Into the Wild

[Mordecai]

Rori looked at the gloves as they were handed to her, reaching out to take them from him. “Thank you,” she replied as she slipped them over his fingers, feeling the icy tingle rush up her fingers. While the air was warm during the day, she could feel the cold beginning to seep into her after the sun had gone down. Still, exhaustion trumped cold and she laid herself down on the ground, she bore her eyes into the flame. She blinked long and slow, until she could no longer keep her eyes open. Rori slipped into a seamless, dreamless sleep that was heavy enough to draw blood from a stone. Morning came much too quickly, but what felt like only minutes after falling asleep, Rori’s eyes snapped open and she scrambled up to a sitting position. It was early, still dark, but the first morning light flirted with the horizon, making the black skies turn into a deep navy.


Scratching a gloved hand through her hair, Rori breathed out long and slow, the crisp air coming out as steam from between her lips. Rubbing to sleep from her eyes, the young blonde got slowly to her feet and stretched her arms above her head until she heard the satisfying crunch from her spine. The fire had long since burnt out, leaving only the soft glow from the hot coals deep underneath a blanket of soot. With such little light, Rori’s eyes had trouble cutting through the inky darkness that surrounded her. She couldn’t even see if Matt had risen or not, but she decided not to bother him regardless. Collecting her feet underneath her, Rori trekked away from the camp to head to the small stream a short ways off.


The cool gush of water over stones was a welcoming sound to her ears as she dropped to her knees on the bank. She was about to dunk her hands in to the waters, but hesitated for just a moment to pull the gloves off and plunged her fingers below the surface. The water was incredibly cold, but refreshing. She patted her face with the cool droplets, wiping away some of the dirt as she did. In truth, she was looking forward to the promise of a shower, but she busied herself cleaning away as much of the mud as she could. Once satisfied, Rori pulled her gloves back on and got back to her feet, turning back to head towards camp once more. The sun had begun to rise now, carpeting the earth in new golden warmth. Already, the air was beginning to warm as daybreak descended into proper morning.


“Matt?” she inquired, breaking through the treeline and approaching the fire-pit, curious as to when they would be departing, gathering up the water bottle he had given her into the crook of her arm.

 

[kindaemissary]

Morning came unannounced, barely any light to tell if the sun had truly risen or not yet. Matthias heard scrambling next to him, and when he was able to get the sand out of his eyes he saw Rori getting up and heading away from the camp he had made. Moments past of him simply staring off, trying to wake up, and then he rubbed his eyes a few times and stood from the ground. The air was damper than it had been during the night, a little warmer, but not by much. He folded up one of the coats he was using and pressed it back into the backpack after he took two cans of fruit out.


He glanced up as Rori made her way back through the trees, calling his name. He shoved the water bottle back into the bag after he took a large gulp and turned towards Rori. "Would you want to eat here or while walking?" he asked, and to him, it didn't matter. He hadn't slept on the ground for a while since this started. He was using to making home on departed houses. Obviously there were no houses in the middle of this forest, but they would be in the next town soon.


Even if they didn't find a car that Rori could make work or repair, they could always find bicycles. Literally anything would be better than walking the treacherous terrain at this point, and two wheels would still make time move faster. Once the snow hit, bicycles would be obsolete but it would still speed up the process. Even so, Matthias wanted a car. He would be disappointed if they weren't to find one, but he wouldn't blame Rori. There was always the next town.


"We'll make more time if we eat and walk," he said, "but it's not necessary. It'll only be a couple minutes of a time difference. If we stay, we have the assured ability to wash our hands before moving on."

 

[Mordecai]

{ooc: Also, feel free to skip ahead, if you'd like.}


To say Rori was stiff from sleeping on the ground was about as accurate as saying an angry bear was unfriendly, but as she got up and moved around, the aching discomfort began to subside. Arriving back at camp, she allowed herself a few moments to stretch out her cramping muscles, feeling them tense before finally relaxing underneath the pressure. Pulling off her coat that Matt had given her to borrow, Rori rested it in the crook of her arm, enjoying the new warmth she found in the sun. It was a beautiful day now that the sun was up. Crisp and clear with tiny wisps of clouds floating on the horizon, like lost sheep scattered out across a sea of blue. Hearing him speak, she glanced up to him, offering a complacent smile, “We can walk and eat,” she replied idly, wanting nothing more than to get to the town. She could live with sticky hands for a few hours if it meant getting to a shower that much quicker. She practically shivered at the thought.


