frickin bats [white rabbits vs bats, day 2]

He had cleaned up Alice first—wiped the blood from her face and tended to the wounds along nearly every inch of her body. “What did they do to you?” He coos, soft and tender. Unlike him, really. Brody is never one to lighten his tone, or his attitude for that matter, for anyone. “You’ll be all right, shh.” Sitting before him is not just a girl standing in his way. She’s an opportunity, a chance that he must take. What he didn’t expect was for her to be a package deal.

Boots crunch atop the rocks along the river’s edge and Brody pushes himself back to his feet in an instant, drawing his blade in a flash of silver. He lunges forward and presses it to the stranger’s throat, acting first and saving questions for later. But after a few seconds he realizes exactly who rests beneath his knife. And to be truthful, he’d hoped that last canon was for him. For December.

Using Alice would be so much easier without him.


He slowly pulls away his weapon and backs up with his arms raised. “Sorry, can’t be too careful.” Brody smirks as he turns back toward the little bloodied dove, a sinking feeling his usual tricks won’t work on the boy from Seven.


“Thought they got you, too,” he breathes,  slipping his knife back into his belt. “You two all that’s left?”

••••

The night comes and so does the anthem, faces splayed across the star-filled sky. Those stupid enough to get themselves killed far too quickly. They were not survivors, and to be honest, neither were the two people to his left and right, but for now Brody would make them, if by nothing else than sheer force of will. For now, he needs them. And they won’t be any use to him if they’re weak and ill-prepared.

He offers to spar with Alice at dawn, as the sun rises and creatures begin to wake. She’s still shaky from yesterday, a bit sheepish, but what else should he have expected? She wasn’t meant for this, to fight till the death and be the one to walk away. “Just plant your feet, okay? Stand your ground and you should be fine.” He tries his best to make it sound convincing, stepping up behind her and kicking a bit more space between her legs. “Your elbow should aim, and your wrist will follow. You try,” and she does so, as Brody backs away like a parent letting go of their child’s bike for the first time. He holds his breath, she rears back her arm, and in a blink the knife sinks into the bark of a tree about twenty feet away.

“Perfect.”

••••

Brody unsheathes his knife as fast as he can, the imminent descent upon them as soon as they had all heard the screeching. High-pitched and ear-shattering, but he’s confident they can take them. He’d spent all morning working with Alice and she’d hit her mark nearly every time after he’d shown her a few things. So he looks toward her as a large, dark, winged shape emerges into view.


“Confidence!” He shouts into the distance between them with a half-smile, “you can do this.”

But then something long and metal and fucking sharp sails towards his head and he puts up his blade to push it away before it cuts it clean off. “What the fuck?!” Brody spins out of the way and shoves December back a few feet, now wanting as much distance between them as possible. “What, you still got smoke in your eyes? Hit the huge thing flying at us maybe? NOT ME!” He narrows his eyes at the boy who just almost killed him, wondering exactly what the fuck his plan was going to be. But he can’t really worry about it now. Not as a bat the size of of a great dane swoops down at him.

Hopefully Alice saw, though. That will most definitely work in his favor.

Filler for now. Because it’s Thursday and these bats needa die thanks

uwu

Filler again vroom vroom bitch

also light simping bc alice warned him before he got smacked