Chapter Text
"C'mon, we don't have time to dawdle, we're supposed to be checking the traps."
"Shhh- Rupert, be quiet, I think he's sleeping."
"I don't know who the hell you're talking about, Jai."
When Eddie awakens to the sound of people whispering below the tree branch he's sleeping on, he takes care to hold his breath and keep his eyes screwed shut. If they think he's asleep, or better yet, dead, they won't bother him. He'll be safe.
"The dude. The dude in the trees. Here, I'll-," a clicking sound, followed by the second voice saying something about batteries, "Up there, see!"
"Oh," the second voice, Rupert, as it seems, says, a little pathetically.
"Yeah, oh," the first voice- Jai, was it?- reprimands, though not in a harsh way, "Do you think he's okay?"
The black of Eddie's eyelids turns a burning red and through instinct he scrunches his face up and ducks his head down. "Don't shine a light in his face!" Rupert scolds, and the red is gone. Well, Eddie might as well drop the act now. Slowly, to spare his aching eyes, he blinks awake and glances down at the forest floor.
There stand two figures, as he suspected, both holding sacks of quilted fabric and flashlights in their hands. One appears to be a boy and the other a girl- Rupert and Jai, respectively, he infers. The latter is petite and dark-skinned, blonde dreadlocks put up into a bun that's pinned with a wilting pink hair bow. The former has soft features and sallow skin, a grey knit hat tucked over a mop of thin brown hair. They look... trustworthy enough, but Eddie can't quell the anxiety he feels.
"Hello," Jai murmurs, in the kind of voice one would use when approaching an injured animal. Eddie doesn't have the courage to even feel insulted, "How long have you been up there?"
Good question. Eddie looks around the woods, at the darkening sky and pale blue shadows surrounding him, and deduces that it must be the evening, the sun must just be setting now. He had fallen asleep sometime in the afternoon. With no watch or clock, however, he couldn't be sure, so he just shrugs down at the strangers.
"Can- Can you speak?" Jai asks gently, and Eddie realizes he hasn't made a noise yet.
"Um," he clears his throat, "Yeah. Yeah."
"Are you alone?" asks Rupert, and Eddie recognizes the caginess and thinly veiled fear in the question, empathizes because he had felt that way before, they all had. It was how one survived. He merely nods in response, however. Rupert seems to consider this fact, eyebrows furrowed, before asking in a slightly softer voice, "Are you injured?"
There's a silent question there- are you bit?- and Eddie clears his throat again.
"No, I'm okay," he croaks, though the scarred stubs on his left hand ache faintly. He shifts into a sitting position on the branch, "I just got tired. I slept longer than I meant to, though."
Jai smiles up at him, all patience and understanding, the way his mother used to and it feels like a stab in the back, and then turns to speak in hushed tones to Rupert. He catches snippets of an argument, no doubt about him, and before long both turn back to face him.
"We're apart of a settlement, just east of here," Jai explains, and the tone she's using now sounds like this is a rehearsed statement, "We've got plenty of food and shelter and even a running stream to bathe and wash our things."
"There's a lot of us," Rupert chimes in, voice steady, "Guns, weapons- if you try anything funny, you won't get away with it. But..." he trails off and glances expectantly at Jai. This definitely seems like they've recited it before.
"We'd like to extend to you an invitation to join us," she finishes, smiling wide and warm up at Eddie, "I mean, first me and Rupert have to go check the traps for any food, but you are welcome to come back to camp with us."
Eddie's stomach immediately rebels against him, starvation hitting him in a sudden wave that nearly knocks him off the tree. The rational part of his mind tells him to think this decision through. A moment of silent passes, before Eddie tentatively calls out, "If I decide I don't... wanna be there anymore, would I be allowed to go?"
Jai nods, "Of course! It is your choice. However, I'm afraid you won't be allowed to take anything with you, and an escort will have to take you out of camp just to make sure you don't come back with foul intentions." Even Rupert seems at peace with this answer, so Eddie nods again and begins the slow descent from the tree to the ground.
Eddie trails just slightly behind Jai and Rupert as they start the journey to the aforementioned traps, but his step falters when he sees their hands interlocked. To his disgust, his mind immediately rushes to think of Wyatt, and the knot in his chest tightens. Don't start thinking of him, he yells internally, don't start doing that again now.
He's too busy distracting himself, pointedly looking away, to realize they had never asked him his name.
Only two of the seven traps have anything in them, but one's a medium sized doe (which Jai quietly informs Eddie is impressive), so the trip is not wasted. The trek back to their camp feels longer though. Rupert gradually loosens up, attempts small talk with Eddie, but he's not feeling up to making conversation and, thankfully, the couple seems to respect that.