Rori turned and kicked dirt over the hot coals that remained of the fire, quenching the remnant of heat. She turned then, offering out the coat he had lent her out to him, “Here, if you want this back now?” she offered, “Otherwise, I can carry it for now. Again, thank you for letting me borrow it.” She had folded the coat up with the gloves in the center. She was sure she’d be able to find her own clothing once the arrived to the town. That way, she wouldn’t have to keep borrowing his belongings. Gathering up the water bottle he had given her, she began to ponder all the things she would want to acquire while in town. A backpack, certainly, and new clothes. Boots, too, would be nice, for the soles of her current boots had nearly worn all the way through while trying to escape Brandkast the night before.


Now in light, she could see just how badly the journey had cost her. Her hands and forearms were gouged open with dozens of cuts and lacerations. Most were starting to scab over, but some still lightly bled. Nasty bruises had crawled over her knuckles, dusting them in hues of purple and blue. The small patches of skin that were bruised were scraped raw and throbbing with tenderness. She could only imagine her knees were probably in much the same state. What Rori needed more than anything was a good hand wash with proper soap to clean the wounds. Some bandages would do her good as well for some of the deeper cuts.


Dropping her hands back down to her sides, she returned her keen, blue-eyed gaze to Matt. “So, lead the way?” she said in more of a question that statement. Although she had a general idea of where they’d be going next, she decided to allow him to lead the way, as it was his journey, after all.

 

[kindaemissary]

{ooc: once March 9 hits, I should be back to regular posts and not such a long delay. I'm gonna take you up on the offer to skip, maybe even just an hour into the future.}


After walking for what seemed like forever and was actually only close to an hour, Matthias pulled the map out of the side pocket of his backpack and opened it up, glancing up to the road ahead and making sure they were on the right track. They had passed by a town sign that read Charleston - Population: 1200. He wondered if there was anyone even left in the town, because the odds off 3 to 100 were not in anyone's favor. Still, he and Rori were alive, so there had to be something. Maybe they evacuated. From what they had passed by so far, there were only abandoned houses, overgrown and slightly dead grass, and the overall stench of garbage that was never picked up. It was a catastrophe.


Matthias found Charleston on the map and grabbed a pen from his front jacket pocket to make a small mark through it. He had been making note of which towns he passed through along the way so that if he passed anyone that wanted to know if people were around, he could give them the most likely negative news. Also, he was interested in the science. Maybe there were certain areas of the country that people with AB- blood lived. If he could learn how to find a way that people without AB- blood could live post Caine, it was worth a shot. It was one of the original plans for the mission post-Caine. Those that survived the cleansing would make note about how people lived and then repopulate with better plans and ideas on how to work through things. Such as pollution. Even as Matthias passed by towns with power plants, the only things he had seen still working were those machines powered by natural energy: water, wind, and the sun. It was beautiful. No more fumes in the air. No more carbon monoxide poisoning. It would progress beautifully.


"Over there," Matthias said, and after he pulled at Rori's arm he pointed towards a small grocery store next to a bank. The money wouldn't do them any good at this point, but canned food would. "We should gather food now so when we're done getting clean we can eat some more. Then we'll roam again, find whatever you need to try and fix us a car. Take all the clothes we can, even if it doesn't work."


They entered the small supermarket, and Matthias headed towards the fruits before he looked at anything else. They would be the first things to taste good without being warmed up. He grabbed a cart left in the middle of the aisle and piled some cans inside - peaches, pears, applesauce - and then moved to the vegetables. A fire might not warm them up too much, but they had nutrients that they needed to survive. Green beans, corn, peas. There wasn't much to work with, but they would manage.


