Before The End

Pasts

"How far are we going?" I ask Nazeera as she moves past me to the driver's seat.
Nouria lent us a black van, she didn't tell us where she got it.
We're going to visit sector 240, take some stuff from a storage compound and drive back.
Simple, quick and easy.
Especially since the government won't be trying to kill us.

"Just the border, we don't have enough gas to go any further."

Another thing we need to take care of. I hop in the passenger side, shut the door. Watch as Nazeera adjusts her mirrors and puts on her belt. The van isn't old and dusty so I'm guessing it was one that the Reestablishment used for their own purposes.

We don't move.
"Why aren't you driving?" I look at Nazeera, her hands frozen on the steering wheel, watching me.
"Your seatbelt isn't on."

I let out a little laugh,
"What, is the police going to arrest me?"

"They are there to prevent injuries in case of an accident." She responds.

I'm grinning widely, her caring about something as trivial as a seatbelt is cute.

"I'm sure I'll be fine. And it's not like you're a reckless driver who's going to make us crash." I wave a hand.

She literally flew us over continents, on a plane. Albeit, we did crash land like twice.
But that was because people were trying to murder us.

Nazeera sighs,
"Alright."

The van starts moving and I look out the window. Except the speed increases more and more rather quickly.
Then a sharp turn makes me bump my skull on the window.
"Okay, seriously?" I groan, rubbing the back of my head. Nazeera shrugs, focuses on the broken, jagged roads.
The van screeches to an abrupt halt, and I lurch forward, almost slamming my face into the dashboard.

"Jesus, Nazeera, why would you do that?" I exasperate.
Nazeera glances at me,
"I thought I saw something in front of us. Besides you said you'd be fine without a belt."

"Fine, message received, you psycho." I mumble, clicking on my seatbelt before she can drive us off of a bridge.
She chuckles victoriously, and I can't help but lean over and kiss her cheek.

We continue along the path, driving at a much safer speed. Nazeera's taking a remote path, one that isn't littered with civilians. The land all around is empty, safe for a few buildings and the slow regrowth of nature.

It's pretty quiet, only the sound of tires on gravel. There's a little something I want to know, a little question that has been gnawing at me, not sure if Nazeera will like me asking though.

I turn my head and look at her,
"Nazeera?"

She glimpses at me for a second. I continue,
"You were having a nightmare last night."

She clicks her tongue, nods.
"Everyone does. They are pretty common, especially if you consider what we have all been through."

"Yeah but, you looked-" I stop.
She looked like she was suffering, actual pain just from her mind. I've only ever seen Nazeera hurt once, that was when she got shot. Even then, I was delirious from my own bullet wound so I didn't see it hit her.
Those gunshots still echo in my mind.

I recall the memory of Nazeera in the hospital bed.
I hated those days, they were some of the worst I've ever had. J was gone, Nazeera wounded, Warner was losing it. And I couldn't do anything to help them.
Everyone was dying, it was beyond horrible.

I clear my throat, chase away those awful experiences.
Everyone's here, we're all okay.

"You were mumbling stuff too, pleading. " I say.
Nazeera bites her lip and I worry that I've crossed another line. Then she opens her mouth,
"Nightmares are commonly associated with past experiences."

Right.
I wait for her to continue, she doesn't for a moment.
Then,
"I've...always had nightmares. Almost every night since I was a child."

She hesitates, glances at me for a split second then goes on,
"they just haven't been as bad these past couple of days."

I try and process the weight of what she just told me when we reach another abrupt stop.
Nazeera clicks off her seatbelt,
"We're here."

Hops out the car without another word.
——————————————————
Watching Nazeera open the doors using the card we got given, I think back to how we used to do missions just like this at Omega Point.

Breaking into compounds, stealing food and whatever we needed. It was of course not an ideal living situation, but it was fun. Laughing with my friends, planning with Castle.
Shit that was so long ago.
I was an entirely different person back then.
Huh.

Nazeera hisses my name, breaking me from my nostalgia. A good thing is we don't have to use our abilities or sneak around. The chief commander of sector 240 was actually pretty generous in giving us access.

We start loading up the van, fitting as much stuff as we can. I pause seeing a small package, one that has a food stamp. I'm starving.
Ripping it open, I found I was correct. It's a few bags of chips. I take a seat on the edge of the half full trunk, start eating.

"Kenji, what are you doing?" Nazeera sighs, hands on her hips.
"Taking a well deserved break, what else?"

"Well deserved?" Nazeera raises an eyebrow,
"You moved like 7 boxes. And took short breaks in between."
I shrug, "they were heavy boxes."

She hops onto the truck, sitting next to me.
Nazeera examines her hands, the rings that adorn her fingers, while I chew.
After a short moment of silence, she asks,
"What's up?"

I inspect the chip in my hand, covered in flavoured dust.
"Around this time last year, I was still an undercover soldier working in Sector 45."
I pop it in my mouth, listen to the crunch.
"So much shit has happened since then."

"You're feeling sentimental." Nazeera states, staring straight ahead.

"Dunno. I guess. This is all J's fault, she made me all emotional about shit." I close the packet, put it to the side. The storage compound is underground so it's an area with many lights. There's no soldiers here though, they're all very busy working to handle the new problems we're facing.

Nazeera places her soft palm on top of mine. I watch our fingers intertwine, think about how much I do like my life right now. Especially specific new things, ones that have changed me for the better.

My eyes go to her face, she is so beautiful.
Nazeera turns her head, smiles at me.
Naturally, I don't hesitate to kiss her.

It's soft and sweet, a honey dipped kiss that makes my heart race. I cup the side of her face, leave my forehead against hers when we break apart. Light brown eyes shine into mine but before I can kiss her again, she moves away, jumps off.

Okay then.
"No more distractions, we need to finish."

I groan,run a hand through my hair, as she picks up another box,
"Do we though?"

In response, the box gets chucked at my chest.