Note: I'm making this a quick post, especially since I'm writing for two characters, so Astraea's going to be a bit choppy and short.
"You could say that I'm a little fucked up."Dialogue Color: #4C0B5F
Astraea didn't sleep after everyone else disappeared into the house. Ivy blew up at her and the others, pulled another man into their little group of survivors, and then disappeared into the house, while Mr. Adonis followed suit and had a temper tantrum once inside. Melanie vanished also, and the new guy was wise not to attempt to speak to her. Instead, he too went inside, leaving her alone on the porch - just as she wanted to be.
Alone.
Always alone.
The sound of Ivy scrambling out of bed brought Astraea to her full attention. She had been sitting on the porch, watching for anything odd, for about three hours at that point. It was still dark outside, around two in the morning, and the rest of hell was breaking loose.
Launching up from her rocking chair, Astraea looked out into the distance. Throughout the darkened town, which was approximately six miles away, she could see moving, glowing orbs. Her ears twitched as she caught the gruff sounds of men speaking, just barely picking up their words, and when Ivy's voice entered her mind, her assumption was made into reality.
Those men were the ones sent to exterminate them.
She had barely enough time to grab her bag before Big Guy appeared, whispering for her to grab the truck. A curt nod later and she tossed a hammer to Mr. Adonis, who was standing there gawking, seemingly unable to process anything in his sleepy state.
"Get moving or you'll get left behind," she whispered. Tossing her bag over her shoulder, she flipped over the railing of the deck, landing with a soft thump, and took off to the truck. When she jumped in, she quickly hot wired it - Big Guy conveniently forgot to hand her the keys - before taking off to the end of the drive, headlights flicked off.
Since she had woken up, her senses had been ... More prominent. She no longer needed light in the darkness, and could hear and see more things than before. It would be helpful then, seeing as they had to make a quick yet discreet get away - meaning no lights in the dark.
Once everyone had made it into the truck, she took off, making sure to keep the truck silent and the headlights off. Instead of heading directly towards town, she moved onto the back roads, twining on small roads that weren't even roads, hidden in the trees and barely large enough for the truck. She could hear the soldiers growing closer to the farm, the apartment explosion turning out to be a bust for them. As soon as they reached the outskirts of town, the soldiers had already left it.
"I'd say that I'm mourning my parents, but that would be an overstatement ... How can I mourn a loss that I don't feel?"Dialogue Color: #0404B4
"Maman, où est papa?" *Mama, where is Daddy?*"Arrêtez de parler, Astrée. Votre voix me dérange." *Stop talking, Astraea. Your voice annoys me.*"Mais il aurait dû être la maison maintenant. Où est-il? Je veux lui montrer la nouvelle chanson que je appris pour mon violon." *But he should've been home by now. Where is he? I want to show him the new song that I learned for my violin.*"Quand je vous dis d'arrêter de parler? Dois-je vous mettre dans cette pièce à nouveau?" *Didn't I tell you to stop talking? Do I have to put you in that room again?*"... Non, maman. Je vais me comporter ..." *No, mama. I'll behave myself ...*Blinking awake, Henry lay on the dirty floor for several moments, her breathing heavy and her face itchy from dried tears. The tears weren't caused by the scene of her parents slaughter, but instead by the fear of her own impending death.
It was only a matter of time before the monsters would find her, and she would be dead.
Lights flashed through the basement windows, causing her to lift her head and look tiredly out of them. The sounds of cars moving past the house slowly registered in her mind before she shot up, quickly scrambling to her feet. The pounding on the door to the basement had yet to cease, the monsters obviously determined to get to her, so instead of heading towards the stairs, she ran to the cellar door that led to the outside. Peaking out through the crack between them, her breathing loud and heavy, she scanned as much of the area as she could see to survey through the little slit. When she took it to be all clear, she adjusted the small dagger that was in her back pocket, grabbed her bow and quiver, and slowly opened the cellar doors. Once outside, she shut and latched them, an arrow notched in her bow as she slowly crept away from it.
It was then that one of the monsters broke through the nearby trees, causing her to jump. The monster was fast - faster than the others, and was quickly closing the distance between them before she managed to pull out of her frightened stupor and take off. There was no time to shoot it, only time to run. However, as soon as she reached the street, she found herself confronted by a swarm of them. Stumbling back and nearly losing her balance, she looked for any sign of the lights that she had seen through the window. Not finding any, she stood there, bouncing in place for a moment, before taking off towards the trees in desperation.
Branches slapped her face, her legs, her back, tearing through her clothes and skin. Tears dripped down her cheeks, stinging her new cuts. The sounds of the monsters were slowly falling further and further behind her as they fell and ran into trees and bushes.
She reached a break in the trees and shot out onto the path, only to find a truck barreling towards her. Her eyes went wide and she quickly threw her hands up in front of her face, crying out in surprise and fear.
"I only bite a little."Dialogue Color: #4C0B5F
"We'll head to my family's mansion. It's the closest safe place, and since the soldiers already raided the town, we won't have to worry about them coming back there," Astraea said, navigating the twisting path with an expertise unbeknownst to most.
"As soon as we reach there, we'll have to- Shit!"Jerking the steering wheel and slamming hard on the breaks, the truck's gears shrieked as it quickly stopped, sliding sideways until it was horizontal across the road.
Standing a mere few inches from the truck was a young girl, dirty and bleeding, with a frightened expression on her face.
"What the Hell ... What's a kid doing out in the middle of the forest?" she asked aloud, not really expecting an answer. Throwing open the door, she dropped from the truck and quickly approached the young girl, her hands raised to show that she meant no harm. The sounds of the undead tracking through the forest were growing closer and closer, giving her very little time to convince the child she meant no harm.
"What are you doing out here? Are you okay?"The girl simply looked at her, her fear obvious on her face, mixed with a bit of confusion.
"Qui es-tu? Qu'est ce que tu veux? S'il vous plaît, ne me faites pas de mal!" *Who are you? What do you want? Please, don't hurt me!*
"French ...? You're French ...? You're French," Astraea murmured. Shaking her head, she moved closer to the girl, her hands still held up.
"Je vais répondre à vos questions plus tard, mais pour le moment , nous ne pas avoir le temps de parler . Je ne vais pas te faire de mal , mais si vous ne recevez pas dans le camion dès maintenant, vous allez finir par attraper par ceux ... Les choses." *I'll answer your questions later, but right now, we don't have time to talk. I'm not going to hurt you, but if you don't get into the truck right now, you're going to end up caught by those ... Things.*
The girl seemed to hesitate, before rushing past her towards the truck, just as one of the infected broke through the trees and began to limp towards them. Flipping out her sickle, she slashed it towards its head, making quick work of decapitating it. As she turned, more of them began to appear onto the path. She quickly closed the distance between her and the truck, lifting the girl and tossing her onto the passenger's lap, and flipped into the driver's seat. Slipping the truck into drive, she slammed on the gas pedal before taking off, driving the vehicle directly into the infected in their way. Once they were out of immediate danger, she cast a glance at the girl, who had moved from the lap of the person in the passenger side of the seat to in between the two of them.
"I don't know if she can speak any English, or if she's just in a panic right now and forgot what English she knew, but right now she can't speak to anyone unless they know French. So for now, just try to keep her calm in any way you can, understood?" she asked her passenger.
"Est ce que ça va? Comment t'appelles tu?" *Are you okay? What's your name?*
The girl sniffled, lifting her hand to rub at her eyes and the other to push her torn shirt to her running nose.
"Je m'apelle Henrietta, et je suis bien. Juste quelques coupes." *My name is Henrietta, and I'm okay. Just a few cuts.*
