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xp_logsFood must be found, no matter how unpleasant the job is.
The house they'd broken into still had blankets and pillows scattered around that they'd quickly gathered up and made into makeshift bedrolls in front of the fireplace. Natasha had quickly started a small fire to warm the room before she and the others had left to find a vehicle while the others began a search for food and medical supplies within the house and the surrounding buildings.
Xavin came back down the stairs. The kitchen had been empty and most of the house ransacked, windows broken but there had been some sweaters and hats in the upstairs closet. They smelled musty but that was better than nothing. They'd already put a sweater on themself and a hat and scarf. The rest were bundled in a blanket. "I've found some warm clothes, at least."
Jean had moved a large hutch and some other heavier pieces of furniture in front of two of the windows in the living room to keep cold air--as well as zombies--from getting in. She also set about to boiling water with one of the massive pots she'd found in the kitchen so they'd have something clean to drink from and clean Rahne's wounds.
She glanced up when Xavin arrived. "Awesome," she said with a smile.
"Great find. Do you mind checking to see if there are any scissors and clean towels or sheets?"
She then turned back to Rahne. "How are you doing?" she said. She'd stayed with Rahne as a doctor, and, frankly, because she was probably one of the few that could keep her contained if she turned. Being a doctor meant hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. She hoped with all of her soul that nothing would happen. Rahne had a healing factor.
With everything that was happening, and everything that had happened, Jean felt a sense of frustration bubbling underneath the surface. Were they stuck here forever? Was this all there was now?
The smile Rahne gave Jean was more a grimace than anything else and there was nothing comforting in the expression. "Been better," she said, wiping some sweat from her forehead. "It's like I've got the flu, without the vomiting, thankfully." She thought about it. "So far, anyway." She was absolutely bloody terrified but was trying her best to put on a good front. It was either that or run screaming.
Xavin gave Rahne an awkward pat on one shoulder and nodded. "I'm going to go next door, too, see what they have."
"Be careful," Jean said. "I'll keep a mental eye out." She turned back to Rahne.
"Do you mind if I touch your forehead?" She couldn't exactly use a thermometer to tell if she had a fever but it sounded like the symptoms she was describing.
"Aye, ye can," Rahne responded and then leaned into Jean's touch, eyes drifting closed at the touch. Her hand felt like ice which she knew wasn't a good sign but it felt really, really good.
Next door had dead people. Not zombies. God, zombies, what the fuck. What the fuck. But dead people. They'd died a long time ago. Xavin paused just inside the window they'd climbed in through and shook and cried for a minute. Their kitchen was empty, the windows boarded up downstairs. It didn't feel right, taking stuff from dead people even if the entire world had changed overnight so after another long moment where Xavin just sat and stared at their hands, crying, they climbed back out and went back to Jean and Rahne empty handed.
When Xavin had come back, crying, Rahne had turned away from Jean's touch to see if they were okay. Instead, she staggered forward into a chair as she choked down a sudden snarl. She felt her teeth start to change, felt her skin get tight and the pain exploded behind her eyes. The almost change had been involuntary - spurred on by something she was terrified to question.
Hoping the others hadn't noticed, she turned the snarl into a groan. "Jean, I don't feel so good..."
Unfortunately for Rahne, Jean had noticed. It was the trouble with being a doctor: paying attention to her patients. She kept her eyes on Rahne and sat down in a chair beside her.
"Xavin, would you mind--" she said, catching the sight of fresh, wet tears on their cheeks. She paused, but only a moment as to not make them feel guilty for crying.
"--gathering some more fresh snow from outside, please? I'd like to boil it for more fresh water," she said calmly. Better to have only one of them in the room if it happened again.
She glanced back to Rahne.
"What's going on? What are you feeling?"
Rahne really did not want to answer that question but Jean, well, Jean would know. Her knuckles were white as she stared towards a wall.
“I think it’s messing with my powers,” she said, voice very small. “I’m fine now bit for a moment...”
Jean was silent for a moment, slowly nodding. "Okay," she replied quietly. "It's okay. We can figure this out. I'll tell the others to stay away and sit with you. Would it be okay if Laurie tried to keep you calm?"
"Please," she said, voice firm and a little desperate. Rahne locked eyes with Jean as she heard Xavin start to come back in. "I'll let ye do anything ye need to do to me, anything, to stop me from hurting anyone else."
