puppies and kittens // virginia greene & sixlikesgore.

[cyx.]

How someone, even the stupidest bounty hunter in the world, could assume that a poorly disguised Murphy was a woman was anyone's guess.. but such a ridiculous situation was what lead to a bullet slamming solidly into the youngest member of Operation Bitemark.

Everything had happened so fast; one moment, the entire bar was at a stand still, guns drawn and ready to fire. The next thing 10k knew, an array of bullets were being released from every firearm in his general surroundings, and a flash of adrenaline was pulsating through the young man's veins. The jukebox that had been playing the background abruptly came to a halt as bodies settled on the floor, the owner of the establishment clear in her intentions to have everyone calm down and lower their guns. Confusion was the first thing that swept over the young male when he attempted to take a step forward to lean against the table in front of him. A warm trickle had started to soak his shirt, causing the material to cling to his abdomen.

The nineteen year old's hand shifted to ease over the wet spot, and was shocked when he withdrew it to see crimson red coating his digits. "Ug-gh.." was the only thing that could escape his lips before his legs were buckling out underneath him, and he found himself flat on his back, staring up at the bar's rooked ceiling. "I've been shot." The next thing that came into view was Addy's vibrant hair against the brown backdrop of the ceiling, quickly accompanied by Doc's voice reassuring him. The pressure his hands had already been pushing against the bullet hole was joined with a towel, or rag, and Doc's firm grip.

Over the next few moments, everything seemed like a blur. He had somehow ended up on one of the tables, Doc hovering constantly over him, with Addy fretting not too far behind. 10k's vision blinked in and out between focused, and hazy blurs, the pain slowly replacing the adrenaline that had been trying to course through his body. Whatever happened next was completely out of his comprehension; the front door sounded, and the Roberta's heavy footsteps sounded after it. The only thing he could do was try and listen to the conversations floating around him, and keep his consciousness. All he could do was trust in his group - trust in Murphy.

The trip to the submarine wasn't ideal, and the last goodbyes hadn't been something 10k was prepared to go through. It was happening all so fast, and the only member of the group he was able to stay connected to was the only one he wanted absolutely nothing to do with. Not to mention, if anything screwed up, could he really trust Murphy to watch his back in this current predicament? The longer he remained strapped to that medical bed, the more his judgment started to clarify that he most likely couldn't. It probably didn't help his gut instincts that every time they ended up getting close to anything Military, or too good to be true, it ended up being a sham.

The exact situation that 10k had unfortunately been placed into was far beyond his knowledge, however. It was pure luck that he'd merged up enough energy to rip the IV needle from his arm when he did, and flopped himself off that bed. Without anything to defend himself, it wasn't his most comfortable situation. Given the fact that he had just been shot didn't help matters, either. Retrieving his jacket, the young adult took to his instincts, relying on what his Father had taught him while tracking in order to slink his way around the ship. In fact, it was probably his persistence in moving that kept him alive when the submarine finally blew its last casket, and exploded entirely.

Two very close brushes with death in less than several hours apart; 10k's body was thrown into the water, knocked unconscious after taking a solid blow to the side of his head. If it weren't for the various items of floating debris slowly making its way to breach the surface, his body most likely would've been lost to the current's undertow eventually, caused by the explosion. The jacket he had retrieved was scuffed, luckily the water absorbing most of the explosions impact, but still cling to the boy's torso, revealing the bandage of his very recent wound.

Fate would surely decide, eventually, if he was to overcome this third brush. Unfortunately, with his odds already, he was starting to run out of his nine lives, and he couldn't expect anyone from the group to be able to save him now. Especially not with the current, dragging him and his poorly pieced together raft towards an entirely different beach.​

 

[Virginia Greene]

The Beachside Maritime Museum had stood strong since 1975, and into the zombie apocalypse. The brick and steel building had a flat roof, now covered in soil for planting and the foods they harvested there. The United States flag that was out front had been pulled down, replaced with a white one, dirty and a little yellowed from the sun, with a set of lines, painted in black. A banner still hung, faded and droopy, declaring ’Viking Exhibit, Open Now’, with the date that it was supposed to cut off from the bottom. It was home base. It was where they slept, farmed, hid from the outside world. The exhibits didn’t provide a lot of entertainment on their own anymore, but they occasionally went into the little town for things. There was plenty of room for kids to run, lots of things to cover the windows with, and they’d managed to learn a thing or two about the ocean and how to use it to their advantage.

There were only two boats out today. Eight people, four per boat. That was the best way. Walls had been built up about a foot higher to protect from the grabbing hands of the floating undead, with slits in the wood for paddles to go through. The paddlers were trained, moved in perfect time. They cut swiftly through the water on the command of someone from each boat, pushing towards the debris from the explosion. “Handle zombies as usual.” ‘Usual’ meant one of the boat’s occupants looping them and holding them steady while another speared the undead. Then they got tossed in a fishing net that hung along behind, and taken back to land to be burned. Didn’t need the fish eating them.

Willa Monroe and her brother always went out, but only one of them. The other stayed behind, with the group. That way, there was always someone in charge with everyone. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust their people, it was just… easier sometimes, to have the two of them. They followed the same rules, tended to have the same ideas. If Willa was out, she knew Henry would make the best choices if something went wrong in the museum, and vice versa. Well, maybe Henry wouldn't have decided to go right to an explosion to investigate, but she had always been the slightly more curious of the two. Well, that's what she would call it. Others might say impulsive, but she didn't feel like that really captured her personality quite right.

