SET Initiative

"Yeah, I got a lot of water, some painkillers, and some food." She held up her bags, smiling faintly. "You ready? We should probably get moving again soon."

Unless he stopped her, she headed for the door. Once back at the car, she loaded her bags, wincing as her shoulder protested to the movement.

"Hey, want me to drive?"

Austin found himself lost in thought. His gaze lingered in the middle distance before he blinked, suddenly snapped back to reality.

"Huh? Oh, yeah that's good. Let's go." He followed her to the door, shrugging when she suggested that she drive. "Sure, why not?" He walked around to the other side of the car, throwing his stuff in the back and sitting down in the passenger seat.

((Two-day long debate tournament + Birthday weekend + boat load of homework = late reply. ))

(You're fine! life first!)

Addie started up the car once she had climbed into the driver's side. She pulled back onto the road, in the direction they had been going, and drove in silence for quite a while. She glanced over to him now and then, to make sure he was alright, but said nothing still, until the sun slowly began to set.

"Do you want to find a place to stop? We can sleep in the car.."

Austin seemed nervous, and distant. He didn't speak, letting Addison remain in silence. Something was different than before.

When she finally spoke, he jumped as if out of a daze, and turned to look at her with a confused/forced smile.

"It's up to you. I wouldn't want to drive much longer after dark."

He licked his bottom lip, bit it, and looked back out of the window. His slumped shoulders and crossed arms demonstrated something was wrong, and he wasn't willing to talk about it.

Addison narrowed her eyes with a frown as she pulled off the road in a relatively empty area. Had she done or said something?

They sat in silence for a few minutes, and finally, the red head couldn't take it anymore. She looked as if she were about to burst into tears as she glanced at him. When she spoke, it all came out very fast.

"Look, if I did something that made you mad, I'm sorry, I am so so sorry, I don't know what I did or why you're mad at me, but please. If you don't want to talk about, or even talk to me anymore, fine. I'll just...shut up and leave you alone." She muttered the last part, looking down at her hands, before she started to climb into the back, to give him his space.

As time went on, before Addison had her outburst, Austin visually grew more unstable. There wasn't much change beyond the subtle, but little things like fidgeting, twitching, blinking, and glancing around nervously were among the changes.

His gaze flicked over at her quickly, realizing he had hurt her feelings in some way.

"Oh... No. No you didn't do anything.." He took a breath in and sighed through his nose, closing his eyes and rubbing them with his fingers.

Then he swallowed. "I don't know what's... What's happening. But I'm seeing things. In the... At the whatever that place was called, I heard peoples' voices. I saw my mom, Addison. I knew it wasn't real. But I'm struggling to keep a cool head. I can't focus on simple tasks..."

Austin's voice quivered. He was soft-spoken. His words were unsure. He wasn't confident like normal.

"I didn't mean to make you, like, just feel bad." He shook his head and shut up, tapping his foot to some unheard rhythm.

Whatever Addison was expecting to hear, it wasn't that. She paused, half of her sticking into the backseat, and slowly pulled back, essentially sitting on the dash, and staring at him.

Austin was losing his mind. They were trying to rescue the kids, and Austin was losing his grip on reality. She took a slow, deep breath to calm herself. Okay. She could figure something out. She could help him. That's what she did, right? She saved his butt.

Addison cleared her throat, then spoke.

"Okay.. we eat and drink the same things, and I haven't seen anything yet, so.. it must be something that's happened to you and you alone.." She racked her brain.

"I don't think getting stabbed in your shoulder would do this, and it's been a while since I took that chip out.." she pondered outloud.

Austin scratched his scalp.

"I'm sorry." He didn't meet her gaze. He looked tired, and sad. Even though he remained serious throughout the majority of the endeavor, now he appeared drained. "I'm just not cut out for this." Austin shook his head and tried not to see her disappointment.

He had failed. The one job he had in the universe and all of the tools required to possibly execute it and he screwed up.

Austin blinked away red spots in his eyes and sniffed, trying to suddenly not let Addison see what was going on.

"I should be fine, though. I probably just need some sleep," he mumbled, barely glancing up at her and then immediately looking back down.

Addison didn't know what to do. Austin was on the verge of, if not already, having a mental breakdown.

She reached over, grabbed his head in both hands, and forced him to look at her. Bloody emotions, tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"Austin, don't you dare start now. I need you. Please. I can't do this by myself. If you throw in the towel now, I'm going to kill you myself." She choked out. It was a lie. She couldn't kill him.. but she could rip him a new one if she had to.

"I don't know what's wrong and I don't know how to fix it, but please, I am begging you, try to hold on."

Austin was forced to look Addison in the eyes, and her sadness was painful, even just looking at her.

Austin's eyebrows were pushed together at first, but the tension quickly disappeared. His eyes softened up.

A million things shot through his head.

