Scraping Out A Living in What is Left

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TorTracyn

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Most still alive remembered what it had been like on the day they came. The older generations, anyway. Anyone born in the last 20 years only knew pain, poverty, work, and death. They knew that if they were awake, they should be working, and that a dreamless sleep was the only rest they were allowed. The majority of the population left alive was forced into the mines. Those that weren't toiling away and waiting for death were praying for it inside what used to be hospitals, enduring horrible test after horrible test.

There were a few living on the fringes of the mining camps or out in what was left of the wilderness, hidden away from the alien overlords. They were the ones fighting back. Even if it did no good, it gave them hope. It gave all humans hope. Hope that one day, they would all be free again. The indomitable human spirit would always persevere.




Ambrose Drustan Montgomery III watched the ships leave from the rooftop he was standing on, able to see the sun properly for the first time in 20 long years...even through the tinted glass of his gas mask. Twenty long, long years, the sun had been blocked out by alien ships and alien exhaust. Not that the world had been cast into some crazy darkness, but there had always been cloud cover or smog cover or whatever someone wanted to call it, or a big ship covering everything in shade like a solar eclipse. Tears threatened the corners of his eyes. There was no way...could they really have hope now? Could they honestly rebuild? Have some semblance of a normal life once again? Dare he hope?
"They're leaving..." came the soft, distant voice of his sister. She stared up at the ships, her green eyes wide but not in astonishment. They just...got that way sometimes. A childlike wonder in them now and again. "I can hear them...they're leaving...they're done..."
"You know I don't dare to hope that, Maggs..."
"They are." She turned her eyes towards her brother, listening to the sound of his breathing through his mask. "There's a sense of...of going home...it's a wonderful feeling..."
He was thankful for the dust that created a film on his mask. It meant she couldn't see the tear slide down his cheek. "I bet it is, Maggs. I bet it is." He heaved a sigh which whistled softly through his mask. "Come on...we need to get you out of the sun, now..."

"But I like the sun." She turned her face up towards the rays that were beating down, now, in what was the normal heat of summer around the town of Il Phia. (No one remembered the city's original name.)

"Maggs, no. Come on." He walked over to door of the stairwell that he had broken in order to get them up onto the roof. He turned to look at his sister. "Come on."

"You're no fun." The woman said, dropping her hands to her side in an exasperated fashion. She followed her brother into the dark, creepy stairwell and started heading down to the street level. How that was going to get her out of the sun, she had no idea. And she hated hearing her brother's grumbling, hopeless thoughts. She liked it when he remembered their parents. It was the only way she could remember how they looked...

Ambrose was mostly mentally cursing the fact he glowed in the dark. It made seeing through the lens of his gas mask in the dark nearly impossible. All he could see was the reflection of his own stupid glowing face...


(( http://www.iwakuroleplay.com/threads/post-alien-invasion-apocalypse-anyone.28831/ the OOC :) ))
 
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(( Random suggestion, you might want to link the OOC thread so that potential joiners can go back and forth between the two. c: ))
Honestly, John wasn't sure he would be able to breathe again. The sunlight peeking through the clouds wasn't what struck him so much as the ships leaving. He'd been in the Resistance for years now. Ever since he could fight properly. Now, they were leaving? Just like that? Cold, logical reasoning told him that they would come back, but he could deal with that then. If the bastards ever came back, they'd find a hell of a lot more than just nukes waiting for them.
So, he pushed the thought from his mind. Smiled, for once.
It wasn't something he normally did, not for a good while. It'd hadn't been a decade or anything, but it'd been long enough since he'd met up with the last gang of fellow Resistance fighters that making the expression felt like he was stretching his facial muscles.
That's probably a bad thing.
Shifting his weight and adjusting the roughly patched together rucksack on his back, he kept walking. The sack was pretty ordinary, contents-wise. Some spare shotgun shells, extra clothes, metal scraps, interesting salvage items, and whatever food and water supplies he could scrounge up. A sawed-off shotgun rested in the improvised holster at his hip, and that gun had become like his best friend.
It'd been a wile since he'd had contact with other humans, too, he knew.
Also probably a bad thing.
Then he heard voices. Indistinct, probably far away, but in the relative silence of the wrecked city, he could hear them well. Quickly dropping into cover behind a wall, he slid the shotgun out of its holster and cursed under his breath. He hoped he wouldn't have to use it. Enough humans had died already, he didn't need to add more. But it's better to be prepared.
 
((Shhhhh! Hush you, with your intelligent ideas!!))

Ambrose squinted a bit as he threw open the front door of the abandoned office building. He looked around the silent street, feeling like any living thing in the area could hear his breathing as it hissed through the gas mask. When he couldn't see any threats, he stood up straight and let his rifle hang loose on its strap. He pushed his hood back off his head and took off the gas mask, taking in a nice, deep breath. He tucked the mask away into a pouch on his belt and looked around. "Which way?"

