The New World

Aarti paused at Max's question, she was trying to add up all the days.
However, Alex didn't say anything, he had decided that he would help Taylor do whatever she was planning to do with the rope and tarp and whatnot.
The stupid idea was, well, stupid, but it wouldn't be any better for Alex to just sit around and do nothing.

Aarti pouted, how long exactly had it been? She had found Alex and Leo and another kid while they were on their way to Atlanta, but when had that been? She didn't keep track of the time anymore, what was the point?
She also wasn't very good at math, that wasn't helping her.

"Six years." Alex answered the question before Aarti was able to. He didn't realize he said anything until the girl argued with him.
"No, it hasn't been that long." Aarti looked at Max, "We've been together for awhile, but it hasn't been-"
"Its been six years." Alex repeated, his voice flat. He turned his attention back to Taylor,
"What do you want me to do?"

Surprised that the boy who had been silent until then spoke, Max tied his final knot, then going over each one again, making sure they were tight enough. Taylor and him had tried this multiple other times, and though each had been successful, he was always scared there might be a problem. But there won't be, he thought, breathing heavily, then glancing at Aarti.

"Where'd you guys meet?" He asked, cooing Scout once again as he licked his neck. This would be an interesting night.

Taylor was also surprised when Alex, who had more or less been pouting in the corner, came over and asked how she needed help, after speaking to Aarti with an aggressive, yet flat voice. "Hold the tarp while I tie it." She said, not asking with a please or thank you, but instead keeping on task. Even not knowing him. she was pretty sure that's how Alex was. A no nonsense kind of guy. But then again, she didn't know him. At all.

Taylor began tying, her hands flying accross the rope as she finished, going back over them again. She looked at Max, and as he looked back at her, he began to speak again. "It's probably going to get really cold tonight." he said, for no particular reason.

"Me and Alex have known eachother and were neighbors since we were kids." Aarti explained, not wondering why Max wanted to know, "A few months after the disease started, I took off trying to get to the city, and then after that I found Alex again traveling with Leo and another guy called Matthew. Unfortunetely we've been a group ever since, can you believe that? These two are so annoying, I should of left them ages ago."
Aarti didnt add where Matthew was now, she didnt know.
I wonder if he's still alive or not... She thought, not hearing Max as he noted that it would most likely be cold tonight.

"Anywho," Aarti spoke again, "Tell us about you two! I cant be the one who does all the chatting."

Taylor breathed out after tying the knots, scanning over them. "It can support 3 people. Me and Max will take a branch." She said, not to anyone in particular, but knowing it was necessary. She reached back into her backpack, pulling out a baggie of dried fruit, though keeping it in the bad incase she dropped it. She pulled out about a hand full, eating a few, then looking at the group as if to ask, Do you want some? Taylor glanced down at the ground, the sound of running now able to be heard a few yards away, as it was getting darker. This is going to be like hell, she thought, biting her lip.

Max smiled at Aarti's story, chuckling lightly. "There's not much to say," he began, shrugging. "We're brother and sister, she's older. This is our dog Scout. He's a trained military dog. And it's been just us three since one month, 18 day's before it was considered an epidemic." He finished, remembering how long of a before notice the two had gotten, thanks to their father.

He chuckled when Belial responded to him, looking down at the fronts of
his Blackhawk combat boots. "I think I get the idea."

Konstantin leaned against the armored vehicle, eyes scanning the area for
potential targets. He didn't want to use much ammo, so any further encounters
would be hand-to-hand. Even with the undead. Ammo preservation was his main
concern, just in case he had to lay out anyone at a long range. "Need
help?"

"Oh, sure! Thanks." Aarti said when Taylor offered the dried fruit. She took a few out and only ate one, gave two to Leo, and tried to get Alex to take one too but he refused, the rest remained in her hand.
Max then began explaining and Aarti listened attentively, it was almost as if she always had to be concentrated on something, today it was learning about Max and Taylor.

"We should have had a military dog, Alex. Why didn't we get one?" Aarti asked, looking over at the scowling face of her friend, "It would of been so useful! Just think about it!"
Alex was now looking quite irritated, "Where do you think we'd find one?" He snapped, annoyance in his voice, "Plus, I don't like dogs."
"Well... we found one, today. And you used to have one though, didn't you? I think I remember-"
"No."
"Oh... okay, liar." Aarti turned back to Max and Taylor, "I wonder what time it is." She frowned, peering through the leaves of the tree in attempt to see where the sun was, "Hopefully it's not too long before we're free to go, the zombie guy said there was a lot of them though..."
Then, Aarti veered off from wondering what the time was and went back to questioning the two,
"How come it's just you two traveling? What about your parents or friends?"
She already had a good idea of what the answer would be, but she still wanted to find out.

