Ode to the Serpent

Ode to the Serpent is a companion to Where the Self Resides. -Leafwhisker 05:56, January 25, 2016 (UTC) =Part One= The snow comes as a comfort, occasionally. The soft white flakes blanketing the ground stir something akin to joy in the kids here as if they haven't seen it a thousand times before. Their smiles brighten the world, albeit only slightly, and they pelt each other with snowballs in the safety of the neighborhood streets gated off by walls just high enough to ward off monsters. They don't always help; even with this bitter cold some are starving enough to slam into the wall.

Their immortality must be a curse these days.

Truthfully, Nadia can't imagine why anyone would want children now if you're only raising them in a world like this, especially if your only protection is the solidarity of a once-ordinary neighborhood. But perhaps Nadia underestimates them. They hope they do; too many people have died already.

“Thank you so much for bringing us new supplies.” Margaret hugs Nadia again, and even though they aren't short they feel strangely overwhelmed by the affection. She's a mother of one, forty-six years old and still managing to climb up the wall to inspect it when everyone else is busy, and the tentative leader of the little community. Everyone looks to her for guidance when spirits begin to collectively fall.

Nadia smiles. “You're welcome, but it was honestly nothing. We need to stick together if we want to save ourselves.”

Margaret pulls away with a smile. A snowball hits the back of her coat with a thump, and when she turns around her son Luke is smiling up at her innocently. His dark brown eyes widen in the imitation of puppy eyes, and Margaret's smile softens. “Luke, you know how I feel about snow in the house.”

“We aren't in the house,” Luke points out with a lift of his chin. “This is the porch, but we aren't inside.” He crosses his arms over his chest as if he's proving a point. Margaret sighs. She gently nudges Luke out of the way with a disapproving frown that all three of them know is just an act. Luke disappears inside the house of one of the neighborhood kids with the speed of a bolt. “Do you think you can get some more supplies for us within the next few weeks?” Margaret asks Nadia once she turns her attention back to them. “I wouldn't normally ask so suddenly, but even our usual outposts have been impeded by this snow.”

Nadia nods. “I'll try, but first I need to go further east. Once I return to San Francisco I'll see what I can do.”

Margaret smiles again. “Thank you. How long will you be staying?”

“Just tonight,” Nadia replies, “Gabriel and I will leave first thing next morning.” They nod at Margaret before stepping down from the porch “Thank you again for letting us stay here.”

“It was the least we could do. Travel safely, now.” Margaret warns, “Everything northeast of us is much worse than here.”

Nadia smiles. “Will do.” They turn around and walk trudge through the snow towards the two-story house with a line of wooden stakes hammered into the now-frozen soil. According to Margaret, the brick house was once her own home before she began using it as a guest house for stragglers who visited the neighborhood during the early days of the apocalypse. Those days, people still believed that something could be done, that the peril would eventually pass in weeks or months. Once the gods all finally faded, however, so did the collective hope of the people.

Once they step inside the foyer, they unzip their nylon coat, hang it on the coat rack, and kick the snow off their boots on the rug before taking them off. They run their fingers through their braid to untangle it as their footsteps tread lightly across the floor. They would have preferred to be back at San Francisco weeks ago before this snow hit, truthfully. Both of them would have preferred that, but Nadia strongly suspects Gabriel doesn't mind as much as they do.

Noticing him snoring beneath a pile of blankets on the tacky floral patterned couch, Nadia takes off their right sock and throws it in his face. “Get up,” they demand. “we need to go over our plans.”

Gabriel mumbles something unintelligible and rolls over so his back faces Nadia. “Go away,” he mumbles.

“No.” Nadia prods his shoulder. “Gabriel, come on.” Gabriel huffs in annoyance, tosses the sock on the floor, and finally sits up with exaggerated slowness. The circles under his hazel eyes are just as noticeable as they had been this morning when he'd been awake.

“I'm up.” he proclaims although he doesn't budge from the couch. Instead, he wraps the blankets around his body so only his head sticks out. “What do you need to talk about? We already went over the plan. We get information on the Leviathan cult, we go back to San Francisco, we deliver the news and something happens that we don't have to worry about.”

