Rapture

[Quhanta]

Ez tensed as James entered the room requesting information on Arwen, also calling her a brat in the process. Ez had on her best 'you're an as*hat' face and Arwen was not impressed, but the two still still gave a slight cringe when Erin punched James in the back. Arwen because he'd gotten hit, Ez because she knew it was the kidneys. Erin introduced him and then the little girl smiled hugely. Not for James, but because Erin was holding a kitten.

"I'm not allergic." She proudly proclaimed and crawled to the end of the bed, "I love kittens."

"Good. There's a few around here for you to find and play with." Ez continued in her calming, mother-esque voice for the first bit of what she said, but then realized and returned to her normal voice.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Quhanta

[Fortune86]

When James felt a strong blow to his right hand side he half turned with his left fist raised. The moment he saw it was Erin he lowered his arm but glared after her as she passed him. What the hell was her problem?

 

Erin spoke and introduced him to the kid, who was apparently called Arwen. James wondered if the brat's parents had been Lord of the Rings fans to come up with a stupid name like that.

 

It did make him chuckle though to hear Ez speak in what he supposed were motherly tones. Who'd have thought she'd have it in her? But nobosy had answered his question yet.

 

"So did she just drop out of the sky or something?" he asked leaning against the doorframe .

[Fangirl05]

"Good" Erin said, relieved that the animals wouldn't make her sick, "This here's Dingo, by the way." She approached the bedside and set him down for Arwen to play with. "Play nice, boy" she told him with a fond scratch.

 

She turned back to James with a still-annoyed look on her face. "We found her in the hospital, stupid" she answered him sharply. Maybe it was unfair to sound like the answer should be obvious, seeing as it really wasn't, but hey; if the guy wanted to act like a prick to a little girl, the least she could do was give him a bit of the same treatment.

[Fortune86]

For the briefest of moments a look of concern crossed James' face, but it was soon replaced with his usual not-really-interested expression.

 

"Oh? Is she sick or something? Or injured?"

 

He glanced over at the small girl crouched on the end of the bed. She looked okay as far as he could see, but that didn't mean much.

[Fangirl05]

Erin noticed the little change in James' expression. Meh, probably just smarting from the kidney shot.

 

"Seemed like the only thing wrong with her when we found her was lack of food" Erin said, "But other than that she seems fine."

 

She turned her head to look at Arwen. "What were you doing in that hospital, anyway?" she asked, "Is there anything about your health that we should know?"

[Fortune86]

James raised his right hand to cover his face in disbelief. They took the kid out of the hospital without even checking to see if there was anything wrong with her? He would expect this kind of unthinking foolishness from Erin, but Ez was supposed to be a professional. Good grief.

 

Lowering his hand again James looked over at the Arwen to see if she was going to admit to anything. He just hoped it wasn't going to be rabies.

[Fangirl05]

Erin glared at James. "Don't you face palm at us, boy" she snapped, gesturing at Arwen, "Does she look sick?"

 

Usually her temper cooled off as quick as it flared up, but this guy just kept saying things that pissed her off. She wondered briefly if he was just cranky over his back being sore.

 

Putz.

[Quhanta]

Ez watched Arwen playing with the kitten and listened to James and Erin bicker back and forth. Before she could say why Arwen was in the hospital, they kept on arguing. When she went to intervene, Arwen was the one to cut her off.

"My mummy told me to stay in the room while they took Nana someplace!" She yelled and then continued quieter. "They had to wait for her to fall asleep first though. It was strange. When she fell asleep, the beeping machine was beeping really fast, and then it made a really long beep and I guess that means she fell asleep because they took her away." Arwen looked at the kitten, but her smile was short lived Ez rubbed the girl's back and was going to interrupt before she started speaking again. "I think Mummy was sad, but maybe that's just because Papa wasn't there." Ez didn't know what to say, so she just kept rubbing Arwen's back absentmindedly.

 

(I'm sorry for taking forever to post. I just started my first year at university.)

Edited October 2, 2015 by Quhanta

[Fangirl05]

((I wish you good luck and inexpensive coffee.))

 

Oh, so she hadn't been there for her, she'd been there for her grandmother.

 

"I'm sorry your grandma's sick" Erin told her, "I hope wherever she is she's getting taken care of."

 

Apparently the girl didn't recognize a flat line, no need to go upsetting her. She tried to convey "James, if you say anything, so help me God" with her face so as not to tip her off.