After narrowly escaping the zombie ambush, the group established camp in an abandoned house and have split up to find transportation and supplies.
Leaving the others behind at camp, Natasha set out with Felicia and Laurie to find some means of getting them to their destination faster. They had to. Maybe there was something wherever they were headed that could help Rahne. Help save her. Natasha wasn't going to lie to herself. If there wasn't a cure for the disease, then it was only a matter of time. She glanced around at her companions and the new area they were in now. "Why didn't we think to steal a car earlier? Everything here looks like it's been abandoned for a while."
"Because walking was easier than the possibility of setting off an alarm, or the need to figure out if a vehicle actually had gas," Laurie replied readily, trying to keep an eye out for any other 'zombies'. She couldn't believe she was actually using that word for what was obviously diseased individuals. Apart from the one weird mutant that Kyle had once come up against, Laurie had never heard of dead individuals coming back to torment the living, and thus these things must be living. "We need a larger vehicle, something that we can use to quarantine Rahne away from the rest of you while Jean and I attempt to keep her from 'turning'."
"We also kept finding new people, alive or dead, every time the discussion came up. I'm totally team not walking," Felicia continued idly as they came to another four way stop, peering down the streets. "Room for six people, quarantine, plus running might be a bit much even for me, but I'll do my best."
Natasha kept an eye out for SUVs that were large enough to fit their needs. If this time period still had those around. She couldn't be sure since things were obviously not the same as when they'd been whisked from the mansion. "So, someplace not obvious. Houses that haven't been ransacked yet?" She pointed one out halfway down the street and a little further down was a small gas station. "Maybe we'll be lucky and that gas station won't have already been picked over."
"Given the current situation, houses that are untouched may be crawling with those things, or possibly being used by somebody else." Laurie cautioned, giving the gas station an eyeballing. Other people might be a help, or a hindrance, and while she was well aware that the two women with her had years more training at being sneaky and surviving on their own, she couldn't help but point things out. Stating out loud what was most obvious was as much in her nature to do as caring for the sick and injured. "Perhaps it is best we check out the gas station first, it's possible it may have something that can be used as a weapon."
It wasn't as if they didn't have their powers, and Laurie herself could drop a dozen humans fairly quickly with no more than a touch but the zombies were different. Something to do with the fungus that had invested them perhaps, they didn't react in the same way to her powers as baseline humans did.
“It’s also possible it has something that runs on diesel,” Felicia answered, threading through the street, absently crossing the fingers on one hand. “We aren’t going to be quiet regardless once an engine is involved, might as well go for something that can mow. Wheeler or mobile home, come on....”
"I'd be all for that," Natasha murmured now keeping a wary eye on the houses. She didn't think they were crawling with zombies. From what little she knew, they needed open spaces and a constant source of prey, which wouldn't happen in an enclosed space. She paced Felicia but on the opposite side of the street, keeping an eye out for movement. "It's a toss up between the two which would've run out faster by now."
Laurie kept herself between the two of them, slightly exposed given that she was walking in the middle of a road and maybe slightly dangerous if there were people around here still driving about but she figured she'd hear a car way before they saw it given the relative silence of their surroundings. Her position also gave her an almost equal distance between possible danger spots, and a buffer of two highly competent assassins, or spies...she'd never been particularly sure what to consider them.
"Do you think they had any warning?"
"Not from the looks of it? At least not at the beginning and then," Natasha waved a hand around them, "the spread of infection took off rapidly from how everything looks. The smart ones probably immediately hightailed it out of areas with lots of people."
They were right next to the gas station now and the small garage attached to it looked like it contained several vehicles that might be what they needed. The rest of the building looked untouched. Natasha carefully threaded her way up to the garage doors and peered inside. She saw nothing but a coating of dust over everything, she moved to the door and tried it.
It didn't budge.
"Locked. Maybe we've finally had some luck thrown our way. I'm hoping that means everything inside is untouched and we won't have any unexpected surprises either. I'll have the lock open shortly. Think I saw a lockpicking kit in my backpack somewhere."
It was still quiet, nothing felt off, so Felicia tilted her head and waited for Natasha to finish her work; luck did run out eventually, after all. She was quick on her heels as the door swung cautiously open, however, already grinning at the large SUV she somehow knew would be inside. "Jackpot."