“I see something.” A stocky woman with a stiff loop on a pole gestured, and then stood shading her eyes for a moment. “Yeah. Head over.” It was quick work to get there, oar commands called out loud and sharp. On the front left, Willa leaned over and then let out a soft “guys, he’s alive. Marcus I’ll cover you, get him in the boat.” It was a little bit of a struggle because of the wood, but eventually the soggy teen was on the floor of the boat. “Shit, he’s injured. Signal.” That far out, the best they could do was use flags. Red, white, and black. White meant medical emergency. There was always someone on the roof when they were out with binoculars, keeping an eye out. While the flag went up, Willa knelt down, yanked off her scarf, and pressed it to the wound. “Hey,” she said softly, “hang in there. We got some good people.” A few minutes passed as they started to paddle back, and then “flag’s up, they saw us.” The other boat had neared by that point, and a muscular man with salt and pepper hair leaned over a little to speak across to them. “What’s up? What happened?”
“We found a guy. I’m taking him back, I want you to move to the usual space and fish for about an hour more. With the gun.” The one gun they had for the two groups. The boats moved a little closer and someone passed the weapon off, and then it was back towards land. They hadn’t gotten very many fish, but they’d killed the few zombies they could find and that was good. Hopefully the others would clean up, and once she got the new guy on land she’d send the boat back out. Having one boat stressed her out a little, they were alone in the water. Too many things could go wrong, too fast.

((I figure if 10k doesn’t wake up in the boat he’ll get a mattress on the floor with some water next to him, bandaged up and with Willa a few feet away))

 

[cyx.]

Numb. Everything was just.. numb.

Momentarily, consciousness would flutter back behind 10k's eyelids, and he'd catch a blurry glimpse of a water-logged piece of debris. In those brief moments, all he felt was.. nothing. Not pain, not comfort; not even the water he was slowly drifting away in. There was nothing to pull him out of his wobbly state, nothing to solidify his focus or attention - even in those moments of awareness, it was hard to grasp even sounds with the shock of the explosions aftermath ringing in his ears. The waves lapping against his floating savior were even muffled, hazy even. The young man's head was still reeling on the inside, behind those closed eyes, all sorts of scenarios taking place due to the surroundings he was currently plunged within. He felt his body shift as someone took hold of him, useless to fight against the pull as 10k was withdrawn from the water. As he settled on the more sturdy floor of the boat, and the water started to shift around in his body that he'd manged to swallow, his senses began to slowly trickle back in.

Sight was the first thing to start to return as he fought to open his eyelids, the sun overhead doing him no favors in the task. Grimacing against the bright sky, hazel orbs fought to regain their focus and seek out the people who'd hauled him out of the water, but without the energy to even raise his hand to use as a sun-block, it was impossible to make out the four figures. With little other option to do, the dark haired sharp-shooter tried to relax and conserve what little energy he had left, allowing his pale eyelids to resume to a close. Flinching from the sudden feel of a warm material pressing against the wound he'd all but forgotten about, 10k tried to keep his mind from floating away, knowing he needed to stay as conscious as possible. But with the sun beating down on him, warming the droplets that still clung to his skin, and a sense of 'rescue' in the midst, a little voice was chanting in the back of his head, telling him everything was going to be okay. He'd just started to get a sense of feeling back in his fingers when his hearing started to slightly kick in, replacing that small bout of relaxation with an instant sign of fret.

“..hang in there. We got some good people.” Wait. Wasn't that exactly what those men in Military suits just preached to him before they dragged him onto their exploding submarine?

Groaning in defiance, 10k attempted to sit up, but even the little pressure that was applied to his lower abdomen, mixed with his fatigue, resulted in his pathetic attempt landing him nothing but a small thump back against the boat's floor. "Doc.." he breathed, eyes opening once more in search for a familiar face - weapon - piece of clothing. But he couldn't pick anything out that reminded him of his group. "Rob.. erta.." This time, his voice wavered, cracking with the weakness left in his consciousness. A wet cough sounded, a small trickle of water leaving the nineteen year old's lungs, before his body fell limp once more, that final bout of exertion sending him over the edge.

---

Several hours later, 10k's eyes were fluttering back open; only, he wasn't greeting with a blinding light this time. Stifling a cough caused him to shift suddenly, something he wasn't entirely prepared for as the pain from his bullet wound came springing up his chest, he tried to keep as silent as he could, not wanting to direct any attention to himself. Wetting his lips, a deep inhale filled the blue orbed man's lungs, closing his eyes in an attempt to better focus on the events that had taken place to wind him up in this situation.

The submarine was still fresh, vividly within the back of his mind.. but how he got to - well, where ever he was? There was a boat. And.. a girl, maybe? Someone had applied pressure to the wound.. Four silhouettes, one of them named something with an 'M'.. Mar-something..

"Ugh.." An exasperated groan, 10k rose from the mattress he'd been placed on, taking his first chance now to get a good look around the room he'd been placed in. Only, as he rose properly this time, taking his gun-shot into consideration, his blue eyes slowly came to rest on a girl that instantly made him freeze in his tracks. The first notable thing about her was how pale her skin was, mixed with the dynamic of how she wrapped such her skin tone in dark colours; blue orbs came to fixate instantly on the black lipstick over her lips. Like a deer, caught in a set of headlights, he was frozen there for a moment, so shocked in the sudden sight of a stranger that his mind was well off from realizing the only thing he was currently wearing happened to be everything on his lower self before the explosion.

"H-" 10k awkwardly stammered, tearing his eyes from her lips only to have them graze the girl's face, and instantly lock with her own. It took everything not to let the impact of her gaze jolt him physically backwards in his half up-right position. "Hi." Swallowing thickly after his embarrassing attempt to converse with her, he was able to blink his sight to the girl's feet, completely unaware if she'd even been waiting for him to wake up, or if he'd just interrupted her in doing something entirely different that just happened to be in the same area. Finding some courage, and definitely needing some answers, he lifted his gaze again, mindset now on pushing past his slight intimidation to get to the bottom of his current predicament. "Where.. am I?"​

 

[Virginia Greene]

His eyes were open. That was good. That meant he probably wasn’t dying. Or at least he wasn’t dying quite a fast. He probably wasn’t gonna turn on the boat. It was about that point that she realized that they hadn’t patted him down or anything. Not that guy who’d just been pulled out of the water and had been injured was probably going to be able to take down four people in the boat. He spoke, and she frowned slightly. Doc? Roberta? She assumed that ‘Doc’ was a doctor, and offered a “we’ve got a doctor.” Not really, but they had someone who was the best they could get in the apocalypse. They had a dental hygienist who had read the books they could get from the library, which was probably better than a lot of people had. He at least had some pre-apocalypse medical and drug experience.

