Welcome to Gaia! ::

Three days of travel by foot was really starting to tire the group of survivors. The obvious tension between the two sisters was making everyone a bit on edge, preparing for the obvious rumble.

Natalie always egged them on whenever possible, and Lara was trying to avoid all of them entirely to keep her own temper reigned in.

By the third day, the fuse finally blew between the sisters. The country woman eyed Lara as she stormed past John and herself, shoulders growing tense as Rachel attempted to communicate with her younger sibling again.

"Oh, finally. Here we go!" Natalie hollered much too excitably. At Brian's direction, the rest of the travelers removed their back packs to take a break as the two disputers stepped off to the side. After several long minutes where Natalie sat snickering and Virra and John both awkwardly attempted to not listen in to the verbal altercation, the red head finally spoke up to Brian.

"Aren't you going to do something?" Th red head questioned, crossing her arms in frustration.

Virra steamed for a moment at Brian's refusal, crossing her arms tightly. Next to her John seemed to be in the same boat as the other male, wanting to remain completely impartial. As the siblings practically grew to shouting at each other, the red head spoke up again. "Brian, go! Before they kill one another or attract attention!" She commanded, eyes narrowed at the younger survivor in challenge.

Natalie, who was lounging in the circle and gaining far too much amusement from the dispute next to them, slapped Brian's shoulder. "Yeah, Brian! Why dont'cha jump into the tussle," the blonde laughed before laying down and resting her head on her pack, hands behind her head as she positioned herself perfectly to watch.

As Brian sulked back to the larger group, having been dutifully scorned by the trifling siblings, Virra deflated visibly, avoiding the younger boy's gaze somewhat sheepishly. "Oh, that was right peachy," Natalie balked, kicking out her legs in a long stretch. John snickered at Brian's stricken face as he passed his canteen over to the red head for a drink, not really caring about the fight a few paces away as long as it didn't draw unwanted attention.

They all drew quiet serious when Rachel laid her feelings bare, besides Natalie, of course. When the air rang with the shrill sound of Lara's slap, they all paused for just a few seconds before busying themselves with other tasks. Natalie's lips were turned in an amused 'oh' formation, corners sprung upwards in a smile. When Brian came back a few moments later, Virra only thought on her decision a moment before standing up to follow after Lara.

She didn't have to walk too far before seeing the younger sister's frame. Virra walked up slowly, before sitting down a few feet away from Lara. The red head observed the ground closely, if not a bit awkwardly, before speaking, "You know... if you want to talk about it, I'm all ears. And just between me and you...I'm on your side."

At Lara’s first statement, the red head snorted, feeling that was quiet the understatement in describing someone who had literally knocked their own sister unconscious. Virra didn’t interject though, letting the distraught brunette vent to ease some of her emotional strain, hopefully.

“Are you kidding? You know how bored I’ve been since the last time I was able to watch my day time drama shows?” Virra laughed out, obviously joking in an attempt to lighten the mood. She smiled over at the younger woman, before poking at the ground below her. “You know, I felt the same when I was first with John,” she shuffled to loosely hang her arms around her knees before continuing.

“It almost felt like I was a burden. I mean, sure, I could fix a car, but I couldn’t survive. He had to do everything: protect me, prepare food… keep us alive when it just became the two of us,” Virra explained. She gave a short laugh, “it really pissed me off. But, instead of letting me continue to feel sorry for myself and just become angry, John actually helped.” The red head smiled as she thought about her friend, “he may not seem all that great, but he pushed me. He taught me how to shoot, you know, at least the minimum to keep me alive. He gave me things to do that, at the time, I thought were meaningless, but really, he was making me better.”

“ And although it wouldn’t be anything but my last choice, if I had to continue on without him, he’s given me the basic tools to do it,” she said quiet seriously. Virra looked over at Lara, “no offense to your sister, but she’s hurting you, Lara. Even if she doesn’t know it. So… I get it, and I agree. John, and probably freaking Natalie, would have a lot to offer.”

The red head pushed herself up off the ground and wiped off her already dirty pants. “Anyway, enough of all that crap. I’m wanting whatever gross food John will let me snack on,” Virra smiled. She took a step closer and held out her hand, “want to face the music or stay here for a little longer?”

It was another hot day in their small town, the minuscule breeze doing little to stir stagnant air. Virra was sweating off what felt like enough weight to become a totally new person. It was disgusting. The shop didn’t have any ac, only old fans that barely swirled around the same pressing temperatures, so it was something the mechanic was used to, though. Currently, the red head was halfway in the hood of a dirty sedan, the owner obviously not doing even marginally decent work at up keeping the machinery.