The house they'd broken into still had blankets and pillows scattered around that they'd quickly gathered up and made into makeshift bedrolls in front of the fireplace. Natasha had quickly started a small fire to warm the room before she and the others had left to find a vehicle while the others began a search for food and medical supplies within the house and the surrounding buildings.
Xavin came back down the stairs. The kitchen had been empty and most of the house ransacked, windows broken but there had been some sweaters and hats in the upstairs closet. They smelled musty but that was better than nothing. They'd already put a sweater on themself and a hat and scarf. The rest were bundled in a blanket. "I've found some warm clothes, at least."
Jean had moved a large hutch and some other heavier pieces of furniture in front of two of the windows in the living room to keep cold air--as well as zombies--from getting in. She also set about to boiling water with one of the massive pots she'd found in the kitchen so they'd have something clean to drink from and clean Rahne's wounds.
She glanced up when Xavin arrived. "Awesome," she said with a smile.
"Great find. Do you mind checking to see if there are any scissors and clean towels or sheets?"
She then turned back to Rahne. "How are you doing?" she said. She'd stayed with Rahne as a doctor, and, frankly, because she was probably one of the few that could keep her contained if she turned. Being a doctor meant hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. She hoped with all of her soul that nothing would happen. Rahne had a healing factor.
With everything that was happening, and everything that had happened, Jean felt a sense of frustration bubbling underneath the surface. Were they stuck here forever? Was this all there was now?
The smile Rahne gave Jean was more a grimace than anything else and there was nothing comforting in the expression. "Been better," she said, wiping some sweat from her forehead. "It's like I've got the flu, without the vomiting, thankfully." She thought about it. "So far, anyway." She was absolutely bloody terrified but was trying her best to put on a good front. It was either that or run screaming.
Xavin gave Rahne an awkward pat on one shoulder and nodded. "I'm going to go next door, too, see what they have."
"Be careful," Jean said. "I'll keep a mental eye out." She turned back to Rahne.
"Do you mind if I touch your forehead?" She couldn't exactly use a thermometer to tell if she had a fever but it sounded like the symptoms she was describing.
"Aye, ye can," Rahne responded and then leaned into Jean's touch, eyes drifting closed at the touch. Her hand felt like ice which she knew wasn't a good sign but it felt really, really good.
Next door had dead people. Not zombies. God, zombies, what the fuck. What the fuck. But dead people. They'd died a long time ago. Xavin paused just inside the window they'd climbed in through and shook and cried for a minute. Their kitchen was empty, the windows boarded up downstairs. It didn't feel right, taking stuff from dead people even if the entire world had changed overnight so after another long moment where Xavin just sat and stared at their hands, crying, they climbed back out and went back to Jean and Rahne empty handed.
When Xavin had come back, crying, Rahne had turned away from Jean's touch to see if they were okay. Instead, she staggered forward into a chair as she choked down a sudden snarl. She felt her teeth start to change, felt her skin get tight and the pain exploded behind her eyes. The almost change had been involuntary - spurred on by something she was terrified to question.
Hoping the others hadn't noticed, she turned the snarl into a groan. "Jean, I don't feel so good..."
Unfortunately for Rahne, Jean had noticed. It was the trouble with being a doctor: paying attention to her patients. She kept her eyes on Rahne and sat down in a chair beside her.
"Xavin, would you mind--" she said, catching the sight of fresh, wet tears on their cheeks. She paused, but only a moment as to not make them feel guilty for crying.
"--gathering some more fresh snow from outside, please? I'd like to boil it for more fresh water," she said calmly. Better to have only one of them in the room if it happened again.
She glanced back to Rahne.
"What's going on? What are you feeling?"
Rahne really did not want to answer that question but Jean, well, Jean would know. Her knuckles were white as she stared towards a wall.
“I think it’s messing with my powers,” she said, voice very small. “I’m fine now bit for a moment...”
Jean was silent for a moment, slowly nodding. "Okay," she replied quietly. "It's okay. We can figure this out. I'll tell the others to stay away and sit with you. Would it be okay if Laurie tried to keep you calm?"
"Please," she said, voice firm and a little desperate. Rahne locked eyes with Jean as she heard Xavin start to come back in. "I'll let ye do anything ye need to do to me, anything, to stop me from hurting anyone else."