Magnolia smirked and reached over, messing with her brother's sweaty hair that was sticking up at odd angles thanks to the straps of his mask. "We aren't alone, Amby."

"What do you mean, we aren't alone?"

"There's someone down the street. We should go meet them."

"Maggs, no." He pushed her hand away and narrowed his eyes at her. "What if it's a raider?"

"Theeeeen...I don't know. But we should go." She spun on her heel and started walking. "Hey! Person hiding!! I wanna talk to you!"

"God damn it, Maggs!" He hurried after her. "Stop it!"
 
John could hear the pair talking, now. They were closer than he had thought. Came from an upper level, maybe? He couldn't make out the words, by he could pick out two voices. One male, one female. Then the girl started speaking louder, yelling to...
How the hell did she know?
Well, she knew he was there. John had no doubt about that. Why would she shout like that for any other reason? Guess that eliminated raider. They didn't usually announce their presence, they just ambushed you and took your stuff. So, he supposed it was safe. And if it wasn't, he was a damn fast draw with his shotgun. Mumbling curses, he slid the gun back into its holster and stepped out from behind the wall.
"Uh, hey."
 
Magnolia's first response to his thoughts was to smirk. He sounded just like her brother did. Then, it got a little hard to figure out which curses were being grumbled from who's head. She frowned and started concentrating, trying to sort everything out, which, made her miss him saying hello.

Which, of course, left the pleasantries to the least pleasant of the two. "Hey." He looked the other male over, from head to toe, to take stock of all weapons, how he was dressed, etc. Well, he sure as hell wasn't a raider. One, he didn't dress like it. Two, he hadn't skinned them alive and hung them from a fire escape by a butcher's hook just for his own amusement. Three, raiders never traveled alone. And, he really didn't look like any sort of mutant, either. Of course, Ambrose really wasn't one to talk on that subject.

Magnolia shook her head suddenly and looked at the two. She grinned at the new guy and bounced forward to extend her hand. "Hello. I'm Magnolia Rosemary Montgomery!"

"Maggs..."

"And this is my brother Ambrose Drustan Montgomery III!"

"Maggs..."

"Who're you?"

"Maggs! Stop it!"

"What!"

"Stop giving out personal information to strangers!"
 
It's not like I'm going to steal your identity, John thought to himself. He didn't know them nearly well enough to voice that thought, however, and he likely wouldn't get to know either that well. Skillfully hiding his amusement at the two, he kept his face impassive.
"John Dawson," he stated simply, shaking the girl's outstretched hand.
Looking between them, he quickly assessed threat levels. The man, Ambrose. He was the one to watch out for. The girl didn't seem all that threatening, but with the mutations he'd seen, you could never tell by first glance. So, he'd just mark them both as dangerous and proceed with caution.
 
"See??"

"See what? No. Maggs, don't. You keep your mouth shut right now."

"It isn't like he's going to steal our identities!"

"No more talking!"

"I hate you." She turned around and smiled at John. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Dawson. Please ignore my brother. He's just mad because he's a jerk."

Ambrose rubbed his face and heaved a very frustrated sigh. I'm mad because my sister can't keep her stupid mouth shut when spouting shit that could get the both of us killed!

"It isn't getting us killed at all!" She said, turning to look at her brother again. "He's nice!"
 
How had she...Was that coincidence? Her repeating of his thought, almost word for word? It had to be. It wasn't like she was telepathic, right?
John didn't really want to stand here awkwardly while these two argued about him. Running away wasn't really an option. Firing a warning shot would be disastrous, especially if the other man was as tense as he appeared to be. So, he interjected. Loudly.
"Alright, look. Relax. I won't shoot you, you don't shoot me, we'll just talk for a bit and go on about our merry way, yeah?" he asked, lifting his eyebrows. He wouldn't mind getting a little information, since they'd come in a different direction than he had.
After a second, he added, "We could try and be a little civilized, you know."
 
"Yeah, shut up, GlowStick." She grinned and turned back to John. "Where are you coming from?"

"GlowStick!?" He sighed and shook his head, moving over to lean up against the nearest building. "Fine. You talk. I'll keep an eye out for anything else dangerous. I know you were taught not to speak to strangers..."

Magnolia just ignored her brother this time. Once you gained the ability to crawl around in other people's minds, people stopped being strangers. "What sort of information are you looking for?"
 
Glowstick? Where did that nickname come from, he couldn't help but wonder.
"I cam from the South," John told her, nodding in that direction. "I'm just wondering which way I should head."
Wait. How had she known he was looking for information? Now he was suspicious. More than he had been previously. One coincidence could be passed off as random, but two? Something was up. He just didn't exactly have a logical explanation. Mutation, maybe? Hell if he knew.
 
