No Sanity Left (Vaas Fanfiction)

Chapter 6: Smell of Death

dem blonde Australians [insert cynical phrase]

start this shit up again, nerd

~

I shielded my eyes from the sun, trying to get a better picture as I stumbled across the dirt.

An illusion, I thought. Right? An illusion.

I walked past the lines of straw and stick homes, sweating bullets with red eyes from my previous sobbing.

Okay, I knew Vaas was insane with no empathy, but I didn't think he'd leave me behind while he launched off with his whole crew. Kind of made me curious what he was planning to do in first place.

Hell, he had to have been concerned what I'd do, right? His specific point was to never let me leave. I had convinced him that I didn't want to, either. What was the point of the whole build-a-relationship-with-a-prisoner concept if he just left?

A bit anti-climactic if you asked me.

I looked behind me.

Oh, great. The vehicles and any quick means of escape were gone. Just perfect. They must have used them when they took off.

Wait.

Why...?

I froze as I realized something very bad. Very, very bad. I looked around, the hair on the back of my neck rode and my heart started to pound.

One night was awfully quick to grab everyone and the resources and leave. One night was awfully quick to abandon your whole upbringing of a place you've made a home for a long time.

They didn't have any prior reasons-- especially the vengeful and territorial Vaas-- to leave.

How did I not realize it earlier? How did I not think anything when Jason was in my room?

They were running. Running from something so powerful, Vaas couldn't keep it away.

So why did he leave me, of all people? Why was he able to grab everyone from the night and run?

It almost seemed scheduled.

I sucked in a deep breath and pressed my hands to my head. Fuck, it was so hot-- I was burning up.

I looked around and tried to find something to drink, except there was none. Where the well was, it was destroyed, and where the food was, it had disappeared.

"Shit," I muttered under my breath and my hands flitted around the emptiness-- this was bad. This was really, really bad.

I turned around and ran to the closest water source. Running was probably one of the worst things I could've done, putting up my body heat even more, but I was so thirsty it didn't matter.

I had to run into the jungle and find the closest pond. I had no filter system, and there was none of that liquid they usually kept in stock near the well to fix it.

It didn't matter. I cupped my hands in it and drank the water. I mean, at least it wasn't salty, right?

I assured myself of this as I drank more. The fish swam around almost nervously.

I looked up to hear a flock of birds flit away, some bumping up into each other, others flat-out falling into the ground. Several dropped next to me, turning stiff with their legs bent awkwardly and their beady eyes staring into the sun. A sense of fear struck me.

"What the..." I trailed of, only to smell a pungent scent of smoke. I coughed a few times as I rose up, my eyes widening.

The village.