Well, here she was.

Wading through the depths of hell for the better part of a week, on the verge of collapse the whole way through. Struck firmly through the belly, then across the shoulder, miraculously with at least some of her blood still in her body. Stumbling towards that vague beacon on the skyline.

And she was here. Somehow.

God, it would be so stupid if she died now. Gaunt only just began to wonder what, exactly, she expected Kiki to even do for her at this point. It wasn’t something she felt comfortable thinking about on the road, given it was really her only hope to keep going, and finally her thoughts slowed to a thick drawl in her mind and it was practically the only thing to think about.

It perhaps would have helped if Kiki looked even remotely qualified for anything, or anything like Gaunt had pictured her from her texts. Very professional, very descriptive messages, painting a similarly professional, observant kind of individual. Observant was… possible, but the former seemed more of a stretch.

Gaunt figured maybe she was professional for any child her age, anyway. Kind of shitty to find her last hope to be a high schooler, or even just that any survivor was a high schooler in the first place. Maybe it would’ve been worse if there weren’t any around. Either way, it put things into perspective; this truly was hell.

Kiki wasn’t looking so hot herself, which made sense given the circumstances. That said, her wounds were shallow, more of an infection risk than anything else. Maybe Gaunt could have kept the bandages for herself but then what would that make her if Kiki died, a child killer? Not something she cared to consider, even when all semblance of law enforcement was extinct. Even after Kiki threw back those mystery pills and maybe had an hours-long life expectancy.

So Gaunt was left with some tattered scraps to work with. Dusty, but dry, and as clean as she could get after dousing them in a healthy amount of Kiki’s whiskey. She gave the gut wound one last once-over for worms, or frankly anything else that might want to make its home there. Seemed like a lot of nothing, but it was really hard to see the worms when they weren’t moving anymore. That said, it wasn’t like they were prone to doing much after dying, so with that, Gaunt stretched the makeshift bandage over the wound and tied it as best as possible.

It didn’t feel right to look to Kiki for guidance, but she seemed eager to lead the way. At least in conversations. Gaunt practically forgot what it was like to hold a conversation with someone. Not in a bad way, either; as much as she was glad to see Kiki, she couldn’t imagine it was enjoyable for her to fill in all the silence while Gaunt sat and nodded.

See, on the one hand, great to have human connection again. On the other, all that stress.

“Come on, Gaunt.” Kiki beckoned from the stairs,

“Mhm, coming.” No reason to wait around, anyway. She was up and by the door before Kiki even stopped gesturing.

Just chill, Gaunt. You’re literally the only person around for miles. What’s she gonna do, walk away and let both of us die alone?

Kiki took the opportunity to keep the conversation going. “I haven’t checked the upper floors, so we could start here and then bring stuff down, then work on the lower floors. The apartment locks are pretty simple so I can pick them with a bit of time. I found some good stuff in here, like the soap, the whisky, pretty much everything except the fire axe. I found that while I was running from the coyotes. You know, I never used to be afraid of dogs, but I might be after this!” She giggled, the sound a little off, somehow.

She barely took a breath before continuing. “Remember the corpses I told you about? Yeah, I stepped in a dead dog and that’s how I found them. Oh, here, let me check this door- Oh, it’s locked, let me get my wires. I learned to lockpick when I was little. I think it was in a book I found in the library? I taught myself and showed my parents all proud, turns out they already knew how as well. They’re still better than me. I’ve always wondered how they got so good. Hopefully I’ll be able to ask them someday.” Her hands were shaking a bit as she tried to fit the wires in, missing a couple times before succeeding, maybe due to adrenaline. “Okay, gotta concentrate for a minute!”

Really, Gaunt could’ve broken down the door, but she didn’t want her first impression to be arguing, because why would she want that. “That’s, uh, yeah. No, there’s been some nasty shit out there, yeah, for sure. And it’s good you know how to do that.”

Wow, really Gaunt? Could you maybe try to be a little more vague next time? Gaunt didn’t wince or anything but she was convinced the expression she contorted in order to hide said wince was even more noticeable.

After a few minutes, there was a click. “Okay, door’s open, let’s see what’s inside! I hope there’s some food, because the tuna’s gonna run out real quick, and maybe some water, or a change of clothes would also be nice,” Kiki mused. She was right, and it kind of sucked that the food issue was halfway because of Gaunt’s creative approach to problem solving.

As she spoke, Kiki was flitting from place to place, opening drawers and cupboards. “Wow, these people really cleaned this place out. I don’t see much of anything, let me go check the bedrooms! Here, you can help, go check the ensuite bathroom while I look around the master bedroom. Oof, there’s a lot of dust in here, but maybe- Ah!” Her foot slid out from under her, and she fell with a thud. “Ooh, that hurt, what did I slip on? Looks like a photo. Let’s see.” She picked the flat square up, flipped it over, and looked at it.

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“Sounds good to me.” Gaunt’s mutter was so low she couldn’t even tell if Kiki heard. Probably not, due to her lack of response, but she also didn’t care to risk repeating it and looking silly, so off to the ensuite bathroom she went.

Exactly the kind of situation you’d expect after sitting around with broken plumbing for a few days. Stank like a bog, firstly and foremost. Past that, there was a thin layer of pale brown sludge coating every surface to be seen. The drain in the sink had popped out somehow, which probably had something to do with that. All the few bottles of toiletries that were left were completely emptied out, or submerged halfway in the sludge. Nothing worth keeping.

Gaunt was reaching out to a punctured soap dispenser when she heard the sobbing.

