Episode Seven, Part 1:

ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴏɢ ᴅᴀʏꜱ ᴀʀᴇ ᴏᴠᴇʀ

There's nothing that I wouldn't do.
I'll find my way back to you.

"Come on, Aeryn, get this thing moving!" Kodiak snapped, unable to keep himself still from the anxiety circulating his body. 

"I'm trying, okay? The ground has changed. The wheels weren't meant for this kind of surface." Aeryn replied, trying not to spill all her emotions out as the frustration Kodiak was unloading on her. 

"This is ridiculous." Noah rolled his eyes. He was doing his best not to show it, but every setback that came between him and Sol only added more weight in his chest, and just the thought of her made it difficult to breathe right. 

"Have you got any better ideas other than getting out and pushing?" Kodiak asked. 

"Yeah." Noah jumped out of the vehicle, his worn out boots hitting the red sands. "I'll walk. If you ever catch up, give me a lift." 

Kodiak wanted to give him a piece of his mind, but that wouldn't help anyone. He watched as Ares lifted himself out, hinting to leave with him but halting as he saw Elara move, too. 

"No. You're not leaving this car." Ares told her. 

Elara huffed. "Ares-" 

"It's not up for discussion. Stay in the vehicle. Quill, you too." 

Quill nodded, leaning over to nudge Elara back down and making sure she stayed there as their brother hurried to catch up with Noah. 

"Bianca, help me out." Kodiak heaved, standing at the back of the vehicle and pushing on one of the wheels to get it started. 

"Waste of time." She said. 

"Then you might as well not bother coming back to Basilisk. You'll find there'll be not point in that if you don't get down here and help." Kodiak challenged. 

The threat of banishment loomed in the air for a moment; Bianca - exhausted and hungry, the effects of the blazing sun taking it's toll on her, rolled her eyes, sucking up her pride as she hopped down beside the Sovereign. 

"At this rate, we'll never get there, even if we wanted to." She muttered under her breath, struggling, yet continuing to give in to what deemed a hopeless mission. 

-

He wasn't waking up this time. Sol tried shaking him again - that had worked before; his eyes stirred last time, flickered open for a moment, but they didn't now, and she didn't know what to do. 

Sol reached into the bag, digging around for food or water, or anything that stood a chance at helping him. She unscrewed the lid of the flask, closing her eyes for a minute as she knew what it meant. This was the last of it. 

With her other hand, she tilted Wynnlow's head up a little, bringing the opening of the bottle to his mouth. She managed to spill a few drops onto his lips, hoping that the taste of salvation would be enough for him to wake up, but it wasn't. 

"Keep holding on, Wynn. We'll make it back. We'll do it together." 

A surge of dizziness hit her. The world shifting on it's axis, suddenly not where it was supposed to be. Sol shook her head, ridding the fog from her mind. She pushed herself to her feet, refusing to let it all beat her now. 

"We're gonna make it even if I have to carry you myself." She muttered, reaching down, hands under Wynn's arms as she tried to pick him up. She was strong. Unstoppable when her body wasn't starved of food and water. Possibly even able to lift him all by herself. But the Sol she was now was weaker than she had ever been - closer to death than she chose to believe, and there was no way she could lift Wynnlow to his feet, let alone carry him on her shoulders. 

"Get up!" She screamed, her throat burning at the power of her voice. Wynnlow didn't respond. 

'How does it go?' Sol thought. 'If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it really make a sound?' 

Everything she could say was empty of meaning. No more speeches. No more bargaining. Perhaps her prayers couldn't even be heard out here. 

Sol wiped under her eyes; she felt like she was crying, but her cheeks were dry. 

There was one last thing she could do. A last resort that she didn't want to come to, afraid that it would hurt both of them, that it would do more harm than good. A choice she had to make. 

Sol grabbed onto Wynnlow's arm, raising it up above his head, and started to pull. Dragging him through the dirt. The friction with his shirt causing his skin to bleed a little. 

She moved, incapable of heading in a straight direction. At one point she saw someone running towards her, but she turned her back in that direction, so her mind couldn't play tricks on her... But it was there still, and she couldn't determine anymore which way she had come from, and which way she was going. 

Fear gripped her, her body tensing from her shoulders down to her feet, holding onto Wynnlow's hand like her life depended on it. The person running was closer now, and there was someone else, as well. The bouncing of their steps, the swaying of her vision - she couldn't recognize who it was, if they were even real. The only thing she knew was when she saw they were close enough, she closed her eyes and fell backwards into them, not even feeling the collapse/ 

She heard a voice that let her know it was okay to surrender. That it was okay to give in to the sleep that was calling her. 

"It's okay now. No more fighting. You're okay."

-

"I think that could be them!" Elara yelled, squinting as she looked out ahead. 

Quill stood up on the back of the jeep beside her, looking in the direction she was pointing. "It is." He confirmed. "It looks like...they're heading this way?" 

Everyone gazed ahead, trying to figure out why they had turned back, their questions only seeming to grow the closer they got. 

"They're... They're carrying something..." Quill announced, his heart in throat as he knew the only thing they would be carrying. Bodies. 

Aeryn pulled to a stop once again, still not any better at the breaks, but with no complaints this time. Nothing else mattered except what the group saw before them. 

Noah and Ares stumbled the last few metres towards the vehicle, sweat dripping down their forehead - clearly exhausted. Slung over the back of Ares' shoulder was Wynn - pale and ghostly looking, lips cracked, the left leg of his pant drenched in blood. 

Beside him, Noah was carrying Sol who's head was pressed into his chest, his arms under her knees as he brought her forward. 

