Blossoms from The Apocalypse

“Alright little buddy, you ready to smoke some bozos?”

A loud yell rang out over the sound of the almost equally loud truck engine, which was blitzing down an uneven, dusty road. The source was a large man, both in height and muscle mass, who was dressed for battle (excluding a shirt), adorned with snazzy shades, and a toothy smile that wasn’t unsettling in any way. He was busy driving the truck, but also kept an eye on anyone behind them, and he’d noticed a suspiciously well kept convoy van following them just on the horizon.

“Not my first rodeo, I’m already in p-position!” A much less loud yell came from a girl half sitting, half standing in the backseat, her back turned to the driver and sights set on the vehicle following them. Her face was obscured by a mask and goggles, her broad body was clad in dark leather from head to toe, and she was carefully balancing a rather fucking big sniper rifle over the edge of the window that led to the back of the truck.

“That’s our girl!” The last figure within the truck yelled, who was busy puffing smoke from his cigarette and sticking half his body out the window of the passenger seat. He was a lean but well built dude, who wore a dark coat and a visor that obscured half of his face, and was balancing an almost finished cigarette between his sharp teeth. He carried a rifle of his own, and was readying to take aim. “Ford, you give us the signal and it’s over for those clowns.”

The driver, Ford, gave a hearty laugh in response. “Will do! But I think they’re still too far away!” He turned his head to look at the girl in the backseat, who was intensely focusing on her scope. “Baby, you think you n’ Dei can snipe those tires yet?”

“Give ‘em a few more feet. Or until they, they start shooting.” The girl- Baby- replied, her finger anxiously hovering over the trigger.

“Few more feet then!”

The trio waited intently, Baby and Dei focusing on keeping their guns steady and Ford balancing his focus between the road and the car behind them. It almost seemed like the group following them must’ve been aware of their plan, as they kept a careful distance behind the truck. Almost like a standoff, neither party made any move for a good few minutes. Which felt more like hours to everyone involved.

That was, until the convoy van suddenly sped up, like it was gunning to ram into the truck.

“Oh SHIT! Fire!” Ford exclaimed, hitting the pedal in tandem.

Both Dei and Baby fired at once. Despite not telling each other where they were aiming, they seemed to just understand who’s target was who’s. For Dei, it was the left tire, and for Baby, it was the driver. Clean and quick, one tire was trashed and the windshield shattered as the van’s driver was struck. Their next shots followed shortly; This time, Baby shot at the right tire, and Dei shot into the now disintegrated windshield, hoping to strike anyone within range. Once again, their aim was precise and accurate.

But of course, the agents within the van were trained for firefights like these. Sure, they’d got the driver and the person in shotgun, but that van was full of armed guys.

Just as quick as they’d fired, the agents pounced. One pulled the body of the driver out of the seat and took control of the driver’s wheel, another couple of them whipped out their pistols and began firing. A spray of bullets were flying past one another, as Dei and Baby tried to take out the agents and the agents attempted to take out the truck. The two successfully took down the agents firing at them, but of course, there were just more waiting in the back.

Again, they pulled out their guns and kept the fire fight going. “Ugh, forget this, we got a semi automatic up here?” Dei exclaimed, tossing the rifle he was holding as he ducked back into the car to grab a different gun.

“Yknow Doc ain’t gonna be happy ‘bout losing another in the arsenal!” Ford shouted, now erratically swerving the truck off road and to and fro, trying to keep the agents from blowing out the tires, or do any other damage to anything else vital. “And sorry for the turbulence!”

“Nah, just part of the job big gu-”

“FUCK!” Baby suddenly shouted, as she dropped her rifle and collapsed into the seat.

Both men up front immediately turned their heads to look in the backseat, where Baby was clenching a bloody hand. “They got your hand?!” Dei exclaimed, now changing his focus to finding some gauze to wrap her hand with.

“No! No! Keep shooting, I’m- fuck! I’ll be fine!” Baby grunted, squeezing her hand in an attempt to focus on pressure rather than pain. “Christ, augh- Uncle, Uncle, you got, you got any grenades in, in the convoy back here?” She asked, through gritted teeth, not even waiting for an answer before she let go of her hand and went to search through their storage of back up weapons sitting beside her.

Ford swerved the truck in order to get the van off their trail once again, just as Dei picked up a gun resting beneath his seat, and got back into position halfway out the window to start firing again. “Course we do! You sure you can activate it?” Ford answered her, checking the rear view mirror to see Baby digging around one of the storage crates stuffed in the backseat, while struggling to stay in place as he drove so recklessly.

