[b] – Farmhouse - [/b]

[i] – Mercy –[/i]

It was definitely a good thing that Mercy had no idea what was going through Cat’s mind or her heart may have given out due to fear. Though she hadn’t been very good at hiding her fear upon entering the room she had managed to gain a little more self control since she had started tending to his injuries, though she wasn’t very good at hiding her emotions. So it was easy to see that she felt uneasy when he didn’t even flinch as she cleaned up the wound, she had been around people with a high pain tolerance before but Cat didn’t even appear to register feeling any pain at all. 

Mercy cast her gaze down to the floor for a moment as Cat answered her question, she thought over his answer for a few minutes before her brain offered up two probable meaning behind the single word he had used.  A) They had been alone since the beginning of this nightmare or B) They had simply always been alone...for some reason she was leaning more towards the b option, mainly because of the story of scars spread across his body. Scars held history whether a person wanted them to or not, most scars had a story behind them, a reason or even a lesson sometimes all three. And although it was easier pretending that people like Cat and Dog didn’t exist, Mercy hadn’t been completely blind to it like most people were...not that she could even begin to imagine what his or Dog’s lives must have been like. 

As Mercy thought over it she tried to keep herself from expressing her sympathy, after all what use was her sympathy to him anyway, he of all people probably wouldn’t give a rats butt about it...however...foolish as it may have been it wasn’t her not to react in some way “Sorry to hear that...” She murmured uncertainly “Did you not come across any other survivors?” she didn’t want to pry too far into Cat’s history, despite how curious she was so she deliberately angled her question so that it could be taken whatever way Cat wanted. 

She was grateful when he gave her the go ahead to stitch him up, he seemed like an incredibly hardy person but even so an open wound in this new world was just asking for trouble. She reached down and swiftly went about threading a hooked needle with a line of thread. She fished her swiss army knife out of her pocket, flicking up a small pair of scissors to snip the thread before sliding it into her back pocket. Reaching up she scooped a blonde tendril of hair behind her ear before hovering back over Cat’s arm a look of concentration dominating her expression as she manipulated the wound before she began to stitch it together, creating small and neat stitches as she went. The mechanical repetition of her actions seemed to bring a natural calm to her body as she released some of the tension in her shoulders, allowing her heartbeat to even out with the fluidity of her movements. 

However as his prying eyes lingered on her face her heart begun to beat faster again as her nerves flared back up. She tried to bury it and concentrate though she inhaled sharply as he spoke, her eyes flickered away from her work briefly as she thought over his question, it was a surprisingly deep question. Or it felt that way to her...she continued stitching as she thought, she didn’t want to keep him waiting but she was struggling to find a viable answer. “My reason for surviving...” she repeated a frown crept across her guarded expression “Is rather simple...though I’m not sure you’ll agree with it...” She drew the needle away from the wound gently tugging the thread into a neat stitch with her other hand before lowering the needle back towards his skin. “For now, I survive because I am needed” She cautiously answered him, her body language changed almost instantly, she subtly leant a little further back and almost braced herself against his reaction for a few moments before continuing on with her actions. 

She retracted her hands as she finished stitching him up and tied off the loose end, placing the needle on the floor in clear view she used the dried antiseptic wipe to rid the area around his wound of any excess blood that may have leaked out whilst she had been stitching it closed. Once it was clean she wiped her fingertips with it as well, trying not to think about the list of hygiene protocols she had just broken. She was going to need to go in search of something to sterilize the needle and her hands once she was done here. Gloves were protocol but she hadn’t had any at hand so she’d had to do without, as she wiped her hands she dropped her eyes to the floor and cleared her throat before asking the cold man another question. “What is...your reason for surviving?” She asked despite her pause her voice didn’t quiver as it had done before, though she still refused to lift her gaze to his face instead she was reaching for a sheet of gauze and the bandages she had collected. Reaching into the first aid kit she pulled out a tube of savlon and smeared a glob on one side of the dressing. “Should help this heal faster” She murmured before reaching up and attempting to cover the treated wound with the dressing with one of her hands. Provided that Cat allowed her to do so she held the rolled up bandages with her other hand until she was able to begin wrapping them around his arm. 

