Snippet #1063011

Eris caught the lighter in her hand, slipping it back in her pocket in a swift motion. She watched the girl with mild interest, amused that the situation was going so smooth and calm. It let Eris feel better about herself, at least. And what this girl, who appeared to be about the same age as herself, said next made her feel even better. She said she was from the area, and mentioned nothing of the States. Eris’s past would be safely secret as long as she continued to meet those from here. I’m on a roll, and she smiled at the thought.

“Oh, so you are from Exodar? How convenient,” she said in a slick, but polite tone of voice, “So you know the area fairly well. A nice plus.” And it was. Knowing your grounds was key to survival. And now that Eris had become an official resident of Exodar, she would have to learn the area ASAP. Eris walked over towards her golf cart, grabbing one of the steel bars that held it together. It glistened under the light from the sun, and it was warm to touch. She had kept her eyes on the girl the entire time. The bat she held made Eris want to feel close to her own bag of weapons, which laid like a lump in the passenger seat of the cart. Just for comfort, of course. She didn’t need or want to draw any weapon now. She had to play it cool.

Then the man that had driven the pair on the bike reappeared from the gas station’s store, yet from directly behind Eris-- almost too close for comfort, like he meant to scare her. She didn’t jump or budge in the slightest, instead froze like a statue. Her breath paused for a moment. Bastard, you did that on purpose, she concluded; why else would he get so close behind, and speak so softly? He probably meant nothing of it... He probably thought he was being funny, in fact. But something about him sparked her a bit off. Unintentionally pushing her buttons, so to say. And that realization made Eris sigh, because she knew she would have to overcome her disgust of men. How all the ones in her life back home were pigs, nasty horrible pigs, like her father. But now all those men were dead because of the disease, thanks to her Almighty of course. If the nasty pigs were gone, maybe only decent men were left. She would have to give this theory a study, maybe even a test in time. For now she didn’t react to Lyulf, his name that he had whispered so devishly behind her back before she could see his face. And Tanwen. Very interesting names to say the least. Nothing like the names back home, like Sarah, Helen, Cathy, or Sue -- your cookie cutter baby names.

It was time for her to answer his question, and she would be honest, for now. “Dallas, Texas, and the pleasure is all mine to meet you, Ly Bareket,” she chimed in some old fashioned southern accent for the kicks of it. It was that sweet southern bell talk that her crazy mother had always blabbed in. Even when Eris moved out to the Rocky Mountains to get away from Texas, that southern twang still found its was to hang in there. Maybe being in this new place will help it wear off, but accents were hard to fight. “And sorry hun, no family traveling with me. All are dead,” she muttered, looking away back at the dead body of the man across the street. The facts of their death would be quite easy to explain. The disease, the perfect lie.

The girl began to speak again. “The center sounds great to me,” Eris said shortly, wanting to follow them for now. It would be fun to have some company, to keep her distracted from thinking. “There are supposed to be a couple million people still alive,” she added, hearing it on the news, CNN. Eris took her pack of cigarettes out again and grabbed another smoke, lighting it quickly. She would hang around these two until they no longer wanted her. Maybe her red eyes would scare them, especially at night. She wondered how they would react to the red, nocturnal glow of her eyes once the sun would set. She hopped in her driver’s seat of the cart, and started the engine with her now full tank. “I will follow you all, but this thing is kind of slow.” Her smiled traveled first to Lyulf, then softened a tad more when she glanced at Tanwen. They seemed to like her, good.