The water was concerning. Could he still die if there was water in his lungs when he was out of the ocean? Probably. So Willa tilted his head back in the CPR position because everyone had been taught that, unsure if it would help but pretty sure that it wouldn't hurt.

When they got to the shore there were three people waiting, two men and a woman. The woman swapped places with Willa, who jumped off the boat, handing her a bow and quiver of arrows that she slung over her shoulder, eyes immediately starting to scan the beach for any dangers. One of the two men stepped into the boat, pulling the unconscious skinny teen up and half carrying him out of it. They should invent some kind of stretcher transport, Willa thought to herself, but that would require at least two people who couldn’t be fighting because they had something. This was less good for their current rescuee, but it meant two people with weapons, which was just safer for everyone. “He got shot. I think recently, or it opened up again. Also was in an explosion, I’m not sure what that did. So be careful with his head.” In case he was concussed. She only had basic concussion knowledge. “He mentioned a… Roberta, I think? So there might be another person out there.” She didn’t sound hopeful, but having the name of a potential person out there was… different than just thinking of them as bodies.

He was brought up the museum, the doors unbarred and opened for her and the men she was with. 10k was moved quickly into one of the back rooms and put down on a mattress. The closest thing they had to a doctor looked him over, and bandaged him in wrappings made from cut up shirts. Light streamed in from small windows that were at about head height, and a little more was added from a candle that Willa had with her. She chased their ‘medic’ out and closed the door, making sure that someone would be hanging out near the other side in case something happened, and then started to hunt around, just looking for things to take up her time while she waited for the stranger to wake up.

They had so much goddamn stuff. For a while she read a book that had been brought down and left, but the plot was nonsense and honestly, it wasn't all that well written. So after a giving it a good ol' try, she dropped it in a box and went back to looking through things, pausing every once in a while to get a better look at the man on the mattress, though she never turned in a way that didn't allow her to keep an eye on him.

When he coughed she perked up, looking over from the box that she’d been digging through. They’d combed through all the cardboard boxes filled with…. things a million times, but occasionally something caught someone’s eye, or they thought of a way to use something they’d seen before. Right now the hunt was for metals and fabrics, or even just paintings that looked like they could be stitched together. She had a knife in her belt, and one hand drifted towards it briefly, just as an instinct. He wasn't turned and he wasn't immediately up on his feet trying to do something weird, so she just waited, watching until he spoke. “Hi,” she said a tiny bit cautiously, stepping out from behind the stack of boxes and the small canoe that was just gathering dust there because it wasn’t great for taking out into the ocean when there was the danger of zombies under the surface of the waves. With wariness came a sort of intense gaze, her dark eyes focused entirely on him and nothing else. It wasn't an... unkind expression, but it was the face of someone who'd do what she had to if he made her.

“You're at the Beachside Maritime Museum,” she said, and then realized that might not mean anything to him, and clarified, “uh, it’s our safe camp. I guess if you wanna get super specific, you’re in the storage room in the back of the museum. Me and fishing crew pulled you out of some debris after an explosion. We brought you in and bandaged you back up. Sorry it’s dusty, we don’t have a quarantine area for people with wounds this bad. I wanted a door between you and everyone else… just in case.” It was logical, fresh zombies were faster and in an enclosed space they could do real damage to a group. One made more, after all.

“I’m Willa.” She didn’t bother to tell him he’d been searched, while unconscious, because he hadn’t had any weapons on him. It had been a man though, because personal privacy still meant something to them. “Do you need anything? We’ve got food and water. Nothing for the pain though, sorry.” Maybe some advil, but that was for her people. It would have sounded bad to say, but that was how the world worked these days. Her people over strangers, she had to be that way. It didn’t seem necessary to pull her position in the group, he didn’t need to know that, not now. Didn’t even know what was going to happen with this guy. There was more sympathy in her face now, and she took a few steps closer, hands casually in a place where he'd be able to see that she wasn't holding anything dangerous.

 

[cyx.]

Despite the fogginess clinging to the sides of 10k's mind, he bit through the throbbing pressure and kept his focus on the woman before him, only grimacing occasionally when the throbbing grew in pressure. The young lad did his best to pay attention to her answer, however, not wanting to make her repeat herself. Upon hearing the word 'museum', there was a slight flick within the blue orbs that flared a small sense of curiosity; even before the end of the world, museums had never really been something that Tommy had gone to.. He'd always been heavily more focused in other things, unless it was something mandatory like a school trip. Beachside Maritime Museum. Out of all the places he'd assumed to hold up, never once had a military museum entered his train of thought - and he was betting a lot of other people had that thought slide right over their head as well. Smart.. very smart.

Through the haze clouding within his head, 10k nodded his head to show that he had heard her more in-depth explanation as to where he was, and to show that there were no hard feelings for holding him up in the storage room. It was the safer bet for these people, and he knew for a fact that if their roles were reversed, Roberta would've made the same call - at least until they knew the individual would recover, and they weren't going to be hostile. What his mind couldn't help but steer more towards was hearing her make mention of the word 'explosion', and his eyebrows furrowed with concern. Was he all that remained from the explosion - should he even remain after something like that? Without realizing, 10k's right hand drifted to the bullet wound, completely blown back by the fact that out of everything he'd been through that day, the bullet wound looked like the worst of it. Naturally, his head felt like someone had used it for a game of ping pong, but the bullet was much bigger deal than a fading concussion.

"I'm Willa." Biting the inside of his cheek momentarily, 10k hesitated long enough in returning the information of name-swapping to let her speak again. In the time that she told him they didn't have anything beyond food or water to spare, it was although he hadn't even taken the thought of advil into consideration - raising the hand from his bullet wound, his fingers clenched along his goggles, fastening the pair off his forehead to rest on the floor beside him. Easing up on his opposite arm, pulling more of his weight to sit up on his own accord, rather than leaning back, 10k gave a bit of a nod, although as to what he was nodding to might've seemed a tad obscure to understand. At least, without the accompanying of his words. "Thank you.. Willa," he said almost cautiously, allowing her name to slip off his tongue in a slightly hesitated manner as his eyes cast around the storage room. Did he tell her his 'name'? Addy was probably the youngest in their group, beyond Tommy himself, and she hadn't given him a hard time about his goals.. But would Willa?

