Chapter Text
Holy shit.
“Five!” I pull some more of the debris off the old shelves, and there they are. Beautiful, life giving gifts, neatly wrapped in their plastic packaging.
“What's wrong?” Five comes over quickly.
“Nothing’s wrong.” I step aside and show Five my discovery.
“Holy shit.” His words come out in a breath of incredulous laughter.
“I know,” I laugh. Twinkies. It’s been so long since we’ve had food and even longer since we’ve had anything that wasn’t in a fucking can. I pick up one of the packages and open it, the plastic crinkling between my fingers feeling unnatural now. It’s funny how fast things can change. Just a year ago I would have grabbed a bag of whatever out of my pantry without a second thought. I pull out one of the twinkies and hand it to him. He takes it gratefully. I grab mine.
“Cheers” I say. We jokingly tap our pastries together and then take a bite.
The chewed-and-then-spat-out Twinkie on the ground looks just as appetizing as it tasted.
“This is bullshit” Five mutters.
“Who even came up with that infinite shelf life thing anyways?” I probe my mouth with my tongue, trying to get any remnants of that “food” out of my mouth. I might be joking about the unfortunate discovery that those Twinkies are rancid, but I’m worried. I really thought these would be good. Now I don’t know what’s going to happen to us.
“What do we do now?” I ask
“What do you mean?”
“Five, we need to actually find something to eat. It’s been too long. We can’t go on like this.” We haven’t eaten in at least six days. And before that all our meals had been small and sporadic. Even now, just looking at Five, I can see how hollow his face is getting, and how skinny his arms are. I’m sure I don’t look much better. He sighs.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Well, you could-”
“No.” Five interrupts me. “No. We’ve talked about this before, and it’s not happening.” It was a few months ago when I first suggested that Five use his powers to search for food quicker. It takes so long if we’re just wandering aimlessly, hoping to stumble onto something, and he could cover so much ground if he'd just teleport. He never says yes.
“I don’t think we have any other options.” I look him in the eyes, and, even though I see them every single day, I’m still mesmerized by how green they are. Five looks torn. I keep pestering him.
“Fifteen minutes. That’s all. Please, Five?”
“Fine” Wait. Did he just say yes? I grin at him.
“Thank you!” I turn around and go to grab our backpacks. For the sad little amount of things that we have in them, the bags feel very heavy.
“What are you doing?” Five asks. I look at him, confused.
“I’m setting up camp? It’s gonna be dark in an hour. Besides, it’ll save time if I set up while you’re looking for food.”
“Here though? It’s so open here. Vulnerable.” I actually laugh at that.
“Oh no! We’re vulnerable to all the tumbleweeds that are going to attack us.”
“No, I’m being serious. What if someone comes while I’m gone?”
“We haven’t seen anyone since this whole shit show started. No one survived, Five.”
“You did.” It’s a fair point. Five has a legitimate excuse for being alive, since he skipped the whole Earth blowing up part of the apocalypse. I don’t know why I’m here. I was outside emptying the compost bucket one second, and the next I was waking up with my face on the ground, and my house reduced to a pile of rubble. With my family inside.
“What do you want me to do? Hide for the whole time you’re gone?”
“Yes!”
“No!”
“I’m not going unless I know you’re safe.” He eyes me with an expression of annoyingly stubborn resolve. I’m about to protest but my stomach has other plans. I feel a wrenching twist from hunger and my body tenses from pain. I try to hide it the best I can, and I keep a neutral face. Well, I attempt to keep a neutral face. I probably look more constipated than indifferent, or whatever I’m going for. After a second though, I regain my composure.
“Fine” I say. “If you want to waste time and make me sit in a bush for half an hour, I’ll humour you. But you’d better find food.”
“Fifteen. We agreed on fifteen minutes.” I roll my eyes at him.
