Blaine could tell by the way Feather looked at him before she turned her gaze to the horizon that she was unsure of what to make of him. He understood that she may not trust him -his intentions?- based on a single shared encounter. But it had been a long time since somebody had met his gaze so evenly, much less with such intensity. Feather's dark eyes smouldered at him in the moments before she answered him.

[color=yellow]"...lead the way."[/color]

It was like flipping a switch; the focus and urgency of executing a mission, his senses tuning into his environment, and him immediately embracing that his own demise was still not a good enough excuse for failure were all part of Blaine's natural instincts now. He rotated the HK416 from behind his back and slung it over his firing shoulder, that hand on the pistol grip and the other hand just in front the the magazine, and turned back toward the stairs. He didn't look back; he could hear Feather start after him.

Feather would survive this apocalypse as long as he drew breath.

He would have loved to have simply Aussie rappelled of the top of the building and called it a day. They obviously didn't have the equipment for that, so back into the build they went, Blaine sweeping his weapon smoothly from side to side around every angle. He knew he had 23 in the magazine and one locked and loaded, and he wanted to have those same numbers when they got outside. When they hit the first floor he immediately led them away from the front entrance, where a horde of infected still lingered from their last skirmish, through an office on the opposite side of the building, where he looked out the window into the street. 

They were out there, the soulless husks of the infected, wandering aimlessly, with no purpose left except to devour humanity into extinction. On this side of the building their numbers were few and far enough between for the two companions to get their feet on the ground before the infected could get close enough to be a threat. Blaine slowly opened the window, ensuring that he made no noise that might attract another horde. Then he stacked himself against the wall and looked intently at Feather.

She nodded at him, he nodded at her, and Feather was through the window in a single agile movement while Blaine immediately rotated around after her looking down the reflex sight of his weapon, ready to cover her by fire at the first sign of imminent contact. She found cover immediately and Blaine was right on her heels.

*    *      *

Inside the mall it was just as much of a disaster as the rest of the city. Blaine walked with Feather a short way down the wing that they had entered into. It was not swarming with infected right away, a state of affairs that he knew could change in an instant. He slung the HK416 across his back again and unsnapped the band on his tomahawk holster. 

[color=yellow]"Want to check them before moving on?"[/color]

He regarded his companion with concern, looking intently at the girl, who seemed to be on the verge of collapsing at any moment. He instantly regretted pushing the pace so hard on the way in. In his urgency he had forgotten that he was no longer leading soldiers; he should not have expected Feather to move out like one every time he gave her a hand signal. His expression softened slightly as it occurred to him just how tough the native warrior really was.

"We'll need to clear them as we go," Blaine answered her. It was the most tactically sound thing to do. They had gotten this far; Blaine was not about to take any chances with Feather's safety now. 

"But first," he said motioning with a nod toward the smoothie bar, "it looks like you could use a drink. We'll do a security halt there and I'll see if anyone is on the other side of this radio."

Blaine began carefully leading the way there. He would feel better to sit and listen for awhile, in the back of the bar where the infected would have no choice but to bottle neck if they caught on to their presence, with Feather safely behind every round of firepower he had left.