Guns & Roses

Chapter 47

                                 [Sanford]

"Is he still sulking back there?" Deimos asked quietly, as if Hank would hear them from here. Sanford took a quick glance back, and sure enough Hank was still lagging far behind everyone else.

"Yeah." He confirmed, "he's been at it for ages, huh?" Hank had been acting weird since they left the building. That was three days ago. Whatever it was, Hank wasn't getting over it.

"Yeah. Weird." Deimos said, before they went quiet again. It was strange not having Deimos rambling about one thing or another. He missed the dumb conversations they'd have.

But as much as it stung, he needed to remember that Deimos just got back from purgatory. Of course he would be acting weird for a while. At least he still seemed as affectionate as he usually was, it was a nice reminder that Deimos was still the same friend as before his brief death.

Up ahead, 2B called a halt, and everyone gathered around to see what was going on. Except for Hank, who was still a sizeable distance away.

"Everyone take a ration. We'll be having a long break this time, make sure to get some sleep." He looked pointedly at Deimos, who rolled his eyes.

"Watch your own sleep, grandpa." Deimos muttered, digging around the bag for rations. Deimos had always been picky, even more so since he got back, so chances were this would take a while. In the meantime, he wanted to catch up with Sheriff. Surprisingly, he was off to the side, looking around nervously.

"What's on your mind?" Sanford asked, and Sheriff jumped. He felt a little bad, at least, he didn't mean to scare him.

"Nothin' I was just..." Sheriff paused, "wondering if I packed the right things."

"I'm sure you did." Sanford pat his back. If 2B hadn't said anything by now chances were he'd done fine.

Deimos wandered back over with two potatoes and handed one to Sanford. They all stood wordlessly for a minute before Sheriff slipped away to get his own rations.

"...You know what I've been craving since purgatory?" Deimos spoke up a little suddenly, but it was a welcome change to the uncomfortable silence.

"What?" Sanford sat down, followed by Deimos.

"Garlic. Like, the paste." Deimos took a pocket knife out and began slicing his own potato into edible chunks.

"I thought you hated garlic?" Sanford pointed out, and Deimos shrugged.

"So did I." He began wiping excess dirt off the potato best the could, but given how limited equipment was out here, it was hard to be picky.

Despite everything, it was peaceful. Just him and Deimos eating together like old times. Though, Deimos frowned, and Sanford assumed something was wrong with his potato until he looked up at Sanford questioningly.

"Do you feel that?" He asked, and Sanford sat as still as he could for a second.

"No..." Maybe purgatory got to Deimos more than he thought. Just as he was about to gently suggest this, a far off crash came from somewhere. He only had enough time to catch something moving extremely fast, and he caught a flash of green before it had scooped up Sheriff and disappeared over the horizon.

For a moment him and Deimos just looked at each other, utterly baffled, before rushing to their feet to try following that thing.

"What the fuck was that thing?!" Deimos almost tripped over himself as they took off.

"Hell if I know." Sanford huffed, touching his waist to check if his hook was still there. As always, it was swinging haphazardly from where it was slung.