There Goes The Neighbourhood

[kilimesoftly]

It didn't happen overnight. These things never do. It took time to spread, to break quarantine after quarantine. There had been hopeful and optimistic news reports once the media blackout was over. The internet was buzzing with random cures and self help guides to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

Kili, ever cheerful though he is, never bought it. It'd been hard to when you could look outside and see the neighbourhood emptying out, or when entire sections of London became deserted. It'd been harder to after his uncle and cousins brought him and his older brother along to Tesco's to loot the place for food, for supplies, for anything other, previous looters had left behind.

Six months after the first wave of infections, the world was doomed and Kili knew it. A year after and it's all become normal.

"Tell me we get to head out of Belgravia today," he whines at the kitchen table. The entire block has become home to him and his relatives, the family manor on the corner and the streets leading into it barricaded. Kili plucks at his bowstring in anticipation of a hunt. It's been two weeks since they've gone out of their personalized safe zone. He's itching.

Comments

[kilimesoftly]

Kili is noticeably surprised when Thorin gives them the go ahead and grinning at his brother, almost starts off at a half job before their uncle's best friend grabs the back of his rucksack and slips a carving knife into his belt.

"No pistols," Dwalin says and Kili finds himself quietly nodding. The man is massive, covered in tattoos. He'd been a soldier before this mess went down, back when he and their uncle had been young and full of too much energy. He still wears the mohawk even now, though Mr. Balin had once told them it was a foot high during his hay day. "The sound will undoubtedly draw any near by. And I'm not talking about the maddened ones. The clickers can't see, but they can hear just as well. If you find one, knife to the back of the head, got it?"

Kili nods. He understands, this isn't his first time out here after all! "Got it," he whispers and then takes off at a slower pace, knowing Fili is right behind him.

The bridge is literally jammed with cars, most of which Kili assumes still have petrol in the tanks. They've never gone this far and he doesn't think any other group, even if still alive, could have harvested all of it. Besides, most of the caps are closed. He makes a note to tell Thorin as he skitters over a sedan and leans down to help his brother up. There are keys in the ignition but the door is open. Actually, most of the driver doors are open.

That's also a relief. It means that these people were chased out by the traffic jam, not changed by spores.

[filidelity]

That's not a good start, Kili preparing to scamper off before Dwalin stops him, but the second attempt improves on it. Fili gives Dwalin a nod, too, briefly looks at Thorin one more time and sets out close on Kili's heels.

He should go first, but Kili has always been better at climbing. Getting up and over cars as if he's a vaulting gymnast seems to be no different than swinging himself into trees like a monkey. Fili is keeping up easily enough, hauling himself onto weather-beaten hoods – it's just not quite as graceful.

He'll blame that on devoting most of his attention to listening for suspicious sounds and noting the state of each abandoned car they pass.

The only sounds are their own movements, and the nearest stretch of footpath beyond these lanes looks relatively free. It seems too easy, especially for a route they're taking for the first time in months. Then again, visibility isn't great. It gets worse when a few drops of rain falling from heavy dark clouds quickly turn into a downpour and every surface is slick with it.

Fili discreetly maneuvers ahead of his brother and waits, considering that they should go back instead.

[kilimesoftly]

A little rain never hurt anyone, though the moss and dirt that have been slowly moving onto the car since people had stopped trying to keep them clear -- or move them -- makes the metallic surface slick. As Fili steps off of the sedan and onto a flat piece of asphalt, Kili nearly kills himself as the rain causes his boot to lose it's grip. He literally falls into his brother.

There is a tense moment to follow as both stand stock still behind a bread delivery van, back gate closed, and wait for the telltale sign of the infected.

No noise. No shambling. No clicking. Kili breathes a sigh of relief and gestures past his brother's shoulder to the left.

Pedestrian bridge. No cars, but also no cover. "I don't think there's anyone" or thing "here, Fee."

[filidelity]

Kili nearly kills Fili when he slips. The knocking into each other is anything but graceful, though to be fair, they couldn't factor the rain in. It wouldn't hurt if said rain didn't last too long.

Fili shakes his head and lets go of Kili's wrist, willing his heartbeat to calm after the abrupt spike of alarm. He can't see anyone or anything, either. Now the rain is all that can be heard, aside from their hushed voices.

"Let's keep moving, then. Mind the puddles."

He'd like to say with absolute certainty that there's nothing there, that if nothing came just then, nothing will come further along the bridge, but he knows better than to make any remark of that sort. That tends to be a mistake.