The camp itself is rather nice. Just as Jai promised, there appears to be plenty of food and resources. Tents are pitched in two arching rows, semi-circles stacked on top of one another. At the center of the inner most semi-circle is a fire pit, surrounded by stones and large metal tubs of water.
As they walk to the camp's center to store the meat, several other residents wave at Jai and Rupert, smiling greetings. It feels almost like a home.
"It's getting late," says Rupert, smiling politely over his shoulder at Eddie, "so you shouldn't bother sticking around to help us cook this stuff."
"I don't wanna be useless, though," Eddie manages to stammer out.
"Don't worry about it, dude," Rupert replies, "You just got here, you can go get something to eat from Wyatt's tent and-,"
His heart skips a beat. No, his heart must stop altogether.
He freezes in place, breath catching in his throat. He can hear Jai saying something to him, but it's distant and watery and- and-,
"What... What did you say?" he chokes out, "Did I hear you right?"
Pull yourself together, a voice inside his head reprimands, there are tons of people named Wyatt. Don't get your hopes up.
"Are you okay?" Rupert asks, with genuine concern present in his voice.
"You said Wyatt, right?" God, he hates the way his voice is shaking but he can't stop himself, "Wyatt, Wyatt."
"Y-yeah," Jai says, confusion evident on her face, "Why?"
Ignoring her question, he rambles on, "Wyatt- about six foot, blond mullet, glasses, kinda heavy, sucks at Mortal Kombat, loves NASCAR and smokes weed-," he really, really can't stop himself, he knows half of those things wouldn't mean shit to these people, but it feels so nice to say Wyatt's name aloud again, to someone other than himself.
"Yeah, that... that sounds like the Wyatt we know," Rupert's voice cuts through the haze of Eddie's blathering, "Do you want me to take you to him?"
He's finally managed to shut his mouth, and, afraid that if he opens it again he won't be able to shut up, he nods rapidly in the brunet's direction. Jai and Rupert exchange worried glances, but some kind of silent agreement must be reached, because next thing he knows he's being lead towards one of the tents in the back of the camp.
Everything feels feverish and distant as Jai steps forwards to part the mouth of the tent, peeling back layers of grey-blue fabric to poke her head inside. Rupert is shooting sympathetic looks in his direction, but Eddie can't bring himself to care. He hears Jai call out into the space of the tent;
"Wyatt, um, there's someone who wants to see you."
"What?" And God, that's him, that's Wyatt's voice, "Why?"
"I'm not sure, but I think you should hurry."
There are shuffling sounds from inside the tent, and Eddie wonders briefly if he could be dreaming, still stuck somewhere in a tree, alone, but then the fabric of the tent's entrance is pulled apart and-,
There's no mistaking him- his hair is a little longer, trademark beard dirty and patchy, there's a crack in his glasses and a fading cut on his left eyebrow- but there's no mistaking him. And Eddie knows that he must be unmistakable too, if the look of utter shock on Wyatt's face is anything to go by. His vision swims as tears sting in his eyes, and he doesn't care that Wyatt's first words to him are 'holy fuck', doesn't care if that's the least romantic thing ever said, doesn't care that Wyatt's practically snapping his ribs now.
Wyatt is saying more things to him, things that sound a lot like, "Calm down, it's okay, calm down," and then he realizes he's crying out right, shoulders shaking and face scrunched up in Wyatt's shoulder, and God, it's really gross- he's really gross. He is gross and pathetic but once he starts he can't stop, so instead he wraps his arms around Wyatt and bawls some more, choking out a half-assed apology, amongst other things that are really just meaningless, sad gibberish.
"You're such a baby," Wyatt teases him, but Eddie can tell that he's close to breaking, too, "Cut it out or I'm gonna start crying."
Eddie doesn't doubt that, but there's still no real anger or threat in the words. He apologizes anyway, to which Wyatt pulls back as much as Eddie's death grip will allow, hands resting heavily on Eddie's upper arms.
"And stop apologizing," Wyatt croaks, a barely contained smirk on his lips despite the tears in his eyes, "I'm the one who left you to die in the middle of the woods. You should hate me."
Eddie doesn't say anything back for a moment, just hiccups and sniffles, before he manages a weak, "I thought you were dead, Wyatt."
When Eddie says his name, Wyatt's façade crumbles and he pulls Eddie back into a hug. Eddie doesn't hesitate to hug back this time, instead just rests his head against Wyatt's neck and stays there, allowing himself to calm down while Wyatt has his turn to cry a bit.
It gets uncomfortable quickly, standing for a solid five minutes in each other's arms, but neither wants to be the one to pull away first. Eventually, Wyatt separates them a little bit, holding Eddie by his shoulders and smiling brittlely. His eyes flicker to the top of Eddie's head.
