Inside, outside
Paring: 10k x reader
Warnings: Swearing, drug use
Chapter: 5.08
The more you try and wriggle your wrists free from the pole they are bound to, the deeper the rope cuts into your skin, but the stinging on your wrist was nothing in comparison to the talker who wouldn’t stop harping on and on. After Doc was shot with an arrow, someone knocked you and 10k out. The next thing you’re aware of is waking up in a field.
The talker smiles at you, baring his rotten teeth and foul breath. “Your friend there looks a little pale,” he nods his head in 10k’s direction. “Just transitioned, has he?”
“He’s not a talker.”
“Then how come his hand fell off?”
10K frowns at the comment. You glance down at his stump and notice his bandages have been changed; before you can comment on it, the talker starts loudly harping on, and nothing he says makes sense.
“Dude, please stop talking!”
He continues to yell until Warren runs up and shoves a stick into his mouth, muffling his voice. “That's enough out of you,” she starts to untie the knot. “Who did this to you?”
“I dunno, and I would rather not find out.”
As soon as you are free, you go to untie 10k’s hand while Warren unties Doc. He looks up at her with admiration, “Chief, I have never been so pleased to see you.”
“I'm not the chief you need to worry about.”
You let out a scream of surprise as an arrow scrapes by your arm, “They’ve spotted us!”
“Keep your heads down!”
All of you start to flee towards a patch in the forest where the greenery is thicker and easier to hide in, but just as you're about to make it, Doc is shot with another arrow, this one landing in his ass.
“Oww!”
He stumbles to the ground; George pulls him back to his feet, but it’s too late. A group of people, aiming their weapons at you, surrounds you in a matter of seconds.
Warren raises her hands first. “We're not here to fight.”
“We're not your enemy.”
The woman who appears to be in charge whispers to the individual who is standing beside her, and he proceeds to bind the hands of all individuals.
—
The people known as the water keepers, with their weapons aimed at your back, take you as hostages and lead you to their camp. While they talk among themselves, you pick up a few words like ‘bombing’ and ‘zombies,’ and while trying to listen in, you notice a young boy standing watch nearby. You lower yourself until you are at his eye level. “Hey, I heard that you were also bombed.”
“Yeah, lots of times,” he nods. “Got hit by a zombie ball too.”
“Shh,” an older woman gives him a look that causes him to stop talking.
Not wanting to get the kid into trouble, you smile at him and back up. At the same time, George manages to free one of her hands and immediately reaches for her gun attached to her belt but is stopped by Warren.
“They haven’t hurt us.”
Doc scoffs, “Speak for yourself.”
“Something tells me your ass shot was just a warning, Doc.”
“We need to wait and watch,” Warren whispers. “They'll see we're not the enemy.”
—
It doesn’t take long for word to spread in camp that they had prisoners, and a familiar-looking woman with black hair soon comes to question why you were so close to the dam, but it turned out you’d met her once before at the Grand Canyon.
Kuruk.
Even though you didn't know her well, you remembered how much of a crush Doc had on her, and based on the way he looked at her, you could assume he still does.
Since you were friends of Doc’s, she ordered for your restraints to be untied. “I’m always thrilled to see Doc’s people.”
Kuruk explains that it’s her father who was responsible for the water dam, but someone has been trying to sabotage it, even going as far as planting bombs and trying to kill their people. Hearing this makes it easier to understand why they were so aggressive when you got too close to their home.
You recognize a tall woman with dark brown hair in neat braids. “Ayalla, isn’t it?”
“It is,” she smiles broadly and inspects you closely. “You are very brave for doing what few would dare to do. Bringing new life into our world.”
You look down at your stomach and frown; in your mind your baby was still nonexistent, but perhaps that wasn’t the case anymore. It becomes evident when others notice without being told.
Seeing you pout, Ayalla laughs, “I picked up on your energy. You have two very strong heartbeats beating inside you.”
A look of seriousness crosses 10k’s features. “Can you really tell that?”
She nods at him, then turns to face you, gesturing to 10k. “Can I borrow him? I’ll bring him back in one piece.”
“Um, sure… Tommy?”