He found himself slightly fidgeting in his spot, ruffling the air-dried strands of his messy locks. It was rude not to introduce himself right back to her, though.. He literally had her and her people to thank for his life. The least he could do was offer her a tidbit into his world.. no matter if all it did was earn him a point and laugh. "I'm 10k. And, it's fine, really. You've all done more than enough," the young man attempted to persist, wanting nothing more of their supplies, beyond the bandage that had clearly been redressed on his abdomen, plus whatever else had been used to keep him stable, or the wound clean. "I don't want to be a bigger thorn in your side. I should.. probably just get going.." Words that had started slightly confident began to ebb into a weak tone, the sharpshooter's face visibly falling from its slightly perked state. Shaking his head in an attempt to rid himself of the dizziness fuzzing along his vision, 10k lifted his right palm to his adjacent temple, unable to withhold the light groan that forced its way up his throat. The plan had been to get his feet underneath him - but with his head already beckoning stars into his vision, the lad knew that if he got the stability to do anything in the next several minutes, it wouldn't last long enough to get him out the museum doors.

"Ugh.." Releasing a slightly agitated sigh, 10k shifted further back on the mattress, ignoring he bite of the cold wall as he pressed his back to lean against it, feeling better with proper support behind him. Despite the urgency he so clearly felt within his body, 10k wasn't about to get himself up and moving without the proper amount of time to recover. Between the concussion he'd sustained, and then the bullet wound, he wasn't in any position to start crawling around outside in search for his group. He'd be no use to any of them dead. Which meant he had little choice but to remain where he was.. even just for a few days. ".. did you see anyone else? There was a- a man, on the submarine. Did you pull him out?" A slightly conflicting feeling rose within the pit of 10k's stomach as he asked his last series of questions. Half of him wanted Murphy to have perished with that explosion.. to finally get a taste of the world he'd had a hand in creating because of his selfishness. But that was mainly the part of Tommy that hadn't forgiven him thinking.. Deep down, he knew how important Murphy was. And that's exactly why out of everyone else he had to ask after, Murphy was the first to slip out of his lips.

Swallowing thickly, 10k allowed his head to rest back against the wall, lowering his arm once the throbbing in his head seemed to calm, even for a moment. Positioning it comfortably within his lap, the young lad wet his lips to speak once more, before clearly being cut off by the sound of his stomach. A wildly loud protest of hunger echoed within the storage room, causing the male to slightly shift uncomfortably as the growl carried out. A sheepishly look pulled over the male's features, and he tried to give a very soft, barely audible laugh at how loud his body had betrayed his earlier persistence on not needing anything. "Maybe I will take you up on that offer.." he spoke with a ghost of a smile at the corner of his lips, wanting so bad to lift himself up on his feet to accompany the woman in front of him. But he knew his stability wasn't there yet, and whether it'd be a good idea to leave the storage room was still up for debate in his mind. The less these people knew about him, the better - and probably vice versa, for their piece of minds. It was one thing, having a wounded kid holed up in your storage room; it was a completely different thing to have a kid with the strength to walk around, capable of getting into shit. Biting the hand that feeds definitely wasn't on 10k's mind, and he in no way wanted them to get that impression.

Staying put until invited otherwise was probably the safer bet. For him, and them.​

 

[Virginia Greene]

“You got a reason for that, or are you just one’a those people who feels like the old them died with the fall of society?” She asked, sounding a little bit curious. It wasn’t exactly the hardest thing to do. He said they’d done more than enough, and Willa shook her head. “We pulled you outa the ocean, we were doing that with fish anyway,”she dismissed his words easily, because it wasn’t that big a deal. “If we didn’t want to help, we would have left you.” It was a true fact, as cold as the idea was. “We’re in it for whatever it takes to keep you alive at this point.” As long as he wasn't a danger.

He asked about another man, and her face fell a little. “I didn’t. The other group hasn’t come in yet, but my boat just got you and came back. We were a little worried you’d die or something before we got you to land. I haven’t heard that we’ve gotten signaled from the other boat, though. You uh, you also mentioned a ‘Roberta’, I think, and we haven’t found her either if she was in the water. Sorry.” She honestly was. Losing people was one of the worst things someone could go through, and he seemed to have gone through some serious shit. “Someone’ll let me know if they find anyone, but they’ll be coming back in soon. I can take you down to look at the zombies before we burn them, if you want. We catch ‘em in our nets sometimes, and usually try to pull out the ones that we can, to make sure they don’t wash up on shore and cause problems.” And then they burned the bodies in a dug out pit in the sand to try and decrease the chances of the animals they might eat eating the dead bodies. “You gotta stop moving around so much, you’re not in great shape right now.” Well, in that he had a bullet hole in him.
He looked in great shape. If she had to guess, Willa would probably say he was one of those survivors who wandered, not one of the ones who had a based camp they stuck too.

When his stomach growled, she stifled a laugh and smiled. “Yeah. Hang on, I’ll get you something.” She moved to the door and knocked a few times in a quick pattern. It opened a second later, and a scruffy faced man peered in. “I think he’s fine,” Willa said softly, “can we get some food and water for him?” After that, a few murmured words got exchanged, and then the man disappeared. She waited at the door, one eye on 10k the entire time the man outside the door was gone, until he returned and passed a red handkerchief and a plastic water bottle through to her, plus something that she immediately pocketed. He spoke, softly enough 10k wouldn’t be able to hear, and the short haired woman shrugged and then nodded before closing the door and coming back to the mattress on the floor.

