After Days - Chapter 2: Part 2

“Leave it, Leon, he won’t listen.” Ueda hushed, rubbing her scared but elegant hands in the fire’s warmth. Her skin was pale even with the blotches of filth and grime, yet another reminder of how rare sunlight was. 

Leon threw his arm, discarding the argument before slipping it into the threaded comfort of his baggy trouser pocket. “I get that things are pretty much at their worst but that’s not the sort of thing we can afford to do. Turn on each other.” 

“He would never turn on you. He needs you. For all his actions don’t ever show it, he still loves you like a brother, and eventually he will show that.” Ueda convinced as the baffled young man slouched down by the fire, his gaze once again stolen by the flicker of cooking food in the distance. “I have to ask you…” Ueda shuffled forward, leaning in to try and steal Leon’s attention. “…what happened out there?” 

Her words were the thing that snapped his attention. With wide eyes he tried to hide the fact that anything had truly happened. Telling tales to Ueda was nothing but a bad idea and a waste of time. She would always see through them eventually. “It’s just like I said, animals are starting to show advanced signs of infection and I know I can’t be so unlucky that I ran into the only one out there.” 

“There’s more than that.” Ueda nudged as the fire danced in a fresh cool breeze. “You have seen things that the little ones couldn’t even imagine, and still this seems to have taken a chunk out of you. There was a moment when I thought I felt you use your Kel’Dar. You did something yesterday. Now I will ask again. What happened?” Her hoarse voice giving no room for denial. 

Leon looked sternly into the flickering shade of his carer’s hood, his mind racing for an excuse that may buy him at least some time to think of a more convincing story. Though he could not see her eyes, he knew she was looking right through him, awaiting only the truth. 

He tipped his head back and sighed heavily as he combed his thin fingers through locks of thick hair, slipping it out of his face. He reached inside his jacket, fiddling and shuffling at his side. Ueda waited patiently, yet full of curiosity. Finally, from the scratched, glistening zip of his jacket, he pulled a tangle of thick nylon straps and a heavy cradle, hanging empty. 

He tossed it over to Ueda’s lap but she snapped it out of the air before it could clap to the ground. “Leon.” She snarled. “How could you have even thought of using something like that?” She could not decide how to react, but the urge to spin the holster around his neck and make him beg for forgiveness was sticking in her mind. 

“It wasn’t meant for that.” His voice oozed with self-loathing as he recalled the killing, admitting that he had used the enemy’s weaponry for his own survival. 

“No. It was meant for him.” 

Leon nodded, dropping his eyes to a long stretch of pipe at the edge of the roof. Laza must have dropped it when he had Leon by the neck. “I wish I could have saved it.”  

“Let it go, boy.” Her tone was quiet, yet solid and commanding, she would not repeat herself. “You have to let go of this aimless vendetta before it gets you killed. Yes, he took her away from you, and yes, I know how close you two had grown. But this is a man who commands armies, Leon. A man who is probably half the world away, and even if he wasn’t, you would never be able to even get close to him.” 

“Then I suppose it’s for the best that I didn’t waste my Kel’Dar out there, isn’t it…” Spite coated his words. How dare she make his goal seem so petty, so aimless. His eyes squinted in boiling anger, mirroring those of the beast he had slain. 

In a blurring stream, Ueda rose into the air, crashing down onto her insubordinate child. Her knee pressed sharply into his throat making Laza’s threat seem like a loving embrace. Long nails dragged against his scalp as she tugged at a fistful of his golden, streaked hair. “You listen to me you ungrateful parasite. I didn’t keep you alive this long for you to defy me. You can never defy me.” She pointed towards the enclosed skyscraper. “The people in that building need you to keep them alive, and if you dare use my gifts for your own means, I will cut you down.”  

She meant it, Leon knew that, he’d seen her keep her word before. The thing that shook him most was that, despite her vow, his did not tremble inside, not in the slightest. Had he really given up on life? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t want to be. 

“Do I have your word?” Slightly lifting her knee for him to answer. 

