It's not that Jesse was being nice to her by her own understanding. It was more like she looked like she was going to die the second she tried to hit a screamer with a bat.
She sighs, slipping off the case from her belt and handing it to her "so you don't die" she says, stepping back to look at both of them, crossing her arms "either of you know where a camp is?" She asks, purposely not giving her name just yet.
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(I'm glad Gus is loveable >w< Also sorry I'm late lol)
"A camp? Naw," Gus replied, shooting Jez a grin whenever he caught him glancing back. "I mean, I hunkered down in some trees at the edge of town last night, but it weren't comfy. And I ain't seen any signs of life 'round here until now." He paused, thinking. "Well, actually, I've seen a few things, but nuthin' I could track. Dead monsters that were purty fresh, with boot tracks around 'em, fer example. And trees in some park with branches cut, for firewood I bet. No actual human folks though, 'cept for you."
(Oh that's fine hun!^^)
Jez stopped "wait so there's others?" He asks a bit excited, opening the door to the top stairwell
"Where was this?" He asks, peeking into the hallway of the building, blood splattered on the walls and floors. He closes it and looks.back to Gus for.an answer
(Sorry mines a Lil short)
(no worries xD)
Gus stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "Well, I saw most of th' stuff like that earlier today, in the neighborhood between here 'n the edge of town. Now, I ain't promisin' it means anything. Could be those people are gone now, if they're even still kickin'. But it sounds like you want to try yer luck and go sniff around there, yeah? I don' mind showin' you the place. Honestly, I'm in no big rush to get somewhere else."
Jezariah leans his back up against the door, crossing his arms and thinking hard about it
should I risk it?
He purses his lips "you don't have to come but there's strength in numbers. Especially when the world is basically damned" he explains "I feel like it might be worth it" he shrugs
plus it'd higher my chances of getting to DC
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Elodie shook her head, her fingers clamping the handle of the weapon tightly.
"I haven't seen any camps, unless you count my apartment, but I live alone so it doesn't really count." She said, her eyes casted downwards towards the ground.
Gus nodded. "I like havin' a travel buddy better 'n I don't. Besides, seemed like there were less of these devil-bears still alive back in that part of town. So yep, I'll come with you. Y'need anything from this house 'fore we go?"
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(Hey, I'll post my first response later today. I've been really busy. Classes just started, new job, my dad visited, etc)
(nice to hear from you again Bec~!)
(That's alright! Take your time!♡)
Jesse sighs, her supplies were already running short from the last camp she stole from. The only thing she had abundance of now was her cigarettes and cheap beer.
"Alright" she looks at Darius "im guessing you don't either huh?" She grumbles, walking passed them and stepping through the broken glass door and into the street. "Come'on" she waves.
-
Jezariah pushes himself off of the door and shrugs "yeah I haven't found anything good in the higher floors so I'd say let's go" he says with a heavy breath, stepping down a few stairs.
"I found the food pantry down on the first floor. It looks like everyone in this town left before packing up everything. Which is what half the people back at my place did to"
Elodie looks over at the boy startled her look saying can you believe this shit? her eyebrows raised slightly.
She shook her head as if losing all sense of her former self, who she had been before she stepped into this store.
A independent woman, who needed no one. And someone who most definitely did not do whatever some random stranger told her to. Someone who she didn't even know, Elodie never trusted strangers.
But now all this ability to resist, all the hate for people and independence Elodie had developed over the past few months, was gone.
And she realised she was lonely, desperate and obviously insane she thought to herself.
So she followed, her boots crunching as she stepped on the broken glass and climbed through the door the same way the stranger had, and stopped directly in front of her. Her hands clenching the straps of her backpack.
"Guess that makes sense." Gus side-stepped to make room for Jez, then walked with him down the stairs. "I reckon most people were too spooked to think straight at the start." He eyed Jez in amusement. "By the way….'the world is basically damned'? Y'sound like my Aunt Ruth who done ran the church back where I was born. I dunno if I think we're that far down the ditch, not yet anyhow. But my pa always called me a fool optimist, so maybe I'm wrong."
As Jesse walked down the cracked black-top road, she turned around, now walking backwards as to face her.
"Jesse" she states, stopping and holding out her hand, feeling it wouldn't hurt to give out a name. Though she still didn't prefer it.
She too had realized a while ago that she was alone in this. And it was actually her fault. She was a jerk and any camp she went into, she would steal and leave, not wanting to be a part of their community. Shes always had the mind set of "I can patch myself up" all her life.
Why would she stop now?
Well because the world's ending and she knew she could patch herself up and carry herself perfectly fine.
But she needed people. A group. Numbers.
Why not start with these two?
-
Jez let out a lighthearted scoff "I agree with him" he says, turning the corner of the stairwell to head down the third floor.