Despite her previous attempts to leash her curiosity Mercy’s eyes wandered to Cat’s scarred torso as she finished either binding his arm or placing the unused bandages on the floor. Though she appreciated beauty in both genders she wasn’t so much admiring his physique or rather what was visible of it, she appeared to be attempting to imagine what .  She had shuffled closer to his injured arm whilst she had been stitching so she could only really study his chest rather than his back, she seemed particularly puzzled by the x across his heart with its long edges that seemed to stretch across his body. She nervously gripped her left wrist with her right hand, running her thumb across the inked skin on the inside of her wrist as she summoned the courage to ask him about the peculiar scar. [i]Curiosity killed the cat[/i] had been her father’s favorite saying. 

“There you go...I can take those out at a later time. It was a pretty clean cut so I doubt it’ll become infected if you-” Having started her speech in a strong manner, she seemed to remember herself about halfway through and cut herself off before she could issue instructions. In an attempt to distract him from her unfinished sentence she nervously begun to place things back into her first aid kit with one hand carefully keeping the needle and used wipe separated from the rest “H-how did you get this?” she asked after a moment, lifting her free hand she kept it close to her own body but her index finger was pointing at the x shaped scar on his chest. Her heartbeat had increased to an uncomfortable level but she had deliberately delayed asking him such a question until she had finished treating him. That way she hoped that if he didn’t want to answer it, he would simply ignore her and go about his business...she only hoped the questioning wouldn’t anger him, she didn’t have a plan of action to fall back on if it did.

 [b] –Fuel Run- [/b]

[i]– Tamashii – [/i]

Having given the whistle to signal the other two Tamashii had turned her attention to Remy once more, though she visibly grimaced as the short lived sound of metal grating against tarmac reached her ears. It hadn’t been very loud at all but it had sounded loud to her, Tamashii’s hearing was fairly sensitive especially when she herself was on high alert. She cast a glance over her shoulder in search of the cause of the sound though only noticed that both Dog and Kaylah were no longer in her sights unless she stood up. 

Once she’d finished talking to Remy she quietly backed away from the car they had crouched behind and made her way back towards Dog and Kaylah. She only stayed low for a few moments before she figured she wouldn’t be noticed by the infected anymore, to be honest she wasn’t entirely sure how well those things could even see. She’d often questioned which sense the infected relied on to hunt the living out, from a distance touch was impossible and taste seemed a little far fetched...unless they could taste the scent of human flesh or something. The thought caused a shudder to run the length of her spine as she came towards Kaylah who seemed to have shoved her arm into the back of the car she was collecting fuel from. Tamashii’s thoughts wandered away from their previous occupation and turned back to the situation at hand, wondering whether she should mention her concerns about the area they were in or to keep them to herself.

Tamashii came to a standstill next to Kaylah, a thoughtful look occupied her expression as if she were in silent debate with herself. Her eyes travelled from Kaylah to rest on Dog briefly before she looked back over at the trucks where Rena was sat waiting. She opened her mouth to say something when Kaylah’s voice cut her off, she glanced at the women in blue curiously though she didn’t think the question had been aimed at her she used it as an excuse to make her presence known. “I should think you would have to open it to know that” She answered quietly, she had approached the other woman from the side so that she could have seen her. She hadn’t wanted to sneak up on the pair, especially as she knew Kaylah had a gun. “What is it you’re looking at anyway?” She asked Kaylah curiously, she couldn’t even see what the other woman was talking about. She gave her an ample amount of time to reply to her question or shrug it off before she glanced at Dog. 

Providing that Dog had made his way over to Kaylah, Tamashii addressed both of them when she spoke. “This place looks clean...I mean really clean. There are a few infected over by the entrance to the city but apart from that, there is nothing or rather nobody about” Her voice was steady but her disbelief was apparent in the tone of her voice. “Don’t know about you guys but it feels wrong...all these cars just left here like this. I’m thinking about checking out that building if either of you wanted to join me, I’m doubtful there will be anything there but...” She trailed off shrugging her tensed shoulders. “Remy’s keeping an eye on the infected in case they come any closer” She informed them before breaching a subject she didn’t often “What do you two think about this place?” She asked, finding herself generally curious about their perceptions though she outwardly appeared indifferent. She folded her arms across her chest and turned her back towards the car Kaylah was rooting through. Though her eyes were constantly scanning the area around them searching for tell tale signs of danger, she seemed to be trusting Remy to warn them of any danger should there be any.