"I can't believe you," he chuckles, "After all this time, you're still wearing your beanie?"
"You know it," sniffs Eddie, tugging subconsciously on the hat's hem. Wyatt leans forward, hands loosening their grip slightly around his biceps, and he leans forwards to meet him halfway, first knocking foreheads and then kissing him. It's weak, barely there at all, but it's more than enough to make all the months of running and hiding worth it. He kisses Wyatt again, this time a bit more forcefully, as if to reassure himself that this is real and actually happening and not something he's just imagining.
When Wyatt pulls back, lips drawn back in a sneer, and says in playful disgust, "Ugh, I think I swallowed some of your snot," he knows it's real.
"Jerk," Eddie mumbles and throws a punch at Wyatt's arm, though his heart's not in it. He scrubs at his nose, a little self-conscious, but every time he glances at Wyatt, he can't stop a smile from bubbling up on his face. "God, I can't believe I missed you Wyatt," he breathlessly chuckles, "but fuck, I really did."
Wyatt smiles, his trademark crooked smile, and hits his arm gently back. "Yeah," he laughs, quietly at first, but once he starts he doesn't seem capable of stopping. "Yeah. I missed you, too."
They end up eating dinner together, huddled beside one another around the broiling pot set up over the campfire. The sun sets, casting warm, bright light all around them. Eddie's too busy drinking in Wyatt's company to hold much conversation, clutching stale bread in his left hand and Wyatt's hand in his right. The other seems content with this, though, and they eat their meal in relative quiet, almost oblivious to the people around them.
When the sun vanishes, the sky opens up, and the view above brings a smile to Eddie's face. With all the cities in America empty and ravaged and dead, there isn't any light pollution to be had. And the stars have always been there, but this is the first time that Eddie's really seeing them. When Wyatt catches him craning his neck up at the sky, eyes wide and searching, he smiles and asks Eddie if he wants to go find some place private, some place alone.
They end up wandering out of the encampment, up a hill to the beginning of a stream that rolls downwards and disappears into the distance. It's the closet thing to a tall building for miles, and together they stretch out onto the soft, springy grass and stargaze, just like they used to. Wyatt traces constellations with his finger, and Eddie laughs whenever he pronounces the names wrong, stumbling over long-forgotten syllables. They start to make some up, first naming them silly things like THC or Dick Ass, but then Eddie outlines a shape like the bough of an apple tree and names it 'Binty and Wyatt gives him this look, like he's something fragile. When he opens his mouth, Eddie thinks he might apologize, but instead what comes out is, "We have a lot of catching up to do."
So they sprawl out, hand in hand, and Eddie listens as Wyatt tells him of the past couple dozen months from his perspective. Wyatt tells him of a man named Carver and of a place called Lowe's and of some little girl with her hair in pigtails that raised Hell. He tells him of the survivor's guilt, cries for a woman named Tavia and a child named Becca. "Carver was a bad dude," he says, voice heavy with a grief Eddie cannot know, "And we all... we all knew it, on some level but. We were all too chickenshit to stand up to him."
Eddie doesn't waste any time offering comfort to Wyatt, he knows better than that; instead, he just gives Wyatt's hand a tired squeeze. Despite it all, he smiles when Wyatt squeezes gently back.
"From there, I just... wandered," mumbles Wyatt, and his eyes are distant, "Eventually I found people. A lot of us, here, at this camp, come from places like Lowe's. Groups that went wrong. Hell, one girl here comes from all the way in Savannah."
When Wyatt finishes his tale, Eddie launch into his. Mabinty and Terra, the firehouse, the wind chimes, the apple trees.
"They sound like good people," says Wyatt. Eddie can't see his face, can't read his voice, so he just answers with the truth.
"They were. And then I left."
When he gets to the part of the story where he loses his fingers, he sits up and waggles his left hand above Wyatt's face, as if to prove a point. The blond laughs, a hearty sound, and its the loudest laugh that Eddie's heard in, holy shit, quite literal years.
"Now you look like a badass," Wyatt jokes, and Eddie smirks wickedly down at him.
"You say that like I'm not a badass," he bites back, and Wyatt laughs and laughs and laughs, keeps laughing even when Eddie leans down to kiss him. It's a rattling, awkward kiss, all teeth and open-mouth. Wyatt's too lazy to lean up into it, so Eddie overcompensates, pushes his mouth against Wyatt's far too roughly. He can feel Wyatt smiling into his lips, and he's sure he tastes like rotting teeth and venison broth and morning breath (because Wyatt sure as hell does). And Eddie'd be damned if it wasn't the best kiss of his life.