David spent a few minutes trying to wipe the marker off his face, but it refused to go. When he came back out of the bathroom he had the faded and slightly spread drawing of a moustache on his face.

‘‘Kid, it’s not getting off !’’

‘‘Yeah, it’s possible that the only marker I found in that apartment was permanent…’’

‘‘Are you serious ?!’’

‘‘Oh come on… It’s not like you need to go to work or something ! We’re not gonna see anyone else ! And even if we do they’ll be too busy worrying about their survival to pay attention to your beautiful facial hair…’’

‘‘And you had to draw it all awkwardly because of my real moustache, it just looks really stupid…’’

‘‘Yeah well about that, you should probably be thankful, actually. Because when I realised your beautiful moustache was in the way I thought of drawing something else, say, on your forehead. But I decided that was too mean. So, you’re welcome !’’

‘‘Flattery will not get you off the hook, young man…’’ He said, starting to turn into a dad.

‘‘Oh no, are you going to ground me ?’’ Tundra asked sarcastically.

There was silence for a second.

‘‘Okay, well, maybe you are off the hook then but don’t do this again. My real moustache is dyed red now because of you. I look so damn stupid…’’

Tundra turned to look at him.

‘‘Oh, shit ! Nooooo, your beautiful moustache ! It looks so stupid like that and it was so glorious… I’m sorry… I didn’t think the marker would actually colour the real thing…’’

‘‘Oh, so now my real moustache is affected, you suddenly feel bad, is that how this is ? Why are you even so obsessed with my facial hair ? It’s just a moustache ! I didn’t even groom it, it’s just my natural moustache !! It’s really not that impressive !’’

‘‘How dare you ?!’’ Tundra gasped, pretending to be shocked profoundly. ‘‘This moustache is glorious just the way it is ! Don’t you even think about grooming it. Or worse yet, shaving it ! I wish I had a moustache like that.’’

‘‘Well good luck with that because your beard doesn’t seem ready to sprout anytime soon. Seriously, do you have a single hair on your face ?’’

Tundra didn’t answer. He bit his lip, then turned to his pack and got right back to business. He rummaged through his stuff, making a list in his mind of all the supplies they had in their possession. He suddenly sat up, seeming to have realised something important.

‘‘Ah, shit…’’

‘‘What is it ?’’

‘‘That’s none of your concern, old man…’’

‘‘Don’t call me that.’’

‘‘Yeah, yeah, whatever… Do you have anything useful ? You lost your pack when you ran into Damian, but did you have anything that wasn’t in it ?’’

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

‘‘Oh, well, no, but I was thinking maybe we could go get it back ? I don’t know the way to that park, but-’’

‘‘Dude.’’ Tundra interrupted. ‘‘You left your pack lying in the middle of a park, in the middle of a city full of apocalypse survivors, and you expect it to still be there the next day ? No. It’s been stolen and if you’re lucky you’ll find one of your socks forgotten in the street somewhere…’’

‘‘O- oh… But, we could go check anyway, you never know…’’

‘‘No. We’re gonna try to stay out of the open as much as possible. I don’t know how many people my father sent looking for me but I don’t want to run into them. And finding the Founders is still my priority. We’ll get you some new stuff, don’t worry.’’

‘‘But-’’

‘‘I said no. That’s final.’’

‘‘Hey, I’m the adult here ! Now, I’ll let you do the thinking since you seem to know what you’re doing, but you will not speak to me like that, because I am a member of this group. There’s something important to me in that pack, and I want it back.’’

‘‘You’re the one who decided to join me. I never forced you to do anything… I don’t care.’’

‘‘Well then if you don’t care why am I not dead right now ? Listen, kid. We’re in this together now, whether you like it or not. So will you help me look for my stuff, or will I go out by myself ?’’

‘‘You’ll get yourself killed if you go on your own !’’

‘‘Maybe.’’

Tundra seemed to realise that he was in fact stuck with this situation. Now that he had risked his life to save David, he knew he just couldn't let him go out and die alone. He groaned, really pissed off by this.

‘‘Fuck, you win. What are we risking our lives for today ?’’

‘‘A key-ring.’’

‘‘A key-ring ?! Are you fucking serious right now ? You’re gonna get us both killed for a fucking key-ring ?!’’

‘‘You’re the one who decided to join me. I never forced you to do anything…’’

‘‘Hey, listen here you little shit !’’

David looked unimpressed. With a jeering smile, he opened the door and stood by to leave enough space for the kid to get past.

‘‘After you.’’

‘‘Oh, fuck you…’’

Tundra stood up, threw his pack onto his back, made sure his knife was safely in his belt, and went to the door, followed by Noche. When he reached him, he handed his companion the metal pipe. If they were going to be doing something stupid, they may as well be both armed, even if their weapons weren’t that impressive. They both headed down into the sewers.

The park was silent, the high sun beating down on it. A flock of pigeons flew away in a hurry when a manhole cover slid to the side and a man, a boy, and a cat emerged. They blinked in the sudden sunlight, then went straight to a specific bench and started searching around it, looking in the bushes, the dirt, the bins… All the while, not a single word was said. Finally, the kid sat down on the bench with a sigh.

‘‘I don’t think it’s here, dude…’’ Tundra said, breaking the silence. ‘‘It’s too hot, we’re in the open, we can’t stay. What’s so special about this key-ring, anyway ? It better be pretty damn important for us to-’’

‘‘It’s a photo of my daughter.’’

‘‘Oh. I’m sorry…’’

They stayed in awkward silence for what felt like forever. He felt really guilty for all the insults he’d thrown at David in his head now that he realised why this was so important to him.

Fuck. Stupid. You idiot. You didn’t know shit about his situation so why the fuck did you have to say anything ? Why couldn’t you just shut the fuck up and help him. You didn’t need to know. You didn’t need to let him know how annoying you thought this was. Why do you expect him to tell you his reasons for everything when you won’t even tell him shit yourself ? Fuck.

‘‘Okay, well there’s nothing here, but whoever took your bag probably went through it to throw out anything they didn’t need. So, maybe we can find the spot where they did that. The photo wouldn’t have been useful to them, so they probably wouldn’t have kept it. I’m sure we can…’’

‘‘Yeah, let’s do that. Thanks, kid.’’

‘‘Okay, great. For now, let’s just get back underground and find some place to crash for a bit…’’

Oh shit. Why did I say that ? How the fuck am I supposed to find the spot some random stranger went to to look through a stolen bag ? For all I know they could have just gone straight back home with it… Fuck. I’ve really gotta stop doing shit like this…

‘‘Kid ? You there ?’’

‘‘Uh, yeah, yeah, let’s go…’’