Scraping Out A Living in What is Left

Mind reading?
It was pretty far fetched, even with some of the crazy things he'd seen others do, but who was he to talk? It explained the coincidences before.
As for the glowing in the dark thing...It explained her nickname for him.
And he'd love to join the whole mutant party, but he didn't really trust these people enough to give that away. Oh, dammit, she already knew, didn't she? Bah. John sighed softly, then decided to just throw it out there.
"I'm a mutt too. Not from the experiments, but from the radiation. I start fires." He crossed his arms, then figured he should clarify. "It needs fuel, though. Like, I can light someone's hair on fire, but I can't turn my hand into a torch." There was...actually a story to go with the first example. Not something he preferred sharing, and he carefully avoided thinking about it.
 
Maggie looked up at the other two, settling her eyes on Jae. "Missing from what?" She asked, narrowing her eyes slightly at the woman.

Ambrose sighed. "I'm Ambrose. My sister is Magnolia." He glanced over at John. The experiments had been horrible, but he couldn't imagine being changed because of the radiation. In his mind, it put them on different levels of mutant. Of course, everyone standing there was a higher quality than the creatures that ran about. The animals that mutates together or the humans that became nothing more than mindless monsters that wandered the wastes. Almost worse than the raiders.

Magnolia turned and started digging through her brother's backpack, then looked around. "I'm hungry now..."

Ambrose shook her away from his backpack and stood up, pulling his sister to her feet as well. "Well, lets see if we can find some food." He glanced at the other two. "...I guess we could use the help." He said reluctantly. But he knew he'd never hear the end of it from his sister if he didn't offer.
 
Jae glanced over to the girl. "When they left, my friends and I split up, deciding we'd meet across the forest about half an hour ago so we could build our own little town, a place of refuge. I was wondering if they had realized I'm not heading that way right now." If they did...they might not be happy when I get back. She glanced up at the sky, watching the clouds carefully for a minute before looking down to the girl who said she was hungry. She pulled a few protein bars from her pocket. "Here. Take them."
 
"I have some food in my pack."
John immediately cursed himself after he said it, but he knew he didn't mean it. He had food, and he may as well share. It was going to be eaten anyway. Protein bars, although sustaining, tasted like cardboard. Not like he'd know what that tasted like or anything.
"Got enough for all four of us," he said, nodding. It'd last you a few days on the road, his logical side told him, but he was pretty set on sharing. The aliens had left, after all, and where would humanity be without generosity?
 
Jae shrugged, putting the bars back in her pocket except for one. She opened it and took a bite, not minding how it tasted. I guess I'll keep these, they'll keep my energy up. She thought as she took another bite, hopping up on a broken wall to sit.
 
Ambrose looked at the two strangers. "Well, there's an old supermarket down the road some. There should be some canned food unless raiders got to it first. That's where I was headed anyway...I guess we could use some help making sure it's cleared out if there are raiders or mutants in it..."

"Or crawlers."

He shuddered, thinking about the creatures that were some sort of rat with too many elbows and a bite that would cause flesh to rot where it was. Like humans and rats and roaches that were all squished into one horrible creature that would sooner bite off someone's face than walk past. They were easily enough done away with, a shot to the head and they went down. The problem was they traveled in swarms and were just generally unsanitary, nasty, mean creatures. "Yes, or crawlers..."

"I really don't like crawlers."

"I know." He stood up and shifted his gear around so it was as comfortable as it would get. "So, how about we head that way, clear the place out, and look for anything edible that's left? And if there's nothing, maybe we'll take y'all up on your food offer."
 
Jae looked over to them. "Crawlers? Huh. Sure, I'll go." She slid off the wall, tucking the wrapper back in her pocket.
 
Dammit. Crawlers? He hated the damn things. Their beady little eyes, the pack mentality, the way they'd swarm you and rot your flesh. Damn, he hated the things. His shotgun was effective at dealing with they, however, but he didn't want to waste ammo. Still, the chance of food was worth the risk.
"Yeah, sure," John replied, nodding. "I'll come. Might find water, too."
 
"Who wants to lead?" She asked, trying to break the silence. She glanced between the three people, hoping they'd answer.
 
Ambrose let out a sound that was some weird mix between a growl and a snort. He pulled his gas mask out again and pulled it on, then pulled his hood back up and started walking.

Magnolia rolled her eyes at her brother and slipped her hands into her pockets, following Ambrose. "Amby knows where we're going. I mean, so do I, but...ya know...he likes thinking he's in charge."
 
John chuckled softly to himself, nodding. Well, these two might not be so bad. He wouldn't volunteer to travel with them, but he wouldn't mind it. The man, Ambrose, was a like-minded survivalist, and the girl was interesting enough. Cute, too, but he avoided thinking about that.
"He always like this?" he asked Maggs, lifting his eyebrows and looking in her direction.
 
Maggs, who seemed to have her mind back under control now, smirked at John. "Quiet? Angry? Untrusting? Hiding behind a gas mask so people can't see how he truly feels? Yeah. Pretty much."

