[1x1] Fight the Dead, Fear the Living

[sleeplessCartoonist]

Olivia and Aidan both eyed her, before Olivia got to her feet again, approaching her. "My name's Olivia, and that's by brother Aidan," she nodded to Aidan, who was leaning against the bridge.


"You don't have to worry about being a nuisance." she smiled a little. "We've got plenty of food, so if you run out, it's alright if you take a bit of ours. The only real problem is boredom."


"Well, there are corpses who come by sometimes." Aidan said, shrugging.


"The problem is you're bored, but you have to pay attention." she frowned. "We couldn't have taken a deck of cards with us, apparently."


"That room could be used for bullets." Aidan smiled slightly. "Besides, you have fun poking at rocks."

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

Lia was distracted a bit from Renegade when Olivia spoke to her. She was surprised the girl was so friendly to someone who, moments ago, was just a thief in their eyes. Maybe there still were a few trusting people out there, she thought.


"If your brother over there thinks poking at rocks all the time is fun, he must not get out often," she said with a half smile. Lia glanced back at Renegade and pointed to the ground, commanding him to lie down. Renegade obeyed, and when he did Lia rested back against him, using him a bit like a pillow. "My name is Liana Harper, but I ask that you don't call me by either one of those names. A simple "Lia" will suffice. If you're bored, by the way, you could try frog catching. There are a lot of them around, especially in this area." Lia shifted a little. "Or you or your brother could help me out with my ankle. It's sprained and I should wrap it if I want to get it better faster. I might have something in my backpack if neither of you have anything you could use..."

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

Olivia nodded, in thought for a few long moments. "Aidan, go get something to wrap her ankle with." she said, glancing back at her brother. He nodded, crawling into the tent briefly and coming out with a first aid kit, approaching the two and sitting down. He began to go through it, putting aside what they'd need. Then, he put the kit aside, glancing around quickly as he did so.


"Alright, do you want to bandage it, or should I?" he asked Lia, sitting up a little.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

Lia watched Aidan take out a first aid kit, impressed that the two had supplies for injuries. "Why don't I wrap part of it and you help me pull it tighter after I do?" she asked, reluctantly. She was finding them more trustworthy by the moment, but she still didn't like to deal with others much. She knew she was going to have to get used to it if she would be stuck with them for a month. She sighed and unrolled her pants leg, taking off her shoe. Her ankle was bruised black and blue, also feeling tender to the touch. She didn't like to think about how badly it would hurt to actually wrap it up. She moved her backpack closer to her and lifted her ankle up, resting it on top of the pack to help prop it up. "I never should've tried to make that jump," she complained quietly, squirming a little when her ankle throbbed.

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

"Well, you shouldn't have let your dog run out of the woods, either. And you should have returned my food, too." Aidan said with a small frown, handing her the bandages. "That's most of what we have. And if you ever end up breaking something, we've got splints, too." he sat back, looking over at his sister, who was starting to eat a bit of food. He tilted his head a little, and she spoke up.


"Just something for lunch." she explained quietly, taking a bite of the granola bar. "I can wait 'til dinner, after this."


"Alright. Just making sure you aren't sneaking extra food." he sighed, glancing around again.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

Lia tried to relax her ankle as she took the bandages from Aiden. She began to unroll them, cautious about the amount she used. She didn't want to use up all their supplies in case they needed them for something more important later. There were worse injuries besides a sprained ankle, after all. She winced as she started to wrap her ankle carefully, biting her lower lip to distract herself from the pain. She looked to Aiden after a moment for some help with tightening her try at wrapping.


"Hey, my friend Renegade here is actually trained. He does just fine with listening, he only made a mistake. Try not to call him a dog, by the way, he doesn't like it." In truth, it was probably more Lia who didn't like him being called a dog than it was the other way around. "And as for returning the food, I probably would have if I would've seen it was a lot. But since it was such a little amount, I decided to just run off. I don't really like interacting with people if I don't have to. I've had a lot of run-ins with bad people," she admitted.

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

"Fair enough. Avoiding people is probably the best option, now..." Aidan nodded as he tightened the bandages, sitting back a little. "There... That looks good so far. You should probably avoid walking around too much..." he said with a shrug. "Anyways, the food really didn't bother me too much. I thought he'd grabbed more than that..." he glanced around briefly, before cutting the bandages and securing it with tape. "All bandaged up, now." he nodded. "Hope it doesn't hurt too much..."

