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Falling --COMPLETED	By : jinx1764 Category: G through L > Labyrinth Views: 10231 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth, don't make any money, this is a work of fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Chet kept one eye on the stranger slung over their horse, Ole Bay, and the other on the surrounding landscape, alert for danger or unexpected opportunity. He still didn't know what to think of the stranger, his odd looks and his weird behavior not fitting Chet's knowledge of the new world. Knowledge was power, and power meant survival. Therefore the unknown was either dangerous or useless, and both negatively impacted survival. He didn't have time for either.
Fixer did.
Chet tightened his grip on the stock of his shotgun, sweat lubricating his fingers against the well-worn wood. The weapon's weight pulled at his arm, reassuring him. He kept the double barrels loaded, and he'd fire on anyone or anything threatening them - his eyes sidled back over his shoulder - which still might be the stranger's fate once he woke up. Assuming Fixer made an exception, or the stranger became violent before they got back.
Fixer's standing rule: Any survivors (not Empties) were to be brought to the compound - if safe to do so. And what Fixer said was law, not because Fixer was in charge, but because Fixer possessed the uncanny ability to ... well ... fix things others couldn't. Since their entire compound ran on pre-Shove tech, which was otherwise junk without Fixer, what Fixer wanted - Fixer got.
"I still think it's stupid and dangerous," Chet mumbled with another, aggravated glance at the white-haired stranger flopping on Ole Bay's back, along with his pathetically half-empty bag.
"What is?"
"Nothin', Len, just keep your eyes open for danger." Scowling, Chet jutted his chin around the dusty, cracked asphalt leading them back home. The late afternoon sun at their back made it easier to see the road in the wavering air; Chet was grateful. Any measure of comfort in the new world was appreciated.
"I'm keep'em open, geez..." Len kicked a lone rock unfortunate enough to be in his path as he guided Ole Bay. The clattering rock startled the horse, who whinnied and jerked, nearly tearing the reins from Len's grip.
"Sonna-bitch!"
"Keep holda him!" Chet grabbed the reins over Len's hands and braced his weight against the skittish animal. The stranger bounced and shifted precariously, and Chet heard him moan faintly. Suppressing a pang of sympathy, Chet settled Ole Bay with gentle caresses to his muzzle before turning back to the road ahead. He pushed his emotions aside and concentrated on monitoring the surrounding area, never knew when danger might strike.
"Shit, think you can control him now?"
Len glared at him with a stuck out lower lip, and Chet suppressed another urge to smack the younger man. "I got'em."
"Good, then let's get back home before dark." Len nodded once and steered Ole Bay back in the correct direction.
Meanwhile, Chet quickly lost himself to his thoughts again, and his earlier twinge of surprising emotion. It felt weird to have sympathy for the stranger, like he was wearing someone else's skin and it didn't quite fit, all bunches and wrinkles. Sympathy in the No-Where not only got you zilch in return, it often got you hurt or worse.
And speaking of weird ... in the years since the Shove, he'd never seen a Normal survive a night exposed to the freak cold. Empties were usually the only ones ever found alive outside of shelter these days, but then Empties weren't normal anymore, and barely alive to start. Too stupid to care for themselves, they wandered around seeking ... something. No one had been able to figure out what they sought, and no one really cared anymore. Usually they were harmless, but occasionally they became violent if disturbed. So, everybody steered clear, let'em fend for themselves until the new world finished'em off.
Just like it tried to do to this guy, who should be dead, but whoever he was he somehow survived. Even so, he couldn't have been in the No-Where long otherwise his stupid ass would already be dead, or killed by Vultures, or maybe even a bad run-in with an Empty. So many ways for nature to kill a person off these days...
Chet snorted. "Huh, nature, ain't nothin' natural 'bout the world no more," he mumbled.
"What'd ya say?"
"Nothin'." He tossed back over his shoulder without further explanation, then ignored Len's grumbling. A bit longer and he could get rid of the annoying moron. Just because he was the compound leader's son, just because he needed experience, just because their leader - Sam - respected him, he got stuck with the brat kid yesterday for the compound's weekly scavenging. After a day's travel (and a stopover in a protected shelter halfway) all they had to show for it was the stranger, his meager belongings and a bottle of overlooked aspirin found in an abandoned vehicle yesterday.
Hell, Sam would be pissed for sure. Maybe Fixer too.
.
.

JSJSJSJSJSJS

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The outer gates of the compound fuzzed into Chet's vision through the blurry dusk light. It didn't look like much, being a single small building surrounded by a high cinder block wall topped by concertina wire. He knew, however, several well armed guards observed from cameras panning inside the spiraled, razor-sharp wire. He also knew if they sensed any changes in their behavior or danger, they wouldn't hesitate to deny them entrance, and fire upon them if needed.