The store was empty. There were still food products inside, even a few fresh items from the bakery, but without the hustle and bustle of the workforce it seemed almost intrusive to even be there. The only light guiding them was the sun from the front windows, and as they got further into the store it started to disappear. Later, when they came back, Matthias planned on grabbing protein bars, granola bars, and all of the boxed snack foods they could so that they could keep up their calorie intake with all of the walking that they would be doing. That was if they didn't get a car. And even if they did, they'd still need the calories to keep up their body warmth. Since no one was around, Matthias didn't feel bad for taking the food. It was intrinsic to their survival. They needed it.


A couple aisles over were personal care products, and Matthias set a couple tubes of toothpaste in the cart. Toothbrushes, a pair of shampoo and conditioner bottles, and soap were soon added. If they were going to be crashing someone's house for a shower, it might be nice to have their own supplies. He slipped in the most expensive razors. He wanted to get rid of the scruff on his face now before the cold really settled in and he needed the beard to stay warm.


"I grabbed just enough for now and maybe tomorrow," he said when he met Rori again by the door. "We can come back later once we've rested and to grab more. Now all we have to do is find a house to borrow."

 

[Mordecai]

{Ooc: No worries! Take your time! I have been sick on and off and I took a bad spill off my horse the other day, so, I haven’t exactly been posting regularly, either. I am starting to feel better though and should get back to regular posting, as well!}


The sun burned like a single, white-hot eye in the in a terrifyingly endless sky that stretched horizon to horizon without a single cloud to anchor it down. Rori walked in relative silence for most of the day, trudging along without a complaint to be found. In truth, she was rather enjoying the stroll through the foothills of late summer. While the nights proved to be cold, the days were still quite warm, and before long, she found her skin with a glossy sheen of sweat. They passed through Charleston, which was probably the most interesting highlight of their walk. The sheer monstrosity of the area was overwhelming; she had nearly forgotten what things looked like outside of Brandkast’s walls-- building, a watertower, phone lines. They all seemed to archaic to her now. She had visited this particular town once before—a long time ago for a reason she had long since forgotten, but the streets, albeit slightly overgrown now with tufts of grass—seemed oddly familiar.


Ignoring the familiarity as Matt robbed her attention, Rori followed his gaze, and eventually his footsteps, towards the grocers. “Alright,” she agreed to his plan, stepping inside the grocery store with some hesitancy at first. The insides were oddly preserved but dusty, she noted. She didn’t dare venture too close to either the frozen or fresh produce departments, being able to already detect the subtle stench of rotten food from the non-perishable isles. She kept within a reasonable distance of Matt, but helped dump a few things into the cart, particularly from the personal hygiene isle. Rori was not a fussy individual, but the idea of deodorant was a welcoming one. She felt a bit guilty for indulging in such an unnecessary pleasure, but that sensation was quelled at the sight of Matt’s frivolous razors. They were items that didn’t need to be carried with them, she supposed, but if they were available in town, why not use them? As their shopping excursion wore on, the young blonde took off more on her own, treading down the gift isle where she found, much to her pleasant surprise, sweatshirts that were printed with the local highschool’s football team mascot. Plucking a few from the racks that would roughly fit both her and Matt, she made her way back towards the front of the store.


“Would you like a very handsome and dapper Charleston High School Mustangs football team sweatshirt?” she held up the obnoxiously red sweater with a bit of a silly grin on her face once Matt came back into view, wheeling his cart along. They were hideous excuses for clothing, but the fabric felt warm and soft to her touch, and Rori could sacrifice looking like a stop sign for not freezing to death. “I grabbed a couple. They’re not super clean, probably, but they’re cleaner than what I have on, anyways.” Nothing would be worse than stepping out of a shower and having to pull her grubby clothes back on. At least now she had a clean top that wasn’t splattered with blood, mud, and dirt to pull on until they could make a more extensive clothing shopping trip somewhere else.