“What if we're split up? We need a plan of action in case this storm impedes us.”

Gabriel rolls his eyes. His lips quirk upwards in a smile that those who didn't know him might call charming. “You worry too much." he comments, but he makes a point to sit up straighter. He lets the blankets fall from where they're covering his head so his messy dark brown hair becomes visible. “We could just stay here until the roads clear out. Hell, we could help out ourselves.” He pulls himself off the couch as if its sheer presence is weighing him down.

“No, we should leave as soon as we can. I've seen the roads, and they're in much better condition than they were when we first came here, but I'm worried another storm is going to hit – especially since we're going further east.” Nadia's hand reaches up to clasp the ring hanging from a chain around their neck. They sigh. “Why they had to send us out in the middle of winter is beyond me.”

Gabriel shrugs. He passes Nadia and wanders into the kitchen. “You want some tea?” he asks when Nadia follows him into the kitchen. Books and maps and other things litter the small wooden table off to the side of the room, and empty glasses and mugs occupy the space between them. The rest of the kitchen could sparkle with how clean it is, and if the table didn't exist and if this was the first room in the house you saw, you wouldn't be able to tell it was inhabited.

Nadia nods. “Sure.” They pull up a chair and look through the papers and old sticky notes, finding nothing short of unnecessary until they finally decide to look over the map of the United States. Their finger traces the dark red line mapping their journey starting at San Francisco and ending in some city in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest. Various circles are scattered throughout the rest of the map, and off to the side an illegible key has been drawn by Nadia.

Gabriel sets a mug next to Nadia then sits at the table across from them. “Looking for anything in particular?” he asks before bringing his own mug to his lips.

Nadia doesn't say anything for a few moments, instead letting their eyes look over the map as if some semblance of a plan will formulate in their head if they stare at it for long enough. “No.” they finally say. They fold up the map so it's in somewhat better condition than before. “It should take us around eighteen hours to get there from where we are, but if we factor in unknown conditions it will possibly take much longer.”

“How long?”

Nadia sighs. “I don't know. Over a day at least.” There's always the possibility of more snowfall as well, and there's always the possibility that they'll get stranded out there even if their car has been fine with handling the snow so far. So many what ifs that Nadia finds themself fiddling with the ring around their neck again. On the good days, it is little more than a barely noticeable weight against the hollow of their throat. On the bad, well, it becomes worse.

Gabriel frowns as his gaze falls to Nadia's neck where their hand is clasping around the ring. “It'll be fine.” he assures them.

Nadia nods, takes their hand from the ring, and lets their hands rest around the mug of tea now growing cold. The mug itself reads #1 Boss in block letters, and the surface is just as clean as the kitchen itself. Nadia finishes the tea with slowly before standing from the table after one final look at the mess it presents.

“I'm going to start packing the car,” they tell Gabriel who nods. “you want to help?”

“Sure.” After he stands, his eyes flicker to Nadia's feet and the corners of his mouth quirk upwards. He points with his toe to Nadia's bare foot. “You might want to put on your other sock first.” he suggests and grins at the halfhearted eye roll Nadia gives him. He gathers the papers and books in his arms and exits the kitchen while Nadia goes up to their room.

Pictures of Margaret's family adorn the walls, and a man Nadia knows only in these pictures always stands beside her with his arm around her. Occasionally, children dot the frames yet only when a woman with dyed cherry-red hair exists within the captured space, a woman who Nadia suspects was Margaret's sister. Perhaps they are other reason Margaret left this house to the bedraggled.

They begin paying the pictures no heed once the stairs give way to a small hallway with doors to the left, right, and one straight ahead. The master bedroom and guest bedroom look exactly the same in design, but when Nadia steps inside something has been forgotten among the pristine white sheets and earthen pale brown walls and the floorboards that creak now out of obligation. They feel as if they are intruding, and occasionally they wish they had slept on the couch instead of this room.

The dresser, instead of immaculate blouses and slacks and well-kept sweaters holds jeans now faded and sweatshirts and long-sleeve shirts a hair too large or too small. Everything exists to keep warmth in, now. A crossbow rests on top instead of pictures, and aside it a small swiss army knife rests between pistols. The ammo Nadia has already packed away.

