so, big with a snout-shaped pattern… “You encountered a bear?”

He took set the meat down carefully so that it wouldn’t get dirty, and the went back to Parker, sitting him down carefully, eyes deep set and rounded with guilt. “I should have gone with you…” He bit down on his bottom lip worriedly and said, “I’ll patch it up, there is a first aid kit, isn’t there?” He concentrated on the humidity in the air, putting pressure on the wound with the nearly solidified air to stop the bleeding.

Parker nodded, trying to ignore the strangely solid pressing against his wound. The bleeding had slowed, and would soon stop. "It's in my bag...check the front left compartment, it should be there." He was feeling a little light-headed from the blood loss that had occurred, but he was thankful Dyami was therte to help. "Sorry I was so reckless...I'm already screwing up our schedule."

He hid the lower half of his face in his large hand, a flush of embarrassment flooding his cheeks, ears, and the bridge of his nose. How could he have been so careless? It was too late to go back, and if Dyami had went, rad or not, he was still human--if Parker had died and left him alone, he'd never reach the base. It didn't matter what the trees said, it was common sense. He sighed. "Thanks."

“It is not your fault, if this was Mother’s intention…” He gave the other a smile, finding the other’s flush rather endearing. He pulled out the first aide kit and used as little water as he could to wipe the blood from the wound and then wincing slightly as dabbed some peroxide onto his wounds gently with a swab, before wrapping it securely in bandages. It was just a flesh wound, he would be just fine, but he still felt bad for not joining him. He could have spotted the bear…killed it without even using a gun. Next time he would go, he promised himself. Dyami sat back when he was done and pulled the man’s hand away from his face and smiled at him, “All better.” He met the other’s pale blue eyes with sincere gold before looking through his knapsack, “Do we have matches?”

He winced, frowning at the pressure on his wound and a little concerned at how much the peroxide foamed in his wound. Once Dyami was finished, he thanked him again. He lifted up his hips to reach into his back pocket and toss the dark man his Zippo. "I've got fluid for it, too. It should last us for the duration of the trip, at least. Cooking utensils should be in both our bags." He took off his shirt, hissing at the pain when he lifted his arms up, grabbed a bar of soap out of his knapsack and washed the blood off as best he could, but to no avail. A lot of it had already set in. "Before any of that, though, we need firewood."

"Yes," He nodded, looking back at the other and stood up, because collecting firewood was something he could do at least. He looked into his bag and found a small flashlight and bit his bottom lip as he looked back at the other, "I'll be back soon, just rest a little, okay?" He headed out back into the trees, picking up dry wood and larger twigs along the way. The walk actually helped him clear his head, the fresh hair and away from the sight and smell of blood. He didn't have to use the flashlight after the moon came up, putting it in his pocket and then carrying the wood he'd collected back to the sight. He thanked the trees under his breath for allowing him to not get lost and then set the firewood down and organized it into a round pile, asking Parker as he worked carefully, as not to get splinters. "Is the pain very bad, Parker?" He peered up at him through the dark fring of his bangs.

"No, it's fine." It hurt like hell, but he'd suck it up. He couldn't piss and moan about a bear bite--there wasn't any time for that. He reached for his bag and grabbed a carving knife, two skewers, and a makeshift rotisserie he'd been taking with him since his second mission. Cooks the meat more evenly that way. He set it up after the fire was lit and began to cook. The meat didn't smell that great, just like burning flesh, but hey, food was food and he wasn't about to deny it. His toned torso where it wasn't wrapped in bandages shined with oil and water in the fire and moonlight, but nothing like those eyes that he felt like he couldn't look at without being hypnotized.

He took surreptitious glances at Dyami, studying the little details--the shape of his jaw, the way the light hit his jet black to make it almost seem blue--and he didn't even know why. He handed a skewer to the other man and ignored such things. If Parker didn't know why he was doing something, he shouldn't even be doing it at all, the way he figured it.