“I’m sure of it! Focus on the wheel!” She yelled back, just as she pulled a grenade out from within the crate she’d been searching through. Without a second of hesitation, Baby shoved the pin of the grenade against the front of her mask, bit down, and held the pin in place as she ripped the grenade itself away, and immediately flung it through the rear windshield.

“GAS IT!”

At the prompt, Ford hit the gas pedal and floored the truck, the tires squealing against the rocky terrain of the road. Dei retreated back into the truck once more, having successfully dealt a considerable amount of damage to the front of the van and a good number of the agents within it. Baby fell back onto her side against the seat, and clutched her hand again, growling in pain.

The grenade she threw didn’t get flung that far, but the convoy van was driving at quite an exceptional speed. By the time the agents registered that a fucking grenade was headed their way, it was already too late. Almost as soon as it hit the front of the van, the grenade went off, and the agents were enveloped in the fire and shrapnel of the explosion that followed. In a few seconds, the van and its inhabitants were blown apart, and the trio’s little problem was taken care of.

“HECK YEAH! Great job mamas!” Dei cheered, once again turning to face Baby, only then remembering the situation she was dealing with. “Oh! Right, right, alright, c’mere mija, let’s get this wrapped up ‘til Doc can fix it up for real.” He said, as he held his hand out to Baby for her to take.

The truck slowed down considerably, returning to a relatively speedy, but not too unreasonably fast pace down the road, allowing Dei to carefully wrap Baby’s hand with the gauze he found while not bumping her hand around too much. “Yknow, little buddy, yer dad’s gonna be real impressed when we tell him how fast you put the backup strat into action!” Ford chirped, laughing gleefully as he spoke.

“You got a real speedy brain in that noggin of yer’s.” Dei added, patting Baby’s head as he chuckled.

Baby sighed, practically throwing herself against her seat as she decompressed, while she squeezed her hand again. “Yeah, guess so, but I’m thinking he’s gonna be more focused on my hand getting f-ff-fuckin’ pulverized to b- pulverized AGAIN- to be happy about the grenade thing.” She mumbled, rolling her head against the headrest. Unfortunately, getting a bit banged up was included with this kind of thing “not being her first rodeo.”

Ford laughed again. “Hey, don’t be too gloomy, your hand just got shot right? That ain’t as bad as the last ringer your hands got put through, n’ Doc’s a pro at fixing up bullet wounds.” He stated, glancing at her for a moment through the mirror. If she’d been paying attention, she would’ve noticed his brow was furrowed in a way that suggested he was concerned.

“Yanno that guy works medical magic, yer gonna be alright.” Dei chimed in, now reaching into a pocket strapped on his bicep, and pulled out a cigarette. “And if yer dad pitches a fit about it, then that’s his own damn problem! Gettin’ hurt comes with the job, he of all people should know that by now.” A couple snaps of his fingers and flame was sparked that lit his cig.

“I don’t know, I guess I’d be freaked out about my kid getting shot too but like, it, it, it gets annoying sometimes…” Baby murmured, looking down at her shoes. “Like, I wanna do the same work as you all, ya’ll’ve been training me to be able to fight on my own for like the past decade, and yeah I get hurt a-a-a-a lot but I don’t got like, fuckin’, 20 years of experience under my belt like he does.”

“Mhm, yer still a rookie, you just need more experience n’ you’ll be flying unscathed like us- for the most part, heh.” Ford said.

“Yeah! I’m not a hardcore pro yet and I’m not gonna ever get there i-i-i-iiiiiif dad’s tweakin’ over me getting the exact same injuries you guys get on the regular and tryna pull me from contracts.”

“Hank’s a bit of a pain, hate to tell ya’ sweetheart.” Dei replied, after taking a drag of his smoke. “We’ll figure it out someday, he can’t keep ya’ in a safe lil’ bubble forever. Yer already 20, you could fuck off anywhere in Nevada if you wanted and he’d have to just suck it up and accept it.”

“I don’t think Hank would just ‘suck it up’ and let that slide-”

“Obviously, I’m just saying like, she’s grown, yanno?”

A nod and grunt of acknowledgement came from Ford, before he turned his focus back on the road.

“Guess so.” Baby mumbled, rubbing her forehead.

“...He’s difficult, but, y’know, he’s just scared to see his baby get all banged up like he is, right?” Ford added.

That immediately sent Baby into a laughing fit, startling both men.

“Well damn dude it’s kind of already too late for that!” There was only joy in her tone.

The two then joined in the laughing fit, as they continued their drive home.

