Last of the game || AFTG DEATH!AU

Sooner or later

The dim light in a dark corridor was blinking and it is going to fade sooner or later.

Sooner or later. Sooner ... or later. Later.

Since the moment they'd break through a riot, get to the bus and Abby started to dressing their wounds, something felt odd. Something was missing - a lost piece of puzzles.

"Where's Neil?" Matt asked, looking over a bus.

Andrew's body stiffened. A lost piece. There was no sign of auburn hair in a bus or hereabouts. That didn't feel right, but the turmoil outside assured him that he was probably somewhere between those people. Maybe a little battered, but... somewhere.

Thank you. You were amazing. The words rung like a damned bell and Andrew couldn't forget those stupid like a puppy eyes. There was a hidden message within them - a warning.

Everyone started another riot  - Dan and Matt were ready to go to look for their lost striker, Nicky had been muttering something and Aaron rolled his eyes on cousin's dark mode. Renee also looked confused, but tried her best to make everyone calm. Allison didn't give a shit.

"This goddamned kid... for now we have to wait. He is probably lost in this chaos but eventually finds his way out, gotcha?" Wymack's words of reassurance weren't really helpful because Dan and Matt still tried to get out the bus and Nicky almost burst into tears, but Andrew knew that for now there was no need to panic. They will wait until the turmoil calmed and then, when this idiot comes to the bus, probably with some new scars on his face and body, they'll go back to Palmetto as if nothing happened and drink their victory until they are all dead-walking.

An hour later, the parking in Binghamton was almost empty and there was no sign of Neil. This time, even Wymack didn't look so certain about Neil's possible spot. Andrew really wanted to stay calm, but it was hard as hell. Where is this idiot?, he thought, while looking from the window with his forehead sticked to it. Something unidentified crawled in his veins, going to the stomach and rib cage. He fucking ignored it.

Irritated, he got off the bus and ignoring Wymack's angry words, he started searching the entire place. There were still a few buses, cars and one or two police cruisers but no sign of Neil. Andrew went back to the stadium, but the doors were locked and he heard nothing from the inside. Strolling around the parking lot, avoiding every blood stain, used paint can or broken bats, he focused himself on looking rather than feeling this weird thing inside. Neil was somewhere, it wasn't like he might... escaped.

Andrew fists clenched. Did he? The previous day, Neil... Abram, or whoever, the fuck he is, asked him to break his promise. Was it a reason? Did he ask him for that because he planned to run away?

I don't want to end the year like this. I want to stand on my own two feet. Let me do that. None of this means anything if I don't.

He wanted to stand on his feet because he needed them to run. Andrew almost snorted at his own naivety. Did he really expect something else from a person like Neil Josten? He was a deserter, who would have run the moment things started to collapse. Because that was much easier than putting things back together. Andrew knew that and still he'd let him in like a parasite, who lives on their host as long as it needs to survive. He felt how this weird, unnamed feeling changing into forward anger and he really wanted to be attached to that, because that was so unpleasantly familiar.  

He was about to go back to the bus, thinking about getting every possible booze to erase that asshole from his memory, when his attention attracted a lonely bag in the middle of nowhere. Anger, mixed with whatever, burnt in his veins. He could hardly remember when his legs brought him to the duffel bag. Too well-known duffel bag and overpriced racquet, both abandoned. That was absolutely not right.