He looks between the two of you; it takes him a moment to pick up on Ayalla’s tone and that she is joking. He rubs at the bandage covering his stump nervously, “Do you need help with something?”
“No, but I do think I could help you.”
—
While discussing a plan to try and find out who was attacking the dam, a talker barges into the camp. You could tell from its eyes that there was no humanity left, but the water keeps thought differently.
“You need to mercy it!”
One of the women tries to stop the walker without killing it by restating it. “No, we only resort to that as a final measure.”
“He’s going to kill her!”
“It’s not our way.”
You were in disbelief; you couldn’t understand why they weren’t fighting harder to save their friend. Fuck this. You pick up the blade that was used for slicing meat next to the small campfire and mercy the talker, but you’re too late. The talker bites the water keeper, tearing off the flesh from her neck.
Enraged that the incident could have been prevented, you stab the talker in the head before it can bite anyone else, earning you a few death glares. As the woman's loved ones gather around her limp body on the ground, with blood pooling from her neck, you retreat. Feeling helpless, you hold back tears. Why didn’t they just listen? Sometimes you miss the days when you had a clear understanding of what was right or wrong. At the start it was kill or be killed, giving a Z mercy was an act of kindness.
“Hey,” Doc pats your back. “You did everything you could.”
You watch as the waterkeeper comes back as a talker and lets out a deep breath. You slam the blade onto the table. “I’m going to check on Tommy.”
—
Irritation builds inside you while walking to the spot 10k and Ayalla went to, but you’re surprised to see that nobody is there.
“10k?”
You stand confused until you hear the sound of branches snapping nearby. You duck behind a large rock; it’s not until you turn and face the other way that you notice someone dressed in all black and wearing a mask trying to discreetly creep closer to the dam, and not far behind him was 10k.
You try to get 10k’s attention by waving, but he’s too far away to notice.
Not knowing what else to do, you start to do the same thing and follow them, being careful not to make too much noise in case the man in the mask spots the both of you.
—
“Damn it,” you mutter to yourself.
Upon entering an underground tunnel that was characterized by numerous turns and twists, you lost sight of them. The noise of your heavy boots was starting to become more noticeable, and you were afraid the masked man would hear it and find 10k while seeking the source of the sound, so you moved out of eyesight and counted for five minutes before moving again.
But now you are completely lost.
Turning a corner, you spot the start of a small trail of blood on the floor and withdraw your gun. Cautiously, you follow the trail down to the boiler room of the dam.
“10k!”
He lies unconscious, his back against the wall. You try to shake him awake, but he doesn’t move; that’s when you notice the bleeding bump on the back of his head. “No, no, no! Please wake up.
Usually you’d know what to do, but your thoughts had suddenly gone so hazy that it was becoming hard to think straight. You keep getting a cold chill, a strange sensation as if someone was reaching for you, but there was no one else there.
When drops of water land on the floor next to his body, you look up and see that the water from the boiler is now starting to overflow and is shaking.
“Oh no.” You get to your feet and attempt to pull 10K up, saying, “We need to go now.”
An alarm starts blaring, which you presume is being caused by the boiler being ready to explode. Feeling your grip on him starting to slip, 10k falls back down and lands on his ass with a thud. With no other choice, you rush to look for a way to turn off the main water supply. You quickly find the valve, but with it being so rusted, it’s difficult to turn.
Suddenly 10k stands up with an almost possessed look in his eyes; he looks like he’s a puppet being controlled by strings, but regardless, he helps you turn off the valve.
“Thanks, babe. What the hell happened to you?”
Before he can answer, another water pipe bursts.
—
You feel a sense of unease as 10K, and you run back and forth between different pipes, trying to turn them off and on before something explodes. The building was starting to shake, which didn’t give you much confidence, but something in the way 10k was acting wasn’t right.
A voice from the floor above unexpectedly asks, “Who's there?”
“The water stopped, then started again! We are trying to stop it.”
Your eyes widened. Perhaps it was a side effect of hormone changes, or you were outright hallucinating, but although 10K’s mouth was moving, it wasn’t him talking.
“Stop it? You started it!”
“No,” you snap out of whatever delusion you were having. “It wasn’t us.”