 

"Hey, where is your father?" she asked her, "He might be looking for you and your mother, too. If you can think of anywhere he might go, we may be able to find him."

[Kestra15]

((Good luck with Uni!))

 

1900hrs, 4th May

 

Food that had been fresh on leaving Hawkingsthorne was starting to spoil, so once Mak had helped store the supplies brought in by the various groups he had started clearing out the larder of stale food. Some stuff would last another day and, if cooked up, would be safe to eat, whereas some of the already-dodgy vegetables and some meat had already gone off and would be a health hazard if served up. Throwing it all in the kitchen bin was not going to suffice and would only stink the place out come morning, and with no-one to take weekly bin collections serious thought was going to have to go into long-term disposal options. For now they had enough large plastic wheelie bins that they could store rubbish for a few days securely, and tackle it another day. With Emily's help the generator was up and running, providing everyone the chance to have some warm water to shower with - again, a luxury that would undoubtedly run out soon. Having taken a short shower himself, he was clean and ready to prepare dinner for the group.

 

Again it was a buffet-style affair, but this time with more limited options. The first couple of days it made sense to binge on all the food they could get their hands on, but without freezer capability and relying on the coolness of a larder instead of a fridge they could no longer indefinitely stock meats and dairy in the same quantity. Mak was debating making something like biltong or jerky as soon as possible to preserve what they could get their hands on, but with the disturbing stories the groups were coming back with he was starting to think of other options first.

 

A pot of tea and one of coffee sat centre in the table, where slightly stiff breads, sweaty cheese and barely-cool meats mixed with a home-made salad and an approximation of coleslaw. A bowl of various fruits had stayed on the table throughout the day and been topped up. Jams and marmalade sat next to slightly melted butter. A bag of mixed chocolate bars and biscuits completed the spread, and Mak encouraged everyone to have their fill as he took a seat on the floor, allowing the rest the opportunity to take the more comfortable perches on sofas and recliners. His back still ached from a bad night's sleep and he was feeling more groggy than he had this time yesterday, and he yearned for an early night.

 

As they ate Mak recapped their expedition to the hospital, what they saw, and how Jaune had disappeared - the latter clearly shaking him up more than anything else, and he made no comment about what he had seen. Having finished his story he leaned back against the wall, the hum of the generator filling the silence as it heated the remains of the water tank, to provide them with enough hot water to wash the dishes and a freshen-up for those who had missed out before dinner. He looked to the others - Micah, Alistair, Petra, Wisperlee - to fill in their stories in what was becoming their nightly briefing session.

[Mistress of Whispers]

“Can one of you ladies help me please?” [Emily] asked as she entered the living room.

"Sure," Wisperlee replied to Emily. "Not sure what with though. You already look zipped up?" She was about to say more, when Mak started bringing out food. Wisperlee felt a pang of guilt as she loaded up - she really should learn how to cook. Or any other useful skill really, since her hacking talents were about to go out of style fast.

 

Though speaking of her hacking skill, she did have one more trick up her sleeve. "I prepared this for you," she said as she gave Micah an iPad salvaged from the gym. "I loaded the last version of google maps on it, and if you zoom in -like this- you should be able to pull up streetview pics of your home. Not sure how up to date they'll be and there's not much battery power left, so don't take too long saying your goodbyes." With that, she turned the tablet off and handed it to Micah. If they found a printer, she might be able to put some pics to paper, but she didn't want to get anyone's hopes up.

 

She then sat down and veritably devoured her meal - she was hungrier than she'd thught - while Mak talked. When he was done, she spoke up.

"Petra and I had a few experiences too, though we never saw anything. We just *felt* a presence. And Cujo did too," she added the last bit as if seeking to assure them she was NOT going crazy if the dog noticed it too.

 

She was silent for a moment longer, then decided to bite the bullet. "I got a message from someone in Germany a few days back, speaking about strange creatures that hunted him. I thought he was just suffering from PTSD and I didn't want to cause a scare, so I kept it to myself." She didn't add the obvious; that if she'd spoken up, they might have been more careful and have suffered less for it. Nor did she offer an apology - it wasn't in her nature, and what was done was done. Instead, she remained silent so the others could consider their response.