"Finally," Len said with a relieved sigh. "My feet are killin' me."
"Boy, you've hardly walked at all. We didn't even make a full trip 'cause of him." Chet arched his thumb over his shoulder. "And Sam's not gonna like it."
"Dad'll understand."
"Really?" He gave Len a piercing look. "That all we got is a bottle of expired aspirin and another mouth to feed?" Len's brows furrowed as if thinking took too much work. "I'm sure he'll be real understandin' 'bout it," Chet added.
"Well..."
"Save it, home's callin'." The cinder block wall's only entrance beckoned, and Chet blocked everything else as he approached the main camera angled down from the top of the barricade.
With a straight face, he peered up and said, "Chet and Len with a survivor for Fixer. He's unconscious, so tell Fixer not to waste any time."
"Gotcha," a heavy duty metallic clank within the ironclad door, "entry granted. Welcome home, Chet."
"Thanks." Using his full weight, he pushed the door inwards, its interior hinges shrieking until it stopped at just enough room for Len to lead in Ole Bay. Familiar with the process, the horse trudged behind Len while the dangling white-haired stranger bounced on his back. They entered a narrow courtyard which surrounded the single building, then Chet reversed the process and shut the large door until he heard the lock engage. Once the outer gate was secure, the building's single door slid open and a raggedy dressed, armed guard stepped out, his rifle held in a relaxed grip.
"We've passed on the message."
"Good," Chet said to the guard, who moved aside allowing them entry. Ole Bay easily fit inside and onto the dirt ramp leading past the guardhouse hall before Len stopped him. Chet's eyes twitched at the intense difference from the still bright dusk of outside and the dimness inside.
"Can't wait to get rid of this one," Chet said after the guard shut the door with grinding slam and locked it.
"Why's that?" the guard ask.
"Somethin' weird 'bout this survivor.
"Yeah? What?"
"Found him mostly frozen, but still alive after being out all night."
"No shit?" The guard cautiously walked up behind Ole Bay, hand brushing the horse's flank, until he reached a better view of the survivor. "He feels warm to me," he said with a curious glance at Chet.
"I should think so; he's been baking in the sun all day."
"And he's still out?"
Chet shrugged. "How should I know? We tied him when he started moving a few hours ago. That's why Fixer needs to see him right off."
"Yeah, alright, go on ahead." The guard waved them on with a last, lingering look at the stranger's hair, which was bright even in the murkiness of the half-light.
"Come on, Len," Chet said, nodding his head towards the darker, deeper end of the tunnel.
"Yeah," he replied, tugging Ole Bay who nickered eagerly and shook his mane out, reins jangling.
With a long swaggering stride down the descending tunnel into the compound, Chet grinned, even the horse was happy to be home. Further down the square-ish, reinforced hole into civilization, a yellow light burned, pulling them close as if they were flies. How often had he walked this path? How many years since the Shove, during his own frantic wanderings when Sam found him and guided him to this oasis being built from an old military bomb shelter.
Fixer's handiwork - except for the grunt work, he and others like him handled that.
Fixer...
The long tunnel ended with two more guards nodding at their passage into a larger, honeycombed chamber with a central quad. Being at least fifty feet underground at this point, the chamber had three levels. It always reminded him of an underground prison with its railed balconies and individual rooms. The residential compound lie deeper; this shallowest section was used for communication and commerce.
"I hear we've got a new survivor." And Fixer's business.
Fixer's brown hair was pulled back severely, and the face glaring at Chet looked to be more irritated than usual - all angles and edges. If it wasn't for Fixer's uncanny ability with the old tech (and everything else mysterious) Chet would've steered clear of old sorcerer - not that Fixer was old, just radiated age like an old soul.
"Yeah, found him a full day's walk from here, almost frozen through," Chet said, then signaled Len to release the man's ties to Ole Bay. As Fixer strolled closer from the shadows, dark eyes glittering in the fluorescent lighting, the stranger slide from the horse and landed face up with an 'oaf' and a painful sounding groan. The stranger writhed and thrashed until his hair cleared his face; Fixer gasped and froze mid-step.
Spinning to Chet she said through clenched teeth, "Why did you bring him here?"
"Whadya mean?" He shrugged and back up a few steps from her full body fury burning towards him, sparing a look at the equally stunned Len trying to hid behind Ole Bay. "It's your rule to bring in survivors, right?"
"Not him!" Her arm impaled the air towards the stranger, her finger a knife at the man's heart.
"Not the fucking Goblin King!"
- 6
- 7
- 8
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Falling --COMPLETED