"Holding on... You don't need to kill me to get that message across." The corners of his mouth lifted only slightly, attempting to show a sense of humor. His eyes, however, still held an expression of total depressed sadness.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to go crazy. I'm trying to be not crazy." Austin nervously bit his lip again, his eyes looking around but leaving the rest of himself unmoving.

Addison gave his head a little shake, to reiterate her words.

"You better not go crazy on me." She loosened her grip on him, and moved her hands to his shoulders. She forced the tears to stop, and a small smile to tug at her lips.

"What can I do? Austin, nothing that has happened, now or before, has been your fault. We would have died a lot sooner if you had not come, and I would've been stuck with those two useless, miserable sissy men. You are absolutely cut out for this. Please, tell me how I can help you."

Addison might as well have shoved a knife in his chest and twisted it.

"There's not much you can do, I don't think." His eyes drifted downwards once more. He couldn't believe that nothing was his fault.

Not the fact that he had recklessly charged head-on into a fight with a giant, and allowed three people to be killed within minutes of each other.

Certainly not the multiple times that he had allowed children to die horrible, painful, torturous deaths.

Or the time he had allowed them all to be captured by a roaming pack of bandits because he couldn't break silence a moment too soon.

And don't forget the all-too-recent fiasco at the Fort Worth checkpoint and the recent failure to protect even two children from a complete stranger.

All easily preventable.

Austin sighed through his nose and focused his eyes on Addie's left arm.

"I'm sorry. You're handling me better than I can handle myself."

Addison was doing her best not to get frustrated. She sighed and released him, sitting back, hands rubbing her temples. Everything was crashing down on them.

She moved to sit in the driver's seat again, but reached over to rest her hand on his kneecap. She didn't know what else to say. So she decided to just shut up and listen, if he wanted to talk. Sometimes the best thing to do for someone was just sit quietly with them. She gently squeezed his knee briefly, before whispering.

"It's ok. It's going to be okay."

Austin nodded.

"I know," He whispered in reply.

He may have screwed up, but at the end of the day there was still reason to go on. People were still alive out there, somewhere.

Hope. Such a cliché.

Austin's right cheek pulled up in a small smile when he sat back in his seat and looked over at Addie. "You're doing fine. I'm just being stupid right now, is all."

No you're not. Give me a list of five people you know for a fact are still living right now.

Shut up, he has a point. Let him be strong for once in his life.

"But thanks for putting up with me. Even if things are really tough. Didn't think I'd need to be relying on someone else for support."

Addison laughed weakly, shaking her head.

"After what we've been through.. you're allowed to be stupid for a while." She gave his knee another squeeze before she moved her hand away, curling up in her seat facing him.

"I'm sorry that there isn't more I can do to help..but I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me, unfortunately." She teased slightly, shutting her eyes for a brief moment. "I'm scared..but I trust you. We'll make it out of this."

Austin's eyes slowly shut.

"Mm-hm," he mumbled drowsily.

~~~~

Morning came before he realized. Addison was presumably still asleep. Austin rolled his neck and yawned.

Today was going to be another long day. He sat back and looked around the outside of the car. Something was off.

Austin turned around and shook Addison's shoulder to wake her up.

"Addie, do you hear that?" He whispered cautiously. The building they were parked in front of looked like a small apartment complex.

And the sound he heard was the wailing of a woman.

Addison jerked awake with a start when he shook her shoulder, gasping and sitting upright. She fell quiet, listening closely. Slowly, she nodded at him. The wailing continued on, and she hesitated, then reached for her wrist. Pressing the button, the armor took form around her, and when her visor materialized, she peered out the window, towards the complex.

"Think we should go check it out..? I have a bad feeling about it. Who would be making that much noise..?"

She glanced at him over her shoulder, frowning.

"It's up to you."

Austin looked nervously at Addison, then out the window again.

Finally, he nodded. "I think we should check it out."

He grabbed the energy rifle from the back seat and opened his door, stepping outside. The crying noise seemingly came from one of the rooms on the second floor.

Addison nodded, taking her pistol in hand as she slid out of the car. She led the way, cautiously, to the stairway leading up. She took a sharp breath, then started up the stairs.

The pair slowly moved down the walkway, until they stopped at the door the wailing seemed to be coming from. She looked over at him, then reached to jiggle the doorknob, to see if it was unlocked.

It was, and she grimaced. That was shady. Slowly, she turned the knob and pushed the door open with one hand, pistol up and ready in her other hand. A deep breath sucked in, and she peered inside.

No words, only screaming.

Too much screaming. The door opened to reveal...

A skinny woman on her knees. Short black hair. Probably a head shorter than Austin standing.

Her arms were at her sides, and she was just crying. Probably should mention that she was covered in blood. She didn't look up or seem to notice that the door had been opened. Either that or she didn't care.

Austin looked at Addison with a look that said: "This is weird."

The woman's crying stopped. She sniffed and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

"I didn't mean to kill anyone... I swear I didn't..." She looked up at Austin and Addison in the doorway. "I'm so, so sorry..."