Chapter Text
They say bad things come in threes. Cheesy's death was the first and that night proved to be unrestful for everyone. Several times Ze caught himself crying, other times he could hear someone else. One time he was woken by the sound of the front door opening and closing, the tired footsteps of someone entering and sitting by the stoked fire. It was Kara. She had come back a few times since leaving the day before, always tired and cold from her walks. He and Chilled had tried asking if she was okay and if she needed help but she declined every time, simply saying she was fine and just needed time to herself.
Their door had been left wide open to allow heat to travel and Ze could see Kara was not doing very well. None of them were but compared to how Chilled looked with his red face full of tears, Kara was completely hollow. A shell of her former self. Long hours in the snow and very few minutes spent inside where it's warm, she was utterly pale and shaking.
"Ze? What are you doing awake?"
"I only just woke up. At least, I think I did. Here." He wrapped a blanket he took from his bed around her shoulders and sat beside her. She thanked him and they sat in silence, Ze staring at his hands while Kara gazed into the fire. It was comfortable but awkward. Ze had questions but he wasn't sure about how to ask them: would Kara answer them or would he disturb the peace between them? It'd go against what Kara wanted, which was to be left alone, but could he really do that? After what he'd heard from Chilled, wasn't Kara going through the same thoughts, the same emotions? It wasn't her fault, after all...
"How do you do it, Ze?"
Kara's question surprised him. "Do what?"
"How do you stay so calm in the middle of all this? I don't mean to sound bad – or good, I guess – just, you somehow manage to stay strong for others when deep inside you're hurting." She fell silent and Ze struggled to say something. When he couldn't give a response in time, Kara continued. "I'm sorry. I—when I came by earlier I saw you talking with Chilled and you amazed me. There you were, practically dressed head to toe in bandages and suffering from Cheesy's death yet instead of closing yourself off like I did you went and comforted Chilled. I..." She choked and brought a hand to her eyes, smiling as she wiped tears away. Ze didn't know what to do or think except offer his hand and rub her back soothingly. Her laugh was cut short by a hiccup and she struggled to get a sentence out between sobs. "It... It should've been me consoling him. Shoul—should've been me to... to tell him it'll be okay. But I didn't. The one person who saw it all with me and I left him!"
She continued to cry and Ze let her, all the while doing his best to comfort her. Truthfully, he didn't know how he was able to be like this. Maybe it was because he had resolved to always be there for others, but when faced with tragedy such as a person's – a friend's – death, did he still have to play this role?
An image of Chilled's face flashed in his mind and the sight of Kara doubled over with her head in her hands made him realise, yes. This was the role he'd have to and want to play. He wanted to be someone people could depend on even at the detriment of his own well-being. Even if he was the deliverer of their misery.
"There's... I haven't..." Kara cleared her throat twice, parched from crying. "I never got a chance to tell you guys. I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologise, it's not your fault." He cringed at his words, but what else could he say? They were the right words whether he liked them or not. "Really, Kara, it's not your fault. A lot's been happening and I'm sure the others have things on their mind that they want to say but can't or haven't. It's especially hard on you since you saw..."
But she shook her head. "That doesn't matter. No. It does matter, but what I need to tell you is—" She paused to look Ze in the eyes and what he heard next sent a chill down his spine. "A storm is coming."
They say bad things come in threes and Ze was afraid. Last night, Kara had spoken about a snowstorm headed their way – item number two in the list of the bad three. It wasn't like they hadn't dealth with a snowstorm before, but Kara was adamant about this one. When she expressed her worries to the group, Platy had been the first to dismiss her.
"What makes you think this will be worse than what we've been through before?
"I'm telling you, this isn't going to be a regular snowstorm we can sit through and tough out! We need to contact headquarters and get ouf of here!"
"But why though? We've got plenty of wood and enough provisions to last us another month."
"They won't do us any good if we freeze to death!!" Ze instinctively took a step back at Kara's outburst. He collided into Chilled who stood behind him and felt his hand on his shoulder, steadying him. They shared an appreciative look with each other during which Kara explained what was wrong with Platy's idea of staying behind. "This snowstorm is going to be more harsh and last longer than any we've experienced before. Nothing we do will keep us safe here so we have to leave.
"And... I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys sooner, I really didn't mean to hide it from you all, but HQ contacted me directly and told me all of this and I don't see why they would lie to us. Please don't ask me why they told me, I tried asking them when the signal came through on my watch but they disconnected immediately."
"How long have you been in contact with them?" Platy asked.
"Just that day. I would show you the time they called me but we've all been through our watches thoroughly, right? There's nothing on them that remotely resembles a communication app."
"Sorry, but—" Chilled interrupted looking more confused than everyone else—"why aren't any of you in contact with HQ? We have the radio, sure, but isn't it strange that your smart watches can't communicate at all? Even to each other!"
