Scraping Out A Living in What is Left

"Well, nice to meet you Sarah." She said. "Now, let's not try and kill each other, for it's not the only means of survival." She said softly, holding out her hand to shake Sarah's. "If you don't try to hurt my friends and I, then I won't hurt you, and I'll keep my friends from it too." She said, glancing back quickly as she spoke. "Deal?" She asked, a friendly tone in her voice.
 
Sarah was reluctant to shake the offered hand looking at it and then back at the one who extended it. She shuffled quietly before realizing something.

"Deal. After you tell me your name." Sarah spoke shaking her former prey's hand, it was oddly warm in hers. A warmth that Sarah hadn't had for the longest time.
 
She shook her hand as Sarah accepted. "I did, I'm Jae." She said, a smile playing on her lips.
 
Sarah nodded. She felt awkward for making that slight mistake, the girl's introduction had somehow slipped her mind. She was probably to preoccupied wondering the intentions of this group. She retrieved her hand and slipped it into her coat's pocket, it was weird working with someone else. The prominent fact that she might be travelling with everyone made her wonder what it'd be like. Noticing the lady still stood by her Sarah decided to just talk.

"You guys have some crazy stuff going on. Fire, ice?" Sarah questioned.
 
Jae paused. "I'm not sure about the ice.." she said looking back at Snowman, then realization dawned on her and she faced Sarah one more. "You mean, you weren't tested?" She asked quietly. She'd never met someone who wasn't tested..of course then again, she'd only met these guys since she'd left the lab with her friends.
 
Sarah tilted her head curiously at Jae's reaction to her simple question. Sarah replied with a brief shrug and a glance towards the man who controlled ice. She swayed quietly from her toes to her heel.

"I've no idea what your talking about." Sarah replied honestly turning back to Jae. Sarah wondered what Jae meant by tested, the only thing she could remember that seemed even slightly reminiscent to that was a memory of her father whispering to her mother. There was mentions about a test or something, she was still very young at the time.
 
"The-the aliens..." she broke off for a minute. "The aliens tested people..doing horrible things..most I don't think made it out..but..that's why I can teleport..and they can do stuff.." She broke off again. "Where..where did you go when the aliens attacked..?" she asked quietly, her smile disappeared and was replaced by curiosity.
 
Sarah couldn't believe what she was hearing. Aliens? Tests? What is this lady talking about? Her mother never said anything like that, she just told Sarah that the world is very dangerous and that anywhere aside from the forest they lived in she could possibly meet her death. Sarah pushed her tongue to the inside of her cheek awkwardly. She couldn't help but feel dumb for not knowing.

"I have no fucking idea what your talking about." Sarah admitted innocently.
 
Jae paused. "Okay." She said simply, sitting in the floor again. She was worn out, the teleportation was draining her energy. "It's okay..If you don't know, it'd be hard to explain.." She said again.
 
Snowman didn't move at all feeling the barrel of the man's rifle against his chest. They always go for the touch guy act, he thought, "Kind of stupid isn't it?" He began, lighting up a cigarette he pulled from a slightly crumpled pack he extracted from his jacket pocket, "Treating everyone like a criminal when they either need help or are trying to help. She's just a child, so yes I gave her some food, she'd probably be a bit more docile if you'd done the same." He said, exhaling a puff of smoke carried up and behind him in the soft breeze. "It's my job by the way, helping people if I have the means, Part of the MCM training exercizes."
 
She glanced over at Snowman. "What's a MCM?" She asked, still sitting on the ground.
 
Sarah also sat on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest tightly. She looked over at Jae who questioned the man about what he was saying, Sarah understood why she didn't really understand what he was talking, frankly Sarah didn't know what anyone was saying so she just ended up questioning Jae again.

"What do you mean? I can probably understand.." Sarah questioned again.
 
Jae looked back at Sarah, debating whether to try or not. After a minute or two, she answered. "Aliens..they..they attacked Earth, taking some humans to lab and doing...doing horrible tests on them. These tests, they either mutated them, or killed them. Very few actually survived..and, well, I think that sums it all up, but I don't know everything, I was really little." She stopped, her eyes now set on the ground. "So..yeah." She glanced back over to Snowman, hoping he'd answer.
 
"Motor City Militia, military police basically, we kept peace in Detroit, till we were sacked by raiders taking advantage of being the only sentient species on the planet again. Militia fell, those of us still alive are spread out, I ended up here." He said, flashing his rank stripes, two straight bars over the right shoulderonly a slightly darker shade of green than his jacket. He took another drag, "We started as a resistance, trying to fight off the ET's, never got to it cause they vanished, gotta be careful though, there's still a few roaming around."
 
