The Messengers of Sanctuary

60 - Chicory

Chicory stared at the teen, wondering how in the world wings could possibly work. Nina was talking excitedly as Matthew led them out of the building. He was relatively stoic, but not nearly as bad as River. He released an aura of confidence and he was generally the type of person that Chicory would have expected to be an athlete, which apparently he wanted to be.

He treated everything with a general air of nonchalance, and Chicory wasn't quite sure if that was because he was tired, or because that's just how he was. Odds were it was some strange mixture of the two.

He sat down on the grass outside the building, folding his legs into a lotus position, "So interrogation?" He motioned toward his arms. "Yes, I'm a hybrid, we're kind of rare, the only other one I've seen is the one that infected me in the first place. Yes I can fly. No, I don't give rides. Are we done now?"

Nina brightened, writing something down, "So after you were infected, did you just sort of grow feathers all at once or was it a slow process?"

Matt leaned back, "Sort of both. Most of them grew in during the seizures, but that was only enough to get me off the ground. The rest came in later on."

Nina nodded, easily siding into the next question, "And do you have the bloodlust? I have to ask after finding out that the pyros don't have it."

Matt blinked, "Pyros don't have bloodlust!" He screwed up his face with contempt, "Lucky!" The teen shook his head, "I've got it, but according to Gloria it's different than most zombies. Which is probably why there are so few hybrids now that I think about it..."

"How is it different?" Chicory asked, "Like more specialized or something?"

Matt shrugged, "I only crave dead things, hybrids are scavengers."

Nina made an excited noise, "That's definitely different! How old does the meat have to be?"

Matt wrinkled his nose, "A couple of hours or days. Basically anything dead as long as it's still more or less edible. It's really gross and most of the time it should taste like literal garbage, but I probably can't get sick anymore so like...ugh. Can we talk about something else please?"

Chicory agreed with that sentiment.

Nina nodded, looking slightly disappointed, "And how much stronger and faster are you?"

River scowled at that and Chicory grinned, elbowing the grumpy nightstalker as per Nicky's recommendations. "He's higher up than you isn't he!"

Matt glanced at Chicory, eyeing up the elbow jabbing River's side, "Oooo-" River took a swipe at Matt before he could make some type of remark. A swipe which Matt dodged easily.

Aren't they scavengers? Why the sparks are they faster than a nightstalker?!

Nina had seen the swipe too, and took a note, "Is he faster than a terror?"

River glanced at Nina again, "I have no idea. He refused to aggravate Silver into chasing him around. Plus She's like eighty so I don't think she's an accurate measurement for terror speed."

Matt growled at that, "That's because she's clearly stronger than me! How can the rest of the stronghold possibly not be afraid of her?!"

River shrugged but glanced at Nina, "I'm stronger than him too. I think hybrids are around Runner or heartfire strength. More than pyro though, he beat up Jose yesterday for some reason."

Matt sent River a betrayed look, "Hey! My sister dared me to!"

"That's stupid." Chicory said at the same time as River. He glanced at her with confusion but she only grinned back at him. "Did you have a reason to do it besides a dare?" She clarified.

Matt grumbled slightly, "Well no. But don't lecture me, I get enough of that from my father."

---

After exhausting Nina's questions, Matt allowed her to take a blood sample and a few strands of hair for some reason, and River took Nina off to meet the sane tunneler Gloria. Chicory stayed behind, having decided that interrogations weren't as interesting as they could be.

She sat down in the grass next to Matt, who had long since decided to lay down and close his eyes. Chicory wondered what the next step was. She would have to track down those messengers, River said they were somewhere around. Then Chicory would have to start the arduous process of tracking down every stronghold in the area, setting up routes, and establishing regular contact with Sanctuary.

That part would take years though.

For now, she was content to sit there, wondering.

Matt opened an eye, looking up at her, "So are you two dating yet or what? I was going to call you out earlier but I got interrupted."

Chicory made a strangled sound. Oh sparks, what was she supposed to say? 'Oh, River rejected me, he's aro-ace' or 'He doesn't feel romance because of the virus and I don't want to make him feel bad' or even 'NO BUT I WISH.'

Instead, Chicory laughed awkwardly, "I...don't think that will ever happen."

Matt raised an eyebrow, sitting up, "Okay this I have to hear. Why?"

"Well, he's a zombie."

Matt shrugged, "People have made it work before."

"And I- Wait WHAT? How does that work?!?!"

Matt smirked, "We've got like a gazillion regular zombies, I've only known one person in the entire stronghold to lose their mind after turning. Sometimes people just decide to chance it in order to be with who they love."

Chicory stared at him for a long, uncomfortable moment. "I'm not even going to try to think of all the moral and theological problems with that..."

Matt seemed to think this was funny, "Hey, you could always become a zombie. Wouldn't help with the lack of romance thing, but you wouldn't care much about it anymore!"

Chicory sighed, "Nope nope, that's just wrong. Plus I literally can't even if I wanted to, I'm fired." She stoked the heat momentarily, letting her eyes flash a brighter blue.

Matt tilted his head, "Oh, you're like those messengers that are around."

She nodded, "Yeah, we're immune to basically everything, including the zombie virus."

The hybrid nodded slowly, "Well, I guess that makes sense. But hey, if you ever decide to go after him at all, I can help you out! Got it?"

Chicory was oddly touched at that. 

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Vote to help Matt become somebody's wingman. Hehe, see what I did there, WINGman?!?!? 

........I'll stop now.

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two chapters today, don't forget to read the second one.