Ten Years After The Flash…

I looked around, generally aware of the new mutants roaming the earth. The US was a wasteland; a former shell of what it once was. A great country, completely reduced to dust and pure nothingness. The bitter chill surrounded me on the daily, somehow following wherever I decided to go. It was particularly unpleasant up in the northern parts. It was also unpleasant where I was staying, which was close to the equator. Free State hadn’t supplied us for months, but we’re still holding on to that outrageous belief that they will. Except for me; I’ve lost hope for something like that long ago. Golden Leaf Army is one of the only things I can turn to. I stepped outside, and the wind blew me over similarly to a palm tree on a breezy Summer day. Although, this was the complete opposite, as I was freezing my ass off. I looked around at the ruined buildings, then looked back at mine. It had seemed somewhat intact until about 3 weeks ago, when the thing started crumbling. I had a premonition that this wasn’t due to last. I set out; now my last journey from this house. I had to find an intact shelter somewhere; anywhere would work at this point. Bonus if it had a generator. “Why are all of these buildings having foundation failures?” I snarled under my breath. I swore to whatever God would listen to my bullshit, despite my atheism still not wavering. It was still dawn outside, so I could get a head start on the slippery ground beneath my feet. I walked for a fairly long time, before stopping underneath a bridge to take a break. Surprisingly, the ground wasn’t going to freeze everything over if I sat down on it. It felt hotter than the outside temperatures that were equivalent to Antarctica's. In fact, that place was probably hotter than the United States after The Flash. I couldn’t make the journey there, anyway; the boat would sink before we made it halfway because the oceans were half-frozen over. An hour into my break, dusk crawled over the horizon. I had to continue my journey.. Unless I could just fall asleep here? It was worth a shot, I guess. I laid down and kind of nuzzled into the ground, attempting to be as comfortable as this damn cold would allow me to be. I fell asleep somewhat quickly, but somehow it wasn’t forced. I stood up, the night still looming over the sky and the outside from the bridge was colder than I had anticipated. “Just great.. More shit that I have to deal with.” I sound ungrateful, but I’m just happy that I’m even alive today. The fact that I’m able to stand so stoic and proud isn’t a normal feat- Wait. That growl. There was a mutant here. “Shit. This is bad.” I swore countless times under my breath. It was too quiet to hear, but you can say I rapped like a gangster from the 20’s. The mutant roamed around, staring into space. I readied the musket I’d carried on me since The Flash. I was careful not to alert it to my presence. It's head turned sharply just like an owl’s, and I dived behind a large boulder, hoping to conceal my presence just long enough to stick a bullet into it. I peered out from behind the boulder with my musket in hand, and I aimed it. It released its bullet with a loud BANG. The bullet stuck into the mutant’s behind as it went limp. “Must’ve hit the spinal cord.” I said, in complete shock. I essentially aimed blindly at this thing, and I hit it somehow. The mutant collapsed into a pile of limbs and viscera. I went over to the mutant’s lifeless body and took its magnetite crystal from its central organ. With careful precision not to break it, I stored it inside of a bag. The bag weighed me down, so I hardly carried it with me at this point. It became even heavier with this addition, so I looked inside. It was completely full of magnetite. “God, I’ve killed that many mutants?! Jesus!” I yelled out. I didn’t know I was capable of this much killing until after The Flash. After some more walking, dawn finally rose to the horizon and I looked out in the distance, and saw a building in the faint field of view I had. Surely, it was abandoned, right? I had to investigate it, though. From the near opaque view of it, it seemed to be completely intact. I smiled for the first time in 2 months. I started to run, but decided that wasn’t a good idea. What if there’s someone in there, or worse, a Provisional Government agent? I had to be at my best so I could fight if needed. I started into a gait, which turned into a jog. It must’ve taken an hour to get there, but in reality it only took around 10 minutes. The building’s door was completely shattered. It’s almost like they were inviting me in. “Well, let’s just hope that there’s no one wanting my head in there. That wouldn’t be good at all.” I looked back to the horizon, and dashed in.