She crouched down next to it, setting the supplies down at her side. “We're happy to have you here. But you gotta know, my family has worked hard since the outbreak to keep everyone here safe and happy, to make sure that no matter what happens we don’t forget that other people are just trying to survive, like us. We kept our doors open during the drought, we always have food and water for travelers who need it. Because that’s what good people do. And as long as you’re good people too we won’t have any problems, yeah?” She didn’t actually say she’d hurt him, but she didn’t need to. It was in the way that she stared at him same intense focus as before, like she was trying to look through him to find what she wanted. Again it only lasted a few seconds before her face relaxed and warmed up, and she handed him the water bottle and tied handkerchief, which was weighted with a fist sized piece of cooked fish, some fresh snap peas, and a handful of dried corn.

She rocked back on her heels, letting herself drop from the crouch and into a seated position, legs crossed. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want or need. We’ve got hot food, spare clothes, and plenty of water. If you stick around long enough you’ll have to pitch in once you’re better, but we’ve got everything from fishing to scavenging to food work.” They’d find some place for him. “Maybe we can spare a hand or two to get out and look for your people if you got ‘em, but not now. You can leave whenever you want, but I don’t want to send someone who’s gonna have to carry you.” Dragging an injured man out of safety was stupid.

“People are curious about you. When you’re feelin’ up to it I’ll take you out to see everything, but until then you’re probably stuck with me. Maybe another guy, when he gets back.” But he didn’t get to be alone. “Don’t have any wheelchairs or anything, but we might be able to find you a rolling chair if you need it.” Which might not be super helpful, but he could get around that way if needed.

She'd let him know how things were, and with the threat out of the way, Willa was happy to be welcoming. He seemed like he'd be fine, it was just a gut feeling but she tended to listen to those.

 

[cyx.]

“We pulled out outa the ocean, we were doing that with fish anyway. If we didn’t want to help, we would have left you. We’re in it for whatever it takes to keep you alive at this point.” Given the woman's surprising reaction to 10k's persistence on him being fine, that he didn't want to take any more of their supplies, he had little he could respond with beyond a dazed smile. It was.. beyond comforting to hear those words come from a strangers mouth - words that sounded as though they were mirrored right out of Roberta's. How was he supposed to argue with that hospitality? The word 'rude' wouldn't even come close to describing his actions if he still insisted he was okay without further help from them.

The drop in the female's features was noticed instantly when 10k's question had sounded, and for a moment, he felt a small peg of grief. Murphy was.. probably dead. An explosion like that? Inhaling deeply, 10k's eyelids closed for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts. They still hadn't found a body, though.. and unless he was literally torn to pieces, Murphy's corpse would've surfaced by now, surely. Maybe he wasn't dead. At the mention of Roberta's name, his eyelids snapped open again, and for a moment, had to inwardly question Roberta's involvement with the submarine. After a moment, it clicked back in; she had been fine, on land, when the explosion occurred. As to where that land currently was from here, however.. it could be miles. Not to mention where the group could've traveled in the time it took for 10k to come back into his consciousnesses. "No, no.." he responded softly to Willa's offer to take him to examine the bodies before they were burnt. "She wasn't.. she wasn't in the water." In his head, he mouthed the words 'they're fine' over and over, hoping that they were spot on. If anything happened to the gang in his absence..

After his stomach had defiantly growled, 10k's lips almost mirrored Willa's the moment he saw a smile break over her black lips. Without realizing how intently he was watching, 10k's gaze followed her as she shifted to head to the door, lifting a hand to rap against it solidly. Little attention was paid to the conversation that ensued between the two as a man came to the door's opening, his eyes concentrating on the figure closest to him. Even if the duo had been talking loud enough for 10k to focus on, he had no intentions of eavesdropping on the conversation; his eyes were much too busy, as it was. The moment they were left alone once more, and the girl shifted so that her attention could be spared between him and the door, he abruptly adverted his eyes from focusing on the pierced holes that lined either of her ears. Clearing his throat, probably a little too conspicuously, a hand raised to push through his messy locks of hair, hoping she hadn't caught notice to his intrigued stare.

Admittedly, as Willa took a couch in front of him on the floor, 10k was even more surprised. If he was being honest, he kind of expected Willa to hand him whatever they were willing to spare, and then leave him to rest. But here she was, intent on giving him company, make sure he was alright - and.. put him in his place before he even had a chance to get out of it. The words that eased out of the woman's mouth in front of him took him by surprise at first, causing his eyelids to noticeably widen a bit with the light of the threat hanging so freely in the air. As her warning came to a close, the thick lump within 10k's throat was swallowed with an almost audible gulp, and for a moment, all he could do was blink at her in response. If her words hadn't been enough to cause the reaction to erupt out of him, the look she gave him definitely was; something that literally bored into his soul, and momentarily, as the stare lingered, 10k almost couldn't help but wonder if anyone had ever attempted to cross her. And, just like that, her stare eased, and a smile was pulling at the corners of her lips again - causing a sheepish, if not nervous, smile to start to pull at the corners of his own. Taking the bottle of water, and wrapped bandana, 10k nodded his head assertively. "Right.. I mean, yeah." Although he agreed, verbally, with her statement, his voice was still a little shaken. Threats like that didn't come out of every person he encountered - they were either usually extremely nice, or had no time for introductions, or warnings. There was no in-between.

Setting the wrapped bandana down first, 10k's position slowly shifted to mimic the one that Willa had taken, crossing his legs in a comfortable position, bandana secured on the mattress in the space between them. Twisting the cap to the bottle first, the young man tilted the bottle eagerly to his lips, easing his head back in order to get a good few mouthfuls of the liquid before retrieving it from his lips. A large, refreshed sigh escaped his lips soon after, a look of pure relief washing over his features. Screwing the cap back on, he set the bottle on the floor and shifted his attention to the knot within the bandana, unlacing it carefully. The moment the fish came into view, 10k's hand grabbed it eagerly, lifting it to this lips without hesitation. A healthy bite was devoured in a matter of seconds, the noise and look of appreciation that took over the boy's vocal chords, and facial expression would've been enough to tell anyone looking at him that he was in pure bliss. 10k didn't know how long it'd been since he'd had something fresh, or cooked - just the heat of the fish's meat against his tongue was enough to make him groan in slight satisfaction. It was when he shifted to take his third bite that Tommy realized just how eager his actions would've come across, and his light blue orbs lifted to cast an apologetic look in Willa's direction. The woman didn't seem to mind too much as she took a proper seat in front of him, causing 10k's comfort levels to increase further.