"He does have a point." Courtilly agreed, glancing at everyone's watches. "It's unusual that HQ would give us these watches if we couldn't communicate with each other. Giving us radios to do that is also strange since that could easily be implemented in the watches themselves."
"That might just be because of service," Ze suggested. "Since we're in an area with, I presume, no cellular service. The radios and the radio tower are ideal for this kind of place."
Both Courtilly and Chilled were skeptical, Courtilly more so as she began messing with her watch. Chilled had no watch to fiddle with so he frowned instead. Meanwhile, Platy was still pondering and occasionally muttering to himself; Ze could faintly hear him mention "HQ" and "traitors". Could there be a traitor in their midst?
Currently, they all stood in a circle: Kara, Courtilly, Platy, Chilled and himself.
Chilled was the most likely suspect. An unexpected stranger who claims to have amnesia arrives at their cabin weeks before their friend dies under suspicious circumstances; a most unsual case laced with uncertainty. Was Platy right in not trusting Chilled or is he truly innocent? Ze resolved to protect Chilled no matter what.
Kara was the next obvious choice after revealing her connection to headquarters. Similar to Chilled's case, it was hard to gauge how much of her words could be trusted. She was the closest to Cheesy and was present at the time of his death. As much as he didn't want to think Kara was the potential traitor, she held an important role in handling the safety of their food supplies. Would she really risk outing herself by poisoning Cheesy's food?
Assisting Kara with the food rations was Courtilly. She had the same opportunity to poison Cheesy but also fell into the same problem as Kara. As their sole medic, it was ridiculous to think she'd kill a fellow teammate and so blatantly too. Both Kara and Courtilly... it was too easy, too perfect to frame them for Cheesy's death. But if someone was trying to pin the blame on them, then who was the real killer?
Finally, there was Platy. Neither here nor there, it's possible he could've gone unnoticed and slipped poison into Cheesy's food sometime between the food being delivered to Cheesy and Cheesy consuming it. And Platy was the first to suggest he'd been poisoned; it'd stand to reason that the killer would know the cause of death, even where it was sourced! Platy's a smart man; just how much of the truth is he witholding from the group?
"Ze?"
Right. Him. At the time of the incident he was far, far away being chased by wolves. And earlier that day he had left before anyone else and definitely before their food was distributed.
"Ze."
That should rule him out as a potential traitor, shouldn't it?
"ZE!!"
Ze started and almost slapped himself in the face with his shovel. Everything around him was pitch white with snow save for where the snow failed to cover trees and rocks. Chilled stood some distance ahead with his hands cupped around his mouth, yelling to him. Readjusting his grip on the shovel, Ze jogged as best as he could to catch up to him. The dig site where one of the parts for the power station was hidden was still far away and he had slowed their progress down immensely.
Chilled looked down at him (he was a tall man) with concern. "Are you okay? You've been distracted lately."
"It's nothing. Let's keep going."
"Not just lately either," Chilled continued, cutting in front of Ze. "Even before Cheesy's death you seemed to have something on your mind. Is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine, Chilled. Please don't worry about me."
He moved past Chilled and proceeded in the direction of the dig site. He thought the conversation had ended there but a hand caught his arm and held him in place. It didn't pull him back thankfully, but that didn't prevent his growing irritation. "Chilled, I said I was fine."
"You don't look or sound fine, Ze." Intent on getting to the bottom of whatever plagued his friend, Chilled stood in line with and loosened his hold on Ze's arm. "How can I not worry about you? We're the only ones out here, everyone else went south. You don't have to tell me everything, but I also don't want you to be alone in this. It's a terrible feeling being alone."
Ze cringed. He hadn't meant to upset Chilled. He only wanted to keep him safe and happy. Oh god, how was he going to tell him?
Ze cursed the part of his brain that fawned over Chilled. From his sweet, easy-going smile to his goofy but compassionate self, any effort made to push aside his growing feelings for the man was hopeless. Even more so when the man in question had made known his feelings for him too.
But that was not something he had the time to think about. A more pressing matter weighed on his mind more than the heaviness on his shoulders. He was here on a mission and he must see it through. He must—
An attempt to interlock their hands together with thick winter gloves brought him out of his thoughts and to where Chilled stood beside him. The air was freezing around him but the sight and touch of Chilled warmed his heart. "I'm sorry. I just... There's a lot happening at the moment and I have this terrible feeling that no one is going to come out of this alive. That you might not make it out either."
He spoke so quietly Chilled had to strain to hear the end of his sentence. Then, in a sudden flurry of movement, Ze found himself being hugged by Chilled and held on just as tightly. "We'll survive, Ze. I promise you we'll survive."
"But how—"
"I'll make sure we survive." There was a serious edge to his voice. Pulling away, he smiled down at Ze and said, "We promised each other, remember? No matter what we'll keep each other safe. And I intend to keep my promise."