After narrowly escaping the zombie ambush, the group established camp in an abandoned house and have split up to find transportation and supplies.
Leaving the others behind at camp, Natasha set out with Felicia and Laurie to find some means of getting them to their destination faster. They had to. Maybe there was something wherever they were headed that could help Rahne. Help save her. Natasha wasn't going to lie to herself. If there wasn't a cure for the disease, then it was only a matter of time. She glanced around at her companions and the new area they were in now. "Why didn't we think to steal a car earlier? Everything here looks like it's been abandoned for a while."
"Because walking was easier than the possibility of setting off an alarm, or the need to figure out if a vehicle actually had gas," Laurie replied readily, trying to keep an eye out for any other 'zombies'. She couldn't believe she was actually using that word for what was obviously diseased individuals. Apart from the one weird mutant that Kyle had once come up against, Laurie had never heard of dead individuals coming back to torment the living, and thus these things must be living. "We need a larger vehicle, something that we can use to quarantine Rahne away from the rest of you while Jean and I attempt to keep her from 'turning'."
"We also kept finding new people, alive or dead, every time the discussion came up. I'm totally team not walking," Felicia continued idly as they came to another four way stop, peering down the streets. "Room for six people, quarantine, plus running might be a bit much even for me, but I'll do my best."
Natasha kept an eye out for SUVs that were large enough to fit their needs. If this time period still had those around. She couldn't be sure since things were obviously not the same as when they'd been whisked from the mansion. "So, someplace not obvious. Houses that haven't been ransacked yet?" She pointed one out halfway down the street and a little further down was a small gas station. "Maybe we'll be lucky and that gas station won't have already been picked over."
"Given the current situation, houses that are untouched may be crawling with those things, or possibly being used by somebody else." Laurie cautioned, giving the gas station an eyeballing. Other people might be a help, or a hindrance, and while she was well aware that the two women with her had years more training at being sneaky and surviving on their own, she couldn't help but point things out. Stating out loud what was most obvious was as much in her nature to do as caring for the sick and injured. "Perhaps it is best we check out the gas station first, it's possible it may have something that can be used as a weapon."
It wasn't as if they didn't have their powers, and Laurie herself could drop a dozen humans fairly quickly with no more than a touch but the zombies were different. Something to do with the fungus that had invested them perhaps, they didn't react in the same way to her powers as baseline humans did.
“It’s also possible it has something that runs on diesel,” Felicia answered, threading through the street, absently crossing the fingers on one hand. “We aren’t going to be quiet regardless once an engine is involved, might as well go for something that can mow. Wheeler or mobile home, come on....”
"I'd be all for that," Natasha murmured now keeping a wary eye on the houses. She didn't think they were crawling with zombies. From what little she knew, they needed open spaces and a constant source of prey, which wouldn't happen in an enclosed space. She paced Felicia but on the opposite side of the street, keeping an eye out for movement. "It's a toss up between the two which would've run out faster by now."
Laurie kept herself between the two of them, slightly exposed given that she was walking in the middle of a road and maybe slightly dangerous if there were people around here still driving about but she figured she'd hear a car way before they saw it given the relative silence of their surroundings. Her position also gave her an almost equal distance between possible danger spots, and a buffer of two highly competent assassins, or spies...she'd never been particularly sure what to consider them.
"Do you think they had any warning?"
"Not from the looks of it? At least not at the beginning and then," Natasha waved a hand around them, "the spread of infection took off rapidly from how everything looks. The smart ones probably immediately hightailed it out of areas with lots of people."
They were right next to the gas station now and the small garage attached to it looked like it contained several vehicles that might be what they needed. The rest of the building looked untouched. Natasha carefully threaded her way up to the garage doors and peered inside. She saw nothing but a coating of dust over everything, she moved to the door and tried it.
It didn't budge.
"Locked. Maybe we've finally had some luck thrown our way. I'm hoping that means everything inside is untouched and we won't have any unexpected surprises either. I'll have the lock open shortly. Think I saw a lockpicking kit in my backpack somewhere."
It was still quiet, nothing felt off, so Felicia tilted her head and waited for Natasha to finish her work; luck did run out eventually, after all. She was quick on her heels as the door swung cautiously open, however, already grinning at the large SUV she somehow knew would be inside. "Jackpot."