[Fortune86]

James let out a snort of disgust and turned away. He was happy the kid herself wasn't sick or injured, but Erin pretending that everything was going to be okay annoyed him. Grandma wasn't coming back and Mommy and Daddy were probably gone for good too. If they had been some of the people who had been left behind, then the first thing they would have done is try and find their daughter. He highly doubted it would have taken them four days to do so.

 

Deciding it would be best to leave Ex and Erin to their babysitting James left the room and headed down the stairs.

[Fangirl05]

Erin glared at the door as James left, and for a couple seconds extra. "Jackass" she muttered, then quickly glanced at Arwen, "Sorry. But yeah, he usually acts like that. I wouldn't bother going to him if you ever need anything."

 

She took a small sniff of the air. "Hey, do you guys smell food that's not spaghetti-os?"

 

[Avialae]

Micah took the iPad from Wisperlee, feeling glad to have it but at the same time afraid to use it. He didn't really think anything would have happened to his house back in the USA, but at the same time he would be really confirming that everyone in his family was gone.

 

As Micah went inside, he heard the hum of the generators, so he went upstairs and took a quick shower. When he went downstairs, the food was on the table, so he took a selection, noting that it no longer looked so fresh. He knew how to butcher and prepare the carcass of an animal, if they could find any. If there were any farms around that kept animals like cows or sheep, even if for purposes other than meat, hopefully those animals would still be alive and they could use those for food. That would be better than hunting at this early stage. Although if there really were madmen and escaped leopards roaming around, who knew if that was a good idea. The strange creatures he'd seen in Wisperlee's picture - if those were real, Micah didn't think it really mattered if they tried to avoid them or not, things like that would find them if they wanted.

 

"Alistair and I didn't experience anything like that, or at least I didn't," Micah said between bites of food. "But when we were at the radio station we found a survivor there, except he was crazed. He wouldn't speak to us and just kept attacking over and over. We finally had to leave or he would have seriously hurt one of us."

[Quhanta]

Ez listened to Erin and James' responses to the little girl not understanding that her grandmother had died. She was furious with James' reaction, but she figured that it was at the blatant lies that were creating false hope for Arwen. She was only eight years old, so of course they were going to try to make her feel better. Children are stronger than usually assumed, though, and can bounce back quickly. Ez figured that making her happy and looking for her parents would get her to trust them. Once she trusted them, she would believe them when they said the truth. Until then, Arwen would probably go into denial and start rejecting them and their help. She needed to eat and sleep, so, for now, they would have to lie. James needed to see that, but she wasn't going to be the one to do that if she didn't have to. Ez jumped out of her thoughts and monotonous back rubbing action when Erin mentioned smelling food. She could no longer ignore the growing pain in her stomach. Ez needed to eat, but she wasn't going to leave Arwen alone. 'Would socializing be better for her? If she feels that she has a lot of people to protect her and be friends with her, she may feel a lot better. I might as well ask her.'

"How do you feel about meeting some new people right now? You can bring your food." Ez was using her gentle voice, hoping that Erin would keep her mouth shut about it. Arwen looked at her toes and started moving her feet. She nodded, but looked a bit frightened.

------------------------------

Arwen wanted to meet all of the new people, but quite a few things were scaring her. She pet the kitten and stared at her wiggling toes as she thought quickly. 'Meeting people would be nice, but what if they're all as mean looking as... J- uh... John... James! Yeah. What if they’re all like him? Well, maybe he’s not as mean as he looks. Maybe everyone downstairs would be nice like Officer Ez and Miss Erin.’

“Can I bring the kitty too?” She asked slowly and quietly.

“As long as Erin says it's okay. He's her kitten.” Officer Ez said. Arwen smiled.

“Then I want to go meet other nice people.”

------------------------------

Ez smiled and helped Arwen to stand up. It seemed quite a bit difficult for her, but she was adamant on walking. She had Dingo in her arms and she wobbled over to Erin.

“Miss Erin, may I take the kitty-” she paused to think and remember the cat’s name, “Dingo! Can I take him with me, please?” Arwen held the cat up to her chest and stared up at Erin with her big, blue eyes.

Ez gathered up the food she had brought for Arwen. ‘Maybe I can get her to eat more downstairs,” she thought.

 

(Thanks guys. It's been herd here, so I'm glad that I can find time to do something that I'm used to doing, and that I really like doing: writing here with you awesome people.)

