Last of Us(Equinoxsol)

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"I know he can come across in a...really bad way, but he's really not as bad as all that." Komeko said, pausing and resting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. She wasn't entirely used to running, at least not like Mari seemed to be. "He's just really on edge. You know how I told you before that we lived in one of the Quarantine Zones?"
 
"Yes," Mari said slowly. For the few years her mother had been alive, Mari had always been told that the quarantine zones were hardly any better than the outside world, except it was people killing each other, not infected. Food was scarce, and people were better off outside, where they could at least live on their feet. "What about the zones?"
 
"Faulklin isn't actually from the Zones. My brother took him in a couple years ago when he appeared on the border, covered in scars and wounds, and saved his life. He can't remember anyone being kind to him before then, and my brother is everything to him now, his entire reason for living. Two months ago, the Zone we were in became overrun with infected, and we got seperated and haven't seen my brother since," Komeko recounted, visibly trying to hold back tears as she recounted this. "He's incredibly distraught and on edge...borderline manic, not even knowing if my brother is alive or not. Plus, he knows how important I am to my brother, so he's really protective of me because of that, and it hasn't helped that everyone else we've come across has attacked and tried to kill us. That's why he's so touchy right now, but he's really not as bad as all that. I know maybe that's not enough reason to forgive him or come back with us, but it'd be nice to have another person around again. I know he's rude and he has a foul mouth and threatens a lot, but he won't seriously try to kill you unless you're a legitimate threat to me. He's mostly just bravado."
 
Mari took a deep, calming breath, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yeah, okay, whatever. But the moment he threatens my life, it's either I kick his ass or I leave. That's my deal. Okay?" In her eyes, it was the only way to make sure she was safe, especially around Faulklin. Komeko may think that he was a nice guy, at least on the inside, but Mari just couldn't take that sort of chance. She PREFERRED living to death, thank you very much.
 
Komeko gave an odd little chuckle that might have sounded the tiniest touch nervous.

"I'll try and make sure he remembers that, though honestly, even if he threatens I can pretty much always talk him down. Just try not to take some of the stuff he says too personally, he can be kind of a jerk about what he says someti...okay, most of the time, but honestly we don't even think he even does it consciously." Smiling, she turned back the way she'd come from, glancing back. "Anyway, shall we go back? If we don't he'll just come running unhappily to find me anyway right about now."
 
"Sure," Mari said, following Komeko briskly. Afterwards, she retreated to her mind, trying to think. Definitely, she would need to keep a weapon on her, Aurea all times, no matter what Faulklin would say. She didn't need someone like that threatening to kill her without having something to protect herself with. Sob story or no, he was still a threat. Sure, she had lost her fair share of people, but she didn't let herself become a maniac like Faulklin.
 
It couldn't have been more than a minute before they found Faulklin again, meeting him halfway since, just as Komeko had said, he'd come to find them himself anyway. Actually, Komeko was sort of surprised that he'd taken that long.

"If you're done apologizing to her or whatever, let's go," he said, offering Mari an unfriendly glare. "We've wasted enough time."

"Alright, though...she decided to come with us after all." Komeko offered up, already prepared for his protests.

"And I said I don't want her around." Faulklin retorted.

"Just give it a chance," Komeko insisted. "It just means we'll have another pair of eyes to keep watch."

"Yeah, and another mouth to feed, and possibly a bumbling idiot that'll get us killed or worse." Faulklin scoffed.

Komeko seemed to ponder her response for a moment before offering up, "If Nii-san were here, he'd be all for helping and letting her join us, and he wouldn't be happy about how inhospitable you're being. You know that."

The teen growled low in his throat and his brow twitched visibly in irritation before he turned his head away with a scoff. "Fine, do what you want, but what I said before still stands. She slows us down or turns on us, whether it be me or the infected, she's as good as dead. That's a promise."
 
"You can fucking try," Mari growled, gripping the handle of her knife. She looked him up and down. 'I can take him,' she thought to herself. 'This prick's just nothing more than a touchy asshole.' Rolling her eyes she turned to Komeko and asked, "Which direction from here?"
 
"It's to the west of us, I think," Komeko said, looking at Faulklin uncertainly.

"West, south-west-ish." Faulklin muttered. "Let's just hurry the Hell up. I started to hear more infected lurking about before I made my way here, and if it's all the same to both of you, I'd rather not get bit or torn to pieces by a pack of Clickers," he said, brushing by and taking the lead.

"I think that's something we can all agree on, right?" Komeko sighed aloud, not particularly to either one but more to the group as a whole, following just behind Faulklin.
 
Mari followed closely, ears keen and eyes sharp for danger. As they walked, she kept a close eye on Faulklin, still not trusting him. Either way, she wasn't going to sleep for a couple days, not until she was certain that he wouldn't try to kill her in her sleep.

Stretching slightly as she walked, she sighed a bit, hoping that the place they were going to had a decent bed for her and maybe a pillow and blanket, too. It had been far too long since Mari had slept on something that wasn't the ground.
 
