[b]Chae, Miguel - [url=http://www.shenandoahwoods.com/]Shenandoah "Woods"[/url], Baton Rouge - No one at all[/b] What a depressing place Shenandoh's Woods were! What stuck out to Chae the most, as she and her companion Miguel silently wandered through "The Woods'" ample amount of pavilions, was how very desolate it all seemed. They had slept in the lodges and found they weren't the first vagabonds to have the idea, nor were they the first to have the idea of scavenging the lodges for supplies. Chae, typically thorough in her looting, hadn't been able to find anything particularly useful in her search. Most consumables appeared to have been ripped open by claw and tooth, anything else useful seemed to have gone with the people who came in and out of "The Woods" to seek a respite in their travels. People came and left, but no one seemed to want to stay and build it into anything more. The marriage lodges had been reduced to a post-apocalypse rest stop. Chae wasn't sure how she felt about it... Another thought occurred to her. [i]Where were the trees?[/i] This place was called Shenandoh's Woods, and yet it was devoid of trees. There was wood; in the lodges, and the pavilions that dotted the rolling hills of the acres. But did just HAVING wooden structures really earn this place the nickname of 'The Woods?' The place was acres, and there didn't seem to be a single tree on the property. There didn't seem to be anything living on the property-- or dead! The place held the type of silence her time traveling had taught her to be wary of. The pair wandered, for what seemed like hours, from empty pavilion to empty pavilion. Had she died? Was this some purgatory? Or hell? Had someone killed her in her sleep, and her personal hell was an infinite, derelict, middle-class honeymooners pavilion hell scape? Because that would like, [i]really[/i] suck. Like, [i]reeeally[/i] suck. Chae almost let out an 'Oh, thank God...' when they came across the horrific sight, earning her a quirked eyebrow from Chito. The two infected in the pavilion ahead of them, presumably man and wife, dressed fittingly in ripped and aged tux and white dress, were feasting on some small animal. They had apparently only just managed to kill the poor thing, judging from the vigor with which they were eating. They could have just left the pain be... and yet... As Chito turn to leave, Chae continued forward, "Don't make any jokes about '[i]'till death do us part[/i]' or whatever..." She whispered a growing smirk on her face, she pulled a screwdriver that had seen better days from it's makeshift holster-- her belt. "What the hell are you doing, Chi?" Miguel whispered back, a resigned annoyance tinged his voice. "Relax, it's only two. I just wanna see what the happy couple caught for breakfast." An afterthought, she added "Plus, I think they deserve some piece, you know?" If he had any objections, it was already too late to voice them. With skill and speed, she thrust the screwdriver into the head of the woman through her feasting neck. Before she could even register what was happening, Chae drove the screwdriver far enough into her infected brain to put her down. Like clockwork. Her eyes widened. As she tugged at the screwdriver lodged in the bride's head, her groom was already turning from his... cat? To the main course. Chae fell back, instinctively moving her arms to hold away the chomping mouth-- the struggle lasted a moment, before they both fell to the ground, Chae still, muscles tensed, adrenaline pumping, was barely managing to hold the heavy man back. But managing. [i]That went to shit fast![/i] Chito had already began running over at the first sign of a struggle. No sooner was she able to completely register her position than the teenage ball of muscle tackled the infected beast, freeing her and pinning it to the ground. [i]Okay. Screwdriver's gone-- what's next?[/i] Acting on equal parts intuition and logic, she pulled out a mostly empty bottle of Jack Daniels from her bag-- smashed it on the wooden floor of the pavilion and practically felling, sharp-end of the bottle first, onto the pinned infected man's skull. With all of her weight and the energy she could summon, she stabbed the broken glass as deep into it's brain as she could force it. Until the tuxedoed man, finally, stopped struggling from under Chito's death pin. They fell back. Chito rolled off the groom onto his back, and Chae sat, overlooking the freshly re-killed couple. If there were any more infected nearby, they would have heard the bottle smashing. But the longer they sat in relative silence, the still desolate air of the "The Woods" only interrupted by the waning pants coming from the two following the unnecessary encounter. "So..." Chae began, leaning from where she sat crisscrossed to overlook Chito, "I think it was a cat." The man, in response, gave a glare, resembling the expression of a frustrated father. Chae leaned back, musing, "What would a cat be doing living here?" She sighed, "I mean, I don't think it's a stray? Why the fuck would a stray wander [i]here[/i] of