Edited October 2, 2015 by Quhanta

[Fangirl05]

((D'aww, Q ))

 

Erin chuckled a little bit at Arwen's wobbling, kind of like how you might at a baby animal testing out its legs. She scratched Dingo's head gently while she asked if she could hang on to him.

 

"Sure" she agreed with a smile "And don't worry, everybody besides James is pretty nice."

[Quhanta]

Arwen's face lit up.

"Yay!" She snuggled the cat to her face and giggled a bit. Ez walked over and nudged her along.

"We're going to go this way; to the living room." The child just smiled and walked gingerly, but bouncily, to the living room with Ez on her heals to make sure she didn't fall. In one hand, she had the food and dish, and the other was hovering behind Arwen. Just as the two of them entered the living room, the little girl's right leg gave out from her excited bouncing and she began to fall. Ez grabbed the back of her jumper with her free hand and righted her.

"Maybe we should sit somewhere close?" She spoke calmly to the child, but not quite in her mother voice. The girl nodded. When Arwen sat on a nearby footstool, Ez gave her back her food and walked over to get some from herself. She made herself a roll of meat and cheese and ate it quickly, not taking her eyes off of their hospital rescue.

 

------------------------------

 

Arwen was a bit intimidated by everyone in the room, but she was told by Miss Erin that everyone was nicer than James, so she smiled hopefully and looked around the room. She hoped that no one would think that she was clumsy or dumb for almost falling. Her legs hurt a bit, but so did the rest of her. She was also feeling nauseated, but the food was helping.

 

(It's true. I'm not great at making friends in the real world. Here is a nice place to go.)

Edited October 5, 2015 by Quhanta

[Fangirl05]

Erin followed Ez and Arwen downstairs wordlessly, although she did pull a panicked face at Arwen stumbling with Dingo in her arms. Hey, a girl's gotta have her priorities.

 

"Ooh!" she exclaimed in a very Homer-Simpson-esque voice at the sight of the food. She rolled up a few pieces of ham, cringing at the slight mayo-y taste. She wondered if she should plunder the local market tomorrow and gather up whatever could be saved, maybe look into salting or smoking techniques via the library...

 

She cut herself a few slices of chees and a couple pieces of bread and poured herself some coffee before joining the group.

 

"Hello, all" she greeted them, "Did Ez and I miss anything?"

[DragonSpirit009]

“Hey Whisper.”Emily greeted glad to see they were back. She was starting to worry on what might have happened to them because they were gone so long. “I think I have a couple of bone fragments stuck in my skin here on my arms from when I tried to cover my face.” She said pointing to the sides of her arms. “Can you help getting them out? I can’t see clearly. I have the tweezers right here.”

 

With that Emily took a seat and handed the tweezers to Whisper. There were only a few luckily from what Emily could feel when she was in the shower. She tried not to wash to hard over those spots afraid she might push them deeper in.

 

Nougat was passing excitedly between everyone giving someone’s shoe a quick lick or giving them puppy eyes so they might give her some of their food. Emily just now and then said Nougat’s name in a deep voice informing the pooch what she was doing was wrong. Nougat then came to sit next to Emily with wagging tail. The girl patted the pooch calming her down a bit.

 

“Hey there Erin, Ez and…” Emily saw a new face which caused her to tilt her head a little. “A new little survivor, hey there kiddo.” Emily greeted with a smile on her face.

 

[Fortune86]

When James reached the food he found he wasn't quite as hungry as he had thought. Perhaps blowing the brains of a leopard out and a half eaten carcass getting the drop on you weren't exactly beneficial for the appetite. On the other hand, he had to eat something. He spread some of the butter and marmalade (wasn't having the jam for obvious reasons) on a slice of bread and picked up one of the better looking apples. Retreating to a chair in the corner James settled down to eat his 'lunch'.

 

A few moments later Ez, Erin and the brat they had picked up entered the room. James ignored them in favour of giving Nougat part of his crust. His foot was covered in slobber in return. Sighing James grabbed a napkin and set about cleaning his shoe. He really didn't like animals.

[Quhanta]

Arwen sat quietly until one lady spoke to her. She called her a survivor, but she didn’t really understand why. She did like how sweet the first person was.