~

A trip to Doc’s office for something like a bullet wound or deep cut was usually a pretty quick thing, but getting your knuckles struck by a speeding bullet kind of requires a little more time to try and fix up properly. Luckily, Baby was quite the patient guy, and she always enjoyed time spent with her uncle, even if it was while he was performing minor surgery on her hand.

“...So you didn’t even think twice, you just went for the explosives?”

“Mhm.”

“Good, taught you well.” Doc muttered softly. “Still, try not to get shot next time.”

Though she couldn’t see his face under the mask he always wore, Baby could tell he had a shit eating grin plastered beneath it. She rolled her eye, and rested her head against her free hand. After a bit of silence, the only noise coming from the clinking of the metal tools and wet squishing of her flesh and muscles, she asked, “Does my dad know about this?”

“Course he does.”

“Is he upset?”

Doc set his tools down, and huffed. “Well, he was perturbed at first, can’t blame him. I get a bit upset when you report back with any injuries that require more than just stitches or bandages, too.” He reached below the metal table he had Baby’s hand situated on top of, and pulled out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. “Gonna sting.”

“I know.”

As he dabbed a cotton ball into the liquid, he continued, “You’re very capable, we know you’ve got it in you to be just as skilled as Hank and your uncles when it comes to this stuff.” He paused when he pressed the cotton ball around the wound, tapping Baby’s wrist with his free set of fingers as she winced. “Believe me when I say this, your dad’s real proud of the kind of things you’ve been able to accomplish while on the job, and he’s overjoyed to have a daughter that can kill with no problem.” Doc paused for a moment once more, as he picked up his tools again. “...However, you have to remember-”

“I’m his baby, I-I-I know.” Baby interjected.

Doc nodded. “You’re his baby, yes. Obviously, that doesn’t mean he can just control you or your life, and he’s not trying to do that. He’s just…” He stopped entirely as he thought about what he was trying to say.

“It’s a hard thing to raise a child, let alone while you’re in an apocalypse state. Let alone when you already struggle to connect to people, let alone when you're doing it without your child’s other parent.” Doc directed his sight to connect with Baby’s, who looked a bit glum. “I’m not saying ‘your dad’s had it hard and you need to be more understanding of him’ ‘cause you already know what’s been going on. Hank may deny the fact that he experiences fear, but he does, and he’s deathly afraid of losing you. Hell, I’m afraid of losing you, Sanford and Deimos are afraid of losing you, and we aren’t even your parents.”

Baby looked down at her hand, then past Doc’s face. “I know, that’s just a regular part of being a parental figure t-t-to someone. I know he doesn’t want to like, control me or anything, it’s just…”

“It can be suffocating having someone else’s fears projected onto you.”

“Yeah, that sounds right.”

Doc nodded, and set one of his tools down to rub her shoulder. “Part of life, kid. A lot of people are gonna experience that at some point or another with their parents. You either communicate with them about it and fix the problem or you keep getting poisoned.”

“Do you got any advice for trying to fix it?”

He laughed at that. “Who, me? Sorry sweetheart, can’t help you there. Parents kicked my ass to the curb before I even thought about how they were suffocating me.”

“What? Wait, what, really?” Baby chirped, suddenly sounding far more lively than before. “You’ve never told me about th-th-that. Why’d they ditch you?”

Doc looked at her, then looked around, and motioned towards his mohawk. “Didn’t like the anarchist look little ol’ teenage me had going on, said I looked like a terrorist in the making and got real pissed at all the anti-government shit I liked talking about.” He leaned in close to her, then added, “Little do they know, they were right,” then burst into laughter, which Baby couldn’t help but join in.

~

It wasn’t too long after Doc was finished fixing up Baby’s hand when the dinner alert went off. It didn’t surprise her to see that dinner was just take out from Burger Gil’s, as that was the usual routine whenever she sustained a serious injury. Her uncles wanted to be extra nice whenever that happened, so fast food was always the go to in those situations.

Sanford and Deimos usually went off somewhere in base to eat together, and socialize amongst some of the less important lackeys of Doc’s. Doc refused to ever eat in front of anyone and always ate alone. If Baby wanted to eat with anyone, it was usually with Hank, it was just a regular part of the routine at this point in her life. Once more, today was no different. Once she’d grabbed the food ordered for her and separated everything in the way she needed it separated, she went off to find wherever Hank had gone while her hand was being fixed.

Eventually, she found him sitting in the common area of their little gang’s special section of the base, watching a blank TV while he stuffed his food into a blender. Eating was quite the challenge for him, given a particular situation with his jaw that never got quite figured out, and blending a majority of his meals was the solution they came to. It was probably one of the most disgusting things Baby had to witness on an almost daily basis, but Hank couldn’t really do anything about it, so she learned to suck it up and not pay attention to it.