They start with the clothes, then the shoes followed by weapons. The blankets Nadia leaves on the bed, so they take the bags they've packed and go back downstairs where Gabriel holds his own bags. The action is redundant, so they don't speak as they place the bags in the car. The children still play in the snow even though the sun is falling. Slowly, but nonetheless it happens. Some of the older ones wave at them, and even the younger ones offer their own greetings by way of pelted snowballs. Most of them miss, but one hits Nadia square in the heart and another in Gabriel's right shoulder. Nadia will miss the community.

Before departing the following morning, Nadia makes tea for the two of them after everything has been packed. Gabriel sits across Nadia and studies the blankness of the table. Even if they were only papers, ghosts still linger in the empty spaces here.

“I went out and looked at the roads yesterday,” he begins after setting his mug down. “and they're icy enough that we'll have to move slowly. Also, that son of Khione mentioned it will snow again within a couple days, maybe less.” Gabriel frowns. “He's never specific when you talk to him, as if because he's a demigod he has to be as cryptic as he can.”

Nadia sighs. Thinks about their words. “Thanks for letting me know.”

Gabriel nods. “It was my pleasure.” He smiles as if it lightens the tension, and Nadia supposes it does. Gabriel cleans the mugs once their finished while Nadia packs the rest of the blankets and sleeping bags. Once Nadia settles in the drivers seat of the van and the community waves at them, the gates before them open and into the unknown they disappear.

The snowfall begins three hours in. Gabriel wraps his arms around his torso but doesn't say anything until balls of ice the size of baseballs bounce off the windshield. The small cracks form a pit in Nadia's stomach. Their fingers tighten around the steering wheel, but they still drive. Gabriel shifts when he swears he sees something beyond the swirling snow, but his comments never become prophecies.

After four hours in, Nadia stops at what used to be a library the shelves of books. They only went in at Gabriel's insistence they look for something for Sam and Sarah, although Nadia figures that Sarah will appreciate the gift more.

While Gabriel rummages through the shelves half-empty, Nadia opens a can of peaches which Margaret gave them among other supplies. They finish the can and start looking through the book themself before Gabriel finally comes back into the front entrance with a stack of books that nearly goes over his head. He lets them fall in a heap on a table then starts sorting them.

“Do you think Sam would appreciate a book about gardening?” he asks as he flips the pages of a book full of diagrams. He evidently decides she would and sets it aside without waiting for input.

Nadia leafs through the nearest book, their fingers ghosting over the pages and catching diagrams of dismantled vehicles before they finally realize it's an automobile repair book. Maybe the stop wasn't bad after all they think while setting it on top of the stack Gabriel slowly adds to.

“I wonder how many people used this place before.” Gabriel muses more to himself than to Nadia. He sets a historical book on the pile after a brief skim through the pages, then straightens his back to stare up at the ceiling. Although he's shorter than Nadia by a few inches, he looks much greater here as if this is the place where he truly exists. “So many things lost in time,” he murmurs to himself, and Nadia supposes they agree with him. Supposes this place has ghosts of its own never listened to.

They finally go back on the road with Nadia in the passenger seat. Gabriel prompts them to sleep a few hours in, yet Nadia, after looking over the map, looks through the books Gabriel had taken from the library instead. Once, Nadia had thought about teaching themself skills though the books saved in the various libraries in San Francisco, but they never followed through with the plan. Other situations always arose, other places had to be scouted out, other people had to be introduced to the city.

“Nadia?” Gabriel begins as he slows the car and the wind picks up outside. “We should try to fix the heater at San Francisco. Since you have that book.” he gestures to the volume in Nadia's hands before huffing at the road ahead.

“I was thinking about that, but we might be able to find the right tools elsewhere.” Nadia doubts anyone else would have found them as useful as food or clean clothes or water, and in a city as large as this one with its arching buildings now barren Nadia imagines they can find the right materials somewhere.

“Maybe.” A silence falls between the two before Gabriel asks “Have you ever been to the east coast before? Not out scouting or anything, but before all this happened.”

“A few times. My parents had a cabin in Maine where my family would stay in the summer, but we didn't go that often because they always had other things to worry about.” Nadia pauses. “What about you?”