Shit. Her shoulder hit the door as she flipped around, sending a shockwave of pain arcing across her ribs. Her hand went to the site and she nearly tipped as her lungs emptied completely. Bracing her other hand on the doorframe, Gaunt took a breath, then two, then she could see well enough to make out Kiki halfway across the room.

Is she hurt? Nothing obvious, at least. No, not at all; she was curled around not a bloodied wound nor broken ribs, but that photograph she’d picked out mere moments ago. In three strides she was already there, hand on Kiki’s shoulder, which bounced up and down with each hitched sob. “Kiki, what– what’s going on?”

“H-he looks… Like my, my brother.” The photo showed a couple and their child, a boy about five years old with short, messy black hair. “I- what if I, I never see him again? I don’t- I don’t know h-how to get home, and- and I’m trapped here, and what if we’re here forever? What if it’s just us?”

“Kiki, look at– stop, Kiki, look at me. Just… Keep breathing for a minute, okay, and I want each breath to be six seconds in, eight out, I want you to count, okay?”

Kiki’s breaths were still a little quick, but her lips were mouthing the numbers out and trying, at least. Her hand reached out, squeezing Gaunt’s forearm. Gaunt racked her brain for whatever they’d taught her back in her psychology classes, or maybe those wellness meetings or anything. What the fuck do I do now?

Just stick with what you know. Usually it was okay. Apparently Gaunt was a “good listener”, which she was still half-convinced meant she didn’t know how to fucking talk when she needed to. That, and usually people were crying harder after she talked to them than before, which was confusing as hell. But it was okay enough.

Stick with what you know. “Okay, Kiki, look. I know it’s all up in the air right now. Like it’s not good, I know. But we can’t do anything about that right now, right?”

Kiki nodded, short and jerky. “I know, but what- what if we can’t do anything ever, what if we’re trapped forever, what if we‘re stuck like this?”

“Okay, but we don’t know, right? And we can’t do anything about that stuff either, so how about for now we do all the stuff we know how to do? It’ll be small steps, but we’ll get there eventually, so why don’t we just take small steps for now and we can worry about other things when we’re able to approach it a bit better.” Gaunt started massaging Kiki’s shoulder in a roughly circular motion.

Kiki leaned back a little into Gaunt’s touch. “Small steps.” She took a long, whistling breath, then let it out. “Small steps. Okay. It just… We just need some time. Some time to work s-stuff out. And then things will be better, we- we’ll be doing better, and- and we can deal with the big things then?”

“Yeah, yeah, for sure. For right now, we wanted to just look around this place a bit, right? So I already checked the bathroom, why don’t we look around the bedroom together? I can… I can keep that for now, too, you don’t have to hold onto it.” Gaunt didn’t take her hand from Kiki’s shoulder, instead opting to gently take the card with her other arm. It came away from Kiki’s grip without resistance. “Here, you can have a minute if you’d like, but I’d like you to help me out a little if you can.”

Kiki closed her eyes, taking a few more long, slow, breaths, then pushed herself to her feet. “Okay. I can help. Something to do helps, just… stay in the room for now?”

Gaunt nodded. “Yeah, for sure. We’ll be here together, you can just help me out for now, alright? Let’s look at the dresser first, I’ll check this drawer, can you look in the one next to it?”

Kind of manipulative you’re getting her to do work during a mental breakdown. She pushed the thought aside. Better for her to do something to take her mind off the situation, had nothing to do with that, as far… as far as Gaunt was aware, anyway.

Kiki nodded, getting to work. She looked inside the drawer, then yanked it out, inspecting it from all angles, digging her fingers in where there was a gap between the sides. Not at all the way Gaunt shoved things back and forth haphazardly. She reached into the space where the drawer had been, feeling around there, and only once her fingers had covered every surface did she move on to the next drawer. Honestly, it would’ve been faster if only Kiki was doing the work, which made Gaunt feel bad enough for thinking about making her do it all in her current state again, and then worse for thinking about how useless she was right now.

A couple items clanked on the floor where Gaunt shoved them too hard and they flew over the lip of the drawer. Nothing useful, neither in the drawer nor on the ground. Gaunt shut her drawer and watched as Kiki grabbed various bits and bobs, stuffing them in her pockets. Still nothing Gaunt would have called useful, but who knew.

It was only a few more minutes of that before Kiki shut her drawer as well. Gaunt looked at Kiki, made eye contact, nodded once before averting her eyes. “You want to look at the rest of the room now, too? We can check the nightstands.”

“Sure.”

That carried on for less time than Gaunt had hoped. Their efforts turned up a whole lot of jack shit, which was a shame, but there was always the next apartment, and then the one after, at least before going through the whole building. They’d find something, eventually.

Nothing left to waste time doing, no more ways to pretend they were being productive. “Alright, Kiki, do you… I don’t know. Whatever… what’s next for us? The next room, maybe?”

Kiki paused, thinking. Instead of answering Gaunt, she walked closer, paused again, then wrapped her in a hug.

“Thank you for helping me back there. You… having someone to talk me through helped a lot. You’re really good at that. Honestly, I wouldn’t have expected it since you’re kind of quiet, but you definitely proved me wrong. I guess first impressions can be pretty misleading, haha.”

“I… I’m not really…” Shut the fuck up, Gaunt. While attempting to get her racing mind under control, Gaunt returned the embrace. “I’m glad you’re better.”

“Yeah. I’m happy you made it here.” She pulled back, looking up a bit at Gaunt, and smiled. “Things should be a lot better now. You know what they say, teamwork makes the dream work, or at least, makes hell a bit less hellish.”

Gaunt felt a tiny smile tug at her lips. “Yeah, ha. We’ll be… It’ll be better.”

Well, not really.

But it might be close enough.