I yodeled out into space. “Hello?! Hello!? Helllooooooo???” I yelled out. No response. After approximately 30 seconds of standing there, waiting for a response, I got something. Low breathing. “Leave. Leave this place, Provisional Government agent!!” The voice yelled out, with a drawl convincing you they were very Southern. I pleaded to the voice yelling, “Wait, wait, wait! I’m not a Provisional Government agent, I swear!” I looked around the dark foyer frantically. I saw someone that looked very similar to Arthur Morgan come from around the corner. “State your name and business here. Or leave.” The southerner growled at me. I did so, out of fear of being shot by the revolver in the holster. He swiftly grabbed it out and pointed it at the bridge of my nose. I followed the orders, “Grey Balthazar. Ally of the Free State. Mercenary of the dead band Scarlets.” I told him my first and last name, and the occupation that I worked.. At least, USED to work. That band split long ago. “Wait. Grey Balthazar? I swear I’ve heard that name somewhere before.” The southerner said. “Do you by chance know Tobias Kandashrie?” He asked this question. “Of course I do. He was the leader of the Scarlet Wings.” I told him. I tell everyone I meet about this relationship I had with the guy. “Holy shit. You’re no stranger. It’s me, Barry!” He said, ecstatic. I searched my brain for memories of him, and found some. I attempted to have them stick to my brain, but to no avail. My mind was on other things right now. The revolver pointed at my face, the cowboy about 30 feet from me, et cetera. I finally got the memory to tape into view for me, and at last I remembered who he was. “It’s you! Where in the hell have you been?! I searched the entirety of Louisiana for you! I thought you were dead!” I shed a happy tear as I found one of the members of the Scarlets who wasn’t killed by the Provisional Government. The memories of Barry weren’t as clear as the memories of Tobias, but they were clear enough to guide me into cognitive remembrance. It’s been a while since I shed a tear out of pure happiness. I was genuinely happy to see him again. It felt almost deafening to hear that excited Southern accent of his for a second time. It always made me smile, and swell up with that joy that I had missed since I was a child. My eyes sparkled with pure ecstaticity, as I reminisced with him for some time. After the session of therapy, and me having a great laugh that I haven’t been able to do since The Flash, he proposed an offer to me. “Let’s travel together. 2 people will work better than one.” That was rational, I thought. “Let’s do it!” I said, with fierceness. It was great to have this feeling of unbridled happiness again.

Sometime after we set out, it felt like we were making no progress. Not to mention the blistering cold that encompassed us almost like an aura. Barry’s hands slumped to his side as he nearly fell over. I noticed this almost immediately and assisted him in getting up. “Careful.” I told him cautiously, almost like a parent. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Where are we even going, anyways? It seems like we’ve been walking for hours.” He scowled upon saying this. He was right; it had been hours since we set out from his safe house. The dusk encroached in from atop the horizon as the moon slowly rose through the sky. The trees attained a sort of luminance as the moon casted it's bright light directly onto them. They were alluring to look at, but we had other priorities. Tree-gazing comes later, I thought to myself in the darkness. The distance between us and a sign became almost non-existent. We continued our walk through the night, and the sign became eerily clear to read. Lafayette, Louisiana. That’s what the sign displayed out in the bleak night. “Hey, look! We finally made it to Lafayette!” I sort of cheered as I realized our distance to the train wasn’t terribly far. “I’ve been waiting to get to Lafayette. I heard rumors of a medic that owns a safe house here.” Barry told me this information, and my face adorned an astonished look, as I replied, “Really? Wow. There’s a lot more of these safe houses than I originally thought.” Barry & I continued onward, through the dark night. We finally arrived under a bridge, where we declared to set up a camp for the night.