“House shopping, right,” she breathed out in response, squinting her eyes shut as she stepped out back into the street that was flooded with late afternoon sunshine. “Do you have any method to choosing?” she inquired, falling instep alongside of him, curious about his methods. He clearly did well, surviving this long, and Rori figured she could spare to learn a thing or two from him. Most of the homes in the surrounding area were small and modest in the traditional farmhouse style. The area had clearly never been particularly wealthy, but seemed homely. Most of the homes, having been generations old, survived the lack of care fairly well. Aside from the occasional spot of paint peeling away from the paneling, periodic broken windows, and the untamed lawns, the homes seemed completely undisturbed.

 

[kindaemissary]

Matthias snorted at the sweatshirt and its hideous logo even though he understood the practicality. The added warmth from an additional article of clothing would keep the changing autumn winds at bay a little better. His goal was to find a few other pairs of pants to gather up for their journey before they left, because even if they didn't have the time or ability to wash each pair, it would be nice to have more than one pair to wear when the colder months became brutal. It was obvious that it would be colder than what either Matthias or Rori were used to. Matthias had spent the last few years in the belly of California, and though Rori was just north, it was still much nicer than the harsh weather that came with venturing into Canada.


As he wheeled the shopping cart from the grocery store, he looked down at the first row of houses before turning his head towards Rori. "I normally pick which one I think was better taken care of on the inside. If it looks like someone has already been there, I try to shy away from it. These houses - they all look relatively kept. At least kept in the fact that they've survived the apocalypse."


There was a gnawing feeling at the back of his neck that he justed used the biggest no word for the first time since starting the journey. Sure, he had thought it in his head, but Matthias he never agreed with himself out loud. It almost cemented the fact that this was the end even though their trek had just begun. He shook his head. "Shit, sorry. Probably wasn't the best thing to say." He shook his head at himself but kept his eyes on the homes down the row from them.


"We can always go in a couple of them," he said. "I normally shower in one and find most of my food and clothes in others because some places have one thing or the other. I've been to a lot more places with cold water than with anything heated. I say our best guess is to just chec them out. If they fall short of our already small expectations, we move on. If not, we try it for a bit and then move on to the next." He pushed the cart down the row of houses and after a minute set his backpack down inside. If they didn't find a car, the cart would be something useful to have.


The houses in front of them were neutral pastels mostly - a lot of light blues and yellows, some whites here and there, a couple greens. There was one with a cobblestone walkway leading to the front porch and a swing hanging from a small alcove. "How does this one look?" he asked, and he turned his head to face her again. The sun was hitting her face so that he couldn't tell which was shadow and which was smudged dirt. Either way, he quickly looked away so that it wasn't awkward. "If it's terrible inside, we move to the next. I normally find something worth taking in each house though. Even if it's just a jar or tomato sauce or another belt. Every house is worth a shot."

 

[Mordecai]

“Oh, don’t snort at it,” Rori retorted in a mock matter-of-fact tone, though the frolicsome smile curving into her cheekbones deceived her teasing. “You’ll look good in bright, neon, make-your-eyes-bleed red,” she continued. Well rested and quasi-fed, the young woman’s sarcastic streak was beaming brighter than ever. While mother nature had done its best to beat every contentment Rori had ever known out of her life, it seemed to not have kept her down for long, for her face reflected a deep-seated peace in that moment. Rori’s self esteem was a mercurial thing, prone to as many moments of self-loathing as pride, but getting out of Brandkast had proven to be the best medicine for her morale. For once, she finally felt as though she possessed a purpose, no matter how small it was.


Her expression turned to a serious one as Matthias began to speak, listening intently and digesting each word that came out of his mouth. “That makes sense,” she agreed, her gaze inspecting each home individually, but not being able to discern one from another. They seemed all in relative good tact, as Matthias had mentioned, and one didn’t look any better than any of the others. If the word apocalypse bothered her, she didn’t show it, for she didn’t offer even a flinch at the statement, nor his follow up apology. Instead, she just followed alongside of him, but allowed him to govern their steps. Now that they were closer to the houses, she could see their wear more than she had before. Windows were covered in cobwebs and grime, and what little glimpses she gleaned inside showed rooms frozen in time, but blanketed with a film of dust.