Gabriel shakes his head. “My dad didn't like traveling much, and my mom couldn't stand the ocean.”

“Look at you. You're basically the antithesis of both of them.”

“Pretty much.” Even if Nadia doesn't look at him, they know he's smiling.

They eventually fall asleep but not out of their own volition. Nadia assumes the chill seeping into the car wakes them up once the night sets in, and when they wake up Gabriel is passed out in the driver's seat with several blankets covering his body; Nadia notices he's given them their own blankets to fend off the cold.

As Nadia sits up, the blankets fall from their shoulders. They light a lantern, momentarily set it on the dashboard while they open the car door, and frown when they hear the tap of boots against concrete rather than the crunch of snow underfoot. They stretch their arm holding the lantern out and faintly see the columns of concrete beyond the glow of light. Overhead, a department building probably exists – one with supplies they might not need but should bring back for the people in the city.

Or, rather they hope it has supplies.

The wind howls outside the underground garage as Nadia, now with their crossbow slung across their back, looks for the entrance of the store; they don't notice Gabriel's footsteps behind them until he speaks up. “Looking for something?”

Nadia jumps, then they exhale once they realize it's Gabriel walking in their line of sight. Even in the dim light Nadia can see his amused smile. “I finally scared you, but somehow it's not quite as memorable as I thought it would be.” he muses to himself.

“Shut up, you just startled me.” Nadia says, but their words don't hold any venom. They force their mouth to remain in a tight line as they ask “How was the weather getting here?”

“The same.” Gabriel admits. He falls in step with Nadia as they continue to search for the entrance, or whatever might be left of it. Nadia eventually spots the permanently open automatic door when they go around a smashed in Honda civic, and they don't waste any time in jogging towards it. A dim fluorescent light flickers overhead when they and Gabriel step inside the store, and as they walk up the broken escalator a chill runs down Nadia's spine. Lights flicker throughout the store, briefly washing them and everything which exists in the store in darkness, before coming on again.

Nadia isn't sure which is worse: having poor electricity or having none at all.

Metal carts rest in a pile against the automatic doors and from the cash registers at check out stands money pours to the ground. Nadia's boots stick to the floor briefly after they step in something dark and unidentifiable, and they finally notice the small winged creatures flitting about the store when they look up at the ceiling.

“This place is creepy.” Gabriel murmurs as he steps over a shoe. Mud dries all around it, and the material has been torn from the outside in. Dark flecks decorate the light brown leather as a splatter. Nadia almost wonders what happened to the owner.

“Stay close.” Nadia replies as they reach for a box of bandaids. When they peek inside, it's been emptied. The rest of the shelves have been emptied of their contents, and what hasn't been taken rests dirty one the floor; Nadia shouldn't be surprised, yet they wish something beneficial might have come from their short expedition. Out of everything in San Francisco, the city needs medical supplies the most even with the constant scavenging and trading.

Racks of clothes rest piled on top of each other collecting dust and dirt and whichever else as Nadia and Gabriel pass them, and the scent of something foul prompts Nadia to cover their nose with the sleeve of their coat. “What are you even looking for?” Gabriel asks as Nadia leads them through an empty aisle now with plastic bags degrading on the floor.

“Anything useful,” Nadia replies, “preferably tools, or even clothes or blankets in decent condition.”

“A pillow would be nice.” Gabriel's hand brushes against one, and he pulls it away with a grimace. “Someone's cat must have attacked mine because it's all pillow feathers now.” Nadia stops. They raise their eyebrows at Gabriel who mirrors their confusion. “I gave you one of mine, what happened to that one?”

“You did?”

“Yes.”

Gabriel shrugs. “I guess someone stole it.” He starts walking in front of Nadia so they don't see his expression.

Nadia sighs. “You need to get a proper lock on your apartment. Sarah can help you, you know.” They kick an upended plastic storage tub aside with their foot.

Gabriel shakes his head. “I wouldn't want to bother her. Besides, I've gotten used to people stealing my stuff.”

