Fic: As We Walk Through Ashes - Part 2
He had a spaceship.
It used to be something he said smugly. Something he could lord over his friends and fellow reviewers from time to time. And who could top that? He had a spaceship. Its name etched on the side and everything. Mini bar and luxurious captain’s quarters, and did he mention how he had taken it as a spoil from when he had saved the world? Wasn’t it so impressive? He had a freaking spaceship.
Well, having a freaking spaceship didn’t do Linkara much good when he couldn’t beam up to it. It didn’t do any good when they had huddled under the table they had previously been sitting at in the karaoke bar in the middle of the night when the electricity suddenly went out with a burst of sparks and the ground shook, and all around them was the sound of terrified screaming and objects falling and breaking. Having a spaceship didn’t make any difference when they used dim cell phone light to see each other’s arms to clutch onto when they finally made a hurried dash in the otherwise pitch black building; Linksano leading the way using what grainy night-vision his goggles could provide.
Having a spaceship meant nothing when they spent that night crammed in a broom closet on the other side of the small stage Harvey had been performing on just a short time earlier. It was a tight enough squeeze for three, never mind five, but it was enclosed and secure. They spent that night in darkness and terror as a deafening rumble swelled and they all clamped their hands over their ears.
And of course, having a spaceship meant nothing when they went back to the apartment to find every building on the street on the ground in pieces. He couldn’t believe at first. It shouldn’t have affected them. Not them. Yet despite the protection spell over their home, it had fallen just the same as everything else, and it was with a cold tremor that Linkara was forced to acknowledge how big the scale of destruction was. His spell could protect against laser blasts and even minor explosions, but this was something far bigger, far more forceful. More than his novice magic skills could defend against.
Pollo was gone. The spell book. Nimue’s base and the main computer. They had no way to reach Comicron-1. His teleporters, equipment, all of their belongings, everything....
Linkara squeezed his eyes shut. He knew better than to let his mind drift to such things. But it was just one of those nights....
Things were just so quiet now. Talking seemed to take more an effort than he or Harvey could quite muster. Ever since the departure of what had once been their two loudest members, there was a void that couldn’t be filled and the silence grew more and more each day it seemed. Linkara still talked, still instructed everyone forward, but casual speech had dried up long ago. No more recalling terrible comic books he once reviewed, no more out-loud wondering of the other reviewers, no more nights where they whispered to one another to starve off boredom and loneliness. Nothing more these days than short, simple directions that received only nods of agreement.
But there was still one person who he could talk to without a word. One thing he hadn’t lost at least.
Linkara’s hand reached for the handle of his gun. He could almost feel a slight pulse under his fingertips, could almost hear a very faint voice. She was so close and yet so far. Whether she now lacked the strength to manifest or he lacked the ability to see her attempts anymore, he didn’t know. But regardless, he knew she was still there, could still feel her presence, and sometimes when he ran a finger over the barrel, he felt just a tiny bit warmer.
There was another way to feel warmer though, and Linkara curled up closer to Harvey as a different, more welcome memory began to play in his head.
They had walked up a hill, trying to see if the view would reveal anything to them only to be shown the same continuous landscape of dead grass and barren, withered trees.
The three lingered there for a little while though. The slope was not terribly tall, but it was steeper than it looked and Linkara and Harvey asked for a pause before heading back down.
The former comic book reviewer had glazed emptily out beyond the horizon, not even noticing Harvey approach him until the older man’s hand brushed lightly against his cheek.
That day they had been quieter than ever, Linkara especially. But no words were needed when Harvey leaned in close, brushing his lips lightly against Linkara’s and then gently sealing over them.
The kiss was soft and tender and Linkara found he had no feelings of surprise or startlement, and when they parted, it seemed the look in his eyes as all the answer Harvey need.
For the first time in a long time, they managed a real smile.
Ninja-Style Dancer’s obvious satisfaction could be seen in his eyes and he flipped a card up to display.
*Linksano and I had bets. I win.*
His mind now in a better place, Linkara felt a weak smile form as sleep finally began to overtake him. Everything was still awful. His team was still broken. Grief still had a tight grip on their hearts, and the next day would only be more of the same. But for just a little while, he could at least hope for a good dream. Because in spite of everything that had happened, he did still technically have a spaceship. A currently inaccessible one, but it was still his.
And maybe if they could just keep surviving long enough, he’d get to sit in his captain’s chair again. 90s Kid’s shouting would echo off the walls, and Linksano would get his lab back, and Harvey would tell everyone to keep it down from his chair at the mini bar, and NSD would toy with the cybermats. And there would be plenty of food and clean water and beds to sleep on. And Pollo....
Pollo would be there too of course. Pollo was his friend and friends stayed together.
Maybe....maybe Pollo had gotten out of the apartment in time. Just maybe...
And maybe getting his hopes up at all would only hurt worse when all was said and done.
Linkara sighed. He was so tried, yet sleep didn’t come easily anymore. He clutched more tightly onto Harvey and then immediately felt guilty when Harvey’s eyes opened.
He wanted to apologize at once, but as usual, words withered in his throat, refusing to actually form out loud in the air. But also like usual, Harvey seemed to read his emotions easily enough, and he simply pulled Linkara close to him.
“Just listen to the music, kid,” Harvey whispered sleepily in his ear. Thirst and ash had caused his voice to lose its smooth quality a long time ago, but to Linkara it was as sweet-sounding as it had ever been.
He closed his eyes once more. His thoughts had been so loud but now that he let them go, he could practically hear the music Harvey spoke of. Distant, like a hazy memory, but still there....
Suddenly, Linkara bolted upright, throwing Harvey’s limbs off him. That was music.
