Cecil led them to the outskirts of the city down an abandoned and closed off subway tunnel and down one of the train tracks. She points into the darkness, "Follow that path and take the first ladder up, you should walk for about 30 minutes or so before reaching it." Lane nodded and handed her the fabric. "Thanks for your help." She waved him off and smiled, "No worries, look after yourselves and if you ever come back stop by and see me." She watched as they walked into the darkness before turning back and happily going back to her store.
Lane and Moth walked through the darkness for a few minutes with Lane trying to lead the way but he kept on stumbling and tripping in the dark. Rin laughed and helped him up for the fourth time, "How about I lead, I can see better in the dark after all." Lane seemed hesitant but grabbed onto Moth's hand letting him go ahead of him. "Be careful." He mumbled. Moth smiled at him as he led him through the darkness. They walked for another twenty or so minutes in comfortable silence, the only sounds around them being their own steps and the occasional dripping of water and splash of a puddle in the darkness.
Finally, a ladder at the side of the tunnel came into Moth's view. "Almost there." Rin called back to the man behind him. "Good, I don't like being able to see." He mutters, causing Moth to laugh, the atmosphere between them was intimate and calm, they both were excited to put this behind him and live out their lives. A loud screech of a walker echoed in the tunnel, pulling them out of their daydream and making Moth's grip on his hand tighten and they both halted in place. "Move back." Lane whispered, pulling out his axe and moving Moth behind him. "What are you doing? It's too dark for you to see, let me do this." Moth tried to step forward but his arm was grabbed and he was jerked back. "No, you'll get hurt." Moth scoffs, "Don't worry about that, I'm not that fragile."
Lane grimaced slightly as the sound of running walker steps got closer. "They can see in the dark. We need to be careful." Moth pushed Lane to the ground as the creature came at them, jaw wide open. Moth jumps over it, using a flap of his wings to jump higher and landing in front of Lane as he glared at the walker before tossing his cloak to the side for better mobility. "Don't worry, this isn't the first walker I've had to kill." Moth said. Lane couldn't see it but he could hear the prideful smile in Moth's voice. The walker scrambles to its feet and glares at Moth, its crocodile-like body and human face turning to look at Moth. As if challenging him, Moth grins in response, wielding a knife and showing off his teeth. Moth makes the first move, wanting to move the battle away from Lane. He dashes towards it as it snaps his jaws at him, he slides underneath it swiftly, cutting along its neck and stomach with a long slash before leaping up in the air to avoid the creature turning its head, its wide open mouth aiming for his head. He uses his wings to fly a little higher as the creature gets on its hind legs to try to grab hold of his leg. Moth throws his knife at it, landing it in the back of the walkers throat, it screeches and writhes on the ground in pain as Moth lands on the ground a few feet away from it. All the while, Lane is sitting about ten meters away trying to find Moth in the darkness, "Moth?" He calls out softly, causing everything to go quiet.
The walker and Moth turn their head towards Lane at the same moment. "Shit." Moth mumbles as the walker slithers its way towards Lane at a swift pace. Moth pushes off the ground using his wings to propel him forward enough to land on top of the walker. The walker thrashes a little with Moth on top of it, drawing its attention away from Lane as its head turns to try to snap at Moth. He put his hands on the creature's head, tilting its head to the side as his fangs sunk into the side of its throat, tearing out the flesh in its neck. It screeches and rears its head, rolling over throwing Moth off of it and sending him sprawling towards Lane. "Axe." he stated, holding his hand out to Lane while wiping his mouth.
Lane hands over the axe, worriedly glancing at him. The axe is heavy in his grasp but he had used axes before, it wouldn't be a problem. The creature came at him a final time and Moth heaved the axe over his head, slamming it into the walker's head as it opened its jaws at him, it writhed a little under the axe before going limp and it was only then when Moth finally relaxed.
"We are okay. It's dead now. I think it was a category 6 or 5." Moth said, taking the knife out of the creature's mouth before moving over to Lane and grabbing his hand. As soon as Lane felt Moth's hand on his he pulled him towards himself into a big hug, Moth seemed surprised but reciprocated the hug while patting him on the back. "Are you alright?" Lane nestled his head in Moth's shoulder. "You made me worried. Don't do that again." Moth pulled away from him, worried about rubbing the blood in his mouth and on his hands onto Lane's clothes. "Yeah, I won't unless it's necessary. Let's get out of here." He pulled Lane to the ladder and helped him climb out. Lane turned around to help him but Moth stopped him. "Hold on, let me clean up first before coming out. I'm covered in blood."