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

"Well you could rub my ankle to make it feel better if you really feel like being helpful," Lia teased, smiling slightly. She didn't really mean her words though. The blonde didn't really like to be touched all that much anyhow. "But anyhow, I know you suggest I shouldn't walk on it all that much, but I could at least make up for causing you problems. I'll show you a new way to gather some food. If your sister isn't picky, that is." She glanced over to Olivia curiously. "But even if she is, maybe she'll at least have some fun with this if she wants to help me out."

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

Olivia raised an eyebrow, evidently curious, and Aidan shrugged, picking up a water bottle and taking a long sip from it. "Yeah, sure. I don't see why not."


It'd be useful, he thought, for the stranger to carry her own weight, so long as the food wasn't nearly inedible.


"Anything interesting helps. I've been bored out of my mind here, but I can't even walk around much..." Olivia said, straightening up a little. "I've been dying to have something to do."

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

"Okay, well, I'll show you what we can do then," Lia offered, whistling for Renegade's attention. Once she had her dog's attention she commanded him to stand up, putting a bit of her own weight on him so that she could stand up also. She tried as hard as she could to keep her weight off her bad ankle, but it was a bit of a challenge. "So for starters, we'll actually need a source of water to hunt for what I'm going to show you. I was sure I heard one nearby when I first went into the woods, but I wasn't entirely certain. Do either of you know if there is a river, lake, or pond nearby?" She hoped there was one close to their camp. If it was farther she was going to have hard time walking on her ankle.

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

"There's a stream over there, but I don't know if it's much. I think there's a few ponds not too far off..." Aidan shrugged, watching her quietly for a few long moments. He got to his feet, glancing back at Olivia as she listened quietly, her eyes wide and curious.


"What're we hunting? Why do we need water?" she tilted her head, shifting a little and glancing over at Aidan.


"If the stream's no good, I can take you to the ponds. I don't know how far you can walk on that ankle, though..." he shrugged, eying her.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

"I think a pond may be better, to be honest," Lia replied thoughtfully. "What we'll be looking for is frogs. The bigger the frog, the better. I actually know how to cook frog legs, and they've saved me using up a lot of supplies. I know a few frog legs may not sound like much, but two or three sets of them are actually enough to eat to fill up one person. I don't know if that sounds disgusting to either of you or not, but hey the French find them to be a delicasy. And during these hard times it's nice to utilize anything that's safe to eat. So do you want to try it? If either of you aren't interested I could at least use some help catching them for myself." Lia knew it would be easier to find frogs at night, but she never went hunting for them then. She knew it was far too dangerous to be outside alone at night.

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

Olivia grinned, nodding. "I love that idea! Let me help--"


"No, you'll be staying here." he said, frowning at his little sister. "You'll guard the tent, okay? Last thing I need is something happening to you because I let you out into the forest. Don't worry, you can have some frog legs, too--"


"Please? I'm really bored." she frowned at him, her eyes wide.


"You really shouldn't. Do you have a gun with you?"


"Yeah..." she nodded, patting the gun at her side lightly.


"Knife, or anything for up-close?"


"Yes..."

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

Lia made a half smile as she watched the brother and sister's interaction. "I don't mean to sound like I'm siding with your sister, but it would be a good experiance for her to try this herself. Maybe next time you can bring her and I'll watch the camp. Or you can watch the camp and I'll bring her." Of course, Lia knew that either of those options would require a bit of trust between them. She couldn't picture Aidan leaving his sister or his camp supplies alone with someone he knew so little about. "But for now, I assume it will be you and I going then?" she asked Aidan. "I'm ready whenever you are."

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

"Alright. And then, next time, you can go, Olivia. Keep a hand on your gun, and stay in the tent. The dead won't notice you when they pass by, if you're hidden." Aidan said, frowning at his younger sister.


She pouted, watching her brother as he turned towards Lia again. "Alright..." she sighed, picking up the bags and slipping inside the tent, pulling her shoes off as she climbed inside, zipping it partly closed.


"Alright, I'll take you to the ponds. Follow me."

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

"Okay, you take the lead. I'll cover you," replied Lia, turning to Renegade. "Let's go, boy. Good job, Renegade, keep walking beside me just like that." As long as Renegade stood close to her and didn't run off distracted by something, Lia was certain this walk wouldn't be so bad. "So have you ever done this before?" She asked Aidan, following slowly behind him.

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

"Not really, no." he shrugged, in thought. "We've tried hunting before, but it's hard. Especially when you want to do it silently. So, we've never really relied on hunting. We fish sometimes, if we're near a big, clean lake." Aidan entered the woods, walking slowly and glancing around, his hand on his gun at all times. "But we never thought about catching frogs. We trapped a rabbit, once, using a snare we found. It wasn't much, but we felt good afterwards."

