Toxic ApocalypticXreader

Savanah

The fresh morning cent sent a reflexive smile upon your face. You stretched out your arms as you sat up, the dead leaves rustling underneath you. You turned to you left, only to find no Zark. Your eyes widened as you quickly stood up, circling around the small patch of forest you were in. You looked as far into the woods in all directions, you wanted to shout out for him, but you didn't want to get found by those men.

'Did they find us the middle of the night? Did he ditch me? W-where's my satchel!?' Were all thoughts that kept circling around your mind, you couldn't take the amount of pressure you felt in that moment and fell to the ground. Your eyes started to feel heavy and your body drained, but you mind was still racing like it never did before. That was until a boy in a black T-shirt began to yell out your name. A blur of his figure appeared above you, you could make out necklaces dangling from his neck and you could barely see his face with the gas mask he had worn.

"Y/N! It's me! It's Zark, I'm right here, it's ok." He lifted your head up only to unstrap your mask. You had no idea what he was doing and began to panic. But your body showed no panic at all, you felt dead, like you couldn't lift a finger. You wanted to rejoice that Zark was here but even your face was too weak to show emotion. You then saw Zark try his best to hastily take off his mask, while still holding your head in his other hand. He ripped it off and placed your head on his knee as he quickly placed his mask on you. He clicked it shut and you felt a sigh of relief come through your lungs. You coughed your last bit of heavy breathing away and began to feel strength return to your body. You saw Zark staring at you with a face full of worry. But before you or him could say anything more you flung yourself towards him for a bear hug. He gasped in shock as he was thrown out of place, his arms stayed in the air, unsure of how to act. Once your grip only tightened he hesitantly wrapped his arms around you, a smile crept onto his face as he closed his eyes.

"W-what's this for?" He asked, pulling you away from him but still keeping his hands gripped on your shoulders.

"I-I thought you left without me..."

Zark chuckled, "I'm never leaving you Y/N, I promised that I'd protect you, remember?"

You drifted your face away from him, embarrassed from your assumptions. He lifted up your chin and turned your face towards him. He tried to look you in the eye but you directed them somewhere else.

"W-wait, then where in my satchel!?" You asked, standing up.

He chuckled once more, "those leaves are covering it." He answered, pointing towards a pile of leaves, you quickly brushed them off and found your satchel with all your belongings still in place.

"I'm just glad I got back here when I did." Zark said, laying against a tree, putting his arms behind his head. "Your mask had radiation leaking in from it, which is why you collapsed, I should've noticed it was broken sooner" he added, searching for his on canteen.

"B-but what about you?"

"Don't worry, I have a spare in my bad, the one you're wearing hides more of my face, I wore it when I stole things from the underground, my other one is a lot smaller that I use when I'm not stealing stuff." He chuckled. He chugged down some of his water, wiping the remains that spilled out from his mouth.

You didn't know if you should've broached the subject but you couldn't stop thinking about your family, but as you opened your mouth Zark spoke for you.

"Don't worry, we'll start looking today. Well continue down the highway you were following yesterday then maybe we can find more leads."

"Why do you want to help me?" You asked, interrupting Zark's explanation.

"Because when I saw you, you were the first person I've seen in ages, at least one that hadn't already been consumed by the underground. You were searching for your family and I had nothing else planned on where to go so helping you sounds like the best option to me." He explained. Reaching for his bag. He rummaged through it for awhile, pulling out his spare mask he strapped it around his face. "I also have the map I stole so it should help us navigate." he added, laying the map open, pointing to a thin line that represented a highway.

"I found you walking down this highway," he explained, "you were coming from this direction," he added, dragging his finger down the line, towards the West. "Did you take any other roads before this one?" he asked.

You shook your head, "the city I lived near exited into that road."

He followed the line down to the west some more until he reached the city it emptied into. "Savanah" he spoke, Reading the city name. "Does that sound familiar?"

I thought for awhile and remembered the road signs I would read as I explored the city "y-yes" I hesitated, trying my best to recall everything, "I do remember seeing signs on buildings that had that name."

"Well then I think it's safe to assume you live in Savanah, if we ever need to go back, now we know where to go." He finished, circling the town with a red marker. "We can just continue down the highway and hopefully someone has seen them."

I awed at the size of the map, it was incredibly large. "I-is this our whole planet." I asked in utter amazement.

"Just one country, I couldn't get one of the whole planet"

My jaw dropped, I had no idea it was so large. Suddenly my dream to find my family again seemed hopelessly impossible. Zark put his and on my shoulder and I looked him in the eye.

"Don't worry," he said with a reassuring look, "we'll find them."