They can go quickly, finish checking and signal for the others to follow, before there's reason to question what they claimed in front of Thorin.

[kilimesoftly]

Kili at least knows when to take his time. On the pedestrian walk beside the four line highway over the bridge, it's easy to see straight ahead, though each parked, abandoned car causes the road to become a mine field. Assuming that they'll hear something long before they see it, though, Kili feels almost too confident in himself. The bridge is long, but he guesses that they'll reach the other side, and thus be able to return, in ten minutes.

If only this had been whistling weather! It's really unfortunate that London's decided to remember who she is and grace them with cold, intermittently heavy showers.

So, having to mind the puddles and wishing he'd had rubber wellies like he remembers as a child (bright blue with black soles), he nearly misses the tell tale sign of one of the more dangerous denizens on the otherside of their neighbourhood wall. The snarling, clicking noises are dead ahead and to the left, coming from inside a nearly turned over doubledecker bus.

Kili glances at Fili and draws his knife. One bite and it's over but they ought to be able to take it with the both of them.

[filidelity]

They were wise not to get overconfident. Of course the whole bridge wasn't going to be a walk in the park – not that a walk in the park these days is what it used to be.

Fili hates that sound (he should be used to it, shouldn't let it conjure up awful images that won't turn real), but it does give them the warning they need. He meets Kili's gaze and nods, his own knife ready.

For now, there's just one. They can take it.

And there it is, its disfigured head coming into view, past a shattered window.

He hates the sight, too. It should be easy to block out everything but surviving. It's hopeless for the infected – they'll never be who they once were again.

But that's what doesn't get less terrifying with time. Anyone could end up this way and so many have. After all, it doesn't take much.

[kilimesoftly]

Kili approaches these things differently. It could be the age gap, those extra five years giving Fili more to remember about the way life had been, but their mother and uncle are sure that Kili's recklessness has everything to do with just who Kili is. Youngest child, doted on by not only mother, but also older brother? Fili is Kili's life support and he's never needed an internal one of his own.

That's why, while Fili is just pulling out his knife, Kili is already heading over.

Now, he's not stupid. Kili won't run full on towards these things, but being crouched behind the van it's either in or behind without backup is unnecessarily dangerous. He glances over his shoulder at Fili, not to motion him closer or to hurry up, just to be sure that he's there. Fili is his touchstone and his home base. Without him-- Kili doesn't know what he'd do.

As for the clicker? Well, he plans on sneaking around behind the van and stabbing it in the neck. Just like that and as simply.

[filidelity]

And right there is something else that Fili hates to see, Kili walking towards danger ahead of him. Together, it's different, and he doesn't hang back.

He's there. He's moving as quietly, cautiously as humanly possible.

It's always been his job to keep an eye on his little brother, even when that little brother shot up like he'd permanently attached stilts to his legs just to tower over his big brother. Maybe he had moments when he resented being the responsible one, but it wasn't nothing but that all the time. It's not some uneven relationship. They've complemented each other all their lives.

Petty fights aside, ordinary things that are forgotten as soon as they've made up, Fili never wants to imagine a world without Kili.

The world right now likes to thrust exactly that possibility in his face. It puts him on edge, more than he's willing to admit, and he just wants the clicker silenced, the threat gone. Too often, this isn't the good kind of thrill until afterwards.

He needs to concentrate on what's in front of them. He keeps his eyes trained on the van.

BOO. My turn on this one. I need reminders. :p

[kilimesoftly]

As long as Kili can hear it, he's not afraid of it. From the sounds of it, the clicker is barely moving and that, to Kili, makes him think that it's looking for a good place to drop anchor and produce spores. Usually that's in the darkness, but hey, maybe it's trying to get into the van?

Unfortunately for it, Kili has no intention of letting this one take root.

Though in the time before all of this, he'd been apt with video games and first person shooters, he'd never really taken to the thought of hunting. Now, it's become second nature. It's had to be. The trouble is, he still hadn't learned all about team work yet and that's where he always runs into trouble.

Picking up an old soda can from the ground, Kili lobs it over the roof and the clatter as it drops causes the clicker to rush to investigate. That's all Kili needs to spring, knife drawn and ready to make the infected human bleed. Clickers are strong, but he has surprise.

And backup.

Even if it might have been nicer to let Fili know the fucking plan!

