This Is New {Jamack x Reader}

1: not our home

You both decided to seal up the pods and cover them with some dusty old blankets you found in a locker. You couldn't bear to look at them, let alone touch them. These had been your teammates, your friends, and they were gone.

And now you sat at a little round table, sipping some coffee Jules had managed to brew up. The coffee machine worked just fine, and yet somehow the power supporting your friends' lives had disconnected. How convenient, right? You smiled bitterly at the thought.

Jules walked over, holding a coffee mug of her own, and sat down next to you. She stared blankly down into her drink, as if it held all the answers to the current predicament. After a long moment, she sighed. "So...what now?"

You glanced her way. "We continue with our mission. Right? It's all we can do, isn't it?" The tremble in your voice was much too obvious for your liking.

Jules was silent. She wouldn't look up from her coffee. You stared down into your own.

"Nothing else we can do," she finally muttered. She reached over and placed her hand on top of yours. You turned yours palm up to give hers a reassuring squeeze.

·°·°·°·°·

A backpack. Food. Water. Your notebooks. Whatever medical supplies were still usable. Most of it was expired.

The clock on the counter said you'd been frozen for more than 200 years.

200 years....

You decided not to think about that too much. Not now.

You stood at the door, backpack on your back and Jules' hand in yours.

"You ready?" you asked.

"No."

You smiled sadly. "Me either."

She squeezed your hand gently. "Let's go."

The door led to stairs, which led up to another door. It was heavy, so the two of you had to push together to get it open. You squinted against the sunlight that streamed into the dark hallway. When your eyes adjusted, you gasped.

A fallen skyscraper lay just a few feet from where you stood. Looking around, you could see other buildings in varying degrees of disrepair. An overgrowth of plants covered most of them. Glass lay spattered around where windows had once been. This was not the city you knew.

Jules slowly stepped forward, her hand slipping from yours to reach out and gently rest on the wall of the fallen building in front of you. "What..." she whispered, her brows knitting together. "What happened here?"

You reached out to hesitantly grab her shoulder. She looked up at you, and the pain in her eyes made your heart ache. You did you best to smile and reassure her. "Well, that's what we're here to find out, right?"

She rested a hand upon yours and looked down at the grass. "Yeah," she mumbled.

The two of you set off to explore some nearby buildings. Everything seemed to be abandoned. Eventually, you stumbled upon a small convenience store where you decided to rest. You opened up your bag to pull out two nutrition bars: one for you, and one for Jules. You both ate quietly until you saw movement out of the corner of your eye. You turned, mouth falling open in shock before letting out a short laugh.

"Oh my god, Jules, look at this," you said, pointing at it. She followed your finger, saw it, and reacted in much the same way.

The thing in question was some kind of gigantic snail or slug, and on its back was an old car. It moved slowly, seemingly uncaring of the two humans gawking at it.