“Sure,” she agreed, but didn’t look back to Matt as she was busy searching through her surroundings, “We might as well.” Who knew when the next opportunity would arise to gather supplies? Clamouring up on to the porch of the house Matt had pointed out. She jingled the front door, but the bolt held tight. Undeterred and without a hesitation in her movement, Rori knocked out one of the glass panes filigreeing the door with her elbow, before reaching inside and turning the lock until it clicked. With a soft, suggesting nudge, the door popped open happily.


“This one looks like a fine place to start,” she said as she stepped inside the muted entryway of the home. For a moment, she felt a pang of unease over stepping into a stranger’s home, but by the looks of it, no one had been here in quite some time, but it looked perfectly liveable, down to the umbrella hanging from the coatrack. Moving deeper into the house, Rori made her way first to the kitchen, pulling open cabinets to find disappointingly bare shelves. Still, she did manage to rustle up a few bottles of aspirin, which would probably prove to come in handy at some point.

 

[kindaemissary]

Like Rori had said, the house was a great first step in their journey through Charleston. No one seemed to have been there for quite a while, but the house was still well maintained. There was clean clutter in the living room, mainly on the coffee and side tables, but relatiely the house was clean. So far, no animals had gotten into anything as far as he could see. It was still clean. Might need a quick vacuum or maybe a little dusting here and there, but it was far from the worst house he had been in so far.


He heard the cabinets being opened from the kitchen and headed down a different hallway instead to find a small powder room. Dark navy walls and white fixtures. The house was nice. Well taken care of and well decorated. He turned on the sink in the bathroom and after a few short moments of air beating through the pipe, Matthias's hand was met with clear and smooth water. There was still soap on the sink. Towels on the rack. It didn't seem like anyone was prepared to be leaving this home for a very long time.


Matthias shut the water off and headed out to make his way to the main staircase. The wood was firm and didn't shake as he stepped up. The house was built strong; stronger than any other house he had stopped in so far. Upstairs, there were three bedrooms - a master with a connected en suite, a bedroom with a double bed, and a guest bedroom based on the lack of personality. Most likely two or three people lived here and weren't expecting to leave.


Inside of the closet of the master bedroom were a collection of clothes in all different colors and for different seasons. Even if nothing else came out from stopping at this house, they would be good on clothes from here on out. If they got a car, even some kind of truck, they could take way more than they could carry by hand or by cart. This house was looking good so far. He tried the lightswitch, but it didn't work. Matthias started carrying clothes from the closet and laying them across the kind sized bed. Once he had some out of the closet, he started looking through the rest of the master. The en suite had an array of towels and personal care items so they'd be good there too, but the dresser drawers were empty entirely. No socks, t-shirts, pants, sweatshirts. They left mostly formal and winter clothes behind, which worked for Mattias and Rori since that was what they needed. They were going to need the warmest clothes they could find.


He left the bedroom and called downstairs from the top of the balcony. "There's a lot of clothes up here. I moved some onto the bed but everything but the closet was empty." Matthias then turned to the second bedroom and watched the walls. Lots of posters and pictures decorated it. By the looks of the photographs, the family that lived here had a son. There weren't a lot of personal items in this room either. Electronics were gone mostly. There was a gaming system hooked up to a TV. CDs scattered on the desk like it was a last second thought to pick tunes for the road.


Matthias wondered if they were dead.


The guest bedroom was yellow, empty of anything that would depict someone living there full time. Pictures of the family - a couple, male and female, and their teenage son - were on the dresser near the door and on the nightstand next to the bed. There were a couple blankets in the closet. Extra sheets. Bare pillows. Definitely spare bedroom.


Another full bathroom was in between the two secondary bedrooms. White walls, counter top, and fixtures. Gray tile around the shower and on the floor. Black and gray towels on the hooks. Very minimalistic. Simple. Matthias checked the water in the shower-tub combination and it worked. He figured, but one could never be too sure. There was vitamins behind the over-sink mirror. One-a-Day for men. He wondered if he'd need them. Pocketing them anyway, Matthias leaned down to look through the drawers and cabinets under the countertop. If they could find anything useful, even if not for a while, it was better that they take it now instead of waiting to come across it again.