Around six in the morning, I jolted awake in a cold sweat. I had heard a noise in the dream I had, and that corresponded to the real world. I shook Barry awake. “Dude. Barry. Wake the fuck up!” I panicked, something unusual for me. Barry grumbled, “What’s going on?” “I heard something snarl,” I replied in urgency. Barry helped himself up and grabbed his weaponry, then went outside. I followed suit. The snarl returned to my ear, the drum rattling gently whenever I heard it. The hair on the back of my neck stood on edge. I flicked my vision to right behind me, and I saw the shadow of what looked to be a mutant. It cowered behind the bridge’s ramp. I pointed over there, and Barry seemed to know exactly where I was pointing to. I trained my gun on the corner, ready to shoot whatever was behind there at a moment’s notice. I creeped up, and peered my head around the bend. My face turned from mortification to anguish in what could only be counted as a microsecond. “It’s even worse,” I whispered, “it’s a damn Provisional Government soldier! What are we going to do?!” The whisper turned into a scream, but I kept my volume down so as to not reveal our location. Barry growled, “Cool your jets. I’ll handle this sucker.” Barry then snuck around the bend as I had, only he now trained the gun straight at the soldier’s head. Identifying the emblem that was embellished on their tracksuit, we both immediately could tell that they weren’t an ally. Barry shot with near perfect precision, and the soldier fell dead. Barry blew the smoke that projected from his gun. “Bullseye.” I looked back at him, my face turned into something resemblant of an emoticon. My eyes went wide as I saw how well he aimed at something. If he can train his gun on something, his aim definitely well rivals my own. The snarling still invaded my eardrums. We weren’t out of the woods yet. The mutant emerged from the other end of the bridge, and we locked eyes with it. It raged forward, and I shot it while it was at point-blank range. Headshot, then its body exploded and dissolved into blood and viscera on the road. We continue northward, to the rumored safe house. The weather today would be a perfect Summer day for swimming.. If all of the swimming pools didn’t have radiation coursing through them. We continued our slow journey across the state, until we came across a rickety building.. And a fully intact one as well. “You think that’s it?” Barry asked me. “Well, no shit.” I told him with the slightest hint of condescension in my voice. Barry jabbed me in the stomach with his right elbow and I almost keeled over. “Bastard- that hurt!” We both chuckled. We approached the safe house and knocked on the door. A girl’s voice this time, she couldn’t be older than twenty-five. “Just a moment!” She shouted through the hole punched through the door. We stood there in anticipation. The girl opened the door after just a minute. Well, it’s nice she actually made true on her word.. I thought to myself. She was a little shorter than I had anticipated. “Oh! Are you with Free State?” She asked us, like an interviewer. I answered first, apart from Barry’s social awkwardness. “No, we’re just mercenaries. We are allies of Free State, though.” I told her, with legitimacy. “Oh, super! Please tell me you have weapons too…” She blushed slightly, the red appearing sporadically across her face. “We do. Don’t worry!” I reassured her. She reminded me of my long-dead daughter, and those fond memories came back. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come in, come in!” She cat-called us to her. We followed the encouragement. I gazed around, my face absolutely amazed at all of the decor that surrounded the inside of this safe house. “I’m Emma, by the way! Great to meet you, ..?” “Grey. And the Texan over here is Barry.” I helped finish the sentence with our names. She tilted her head at a 45 degree angle. Her face seemed to scrutinize mine. “Grey? As in the notorious Grey Balthazar?” I confirmed the suspicion. “Yep, that would be me! The co-leader of the Scarlets.” She took a step back, and her jaw unhinged out of pure shock and awe at the revelation. “I remember that name fondly.. I was that band’s medic!” She searched through her cognitive remembrance, and after she clicked upon the memory, she darted over and crushed me in a hug. “It’s been ten years! I thought you died After the Flash!” I reassured her that I wasn’t some sort of spirit or disguised mutant. I never let anyone know of my whereabouts after The Flash occurred. Her eyes positively sparkled with ecstaticity. It was honestly quite an adorable sight. Her smile reintroduced a lost sense of positivity and happiness into me. We had a lot of catching up to do.