“Kill me, and everyone else is dead too. Who would hunt? Laza? He’s too dense to catch a thing. And Elliott? He must have seen the whole thing yesterday, but if he didn’t then he at least saw the result. He’s most likely told Vicky by now and neither one of them will be brave enough to go out and scavenge knowing those things are out there.” 

The truth was, all Elliott had seen was his older brother heroically taking down a twisted monster with the strength of his back and the blade of his knife. However, slouched behind a crippled column of twisted debris, he did not appreciate the idea that people thought he was not brave. He was nearly 10 years old after all.  

He shuffled a pair of conkers faster and faster in his palm as he began to form an idea. He had it. A band of travellers had passed through not too long ago. They hadn’t been seen for most of that time so they must have moved on, and if not, he could steal from them. Shuffling his conkers into his small pocket, he dashed for the stairway, tapping down them and into the darkness. 

“You’ve always been ballsy, kid, but this is one fight you won’t win.” With a single flick of her finger against his temple, she rendered him unconscious, completely out cold. He wasn’t willing to answer, so where was the need to talk? 

“Leon!” Vicky screamed, darting over to where he lay. Ueda flinched, her hands and posture tightening up as if she were ready to strike, though she was quick to pull her aggression. 

“What’s the matter Victoria? Leon’s… sleeping.” She did her best to quieten the bawling girl, but Leon had already struggled into a somewhat conscious state. Mildly, she was impressed, he had been out for a while, but she thought it would be a day before he woke. 

“He’s gone.” Vicky cried, tears tumbling down her rosy cheeks. 

“Hey I’m right here. What are you talking about?” Leon slurred, tilting his head back to look at his little sister, albeit upside down. He remembered how he got the jabbing headache, but he didn’t want to start another disagreement, not in front of Vicky. 

“No, no! Elliott. I, I can’t find him anywhere.” Her weakness got the better of her as her knobbly knees caved in under her heavy heartache. Ueda and Leon quickly shot to their feet, each supporting and interrogating the young girl. 

“When did you last see him?” Ueda asked. 

“Vicky, look at Leon.” He instructed, referring to himself in the third person. “Did he leave the hideout? Were you guys playing?” He ran his hand over her frizzy dark hair to try and comfort her, but he needed an answer immediately. 

“He said he was gonna get something yummy for me. I’m still waiting and he’s probably had it all for himself.” She sent herself into a childish tantrum as she said it out loud. 

The adults looked to each other, sharing the same overdose of fear. Vicky hadn’t realised what was actually going on, she just thought her brother was playing a trick on her, being a ‘meany’. It was the reason Ueda never let her leave the lookout. For although the violence of the world was all Vicky knew, she was always detached from it, always daydreaming and skipping carelessly through the years. 

“Laza, get out here!” Ueda demanded, taking quick steps towards the wall of the interior. 

Laza was quick to leap into sight, pushing himself over a concrete beam. “Everything alright?” He had felt it too. Something was off, different, lost. 

“When did you last see Elliott?” Leon quizzed. 

“Not since he came back and told me you were home.” He knew Elliott was a master at hide and seek, but the stones in his gut promised that this was not a game. 

Leon leaned away from the stomping child, swiping up the metal pipe and heaving it through the air to Laza. “We will head down. You find him and let us know where he is.” Leon had already reached the wall and was dragging himself up onto a ledge. 

“I’ve already found him…” Ueda said blankly, as though she were dead. She looked up to the two armed men, her eyes shining a ghostly white inside her cloak, like moons sitting in a clear night sky. “Route 13…” 

Leon stiffened with horror as he looked back to her. Ueda’s gift had never steered them wrong before, and at times saved their lives, but they prayed that this time she would be wrong. Regardless, as soon as the he could feel his body again, his push Laza ahead and made for the stairway, ignoring their lack of energy and hunger and replacing it with a single objective. 

“Leon!” Ueda summoned. He was sharp to turn, looking into her. “You find him, you bring him home to me.” She clutched Vicky into the looseness of her robe. Leon stayed silent and nodded with unspoken promise. Perhaps wrongly, she trusted him. 

“Are they gonna go get me yummies?” Vicky sang happily. 

“Please boys. Hurry.”