Both Alastor and Zeus immediately stood up, with the big dog standing protectively in front of him, growling at the new comer. Alastor instinctively reached for his belt but he stopped and took a good look at the person, and saw that he was a young teen.
"Calm down Zeus," Alastor murmured, making the German Shepherd stop growling, although his fur was still raised and he didn't move from in front of his owner.
"Hey," Alastor said kindly to the teen, reaching for the backpack without breaking eye contact. He unzippied it and got out a small ziplock bag of rasins and another bag of beef jerky.
"Hungry?" He asked, offering him the food while keeping Zeus behind him.
Lucas made his way down, making sure to recheck his pack for the things he knew he needed.
After checking at least three separate times, he headed off, towards the highway, he planned on going westward, to where he wasn't completely sure. He walked the bicycle he planned on riding for the trip.
Since there was car pile ups he decided the bike would be easier, so he could ride on the outskirts of the roads, without having to stop to do so.
Liam looked from the dog, who was apparently named zeus, to the man to the food he was holding out, and back to the man.
"No, i mean Ye-es. I am bu-but thats your's."
he stuttered out while looking around the room. His eyes stopping on a small pile of supplies, particularly on a belt of chemicals and poisons. He looked back to the food in the man's hand and backed as far back as he could, which was not far, seeing as he was already on the wall.
"I think i'm good." He said trying to smother the hunger that was rising in him just by looking at the possibility of nourishment.
Lucky scanned the horizon, not seeing any obvious movement in the towns. He started to put the binoculars away, before something way off in the distance caught his eye.
A bigger city, straddling the interstate. Lucky largely avoided roads now, since he's been ambushed while riding on them twice before, but he did follow their general direction.
He could barely see the city, as hazy as it was, but he could make out some of the brighter colored billboards and signs⦠Wait, what is that?
He squinted and focused the binoculars a bit more, and found a sign painted on a roof.
Somebody heading my direction⦠He was west of the town, but not directly. Since he'd been off the road, he was more southwest. The roof had definitely been angled away from him.
He put the binoculars away and patted Sinjoro's neck again.
"Whaddya think, Sinjoro? Risk the road to see if this guy with my name is friendly?"
Sinjoro tossed his head, flicking his mane. Lucky grinned. "I'll take that as a yes."
He clicked and they took off at a canter towards I-75.
Alastor saw him glance at the belt and sighed.
"I'm not a murderer or anything like that, I swear. Before this whole apocalypse crap I was a homicide investigator and I stole that belt from an evidence storage room at the police department I worked at," he explained, slowly walking closer to the kid, trying to look as harmless and approachable as possible.
He held out the food again to him. "I promise it's not poisoned. I've been handing out supplies to any survivors I can find, and you look hungry. Eat it."
Lucas continued to make his way westward, his eyes scanning anything that caused any slight movement.
He stopped in a nearby small town, off one of the small intersections with barely visible signs. He sat against the trunk of a tree and ate strawberries.
Ariella was headed down the interstate. No. That wasn't quite right. Never in her right mind would she just walk in the open unless she had no choice. No. She was following the interstate from a distance. She was just in the tree line of the woods that followed the road. She hopped that it would bring her to an empty town eventually. Hopefully a bed to sleep in. She could lock the doors and set up bell like things, so that if someone entered, it would wake her.
She wiped her forehead of sweat. Her duffle bag weighed her down significantly but she would never be found without it. It was her medical supplies. She was surprised she had the amount that she did and that she hadn't be robbed of it. She supposed it helped that she tried to stay away from others.
A town was in sight, thank God for that. Her water was nearly depleted and she ate the last of her food hours ago. Perhaps she would get lucky and find a home stocked food. Or at least running water and she could take a shower and wash away the grime and dirt andβ¦blood.
She had just stepped out of the safety of her treeline when she heardβ¦hooves? She turned her head. A horse. That was definitely a horse. And that horse had a rider. She froze. Perhaps if she didn't move, she wouldn't be seen.
Leo took the food but didn't eat it. "Why?" he asked simply then took a bite of the jreky, the flavor enticing him to take another. "Thank you." he said in a whisper.