 

[Mordecai]

While Matthias disappeared up the stairs, Rori took to the basement. It was dusty and dark, and without a window, Rori bumbled through the dark room by the touch of her fingertips. The plaster walls were cool to the touch, with moisture having gathered in small droplets along the dimples of the wall. As her eyes began to adjust to the dim light, the young woman ventured away from the safety of the wall and walked in small-paced steps. It was cluttered, but nicely preserved nonetheless and a twinge of lament for disturbing the home’s resting place. Still, she didn’t feel badly enough to stop what she was doing, so, she heartlessly began to rummage through the belongings. The room was cluttered with dozens of filing cabinets, a water heater, a washer and dryer, and old furniture that hadn’t seen the light of day in years, but she hadn’t been looking for any of those things. It was the door leading out to the garage that she had been looking for, and upon finding it, she gave it a good jingle.


As she expected, the door popped open happily, swinging open into the garage. The garage had been mostly stripped down—if there was anything but a few empty boxes to begin with. But in the center of the one car garage was a glorious sight: a beautifully preserved four door early 2000 model Jeep in sinister blue. What had once been a winsome piece of equipment, the Jeep looked a little rough around the edges, with the edges of the doors rusting heavily and spotted marks miring the cement floor from dried, leaked motor oil, but those problems aside, the vehicle was in otherwise good shape.


“Aha, yahztee!” she chimed, approaching the vehicle almost apprehensively, as if she was expecting it to lunge for her at any moment, “Well, hello beautiful,” Rori purred in a quiet voice, running her palm across the hood of the truck, clearing a streak of the dust that had been gathering. She wound a path around it, giving it a once over, before testing her luck and prying at the driver’s side door. After having run from an angry mob of people from the city of Brandkast, good fate seemed to be on her side, for after a moment of resistance, the Jeep’s door creaked and opened. The inside seemed to be a little more appealing than the outside, at least. Dust had settled firmly over the dashboard, but Rori was getting herself well acquainted with the presence of dirt and thought nothing of it.


Pulling the hood release, she ventured back outside the vehicle and futzed with the hood until she managed to hoist it open. Before she even had the opportunity to look at the cogs and engine, Rori was met with two bright yellow eyes staring out from the darkness back at her. A low hiss followed the sight as a head with a row of gleaming white teeth belonging to a raccoon flashed for a mere second before vanishing. “Nope!” Rori yelped in surprised, coiling her hand into her chest as she practically leapt from her skin to make it back to the door separating the garage and basement. She spent no time loitering back in the basement as she jogged up the stairs and into the safety of the home’s landing, just in time to hear Matthias’ voice coming from upstairs.


“Oh-- oh, great, okay,” she replied in a winded voice when he mentioned he had found some clothes, “Fantastic—“ more heavy breathing followed. Rori was afraid of few things, but racoons were one. There was no rhyme or reason for the fear and she understood how completely irrational it was, yet she couldn’t seem to shake it. Luckily, she hadn’t had to face her life’s nemesis in many years, but encountering one of the vile beasts in the engine block of the Jeep was enough to cause a trickle of adrenaline to swamp her mind and heart. “Okay, okay, okay,” she muttered to herself as she trudged up the stairs, peeking her head through the doorways until her sight found Matthias. “Hey, so,” Rori began, glancing around the drab bathroom, “I found a vehicle that may be promising. Since it’s in the garage, I’d assume the keys would be around here somewhere but uh… there is one small problem,” Rori paused as she reached up to rub her nose, “You see, I, uh, am terrified of racoons? And Uh.. well, there is a racoon in the engine block and that is a big double nope situation for me. I think I can coax it out without it killing me-- but Imma need you there to make sure I don't begin to have a mental unhinging.”

 

[kindaemissary]

There were a lot of towels under the sink and in the linen closet, and, for a moment, Matthias wondered why there was such a need for towels. Unless this family had guests a lot of the time, he didn't see a reason. They could have updated the bathrooms more than once and decided to change everything inside. Either way, there were enough towels for both of them to take many showers without ever using the same towel more than once. They could probably bring a lot of them with them.


