Curls (10K fanfic) Z Nation

Chapter Six: Mend

Dory's POV:

My eyes fought to open, my brain screaming to wake up while my body insisted on staying in the trance-like sleep that'd had blanketed me with warmth. "Dory?" My ears were ringing with a low, comforting voice calling to me through my haze. "Sweetheart, wake up."

I whined and stretched, bringing my eyelids up and allowing my eyes to adjust to the dim light. "K?" I regarded, whimpering as I sat up. I found myself wrapped in a large jacket, zipped up over my flannel and encasing me in warmth. Once my head was lifted from the unusually warm and firm pillow that it had previously been resting on, I looked down to see that I was laying against 10K. He had a soft, crooked smirk plastered on his face, but his eyes showed that he was still expecting something from me.

"Morning," he greeted. His dark chocolate mess of curls was disheveled on top of his head while sleepiness clouded his voice. "How do you feel?"

The instance of the prior night flooded back into my memory to haunt me, and I was suddenly overwhelmed with embarrassment. "K, I'm sorry that you had to-"

"First of all, I didn't have to do anything." he interrupted. "And second of all, don't you dare apologize for a damn thing."

"But-"

"Shush." he silenced me by kissing the top of my head.

"K?" I asked in a small voice.

"Hm?"

"Where do we go now?"

"I think we should get a car." he started, sitting up and groaning as he pulled on his boots. "And after we get a car, we should siphon some gas ahead of time and stock up on cans."

"Where do we go?" I repeated myself, unzipping his jacket and handing it back to him. 10K pulled it over his broad shoulders sloppily, leaving it unzipped without care.

"Well, we're in Colorado right now. So we can take it west and keep moving to California, or we can double back and look for the others." K grunted as he pulled himself up, and I became painfully aware of his wounded abdomen.

"Easy," I coaxed, helping him up tenderly. "You're still hurt."

"I'll live," he muttered, standing and stretching. He let out a deep cry of pain and doubled back, hitting his back against the wall. K bit back a curse and steadied himself, but by the time he had I was already to my feet in case he fell over.

"You're scaring me like that." I noted. "K, you can't take on Z's like that."

"Well we can't keep waiting around here for nothing." 10K was right. We had to do something, anything, even if it was only gathering cans and water for a potential future journey.

"Listen," I proposed. "I'll look around here for food, water, anything useful." I glanced to the front door and back. "In fifteen minutes, we go around the town and look for a pharmacy. You need medicine, antibiotics."

"But how are we going to carry all that?"

"I guess we'll just have to find a car and load it up." I shrugged.

"Are you sure you're feeling up to this?" he asked me.

"Are you sure that you are?" I retorted somewhat coldly. He didn't answer after that, except for the quiet announcement that he was going outside to look for a working car.

Man, within a matter of seconds I can fuck something up beyond repair.
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10K's POV:

I had to remind myself that her mood was part of the process. Determination, denial, drop, depression, defense. She'd already dropped herself down low, and the depression had claimed her. Now she was just trying to protect her own emotions. She was somewhere between defense and determination again, I decided.

I shuffled out the donation center with a pocket knife ready in hand. I left Dory with her magnum; I felt safer knowing she was a fatal shot with it and that he knew how to work it when it was jammed. The damn thing always stuck when I tried to shoot, but it worked like new whenever she got her hands on it. It was definitely her gun.

Scouring the surrounding area, I noticed an old red pickup truck and an SUV. If I could jump start one or find gas I'd be off to a good start.

And, for lack of words, I will say that I was, indeed, off to a good start. After a half hour of working at the truck (after I collected gasoline from another parked car and the garage of an auto shop two stores down) I managed to hotwire it. Dory came trotting out, magnum raised and excitement and concern both evident on her face.

"Ten-Thousand?" she called, much more loudly than she should have.

"Here!" I waved. She lowered the gun, holstering the magnum and jogging over to me.

"Wow," she breathed, a big smile spilling over her face. "Jesus, maybe you do love me." she praised the sky sarcastically. "Thank you, O gracious omnipotent sky-man!" I smirked at her remark, then directing my attention back to the truck.

"You're a dork." I told her, touching the tip of her nose with an oiled finger. My hands were stained black from getting under the hood and messing around. Dory cringed and wiped at her nose, a sour and distasteful expression crossing her face.

"Eww, now I smell like an old motorcycle." she whined.

"We both smell like old motorcycles, and you don't see me complaining." I countered playfully.

"Look, I'm sorry I was being sort of bitchy earlier. It's not place, especially with everything you've done." I watched her face fall and a pained look take away that precious smile.

"I don't care about that." I told her, lifting her chin to look up at me. "I care about you being safe."
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We raided the leftovers of the pharmacy and picked up a duffle bag full of cans. Dory, being the observant little chipmunk that she is, noticed that in a nearby WalMart there might be a hunting and fishing section. To our surprise, there were two boxes of 9 mm ammunition that would be perfect for her magnum. With the addition of two fishing knives and a wooden baseball bat, we took our loot and hit the road heading towards California like we'd planned to all along.

Dory found herself singing and humming for a few hours while twiddling her thumbs around and playing with her curls boredly. After the sun went down she fell asleep again and didn't wake up until early morning. By then I'd pulled onto the side of the road and secured the locks on the doors and windows and fallen asleep myself. I woke up to find her playing with a loose string on the sleeve of my jacket. Her eyes met mine and even though there was not a single word exchanged between us, the actions performed spoke louder than any could.

It took her a second to stop flinching at my touch, but I pushed her sleeve up to reveal her scarred arms. She kept herself absolutely silenced, and I could see she was on the brink of tears. I traced her scars gingerly, tending to the remnants of every lonely night that drove her to such desperation. I didn't speak myself for fear that I would upset her.

Dory relaxed after a moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. It was a peaceful moment, short lived due to a rather obnoxious Z that decided to throw itself against the window, but still meaningful and reassuring nonetheless. Moments of true, eerie silence were rare and presumably extinct, so we both savored it while we had it.

And I wouldn't ask for any more than to watch the expression of true, bona fide calamity settle itself across her face.