spin_kick_snap | The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

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The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

The last time anyone from Fandom had been in Kathy's LA, the heroes had been living inside the walls that surrounded Paramount Studios, with the exes and the South Seventeens laying claim to everything else. Since then, they'd expanded; the Big Wall pushing the borders out almost a mile in all four directions. In some spots, it was hard to tell that there had ever been a zombocalypse; the streets were clean, the buildings repaired, the blood all scrubbed away. There was a proper school, lots of farms and gardens, several churches, and even a small library. The studio was still the heart of the community, but people had started to spread out and settle. It was still a tight fit, several thousand people into one square mile, but honestly not much worse than Los Angeles used to be, back before the world died and reanimated again.

Life had fallen back into a rhythm again. People got up, got ready for the day. Kids were sent off to school, adults took themselves to various jobs, though there were fewer sales people, baristas, and aspiring actors and a lot more guards, scavengers, and farmers these days. There was a brewery down on Larchmont and a still over on Monroe. Burns Park let people enjoy a bit of nature where the kids could run around and burn off steam and a Gold's Gym practically against the Big Wall. That was where the Unbreakables spent most of their free time, with curious gawkers watching them put more and more weight onto the machines.

It was a bustling little community of survivors, as safe as a place could be, surrounded on all sides by millions of undead waiting to find a way inside to devour them all.

[For them that are there! NFB, and ~~please wait for the~~ OCD is up! Previous entry Next Entry]

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"Sometimes," Dante agreed. "But not today. Or tomorrow."

"But you don't know that," Kathy said, frustrated not with him, but the whole stupid situation.

"I know me," Dante said. "And I know you."

He'd said it before.

It still held.

"And you know my track record with getting out of this place alive," Kathy said.

She nearly told him about the promise she'd - sort of - extracted from Eliot, but decided that it wouldn't do any good.

Instead she just stood up, shut off the water, and stepped out of the stall. "Towel?" she asked, pointing at the door behind him, where it was hanging on a hook.

"We were different back then," Dante said, and left it at that.

When next he spoke, it was just a "Here," as he handed her the towel.

"Thanks." Kathy wrapped herself in it and wished that he were the one doing the wrapping.

...And then realized she was being an idiot and could just use her words.

"Will you hold me for a little bit?"

Dante blinked once - she'd been so distant in the past few hours, he wasn't entirely sure how much touching he should be doing.

"Yeah, of course," he said immediately after that, stepping forward and reaching for her.

And it was entirely possible that after a few minutes of being held, she'd try to move away. She was all over the place, honestly.

This wasn't helping her feel more sane.

Kathy cuddled close, resting her head on his chest. "Sorry 'm gettin' your shirt all wet," she mumbled.

"Don't worry about it," Dante said, hugging her close.

Happy to be here for as long as she needed him to.

Kathy pulled a little, trying to guide Dante over to the toilet so they could both sit.

"I'm not - I don't think I count as rational right now," she admitted, hoarsely. "You don't know what it's been like. Rodney...the exes...the people. I'm not - I'm not doing too great."

"I know," Dante said, and sat down, and pulled her back into his arms almost immediately. "I know, okay? I know."

"You don't though," Kathy said, twisting in his arms to glare at him. "You don't. You don't know what Rodney whispered to me between the bars as he was pointing a gun at me. You don't know what a little kid came and tried to guilt me into doing. You don't know what happened to the girl I was talking to up on the Wall or what Josh said when I went to see him...you don't know anything about what I've been through since I showed up!"

"No, I don't know the specifics," Dante said slowly, "And if you wanna talk about those, be my guest. But I've fucking been here before, Kathy. I've seen what this place does to you. I'm not some fucking snowflake walking into a warzone thinking anybody can waltz out of this clean."

"Good, cause I'm not clean!" Kathy snapped and, shit, she was tearing up.

So much for appearing sane.

"I let a girl die yesterday, Dante. All because I couldn't make myself jump. I couldn't go out there. Not for her. For a phone? Sure, yeah, I could go out there and get one of those. But not to save some poor, stupid, deluded fucking girl."

Dante let out a soft sigh.

"I'm sorry about the girl," he said.

"She thought he'd recognize her," Kathy whispered. "She went right over, thinking that he'd know her and not hurt her. She tried to protect the exes from the guards, right until he bit her neck."

Dante hugged her a little tighter.

"Not your fault," he said quietly.

"I told the guards I was going to get her," Kathy said. "And then I just...froze."

Yesterday. This had happened yesterday. And it was just the lasted in a long line of shitty things that had happened since she'd arrived.

"Jesus, Kathy," Dante said, reaching up to touch her hair. "You know you got trauma, right?"

"But her life was on the line!" Kathy protested. "I let her die."

"Did you tell her to go out there?" Dante said. "Did you shove her into a bunch of zombies?"

"Of course not," Kathy sighed. "I didn't kill her. But I stood there and watched as they dragged her down. I should have done something. You would have."

But then, he was a real hero. And she was - well, they both knew what she was.

"I didn't spend months locked up in this place," Dante said quietly. "I sure as shit never got killed by these things. It's like someone just dropped you out of an airplane right into the fucking center of everything that's fucked with your head these past couple of years, fuck, it's a miracle you're still ticking."

"What else am I supposed to do?" Kathy asked, a little helplessly. "I was out on a tour of the Wall and Rodney got a dozen fucking exes into the Mount. If I hadn't fought them off, they would have eaten Nick and gone on to infect half the population."

Dante stroked his fingers idly along her hair, since she didn't seem to mind.

"You're strong," he said. "Don't beat yourself up 'cause you're not made of fucking stone."

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