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After the gentle reconciliation we had with each other. Her eyes blazed with passion. “Do we camp here for a few days?” I asked. “Well, if you want to. I won’t stop you. In fact, I encourage it!” She said with evangelical glee in her voice. I scoffed a little under my breath and muttered, Just like a little kid.. And Barry picked it up somehow. He looked at me with an adverse face. His eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets and I had to reprimand my body to prevent its collapse. He reminded me of old cartoon characters, and a bit of upsetting remembrance passed through my core. I shook it off, and rubbed my eyes roughly. Emma noticed this and chimed in. “Are you OK, Grey? You look upset.” I responded sort of sharply due to natural human instinct. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just remembering the old times before all the bullshit occurred.” I looked upon the horizon. “Sun’s setting. You guys want to sleep and we can set out tomorrow?” I suggested. “I think we’ll be fine right here.” Just as he said that, I heard someone kick down the door. The wind blew harshly inside of the safe house, as someone else came in. Provisional Government. I shouted obscenities at them. The way they sonically flowed out of my mouth made me sound like a rapper from 2019. The agent didn’t seem faltered by my rapid cursing. He spoke with a Boston accent. “Leave. Now. We’re raiding this safe house.” I, of course, retaliated; why wouldn’t I? There’s no point in NOT doing it. “Fuck that! You think we’re just gonna up and leave? You’re fucking stupid if you think that we’re just gonna sit idly by.” I shouted in the last sentence, and it seemed to make the guy flinch. I took this opportunity and I went farther than I should have in that current moment. I ditched the gun and went for fists. My knuckle drove straight into his face, as he arced 135 degrees into the air and fell onto his back. He yelled out in searing pain, as he crashed into the ground below. Before he could call for help, I rushed over to him and punched him 3 or 4 times before his face sprawled out into a disgusting mess. His body was lifeless for the time being; but his heart was still beating. My hands were bloodied, and I went to wash them off with some water. I was advised not to use more than my share, but I didn’t want my hands being bloody. I reconsidered my decision, and I decided it’d make me look scarier if there was hardened blood on my hands. I stepped out into the night and had it freeze onto my hands. Now, I had the stain of blood from a Provisional Government agent on my hands, and I felt powerful. It didn’t even take that many to make him go limp; I’d guess his muscle was flaccid based on the fact that he recoiled so harshly after each punch. Barry and Emma’s faces contorted with disgust, as I looked back at them, my body asking them what the bewilderment was about. Their faces returned to normal, as the door remained revealing us to the outside. I slammed it closed, and it made a thwacking sound as it closed. I turned around with sheepish guilt perfectly visible on my skin. “Uhh.. probably SHOULDN’T have done that…” I laughed a little bit after in an attempt to play it off, but Emma wasn’t buying it. A few minutes after the first incident, the door slammed open again, and this time, the Provisional Government agents doubled. There were two, and they had knives. Barry and I grabbed our guns, and we took two steps forward, then fired simultaneously. Both bullets hit the heads of the agents, as they fell lifeless. The bullet seared through the left agent’s head, and hit someone else because we heard a very gruesome pain noise, similar to being kicked in the nuts. We heard a very shrill “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.” with increasing pitch as each vowel and consonant was said. Barry and I chortled about hearing that. Barry’s bullet didn’t go anywhere else, though. It rooted itself in the Provisional Government agent’s head. We heard a shout from what we presumed was a captain. Their order was to retreat. They would return stronger, I’d bet..

“They’re gonna return, more beefed up. We need to leave by daybreak tomorrow. Understand me?” I commanded them like a general. They swiftly obeyed my order. With that, we went to bed, but the sun slowly creeped up upon the horizon by the time we got back to bed.

Upon awakening, the dawn entered my eyes and momentarily blinded me. I yelped out in pain after this occurred. I shut my eyes, and looked away from the ultraviolet light that seeped into the windowsill. I opened my eyes again to see the pitch-black midnight. I heard a knock on the door, and shortly after, Barry’s concerned voice asked, “You alright? You just screamed like a murder victim.” I heard it faintly through the door, just enough to make out the words he said. I responded, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just got the sun in my eyes. Didn’t realize I was looking directly into it!” I laughed at my own mistake as I rubbed my eyes again to shake the lethargy from my brain. Then, I kind of just.. Stared at the wall for a few moments, before getting out of the cot. I walked out to see Emma and Barry making small talk, before I came over. I broke the awkward silence that sat at the table. “I’ll go see what rations are left- for all this place’s abandonment, you’ve bound to have something here, Emma..” I trailed off, going less than 100 feet to the food storage cabinet. I fished the keys from my pocket. It opened swiftly, and revealed a gold mine of supplies. “Whoa! How?! How’d you get all this?” My face turned from the default stoic demeanor to a stupefied face. Emma winked, as she told me, “I have my own ways… Nah, I’m just playing. I raided places for it, duh.” She adopted a teasy laughter in that last sentence, and my face had told her to cut it out. Her face bit backward as she stuck her tongue out at me like a kindergartener. My eyebrows slightly furrowed at the sight, and she winced slightly. I turn my head back to the whimsy of all of the supplies in the cabinet. Food, water, flashlights, even treats that were almost no longer in production. I whipped back around, and I immediately asked Emma a question. “How long have you even been here?” Her face contorted into something between a mix of shock and wisdom. “Two years..? Yeah. Two years.” I looked at her with a face of pure astonishment. “How’ve you been here for TWO YEARS?!” My voice raised up due to my shock. I genuinely didn’t understand how she didn’t evacuate this place yet. She answered quite quickly, though. “PG never came to this place to seize it. In fact, they only sent one to two soldiers at a time due to the fact that they believed no one lived here. I’m short. Of course they would think that.” Emma looked up at me. I really was a hulking giant compared to her. “You’re like, what? 5’3”?” I asked her curiously. “Right on the money.” I, myself, hit the 6 and a half foot threshold some 15 years ago. I don’t even know how I grew slightly taller. I would say I’m about 6’4” now, due to age regression height and all that other stuff. I searched in the vacancy that I was taking up, and under the cot, I found a massive duffel bag. My eyes seemed to glow with pure happiness. I took the bag out and pointed at it. “Look what I found under my bed.” They looked at me in disbelief; I reassured them of their accusation. “We can take like.. Everything from this safe house for the road. Let’s start gathering supplies, and let’s set out. Toronto and Vancouver won’t come to us.” I reinforced our goal. The three of us filled that bag with sonic speed. It had a good variety of supplies, and we ditched some stuff that we didn’t already need. I volunteered to carry the bag, since I have the most muscle here. It was heavy, but I lifted it with subtle ease. I waved my hand, as I said to them, “Let’s go! We aren’t far now!” The three of us set out, a linked bond forming with us.

