#redneckrobinhood

River had never felt so utterly trapped in her life - flying across the universe was her life, and now she was stuck on Earth (granted, it usually wasn’t the worst planet to be on), while the entirety of human civilization had crumbled to pieces in a spectacularly distressful fashion around her.

Manipulator broken - no way to contact the Doctor - and now no electricity, no phones, no steady source of food. River could normally work close to magic when technology was in its prime, but this? This was a nightmare, even compared to the forests of Gamma. 

The worst of all of it were the walkers. Something was spreading through humans faster than STDs, and despite knowing that it probably wouldn’t affect her, the half Time Lady made sure she washed herself and burned as many corpses as she could. 

And corpses there were in excess. This...disease...had made the human race angry, aggressive, and hungry. Hungry for flesh that - the last time River checked - was deemed a sin amongst the human race. Hungry for human flesh. So yes, corpses were in abundance, and it didn’t quite sit well with River that a number of them were at her own hand - but this was survival. Even if it bothered her to cut down these walkers, there was nothing that could be done for them once they had turned. So cut them down she did. 

And though they simply got up after she cut them down, it didn’t take long for River to realized that they only blow that mattered was to the brain. She was a brilliant woman, but he still owed Dean her life. 

Dean had come along one day when she had been overwhelmed - caught in an abandoned drugstore with a weapon and no ammo, a broken vortex manipulator, and three dozen walkers struggling to dig her out of her rabbit hole. 

Glancing over the fire through the darkness, River smiled slightly to herself, watching Dean skin the rabbit he had managed to chase down in the woods - perhaps that was what had brought the metaphor to her mind. It had been a rough week - barely any food to speak of, more walkers than they could possibly count, and too many close calls. If they could only manage to catch their food more often, then they wouldn’t need to venture so close to the towns and risk being heard or seen or smelt by those....creatures.

A sigh escaped the Time Lady’s lips, and her brow furrowed as she shoved the wood about the fire, making sure that everything got enough air to burn properly. Why hadn’t the Doctor mentioned something about this? Did it slip his mind? How could something like this possible slip his mind? 

Come to think of it, it was just like her husband to forget something like this, but without any modern technology, River couldn’t possibly get off this planet unless the Doctor decided to come looking for her. Glancing back up, her gaze caught with Dean’s, who was staring at her now, and she held his gaze, not shying away, even though she stayed silent.

It had been a silent agreement between the two of them that they would try to stick this out together - she didn’t know when or how it had come about, but ever since that day at the drugstore, neither one of them had wanted to stray far from each other. River preferred it this way, if she were to be honest, even if they didn’t always get along - the man was as resourceful as she was brilliant. Often times they worked well in putting their ideas in motion.

“Have you ever eaten rabbit before?” River ventured quietly. There was no point in being louder than necessary - especially when the night was filled with walkers and other wild animals that had a better grasp on this survival thing than most of the human race.

@sonofvabitch 

“I’m telling you, man, that’s just the kind of luck you have,” the other man went on, despite Rick’s continued efforts to part their ways as he moved towards his soon-to-be home for the next year of his academic life. “But let me know, okay?” “I’m sure he’s just a normal guy, Shane, just like you and me,” Rick told the man defiantly, opening the door to his new building and shaking his head once more. The still-laughing man, Shane, looked back at Rick expectantly. “And?” “And I’ll let you know how it goes and that he doesn’t want to wear my skin or whatever,” Rick agreed, if only to get Shane to move along.  Sophomore year was already smoother in ways Rick had imagined it would be. Knowing the campus, knowing at least some people, knowing generally what to expect - things you just couldn’t know until you’d been there.

He didn’t even mind having a new roommate. For all he knew, they’d get on great. Shane had insisted on living off campus, but where was the fun in that? Junior and senior year - sure. But if Rick was going to commit to something, he was going to go all the way (a trait that he and Shane didn’t necessarily share). He owed it to his future self to at least spend two years on campus. After all, what else would he talk about at class reunions down the road?