As she prepared herself to not gag at the sight of his blended burger, Hank turned around to look at her. No matter how quiet anyone could be, Hank somehow always knew when someone was nearby. He stayed quiet as she approached him; she nodded her head towards him and made a weird noise.

“…how's…the hand…”

Always to the point.

“Feels fine, didn’t really hurt all that much while Doc was fucking around with it.” Baby answered, plopping herself down on a cushion next to the coffee table. “Just feels like I got my hand smashed in a door frame.”

Hank nodded, and waved his hand at her while he tipped his head backwards, pulling off the mask over his face. She’d learned that was his signal that she should look away, since he knew his food made her want to puke.

After he’d dumped a considerable amount of mush down his throat, he sat still for a second, before turning back to look at her. “...i’m not…mad…”

“I know.”

“can’t…get mad at…you…”

“I know.”

Hank began tapping his fingers against his knee. “...i was…upset…not mad though…”

He paused, anticipating that she’d have something to say. Baby just flicked her hand, which he knew was her signal for him to continue.

“...i just…don’t…want you to be…fucked up...like me.”

Baby snorted, and almost choked on the bite of her burger. “C’mon, I already-”

“i know,” Hank grunted, looking down into his blender, “i mean…you’re not…as…far gone…as i am…”

She sat in silence as she ate her food and watched her dad try to think. This was pretty common, talking was pretty hard for him, so he usually tried to get his point across with as few words as he could manage.

Hank lifted his head, and looked up at the ceiling. “...I'm not…really…alive…and it’s…fucked.” He began tapping his shoe against the coffee table. “doc…brings me…back…and each time…I'm not…i lose…a piece…of life.”

Another wave of his hand to signal her to look away, and Baby spoke up. “I get that, but, like, I-I-I can assure you, I’m not gonna die, ‘least not anytime soon.” She took another bite of her burger, and continued, “But, if I die, Doc can bring me back, and yeah you’ve told me about how the, the, the process is shit and y-y-you feel more like a corpse than a living dude, but I don’t…I don’t think I’m gonna end up dying as much as you have, dad.”

He grunted in response. Then he watched as Baby ate the rest of her dinner, before talking again.

“...you…don’t know that.”

“What?”

“...this…state…is unpredictable. weird shit…always happens…and you can’t…make…absolute…state…ments…like that.” He then turned to face her directly, and gently took her injured hand in his. He rubbed his bruised fingertips against her joints.

“...still…small…”

“Wh- My hands are normal sized, you’re just huge.” She retorted.

“mhm.”

Hank set her hand down, then cocked his head so they were kind of on the same level. Baby was right, Hank was unbelievably huge when compared to her, but it also didn’t help that she was just a little short by default.

He sighed. “...point…is…i know…you can take…care of…yourself…for the most part…” He reached out to set his hand down on top of her head. “...but…things are…unpredict…able…and you…i don't want…you…become a…walking…husk…of a person…like i am…”

“...Things are unpredictable, yeah, but like, you…you can’t really do anything if your reasoning is cause shit’s too unpredictable, right?” She said, clasping her hands together to give herself some pressure to focus on again.

It was hard for her to see his eye through the bright red glass of his goggles, but Baby could very faintly see him look around, in a way that looked like he was contemplating her statement.

“...you’re sure…your hands…ok…”

She sighed, she should’ve expected him to not have an answer ready. It wasn’t really a big problem, but her dad just…wasn’t very good at serious talks with her.

“I promise, it feels fine.”

“...ok…”

Baby looked around for a moment, then noticed that the TV wasn’t on.

“Yo, there’s no background noise, that driving you nuts too?” She asked him, as she grabbed her soda to sip. Hank gave her a thumbs up, then fussed with her bandana, just to tease her.

“Yeah, figured,” She mumbled, now searching around for the remote, “I’m pretty sure Death Pit’s live right now, can probably still catch some real gnarly shit.”

He just laughed in response, or, well, made a weird wheezing sound, that Baby figured was what his laugh sounded like nowadays. Some things about him were kind of hard to decipher. But that didn’t really matter to her, because she knew him well enough to figure it out, and he knew her well enough to figure out her weird mannerisms as well.

For the rest of “dinner”, and the majority of the night, they would watch whatever was on the air waves, and chat about whatever came to mind, and once either was tired enough, they would say goodnight and retire to their rooms. That was normal routine for them, and that was great quality time for both of them. Baby would somewhat break routine though, by not falling asleep as easily as she usually did. What Hank had said was bouncing around in her mind..

“I don't want you to become a walking husk like I am.”

…She didn’t quite understand what he meant by that.