Yet another chapter. Enjoy.

"…Come with you?" Chopper squeaked. The wood in his arms clattered to the ground. He stared at Luffy in shock, and though his eyes darted unsurely to Kureha, he faltered when he saw her nod slightly.

"No…I, I mean...I can't." He turned to Kureha, "Tell him I can't, Doctorine." She sighed heavily, and Chopper raised his voice, "Tell him!"

"Chopper, I can't take care of you forever." She said, and Chopper took a step back, stumbling slightly over a piece of wood. Without another word, he ran outside.

"Hey—" Luffy made to go after him, but Kureha stopped him.

"He's a smart boy, even if he's upset, he'll understand. That I didn't want him to be alone, I mean." She said, "Go upstairs, into the closet, there's a bag for him. I've had his things all ready for…a while now." Luffy nodded, "…He understands." She laid her head back in her chair and Luffy took that as his cue to leave.

He took the stairs two at a time, and though they creaked under him they seemed sturdy—the house was well maintained. He tried three doors before he found the closet, and sitting on the floor was a blue bag. Luffy grabbed it and ran back down the stairs. When he reentered the room he stopped to consider the plants Chopper had left on the table.

"Hey old lady, should I take these with me?" He pointed at the plants, "…Old lady?" He trailed off as he turned back to her. She sat unblinkingly in the chair. Luffy approached the seat hesitantly, and everything was still as death, as though time had stopped. Kureha's expression was peaceful, as though a great burden had been lifted from her. She'd been waiting for this for a long time—she'd just held on for Chopper's sake until now.

Taking off his hat, Luffy closed her eyes.

Luffy scraped the leaves from the table into the bag silently, and went outside to find Chopper. It didn't take him long to locate him sitting in the grass a ways away from the cabin. Luffy said nothing as he moved sit next to him. Chopper looked up at him with a solemn expression, and Luffy returned his gaze steadily.

Tears welled in his eyes, and the boy threw himself at Luffy, buried his face in Luffy's vest and cried.

xxx

After what seemed like hours of walking, Zoro stumbled upon a path. Perhaps a bit too satisfied with himself (because he would die before he'd admit that his sense of direction was lacking, damn it), he peered in both directions and realized that he could see light coming from far off down the right path.

If that girl had taken his sword for any other purpose than her own use, he assumed she would try to sell or barter them—either to trade for food or perhaps as a means to take their food. If she had stumbled across this path, that was likely where she would go. He wasn't sure how many other settlements there were around here, but he'd been walking for long enough that he was confident that if there was a better option, he would have found it by now.

He set off down the road, not quite running, but with more purpose than he'd had for the last few hours. Just as the sun began to rise, he found he could make out the sign post leading into the town—"Cocoyashi".

Zoro slowed his pace as he reached the edge of the village, sticking closely to the trees alongside the path for cover. He wasn't really sure who lived here, but he knew better than going in recklessly.

That was the kind of approach that got you locked in cages.

Instead, Zoro broke away from the path, following the wall marking the city limits for a ways before he was well out of sight of the front gates. He backed up a few feet, giving himself a running start to leap up and grab the top of the wall. Zoro pulled himself up, not yet going over the top. From where he was, the sun was at his back, and he hazarded a brief look over the edge, banking on the sun giving him cover from anyone who might glance over.

He didn't need it. There was no one in sight. Zoro waited a few minutes before he was finally satisfied that no one would be catching him off guard. The wisps of smoke he could see on the other end of the village were all that told him anyone was living here at all.

Zoro lifted himself the rest of the way up and dropped down on the other side of wall, landing on the grass below with a quiet thump. He needed to find his sword. Every part of him wanted to storm over to the source of the smoke and start tearing the place apart looking for his sword, but he thought better of it.

That girl had snuck around though the woods, following them and watching for a long time before she'd made herself known. Zoro was sure that if she was going to come to this village, she wouldn't have gone to sell to them before she'd scoped the place out. One of these houses would be the perfect place to hunker down and keep watch from.

In all actuality, Zoro wasn't even sure that she was here, but this was the best he had to go on, so he wasn't about to give up.

Instead he crept up to the nearest house and peered inside through one of the curtain-less windows. No one was inside, and the thick layer of dust on the floor told him that no one had been in a while.

He moved on to the next, staying low and quiet and doing his best to stay out of sight of anyone that may be watching from the other end of the town. All of the houses were empty, and most of them looked uninhabited. Zoro started picking up his pace between homes, and he almost didn't notice the footprints in the dust inside one of the houses.

Zoro tried the window, and it opened without protest. He slipped inside as quietly as he could. Up close, the footprints didn't actually look like the woman's—they were too large, and the heel definitely didn't look like a woman's shoe. There was also a thick line in the dust, as though something had been dragged alongside the person. Zoro followed the trail with his eyes, noting that they stopped at a rug on the floor. He flipped it back and found a gold rung bolted to the floor.

A trap door. He pulled on it and found it locked. Now he was curious.

Zoro stepped back and drew his sword. The lock on it was old but in good condition. The wood it was bolted to, on the other hand…He swiped at it twice, leaving two deep gouges in the wood and weakening it enough that he could wrench the lock free. When he pulled the door free, he barely concealed his shock.

Food, weapons, blankets, hell—even his swords, though he wasn't one for wishful thinking—Zoro could have imagined finding any of it at the bottom of the cellar. This on the other hand? Not so much, actually. Zoro glared into the hole.

"What is it with you people? Why do I keep finding random fucking people locked up along my path?" Zoro shouted, leaning over the edge of the trapdoor.

"Who the hell are you? And what the fuck do you mean by 'you people', you shitty Marimo?"

xxx

They buried her in the morning. Though it wasn't particularly fancy, they'd fashioned a grave marker and picked some flowers for the grave. Outside the house, Chopper insisted on leaving a sign to welcome any travelers. The paint they used was old and lumpy, and they didn't have a brush. Chopper thought the sign was endearing. Luffy thought it was ugly, and set to sprucing it up by painting a tiny Chopper and Luffy in the bottom corner.

"Doctorine always seemed angry, but she always helped people…She would have liked this." Chopper said, admiring their work.

Chopper seemed satisfied, and after a long look at the house he had once lived in, he pulled on his backpack, prepared to leave. Luffy pulled on his own pack, which he'd filled with as many supplies from the house that he could carry. The rest would go to the next person to come across the little cottage.

Luffy gave Chopper a light squeeze on the shoulder. "The old lady would be proud of you, you know." He said. Chopper blushed.

"I don't need your shitty complements…It's not like they make me happy or anything…" He said. Chopper shrugged Luffy's hand off and changed the subject, though his cheeks were still bright red, "We should go find your friend."

Luffy took the topic change in stride, "Oh yeah, let's go! Umm… 'cept that last time I saw him, he was running after Nami…" Luffy spun in a little circle, then stopped and laughed, "I really have no idea where he is."

"Well, we can start by finding the path?" Chopper offered. Luffy grinned at him like he was a genius.

"Yosh, sounds like a plan." Luffy said, taking off at a run into the trees. Chopped made a little indignant squeak before running after him.

"Idiot, you're going the wrong way!" He called after him, bounding through the brush. Luffy laughed.

This one is a bit darker than the previous, but then, this is an apocalypse AU, so it was bound to happen. Reviews are appreciated.