What could have been a quick fix was taking up double the time just so she could scrape off the excess build up and corrosion. Never the less, she was poignant about her work, and wouldn’t let this car roll out of here with anything less than perfect work. Darn pride. She pulled herself upright, arms covered in dark smears and back cramping from the horrible angle she’d been stuck in for far too long.

The owner, Bernie, was sitting on a high stool, eyes glued to the extremely old tube TV somehow balanced on a tiny ledge in the corner. Virra took the cloth from her pocket to swipe at her hands, the rag so dirty itself it probably wasn’t doing anything more than just smearing the grime around her skin, before she took a few strides to stand beside her boss and peer upwards to what he was watching.

The news was running, which was worrisome in itself as the old man never had anything on besides sports and sport highlights. The last few days had him spooked though, it was easy for the associate to see, with all the news of scattered and gruesome attacks, seemingly inhuman in origin. Virra didn’t like to dwell. She was fine staying in their innocent small town bubble. It’s not like she would be leaving anytime soon, so why worry about something she would ever have involvement in?

“Come on, B,” she quipped out the man’s nickname, hoping her light hearted tone would sway him, “turn off that nonsense.” The man barely registered that he had been spoken to with a very short grunt. Virra rolled her eyes before stuffing her hand cloth back into its pocket. “I’m done if you want to give Roy a call,” she stated, walking up to the TV herself to switch it over to a different channel. When she received nothing but static in place of the normal broadcast she turned the unit off all together.

Finally the owner blinked rapidly, as if just realizing Virra’s presence all together. “What, dear?” he cleared his throat, the fear in his eyes worrying the young woman.

“The car, it’s done,” she repeated, staring at him closely as he clambered off his chair and over to the desk in the front of the store, seemingly having aged ten years overnight with how slow and clunky his movements were. The red head shrugged as she turned back to the sedan in the bay, reaching up to grab the hood. Just as her fingers clasped the metal a man skidded into the large garage door opening, breathing heavily. He was obviously dis-shelved and borderline hyper ventilating with panic.

“Paul,” Virra squeaked, surprised at her neighbors sudden arrival and appearance. She slammed the hood down as the man attempted to regain his breathing, and then turned to wait to see what the commotion was all about.

“You’re dad,” He wheezed out. That straightened the country woman up immediately. “Something happen at the ranch?” she questioned, arms crossed tightly. The man shook his head wildly before explaining, “he was trying to help the sheriff. This new comer… was acting all crazy… charged at ‘em before he could get his gun out. Your dad… he was inside the store. He went to help and the guy just… he bit him, practically tore some of his skin off.” Virra was pretty worried now. The attack, it was all too familiar to the eerie reports she had been hearing in the back ground the last few days of attempted cannibalism.

The mechanic walked up to the distressed messenger, getting more than a little irritated with his lack of ability to just get through the rest of the re-telling. Maybe if he started doing a little more physical activity and stopped smoking he wouldn’t be gasping for air. The woman grasped at his arm roughly, giving him a little shake to draw his focus. “What happened then, Paul?” The man was a little taken back by Virra’s aggressiveness, and sputtered out the rest of what he needed to say, “well he went home… But he didn’t look too good… We tried to take him up to the clinic, but he wasn’t having none of it.”

That’s all Virra really needed to hear before she grabbed her jacket from the work bench it had been thrown onto early that morning before heading out of the garage and over to her vehicle. She vaguely heard Bernie calling after her not to go, but his words fell upon deaf ears. The next thing she knew, she was pulling up to her parent’s home, the decent drive vanishing in a blur. She had a shed just in back that held a lot of her belongings and she decided to go their first, under a gut feeling. A duffle was filled with whatever she deemed necessary before she threw the bag heavily into her car and made her way to the front of the old home.

The door wasn’t even closed all the way, an omen if the red head had ever seen one. Although she hadn’t been entranced to the recent news like her boss, she wasn’t stupid – she could come to a logical conclusion when provided with the facts. It was obvious where the day was heading, and perhaps it was shock, but she wasn’t quite sure how she was managing this well thus far.

She pulled the empty back pack tightly on her shoulders as she passed through the doorway into the entrance hall. The plan was to grab her sibling, mother, and some food before booking it. A few dark red spots trailed down the wood, more than likely from her father’s attack. Of course, it led to the kitchen, and she had to follow the trail. The dull drone of words in the shop wasn’t enough to prepare her for the sight that welcomed her.