all places, you know? Maybe the owners had one? Like, a mascot cat or something?" Chae stood, walking over to the eviscerated remains of the orange tabby, she was obviously well fed, "How did she live here... alone? It looks like she [i]just[/i] got caught. So she's been eating all this time..." The images of the clawed and bitten food packages returned to her mind. "That was [i]you[/i]..." She whispered to the remains of the cat-- stepping around the bride, "Smart cat." "Not smart enough," Chito quipped, sitting up with a groan, "Okay, so riddle me this, [i]gato[/i] Sherlock; What happened to the [b]people[/b] here?" Chae tilted her head, and looked off into space, eyes occasionally darting to the man and woman, before responding several minutes later, "I think they killed themselves." "What?" "I said I think they killed themselves." Chae retorted, matter-of-factually. She ran a hand along the sun-stained, curdled milk white fabric of the woman's wedding dress. "Y-yeah, but like.." Chito scratched his head, "What?" "I think..." She looked back towards the lodges, "I think these two were on honeymoon before, y'know... like, a day or two before the evacuations and everything... and I think... that they were left behind. That the staff fled, and they either didn't know these lovebirds were still there..." Chae twirled the grimy rotted gray hair between her fingers, the bride must have had beautiful blonde hair, "Or maybe they didn't care?" She grimaced at the thought, "So they were here, right? Stranded, with food and a smart cat, sure, but they had to deal with the new world all on their own, young lovers... and I guess they couldn't deal? I dunno how long they lasted. Like, a week? A month? Not too long, they look pretty raw... but I... I dunno, I think they went in their sleep? They probably poisoned themselves, Romeo & Juliet style." As she paused, a small smirk came across her face, "Except, I guess the Capulets and Montagues would just be the infected? And the Cat's obvs Mercutio, because Mercutio was based as--" Chito scoffed, a slight dry laugh followed as he stood to survey the empty hills that surrounded them, "How could you know any of that?" Chae shrugged, "If they could choose, I think most women would probably choose to die in their wedding dress." The boy rolled his eyes, "You know what, fine whatever. It doesn't really matter, just don't go fighting the [i]nzumbi[/i] without a plan again, o-okay?" "But how did our Mercutio die?" She asked, ignoring Miguel's request. It was almost as if the cat's curiosity had been transferred to her being. "I don't know? It probably just fucked up. Are we going anytime soon, Chi chi?" "Just fucked up...?" She parroted his words, considering them like a fine wine. "Nah, I don't think it's that. I think there was a reason this went down..." "Really?" Chito asked with sarcastic interest. "Yeah," She continued, more to herself than anything else, "I mean... Mercutio here survived for weeks... [i]months[/i] just, like, on her own. She was smart enough to eat-- hunt-- and avoid the ghouls while they were in the lodges. She wouldn't just like... up and fuck up." "Mhmm." Chito, an expert of hiding his annoyance, resorted to replies in onomatopoeia. He'd traveled with Chae long enough to know that when she got eccentric like this about something, it was always best to just let her play it out. She sighed, "Yeah, I guess we couldn't--" [i]"[color=gray]...mew...[/color]"[/i] Chae perked up, "Did you hear that?" "No." He actually hadn't, but his disinterest wasn't helping. [i]"[color=silver]...mew...[/color]"[/i] "There it was again!" Chae began to craw towards the sound, seeming to be from somewhere in the interlaced shrubbery that surrounded all the pavilions. On foot Chito followed a few steps behind, his apathy beginning to wane. [i]"...mew..."[/i] The weak mewling was coming from a bush. They were the mewls of a hurt, starving kitten. It was a kitten that wanted it's mother. As Chae gently opened the bush. She came face to face with the tiny creature. [url=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Arabian_Mau_Kitten.jpg]A sandy, striped Arabian Mau kit-- large, almost humorously large, ears contrasted with even larger in comparison goldenrod-hazel eyes, he possessed a scarab marking on his forehead, and looked like a mini, tiny, bite sized tiger, dipped in bleach.[/url] Mercutio had kept her kit feed, obviously, but he was hungry now, so hungry that he seemed to tremble with it. He instinctively curled in on itself, so fiercely so that it seemed as if it wanted to disappear into the ground. For now, Chae left kitten's sanctuary, and as she came back to the scene, everything clicked in an instant. [i]A mother lion protecting her cub.