“You shouldn't have had to.” Nadia notices a rusting knife beside an unopened bag of cat litter on one of the shelves, and they briefly wonder why cat litter exists in an aisle exclusively for kitchenware. They pocket a small package holding a paring knife after some thought then begin walking again right when Gabriel stops. Nadia almost says something, but the rigidity of his body makes them hold their tongue. Then, slowly, he takes out his own dagger right when Nadia notices the small, skinny sleeping hellhound in front a few yards in front of him. It rests sandwiched between two shelves that have been knocked over, and every few seconds its body shakes.

As Nadia slowly follows Gabriel around it, they notice tufts of fur missing on various spots on the hellhound's body, and even underneath the dim lightning Nadia can see its ribcage clearly through its fur. The smell of waste hits their nose when they finally allow themself to breath in, so they again cover the bottom half of their face with their sleeve.

Once they make it several yards away from the hellhound Nadia lets their arm fall from their face as they allow themself to breath normally again. Gabriel looks behind them frequently before the two find themselves in the sport supplies section that's surprisingly still intact. A tennis racket lies in the middle of the aisle. Gabriel picks it up, inspects it, and hangs it on one of the hooks.

“We should leave.” Gabriel says before they start moving. His foot starts tapping the floor, so Nadia nudges it with their own.

“I agree,” Nadia admits, “but there might still be stuff worth taking. If a hellhound is here, that might mean other people were scared off and the store hasn't been pilfered in its entirety.”

Gabriel looks at them a few seconds, his eyebrows raising, before he sighs. “Okay, fine. But as soon as something happens we're leaving.”

Nadia leads the two down aisles, picking up cans of food that, at the start of all this, people would have pushed aside for anything else, and finding a single pair of socks that they put in a discarded red plastic shopping basket. Other aisles echo the sports aisle; while their uses seem apparent now Nadia wouldn't be surprised if they're only still here because most people had the sense to leave the cities. Or, like so many, they were killed before they could properly empty the store. Gabriel often drifts behind them, his footsteps becoming nearly indiscernible in the quiet as the lights flicker on and off. Nadia keeps looking behind them to make sure he's still following them.

When the light flicker off for a few seconds longer, Nadia slips on something wet and their shoulder bumps into something that shatters on the floor. Dropping the basket, they grab the shelf with one hand and Gabriel grabs the back of their coat. Something starts blaring incessantly that sounds vaguely like a bird's screeching.

“Shit.” Nadia's eyes scan the broken glass on the floor before noticing the smear of blood on the floor and the lingering of metallic. They swallow, and Gabriel lets go of their coat.

“You okay?” he asks above the screeching, and Nadia nods.

“I'm fine, but we need to leave immediately.”

“I told you we should have before.”

Nadia frowns. “I know. You can rub it in my face later.” They take off running with Gabriel right behind them, and as the aisles blur around them the hair on the back of their neck raises and they swear they smell something distinctly sulphuric. They put a bolt in their crossbow and hold it in front of them as they run.

Gabriel shouts behind them, and a growling erupts behind Nadia before something smashes to the floor. Even before Nadia turns around, they hear a distinct dying moan. Gabriel pushes the hellhound's frail body off of him. Slowly, the hellhound's legs stop twitching and blood stops pouring from around the blade, and with its glassy eyes Nadia can't help but realize how much like a normal animal it looks.

Something curls in their stomach at the sight.

They turn their attention to Gabriel. “You okay?' they ask and he nods.

“Fine, I think. If not, I'll find the wounds later.” He shrugs as if the thought isn't that concerning, and then he pulls the dagger from the hellhound's throat. Neither he or Nadia waste another second before they start running towards the exit again; the screeching grows so intense that Nadia swears their eardrums are bleeding. Once or twice Gabriel stops them from running into a shelf until suddenly a wall of midnight blocks their path.

It looks as if the store ends, opening up into a cloudy midnight sky that looks as if it's been woven into a silken tapestry. The shrieking grows even louder, so much that Nadia's eyes can barely stay open and they swear their head will split in two. Gabriel sticks out his foot and prods the wall – and he jumps back when feathers ruffle. The wall shifts, scooting backwards until a beady eye larger than Nadia's eyes blinks at them.