The road ahead was covered in snow, and the sound was like we were trudging through mud. It sounded horrible, but at least we were telling stories along the way. “There was this one time where I shot a scalie.” Barry said, completely catching us off guard. “You’re full of shit.” I told him, “There’s no way you actually shot a Scalebird out of the sky.”

Barry exclaimed out, “I did, honest! I even have one of its scales!” He rummaged through his bag shortly after, and pulled out a jagged scale that was magenta in color. “It’s not forged. Damn, where was I when you did this?” I was in complete awe. “This was about a month after we disbanded. I thought about selling the scale, but then The Flash happened, and you know the deal after that.” Barry said solemnly.

Our next destination was in close proximity. “Another safe house? How many more of these are we going to stop at?” Barry sighed, exasperated. “This is the last one. A friend of mine’s here, and he can get us the tickets to the Golden State Border.” I confirmed. We approached the door of this safe house. I knocked twice, quite loudly so the person inside could hear.

“Who’s there?” The man said, with a slight British accent to his voice.

“Chill out, gun down. Just me.” I assured him.

“Grey?! Holy shit! Where’ve you been all these years!?” The man exclaimed with surprise.

“Traveling; surviving. What about you?” I asked, making conversation with an old friend. “I heard you could get us train tickets to get us to the Canadian Border.”

“‘S right. I can, but on one occasion.”

I interrupted, “What’s the catch? Is it some sort of convoluted fetch-quest?”

He chuckled, “No, nothing like that. Let me come along. I have some, er.. Unfinished business in Toronto.”

I hear the tone of his voice shift to something more sinister as I look him in the eye and raise an eyebrow. “Don’t look at me like that! It’s nothing bad!” His cheeks flashed a red hue. I taunt, “You’re blushing.” In between a laugh, he chokes out, “Stop lying, ‘m not blushing!” “Then why are you red as a beet?” I counter.

“If y’all are done with your little qualm, I’d suggest we hit the road.” Barry says, with a degree of significance that I’d never heard before.

“We weren’t arguing, just messing around.” I retort back, “But I agree. We should get going before the feds catch us.”

Emma was outside, but she wasn’t shivering. “Emma, you want my coat or somethin’? It’s freezing out here.” Barry asks. Emma responds, “I’m fine. Skirmisher’s life has given me a large natural tolerance to the cold that permeates down here.” We proceed onward, the snow crunching under our feet.

After a few hours of walking, we made it to Baton Rouge. I somehow manage to speak in between my huffs of breath, “There it is!” The train’s pulled in, and the conductor waves us on. He doesn’t even check for our tickets. Once we get on the train, all of us collapse and fall into an encumbered sleep.

~Several hours later..~

We wake up from our near-comatose state, and look outside of our window. We see that the snow has exponentially grown in size, the snow gathering in literal piles outside of the window. The train jerks to a stop, and I see the signs above, below, and to the side. We’re at the border.