<33 No worries! I will reply forever.

[filidelity]

Letting Fili know the plan might have kept his heart from threatening to jump right out of his chest for what must have been several seconds of held breath, but they couldn't afford it. They were already too close. He won't get on Kili's case for it.

In fact, later he'll have to give Kili the credit for his use of their surroundings. (He even won't get on Kili's case much for going first, either.)

The short burst of a diversion thanks to the thrown can should be the opening they need. Even without a heads-up, Fili quickly cottons on, and his own plan consists of making sure that they are going to work as a team.

Any moment now, the clicker's attention will wander. They can't move in total silence, splashed by the rain, and there's nothing else for it to hear.

It's up to Kili, Fili knows.

[kilimesoftly]

Kili's knife strikes true, right in the throat of the mutated infected and a warm wash of blood trickles over his hand as the creature rears up with Kili still clinging to it. It's enough of an opening for Fili to silence the beast for good, one last little twitch to a foot likely run through with the fungus, shoulders slumping against the younger of the pair.

Kili is all smiles. A kill is a good thing, it's the start of getting rid of the creatures that have survived the longest, that are ready to cloud the very air with spores and possibly make new version of themselves.

Tugging the knife from the bloated corpse and wiping the black on his trousers, Kili reaches for Fili's hand in victory. It's a sensation that, while strong, is one he knows must also be short lived.

The end of the bridge is in sight and they still have to scout a way around it before going back to their group waiting at the other end. Kili takes a breather before he jumps onto the hood of a parked sweets van and crouches down to look in the ignition for keys. They're there. His heart almost leaps into his throat. It's not toilet paper...it's better.

Sugar makes the world go round these days.

"Fee!"

[filidelity]

After a kill, the rush of we did it overpowers all trepidation. Maybe (thankfully?) this hasn't become so routine yet that it makes them cocky. There's just the relief of knowing that they've made it another day, and Fili presses his brother's hand and claps him on the back, smiling at Kili's smile.

Even though they're quickly getting drenched, their scouting mission is going swimmingly after all. The thoughts that Fili fought off earlier now retreat without any resistance.

He smiles again upon catching sight of Kili's find. Some might be more excited to come across a plentiful supply of toilet paper, but here's another luxury guaranteed to go over well.

"Better make sure we remember to lead the others past this one," he remarks, scanning the area for nearby landmarks and the distance left to go. They'll be able to head back soon, and with good news.

[kilimesoftly]

It's not that they have a map, but Kili gotten good enough with tracking that it doesn't matter. He takes a good look at the area and memorizes the location of the truck before he and his brother set off again. There's no more excitement across the bridge, thankfully, though twice it becomes obvious that they will need to use some creativity to move the group around piled up cars along the way.

Pulling Fili through the gap of a smashed up Honda and one of the support beams after he sent his pack through, Kili turns to see several somethings that had not been there when he not only peeked through himself, several minutes before, but pushed his pack through too.

Though there's a knife on him, the rest of his weapons are in the pack at his feet. Four men raise shotguns at his and Fili's heads, however, and the dark eyed brother slowly brings his hands to his waist.

"I don't think so," a man with an American accent says, and Kili drops his hands at once. "Why don't you kick those packs over here?"

[filidelity]

This, unlike the threat from any infected, isn't an expected encounter. Instinctively, Fili moves to take a step towards Kili as soon as the strangers block their way, a split second before the unfriendly greeting they get keeps him where he's standing. Their packs stay on the ground.

He can't glance at Kili without raising suspicion, so he has to assume that he and his brother are thinking along the same lines. But this time, at least, it shouldn't be impossible to talk it out, as long as these men aren't too trigger-happy. Too desperate, too concerned with nothing but their own survival.

They don't need another incident like that raid.

One of the other men gestures impatiently, a curt nod of his head. "He said, packs over here. Hurry it up."

Handing over their weapons when there's just two of them and four of these guys, who already have guns out and readied, probably wouldn't work out well. They'd have to let their things go, permanently.

Fili picks the first man to focus on and speaks up. "What happens after that?"

[kilimesoftly]

One day, one very fine day, Fili still stop feeling the terrible need to protect him. It's not that Kili doesn't appreciate it, but he can feel his brother moving closer and all he really wants to do is sit him down with some tea -- should they find any soon -- and have a very long chat about how he's twenty-five years old and as such, he really can take care of himself, even when there's a shotgun pointed at his face.