Simmering himself down, enforcing a bit smaller of bites, 10k looked to Willa as she spoke, giving her his full undivided attention - beyond the parts of his brain that had to focus on chewing, of course. Everything she had to say next made sense to the sharpshooter - and if he were in her position, he'd probably be saying the exact same reel. Her compound was willing to help him rest up, gather his strength, but if he intended on staying, he'd have to pull his weight; something that 10k was more than willing to do, all things considered. It would be the least he could do for their hospitality. The list of things available here amazed him, however; hot food, spare clothes, plenty of water, and plenty of work. How many people belonged to this group - what were their methods for food and water? Fish was obviously one of them, but did they only live off that? 10k had several questions, but there wasn't a rush.. not yet.

A soft laugh eased from the back of his throat between bites at the mention of grabbing a rolling chair, if they could find one. 10k shook his head in response, chewing the rest of what was in his mouth before swallowing. "I.. I don't even know what to say," he began, glancing down at the half-eaten fish, and then further into the handkerchief, eyeing up the vegetables within it. "I'd be dead if it wasn't for you, and your people. I've got a lot to make up for." Easing back within his position, free hand gripping loosely against his ankle to keep him from slumping back against the wall too far, 10k disposed of the last few bites left of the fish, cleaning his fingers off as politely as he possibly could afterwards. As his now free hand guided a few peas from the bandana, blue eyes narrowed questionably, arching an eyebrow in her direction as though to silently ask the question. ".. you have vegetables?" he asked, voice almost dumbfounded. "Fish. Vegetables.." Lifting a pod, 10k parted the vegetable's case to peer inside. The moment those round peas came into view, the pod was lifted to his mouth, and bitten in half. Between chews, the man's orbs nearly rolled into the back of his head from the fresh taste that lingered within them. Was he even alive? This had to be some cruel, sick joke that his mind was playing on him as he was floating, face-down, in the ocean somewhere.. "This is heaven, isn't it?"

That would make Willa his.. guardian Angel?

Almost physically shaking that ridiculous thought from his head, as though Willa'd be able to read his mind or something, 10k cleared his throat rather quickly after asked that last question out loud, hoping she wouldn't dwell too much on the outward slip up. Instead, he decided to turn the tables, and start to dive into the questions he felt were appropriate to be currently asked. After all, it wasn't like she seemed to be leaving any time soon - if he could get as much information about the people here before facing them, the better.

"How long have you been here?" he asked to start off with, glancing around the storage room. It held mostly things that looked like they'd belong to a museum, but he was certain that not everything within those four walls had strictly belong to the building before everything had collapsed around them. They were established enough to have a secure system - fishing parties, and people that could tend vegetables. Did that mean they had a garden somewhere on the property, or close by? Gardens didn't happen over night, either.. Until he was actually given details, 10k would genuinely have no idea what the people in this facility were capable of, but by everything he'd so far witnessed, and could clearly grasp was the truth due to the circumstances he was in.. these people were well off, and more than willing to take in anyone who appeared like they needed it. A group wouldn't do that unless they were confident in their ability to overcome and survive.​

 

[Virginia Greene]

Willa allowed a look of relief to cross her face. She might not have known the woman, but the idea of dying in an explosion or drowning both seemed like they’d suck. “But the guy you were asking about was, right? We always net some zombies, so if you want to know if we picked him up, you’ll have to tell us what he looks like or come out to check yourself.” Otherwise how would he know? “But we had to get over there, and I think you’d been in the water for a while so it’s… possible someone had gotten out already.” Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to encourage optimism, but she wanted to have it, too. And if she couldn’t encourage optimism in others, she probably couldn’t keep it for herself. Still, she didn’t sound entirely sure, because she still didn’t know what had blown up. “What happened? We heard an explosion, but there were just… bits.” They hadn’t seen anything until they got there.

It was probably a good thing 10k didn’t mind the company, because he wasn’t going to get much alone time for a while. Until at least a few hours of her getting to talk with him and keep an eye on him, so she could decide if she trusted him. And then he’d have someone outside the door anyway. Right now she needed to get a better feel for him. She’d understand if he needed to rest and probably excuse herself from the room or at least from the area, but right now Willa wanted to talk while he seemed to have the strength for it. Instead of acknowledging his response to her threat, she gestured to the water bottle. “Sorry if it’s a little bit salty. Won’t be enough to cause any issues,” salt water wasn’t exactly great for people, after all, “but occasionally it’s like that. None of us really notice anymore, but it might be weird for someone new.” Just a little bit of an aftertaste, though when the water was salty they boiled it and tried to mix it with mint leaves if they had them. It was up to the people who’d been out collecting to identify that the water was a little saltier and then find the place that had the wild mint, and pick it up. So not everybody did it. It wasn’t a necessity by any means, so it was definitely a risk done just to make people enjoy things a little bit more. Which meant that mostly it was Willa who did it.

The sound he made surprised her a tiny bit. It shouldn’t have, but it was… she didn’t know what. The poor guy must have been half starved, or at least not in any position to access cooked food like this. They had some forks and plates, but it was the apocalypse and dishes that got used had to be washed. Along with that, and a little bit more important in this situation, they were made of metal and porcelain and those were both things that could be turned into weapons. She didn’t want to get stabbed by a fork. Didn’t think he would, but better safe than stabbed. She didn't want to distrust people or threaten them (though she considered that to have been pretty kild), but she couldn't change reality. To her, it was part of the house rules - before the apocalypse it was things like 'take your shoes off' or 'don't go in the master bedroom', now it was 'cross is and die'. Didn't mean she wasn't welcoming.

