(It’s one of my favorites as well.)
Zanna let out a short laugh at Day’s last little statement. She had a very light smile on as she finally reached the top of the stairs and turned to face Day. She could have kept going but she wanted to see his face at the moment, “You’ll have to tell me about this conspiracy of yours. I really don’t think spiders are anything more than little insects.”
"For starters, they're arachnids, not insects," Day corrected blankly. "And they're abominations. Nothing is supposed to have that many legs and that many eyes. And they lurk around in the dark, setting up traps to ensnare their victims before they jab their teeth into them and slurp out the blood. Nobody really thinks about how creepy that is." He paused and let out a short, dry laugh. "Demons, I tell you. The only good thing about them is that they're tiny. If they were the size of a horse– I think I'd just quit at life right then and there."
"What about centipedes and millipedes?" Zanna asked him with a smile. She had been leaning against a wall but had started to make her way to the master bedroom, "They have hundreds to thousands of legs and how do you think they eat? So I think spiders aren't that bad you know? also insects the size of houses? I think everyone would just quit life then and there or maybe they wouldn't be as scary."
"Hundreds to thousands of legs," Day muttered. "That's disgusting. Those little jerks get to have a thousand legs, and here I am with a friggin' metal leg because I've only got one decent one left. That's not even right." He'd reached the top of the stairs in the meantime. "Can you imagine one of those things crawling on you? Feeling all those little prickly legs poking your skin?" He wiggled his fingers, as if to create the mental image of a crawling bug. He shuddered, feigning disgust. "I hope this bed in here doesn't have bed bugs."
Zanna shuddered as she opened the door relieved to see that the bed did not have any bloodstains on it. She looked back at him, "Please never do that again. Ever. I do not need to worry about a bleeding bullet wound and the feeling of bugs on my skin got it? Anyway, this house has been abandoned so I have no idea if it does or doesn't."
Day chuckled. "Oh, but it could be so much worse." He paused, as if he were about to continue, but stopped short as his eyes ran over to the bed. "Hm. Nice. But I was just messing with you on the bed bug thing. This place has been vacant so long that they'd all be dead by now. After all, bed bugs need human blood to feed on." He wiggling his fingers and walked them up her uninjured arm once before going past her and over to the bed.
Zanna resisted her urge to jump as she felt his fingers on her arm. She frowned as she made her way towards him and the bed shuddering just slightly before punching his arm without any warning. She flopped back onto the bed no longer able to keep herself standing, "Good. I don't want any bugs eating me in the middle of the night. Also never do that again."
"Ow," Day said dully, though he was thoroughly unfazed. "Geez. Bossy, bossy," he teased, shaking his head. "By the time this is over with, I'm not going to be allowed to do anything. But, since you did kinda break me out of prison, I guess I'll try to be good." He snorted. "Well, we all know that's not gonna happen. How about relatively good. " He observed at the bed a moment, as if he were merely looking it over, though, truth be told, he was trying to make his hesitation seem less awkward and obvious. Even being aware that there were no second motives or goals, he was hesitant.
"I can handle relatively good," Zanna responded letting out a long sigh. She was watching him and sat up on the bed looking at him. He was hesitant and she understood that. She moved over a little bit so half the bed was vacant, "Nothing is going to happen okay? I don't think either of us are in the condition for something to happen anyway. All I want to do is sleep, and I figure that's all you want as well."
"What?" Day feigned ignorance, probably to pretend like he had no idea what she was talking about to begin with, or to make it seem like such a thought hadn't necessarily made him leery in the first place. "Oh– Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't–" He didn't bother finishing. Maybe he couldn't think of anything else. He just cleared his throat and dared to tug back the covers to see if it was any less dusty underneath. Probably to change the subject, he commented, "Nice bed. Wonder who lived here before it got abandoned?" He kicked off his boots– the only article of clothing he dared to part with– and sat down on the bed. It was already a million times better than that cursed cot.
Zanna snorted as she took her own boots off not bothering to go under the covers yet. She laid back down on her back adjusting slightly. She would keep the covers as just another layer between them to help Day be comfortable. She figured he deserved to be more comfortable than her for the moment, both were in recovery, but he was recovering from something a lot worse than a bullet wound, "No idea. Probably some family trying to get away from the government or get closer, who knows. I never met the owners, just found the aftermath."
"Hm." Day wriggled around to get comfortable, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. "That's a real shame they're probably dead now." Generally he didn't care, but… one variable in the whole ordeal made him pity the poor saps who lived here before. The presence of a crib. "They had a kid." His tone was empty, detached, but he wasn't. He imagined the government probably killed these people, if they were running. If not, maybe it was the Reformers. His own group. They weren't supposed to kill children, but that didn't mean they wouldn't. Who knows? Maybe the family wasn't dead after all. It just didn't seem likely that they could be alive.
Zanna paused for a moment lying on her back. Her eyes went a little glassy realizing what Day implied, "Yeah. They probably did, or at least were going to have one soon." Her voice went small as she continued speaking. That was awful. Whoever killed them probably also killed the child, or took them. Zanna remembered bloodstains on the bed, but never in the nursery. So maybe there was some hope, but she wasn't going to bring that up to Day.
