[MW] Pennsylvania

[re_mybrains]

It's a pleasant March afternoon in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania -- sunny, partly cloudy.

In the courtyard of Pennsylvania Apartments, the bang of the front door slamming is still echoing when it opens again.

Two dozen zombies, in varying states of decay, are staggering towards it.

A human lighting generator, a superhero, a geek, and two regular schmoes are coming out the door to face them.

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.

Comments

[re_mybrains]

"Best chance that the survivors there are organized. There or DC, I guess. Maybe there are even people somewhere who have contact outside the country . . ."

He scrubs off his hands and distractedly crumples the wipes into his pockets as he finishes.

"Because this needs to get done."

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"Give me those. You don't want to pull them out accidentally and blow your nose into one of them. You'll get infected."

Her voice is still very, very even.

She holds out her hand for the pocketed cloths. Her eyes move upwards again to meet his, steady and brown and insistent.

"So this is a rescue thing."

[re_mybrains]

"I don't even know, Hawkgirl, it's -- I can't just leave this place to die, I can't abandon it. It's my home."

Belatedly but obediently, he pulls out the cloths and hands them to her.

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"I know what it's like to look at a world fighting for its life. I know what it is to look at a world like that and feel the responsibility for it settle on your shoulders."

She knows what it's like to look at a dying world, too, and have to leave it behind with every atom of her being fighting and screaming not to do just that.

The cloths are taken gently from his fingers.

"I'll burn these as soon as I get back. If I go back."

Or maybe she'll take them back home to the JLA in one of those specimen bags she carries and give them to Pieter Cross to analyze.

[re_mybrains]

He frowns. "If? Oh, no. Like hell you're staying here."

Superheroine or not, he's not keeping one person here who doesn't have to be here.

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"Like you can tell me what to do?"

But she's smiling. There's something knowing and even a bit sad underneath, but the smile is very genuine and very wide.

Because she understands.

"Think of how much easier it'd be with the ability to recon from the air. Why are you so determined to do this alone?"

[re_mybrains]

He makes a frustrated noise, running both hands through his hair. "No. Look. No one deserves this shithole. And I know how that sounds with me wanting to come back here, but I've got to do this, and you don't. You have your own world to be saving."

He shakes his head. "I am not going to risk anyone long-term out here, least of all you."

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"What would you do if I stayed anyway? Followed you around? Because thus far, you haven't given me a good enough reason not to. Most worlds need saving, Tom. It's not like I don't already world hop as it is."

She's pushing a little. Because she needs to know if this is Tom's stand, if his need to do this alone being the thing that he'll measure everything that comes afterwards against. Men make themselves or break themselves that way, crashing against themselves and either coming out whole or coming out as something else.

[re_mybrains]

A quirked, shaky smile. "Yell at you, probably."

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

The smile widens.

"Yeah, I bet you would."

She looks down for a few moments, scrunching up their antiseptic smelling cloths, then unsnapping one of her pouches to push them inside. The smell of alcohol is fading.

It's hard for Kendra to get physically cold wearing Nth metal, but she rubs her arms, feeling the threat of goosebumps.

"So what's your plan? How are you going to do this?"

[re_mybrains]

"Follow the highways, travel by day -- same way I got here from Detroit. Just with more ammunition this time."

He glances around and adds, jokingly, "And with more staying out of the middle of big cities if I can help it."

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"You need to be striking a balance between staying out of sight but not going too remote. Stick to places where you have high visibility in all directions, preferably flat. You need to find gasoline and a vehicle. A big vehicle, then drive like hell. Because trying to skulk your way to New York City might get you dead. I'd say find a garbage truck, but that might be too cliché."

Bossy? Kendra? What?

[re_mybrains]

Blinking, he looks back at her -- and he keeps looking at her for a long moment. Just looking.

Shit.

Finally, he nods. "I'll try, anyway. Roads might not be real passable."

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"This is going to be the only time you'll ever hear me tell someone to get a Hummer. And you need potable water, Tom. You need to find a hardware or camping store and get water purifying tablets and those portable water filters. Do they have REI here? You need to do this right, or I will be pissed off. I've been doing this kind of thing a long time. Stay hydrated, eat lots of protein, and get all the ammo and weapons that you can. Do you know how to use incendiaries? And get a flamethrower. Can you use a manpack?"

Never mind that he survived here without her or her advice. It's a quality of life issue. If he gets to New York on his last legs and promptly keels over when he finally meets other survivors, that won't do.

[re_mybrains]

Tom blinks. A lot.

"I'm not gonna be able to run if I pick up a flamethrower. What's a manpack?"

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"It's a portable flamethrower that you strap to your back. Never mind, they're hard to find unless you find a military installation that for some reason still has them. Can you make molotov cocktails? Gas, glass bottle, ignitable wick. Use them if you have to, if your zombies are distracted by fire. They also make people burn nicely. Zombies, too. And a solar powered or hand cranked radio."

Deep breath.

She looks at him, waiting.

[re_mybrains]

"Mostly zombies on fire just keep coming towards you. I think if Elle's electricity hadn't been so powerful it wouldn't have worked. But yeah, I know how to make them."

He looks back at her, and then reaches out to take her hands.

"You're gonna let me go."

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"Not really," she replies.

She folds her hands into his, letting a thumb graze across the back of his hand, then holding tight.

"But you won't let me come, will you? I'd knock sense into you, except...I understand. I do."

[re_mybrains]

"I'm--"

He's hoarse; he swallows and tries again.

"No." Beat. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't knock any sense into me, this is gonna be tough enough already."

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

"I won't send you into battle already bruised, I promise."

Her hands untangle from his, so she can slide her hands up his arms, reaching up to his shoulders to pull him closer.

Kendra's been told she gives good hugs, because she always means it when she does.

Right now, she's hugging him tightly.

[re_mybrains]

Tom lets out a shaky breath and puts his arms around her, face against her hair.

(And for once he doesn't worry about where the heck you put your hands when you're talking with a woman in spandex.)

"Thanks."

Oh fuck this is hard.

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

It is hard, which is why she completely relaxes into him and holds him, holds onto him because this world may not want to let him go. She's hugging him the way you do when you want to impart every bit of your strength and sense to another (humanoid) being.

"You're welcome," comes the somewhat muffled reply from the vicinity of his shoulder.

He smells good. He smells like Tom. She doesn't want to forget how he smells, or the feel of his cheek in her hair, of the fine bones of his face, or the set of his shoulders and steel of his back.

[re_mybrains]

A couple deep breaths.

"I'm gonna come back, okay?" he murmurs against her ear. "I've gotta do this, and then I'm coming back if I have to try every fucking door between New York and here. I promise."

[accipiterpuella.livejournal.com]

She'd forgotten about that. The door. What if it moves? Maybe she should stay here, pretend to leave with the others and then try to come back, follow him, clear the way to New York, pull a fast one, or at least watch the damn door.

No.

That won't work.

Her head turns, so she can whisper into his ear.

"You better."

If he doesn't, she may have to eventually violate space-time, come back here, and take out her anger on all the undead walking around.

"Tom."

[re_mybrains]

"Yeah."

Tom may not have a head for the bigger picture, but this plan, he can follow through on.

"Yeah?"