It was quite a ways to reach their destination and admittedly there was one too many close calls of nearby Infected almost catching wind of them than either Faulklin or Komeko would have liked, though truth be told any day that was a near-miss and not an outright sprint for safety was borderline a blessing. Either way, there wasn't much chatter, a little small talk from Komeko here and there and absolutely nothing from Faulklin, though he never stopped keeping a suspicious eye on Marinda the entire way.

By the time they reached it the sun was already almost down and darkness was falling, Faulklin leading the way up the couple of steps onto the porch of a two-story house. Mostly it was boarded up, wood covering the windows quite thoroughly with symbols and weathered warnings of shootings and death graffiti'd on the outside walls, a common sight from the days when the infection first began.

Faulklin pushed the door open, only pausing for a moment to look and listen just to be safe before he stepped inside. Once both other followers were inside he shut the door and, with a muttered word for Komeko's help, the two pushed a large old couch to bar the door from anything that might try to open it and enter.

"Well...here it is." Komeko announced needlessly, gazing about the cluttered old building. Much of the inside was still in-tact and had been well-preserved, what with the openings in the place barred so no rain or sun or creatures could come in and damage the place, although with the windows covered it was a bit dark and difficult to see. "Not too bad of a place if I do say so myself. It's a good find."
 
Mari slowly circled, doing her checks that everything was in order. The building was sound, and seemed well-protected. Still, she wanted to check that nothing would catch her off guard.

"It seems like a nice place," she said, looking to Komeko and completely ignoring Faulklin. "How long do you plan on staying here?" she asked. By herself, she never stayed in one place for too long, never more than two nights. She wanted to know of something like this was permanent.
 
"Well we've been here since yesterday, but probably it won't last. Likely we'll be moving again tomorrow, but at most, we might be here three days. Faulklin doesn't want us to stay stationary any one place for too long unless we really need to," Komeko said, glancing at Faulklin as he walked further along without so much as a glance to either of them. "We might search again for supplies in the morning, but probably he isn't willing to risk it since the town has more infected than we were counting on, and we already searched around quite a bit."

She paused and looked back to Mari. "What about you? Think you're going to stick around?" After all it was no guarantee that Mari would even want to, seeing as her and Faulklin got off on the wrong foot, although this wasn't terribly surprising to Komeko with how abbrasive the boy could be.
 
"Maybe," Mari answered. "I'm still deciding. But I'm happy to help in any way possible. Besides...I don't want to have to beat up Faklklin for him bitching..." She smiled a bit, before asking, "Um...is there anything you would like help with? I can chop wood or put up new barricades..." She trailed off, putting her hands in her pockets for some sort of direction.
 
"I don't think there is..." Komeko hummed, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Did you have anything with you to eat? It's fine if not, we have a little we could split."

As the two were discussing, Faulklin opened a door that led to the garage, faint firelight from an old hanging lantern casting dim but efficient enough visibility about the room. He was greeted by a deep snort and heavy clop of a hoof by a large, dark colored horse, a small smirk forming on Faulklin's lips even as the animal flared it's nose at him.

"Y'sure don't waste time picking out when I have something for you," he murmured softly, producing a small apple from his pocket and offering it up to the eager equine, which was quick to munch on the fruit noisily.
 
"Alright," she answered, then continued with, "And I have food. I'll be happy to share, too. It's mostly some canned fruit and vegetables, but for the most part they're still good." She smiled, adjusting her bag on her shoulders. "The syrup in the fruit is good too. It's real sugary, and tastes pretty good." Most of the time, fruit was difficult to come by, and people always wanted to trade for them. Mari would be happy to share, as long as she'd get somewhere clean to sleep.
 
"Sounds good." Komeko mused. "We mostly have some stale bread and a little meat from an animal we trapped and killed. It's not much but it's better than going hungry." She shrugged slightly, walking to the kitchen and scavanging around a bit for a useable pot. "We could probably just use the fire place to at least warm some of it, though we'll probably have to hold it over the fire."
 
"That's fine," Mari said, shrugging. "Want me to start the fire?" Mari just wanted to help. She hated feeling useless, and would rather help than sit around doing nothing. She also had an old zippo lighter that still had a bit of gas in it that she could use to start a fire easily. They were helping her, so why not help them back?
 
"Sure," Komeko nodded. "There's still quite a bit of paper and books and other stuff around here we could use for fuel. I think most of it's upstairs though." She said, turning for the stairs and simultaneously fumbling with a little light strapped to her bag, flicking it on as she ascended the stairs. "Come on."
 
Mari flinched at the mention of burning books, but followed anyways, deciding that she would save whatever literature there was if she could manage it. Mari, though she had difficulty reading, loved books. Her mother had shared the love of the written word with her, and taught her some of how to read. The rest she figured out by herself. The thought of actually having some new books to read sent thrills through her. "So, do you know what kind of books they are?"
 
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