Nadia's body tenses. Suddenly aware of the chill in the air, they look up and around them as if it will give them some answer as to how this thing got here. The screeching stops momentarily as the beast's eye shifts from Nadia to Gabriel, then it launches itself in the air and breaks a hole through the ceiling with such force that Nadia's surprised the ceiling doesn't start to cave in. Gabriel and Nadia barely run a few yards before the giant bird comes throttling back towards the ground.

“Get down!” Nadia yells as they wrap an arm around Gabriel's waist and pull them both towards a small upside down v-shape created by two shelves. They toss their crossbow a little in front of their body just before they land. Another ear-splitting screech echoes throughout Nadia's skull as shelves crash around each other, and waves of air currents blast them as if wind turbines have suddenly sprouted in the middle of the store. Nadia wraps their arms around their body to warm themself, and Gabriel noticeably shivers beside them. Another round of banshee-esque shrieks reverberate in Nadia's skull, and the shelves are knocked aside as if they're merely toothpicks.

Nadia grabs their crossbow off the floor and immediately aims it inside the bird's gapping bronze-colored beak where the fleshy dark pink throat is visible. The bolt buries itself in the bird's neck, looking like little more than a splinter, when it moves its head, and Nadia has half the mind to just toss the crossbow up at the monster before they come to their senses and sprint away. Gabriel pulls on their wrist and they both collide into a small sectioned area with different changing stalls marked by graying doors.

Nadia pushes themself off the ground, slings their crossbow across their back, and pushes open one of the stalls. A few plastic hangers litter the floor. Nadia kicks them aside with their boot as Gabriel step in beside them. He plops himself on the floor then stares at his reflection in the mirror and proceeds to try to wipe drying blood off of his chin.

Nadia decides to allow themself a break and sits beside them so their shoulders touch. They drag a hand through their braid now coming undone, and as they redo it the beast begins its screeching again, and Nadia wonders how long it will take for it to find them. They suppose the bird could bring the entire building to the ground, but something tells them it would rather keep its shelter intact for the time being.

“There was an entrance at the back of the building.” Gabriel says after a few moments of silence. Nadia turns and looks at him. “At the back,” he clarifies, “there was this huge hole in the wall. We wouldn't have seen it before, but as we were running to the garage I noticed it. That's how it got in.”

Nadia frowns. “What even is that thing? I've never seen anything like it.”

Gabriel shrugs. Another shriek fills the silence, this time sounding farther away, so Nadia wonders if its sense of smell is impeded by something or if it's just growing bored of looking for them. The silence, while not commonplace, causes the eventual slow of Nadia's heartbeat, and while the chill begins to subside they remind themself they need to leave. To disappear deeper into the cold. Yet for now, despite their mind urging them to move, they find the peace has too much of a grip over their bones.

Gabriel moves his legs so they stretch out in front of them. His once-completely brown hiking boots gray with dust, and flecks of blood create what look like icons in the material. He rubs at them with his hand once, twice, then obsessively as the giant bird's screeches echo throughout the building. Nadia makes a mental note to find him a new pair of shoes sometime.

“We should get moving.” Nadia's words tumble into the open air and spread out to fill the empty space. They breathe in through their nose. Exhale through their mouth. They almost wish their journey would end now, if only to cease the wandering.

“We should,” Gabriel agrees. He meets Nadia's gaze through the mirror; for a moment his hazel eyes look green. “but we should wait until we can't hear that thing anymore.” He pauses to wrap his arms around his torso. “I wish Sam was here.”

Nadia raises their eyebrows. “She's more than an endless supply of food you know.”

“I know. I was thinking more about the fact that she's basically a heater. It's always so damn cold out here, and she probably never notices it. Fucking demigods.”

“You don't mean that.”

Gabriel sighs. “No, I don't.” He pauses. “How did we end up here?”

Nadia shrugs. “I don't know anymore. This wasn't supposed to take this long.” “Guess we just have shit awful luck.”

“Or just you do.”

Gabriel rolls his eyes. “No, it's definitely you. You always take weeks to get back from your reconnaissance missions because the weather decides to fuck you over.”

“Maybe I'm just being thorough.”

“Thorough my ass. You'd half-ass dying if it were possible.” He frowns, and his gaze falls to where the carpet and the mirror meet. “But I probably would too.”

