Survival

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It'd been a long, painful week. Pezzy watched his friends as they packed up the rest of their things, getting ready to get into the military trucks that would take them to Colorado so they could fly to their respective homes.

Scotty and Anthony were flying to Tyler's home in Tennessee, though Anthony lived not too far from him that Pezzy knew. Soup was going home too, flying to South Carolina.

Matt, Smii7y and John were going with Pezzy, Droid and Grizzy to Texas, all wanting to be together when they eventually confronted the fact that Puffer wouldn't be there.

Grizzy had been adrift. He barely reacted to anything, hadn't smiled, hadn't raged, barely responded to conversations. Pezzy didn't know what to do, knowing Grizzy had something more with Puffer that Pezzy and Droid couldn't understand.

Matt appeared in front of Pezzy, the smaller looking up disoriented. "We're loading up," he said softly, Pezzy nodding slowly as he got up and grabbed his bag.

He met everyone else by the trucks, a few other people Pezzy didn't know also standing there. They must have been other people who'd managed to escape in the last week, Pezzy giving them all nods before turning away.

They all climbed into the truck, Grizzy between Pezzy and Matt. Droid was on Pezzy's other side, his hand twitching as if to grab the smaller's but not wanting to hurt Grizzy.

"You can hold hands guys, I don't want to ruin your chance at happiness too," Grizzy whispered, Pezzy looking at him sadly.

He took both Droid's and Grizzy's hands, Grizzy's shoulders relaxing a bit at the touch. Grizzy looked at him a moment, his eyes soft and Pezzy smiled faintly at him, the others lips twitching but not smiling.

A soldier got into the drivers seat, turning around to look around. "Everyone good? Yeah? Alright, let's go," he said once everyone nodded, turning and putting the car into drive.

A distant roar sounded as the truck drove down the road, Pezzy and Grizzy flinching. Droid squeezed Pezzy's hand, Grizzy leaning into him.

They all turned to look at the city in the distance, a tear making its way down Grizzy's face. We're not going to forget you Puffer, I promise Pezzy thought to himself, his heart aching.

They drove for nearly 6 hours, no one saying anything. Grizzy dozed off against Matt's shoulder, no one disturbing him since he hadn't had a proper sleep since Puffer was killed.

One of the other people was looking at them, Pezzy meeting her eyes. They held a question in them, Pezzy glancing at Grizzy before looking back.

"Hi, I'm Ashley," she said softly and Pezzy nodded at her. "I'm Pezzy," he said and she raised an eyebrow. "I'm a twitch streamer, we were here for TwitchCon."

Her eyes widened and she glanced at his friends. "Oh, you guys were on the news a few times. One- ones missing?" She asked and Pezzy flinched hard, his jaw clenching.

"He was killed last week," Droid whispered, sympathetic realization filling Ashley's face. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she whispered and Pezzy clung harder to Droid's and Grizzy's hands.

"We were less than a block away from safety, he fell," Pezzy whispered, the unfairness of everything filling him again and making anger filled grief fill him.

Ashley looked down, Pezzy letting go of Droid long enough to angrily wipe away the tears filling his eyes.

They hadn't told the internet yet, unsure of how to tell them Puffer wasn't coming back. They hadn't even said anything about getting out of San Diego, just sending the daily "We're alive" tweet every morning.