Dyami’s eyes caught the way the his light skin glowed in the light of the fire, he was…an attractive man, really, and Dyami wasn’t one to normally notice such things. He was also a good man, who knew what was right and wrong and knew how to take charge and when to step back. It made him smile at the thought as the meat cooked and then he nibbled on the food when it was done and handed to him. It wasn’t the best thing he had every tasted but compared to the gruel that the feds passed as food in the camps and facilities, it was better than dark chocolate. Gods, he thought suddenly, when was the last time he’d had chocolate? He finished eating in silence and he rolled his shoulders slightly and looked at the other, feeding some more oxygen to the fire to keep them warm as the night steadily got chillier. He laid back down on the grass and took a deep breath, watching peacefully as the stars slowly came out.

“When do we have to get going again?”

Parker looked back at him while he ate--he was one of those slow, meticulous eaters--and replied, "Considering we're already set up, it would easier to sleep and just get up before dawn." He unrolled the sleeping bag that had been attached to his backpack. "It's about 23:30 now...you get some sleep. I'll keep watch and wake you up when it's time to go." When he finally finished eating, he took both their skewers and washed them off. before heading back and sitting next to the sleeping bag. "Could you put out the fire? I don't want to waste any water." He put his palms on the ground, shifting the weight of his torso back as he looked up at the star-filled night sky.

“Are you sure? You lost a lot of blood…” Dyami worried his bottom lip with his teeth when the other told him his schedule. He didn’t want the man to be completely wiped out tomorrow, he’d had a long day, both of them had, but Dyami hadn’t been bitten by a bear. Without thinking much of it, he stripped the fire of all of it’s oxygen and watched it crumple immediately into nothing, crawling over to the sleeping bag but not getting into it just yet. “I got sleep in the warehouse…you probably got up early, why don’t you take this shift? I’ll be fine, and you were wounded. Please don’t wear yourself down, Parker.” He sat cross legged, eyes drawn down to the man on the ground instead of up at the sky for once.

Parker raised a brow. "Well...that's true, but..." he sighed. "Look, I'll be fine." He knew the other man was right, but still. Besides, he'd gone longer without sleeping. He needed to man up. "I'll wake you up at dawn. We'll get packed up and head out, hopefully by 0600 or 0700. Tomorrow will be twelve to fifteen hours total traveling, with fifteen-minute breaks every three. Seriously this time." He crawled over to the other man, patting him on the shoulder, his voice softening as he spoke. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow'll be a long day."

Dyami was still unsure, shifting slightly and frowning because the man had been mauled, well…that was bit of an exaggeration, but he’d had a bloody encounter with a near and one. He sighed a bit, because Parker’s tone left little room for argument, and he just crawled into the sleeping back and layed on his back beneath the warmth as he looked up at the stars. This wasn’t a bad way to go to sleep, not at all, with the warmth surrounding him and the stars above him…

“Good night, Parker,” Dyami managed to murmur through a yawn before he was out a moment later, closing his eyes to the night sky in way of something darker and more peaceful.

The blue-eyed man grunted in response, before turning around to face the river and the dense wilderness surrounding them. He would look back at Dyami every now and again, to make sure he was sleeping all right, nothing more, nothing less. Not because the way the longer side of his hair splayed about him looked beautiful and he'd never seen anyone look so relaxed in sleep, lips slightly parted and--after about three hours of this, he stopped looking because he realized it was creepy, and would he want some guy he's only known for a few hours watching him in his sleep? No.

The night continued on, peaceful and calm, Dyami sleeping quite soundly and Parker trying not to admire the way he slept so soundly.


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"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing, it was here first." -Mark Twain


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A/N: My freind and I, Toxic Waffles, decided since Hollywood was busy making all kinds of post-apocolyptic stuff, we'd try our hand at it. Except with Yaoi. It does have plot, it does have romance...along with a lot of other little things to make life after WWIII interesting. And sad. The story isn't angsty at all really, but it's the end of the world as we know it so there are a few depressing points.

Please review to tell me what you think so far. :)

-Chopanuke