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

Lia nodded in reply to his words, limping carefully along with her dog at her side. "It's funny, a year ago I worked in a pet store and felt bad if I handled an animal wrong to cause it a little pain. But now I do the same thing. I've caught and killed rabbits, squirrels, and even mice to eat. Renegade caught the rabbit. I caught the mice and squirrels using some old mouse traps I found. It's strange how hard times can change a person." She knew a year ago she would've been horrified at the idea of killing poor little animals, but now she did what it took to survive.


"Frogs are a good option though. They're all over in the country. Whether water is good or bad, you can find them around any source of it. Sometimes it takes wading in a little to chase them down if they decide to swim off. Do you know how to swim?" It wouldn't be a big deal if Aidan couldn't swim, he would just have to be careful about getting too close to the water. Swimming wasn't really a good idea anyhow. It was unlikely, but still possible that there were undead beings hidden beneath the surface.

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

Aidan listened carefully, nodding along and making his way down a dirt path through the trees, stepping over a few rocks and glancing around, trying to get his bearings. "Yeah, I can swim no problem. This way." he started down another path, pushing a few low branches out of his way. "I remember once, I was trying to catch frogs at a summer camp. I wasn't too successful, though, and I ended up falling into the mud pit. Wasn't too fun, by the end of it..." he smiled slightly, glancing around again, before they entered a clearing, a somewhat large pond sitting before them. "There it is. Is that alright?"

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

Lia followed along, carefully watching where Aidan's feet went so that she could be sure to make careful steps and avoid rocks when needed. A lot of the plants in the woods had grown up with the lack of humans around to keep them trimmed, so Lia was surprised to see a dirt path. Either Aidan and his sister must have made it recently, or some other campers who were using the lake. "Oh really? Well maybe you'll have better luck this time. You'll have to watch and learn from the master," she replied with a wink, walking up beside him as he brought her to the pond. "This will work. It's a shame that it would be too dangerous to come out here and try this at night. You could catch a whole basket of frogs at night. I normally don't catch more than I can eat that day though. They're hard to preserve to keep leftovers." She began to roll her sleeves up a bit, expecting Aidan would do the same to prevent them from getting too wet.

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

He nodded, squatting by the water and staring inside for a few long moments, before rolling his sleeves up. "Alright, sure. Some extra rations will help, no matter how little." he smiled slightly, before knotting his eyebrows as he stared intently at the water. After a few long moments, he got to his feet, running a hand through his hair and looking back at her, tilting his head a little, before turning to face her. "Okay, show me how to do it." he slipped his hands into his pockets.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

"Me?" Lia asked, chuckling lightly. "When I said you'd have to watch and learn from the master, I meant Renegade. He's actually the one who figured out how to do it before I did." She gestured to her dog who was already starting to wade into the water, wag his tail, and focus on the surface. "What I've learned from watching him is the key to catching them is a sharp eye and quick movements. Now, he'll catch them in his mouth, but that won't exactly work for us." Lia went to her backpack and fished around in it for several moments before pulling out a small net. She unfolded it and it became bigger. She swung it around once or twice to observe it. "This is what we can use. I only have one of these nets though, so we'll have to share." The blonde tossed her net to Aidan, winking at him. "You're up. Show me what you can do. Try to catch some frogs"

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

He hesitated, before nodding and catching the net, glancing down at the pond for a few moments. Then, he bent over to remove his shoes and socks, as well as roll up his pant legs a bit. Aidan cleared his throat, glancing around and frowning, before taking a few steps into the water, making sure he stayed near the edge. Bending over, he eyed the water, jumping suddenly at a frog, trying to catch it in his net. He muttered something under his breath as it quickly hopped off, before returning to his previous position, watching closely.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

Lia couldn't help but let out a small chuckle when Aidan worked on catching a frog. "Sorry I laughed, it just looks funny watching other people try to catch them and miss. Nothing personal. Just ask Renegade, I laugh at him all the time when he misses." The blonde moved closer to Aidan, offering to take the net back. "Say, I have a random question. How many people does your tent fit? One maybe two? What would you say to a friendly competition; the person who catches the most frogs gets to use it for the night?" She also considered that the loser had to tell a little more about himself of herself, but since this was only the first day they had met, Lia decided to save that idea for another day.


Sent from my Iphone.

 

[sleeplessCartoonist]

Aidan raised an eyebrow. "It fits two, and some supplies, if you don't take up much space. If it rains, I suppose three could fit, but then we'd be in for one crowded night..." he paused for a few long moments, before nodding. "Alright, then. I'll take you up on that deal. But that means you'll have to let me sleep in the day, because there's no way I'm sleeping outside." he frowned, glancing down briefly and spotting a frog. He was still for a moment, before lunging for it, barely missing with the net.