The smell hit her just as hard when she walked into the kitchen, metallic and stiff. She could see her sisters pale skin, eyes lifelessly staring up at the ceiling, features still traced fearfully on her face. The unmistakable back of her father was hunched over her siblings torn open abdomen, the gruesome sounds he was making obviously the work of him devouring whatever he could get his hands on. Virra couldn’t help it - she turned and emptied her stomach, sweat sliding down her back and face at the exertion and heat.

Once she reigned her body back into control she stumbled away slightly, avoiding looking at the mess before her. She finally peered up to see her mother standing there, watching her cherished husband and prized daughter in a daze. “Mother, we have to go,” Virra hissed, hoping not to draw her father… what was her father’s attention. The older woman looked blankly up at her other off spring just for a second before resuming her previous ogling. The red head wanted to stomp and scream in frustration, she had to know what was happening from all the reports she read, but instead she delicately took quiet steps in a wide arc in the kitchen, making sure to keep the table between herself and the attacker.

The mechanic grasped at her mother’s fore arm, prepared to drag her out of the home, but was astounded when the other woman pulled her appendage back fiercely and slapped Virra so hard across the face she saw star’s for a moment. She blinked rapidly, before turning back to the graying female confused. She heard rustling behind her and knew that her now deceased sisters small body wouldn’t hold its attention forever. Holding up her hands in a form of surrender she tried to draw the other woman out of her trance, but when she tried to step in her line of vision she only received the most hateful gaze ever witnessed.

In a last attempt to save any of her family she whispered almost hysterically, “mom, please. It’s not safe. We have to go. We can’t help him.” Although the three in the room were really only considered her family by blood due to their past experiences together, she still didn’t want to lose everything in one day… or be alone. She took a step too close, triggering her mother to lash out again with a hard shove. Her flailing back to regain her balance forced her leg to shoot out and hit a chair roughly, the force causing a loud raucous as it banged on the table.

That finally seemed to draw her monster like father’s attention away from his current conquest. His face turned up, gruesome and covered in crimson, and instantly was drawn to his wife… not that he knew who she was other than meat. He staggered upwards, and Virra’s most natural instincts kicked in. She wasn’t strong enough to carry her hefty mother, and she wasn’t about to die for a woman who hadn’t really looked at her for over ten years if she didn’t want to save herself. Virra didn’t have time to think if she could have tried harder, if it would have made a difference, because the next thing she did was bolt out of the room as the monster charged into the awaiting arms of her mother.

The bag was still empty on her back, and a small distant voice was still reminding her she’d have to get food somewhere, but at least her car was already filled with some jugs of water – she was nothing if not prepared constantly. You had to be able to take care of yourself in such a barren country town. She took the dirt road back the way she had travelled earlier, hands clasped so tightly her knuckles were white on the steering wheel. It was so quiet. Granted it normally was, but not even the creatures that roamed the woods were making any sounds. Maybe they were smart and had taken off long ago and she just hadn’t been paying attention.

A few miles down the road and she finally stopped, not bothering to pull over as this route was barren almost always. Mechanically, Virra exited the vehicle before heaving what little was left in her stomach again. Once that was done, she felt a rage finally consume her body and she thrashed about hysterically; picking up rocks and throwing them, kicking at anything and everything, and eliciting a mixture of frustrated grunts and despairing wails.

Gunshots rang out, more than likely coming from town. Virra was sitting on her knees, exhausted from the fit and face smeared with tears. When more shots pierced the air, she pulled herself back into her car and locked the doors. The one to have attacked her father couldn’t have been the only crazy to find their town, and she couldn’t pretend she could be safe here anymore.

So… she had to keep going. She couldn’t have imagined that morning, when doing her normal ranch chores or going into the shop, that it would be the beginning to her constant nightmare from then on.

-----

Virra woke up roughly, head snapping up as she propped up on her elbows to regain her bearings. Her heart was hammering in her chest and a light sheen of sweat covered her skin. After a few seconds of her eyes darting around erratically she finally slumped back down, realizing it had just been one of her many reoccurring nightmares: reliving the past horrors. She didn't end up falling back to sleep, and eventually everyone started to rouse for the normal early morning meal as Natalie, who had been last on guard duty, returned. Since the original dispute just a few days ago between siblings, the group had been relatively quiet while traveling, tired from hauling what gear they had by foot.

