The Boy from the Bunker - WATTY'S VERSION

Episode Five, Part 4: ✓

Episode Five, Part 4:
Knocking on Heaven's Door

Wynn was woken early the next morning by Sol. It was so early that it was still dark outside, and the gates to Basilisk were still being guarded. Sol didn't seem to say much to him when she arrived at his tent, quickly making sure he was awake before announcing that she was off to retrieve their supplies. She left him with a bag and told him to pack - offering nothing more to him but the lingering thought that maybe their mission would take a couple of days to conquer.

Wynn waited at the foot of his pullout bed for what must have been several minutes. The world was quiet of people but loud with every other sign of life. As he sat, nervously tapping his feet, he was unsure if he was supposed to be meeting Sol somewhere. Her communication sucked, to put it lightly. Then again, everyone else was probably used to how she worked and what she expected from them and it was just Wynn who felt like he was still trying to crack through her surface.

After some contemplation, he sighed and pulled his bag over his shoulder. As he stepped outside of his tent, he bumped into someone.

"Quill? What are you doing up? It's like, 5 AM?" Wynn was surprised to see his brother awake, not only at such an hour, but because he had been doing his best at avoiding everyone - most of all, Quill - ever since he had to leave their brother behind.

"What are you doing, Wynn? Where have you been?" There was a drowsy sort of confusion in his voice, tired eyes glancing up at him, a hint of longing reflecting somewhere.

Wynn shifted. He didn't want to lie to him, but he didn't want to tell he truth either. "Um, I... I was just... We were going to find..."

The word sparked something in Quill. "You were going to find them, right?" His voice was low, drifting away with his words. Quill looked back up at Wynn. "You think they're out there?"

The question he had been dreading. Wynn knew the truth: that some of them were already dead - their sister potentially being one of them - but a part of him believed that if he could bring the rest of their family back to them, then the losses wouldn't seem so unsurvivable. Instead, Wynn nodded, pulling his eyes away from Quill.

A silhouette appeared behind them. Stepping into the flickering light, Sol appeared, nodding to Wynn to approve their departure from camp. Something about her caught his attention - something more than just the way she seemed to hide in herself.

"Uh, I have to go, Quill."

"To find them?" His brother asked, his voice too loud in the dark night. Then, before either one could answer, Quill followed, "I want to go with you guys. I want to help."

As Quill looked behind to Sol, begging for her approval, Wynn shot her a look, one with equal desperation as he shook his head. Sol glanced between both boys, her decision made quickly. "I'm sorry, Quill. You don't know the trails, and I don't know your training standards."

"Training standards?" He furrowed his eyebrows, confusion nestling inside of him. "I'd be the same as Wynn-"

"Wynn has been trained by me. He's ready for this mission. I'm sorry," Sol apologized, her voice sounding rehearsed and cool of her fire. "If you'd like to learn the trails, I can set up a time for Dreea or one of our guards to teach them to you. For now, it's too dangerous, and if you want us to find your family, then Wynn and I have to leave."

Quill didn't say anything bak. His gaze simoly studied her, trying to determine if he believed her intention. As Wynn stepped forward to join Sol, Quill grabbed onto his arm and pulled him close enough to whisper. "Do you trust her? You're going to follow her out there?"

"...Yeah, I do," Wynn answered, hiding the fact that he had already left Basilisk with her. "Because right now, she's looking like our best chance of finding the others. I'll be safe," he told him. "Stay safe for me."

Wynn walked past his brother, brushing shoulders with him on the way. He was unable to look back, afraid that he would fold and spill everything to him. Instead, he followed Sol to the tunnel, assisting her with removing the metal slates that covered their exit, and hurried down behind her.

As they both reached for their torches, Wynn switched his on, the white light immediately shinning onto Sol's face.

"Are you trying to blind me?" She warned him, her voice a whisper, but tone sharp.

She continued to squint as Wynn hurried to move the light, almost afraid of her until he saw what the night had so far disguised.

His reaction was unprecsidented, surprising Sol in more ways than one. His hand reached out -his fingertips extending to touch the soft skin above her left eyebrow. The yellow and purple bruising surrounded her eye, stretching just slightly onto her cheek. Wynn brought the torch back up again, examining her injury further, despite not knowing how to help. 

The depths of his gaze scared Sol; it was something she was not used to. She had always been cold and hard on her exterior with no one wanting to look too deep.

Sol's hand moved up to push away Wynn's hand, though he barely seeming fazed by her distancing. Her long, dark brown hair had managed to hide away the rest of what the darkness couldn't conceal, but Wynn still wondered what her explanation would have been for when he inevitably noticed it later on in the day. 

"Don't even think about mentioning it."

"You thought you could hide this? And I here I thought you were some sort of genius... What did you do, walk into a wall?" 

Sol scoffed. "If I was going to lie about it, I would at least make it something smart."

"So tell me what happened to you."

"Just training, Wynn. I've been going easy on you. When you really know how to fight, your skin tells you."

Wynn sighed, his eyes flickering across her bruising once again. "I thought you said it would be smart."

"Wynn-" she began to roll her eyes, a denial desperately speaking out against the lie she had been caught in.

"Things that are felt like that can't be hidden forever. They're not meant to be."

She looked up at Wynn, their torches both pointing at the ground, the lighting around them barely bright enough to see each other clearly. But she found his eyes and looked into them with an unknown vulnerability - something she had been fleeing from her entire life. Him being here was changing a part of she didn't even know existed. A part she didn't know how to let go.

Five // Part Four
A vulnerability she had been fleeing from her entire life.

18/08/22.