Nadia's foot nudges Gabriel's leg. “We only have a few more days out here, then we'll be back at San Francisco.” They smile – awkwardly, hesitantly – right as the sound of something smashing to the floor echoes throughout the building. Just when they thought they would be okay to leave.

“I know,” Gabriel says, “but being out here too long gets to you. I'm still not used to it.”

“No one is.” Nadia frowns at that because of course there are people like that. Kids who were born into this world who know nothing better, people like Sam and Sarah who have come to adapt to this world and all its sulphuric existence because they've found something good in the midst. Maybe they and Gabriel have just grown soft; surely there was a time where the months on end out here were familiar rather than foreign.

The steadying cacophony of the beast doesn't stop for what seems like hours – and perhaps such a lengthy amount of time already has passed. When Nadia's eyelids threaten to close, Gabriel jabs them in the ribs with his hand. He grins at their glare, and they comment how he should be the one dozing off instead of them. Gabriel responds that he can only fall asleep so easily when he knows he's not going to be mauled to death. Gradually, though, the shrieks disappear and the two are bathed in silence as if it were a baptism.

Nadia shifts. They stand up, offer Gabriel their hand, and ignore the way their body shivers. “Let's go.” they say before they step outside into the body department store. A blanket of white snow greets them – thin as it might be. Nadia still frowns.

“Nadia, come on.” Gabriel murmurs beside them, his voice a hairbreadth from Nadia's ear, so Nadia starts walking again. Slowly, they creep through the department store avoiding jet black feathers the size of their body and the rumble the bird left in its wake. Ages seem to pass before they finally find the broken escalator and run out into the embrace of the dark.

Nadia pulls open the passenger door and sighs once their body sinks into the seat. They cover their legs with blankets and wrap the last around their shoulders so it covers their arms and torso. Gabriel laughs at their appearance to which Nadia themself even smiles. Gabriel doesn't even bother to start the car for a few minutes.

“I can't believe we did that.” he murmurs. He adds, “Never talk me into exploring at night ever again when I don't have to.”

“It wasn't like we were going anywhere anyway.” Nadia replies cooly. “Driving at night in this weather is a death sentence.”

Gabriel raises his eyebrows. “And that wasn't?”

“I didn't know that thing would be there.”

“Speaking of that thing, what was it? It was never talked about in those classes at San Francisco.” Gabriel frowns. “It didn't seem particularly interested in finding us either.”

“It could have been protecting its territory,” Nadia realizes. “and once we left it didn't bother to chase after us. It had something to eat after all.”

“Maybe.” Gabriel sinks into the driver's seat after he pushes it back. “I'm going to get some sleep, you should too. Especially with what happened.”

Nadia shakes their head. “Someone should keep watch in case something happens.” They briefly look outside into the dark where they think concrete pillars should stand. “I could go back and look for the lantern.” they add, but the words are spoken more to be spoken rather than because they truly want to do it.

“Nadia,” Gabriel begins and Nadia looks at him. The dark circles under his eyes make him look sickly underneath the fluorescent light. “you need to sleep. We'll both be fine.”

“Fine.” Nadia relents. They push their seat back as far as it will go and bury themself underneath the blankets to capture the warmth that the cold still threatens. Eventually, although they don't know when, their eyes close and they drift away.

Nadia wakes up before Gabriel, so once he wakes up the two depart for the east again. The snowfall doesn't cease until a few hours on the road, but it makes no difference because they make several stops to clear the snow from the path and drive as slowly as possible to avoid crashing. When the two aren't clearing the roads, Gabriel sleeps with his entire body buried beneath the blankets so Nadia only sees the top of his hair. He wakes up sporadically, and when he does he strikes up conversation more for the sake of it rather than because he is genuinely interested in talking.

The buildings turn into frozen fields dusted with snow and occasionally Nadia catches glimpses of ash-gray smoke curling upwards where other people live. Vehicles scatter the road like afterthoughts, and occasionally Nadia will see the tracks of animals, humans, and otherwise disappearing into the fields as if they would have found some hidden salvation. Fourteen years have given this place too much time to fade into a land inhabited only by specters.