Jae nodded. "Okay..that makes sense." She said, turning her gaze back to the ground and taking a deep breath before standing back up and turning to Magnus, Rose, and John. "So, do we want to continue on, or wait until sunrise?" She asked, motioning to the setting sun and darkening sky.
 
"You know what? That's a great idea. Next time raiders come up, I'll just throw food at them and they'll leave, yeah?" He shook his head and stood straight, lowering the barrel of his rifle. He pulled his mask off and glared at him. "Next time someone's threatening a member of my group, I'll give them food and they'll leave. They really teach you that shit in your little mash up militia?"

"Ambrose...knock it off."

"Hell no. This little Lt thinks he's so great for being part of a militia! Sounds like he needs his ass kicked to me!"

Maggie walked up and put her back up against her brother's chest. "Yeah, he probably does. But what did The Resistance teach you?"

"To kill aliens and raiders and anything else that moved."

"And to protect those who can't protect themselves."

"Protect them. Not starve myself feeding them. And that little kid over there seems perfectly capable of protecting herself. She's at least armed."

"Yeah, but she looks like she's like...12 or something..."

He looked down at his sister, lips tight, sighing through his nose. He took the slightest step back and sighed. "Well, I'm going to go kill some Crawlers and get you and I some food."

"So, now I can't fend for myself?"

"With a clear head, sure you can. But I don't need you melting into a screaming ball of helplessness in the middle of a hive of crawlers." He said, turning and starting to walk down the street to the aforementioned supermarket.

Magnolia rolled her eyes and looked at Snowman. "You shouldn't talk to my brother like that. Only reason he didn't kill you is because he thinks the sight of blood upsets me."
 
Sarah surprised by Jae's words of course started being skeptical about it, I mean aliens? Really? But then again it made total sense, her parents did warn her of strange creatures like crawlers when she was small, but she just grew up think this was what the world was normally like and how its always been like. But then again she had only seen her fourteenth birthday.

"Well..that would make sense I guess.." Sarah spoke not really knowing what else to say. Was she supposed to act comforting or what? Sarah just sat in the same position quietly until Ambrose? She thought that was his name decided to go hunt some of the crawlers. Sarah stood up and walked over to him before he could leave.

"Can I come with you?" Sarah asked innocently, almost child-like in some senses.
 
John would admit, he leaned towards Ambrose's argument on this particular issue. She was a kid, yeah, but she was a threat. You really couldn't expect that she'd automatically become your best friend if you gave her food. Some part of him knew that that was crap and it was just his base instincts talking, but he sighed softly and pushed the subject from his mind. He was weird around people. He always had been, and he probably always would be.
"Yeah, sure, why not?" he replied to Sarah's question. When it came to crawlers, the more armed people there were, the better off it tended to go. She seemed decent with that bow, if not particularly experienced with the wretched things. Not that he'd let his guard down. It'd be a while before he did any of that. Ignoring Snowman for the most part, he set off after Ambrose.
 
Jae stood up when Ambrose started off. She fiddled with the knife on her belt, falling back beside Snowman. "Hey, not all people are okay with being told that they should do something different. I understand your point, but just try and be careful." She said, putting her knife back and taking a breath, moving her gaze up to scan the area surrounding them.
 
Snowman rolled his eyes, "No, you help when you can fight when you must, you all seem rather capable of nonlethally defending yourself from a starved child desperate for a meal. Is that what they taught you in the resistance, kill everything and everyone who isn't already an ally? I don't know if you've noticed but humanity can't afford to treat everyone like a raider, or have you forgotten that we're supposed to help rebuild civilization?!" He barked, after the girl tried calming the gas mask adorned rifleman down.

She spoke to him, warning him, he brushed it off, "If he was really taught to simply kill, he's no better than the bandits, no better than the ET's. We should be helping rebuild what they took from us, looks like all he wants to do is make everyone an enemy." He replied, he turned toward a damaged but mostly intact supermarket, "I'm gonna do some recon, try and see if that supermarket'd be a safe place for you and your friends to sleep tonight, tell him he's welcome to help me, the war is over now, military should be focused on helping, not fighting...." He said, clear derision in his voice as he took off fast down to a fallen plane in the back of the supermarket crawling up inside noticing the cockpit was inside the supermarket. He heard voices, voices ringing with dissociation of reality, drenched in psychosis, bandits, clicking, rhythmic tapping on hard floors, the pitter patter of arthropodic legs, soft screeches, blades, splashing of fluids, the psychos were on a bug hunt.
 
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