About to slide over the packs with his foot, Fili's question gives him pause. Not so much pause, however, as the large blond American does when he steps closer, barrel clearly focused on him as he looks him over. Kili's eyes remain unblinking as he watches the intrusion. He swallows down the need to bite at the fingers that grip his chin after that. His head is turned this way and then the other.

"You can go, blondie. We'll take your friend back with us. Tell your group, and I know you've got one, not to cross Millennium Bridge again. This is our territory."

The barrel of the American's shotgun hits Kili squarely on the side of the face and while it doesn't do much damage, it does cause him to stumble.

"Back away from us. Right back through that gap you found."

[filidelity]

Fili doesn't listen. He's taking care not to do anything that might get him and Kili their heads blown off, but he can't smother the shout that escapes from him when the man hits Kili, and he only just remembers not to make any sudden movements.

They want Kili for something, judging by that unsettling examination the group's apparent leader put him through. As a hostage? But to get what out of it? A promise that their territory will stay theirs?

They don't need to go that far with their warning.

In any case, Fili isn't prepared to do as he's told and wait to find out what exactly these men are after. Whatever they're thinking, they won't be leaving with Kili.

Unfortunately, aside from bargaining, he doesn't have any plan whatsoever. Undeterred by that little problem, he tries what he can.

"Not without him. Take our packs, but let him go with me, and we'll know not to come back here."

[kilimesoftly]

The shortest of the group with a blatant London accent, laughs like a weasel. "We've got the guns and he's making demands? Arms out, soldier. We're going to do a search." One doesn't leave home without weapons. There could be a knife or a concealed pistol for all they know and if Fili is going to put up a fight, they want him unarmed.

It's not really Fili that they need to worry about, it's his brother. Kili doesn't stop to think all the time. His lips curl upwards. "You don't touch him."

The man about the do the pat down just laughs again and the ginger next to the American gives Kili a good pistol whip with the butt of his shotgun. The American looks angry and shoves his companion, who apologizes sheepishly as Kili crumbles to the ground, head struck hard yet again by the concrete.

"If you don't do this peacefully, I'll shoot you. Your body will be warning enough," the American says.

[filidelity]

Every muscle in Fili's body wants him to go to Kili. He can't, just like he can't get his hands on one of those guns to give that redhead what he gave Kili without swift, serious consequences. Even so, it's a struggle not to give in.

"Let him go," he repeats, but he knows that his voice isn't entirely even. Rather than reasoning with them, he has a feeling that he's teetering on the brink of begging. "You wanted our packs – you can have them, peacefully. You don't need to take him to prove a point."

But he's getting the feeling that it's no more possible to reason with this lot than it would be to talk to a clicker, too.

The weasel snorts, shoving the end of his gun against Fili's stomach. "Quit your whining and hold still. You're not doing your boyfriend any favours, you know." Effortlessly, he finds Fili's knife and his pistol and takes them off his hands.

[kilimesoftly]

More or less out for the count, Kili gurgles and still tries to push himself up, though the sludge the ground has turned in to leaves the one hand that seems to work pushing against only a slippery surface without hopes of traction. He has no idea what's going on. His ears ring and his mouth fills with blood from a bitten lip and the side of his cheek.

A few hours of rest and he'll be fine, he's had blows to the head before. Usually due to Fili.

Now separated by the group, weaponless, there's very little for Fili to do. He can attack or retreat. "Scoot on home," the ginger man says, standing over Kili like an animal wrangler and the American actually cocks his trigger. "You're lucky. Don't push it."

While three of the men keep their guns on Fili, one using his own pistol against him, the American crouches beside his brother and checks the bruise forming on his face before he lifts him, body armour and all, as if he weighs nothing.

"We catch you even poking your head through that hole as we blow it off."

[filidelity]

Eyes wide, fixed on his brother and not on the guns trained on him, Fili still doesn't obey, not even for an opening to go get help. It could easily mean the last time they ever see each other. He won't abandon Kili.

His fingers curl into his palms, nails digging into the skin there. "Then take both of us with you." He looks at the American. "If I go back without him, our group will come this way. You'll be outnumbered."

He's practically pleading with these bastards, there's no other way to see it, but he's placing faith in the others to search for them when they don't make it back. And if they don't find anything, he'll hold out hope that they don't come to the conclusion that he and Kili must have fallen into the Thames.

He needs to know that Kili will be all right. Together, they should be able to wait for their chance to get away.