My legs have fallen asleep. Fifteen minutes doesn’t seem that long, but it sure feels it when you’re stuck squatting in the remnants of a broken building, hiding from nothing. I shouldn’t be complaining though. I'm glad Five finally agreed to use his teleportation, instead of taking forever walking around like I have to. He’s never agreed to my suggestion before. I guess, it’s never been this bad before. I hear the zap sound that Five makes when he teleports. Finally! I shakily stand up, trying very hard not to fall over.
“Five?” I don’t see him anywhere. I hear another zap. It’s coming from my right and I whip around to try and see. Again, nothing.
“FIve, are you messing with me?” I don’t think he would do that. It’s not his thing. Like, at all. I walk over to where the noise came from, right where I found those Twinkies. There’s no one here. I’m about to go back to my uncomfortable hiding spot when I see it on the ground. Our spat-out Twinkie mush now has a footprint in it. Gross. I check my shoes, but they’re clean. Sucks to be Five, I guess.
ZAP. I whip my head around for the second time and I see him.
“There you are! Why were you hiding?”
“What are you talking about? And why weren’t you hiding?” Five looks at me with an accusatory glare.
“I heard you get back…” My thoughts trail off as I notice a bundle in Five’s arms. “Oh my god! You actually found something?” I go over to him. “Hopefully it’s actually edible this time.” He doesn’t laugh. Not even a chuckle. Tough crowd, I guess.
“Why weren’t you hiding?” he asks again. I shrug.
“Like I said, I heard you get back. You’re teleporting isn’t silent, you know.” He looks like he’s about to protest, but I grab the bag from him.
“No!” Five yanks the bag back. That’s weird.
“Geez, is there a shrunken head in there or something?” Five looks embarrassed.
“No. Sorry. I just… want to check the expiry dates of this stuff. No point in getting your hopes up if we can’t even eat it.”
“Oh, okay.” I say, confused. “I guess I’ll start setting up camp while you do that.”
“Okay yeah, that sounds good”
Chickpeas and tomato paste, a meal fit for a king. And I’m not being sarcastic. I’m wolfing it down.
“Slow down,” Five laughs. I look at him with a mouthful of my dinner. I chew for a second and swallow. Stare him down.
“I’m sorry, am I not being ladylike enough for you?”
“No.”
“Then what is it?” I ask.
“You’re going to make yourself sick. Your body isn’t used to food, eat sower so you can adapt again. Otherwise you’re just going to waste it by throwing it up in 30 minutes.”
“Oh.” That’s smart. I put my can down to let my stomach rest for a second. “Thanks.” I say.
“What would you do without me?” He smiles at me. I give him a wide smile back.
“I probably would be less annoyed all the time…”
“Oh! Okay, I see how it is. I’ll remember this next time you want me to find food.”
“No, I’m sorry!” I say “I’m very grateful to have you.”
“That’s what I thought.” I make a face at his obnoxious comment and I pick up my dinner again. I’m eating slower now.
“For what it’s worth, I’m glad to have you too.” Five says quietly.
“What was that?” I ask. He looks at me.
“You heard what I said.” I did hear him.
“Well, thanks.” I say. We go back to eating in silence. It's an amicable one though. I guess that happens when you spend every single day with a person. You get used to them. Five is looking into the fire that I built. I may not be able to teleport, but I am useful. Somehow, even though it's dark out, his eyes still look impossibly green.
“Your eyes are so pretty.” I say.
“I thought you’d actually forgotten to say it today.”
“You wish.” I laugh. From the first day that I met Five, I’ve always mentioned how pretty his eyes are. He acts like it’s annoying, but I think he secretly likes it. Five laughs too. I look down at the ground, and see five's shoes in my peripheral vision. That reminds be about the Twinkie mush. They don't look dirty either... maybe it got wiped off while he was away. That must be it. Hopefully. I look up again and check our surroundings. Empty, as per usual. Still, I can't stop myself from severing. Five notices.
“It’s getting colder again,” He says. That's not why I shivered, but I have to agree. Even sitting by the fire, wearing my hoodie, I can feel goosebumps on my arms.
“We’ll survive” I say. “We’re annoyingly good at that.”