DESOLATION.

ii/i.

𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒕; 𝒆𝒙𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆

   
   The first thing Five noticed when he woke up is the feel of something prodding against his cheek. It's thin, and light like a feather as it continues to poke at him like an annoying alarm clock.

  Realizing he's not alone, his body jolts and he finds himself immediately sitting up, his eyes snapped open as he looks to the source of the prodding. With eyebrows furrowed together in annoyance and slight alarm, he finds [y/n] who's frozen with a finger up.

   "I could've easily snapped your finger in half, moron." He exhales exhaustingly while he rests his elbows on his knees and tries to get rid of his drowsiness. Five noticed the minimum lighting peeking through the boarded walls, and it must be around early morning as he realized the blue ambiance through the barely seen cracks.

   "Good morning to you, too."

   Sighing again, he finally managed to be more awake as he finally stood up, now taking note of the girl before him with dishevelled hair and a wide smile. The sleepiness is still obvious upon her youthful face, and she seemed to have also just woken up. She brings a hand to her stomach, patting it with a pouting face, obviously indicating her hunger.

   Five narrows his eyes at her, but follows nonetheless as he too pulls out their ration for the morning. He's gotten more mindful of how he rations his meals now that he's babysitting a toddler idiot, one who seems to be less than aware that resources are hard to come by.

   The morning dragged forward quicker than usual, and before the sun had fully presented itself above the blue skies, the two were already outside the small house they slept in the night before. It's warm, but the familiar feel of the slight, cold breeze signals the upcoming season of autumn. It's worrying to be out without the warm rays of the sun during these times, and he knows that by the time winter rolls by, the possibility of going out would be wiped out.

   "How do these transactions work, anyway? Do you like, do the job with a camera on you to show the client it's done and then they send you drones like The Hunger Games or something?"

   Five remained quiet, either too tired to speak or just plain annoyed to hear her talk so much so early in the morning. There's a slight pep in her step, and he watches as she looks around the place as if it's her first time seeing trees. There's the usual smile of hers plastered across her slightly dirtied face, and his lip twitch with a small sense of annoyance. But it's almost second nature nowㅡever since she tagged along. 

   He gives her an irritated look, and she just shrugs.

   The whole walk remained silent, with a few snippets of questions coming from the girl from time to time. He's learnt the ability to reply with one or three words, and it seems to do just the trick even though she's barely learnt anything about him aside his most disliked color. So far, he had gone on with the piling knowledge about her most liked classmates and favorite teachers that he definitely could've gone on without knowing. It's useless. Everything that comes out of her mouth is useless.

   By the time afternoon rolled around, the two had covered more ground than they'd expected, and Five is sure that by afternoon tomorrow morning, they would be in Woodpine.

   They passed by walls covered in graffiti, and the obvious painted words of doom are ever present. But the most notable graffiti is one that sticks out like a sore thumb due to the sloppy spray painted image of a man with curly hair.