[kilimesoftly]

The request is ridiculous and unheard of and the three underlings look to their leader who, after laughing, laugh too. "Well all right boys, we have a volunteer." He still has Kili over his broad shoulder like a fireman and turns immediately to lead the way across the green towards St. Paul's Cathedral.

Fili is prodded along with the barrels of guns and told to hurry up and keep quiet. Funny, considering the boisterousness of the other three, really. The Cathedral looks like a warzone, cars parked like walls, tires stacked up to make the way more difficult, armed guards walking the perimeter.

Another man comes to greet them at the door and just as the American had, he looks over Kili with an appraising eye. "Damaged?"

"Fought back," the American responds. "And the blond one volunteered."

Fili just gets a glance and the men behind him are told to get Fili into storage. Separation, it seems, is inevitable.

[filidelity]

Worry for his brother keeps Fili quiet enough, and then there's the place they're taken to. Apparently this group wouldn't be outnumbered after all. Fili questions his decision, silently counting the guards. Their chances of escaping don't look good.

They need backup, but he couldn't have left Kili.

Then 'storage' sinks in. Fili gapes at the newcomer. And Kili, what about Kili? From the sound of it, he'll wake up who knows where.

Fili is no longer willing to stay quiet. "What are you going to do with him? At least tell us that."

He knows he's in no position to make demands. He and Kili are the ones who are outnumbered, and this bunch won't think that they owe their prisoners or whatever they're to be any answers.

[kilimesoftly]

As Kili is carried off by the American, the man who seemed to outrank him smiles at Fili. He's on the short side, about Fili's height, with dark hair and a five o'clock shadow shifting towards seven o'clock. There are bags under his eyes and his teeth are slightly yellowed. He's dressed somewhat presentably, a purple shirt and a charcoal gray waistcoat. At one point in time, he would have looked utterly ordinary and forgettable. This place, however, casts him in nothing but a sinister light.

"All right," he says, grinning. The guards beside Fili catch a better grip on him as if more than willing to drag him away at the slightest provocation. "We have two different systems for intruders here," he tells Fili, looking over him and a strangely hungry dip of his dark eyes. He tilts his head like a cat and lifts a hand to ruffle Fili's hair. "You're either fun. Or you're food."

If Fili struggles or launches himself towards the other man, he'll just laugh and turn away.

It becomes very, very obvious once Fili is put into storage which category he falls into. There are five other men in there with him...most of whom are missing their legs.

[filidelity]

They must be mad around here.

Fili struggles. This isn't what he had in mind. He can't stand by and watch Kili be carted off to become 'fun' or food, but that's exactly what he's forced to do, all of his protesting in vain. The guards subdue him with a few blows to the head and drag him away to his own fate.

He hasn't quite recovered when he's dumped into the room with its other hapless occupants. On his knees, dazed, he blinks at his surroundings.

Fun or food? This could be storage for both, if someone's idea of fun is dismemberment and eating the results.

Fili's head is clearing, throbbing, and his stomach lurches. Clutching his middle with a groan, he crawls over to the door. Kili, he thinks, they're planning to do this to Kili, too.

And the others are waiting for them back on the far side of the bridge. Their mother is waiting at home.

"Let us stay together," he begs the first guard he sees, desperate by now. "Please--"

A kick throws him to the floor, doubled over and gasping.

Let's just pretend...

[substituteskull]

"Are you-- Are you all right?" The voice clears itself before the man it belongs so, rather small and quite a bit soft, creeps out from behind the bins. Unlike the others, he's at least able to hide in this storage room and has been spared, for several weeks now, being taken away to have parts of him sliced off for Sunday Roast.

He's wearing a dirty, rumbled cable knit jumper and looks like he's seen better days himself. That doesn't stop him from offering his hand to Fili to help him up.

"Yelling does very little good. You'll want to be quiet, stay to the back. Don't scream or cry or they'll take you next." He tries to pull Fili back away from the door, over those that can only crawl or, in the case of one man, not do even that. "I'm sorry about your friend. But this is... I believe this is the better option. William Baggins. Sorry for the late introductions. It's been awhile since we've had anyone new."

Fili might as well relax. For now. It will be some time before the cries of something, someone, reach the group in storage. Most turn their heads away. William pretends he doesn't hear it. Hopefully that's not Kili, but the little hitching sobs at the end are so very much like his brother's that Fili might have trouble sleeping that night.