She liked that laugh. A moment later though, Willa shook her head. “My dad used to say that treating human life like a commodity made people less human. Help people because they deserve to be helped. We’re all gonna be in a bad place eventually. It…” She cleared her throat and shifted into a slightly more comfortable position, “anyway, life debts are exhausting.” Just work because everyone had to work to survive, and because hopefully he’d get attached to the people and want to help out to keep them alive and happy like she did. “We do pretty well for ourselves.” She made it sound like it was no big deal, though she looked a little bit pleased. Sometimes there was clam or crab, but the vegetables were the big rare treat these days and she knew it, so the young woman didn’t bother to mention those. Or the seaweed, that was just rattling off excess information.

The expression on his face while he ate was more than enough to have a small smile tugging at Willa’s lips. Everyone else was used to this, it created a brief warmness in her, enjoying the fact that he enjoyed it. “Heaven?” She looked a little surprised and then laughed, a warm and good natured sound, though it was brief. “I’ve been hoping heaven has showers and hamburgers.” But maybe it seemed like it to other people. It was a good setup, and Willa didn’t know just how good it was compared to other set up camps. She’d only ever really seen fortified houses or people boarded up in stores.

She couldn’t fault him for asking questions, she probably would have too. But it took Willa a moment to answer, because she wanted to think about how much she was willing to talk about. “Since this all started. My dad worked here, he brought us and like six others in after everything started. He and one of our neighbors were really the ones who… cleared it out. After that we reinforced things and more people showed up. The roof is flat, so basically the whole thing’s a garden.” That question had been pretty implied. “We started year one, real early on, because the positives outweighed the negatives and some people had seen enough zombie movies to assume that no help was coming. Had to get the dirt from the courtyard one bucket at a time.” A section of it was now for compost, because roof dirt would run out of nutrients on its own. But they had a lot of fish scraps, and in a sealed container with other things it composed quiet well. “We mostly grow food that can be dried, and then store it for the winter.” She was revealing the information because she wanted to trust him. She got a good feeling from the guy, and trusting her guy when it came to people had worked out more often than it not.

“So what are you good at, 10k?” Survivors had skills, sometimes specific ones that were very useful. He looked too young to be a doctor or even in med school, probably too young to have been military, but he… looked strong.

 

[cyx.]

The overall idea of Murphy just.. exploding with the submarine had 10k's heart slightly sinking in his chest. They'd been traveling for so long, nearly reaching their destination countless times with something always in the way to block a safe passage. Accidents, deliberate actions.. Their rag-tag group had experienced more in the handful of years that they'd been thrown together than Ten Thousand had ever imagined possible. All because of one individual that had roped them all commonly together, besides the fact that they were a portion of the good survivors still kicking around. There was little remorse for Alvin Murphy himself when thinking about that possible outcome; but the cure that lingered in that man's veins? It was enough to make him want to visibly wince (luckily he didn't) and roll his eyes at the events they'd overcome, only for it all to crumble apart. "Honestly? I don't know. I barely remember anything after getting this," he answered, gesturing to the bandage they had replaced over his gunshot wound. Currently, that's where he left his explanation, knowing he'd have plenty of time to get his details in order. Better to let his concussion continue fading away before he strained his brain too much, anyway.

“My dad used to say that treating human life like a commodity made people less human. Help people because they deserve to be helped. We’re all gonna be in a bad place eventually. It…” 10k's eyes slightly winced as she trailed, shifting physically as though her trail off wasn't enough of a gesture for him to pick up on. Instantly, his eyebrows furrowed slightly together, and there was a silent nod, eyes falling from her own in slight respect, not wanting to pry the issue any further. The way she had carried on the conversation without making further reference to her Dad told the sharpshooter everything he needed to know about that topic - it wasn't up for general discussion. Something he could at least relate to, even slightly; talk of his Father wasn't common, even among the group he'd been traveling with. It had taken a complete stranger who reminded him of his Father to bring the slightest information into the open about the last moments of their relationship.. Some things were just better left unsaid. From how Willa spoke of him, though, 10k could definitely appreciate the morals he had passed down to his kids. Morals that resonate strongly in his own soul.

Naturally, as the teen mirrored his slip-up verbally, his eyes widened a bit, only to relax the moment her laughter hit his ears. It was slightly comforting, the fact that she took his subtle sentence in good-heart, allowing him to let the comment fade off into silence. 10k was more than willing to fill the newfound silence with his question about their compound, deciding that it was much better to keep the conversation on her rather than his own embarrassment. As Willa began to answer his question, the rest of the pea pod into his mouth, chewing it slowly. Finger-less gloved hands routed for another pod of peas from the handkerchief before he was even done swallowing what he'd already been chewing in his mouth, listening as intently as the black lipstick lining the woman's lips before him allowed; occasionally finding his eyes attracted to the duality. "Smart.." he commented softly between chews as she finished her explanation, his comment directed more-so to their plans of growing food that could be stored for non-harvesting seasons. The idea of having a stationary location in order to do something like that almost blew his mind away.. But, he hadn't been in the same position as these people in the past three years. There'd only ever been on agenda for him to follow, and that was getting Murphy to California unscathed. These people only had survival on theirs.

As Willa returned the favor, asking a question about him now, he smirked slightly at the way she worded it. In this day in age, you had to be good at something to have gotten this far - no matter what it was, there was something. Shifting the last pea from its pod, 10k popped it into his mouth and gave it a quick chew before he began his answer. "In short? Surviving." A soft chuckle escaped, knowing how vague of an answer that was. But 10k was prepared to offer further explanation - it was the least he could do after their hospitality. "Mostly, I grew up on a national park with my Dad. He taught me everything I needed to take care of myself; fishing, hunting, shooting.." Trailing for a moment, the canister of water was reached for, and 10k sipped the liquid into his mouth. As the dark haired male lowered it into his lap, both hands came to cup around its curve, focusing slightly more on its feel than where his eyes were aimlessly glancing. "Shooting, for the most part," he finally concluded his answer, eyes shifting up from the mouth piece on the canister to Willa's eyes. "Rifles. But I've made use out of a lot less. You'd be surprised the velocity a slingshot can have, with the right ammo." Quiet, and virtually anything could be slung from the band; the only thing needed to take into consideration was the distance and wind strength. The fact that he always made sure to give himself some legroom between him and his target always ensured he had enough time to calculate those factors.