Jae walked slowly along the forest, not really paying attention to sounds more than she was looking for movement. Next thing she knew, she felt a small tug in her head and she was hanging upside-down from a tree. "Great. this is really starting to bother me.." She said, pulling herself to a sitting position and trying to free her foot. It wasn't until she got it completely untangled that she realized that she could hear voices. She looked down and saw three people. Immediately her hand went to her best knife. She paused. Do they know I'm here? She asked herself. She hated this random teleportation, and she hated the aliens even more. Are these people safe? She sat there silently, watching.
 
Maggs was about to answer, she had just opened her mouth to tell him that going north along the city's road wasn't safe, when something new slammed into her head like the tip of a dagger. She cried out and held her head, dropping down to pull her knees to her chest and keep her hands around her head.

Ambrose jumped up from his place at the wall and looked around, his gun held at the ready. "What?? What is it?"

"T-teleporter??"

"What kind of teleporter?"

"I don't know! It hurts!" She sniffed and stayed curled up.

He snapped his eyes accusingly to John. "What did you do? Who did you bring with you??"
 
"I didn't do anything! I'm alone! Fuck!" His voice was almost hysterical. The man was horrible in stressful situations, with the exception of combat. When it was something like this, though, with no direction for his thoughts to go in, they were just all over the place.
John had seen the girl crumple, and automatically got down on his knees to see what was wrong.
Teleporter?
He looked around quickly, finally stopping on the grove of trees.
Movement.
His thoughts organized quickly.
"Show yourself!" he shouted, drawing the shotgun automatically and standing.
 
"Who are you?" She asked, letting herself fall out of the tree and landing softly on her feet, her dagger in her hand. "Where'd you get a shotgun?" Her red eyes scanned the group carefully. They look like a group...of course..you can never tell. "Is the girl okay?" She said after a moment, dropping her hand and putting the dagger back in it's place.
 
John's scrambled, frantic thoughts weren't helping Maggy's situation any. Not that he'd know that. She pulled at her hair and was about to grab him and scream at him when he stood up. Suddenly, everyone's thoughts were in the same place. The men's thoughts at any rate. And with Jae's thoughts so calm and concerned, Magnolia started calming down.

Which was a huge relief to Ambrose, though he wasn't going to drop his guard as he aimed his rifle at Jae. "Are you the teleporter?" He asked in a commanding voice. If she wasn't, then they had more trouble on their hands. If she was, then, well...maybe that would be ok. Maybe he'd be able to relax a little.
 
Jae nodded a little. "I-I'm sorry if I hurt her. I can't help it. It happens randomly. You know the aliens..did they test you?" Her red eyes flashed crimson with anger and fear. "They..I don't know. It's like they shifted my DNA. Now I can teleport within 200 feet. Wait...watch." She closed her eyes, her face becoming neutral and she let her arms hang limp by her sides. She stood there for a minute and suddenly disappeared, reappearing 20 feet in front of them. She opened her eyes slowly. There was no trace of happiness or joy in what she just did. In fact, her eyes radiated the deep hatred of her new ability. "It's terrible. I can't always control it. I didn't mean to be here." Jae glanced back at the girl. "She is okay, right?"
 
"I found it," he replied to the girl's question about his gun.
Well, took it from a raider who was stupid enough to attack him without the support of his group. She didn't need to know that.
At her latest question, he looked down at Maggy. She seemed to be calming down, but appearances could be deceiving. "Are you alright?" he asked her, concern evident in his voice. Because dammit, the world may have gone to hell and the aliens may have invaded, but he was going to retain a little empathy. Not too much, not enough to compromise him, but a little. Of course, you couldn't exactly control how empathetic you were, but he was set on fooling himself.
 
Jae watched the young girl carefully, sitting on her knees to show she didn't want to hurt anyone. Why did my teleporting hurt her so bad? I didn't land on top of her...I don't think. She glanced back at the tree, then the girl. Nope. Then she looked at the group again. "Are you guys a group?"
 
Maggie flinched when she teleported again, but sighed and nodded, uncurling and sitting down on the ground. "Yeah..." She sniffed and sighed again, pulling out a handkerchief (or a bit of cloth at any rate) to hold it to her now-bleeding nose. "I'm fine...just...thoughts shouldn't jump out of the blue like that..."

Ambrose did have some sympathy for the girl, though her ability was completely unnerving to him. The ability to disappear and reappear at will was not something that was going to get him to trust her. Though, the fact that she had also been experimented on gained her points in his favor. "We both know what you mean. With the alien experiments." He crouched down beside his sister and rubbed her back. "She rads minds now. No way to turn it off. I've developed side-effects too."

"Amby glows in the dark..."

"Maggs..."

"Sorry..."
 
"I'm glad you're okay." She gave a small, relieved sigh. So they do know what the experiments were like..and she can read my mind...don't answer that. She looked over to the girl. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, I was just ambling around." I wonder if they know I'm missing...quit it. She took a deep breath, clearing her mind. If she let her thoughts wander, then she wouldn't be able to concentrate on if she randomly teleported again. "I only have half control over it. It's really inconvienent. I'm Jae, by the way. It's nice to meet some humans that aren't..well..brain dead."
 
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