Taylor smiled lightly when Aarti took the fruit, though she killed the sign of emotion before it was up for long, turning back to the tarp and looking at it, then looking at the sky, seeing the sun getting lower. Shit, she thought, looking into her bag to see how much more rope they had; she wanted to get her bed ready so they wouldn't be making a lot of noise later. Max chuckled at the back and forth between Aarti and Alex, thought Taylor didn't simply looking at Alex, shocked by his snappiness.

"We're definitely spending the night here," Max said, glancing at the sun at the same time as Aarti, then looking at her as she continued asking questions. He opened his mouth, thinking about how to say what their story was. "Well you see-" he began, though Taylor cut him off, her voice sharp, yet quiet. "Our dad was basically as high up in the military as you could get. When the outbreak began, he sent us off. In all honesty, I think he just wanted an excuse to get rid of us. The program we were in that was suposed to protect us, failed. But we saw it coming, and we were ready to get out of there the second we could. So we busted out. All our friends either got turned- or shot by the military. Yeah, crazy, but the government was as fucked up then as it is now." She blurted out. Max was shocked. That may have been the most he had heard his sister talk. Ever. And Taylor seemed shocked that her mouth as able to create that many words, but she shrugged it off, leaning back against the tree.

Aarti was surprised that Taylor was actually capable of speaking more than a few words at a time, until now she had given nothing more then simple answers to questions or just a few sentences of information when it was needed.
"Well, at least you two got out alright, huh? I wonder how today would have turned out if we hadn't met you both..." Aarti wondered, suddenly looking as if she was deep in thought.

"For starters, we probably wouldn't be hiding out in a tree." Alex offered, still annoyed about the same thing.
Aarti, now, was also annoyed. "I should just throw you down to the zombies, shouldn't I? Since you're obviously so against the idea of us being alive! " She snapped, now beginning to show anger in her expression and voice. Not only was she mad at Alex now, she wished that he would stop being so rude with Taylor and Max around. She didn't want to argue in front of the two.

"If we hadn't wasted the time we did, then we would of been further away from the hoard." Alex snapped. He didn't say it, but he was now regretting that he hadn't killed the girl and her brother while he had the chance. If he had, then he, Aarti, and Leo might have been somewhere else instead of hiding away like cowards.
Alex knew that he couldn't now, though. The sound of the gun would attract too much unwanted attention from the zombies. Also, he didn't think either Aarti or Leo would appreciate it very much if he did. Plus, killing people wasn't his style, but recently he had given second thoughts about that one rule of his, no one got anywhere in the world if they didn't kill. Humans and zombies made no difference now... to Alex, anyways.

"Once again, I'm sorry about Alex." Aarti apologized to Taylor and Max, "I'm sure he'll stop complaining if he was face to face with an infected... which he will be if he doesn't shut up."
She wasn't serious, of course. There was no way Aarti would actually do something like that, but Alex was so frustrating to deal with sometimes it made her want to throw him to the zombies.

"And I try to stay away from the government nowadays," She added, trying to steer the conversation away, "It's definitely fucked up, and it's not like they actually care about anyone but themselves." Aarti sighed, she was finding that Alex and the government had similarities. They were both pointless to listen to.
"I don't see a reason to even pay any attention to what they're doing unless they're seriously trying to help for once."

Taylor glanced at Alex as yet another comment was spewed from his lips, the look she gave him one that could kill, before Max gave her a look to stop, then turning back to Aarti. He nodded at her words about the government, a chalky taste of anger filling his mouth. Him and his sister had had from horrible run ins with the government. He nodded to Aartie, pausing, then speaking. "After we ditched the government program meant to save us, they started tracking us down. If it wasn't for Taylor, I would've gotten killed. This one time, we'd been running on our feet from them for maybe two hours, running, then hiding, then running, then hiding. Some how, I got ahead of Taylor and Scout, and I lost sight of them. I got corned by maybe 16 guys, all big and muscular. All of a sudden, a rope drops down, and I grabbed it. Taylors up 3 stories, and pulls me up. Turned out we were in a welding factoring, and she found a crane they used for lifting parts." Max told the story, getting slightly excited, yet still calm.

