The Blast

no play

Most of the day had been spent in silence between the two mobians, either having very little to talk about, or rather both of them appreciate the silence. The only time they would really speak was if one hedgehog found something of use. Sonic was pretty quick on his feet, no doubt due to the energy he received from the consumption of shadows fleshy scraps. Shadow would watch as sonic zoomed around, looking for something, anything, and presenting it to shadow to determine it's amount of usefulness. Shadow would either take the item to deem it useful, or he would discard it, but not many words would be exchanged.
They shared water out of the same flask, much to sonics appreciation. They found that they could both be of use to each other, giving both of them some kind of mutual respect.
Sonic looked up at the sky, then suddenly down at his wrist, catching shadows eye. The ebony realized that sonic had a watch on his wrist and his eyes widened. He grabbed sonics arm, yanking it closer to look at the time. "Is this clock accurate?" He asked, staring at the little dials and numbers. It was 3:11 in the afternoon of July 7th, or so the clock said.
Sonic nodded, somewhat surprised at shadows surprise. "Yeah, why?" He pulled his arm back, rubbing his wrist.
Shadow felt his stomach sink. If that clock was actually accurate then the blast happened almost 6 months ago. It's already been 6 months. Shadow shook himself out of his thoughts. "Nothing I just... Haven't seen a clock since the blast..."
Sonic winced. "Ooh, that must have been a maddening 6 months for you, then." He seemed to chuckle slightly, until his voice faded at the look on shadows face, his expression turning into sympathy. He cleared his throat and apologized quietly as they continued to walk.
A while into their endless walk sonic gasped and called shadow over. The ebony approached the azure to find that he had discovered a mobian corpse. "It's still kind of fresh- we should harvest it." The azure said without hesitation or shame.
Shadows maw hung open in surprise at sonics suggestion. He stayed in a perpetual state of silence for a moment before hearing the flick of a switch blade.
His arms moved faster than his mind and he grabbed sonics arm as the blue mobian had leaned in to cut the flesh. Sonic was surprised, turning to meet shadows face, which was a bit close this time around. The ebony looked unsure. "What are you doing?" Sonic eventually asked.
Shadow swallowed, almost embarrassed now. His grip loosened, but didn't leave sonics wrist. "I... I'm sure we can find some actual food somewhere around here..." The ebony finally forced out.
Sonic frowned, cocking an eyebrow. "Look at him, shadow." He began, the grip on his switchblade tightening. The corpse was clearly malnourished, but it looked as if it had died of dehydration rather than starvation, perhaps collapsing from exhaustion during the search for water. Shadow didn't want to look at it. "That's going to be us if we don't eat something. I know you're not above cannibalism." Sonic continued, pulling himself from shadows grip and stabbing the corpse in the thigh quickly, whilst making eye contact with shadow. Shadow was embarrassed, feeling kind of stupid for assuming that sonic was above cannibalism.
"So... You knew?" Shadow says quietly, turning his head while sonic began to strip the corpse of its flesh bit by bit.
Sonic continued what he was doing in silence, either ignoring shadows question, or he didn't hear it.
"Desperate times, I suppose." Sonic said. He sounded kind of sad, as if the act he was committing upset him too. He seemed to have a more levelheaded understanding of what he was doing. "Either we gather what we can now or walk around searching for real food until we die." He collected fleshy scraps one by one in the baggie shadow had used previously for his homemade jerky.
What the azure said made sense, it really did, but shadow couldn't get over the fact that sonic hadn't a single bout of respect for the corpse. Sonic gathered as much as he could into the bag, filling it with fleshy, still somewhat bloodied scraps of mobian.
"This should last us a while." Sonic said, wiping his blade against his thigh, staining his blue fur with blood. Shadow stood in disbelief as sonic walked past him with the bloated and bloodied bag in his hand. He looked back at the corpse, finding that it was missing an eye.
"Don't you think we should honor it?" Shadow spoke up, stopping sonic in his tracks. The cerulean scoffed in amusement as he turned to shadow, a hand against his hip.
"Honor it?" He laughed.
Shadow couldn't help but feel kind of hurt, as if he had sort of been deceived by sonics nature. As if sonic was mocking shadow for feeling remorse.
"It's the least we could do." Shadow crossed his arms, holding his head up to appear confident.
Sonic laughed again. "Are you serious?" He sounded like he was genuinely asking, making shadow feel a twinge of disgust at sonics apparent lack of empathy.
The ebony furred his brows and scoffed, rolling his eyes at the chuckling azure.
He then bent down and began digging a hole.
Sonic watched curiously, his smile fading. He scoffed, realizing what shadow was doing.
The ebony continued to dig silently. The dirt was coarse, making it difficult, but he continues regardless. As he dug he felt sonics presence looming around until the azure had bent down with him and began to dig as well.
Sonic glanced at shadow as he ripped through the dirt quickly, digging almost like a dog would. Shadow was slightly surprised at the speed sonic had done this with. There was a permanently annoyed look on sonics face as he dug a hole large and deep enough for a body.
"There." The azure said, standing up and rubbing his hands together to rid them of the dirt. "I'm not sure how burying it is honorable, but whatever makes you feel better I guess." He then walked off, standing by a tree as he waited for shadow to finish it off.
Shadow took his time, dragging the body into the hole and positioning it in a more presentable pose. He closed the remaining eye and the mouth before covering it in dirt. He then stood up and sonic assumed shadow was finished with his silly "honoring".
Sonics presumptions were discarded when shadow began carving into a rock slowly. He became curious again. "Now what are you doing?" He sounded slightly annoyed.
Shadow shot sonic an equally annoyed glance before setting the rock above the makeshift grave and standing in silence for a couple moments.
Sonics foot tapped impatiently and he looked at his watch. Either he was trying to be annoying or he was anticipating something.
Shadow pulled his focus from the grave and began to walk, to which sonic sighed and let out an exasperated "finally."
They continued their walk, sonic suggesting they find a place where they can settle down for the night.
Shadow, still partially surprised at sonics attitude towards a fallen soul, had stayed silent, but agreed with a hum.