Jayde was a wanderer. Before the end of the world, that had gotten her in trouble more times than she could count. Now, she did it to keep her mind from overwhelming her. She was alone most times. Which was fine with her in the end. But also terribly difficult. She wanted connections. She wanted people to wonder if she was okay. To wonder if she was alive and well. She was so very bad at making those connections though. More often than not, she drove them away before they could get to know one another properly. It was the worst possible habit she could have. But, for now, the wandering helped. It was dangerous, yes, but she was tiny. She was fast. She could outrun the damn walkers easily. Or, if she desperately had to, she could take them down. Her arms weren’t overly strong but they had grown used to shoving her small knife into the decaying skulls. Her ears perked up at the sound of yelling, her brows pulling together firmly. Someone needed help. What help could she offer them at the end of the day though? Shit. Jayde picked up her pace and darted towards the sound and the smell of smoke. Oh fuck. Fire and someone stuck. She wasn’t made for this. “I’m here! I...oh, shit, what happened?” she crouched down before the garage and attempted to tug the jammed door up. She was tiny. She could take down walkers. But this was too hard. “Oh, fuck, oh shit...How do I get you out?”

      — Scuffed boots scraped the concrete floor as Reiner disappeared around the corner of the abandoned building, sweat glazing his pale shivering skin. The fuck if he knew that the family who lived in the house he was raiding, still inhabited the place ( each family member now infected by the virus. ) The sound of growls and snaps became more and more distinct, bouncing off the narrow chipped walls in echoes. He had no more bullets — wild grey eyes darted across the supply-stripped garage, before catching a glimpse of a petrol can hidden under a disarray of discarded litter. The lock on the garage door was faulty, and it would only be a matter of seconds before they’d corner him — he have to be fucking fast. Eyeing the garage door, he figured he’d have time to escape before the fire spread. As he grabbed the petrol can, the door slammed open, and walkers began to file in. He poured the petrol across the floor in front of them, before reaching for the lighter inside his jacket. He swiftly lowered the flame towards the dark liquid before the floor became enveloped in flames, taking the walkers with it. Reiner raced towards the garage door, desperately yanking at the chain, but the fucking thing was jammed. Smoke began to fill the air, and Reiner spluttered out a few coughs before raising the collar of his shirt over his nose and mouth. “ S-scheisse ! ” He dropped to the ground as the smoke grew more thick, his heart racing. “ Somebody fucking help me ! ” He didn’t know who he was talking to — the house lay in the deep outskirts of Cheyenne, he hadn’t seen a ( living ) being in miles.

“Jayde,” she shrugged somewhat as her name rolled off her tongue without warning. She had meant to keep that to herself. She didn’t need anyone knowing who she was. Life became more difficult each and every time she let anyone close. They always wanted something in the end. It was never to get close to the girl just because. There was always an angle to everything and she wasn’t about to let anyone take advantage of her again. But she hadn’t been able to stop her name. And anyways, it was just a name. That would comfort her long enough to make it to the next town. “You okay with me following you? I’m pretty skilled with killing the dead.”

Felix wasn’t completely sure what he was doing right now. His brother was dead and he was totally on his own for the first time since this whole thing started and it was just… a lot to come to terms with. He always thought he would be the first one to go, not his baby brother. But right now, he just had to push on. He could mourn Dalton later but he just needed to get to safety. When the girl joined him, it was almost a comfort. Knowing that he wasn’t going to be totally on his own, even if she was a complete stranger. 

When she spoke, he attempted a friendly smile before replying. “It’s Felix. What about yours?” He asked. 

@felixpines

Jayde felt strange following after this grown man. She hated following after anyone. She had been surviving just fine on her own. But the raiders had taken out the tiny house she had claimed as her own and if she hadn’t been tiny and fast, they would have taken her out too. She could imagine the things they would have done to her had they caught her, but she didn’t want to. She shook the thoughts from her head and watched the man walk a few steps before her. Everyone had left town as quickly as they could. There were others scattered along the road she had ended up on but somehow, she had attached herself to this man in some way. It was almost comforting to have someone with her for once, but also terrifying. She didn’t know him. And not knowing someone yet trusting them to lead the two of them to the end of the road...it was weird. 

“What’s your name?” she needed to know something about him. Even if she hated making small talk. Jayde scuffed her foot against the ground and furrowed her brows a bit. She missed the bed she had taken over. It had been comfy and warm and now she was cold and miserable and completely without a home once again. It wasn’t fair. 

Favorite t.v. show from before?

I didn’t really have much of a chance to watch tv. The other kids in the homes I was in used to hog it a lot. And I never stuck around long. So, I don’t know.

Who did this kid think he was? He reminded Jayde of the little shits she had dealt with throughout her years in foster. The ones that believed every single thing belonged to them whether it actually did or not. She had never hesitated to knock them on their asses, though in this new world, the thought of doing so seemed too risky. He could pull out a gun of his own and take her out in seconds. Or a knife. Or anything that had never been present in her usual fights over property. At the advice of the boy, she shifted her stance enough to aim the gun slightly to the left. She hated that she was taking his advice, but he sent the slightest chill down her spine. And she wasn’t ready to die. 

“Put back everything you’ve taken. It’s mine. I scavenged for it. I found it. It’s not yours.” nothing was really anyone’s these days. But she would fight tooth and nail against him. Even with the slight fear that ran through her veins at the moment.