“Kid?” Harvey asked groggily while Linkara’s outburst caused Ninja-Style Dancer to hurriedly get on his feet in a prepared stance.
Linkara’s eyes darted around, trying to pinpoint which direction the sound was coming from. The light of the moon was bright, but not that bright, and directions really weren’t his forte to begin with.
Ninja-Style Dancer pointed off to the right and Linkara ushered everyone together.
“I don’t know what that is, but I’m going to find out. We’re not alone and we need to know who else is out here. Ninja, I’ll need you to go up ahead a bit. You’re the quietest and we’ll need to know right away if we need to retreat.”
The ninja gave a nod and began stealthily moving towards the faint sounds while Linkara and Harvey waited a bit before following behind.
As they followed Ninja-Style Dancer’s lead, the music gradually became louder, going from dim, almost indiscernible, to faintly making out snippets of what he thought were words. The tune was fast, and upbeat, but nothing Linkara could place or recognize; the words didn’t even seem to be in English. A glow soon came into focus and everyone slowed down, moving more cautiously.
And then they heard a familiar voice, echoing out loudly.
“God fucking dammit, this fucking shitty J-pop shit’s been playing for the past fucking hour! Would you turn the fucking radio off already?!”
And another voice popped up in shrill reply. “He likes the music, so why don’t you just shut your face?! You’re the one who wanted me to fix the radio to begin with!”
“Not for shitty J-pop!”
“Well that’s the only station coming in clear right now!”
“Do I look like I give a fuck?!”
“Well you sure don’t look like you give a fuck about keeping a low profile you loudmouthed idiot!!”
“Spoony?” Linkara choked out disbelievingly, beginning to run. “SPOONY?!?!”
He ran, ignoring Harvey’s voice behind him. He ran as hard and as fast as he could, everything was all a blur until he tripped over something and fell face smack into the dirt.
The music suddenly stopped and glow they had seen flared up, revealing it to be a lantern of some kind being held up by the man who had been doing half of the shouting. A man with messy dark hair wearing a white lab coat and spiral goggles.
“Linkara?!?!” he yelped, staring at the man scrambling to get back up on his feet. “What the...? How...? What in Tesla’s name are you doing here?!?!” he demanded.
Linkara’s heart pounded furiously in his chest. Could it be? Could it really be? Was it just a dream and when he woke up he’d still be back laying down next to Harvey in empty silence?
“Linkara? Is it really you?” Spoony asked, sounding unsure himself. “Fuck. Insano, I think we’re more lost than we thought.”
Linkara couldn’t have spoken if he wanted to, he just threw his arms around his friend and clutched onto him for dear life.
“Hey man, calm down. It’s....okay...” Spoony said while doing his best to shove his own emotions down. He wasn’t about to lose it on front of Insano of all people.
He put his arms around Linkara. “What the hell are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere? I thought you had a friggin’ spaceship. We... Insano tried to send you a signal or something. Thought maybe you could help us out and we never did hear anything...”
“How did you two cats wind up out here yourselves?” Harvey asked, shrugging off Insano’s half-glares at the team. “Weren’t you in Arizona?”
Spoony rolled his eyes. “Oh fuck, it’s fucking long story. No, actually it’s not. It’s all Insano’s fault.”
“For having saved your life more than once this past year, you do a poor job showing gratitude, Spoony One,” Insano scoffed.
“If you weren’t such a crazy bastard, we’d never have been taken in by the feds in the first place.”
“What did you say?” Linkara exclaimed, finding his voice at last.
“Yeah. About three days after the world went to shit, we get a pile of black suits busting down the door because Insano made it on their terrorist list.” Spoony said. “Which of course, he took as a big fucking compliment.”
“Well apparently no one else was stepping up to take the credit for the fall of civilization,” Insano interjected. “Though I finally told them they really should contact a certain Diamanda Hagan. I’m still not convinced this all didn’t just happen because she woke up in a worse mood than usual one morning.”
“Would you shut up?” Spoony snapped. “Anyway, since Insano actually managed to win presidency that one time, the government figured he might have swiped some classified material while he had clearance-”
“And I’m not saying I didn’t-”
“I said shut the fuck up. And the bottom line is that we got bags put over our heads, got dumped in a facility god fucking knows where, and didn’t see the sun for like, over a month.”
“But no prison can hold the great Doctor Insano!” Insano cackled. “They thought they had me bested but they made a very fatal mistake. Not only did they cut my hair, which took me an annoyingly long time to grow back I’ll have you know, but they tried to keep me from my son, and so I made my brilliant escape plan.”
“I’ll fill you in in the details of that catastrophe later,” Spoony muttered to Linkara.
And speaking of Insano’s son, the small pink orb took the opportunity to make his presence known, bouncing up from seemingly out of nowhere and Insano finally did quiet down as he scooped the mass of tendrils into his arms.
“So that’s the short version,” Spoony told Linkara, who had finally detached from the other former reviewer and was coming to terms that this was not some sort of dream too good to be true. “We’ve just been trying to get back home and not die in the process. Found out the hard way not to wind up on the main roads and almost got shot by some jackass, and fuck, the apocalypse has been a real pain in the ass, you know?”
Taking a minute to breathe Spoony finally took a serious glance at Linkara and his worn out companions.
“Guess you guys would know,” he said in an almost sheepish tone. Then he went ahead and asked. “Out of curiosity, where’s everyone else? I thought you had...” he trailed off when he saw Linkara’s expression and instead offered out a water container, which Linkara took gratefully.
“It’s a long story for us too,” Linkara said.
******
They had a lot to talk about and they took turns, sharing a little bit at a time, neither side revealing everything, not just yet. But it was a start.
And in spite of the tears, it felt pretty good.