Ambrose didn't say much, though a hissing could be heard through his mask that indicated a heavy, tired sigh. He loved his sister to death, he really did, but sometimes she was so annoying!!
 
Sarah sighed quietly as she tried to keep the pace up, she had been tailing the pair of siblings looking for a weak-point to try and attack. It seemed ruthless but her rucksack was beginning to empty and her stomach even more so. Nature was being cruel for quite a spell, seeing as she hasn't had anything to hunt aside from squirrels, and even then she'd be lucky to get one a day.

Much to her distaste the two of them had managed to group up. It was weird how they could be as comfortable with total strangers as they were, last time she was that trusting she got a slice down the arm from a damned hebephilliac. It seemed they found a pack of crawlers, at least from what was barely audible. To a looter like herself, this could be a bad or a good thing, good being they win and their weak and tired so easy to pick off from a distance and bad being they lose and the crawlers direct themselves to her.

Then she decided to risk it. Sarah figured that her chances of getting their stuff now was higher then their survival rate so she took her bow out and set her arrow, pulling it backwards, but who was there to aim at? The newcomer? The girl? Sarah decided to aim for the most dangerous of the bunch, shifting her position so that the tip of the arrow was facing towards the man with the gas mask.
 
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Jae started to speak. "How about I lead? I mean..I could scout it out for you all, try to redirect the crawlers so you all can get supplies." she shrugged. "It's the least I could do."
 
"I'm not that angry," John replied, huffing and crossing his arms. He didn't think he was, but how you view your own problems tends to be skewed. "Besides, I don't have a fancy gas mask." He'd let Jae and Ambrose figure out who led between them. He'd gone solo for long enough to forget what being around people was like, and definitely forgot what it was like to not take the lead. It was better than he remembered.
 
Walking, that's all he'd done the last few days since his truck ran out of fuel. He was now perched on the peak of a pile of rocks that appeared to have once been part of a building, a can of ravioli in his hand. He'd been eating it unheated, shoveling a fork full down every couple of seconds, enjoying every last bite, as it could very well be the last he saw of the stuff. It wasn't long however before his silent meal was interrupted by speech patterns, actual people, and they didn't sound like they'd lost it.

He rolled backwards, his can ending up falling off the rubble to his dismay, hearing the thunks and clunks of the can falling. Anybody smart would've seen the can had been freshly opened and emptied. He held his extended barrel SMG in his hands ready to fight if need be, though he'd prefer not to use the bullets. He could tell from the voices he was outnumbered and was only hoping that none of them had excellent hearing.
 
Jae listened to the conversations, sighing and climbing back up on her rock. She was careful to keep her thoughts clear, adjusting her gaze to the clouds above. I haven't been able to actually sit still in so long..it's so..different. She ignored the instinctive feeling to look around, but it nagged in the back of her head.
 
Speaking of things nagging at the back of one's head, Maggie rubbed hers and looked around. She suddenly very terribly missed ravioli. Specifically the kind from a can. And she couldn't help the nagging feeling she needed to be aiming at something. "Ambrose..."

No matter how annoyed he was with his sister, he had learned to pick out that specific tone of voice that told him she was hearing voices, specifically the dangerous type. They weren't too close to the super market yet, so something else had to be wrong. He turned around to look at his sister. "What is it?"

"Something's wrong." She said, hurrying up to him and grabbing his arm.

"What? What's wrong?"

"I...I..it's..it's like...intense concentration..." She shut her eyes and pressed her forehead against his shoulder. "And ravioli. And...and I think aiming...and spilled ravioli and disappointment, and then hunger and...and the back of your head..."

Ambrose looked around quickly and put his arm around his sister's shoulders. He looked at Jae and John through the tinted glass of his gas mask. "We should hurry up. I think we're being followed."
 
Jae nodded at this, understanding her instinctive pull. "Okay. I-" Her sentence was cut off by a small pull in the back of her head again as she teleported off the path, falling a foot from the air onto the ground. She stood up, shaking her head and rubbing her shoulder. This is so stupid..It's going to get me killed..I swear, at the worst times.. She calmed down, taking a deep breath before realizing she was 30 feet in front of the group. She closed her eyes, facing the sky before starting back towards them. "Random uncontrolled teleportation, how nice." She said to no one.
 
Sarah's fingers lightly brushed her bowstring, ready to send the shot when the girl, his sister? all the sudden got in her way and acting very odd. She was muttering words inaudible to the hunter and when all the sudden they began to pick up the pace she cursed aloud.

"Damnit! I'll just go for a more direct approach then.."

The girl lowered her bow and arrow slightly, although she kept it set in case and began to sprint, sprint enough to where she was in front of them, her initial plan was to call out a warning and aim at the girl who had somehow sensed her but when one of them teleported she took the chance. Her bow went up and the arrow tensed.

"Stop moving! Or I'll shoot this girl!" Sarah shouted still concealed in the environment, although she made sure her hostage could see her.
 
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