"No problem," Alastor said, smiling warmly at the teen. He turned around and beckoned to Zeus with a quick flick of his wrist and the muscular dog walked up to them, sniffing the kid curiously before licking his hand.
"This is Zeus," Alastor said, fondly petting his friend. "He's really sweet around people once he realizes they aren't a threat. And I'm Alastor. Who are you?"
Devon sat in a car, one that had lost the door and was piled up and relatively hidden. His sister, June, was asleep in the back seat, so he was on watch. He was in the middle of the town practically, where the biggest pile of cars were. He sighed, leaning his head against the steering wheel. Even if he had seen people, he would just hide until they left, but if June saw them, she would start a conversation and force friendship.
Lucky was heading towards the city with the sign, hoping to meet whoever 'Lucas' was. Sinjoro snorted suddenly, and Lukas looked around. He kept his head on a swivel in general, but when something made the horse nervous, he always cranked up his alertness.
There. Down off the road, he saw a person hiding in the treeline. A girl, it looked like, but he couldn't be sure from here.
Whoever it was, they weren't moving, or pointing a weapon at him. So he waved in their direction, trying to show he wasn't a threat.
If they decided to be a threat, he'd do what he had to do.
Lucas stopped suddenly, he had heard a noise while slowly pedaling past a car pile up.
He stopped, planting one foot firmly on the ground and listening for a moment.
It sounded like the rustling of leather. He looked around and saw nothing, so he set his bike against the railing and began to search around, occasionally stopping to listen to the noise and where it was coming from.
A few minutes later he stopped, as he was facing a car with the door missing, sitting in the driver's seat was a person, the first person he had seen since the Deluxe Flu had killed everyone in the dorms but himself and another girl, whom had committed suicide by jumping from the roof.
"uhm hi" he said, waving shly.
Ariella was shaking, though she tried to conceal it. She hadn't come across another live human in weeks. And the last encounter wasn't exactly a friendly one. She would do what she had to do to survive. But this man, he looked bigger than her, healthier. And he had a horse. What was to say he wouldn't just run her over.
Did he justβ¦did he just wave at her? That wasn't an expected reaction. She hadn't come across anyone very friendly since the start of all of this. Or they would feign friendliness but they truly just had evil things in store for her. She was a woman after all.
She had a knife tucked into her waistband in the back and she reached for it. She didn't quite pull it out yet, but she wanted it in grasp. It was easier to conceal the motion than grabbing at her bow. Whole she was a quick draw, she wasn't sure she could shoot it in time. With her free hand, she gave a small wave. Better to play along for as long as she could.
She waved back, but was definitely timid. Lucky didn't change his course. He stayed in the middle of the road, dodging cars and roadblocks. When he pulled even with where she was in the trees, he stopped, but stayed on his horse's back.
If she attacks we've gotta go, Big Boiβ¦
Not that Sinjoro could hear his thoughts, but the horse knew the drill.
"Hello?" he called out towards the treeline.
(I posted a list of all the characters on the bottom of the starter post if anyone needs it, nicknames are included with each character as well.)
Devon looked over at the guy who had approached. "you're alive" he stated, going back to sitting in silence, unlucky for him, his sister was a light sleeper. June poked her head out of the back seat and smiled brightly at the stranger, before literally climbing over Devon to get out of the car.
"Hey! Hi. How are you? I'm June, nice to meet you" she rambled quickly.
Devon hit his head against the steering wheel quietly, his isolation was now over, as someone had found him.
(I posted a list of all the characters on the bottom of the starter post if anyone needs it, nicknames are included with each character as well.)
(um just one thing, Donevan's nickname should be Devon/Dev, as only his sister calls him Dev but he goes by Devon. Sorry.)
Ariella forced herself to stay still as he came closer. She would not show fear. She swallowed and forced herself to take deep breaths. She would be alright. She's lasted this long. She would survive today. No matter what happened. She would survive.
Her grip tightened on her knife. If all else failed, she could always throw it. She didn't have the best aim but it would hopefully cause enough distraction for her to escape.
"Hello." She replied back to him, unsure of what to make of the situation.
Lucas jumped backwards at the girl's suddenness, and the way she spoke rapidly.
