Chapter Text
Diablo stood and stared out of the windscreen, fur on end, the ruff around his neck bristling. He didn't move, just glared at the creature in front of them.
Artemis sat still, too, trying to even out her breathing and pay the monster walking to the car no mind. They'd slept in the truck. She hadn't done that since she was a teenage dirtbag, too drunk to drive home from a friends party, but having had enough of her shallow friends for the night. Her back ached, and she'd woken to the sound of scratches on the window. She watched as a monster's fingernails pinged off its decayed and putrid fingers. It had soon moved on, though she didn't think they got bored, she was pretty sure they saw badly, only noticing movement and smells. Something farther along must have smelled better. Some easier catch, perhaps.
Out the corner of her eye she noticed more movement. Not a monster. She flicked her eyes without moving her head and noticed a blonde woman, still very much living, flitting from tree to tree.
Shit.
Diablo, still as motionless as a statue, flicked his eyes also, but made no sound. They needed to start the truck and leave, but blondie would hear them. Would she want help? Would she even expect help? Artemis couldn't worry about that now, she watched the monster at the bonnet suddenly realise he could walk around the truck, and move to the passenger window. Diablo turned his head to follow and Artemis knew the game was up. She started the engine and drove away, watching as they past as the blonde woman fall to the floor under one Of the undead beasts.
Diablo made an odd noise in the back of his throat, not quite a whine, and Artemis shook her head at him.
"I can't Dee. I can't just pick up a random" he barked at her and she shrugged "yeah, I know, but she was a liability, couldn't look after herself, You saw that much surely" but guilt was making her heart pound. She'd just killed a woman by proxy. She grabbed the steering wheel and turned hard, speeding back to where she'd seen the blond.
She was gone, and in her place were two monsters, both with their heads on the ground behind them, jaws still snapping weakly.
"Next time we help" she whispered in awe, bending to swiftly knife each of the creatures through the eye "we could maybe do with a ninja on our side" Appearances being deceiving was not something she'd only learnt after the end of the world. She should have known the blond may have been more than met the eye, especially since her parents happy marriage was a farce, and despite their matching hair and eyes, her dad was not her biological father. That was a turn up for the books considering it turned out he was such a dick. She sighed to herself, torn between wanting her life to just be her and Diablo, as it had for so long, and wanting to help others. This morning should have clinched it, guilt still tore at her guts, but a lifelong dislike of others was hard to shake off, especially when a lot of 'others' now wanted to eat you for lunch.
She thought back to the start, the very start, before the nightly gunfire and government enforced curfews, before anyone really knew what was happening and that poor man from next door had been eaten alive. The woman at the store who had punched her own friend in the face over the last of the bottled water, the man from a few blocks away who had supposedly beaten his own son to death over the end of the world.
She swallowed, feeling suddenly sick. She needed somewhere to go, she needed to get over her irrational fear of people, and she needed it now. She sat a few more seconds, having got back in the vehicle, the engine idling and vibrating, then she suddenly nodded.
"We'll go west, bud, only direction we haven't been so far" she looked at Diablo, grinning at her, "let's see what we find"
What they found, was Disturbing, and shattered Artemis' hope for her growing faith in humans.
A few days into their expedition west they came upon a large rectangular hole in the ground, a hole full of the living dead.
"What the hell" Artemis breathed, confused and disgusted. It was a clever trap, but something about it... They were peeking over the edge when Diablo started whimpering and reversing away from the hole, alerting Artemis to the truck before she heard it herself. She turned and swiftly headed for the bushes where she'd left the warrior, Diablo leading the way. She opened the passenger door and grabbed her binoculars, then left the door open to avoid unnecessary noise, leaning on the roof of the vehicle. She peered through the goggles and watched as the truck, complete with lifting and towing apparatus, backed right up to the hole, so close she thought it might fall in. Diablo, by her side, whined quietly and shuffled his feet, feeling the atmosphere change as Artemis watched the newcomers get out of the truck.
The first was unexpectedly familiar, only now, he had a new appendage, a large knife welded to a sleeve he wore in place of his missing hand. The redneck from Atlanta. She was so stunned she barely noticed the Latin guy get out of the vehicle, The one who was driving that day. The one who thought to stop the truck and pick up the delirious one handed man. She couldn't hear them talking, she was too far away, but she could see them in deep conversation. It was their actions though, that interested her the most.
These men, these living, breathing human beings, lowered the hook on the back of their truck into the hole. There was some fiddling, and then the hook was lifted again, holding a net full of those monsters. Artemis gasped loudly, then held her breath in fear as the grey haired, one handed red neck looked around. His gaze was vague, more like he was thinking than that he had heard her, but she'd taken enough risks. What in Hell were they doing with those things? She looked at Diablo, who didn't have any ideas either, but her interest was piqued, and she'd decided already that they would be following them, if only to find out what on earth they wanted the beasts for. The hick got in the passenger side of the truck, whooping loudly, and they made off with the net of creatures swinging behind them. She watched them out of sight, wanting the strangers gone before she and Diablo made a sound.
She lowered her binoculars as the truck faded in the distance and heard a mumbling behind her. Diablo growled and she knew it was one of them. She couldn't kill it. This was clearly a trap set by these men, perhaps they came back every day. If they saw a dead monster they'd know someone had been there. She could do without them knowing about her just yet. Instead, she kicked out backwards and caught the creature in the stomach, hard enough to send it backwards, giving her time to climb into the truck, Diablo, ever faithful, diving over her legs to the passenger seat. She slammed the door as the monster reached for them, and gunned the engine in her haste to move.