Before his heart even knew what was happening, Kodiak was running towards Noah, arms out ready as he took hold of Sol, bringing her round to the back of the jeep where he laid her down. Ares did the same, Quill there to help pull Wynnlow on as everyone climbed onto a seat. 

The engine revved to life, sand flying through the air as Aeryn spun around, driving the fastest the car could handle to get home. 

Both Ares and Noah were exhausted - their arms numb, throats desperate for water, head ringing from all the pressure they had suppressed. The fear of not even knowing if they had been alive whilst they were carrying them racing in their minds. 

"Check if they're breathing." Noah heaved out, unable to catch his own breath. 

Kodiak leaned close to Sol's face, listening out for her exhale. He waited. It should have came by now... Finally - a breath. 

"She's breathing... Just..." He announced. "What about Wynn?" 

Ares didn't answer, hovering over his brother waiting to hear a breath, his fingers pressed against his wrist waiting to feel something. 

"Ares?" Kodiak asked again, feeling a death sentence in the silence. 

"I... I don't know." He stumbled, frantically searching his body for a sign. Anything to say that he was still there. That it wasn't too late for him. 

"His leg." Ares muttered, pulling carefully at the blood soaked material. "What the hell happened to him out here?" Ares cried, no one capable of imagining. 

"Ell, put pressure on his leg." He ordered. "Aeryn, you need to get back here!" 

Aeryn looked over her shoulder from the front of the car, trying to grasp a sense of what was happening. 

"I've got it." Bianca said to her, taking hold of the steering wheel. 

Aeryn let out a breath, squeezing as Bianca climbed somewhat on top of her as Aeryn slipped away from the wheel and into the back of the jeep. 

"Wynn..." She murmured, heart stumbling for a second. She crawled over to him, repeating Ares' action, searching thoroughly for a pulse. 

"He's alive." She told them. "But I don't know for how long. There's only so much I can do at the moment." She explained, beginning compression on his chest. "If he makes it to the Bunker, he has a chance. If not..." She couldn't finish the sentence, emotion stealing away her voice, her lips trembling as she put all her focus onto the boy beneath her. 

"We made it to them, we'll make it to the Bunker." Elara said, refusing to let the hope depart from her again. Then, just so Wynnlow could hear - praying he could hear, "You make it till then." 

-

Sol raised her hand up to her head, resting it against her forehead. The pain had shaken her awake, her eyes bursting open in search for Wynn, panicking over how long she had been unconscious for. If it had been too long, she knew she wouldn't be able to get Wynnlow to safety on time. 

A harsh light was shinning above her, a dark ceiling past beyond that which was unfamiliar. She moved her hands down to her sides, stretching her fingers out one by one, feeling every, tiny crack of her bones. 

The material beneath her was soft and blanketed over her as well; she was warm - not like the burning warmth of the desert, but as if she was clothed in fresh sheets that had curled around her for many hours. 

She tilted her head, looking around to try and determine where she was, eyes landing on a boy curled up in the corner of the room: head leaning against the wall, eyes closed, sound asleep. 

Sol remembered how angered she had been at Kodiak when she last left Basilisk, on the day when she was taken, but it all fizzled away when she looked over at him. 

She knew she was still too weak to get up, but her voice had just enough power to call out to him, waking him from his slumber. 

"Hey," she croaked out across the room, the relief in his eyes melting away all the bitterness she felt at the world. 

When Kodiak realized she was conscious, he darted to her side in an instant, pulling her frail body un into his arms. Sol winced a little, aching from the sudden movement, but she didn't mind one bit. 

"Sorry." Kodiak whispered, carefully leaning her back down. He exhaled, needing a moment to remind himself that this was real, that she was safe. 

"I'm so sorry, River." The words escaped him. "I... I'm sorry... I"m sorry." 

"Hey," Sol repeated, reaching up and cupping the side of his face. A tear rolled down his cheek, catching on her thumb. She wiped it away. 

"Don't apologize. This wasn't because of you." 

"I let you down. I let Eryx take over. I let them take you. There's so much I should have done differently, and I... I thought I was never going to see you again. I just kept thinking about the last thing you said to me-"

"I said I'd never forgive you, but I was wrong." Sol told him. "None of it matters if it means I lose you." 

Kodiak pursed his lips together, looking towards his feet. He softened, taking hold of her hand, but the guilt still lingering inside of him somewhere. 

"Thank you for finding me. For bringing me back here... For not giving up on me."

Kodiak shook his head. "That was Wynn. I think he really-" 

Sol shot up suddenly, as if the pain that was holding her down moments ago had vanished. "What happened? Where's Wynn? Is he-" 

"He'll be alright. He's down the hall resting up." 

"We're in the Bunker..." 

"Yeah," Kodiak told her. "Wynnlow's in his room. This one belongs to MaReya and Fabian." He smiled, eyes glancing around the room, appreciating how homely and vibrant it was as opposed to the overwhelming greys that surrounded every inch of Basilisk. 

"I want to see him." 

"Aeryn said he won't be awake for a while. He lost a lot of blood." 

"His leg." Sol muttered to herself. 

"What happened out there?" 

Sol shifted, moving away a little, unable to meet his eyes. "Can you tell me when he's awake?" 

Kodiak nodded, understanding  her avoidance of the question. She couldn't talk about it without reliving the horrors she had faced, the evidence of which was bruised all over her skin. "Get some rest. We're all out there when you're feeling better." 

Sol breathed out, falling back down against the pillow beneath her as Kodiak drifted to the doorway. He caught himself, hovering as if he wasn't quite ready to leave, and Sol noticed. 

She looked over at him expectantly, waiting to hear what he wanted to say. 

"Thank you for fighting. For staying alive." 

Seven // Part 1

We'll do it together.