Plateau, Part 5
Jan. 18th, 2026 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
The Dead Zone
Chapter Summary: Walt makes a breakthrough.
Word Count: 720
Rating: Teen
Rewrite of Descent/Ascent
Pre-Johnny/Sarah/Walt
It’s easier to remember in the middle, is the thing. Like the clearest you’ll remember a dream is when you’re still dreaming, and you know it’ll all fade when you wake up. Previous visits, he feels vaguely when awake, were at the hospital, or after Purdy had tried to help, the morgue, or, most often, John’s empty house, with the constant feeling like he’s just missed him. It’s not the best sign, seeing that he hasn’t seen him again, but Walt keeps doggedly chasing the feeling like he’s still nearby, and it’s when he ends up back at the mine he knows he’s finally getting somewhere. It’s cold. Hazy. He adjusts the hard hat, because there’s every possibility this is still dangerous, swallows, and starts walking the exact same way he’d gone to find John’s unconscious and waterlogged body.
He’s not alone this time, either, and while his companions this time are just about as silent, they’re much more foreboding. Ghostly miners, glaring, drifting to stand in the way as if to try to stop him, urging him to just leave, to abandon Johnny to his fate. If this is what John saw before, if Walt is just reliving those visions, then no wonder Johnny had been spooked. Walt can’t let it stop him any more than it’d stopped John, though.
And then he’s hearing giggling, somehow familiar, and catches a glimpse of what has to be a younger Sarah and John and clenches his jaw. This has to be specifically from John’s memories, though it’s not like Walt hadn’t suspected. John had seemed a little guilty when he’d mentioned that he’d been out here before, and while John Smith doesn’t need a reason to be empathic, something about his behavior suggested he was projecting, just a little, like he could imagine having been those trapped kids himself.
The thing that catches Walt by surprise is that even when he grits his teeth, he finds he can still sympathize himself. John didn’t have the powers when he was a kid, but Sarah would tell a few stories about how he was unnaturally perceptive, sometimes, or lucky, and if psychics are a thing that exists then unawakened psychics probably are, too. Had he sensed the hostility, even if he didn’t understand it? Had he tried to tough it out just to impress a girl? JJ wasn’t at the impressing girls stage yet, but he’d still protest he was a big boy with the rest of them, and John has the same sort of drive to prove himself, even if he tries to act like he doesn’t care.
And then he turns a corner and finally, finally sees the man he’s searching for, sitting propped up against a wall. He looks small, and it takes Walt a moment to realize why. John might, on average, try to fade into the background, but if you bother to look, there’s an intensity about him that catches your attention. There’s none of that now. Even the omnipresent cane hangs limply from seemingly lifeless hands.
Walt does a quick check for visual injuries, to see if he can be moved—however nonsensical that thought is, in wherever this place is—and then approaches as quickly as he dares. “John, come on, stay with me buddy…” he tells him urgently, checking for pulse—at least this version is breathing, with a beating heart, whatever that means—and finds that slipping into professionalism is no trouble at all.
John frowns but does eventually start to stir, eventually blinking and glancing vaguely at Walt before staring at his cane dully like it holds the secrets to the entire world, adjusting his grip with fingers that don’t seem to want to move. His eyes are a little unnaturally blue on a good day, but this is far from one of his good days and he happens to be dying. His skin’s still far too pale, even a little blue, like when Walt had found him the first time.
“You shouldn’t be here,” John tells him, in a hollow, dead voice, and Walt just crosses his metaphysical arms.
“You’re telling me. But if you think I’m leaving without you, the brain damage really has gotten to you, after all.” The laughter in response is a little hysterical, but it’s a response.
The Dead Zone
Chapter Summary: Walt makes a breakthrough.
Word Count: 720
Rating: Teen
Rewrite of Descent/Ascent
Pre-Johnny/Sarah/Walt
It’s easier to remember in the middle, is the thing. Like the clearest you’ll remember a dream is when you’re still dreaming, and you know it’ll all fade when you wake up. Previous visits, he feels vaguely when awake, were at the hospital, or after Purdy had tried to help, the morgue, or, most often, John’s empty house, with the constant feeling like he’s just missed him. It’s not the best sign, seeing that he hasn’t seen him again, but Walt keeps doggedly chasing the feeling like he’s still nearby, and it’s when he ends up back at the mine he knows he’s finally getting somewhere. It’s cold. Hazy. He adjusts the hard hat, because there’s every possibility this is still dangerous, swallows, and starts walking the exact same way he’d gone to find John’s unconscious and waterlogged body.
He’s not alone this time, either, and while his companions this time are just about as silent, they’re much more foreboding. Ghostly miners, glaring, drifting to stand in the way as if to try to stop him, urging him to just leave, to abandon Johnny to his fate. If this is what John saw before, if Walt is just reliving those visions, then no wonder Johnny had been spooked. Walt can’t let it stop him any more than it’d stopped John, though.
And then he’s hearing giggling, somehow familiar, and catches a glimpse of what has to be a younger Sarah and John and clenches his jaw. This has to be specifically from John’s memories, though it’s not like Walt hadn’t suspected. John had seemed a little guilty when he’d mentioned that he’d been out here before, and while John Smith doesn’t need a reason to be empathic, something about his behavior suggested he was projecting, just a little, like he could imagine having been those trapped kids himself.
The thing that catches Walt by surprise is that even when he grits his teeth, he finds he can still sympathize himself. John didn’t have the powers when he was a kid, but Sarah would tell a few stories about how he was unnaturally perceptive, sometimes, or lucky, and if psychics are a thing that exists then unawakened psychics probably are, too. Had he sensed the hostility, even if he didn’t understand it? Had he tried to tough it out just to impress a girl? JJ wasn’t at the impressing girls stage yet, but he’d still protest he was a big boy with the rest of them, and John has the same sort of drive to prove himself, even if he tries to act like he doesn’t care.
And then he turns a corner and finally, finally sees the man he’s searching for, sitting propped up against a wall. He looks small, and it takes Walt a moment to realize why. John might, on average, try to fade into the background, but if you bother to look, there’s an intensity about him that catches your attention. There’s none of that now. Even the omnipresent cane hangs limply from seemingly lifeless hands.
Walt does a quick check for visual injuries, to see if he can be moved—however nonsensical that thought is, in wherever this place is—and then approaches as quickly as he dares. “John, come on, stay with me buddy…” he tells him urgently, checking for pulse—at least this version is breathing, with a beating heart, whatever that means—and finds that slipping into professionalism is no trouble at all.
John frowns but does eventually start to stir, eventually blinking and glancing vaguely at Walt before staring at his cane dully like it holds the secrets to the entire world, adjusting his grip with fingers that don’t seem to want to move. His eyes are a little unnaturally blue on a good day, but this is far from one of his good days and he happens to be dying. His skin’s still far too pale, even a little blue, like when Walt had found him the first time.
“You shouldn’t be here,” John tells him, in a hollow, dead voice, and Walt just crosses his metaphysical arms.
“You’re telling me. But if you think I’m leaving without you, the brain damage really has gotten to you, after all.” The laughter in response is a little hysterical, but it’s a response.