"Uhm, hello." He croaked, rubbing the back of his neck and forcing a nervous smile.
"im okay, you're also the first people I've seen sinceβ" He paused, since Liza's suicide he had been about to say, but stopped himself "since this whole deluxe flu thing started." He lied.
He cast a quick glance at the guy and noticed he looked annoyed and unhappy.
"I'm Lucas." He informed both of them. "And if you don't mind, I'll be going nowβ" he said quickly, the look the guy was giving him made him want to squirm and run away.
Distaste.
He could see it in the guy's eyes and the way his body language showed he was annoyed. It made Lucas extremely uncomfortable and he grimaced to himself.
(I posted a list of all the characters on the bottom of the starter post if anyone needs it, nicknames are included with each character as well.)
(um just one thing, Donevan's nickname should be Devon/Dev, as only his sister calls him Dev but he goes by Devon. Sorry.)
(it's fine! Thank you for telling me instead of letting me keep it incorrectly :0 )
(I posted a list β¦)
( :D Perfect! Thanks!)
(I also added the age of each character as well!)
(I thought it'd be better for me to do that considering we have a total of 11 characters, in case anyone needs help remembering the ages of some characters)
"No! No, please don't go! Ignore Dev, he's just a hermit with an RBF" June said, earning a small rock being thrown at the back of her head. She rolled her eyes, "My brother is a pacifist, and he pretends not to like people but he is a social person." She hummed. Devon rolled his eyes and leaned back in the seat, "stop telling my life story Junifer."
Ariella forced herself to stay still as he came closer.
"Hello." She replied back to him, unsure of what to make of the situation.
Lucky could tell she was afraid, trying to calm herself. He lifted both hands off the reins, palms facing her, to show they were empty, and kept them raised.
"I'm not going to hurt you." he said gently, just loud enough for her to hear but not yelling at her.
If she'd had experiences anything like his, he could understand her fear.
"Do you need anything? I've got water, food, and first aid stuff I can offer you." he said carefully. He didn't want to sound like he was trying to lure her in, but if she was fearful because she was hurt or hungry, he could help that.
Ariella could hardly contain her scoff. She'd heard that before. Usually right before they tried to hurt her. But he was on horse back. If she tried bolting, he could easily catch up to her.
He was offering her supplies. It could easily be a trap. She had plenty of medical supplies. However, she was out of water and food. And she was becoming desperate. She knew how long the body could go without food and water. It wasn't long. And it did psychological damage as well as physical. But she wouldn't be greedy.
"You have water?" She had been without food longer but water was more important.
Lucas watched this banter with longing, it made him think of his own younger sister.
He felt a pang of longing and then smiled sadly at the pair of them.
"Ohβ¦" he said awkwardly "nice to meet you both. Do you need food or stuff? I packed a bunch."
He coughed into his fist and smiled at June, who seemed taken with him, though he was sure it was because she was a social butterfly and he was the only person she'd seen since the flu started, beside her brother at least.
"oh right, food is a thing" Devon mumbled. "Shut up Dev," June rolled her eyes. "Lukas right? can we join you? as little human interaction there is, being a hermit in a car pile is not healthy." She smiled at Lukas. "Besides Dev will be less of a .. jerk..once he gets to know you, you're not a female so" she shrugged. At this point Devon had gotten out of the car, towering over his sister, "Shut up".
"You have water?" She had been without food longer but water was more important.
Lucky nodded and reached slowly down to where he had a metal water bottle strapped to his saddle. He untied it with one hand, keeping the other raised and in view, before lifting it slowly. "Catch!" He tossed the bottle to her. It was mostly full and the weight carried it the whole way.
(also, i keep quoting you just to make sure we're clear on who's talking to who. just a heads up :) )
"uhm sure." Lucas said, careful not to show his excitement and happiness at new human companions.
"uhm what does that mean?" He asked confused "obviously im not a female, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"He is sc-" She started but Devon covered her mouth.
"June, once again, stop trying to tell strangers my life story" He glared.
June rolled her eyes, moving his hand away, "Fine, but he asked" she hummed, "now that you are out of the car, we can go somewhere else"
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