"As do I." But something snagged at the back of Ze's mind, something he couldn't ignore. "There's something I need to tell you, Chilled, but let's keep walking. We're behind schedule and the others will surely be waiting for us."
Chilled nodded and they both continued walking to the dig site. At first, they didn't talk much. Ze was trying to organise his thoughts while Chilled kept an eye out for wolves and bears, fully aware of Ze's track record with encountering the wild creatures. Occasionally, he'd take out a photograph of the dig site – images sent through by headquarters who mysteriously disappeared as soon as the images were uploaded into their watches – and compare the scenery within it to their surroundings. When he recognised the area they were in, Ze began talking.
"You know how we found our radios were broken this morning?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"Well, I was just thinking... what if they were sabotaged?"
"To whose benefit?" Chilled asked as he came to a stop and thrust the sharp edge of his shovel into the ground. "I mean, sure, the traitor could've done it to prevent us from conspiring against them but it'd be impossible to plan anything in secret since we're all on the same radio frequency."
"I suppose you're right." Ze joined Chilled and began digging up the ground. There was no clear indication where the part would be buried, just that it was within this area and created a loud hum. When neither could find anything 3ft under, they opted to divide area and search that way. As they dug, Ze started to slow down and shiver. "Call me crazy or paranoid, but what if... What if there were two traitors in our group?"
Chilled didn't stop digging. "Two? Why would you think there'd be two of them?"
"Think about it: if there was only one traitor, sabotaging our radios wouldn't really benefit them. It'd hinder us but not by much.
"However, if there were two traitors then they must have a reason for sabotaging our radios."
"Like?"
Ze stopped entirely and watched Chilled with intent. "Like maybe they had their own radios."
Chilled was onto his fourth hole when he hit something hard. Ze still hadn't finished his second hole but there was no point now that Chilled had found the missing part. Pocketing it safely in his backpack, Chilled looked worriedly at Ze and asked, "So you're saying that it's possible there might be two traitors because of the broken radios?"
Ze shrugged. "Why else would they be broken? It certainly wasn't because they were old and they were working perfectly fine the whole time we were here. Unless there is some strange curse on this land that breaks radios after a certain amount of time, I can only see this as being a malicious act."
Like Chilled had said earlier, they were far up north while everyone else had travelled south. They were the only ones around and despite not fearing about what they say being overheard, they kept their voices low. "If you think there might be two traitors, then that must mean they're covering up for one another. But who? I don't see Platy teaming up with either of Kara or Courtilly. He said so himself that we should be on our guard from one another."
"He could be lying though. And so could Courtilly and Kara. All of us could be lying to each other!"
"Except us," he replied with a smile. "We're not lying to each other."
Ze struggled to meet his gaze, finding it was an effort to lift one foot after another in the snow. "No, we're not."
Without saying much else, they began their long walk back to the cabin. Chilled was encumbered by the missing part he found but Ze somehow managed to trail behind him until the distance between them was almost 50 metres. Slow and cold, he was experiencing the same feeling he had when he was recently attacked by wolves, slowly bleeding to death and seeing Kara standing in the distance. Ever since then he had wondered if what he saw was real or an illusion. He couldn't find an answer and it would seem he would never find the answer.
Lost in the endless thoughts of his mind, Ze didn't hear the calls of his name by Chilled. He didn't hear the growls coming from behind either. All of a sudden a fiery pain shot through his body and he fell with a soft thud into the snow. Bared fangs dug deep into his sides, his legs, his arms – anywhere the wolves found an opportunity to strike. Ze cried out and swung wildly with his fists before attempting to grab his axe and swinging it to no avail. He was helpless in defending himself and his frantic movements left an opening for one wolf to bite his neck.
He froze. Warmth spread across his neck as he choked and bled, not moving. A grey blur flew past his rapidly dimming vision and he fought to keep his eyes open. Chilled had knocked a wolf back and was fighting it alone when two other wolves broke away from Ze's body to join their friend. Ze didn't have a voice to warn Chilled, the effort of staying awake and breathing steadily was too much. But amazingly, Chilled fought them all off and hurried to his side, quickly dwaling with the remaining wolf who had stayed to finish him off.
Chilled knelt down in what left of the bloody fight: a mass amount of red snow and his mangled friend. He held onto him, Ze finding comfort in his warmth that seeped through his clothes, and cried. It was too late to save him as Ze stared aimlessly up at him, unable to communicate a single word.
Thank you, is what he wanted to say.
I'm sorry, was another.
I love you, was unthinkable, unquestionable. And yet it slipped into his mind before his life slipped away.
They say bad things come in threes and in his final moments he dared to wish another foolish thought: the saying would be true and this would be last piece of misfortune to devastate this group.
But he knew better and he knew the truth. The truth would die with him and he hoped against hope that Chilled would survive until rescue.