"Have you run into any.. problems with other people?" he eventually asked, replacing the canister in his hands for the remaining fish. The distant thought of having the Zeros in the area was enough to make 10k question exactly how far their reach had spread. But with the amount of supplies they seemed to have, and the relaxed atmosphere about keeping him there, a part of him knew he was most likely worrying over nothing. At least, for Willa's people, he was worrying for nothing - as far as he knew, his ragtag group could be getting tailed. A slight sense of uneasiness washed over him physically, and the bite that 10k had been about to take from the fish was instantly rethought; stopping mid-motion, he lowered his hand, lips pulling into an unsure line. Glancing up from the fish, the question he had spoken moments earlier was disregarded, and he spoke before she could get a proper answer out to it. "Do you have a tower here? Any kind of frequency capability?" Anything that would be able to transmit or receive a signal would be good enough for 10k. Not that he had any idea what he was doing when it came to technical stuff - but if they had a working transmitter here, then that meant that someone would hopefully know how to operate it. If he could just get contact out to Citizen Z..​

 

[Virginia Greene]

“That’s probably a pretty good reason not to remember things.” She’d never been shot, but she’d gotten cut pretty bad once. He’d been in an explosion and then almost drowned, those probably weren’t great for a person’s memory either. Willa was a tiny bit disappointed and a tiny bit suspicious, but there was really no reason to push. Everyone deserved to have secrets, as long as those secrets weren’t going to hurt the people they were around. “Now you get the stress of that, pain, and being in a new place. Fun.” Willa wasn’t going to dismiss all of that, it was probably crazy concerning. He didn’t seem too suspicious of her but she didn’t seem too suspicious of him either, so she didn’t really have any idea of what was going on in his head. “According to our doctor,” their dental hygienist, “you got patched up by someone who knew what they were doing, and had… equipment.” Real stitches and probably saline solution, and very clean looking bandages. There was no probe after that, just the fact in case he wasn’t sure what had happened to him at all after getting shot. Someone had patched him up, and better than they could have managed. The doctor had really just fixed up what had gone wrong since then and tried to make sure he wasn’t going to die in their care.

“Thanks. We thought so. Got a few farmers, they really help.” Which was good, otherwise they would have been fucked. The stakes were a lot higher than with front yard box gardens, which was what she had experience with. But they had people who knew the soil and the weather, knew how to handle something like this so that the dirt didn’t end up barren or… whatever the term was.

Her face lit up a little. “You’ll be perfect for the scavenging team.” Then, because she didn’t want it to seem like she was assigning him to a role or going to try and pressure him into it (and she was still… sort of trying to pretend she wasn’t in charge), she clarified, “if you want. And you stick around. Nobody forces anyone to go outside the walls if they don’t want to.” That wasn’t entirely true, everyone had to go out once a month. They couldn’t let people forget how to survive, how to run and fight and communicate in a stressful situation. But it was their little town and nobody was ever alone, so the stakes were pretty low. “Always need more people who are willing to go on runs and clear out buildings, things like that.” The list of things they would need to increase their long term survival was getting longer, and she couldn’t keep putting things off because the trip was long or because she didn’t want to overextend the group. “But we can also always use lookouts and gardeners and people who can do indoor stuff if you’re just… done.” Some people were. Survive out there long enough, didn’t want to have to keep going out. The world sucked, being outside of safety sucked, nobody should have to do that more than was absolutely necessary if they didn’t want to.

If Willa didn’t go out, she’d go insane. She needed to be out and about, she needed to fight and do… things. Needed to feel like she was doing everything she possibly could for her people.

“Nothing regularly.” It was a legitimate concern, and she didn’t think anything of the question. Willa couldn’t imagine that someone would be excited to set up home in the middle of a multi community war over space or supplies. “Took a year or so for things to finish settling down after Black Summer,” the camps that had popped up got overrun, joined the museum community, or one and then the other, “but lately the big threats since then have been… people we let in.” But they did it anyway. Better to let people in than leave them to die. Once a community got big enough and fortified enough, she figured that people who were passing through were way less likely to try and mess with them. He asked about a tower, and Willa was pretty sure it was for connected with his people. That also made sense to her, but it was… a potential point of concern. “The police station probably has an emergency broadcast system. We don’t have anyone who can work it, though.” There had to be some kind of instructions in a desk somewhere. She didn’t mention that though, just like she wasn’t going to give any information on where it was. It wasn’t great to have to be suspicious of people who they’d brought in, but it was even less great to be naïve and have their kindness allow some stranger to rain hell on the community.

There was a knock on the door, and Willa looked up sharply, obviously having not expected the interruption. She stood up and moved over to it, seeming less intent on keeping an eye on both the person in the doorway and 10k at the same time, or from mostly hiding the person and the room behind them from 10k. “Something wrong?”
“The ships can’t dock.” The woman standing there was probably in her forties or fifties, “I think the explosion attracted attention, there’s too many Z on the beach. They've been gathering, I didn't want to bother you with it." That didn’t mean a huge hoard. Only took fifteen or twenty before they didn’t want to have the fishermen come in. People dropped in while in the water, and then dragged the boats onto the sand. Knee deep water wasn’t exactly great for movement, and that wasn’t even thinking of the boats and resources on them. “I’ll be out in five, just let me get my stuff. I’ll go down and help out.” She exhaled softly and glanced back at 10k. “I gotta go work this out. You’re welcome to help out if you want, we probably have something you could do from the inside,” had to have a slingshot somewhere around there, and there were plenty of rocks and bits of metal, “otherwise you can take the time to catch a nap and I’ll come check on you when I get back. Can leave someone with you, if you'd prefer." Otherwise he could have some quiet time.

((thought: we set up 10k with a slingshot and rocks and he covers Willa while she goes outside the walls.
He probably gets heckin menaced by one of the people who lives there, but gets to show off that he’s super useful, probably kills most of the zombies before she can (which makes him look real good and will get him on her A team pretty much immediately) but also gets to be like “holy shit look at her go”))