“My name is Arwen. What is your name?” Arwen asked in a small, but quite happy voice. “And what happened to your arm?” Another girl with, in Arwen’s opinion, awesome hair was using tweezers on her. ‘Maybe she has lots of splinters?’ She thought to herself. The child squinted a bit at the lady’s arm and rocked a bit on the footstool. Arwen looked away for a moment to see Officer Ez raising her eyebrows at her and looking from her food to her face. Catching the hint, she shoved a bite of a slice of spam in her mouth and returned her focus to the lady.

 

------------------------------

 

Ez chewed a piece of almost stale bread to take away the odd aftertaste of the ham and cheese. It was most likely the older ham. She thought to start smoking some meat that may still be good. Maybe they could loot a grocery store for some food supplies. She had other things to think about. ‘How did that child survive in the hospital, alone, for almost four whole days? She did say that she snuck downstairs for some food, but how did she manage to avoid the… alien monster things for so long?’

In a break from her thoughts, she noticed that Whisperlee and Petra were back. Having not spoken much to them before their disappearance, she thought it wouldn’t be too noticed that she was late to notice their return. She did start breathing a bit better. They may not have been close, but survivors were survivors, and they wanted as many as possible. Ez was glad that they were alright, but she wasn’t going to run up and give them any hugs.

Micah and Alistar were back as well, but she wasn’t huggy with either of them either. She was glad that everyone was back to their crowded and possibly temporary home. Everyone but James seemed in an alright mood, but she did suppose that farm work would be hard and- Was that blood staining on him? She remembered how washing blood off only worked so well and that it left orange-rimmed yellowish stains. They’re faint, but she knew what they were. Come to think of it, Emily had them as well. No wonder he was in a bad mood; something crappy must have happened.

[Fortune86]

((I just want to point out that James showered and changed clothes. He shouldn't have any blood on him. ))

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee cast around for a moment, when she remembered a first aid kit in the kitchen. Retrieving the kit and a clean ashtray - and wrinkling her nose as she realized the former occupants must be smokers - she settled down next to Emily. Taking the tweezers and snapping on gloves from the first aid kit, she got to work.

 

By the time James, Ez and Erin walked in, a small pile of bone shards lay in the ashtray and Wisperlee was just giving Emily's arm a last once-over. She looked up to greet them, when she saw a young girl with Ezmeralda. Ouch. She'd known on an intellectual level that the event would have left some orphans, but it was confrontational to actually see one. Observing the child for a moment, she slid her hands out of the gloves and started rummaging around in her bag.

 

"Hey newbie," she greeted the girl. "Did you get your starter kit yet?" She knew she still had a pack in here, she just - Ah! There it was. "Here," she gave the girl a pack of brightly colored gummy candy, "trail rations for when you're sad." She also handed over a small flash light and a whistle she'd found at the gym. "Your torch, and an emergency signal if you ever need it."

 

That done, she focused on Emily's arm again and left the actual talking to her. She did notice James sneaking food to Nougat - and she wasn't the only one. In no time at all, both Cujo and Blackie were sitting next to the biker, staring at him with large brown dog eyes. Wisperlee didn't bother to hide her smile while she applied copious amounts of antibiotic salve to Emily's arm.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[DragonSpirit009]

“My name is Emily.” She spoke still smiling. “It’s nice to meet you Arwen.” Emily then looked at her arm as Whisper tweezed away. Luckily it didn’t hurt otherwise she might have greeted the girl with tears in her eyes.

 

“Oh… um… we were busy on the farm and we had a little accident.” Emily spoke. She didn’t want the girl to know they were attacked by a leopard. It might cause her to panic. Thinking, Emily and James should actually burn their clothes. Blood stained items like that could just attract more predators. And they need to wash off the truck. Looking at James, Emily figured that the “they” option won’t work. She’ll just hose it down when she goes out to switch of the generator.

 

“Thanks Whisper.” She spoke still smiling and watching as the other woman finished up. Good thing she didn’t need any stitches. To her that was a lot scarier than being attacked by a wild animal.

 

[Fortune86]

Despite his efforts to sit unheeded in his corner, it seems that giving Nougat the last of his slice of bread James had also attracted the attention of Cujo and Blackie. By the time he had cleaned his shoe of Nougat’s little gift, he was surrounded by the three dogs.

 

Sighing James figured they’d leave him alone once he was devoid of food. He leaned over to grab a knife off a nearby table and then set about cutting small chunks of his apple off and distributing the pieces between the three hounds. He had no idea if apple was good for dogs or not, but it seemed to be going down okay.