Lane frowned down at him, "I don't care about that." He muttered as he grabbed onto Moth's arm and pulled him out.
Under the sunlight, the black blood that was trailing down Moth's arms and mouth stood out against his fair skin and his shirt was drenched in blood and dirt. He turned to look away from Lane, trying to hide himself but Lane stepped closer, examining him. "You aren't injured are you?" He scanned him up and down as he took the knife away from him.
"I'm alright, I just need to get clean." He brought his hand up to cover his mouth. "You can wash off over there in the stream. Make sure you wash your mouth out, I don't think walker blood is good for you to drink." He moved his hands to Moth's mouth, gently opening it and checking his teeth. "You didn't hurt your teeth or anything did you?" Moth shakes him off, slightly embarrassed. "No, no. I'm okay. You don't have to be so worried." He moved towards the water, washing his face off first before cleaning down his arms. He turned back to Lane, "Do you mind keeping watch? I need to wash this shirt but we are out in the open." Lane nodded, blushing slightly as he walked away.
Moth turned back to what he was doing, I wouldn't have minded it if he stayed, I just wanted for him to watch for people. He dunked his shirt in the water before wringing it out. I can't put it back on until it dries, just in case it wets my wings again. My cloak should be enough to cover me. After finishing and pulling his cloak over his head he walked back towards Lane but stopped, ducking behind a tree when he saw someone talking to him. It was a man in armor holding up some kind of poster to him and asking him questions, Lane glanced in the direction of the river, seemingly wanting to end the conversation quickly. Moth could make out a few words in the conversation, about the city putting out a warrant for someone's arrest and that they are searching for them. Lane quickly refused any knowledge about the person and sent the guard on his way. Once the guard was out of sight Moth ducked out from behind the tree and went towards him, looking at him with a confused expression. Lane glanced down at him, reading his expression immediately. "They are looking for you, they put out a bounty against you for your capture." Moth tilted his head. "Is it a high bounty?" Lane shrugged and nodded. "Reasonably high." Moth gave him a playful smile. "You aren't tempted at all?"
Lane shook his head, full of seriousness. "Of course not. You are worth far more than that amount." Moth laughed as they started to walk down the trail, "I'd definitely trade me in for that amount." Lane frowned at him. Seeing his expression Moth playfully smacked his arm and laughed even harder "I'm kidding, don't worry. Do you have a bounty as well?" Lane thought for a moment. "I don't think so. That guard only had yours and it would be harder to put a bounty out on a human for no reason. We should get away from here as possible and take on a few jobs to get money for the winter. We don't have a house of much money so we need to take on bounties and requests to make some money. When spring comes we can find a place and make a nice home." Moth nodded enthusiastically. "What kind of jobs are we going to do?"
"Just some fetch quests or walker bounties." Moth looked up at him in confusion. "People put out bounties against walkers?" Lane nodded, "If they want them killed they do. I can kill up to a category 4 with ease so we should be able to get a lot of jobs."
"Category 4? Really?" Lane shrugs. "I'm a little stronger than most humans." Moth scoffed in disbelief. "A little?! Most humanoids struggle with a category 9. That's not a little stronger, it's unnaturally stronger!" He glances at him in confusion, "You killed a category 5 earlier." Moth nodded in agreement but retaliated, slightly exasperated. "Yeah but I had an environmental advantage and I struggled a lot."
"It doesn't matter, you won't be fighting anyway. The first thing we need to do is find a place to sleep, it's going to get colder so we can't sleep outside for much longer. We should find an inn or hotel in a small town where we are less likely to be recognized and we can get jobs from there as well." Moth nodded in agreement, "So where are we going to go?"
"There was a town that my group used to use as a halfway point between jobs, it's a relatively small town and people there know to mind their own business. It's about a week's journey from here on foot." Moth groaned a little thinking about all the walking they would have to do, Lane placed a hand on his head and ruffled his hair underneath his hood. "It's alright, maybe we could find some people to give us rides if we're lucky." Moth grabbed his hand and held onto it as they walked through the snow along the well-taken path, making conversation as they started their long trek.