Leaving the place he considered home in search of supplies was needed every so often. It never hurt to search a few abandoned houses, the chances of finding things were higher that way. That was how he wounded up inside the kitchen of a small house he thought would be promising. There was no luck getting in the front door, but he thought nothing of it, and made his way in through one of the windows. If he wanted to scavenge this house, he would scavenge this house, even if it was already claimed as one’s own. Silas held a can of spam in his hand, reading over the labels on it. It wasn’t difficult to sense the presence lurking about, which brought a slow and twisted smirk soon falling over his face. There was someone behind him, and although they may have tried to sneak up, his senses were strong.

The boy turned to face the survivor, looking amused rather than frightened. “I believe I’ll be taking this,” he raised the can slightly, before opening his bag and shoving it in. “Also, aiming more to the left would do you better substantially.”

The other girl looked cold. Upset. Oh no. Jayde hated feeling any type of remorse for anyone else. No one had ever offered up remorse for her. They had never offered her anything. But beyond the tough exterior she attempted to put constantly, was a scared little girl who just needed someone to care. “Oh...” she lowered the gun quickly and swallowed, scuffing the toes of her socked foot against the ground. “If you need that blanket, you can have it. I have a couple. It’s alright.”

Houses were only a comfort from the cold. She knew better than to expect supplies and goods, and she only wanted a blanket or two. Instead she got a gun in the face and had to admit that it was due to her own stupidity of wandering. “I’m not picking a fight,” she argued, raising the blanket to show before placing it on the floor. “You can have it back ok?”

Why hadn’t Jayde simply grabbed her knife? The gun was heavy in her grip, the metal cold against her skin. Terrifying. She couldn’t work the damn thing, really. She knew you had to pull the trigger and that was it. She had never handled one before. Not once. And if she tried to shoot the man for any reason, if he tried to make a move to disarm her, anything...God, she could end up dead today. She couldn’t show her fear of the weapon in her grip though. She had to be confident. She had to make it seem as though she knew what she was doing and would take him down if he made any wrong moves. She kept it trained on him, swallowing hard. “How’d you get in here? I...I thought I barricaded the doors.” clearly not good enough. Even now, after a year of surviving on her own, she was still learning. 

Nicky had been scavenging anything he could over the past few days, what for? He didn’t know yet but he was sure he would figure it out soon enough. His footsteps were heavy but coordinated, he had his bow raised with an arrow setting in it as he checked the downstairs quickly. Deeming it safe enough he put the arrow back in with the others on the quiver on his back. He didn’t like the hospital. Nothing against the people but the place in general gave him the creeps, it was probably the safest place to be due the undead cramped into the floors beneath them deterring any living threats but he’d never been one for safety. That and he hated the smell of the place, even now it still had the same clinical smell. Nicky started to look over a small backpack, a frown in place as he figured it must have belonged to a kid and a sorrowful look made its way onto his face. He almost jumped in surprised as he herd the voice that seemingly came from nowhere. “Alright, sorry. I didn’t know.” He apologised as he placed the backpack on the ground slowly, putting his hands up slowly to show he didn’t mean any harm.

Jayde didn’t even care about the supplies in the house, really. She could get more. She was good at finding supplies. But it was more about the principle of this being her place. The one place she had claimed. Though, she knew she couldn’t blame him. He hadn’t known of her claim on it. She hadn’t sent a telegram around the town letting everyone know that number fifty-eight on birch street was hers. That she had spent months sleeping under it’s roof. That it had begun to feel like home. She kept her gun raised for a moment, hands trembling slightly at the weight of it. Then slowly, she began to lower it. It wasn’t because she trusted him. It was a strange sensation. Almost like she felt bad for scaring him. Her eyes stayed trained on his movements though incase he felt the urge to attack her suddenly. “Sorry. I...I don’t like when people try and steal my things.” it had happened her entire life, being stuck in foster care. Her things were hers and she was protective. 

In the kitchen, standing at a cupboard, Jake was pillaging a few cans of soup from the top shelf — a bagel in his mouth as he grabbed each container and set them in his bag. Being so confident in his hearing, he was more than startled at the sudden sound of a voice and no footsteps to warn him beforehand; immediately, he turned to face it. The bagel in his mouth dropped when he spotted the gun; promptly, his hand shot up in defense. “ …Whoa, ” he exhaled fearfully; breathing ceased then as he froze in place. Not again. How many times was he going to have a gun pointed his way? This had to be the seventh, eighth time, at least. Having slipped through the window, he hadn’t come across any barricade, and in turn, truly hadn’t known the place was occupied… but in that moment, he was paralyzed and couldn’t explain.

                                                                Pre-Apocalypse

“I felt empty a lot and I sometimes had a sense—and I know this sounds strange—that I really had no existence as my own person, that I could disappear and no one would notice or remember that I had ever existed. It is a terrifying thing to live with. I kept myself busy to avoid that feeling, because somehow being busy made me feel less empty.” 

Though, technically, Jayde had never claimed this little house tucked between a couple larger ones, it was still hers and the footsteps she could hear downstairs did nothing but annoy her. She tugged the gun free--one she had recently scavenged from a nearby house--from beneath her pillow and slowly stood up to creep downstairs. She was tiny enough that any of her movements managed to be swift and silent without the girl having to really try. The heavy metal felt odd clasped between her hands and she wasn’t entirely sure how to work the thing, but she would figure it out. If she could at least appear as though she knew how, things would go just fine. She crept quietly down the hall towards the kitchen. Hadn’t she barricaded the entrances last night? She had passed out pretty quickly. As Jayde slipped silently into the kitchen, she lifted the gun up a bit higher to aim. She had such shit aim.

“Hey! Put that down. This is my house.”