"Hm." Day was quiet for another long moment. "Say, I have a– random question." He didn't look at her, but rather continued to stare at the little grooves in the ceiling. "What do they say about me? I mean, what did they say about me? Like, your old allies in the military." He paused again. "I know most of the rumors, but I don't hear them all, and I never know who believes what because there are so many. Countless."
"They said you were a ruthless monster," Zanna started trying to recall the old stories she heard, "A man without a heart who took pleasure in the pain of others. The moment someone was in your clutches they were a goner if not strong enough. Stripped of their humanity and their sanity. A killing machine without a soul. Basically, the worst human on the planet who wasn't even really human. Do you want me to go on?"
"Huh. Interesting." The corner of his mouth twitched, though it was unclear as to whether or not he would've smiled or frowned had he not suppressed it immediately. "I'm not surprised. Do you still think any of those things are true? Any of the things you heard about me before?"
"I know you drove people off the edge," Zanna responded her voice going a little cold. She couldn't tell what his lips were doing, but depending on the outcome she wasn't fond of it. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh, "But maybe not the rest of it. Your clearly a little bit human."
"A little bit," Day agreed. "So you think I'm an evil person, then?" He didn't sound like he was accusing her– more like he was genuinely curious. Like maybe he didn't know what to think, or what she thought. "What kind of judgement do you think is fair judgement for me, considering the man I am? Be honest. It's not like you're gonna hurt my feelings." He liked to think he didn't have much of those.
"You're not a good person," Zanna responded quite easily to his question. Or at least that's how she started it off, "But you're not an evil person either. Just someone who was lashing out at the world and ended up hurting a lot of people. Should you be killed for it? Probably. Should you be brutally killed for it? Jury's still up on that."
"Well, that's fair," Day responded numbly. "But I wasn't lashing out at the world. I was lashing out at the government. At the military. At the people who were attacking my people. There's a difference." He paused. "You know, stories are always one-sided. If a hunter kills a lion, all anyone hears about is how many villagers that lion killed in its lifetime, and how brutal it was. The hunter is praised for his valiant deed. But nobody talks about how many fellow lions were slain by the villagers, or how many innocent lion cubs that lion watched get skinned, or how many times he watched lionesses get shot down by poachers. In the end, can you really blame him for hating humans? For wanting to kill them? I'm not saying it makes it right. I'm just saying every side has their excuses."
“I guess so, but history is written by the victors,” Zanna responded with a light shrug. She turned onto her uninjured side and let out a sigh closing her eyes, “And you were just on the loosing side this time. Your story and point of view should be taken into consideration when judging you now, but future generations are gonna see as the bad guy. Though I don’t really think they should.”
Day frowned, though it was more out of confusion than annoyance. "But I thought you just said I should be killed. Which, I don't necessarily disagree, but if I should be killed for what I've done, how could I be anything but 'the bad guy?'" He held his hands up and did air quotations around the last part, as if to emphasize his point.
Zanna snorted through a cracked eye seeing the air quotations as he said his last words. She opened her eyes fully, “First off I said probably. Secondly you can be a not bad guy and still warrant execution. I should probably be executed for the things I’ve done, I’m sure anyone who wasn’t on my side of the war would agree with that statement. But I’m not going down in the history books as a villain, well now maybe I am.”
"A traitor, more specifically. They'll say you betrayed their whole cause to help a murderer," Day said, his tone numb. "And the sad thing is that nobody will know any different, and that nothing is ever going to change because there aren't people out there trying to stop the government anymore." He paused briefly. "Let me rephrase that. There aren't good people out there trying to stop the government anymore. Not with the Reformers gone."
"So there are others out there trying to change the government?" Zanna asked glancing over at him. She knew well enough she was labeled a traitor for doing close to nothing. The model soldier, to a good for nothing traitor. There was no need to dwell on that any longer, but the second half. There might be something there.
Day glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, his gaze flickering to her only momentarily before returning to the ceiling. "Well— yeah. There are always people trying to change the government. But these guys aren't like the Reformers. They're— different. No good." He paused, clearing his throat. "Anarchists, more than anything. Way more brutal and barbaric than any Reformer ever dreamed of being. They'd literally rip me and you both apart and probably eat our bones. Or worse." He sighed. "There might be some decent groups out there, too, but I can't be sure. And I can't talk about them much, for their own protection. Swore an oath and whatnot."
"Wonderful," Zanna let out a long sigh after Day finished speaking. So the one possibly semi-decent resistance was the one the government managed to kill off. Probably because they actually had a cause and weren't just anarchists. She rubbed at her face slightly, "You don't have to tell me anything, just trying to think of places we could hideout. Rebellion groups were the first thing that came to mind."
"Yeah, well, most of them hate me just as much as the government, so as long as you're with me, you're kinda screwed." Day worked his jaw back and forth thoughtfully. "Sorry about that." He closed his eyes, thinking for a moment. "I don't know. I might have a few allies left in the world. I just don't know where to start looking."
"This just keeps getting better and better doesn't it?" Zanna retorted slightly. She was still recovering and tired so there was some reason for her snark, but not much. she ran a hand over her face and let her eyes close, "Sorry, we can start looking in the morning if you want. I think we should get some sleep though."
"You're right. I think we ought to get some sleep. It's late. But everything will all work out, I'm sure," Day responded calmly, waving a hand dismissively. He smiled. "And if it doesn't, I'm sure our deaths will be epic."