Taylor just watched Max speak, probably unhappy to be portrayed as such a savior. She didn't like having attention on her, and hoped that as Max was the one speaking, the attention would stay on him. She looked back at Alex, surprised that she didn't hate him. She should. Along with blaming their near deaths on her and her brother, he had basically outright called them stupid. If she doesn't throw him down, I might, she thought, though not daring to say such a thing as she glanced at the ever-darkening sky. Not acknowledging the conversation going on, or how far through they were, she spoke quick. "It's getting dark. We should set up beds." Although she was only meaning to say this to Max, as her word seemed to be law for him, but she realized it might've seemed like she was trying to be bossy to the other two, and simply looked at Max, projecting her words to him.

"That's terrible! I mean, good job... but what you guys went through..." Aarti exclaimed, still keeping her voice on the quieter side due to not wanting her and everyone else to be an infected's next meal.

"They make good stories though, so that's a bright side." She paused, "Well, unless one of you had actually died, then I guess the story wouldn't be so great because it would have involved a death and because you guys are siblings that'd make it even worse..." Aarti trailed off, wondering what she was saying.
She looked back at Alex, hoping that he'd forget his stupid anger and help her out, but she quickly dismissed the idea when she saw the dark, far away look in his eyes that were almost like little storm clouds that were ready to throw lightning at whoever tried to talk to him.
What was with him lately? Surely it wasn't just Max and Taylor who caused him to be like that...

"It's getting dark. We should set up beds." The blonde haired girl said, and Aarti was glad that she broke the silence.
"Good! It's almost Leo's bedtime anyway, he gets grumpy when he doesn't get his sleep." She said, smiling at the boy who hadn't said anything this whole time. He was the youngest in the group, Aarti loved to make fun of him for it.

Aarti then began pulling the sleeping bags from the backpack and zipping them together,
She layed them down on the tarp, hoping that that was what she was supposed to do.

"Are you sure you two are going to be okay sleeping on branches?" She asked, actually curious on whether or not Taylor and Max actually wanted to or not.

(Decided to get this up and rollin')

"Matthew, where are we going?" Lauren called out over a rock. "I told you already, were going to Highgate." Lauren smiled and ran up to Matthew. "Yay! I hope I find my parents there!" Matthew smiled but frowned on the inside."Yeah, we will, we will."
Matthew was not taking her to Highgate. They were just following their newfound dog, Skipper, down the road. Suddenly Skipper barked. "No! Be quiet Skipper!" Skipper ran off into the woods. "Skipper! Come on Lauren, lets go!" Lauren and Matthew ran after the dog and into the dark, dark, woods. Matthew grabbed Skipper and fell over. "Yeah that's right, I got you now!" Matthew then looked over. Crap! A camp of people. "Lauren get down and be quiet!" Lauren listened and got down obediently. Matthew clapped his hand over Skipper's mouth. Who were these people. Probably cannibals with their luck. But who were they?

(Let's see if we can bring life back to this roleplay, hm?)

Alex was aware that he hadn't been exactly helpful. It was Taylor and Max who were doing all the work. And as for Leo... well, he was just being Leo.
Aarti probably thought she was being useful, but in reality it would most likely be her that got everyone killed.
Alex with no doubt could see that happening. The girl would probably run off somewhere and the group would try to stop her, and with their horrible luck they'd all run right into a hoard of disgusting zombies and have their arms and legs ripped off.
Since there was no sign of any cure happening any time soon, Alex wondered if that actually wouldn't be too bad.

Out of nowhere, Alex heard yelling. Without even taking the time to try to listen to who it was, he pulled out his gun and fired in the direction where the voices were coming from.
Aarti screamed, and pulled the weapon out of his hand, "What do you think you're doing!?" She demanded, shoving the gun to Max, "You'll lead the hoard right towards us!"
Alex glared at her, "Whoever's down there are already leading the hoard toward us! Don't you hear them?" He snapped, angered by the fact that she was blaming him.
Aarti scowled, "That doesn't mean you need to kill them!"

After the words left her mouth, she began climbing down the tree, she had taken the gun back from Max, though. Just to be safe.
"Hello?" She called quietly, hoping that Alex had missed.

"Oh man." Matthew whispered to himself. A gunshot rang out and a bullet whizzed past his face. "Lauren get down!" He called over to her. Lauren jumped down to her stomach. "Hello?" Somebody called out. Matthew pulled the rifle out of his backpack,but Skipper broke free and ran away, barking. "No! Skipper!" Then two large shoes stomped right by his head. Lauren began to cry. Matthew looked up to a smoking barrel of a gun pointed at his head. "Don't you fucking move."