An older man comes into view; he looks directly down at you and, in a clear state of panic, reaches for his gun. Kuruk suddenly appears beside you. “Dad! They aren’t outsiders. They are George’s people!”
“Kuruk, you made it.” 10K smiles brightly at her and then turns to face the man. “Oh, and sorry, chief. I guess you didn’t.”
“…Tommy?”
“Oh, no, it’s me, Doc. Sorry, kid, I thought I told you that. 10K is still unconscious. I’m just borrowing his extremities.” He leans back against one of the largest pipes and slurs his words as if he’s drunk, “Oh, to be twenty again.”
“What the hell, Doc? Get out of my husband. I need to check he’s okay.”
“No can do, babe,” he chuckles at the last part.
Kuruk’s dad shouts down, “We can’t open the spill gate from in here. The saboteur must have gone into the emergency panel.”
You reluctantly call out, “Let's go, Doc!” and begin to follow the chief, grabbing 10k's gun.
—
The chief orders his people to go with his daughter to search for the intruder. Warren and George were close on the masked man’s trail; they found him by following the sound of gunshots.
You stand guard in the control room while Doc and the chief try to regain control of the dam.
“See number one, Doc? Crank it up to three,” the chief says.
Suddenly Doc makes a noise as if he’s going to be sick; he shakes his head. “I feel old. Kind of stoned.” He looks around the room, confused. Where are you?”
For a split second it looks as if a ghostly version of Doc moves out of 10k’s body and then vanishes. But that couldn’t be real… right?
10K blinks rapidly and looks at the chief. “What happened?”
“Saboteur.”
“10k!” You pull him in for a hug. “George and Warren are chasing the masked man we followed in here. I think he tried to kill you.”
“Well, let’s get our guns and go.”
—
You observe as the water keepers perform a small ceremony with singing and dancing that they believe helps the dead move on onto a better place. The chief managed to save the dam along with the rest of his people, and Kuruk informed George that once things had settled at the dam, they would be moving to Newamerica. You were glad, as it was clear there was something special between her and Doc.
You smile when 10k stands behind you and links his fingers with yours. When you met up with Warren, it didn’t take you long to figure out where the masked man had gone, and when you reached the balcony on the outside of the building, he was about to kill George, but 10k shot him in the head.
“I’m proud of you,” you say quietly. “I know how much you’ve been panicking thinking you won’t be able to protect us, but you saved George.”
“Yeah?” 10K leans in to kiss you, but you back away.
“Nope, sorry, it’s too weird. I’m still picturing Doc’s voice coming out of your mouth.”
10k pouts slightly while the rest of the group laughs. “Thanks a lot, Doc.”
“Better weird than dead, kid.”
With the dam saved, the five of you say your goodbyes to the water keepers to continue on your journey to seek the source of the mystery ingredient that would hopefully prevent talkers from turning.
—
You walk for roughly an hour when Warren spots an old-looking farmhouse up ahead. “Well, take shelter there until morning.”
The house has three bedrooms, and once the building is cleared and all the windows and doors are secure, you decide to call it a night since you’d be leaving at first daylight.
Doc picks the bedroom beside the bathroom upstairs since he was worried about being sick during the night because of how high he was earlier; whatever ‘spiritual’ drugs he took apparently caused him to be able to enter 10k’s body. Warren and George share the second bedroom that's upstairs while you and 10k take the only one on the ground floor.
Yawning, he closes the door behind you. “Yeah, so Ayalla helped me find a temporary hand.”
“Why a deer antler?”
You draw the curtains over while he explains that it was the best out of the options he had, plus it helps with learning how to balance a gun with only one hand.
“You know…” You turn back to face him, a wide smile on your face. “I don’t think it’s weird anymore.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he smirks, “Thinking about it, we haven’t had any quality time together since we arrived in Newmerica.”
While 10k removes the harness covering his stump and places the antlers on the bedside table, you chuckle and begin to remove the top half of your clothing. You straddle his lap, your lips clashing against his, and between kisses you say, “We need to be quiet.”
While being lost in the rush of stripping each other of your clothes, you are completely unaware that the enemy was watching the house only a short distance away.