[/i] "What was it?" "My new kitty," Chae replied, digging through her backpack for a very specific can of food. Chito made a face, a scrunched up face of disapproval, disgust, and a desire to say something. Instead, he sighed. "What is it?" Although there was concern in her voice, she didn't look up from the task at hand. She fished out a can of a limited brand of tuna flavored spam, she had long ago relegated is as 'emergency food.' She began to pry open the small aluminum rectangle. "I uhh..." He lowered his voice, looking away, "I'm... scared of cats..." Chae stopped where she was. Immediately looking up to where Miguel stood, for a moment that must have been an eternity for the post-pubescent teen, Chae merely stared. He stuttered, "W-well it's not I'm [i]super[/i] scared or anything. It's just, you know. They've got some dark voodoo." She couldn't contain herself any longer. Chae broke down in sanguine laughter-- tearful laughter. If breaking the bottle hadn't attracted any infected, this [i]definitely[/i] would. But it didn't matter, Chae couldn't help but think, as she laughed at her, overly muscular, silent and manly companions feline-based phobia. "H-hey!" Miguel shot out, a crack appearing in his cool facade, "You know what? Fuck you too, Chae!" Miguel, revealing that he was still a child, capable of being flustered, stormed off. "I'll be waiting on the main road! Have fun with your [i]gato inferino[/i]!" As the mirth subsided, she brushed the remaining tears out of her eyes, and continued with the tuna spam. Taking about a fourth of the horrible brew for herself, she pushed the container into the cat's hovel and waited as the cat began to eat. It couldn't have been more than a few months old-- she wondered if it could even eat solid food...? [center]~~~[/center] After about 10 minutes, she received her answer. Intruding on the kit's space once more, she pulled out the rectangular spam dish-- licked clean. Of course, 10 minutes was quite a lapse of time. The small horde that had appeared on the horizon in that time had begun to approach the pavilions, her pavilion, as an increasing pace. She needed to meet up with Miguel back at the main road-- soon. Stashing the empty tin in her bag for a potential later use, she finally went back in the kit's bush sanctuary. This time it looked more wary than fearful-- it was confused, freshly without a mother-- this strange thing gave it food and now it wants you. As Chae's hand approached the kitten, it puffed out it's fur. [i]Getting ready to fight instead of running away? That food did you some good, huh?[/i] She didn't stop her approach. She needed to get the kit [i]now[/i], the horde's approach was imminent. The kitten met her gumption with some of it's own. With all the strength it's tiny body had, he lunged forward and bit down on Chae's finger. Chae flinched, but didn't move. For a moment, the pair simply remained like that. The kitten, anxious and scared, biting down on the finger of a being many times bigger with wavering pressure, and the woman who tolerated it, with a strained smile. The world didn't stop, and the ghouls were closer by the second, but in a instant, the two came to something of an understanding. The kit relented from it's bite, and almost regretfully, began to lick away the blood from the wound he had caused. Chae scooped up the kit, her things, and got the hell out of dodge. [hr] [b]Chae, Miguel, a kitten - Heading to Walmart - Anyone[/b] "Where you wanna go next?" Chito asked, unfolding his map as they walked. Chae, holding him in her left hand, brushed the kitten with her right, "You don't wanna try to find your family?" Miguel grimaced, that question was loaded. They both knew it. The sooner they dedicated themselves to that task, the sooner the youth would receive a depressing, awful, horrible, disappointment. Chae hadn't been able to spare herself from it, she'd gone to Tybee within days of the Outbreak. But Miguel... he could put it off. Chae sighed, "It's cool man, we'll go later." "Right." His tone was somber. "Hey!" Chae said, perking up, "Are there any, like... stores around here? I prefer to have something other than this shitty 6 shooter. Stocking up on some food wouldn't be bad. Plus we're outta booze." "Actually..." He put down the map, looking around, some of the settings seemingly familiar, "Actually, yeah! I think there's a Walmart nearby. I remember going to it when I was younger." A smirk came to her face, "It's probably looted to hell, but it can't all be gone. So that's cool. A plan then." She said, halfheartedly. It felt like busy work almost, in a sense. Going to a place just to go to a place. Truthfully, that's what this all was beginning to feel like-- a long difficult journey that didn't amount to anything except a pointless challenge. It was-- The kitten purred loudly in her arms, distracting her from the dark thoughts. "They'll definitely have some formula for lil' Moksha, here..." As if controlled by some other force, she slipped the headphones into her ears. "Tell us when we get there, alright?" [hider=Chae's iPod: Hunger Games - Death Grips][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSiKDlpv0XI[/youtube][/hider] "[i]I GOT THE NASTY IN MY TAXI-- YOU NEED A LIFT?[/i]" She bobbed her head along with the small kitten in her arms in time with the beat, "[i]YOU CAN SIT BETWEEN THE BACKSEAT AND MY DICK.[/i]"