When Rachel pulled them to a stop on their second day after World War Sister, a name so happily dubbed by Natalie, most were glad for the reprieve and dumped their bags down immediately. As everyone began to assign themselves out to certain tasks, Virra shrugged, "I'll keep watch of the road then." John exchanged his rifle for her pistol, which the red head slung onto her back as she walked back up the path they had taken off of the road a bit. She always felt awkward carrying the thing, nevertheless the scope was beyond useful in absence of any other optics. She was careful in climbing up a large wide tree, checking the branches for their stability before hauling herself up the easy climb.

John watched Virra in the distance, only turning away when she was settled midway up the bark securely. The red head knew how much he hated her tree climbing, but couldn't argue it's height advantages. His companion was infinitely more accustomed to the task and more agile then himself anyway, making the task much less risky in comparison to the soldiers attempts.

"I'll go get some dry wood, and pick up more kindling to keep the fire going," John told the others before heading off through the cluster of woods. It wasn't but a few seconds later that Natalie threw her bag onto the pile and followed the blonde man's tracks, "I'll go with him."

Natalie and John had been wandering around the outskirts of their makeshift camp for a while now, John obviously more committed to the task of actually gathering dry bark and even pulling some off dying trees to ensure the task completed. The blonde's arms were full of the stuff, while Natalie had been swinging the same single stick back and forth carelessly as she waltzed around the other survivor a few coughs breaking their silence occasionally. Surprisingly, the woman's antics were actually starting to agitate John, who was normally unaffected or at the least found her dirty jokes humorous.

Finally, the European ceased her humming and, what John could only describe as, frolicking, allowing him to breath a sigh of relief.

"Alrigh'," Natalie declared, flinging the twig she had claimed off behind her carelessly. "This is a good spot, stars aligned and all tha' jazz. Let's go," she stated, hands on her hips as she stared at the solider adamantly. John stood for a few seconds, staring quizzically at the other survivor. "Ugh... What?" he questioned seriously, not having the slightest clue as to what Natalie was talking about.

The blonde woman heaved a Emmy winning dramatic sigh before striding up to John and aggressively swatting his arm, causing his spoils to fall to the forest floor. "What the he...!" he growled out before the woman's lips caught his aggressively. The force of it pushed him back, luckily a tree was there to catch his weight, but the impact was less then pleasant. Natalie was on the attack, not allowing John much room for escape, but eventually he was able to free himself from the surprisingly strong blonde. John's obvious struggle caused Natalie to groan disbelievingly, "ya making this difficult!"

"Yeah, I normally defend myself from attacks," the man stated flatly, pushing Natalie's shoulders back as best he could. She rolled her eyes at his statement before forcing herself forward again, pressing as much of her body against the much larger survivors bulky form.

"Wha'? It wasn't obvious I came out here for differen' kind o' wood?" Natalie laughed heartily as she reached out to rake her nails across his stomach.

"Obviously, not enough," John wavered as the small woman's nimble hands shot down to the front of his pants and applied pressure. When he quickly swatted downward to cease her movement she relentlessly dove forward to sloppily extract further stolen kisses. When a hard bite pierced his bottom lip, John finally gained enough fire to push his attacker back forcefully.

"No means no, woman," the soldier swore as he swiped at his lip to pull back a light smear of blood.

Natalie stood back apprehensively, arms crossed as she regarded the recovering male. "Really? There's a lot I could do with all tha'," she snickered, wiggling her eyebrows and pointedly staring down to his hips.

"Yeah, really. Let's just go back," he said, reaching down to collect his fallen burning material, if not a bit angrily. Natalie gave another gave another disappointed sigh before she spoke, turning to leave without assisting with any of the kindling, "you people are leavin' me on fumes!"

The soldier arrived back at camp to find the European lounging, seemingly unfazed by her failed seduction attempt. The man discreetly rolled his eyes before dropping the weight in his arms next to Brian and the fire he was nursing.

Virra came waltzing back just in time, slipping the weapon from her back as she shoved it into Natalie's eye sight. "Your turn," the red head stated matter of factly, dropping the rifle into the blonde's lap when she didn't reach out for it in what Virra deemed a timely manner.

"Gives me time to relieve some stress, I think," Natalie declared as she went to take up guard duty. John almost blushed at the thought of it before Virra plopped heavily down next to him and quickly knocking his thoughts out, bless her.

"Alright, what's for dinner?" The country woman asked breezily, leaning back on her hands merrily, having been lucky enough to avoid any of the same awkward moment's John had to endure.