Chapter Text
When Tommy met Wilbur he was no older than 12. Tommy was young, he knew he was young but he had been alone up until that point and felt a lot older than he looked. He knew how to shoot a gun, he knew how to set up shelter from the helicopters that patrolled the area, he had taken his first life.
Wilbur wasnt much older than him, a 15 year old who hadnt quite been hardened by the life around him. He believed in a higher power, he believed in the people around him, he believed in himself. He also believed in a giant metal dome that towered over the forest Tommy was seeking refuge in and that was...strange. Tommy had to admit that was strange.
Tommy also had to admit that if the two had met any other way the two of them would have never gotten along. But fate had other plans for the two of them. Or as Wilbur would say, the dome did.
Tommy was feeling extremely nauseous, there was a reason he didnt go near monuments if he could help it. There was danger there, even without the blatant threat of radiation poisoning. And holy shit was the radiation poisoning blatant.
Parts of his hands where his gloves were torn were starting to go red, he needed to get out of the dome as fast as he could. He was struggling to remember why he came, his head spinning. He wasnt even half way up, all the crates at the bottom of the dome had been empty when he checked. Food. Right. He needed food.
He was doing his best, keeping on the makeshift hazmat helmet he had made out of a bucket very carefully as he climbed one of the ladders. There were helicopters, Tommy had heard them go by and waited before the noise completely stopped to run out. They could be coming back any time now, Tommy had lost track of time.
It was stupid, Tommy was being so fucking stupid he should have been keeping track of how long he was taking how long it took him to get there how fast radiation poisoning kicked in.
If you’re stupid you die. That had been Tommys motto since he remembered, he wasnt stupid and he didnt die but god was this what dying felt like? A burning feeling in his throat as what barely passed for breakfast tried to climb up?
No.
Tommy wasnt going to die to a bitch as weak as radiation poisoning.
Well he wasnt planning on it, anyway.