"Think about it man. The.last news channel I saw the reporter got her head torn off by one of those things. We don't have a surefire way to.kill every single one of them even with the books" he says, letting the last part slip.
Though he continues, not realizing what he had just said "the world is dammed. There's only so much us humans can do" he shrugs
Elodie shook her hand quickly, then dropped her hand to rest beside her.
"Consider this a 'yay people' gift." Elodie said, shrugging off her backpack and unzipping it, she pulled out a small silver cross necklace and placed it in Jesse's palm, then zipped her bag, and put it back on her shoulders.
Jesse looks down at the cross necklace, blinking.
what?
She debates whether or not to make it seem like.the cross burned her hand just for kicks but instead she slips it over her head so it rested around her neck.
"I look.hot don't i?" She says.
She wasn't actually used to wearing necklaces, always seeing it as something someone could use against her and strangle her with.
But she ignored that for now. Confident in her own abilities to pound someone's face in if they so much as touch her.
Elodie gave a soft smile.
"Yes, I suppose you do" Elodie said in response to Jesse's question, she observed the cross hanging around her neck and smiled again.
"We could go back to my apartment, since I have more than enough food for both of us." she said, she gave a face of surprise, then ran back in the store, where she filled her bag full of snack, and then came back out and stood in front of Jesse.
"Okay now we have more than enough." She said with a sly grin.
Gus tilted his head and eyed Jez appraisingly. "Well….my ma always said it don't matter what you think about your life, seein' as it'll happen anyway, so might as well think nice things about it. I like my ma. But uh….what's that about 'books'? Did somebody write a manual on killin' th' monsters or somethin? Sounds kinda handy."
Jesse clocks her head to the side, confused as the girl ran back to the building then to stand in front of her once again.
"Yeah?" She asks, crossing her arms "that'd be fine. Though I'm stayin on the move." She huffs, pulling the green bandana off of her bicep and slipping it over her head, pushing her hair out of the way of her face.
-
Jezariah purses his lips, "uh…if we do find anybody else let's keep this between us two…" He says, turning down to the second floors stairwell
"I found a lab a few weeks back. Underneath some sort of hospital? It was abandoned but there was this small library. Most useless stuff about herbs and crap but I found some things on the screamers. Mostly history" he shrugs
Gus raised his eyebrows. "Wow, no foolin'? What kind of history? Did you keep th' books? I won't tell if you say not to, but I dunno why we need to keep it quiet….seems like somethin' that could help lot of folks if they knew."
Jezariah nods "yeah I kept them" he shrugs "I don't know. I could see someone wanting this and putting everyone else in danger." He says as they reach the bottom floor.
"They talk about where they came from. How they made them. Who was involved and who caused it. The first monster. That kind of thing." He stops on the stairs and turning to him "and the safe places. Like military manufactured safe places." He explains.
Elodie gave a nod, her head angled down, to where her chin pointed to the ground.
"Well, follow me." She said starting to walk across the way to her apartment building, she kept looking back to make sure Jesse was following, when they got there ELodie lead her to the top and unlocked the door to her apartment, with a key she found on the counter the day she had found it.
Gus whistled quietly. "That do sound important, if it's real I mean. You sayin' you think whoever wrote th' books is the same person who made th' monsters? If that's true, I say we hunt 'em down and give 'em an earful for turning th' things loose…..if they ain't all dead, acourse."
Jesse followed Elodie to her apartment, keeping on the look out on their way, her hand on the pistol that hung from her hip.
When they got inside, her eyes wandered to keep an eye out, though wanting to look around anyway out of curiosity.
She pulled her eyes straightforward to.focus on Elodie, still cautious of her. What her motive was and if it was actually a good idea to stick with her.
"How long have you been stayin here?" She asks, her German accent strong now that she actually spoke in full sentences, not having much to say back at the store.
-
Jezariah gave a soft chuckle "yeah thatd be nice" he says raising his eyebrows, reaching the bottom of the stairwell and opening the metal door after looking through the small window.
"There's a whole team in multiple places. There had to be at least 20 people per institution. From what kind of person he seems to be, I'm guessing this dude was one of the lowerclassed scientist…if that makes sense" he says walking through the doorway.
"If we get settled down somewhere I can let you have a look at it"
"I ain't much of a reader but I am curious," Gus agreed, closing the door behind them. "Sure, I'll take a peek after we find a campsite. I s'pose we'd better get back to that other part of town and hunker down before it gets dark. Local wildlife's always worse after sundown, if you catch my drift." He brightened. "Say, you like music? Maybe I'll break out my banjo later if it's safe."
Jez gave him a smile "yeah? You know.many songs?" He asks, walking down the hall and doing a double check in any of the rooms. He had purposely left all of the doors open so if any of the doors were shut when he came back he'd know something was there. Though it obviously wasn't a fool proof plan, it's worked a bit in the past and it never took much energy out of him to do so.