Matthias took out a pack of 12 rolls of toilet paper, two missing and one on the hanger, and set them on the counter. That would be more useful than he could imagine later. Especially on the road and in the cold, the toilet paper could used for napkins or tissues as well. A win-win-win situation, he'd like to think.


All of the bedrooms were promising even though all of them didn't have clothes. There were sheets, blankets, a couple sleeping bags at the bottom of the teenager's room. It was all looking good so far, even if they didn't have much food with them and were so far without a car. They'd find one; he was sure of it.


He turned around when he heard breathing behind him. Rori was standing in the doorway, panting nonetheless, and Matthias raised an eyebrow. "Raccoons?" he asked. It didn't seem logical, to be quite honest, but most fears weren't. He moved towards the stairs and out of the bathroom and headed down towards the garage next to Rori.


"If it's in the garage, we could open the door. I don't think anyone else is around here, and if they are, well. I don't think they'll care that much that we're taking a car." No one that was poisoned by Caine was still alive, but people could still be delirious and hysterical. They would take their chances. Matthias's hand rested on the door handle and he turned towards Rori. "If it's in the engine, will we be able to get it out without tearing the machine apart? I don't really care about the animal, but I don't want to damage one of our biggest chances to move faster. With winter settling in during the next few weeks, it'll be better to get somewhere sooner rather than later."

 

[Mordecai]

“No, not raccoons,” she answered in an idle voice, “One. Just one. Racoon, singular.” Rori hummed. The young blonde was not afraid of much—she was the first one to jump off the diving board in her Little Fishes swimming class in kindergarten, always eager to explore that one abandoned house all the kids thought was haunted in middle school, and never once batted an eyelash at the corpses being dragged out of her hometown during the initial outbreak of Caine. Racoons, however, had been a life-long fear. She wasn’t sure what instilled such a deathly fear of small, fluffy, bandit-masked creatures, but every time someone even so much as spoke about one, she could feel her heart begin to race and blood pump in her ears. “It’s living in the engine block,” she explained. It was fairly common for small, furry critters to make homes in the engine blocks of cars that weren’t in use. They were dark, damp spaces that were excellent for hiding and climbing into. Sometimes, animals could get stuck if they got too big, but that was rare.


“Oh, yes, I believe it’s living there, not stuck there. We used to use a hose to get them out. I don’t know much about raccoons—“ and for good reason, “But we should be able to get it out by just making enough noise and scaring it.” Car engines were a bit hardier than people often understood; they could really take a beating and still function. Her only concern about the raccoon living in there was if he had chewed through some of the electrical cords but, then again, what did that really matter? It wasn’t like they were going to have to be polite about their turn signals and radio was a thing of the past. So long as they could get the raccoon out, Rori was convinced that she’d be able to get the Jeep up and running in a few hours.


Leading him down to the garage, Rori peered apprehensively at the Jeep. The hood was still popped open and there was no sight of any raccoon now. Taking Matt’s advice into consideration, Rori moved around the vehicle and made her way towards the garage door. Pulling on the bright red manual release cord, she hauled the garage door open. Its joints lurched with some apprehension at the sudden movement, creaking pitifully as it was forced open and late, dusky light poured in. The sound of garage rumbling was enough to draw a deep, throaty growl from, presumably, the raccoon in the car’s engine. The streets were vacant, just as before, and if anyone was concerned about them stealing the Jeep, they weren’t present to protest.


With a great deal of apprehension in her step, Rori’s gaze flickered between Matt and Jeep for a second, before finally landing on the Jeep. With a fresh breeze whirling around the garage, dragging in leaves with it, the raccoon began to shuffle around. Its claws made distinct rattles as it clamored through the metal parts, deep grows falling behind the noise in intervals. The noises were enough to send Rori into a nervous jitter, rocking uncomfortably back and forth between the balls of her feet. She seemed more uncomfortable now that she had been when she had been running for her life the night before.


“Alright, here ya go, Matt,” she said, pulling a wrench off the nearby work table and handing it over to him, “Go piss the raccoon off, eh?”