Episode Three, Part 6: 

D e a d L a n d s 

It had been two days since all of the group began their search for Sol, and each morning revealed that they were no closer to finding where she went. Kodiak had been walking around as if he had been carrying the weight of what happened to her on his shoulders. He was exhausted, both mentally and physically, his knees caving in, his mind wondering what he would do if they never brought her home. 

Quill had been with him the entire time, and he knew that the effects of walking for so long would hurt him more that he could imagine, still not being used to the climate of the world, nor conditioned to survive it. He was worried that they wouldn't be able to go much longer, but he knew that they would have no where to go and no protection without him. To put it simple, Kodiak knew that there wasn't much time left to find his friend, and the agony of returning home without her was creeping up on him. 

Everyone had been radioed, and they had all agreed to meet back at Wynn's Bunker to discuss what should happen next, how long they should try before they accepted that they were too late. 

In the short time they had spent together, Quill had learnt a lot about Kodiak; how he was rational and strategic about things, always looking for a plan to get a solution, never deciding on anything without carefully analyzing it before hand. He wondered if he had already made plans for what would happen when they found Sol again, and worried what it would mean for him when he could depend on anything he had prepared for. 

"Whatever happens," Quill began, drifting beside Kodiak so he could be seen, "I think you should know you did all you could out here." 

Kodiak looked over, wanting to be angry that he had seemed to have given up, but not being able to as a part of him felt the same way. "There's still time." He told him. 

Quill nodded, almost too afraid to say anything else. "I understand that. I think we should keep looking." He was quick to assure. "But I'm just saying that I know what it's like to not be able to do anything to get someone you love back." 

Kodiak came to a stop, hesitating before meeting his eyes. Quill hadn't even realized where they were until he looked over, the graves of his family now in sight. He smiled halfheartedly, as if amused by the irony of the situation. "Trying to save someone counts just as much as actually saving them, right? Because if you don't, then it shouldn't mean that their death is on you. Who lives, who dies - we don't get to decide that. We only get to decide for us." 

"Thanks, man. But I think this is a bit different." Kodiak answered. "I let her down, now she's out there probably dying because of me." 

"What?" Both boys turned their heads, looking over to see a concerned Wynnlow approaching them, Aeryn tagging along behind. 

"Nothing." Kodiak said. "I don't know that for sure. I'm just worried." 

Wynnlow nodded, quickly forgetting what he had heard. He had dismissed any possibility of her being killed out of his mind. 

It wasn't long before everyone had all came together, Wynnlow suddenly remembering how unsettled he had felt until both Ares and Quill were in sight. 

Everyone seemed disheartened. Exhausted. Worn out by the world. By the time they would need to have recovered from their searching, it would almost be certain that Sol would be dead. What Quill had said rung about in Kodiak's mind - how the fate of someone else wasn't something they could decided, but it was. If they gave up now, they gave up on her, consequently taking away any chance Sol had left at life. At least if they tried, they wouldn't take that away from her. If she died, she wouldn't die without a riot. 

"We need to really think about our options." Kodiak announced, everyone gathering around to listen. "We've exhausted all of Phoenix Woods, and we know she's not here. Some of our people have been to Blood Woods, but the reality is that Riders would have found her long before we did, and with Eryx wanting to attack, they would have used her as leverage of some sorts." 

"So what are you saying we do?" Bianca asked. 

"I don't know." Kodiak answered truthfully, his eyes looking to the ground as if ashamed that he didn't have the answers. 

"Where else could we look?" Ares asked. 

"We could try near Blood Woods, but that's risky considering you guys are kind of traitors to them." He nodded to Bunker Clan. "We could go West bordering Third Nation territory-" 

"Third Nation?" 

"They're another clan." Bianca answered Ares. "Unlike Riders, they're not out to kill us, but they don't exactly co-operate either." 

Ares nodded taking in the new information, the groups' focus turning back to Kodiak. "But I still think we would have heard something if they had Riv." 

"So that's it?" Wynnlow spoke up, a slither of rage finding his voice. He wanted more. "You're basically saying we look everywhere again, hope that someone missed her the first time? That's not enough. There has to be something else." 

"Actually, there is one more place we could look..." Bianca interrupted. 

Wynn turned to Kodiak expectantly, as if to ask him why he hadn't mentioned it before. 

"The DeadLands." Kodiak sighed. 

"Sounds fun." Ares muttered, his eyes widening in unease. 

There was a shift in Wynnlow. A recognition. He remembered it as Kodiak began to speak, Sol explaining the same thing to him when he had joined her in her hiding place - the little ledge at the back of Basilisk that overlooked the Red Hills. 

"It's a dead stretch of nothingness. No one really knows how far it goes on for. You get too deep in and can't survive the journey back. There's no life out there. No water, no animals, nothing." Kodiak informed them.

"The perfect place to take someone when you don't want them to be found." Wynnlow stated. 

Kodiak grew anxious, not evening wanting it as a possibility to go into the DeadLands. By the expressions on everyone else's face, he knew that they were all as desperate to shut down Wynnlow's idea as he was. 

"No." He answered. "No, we're not going out there." 

"Where else could she be? We've tried everywhere." 

"She's not out there!" 

"You don't know that! You know where she is at all, that's the problem." Wynnlow reminded him. 

"Wynn..." Aeryn whispered from beside him, placing her hand on his arm to try and calm him down. 

Wynnlow sighed, looking briefly over his shoulder at her before he let out a deep breath. "I just have this feeling." He stuttered. "I know that if we're just going to go back and look in the same places, then we might as well give up now. Is that what you guys you want? Is that what Sol would do if it was you?" 

His words struck deep in Kodiak's chest, the answer ringing clear. "Maybe it'd be worth looking if we started there, but we don't have enough supplies to get us back. We can't go to Basilisk and get what need for it. Eryx will know we're gone by now, including everything we took. I hate to admit it, but he'd be able to restrict access for me. Once he had word that I'm there, he won't let me out of his sight."

"I had a feeling you'd say that." Wynnlow smirked, no one understanding what he seemed so cocky about. He moved Kodiak, everyone following as he led them to the entrance of his Bunker. 

"We still have a lot of stuff down there. Food, water, everything." He told them. "There's gotta be a reason we ended up back here. Don't you see it?" 

Kodiak looked around, judging the expressions on everyone, trying to contemplate what was best. Sol saw them as her people, so that meant that Kodiak did as well, and he didn't want to make the choice for them that they had to go out into the DeadLands, even though he knew that they probably couldn't do it without her. 

"What do you guys think?" He asked the group. 

Hopeful eyes shone from Wynnlow, a sight none of them could turn down. Chimes of "I'm in" murmured from all places in the circle, a peace nesting inside of Wynnlow. He knew, against all impossibilities, that she was out there. Now he just had to bring her home. 

three // part six

If you bleed, I bleed the same. If you're scared, I'm on my way.