[center][i]Collab between [@themadasshatter] and [@silverfallen][/i][/center]

"It's Irish," Neasa said with a slight shrug. Her accent might have given it away, but then again, maybe it hadn't. She sort of felt like her accent wasn't nearly as thick as it used to be. So much time in this place with a hodge-podge of different accents, it changed a person. 

At the mention of her brother, Neasa glanced out the window and sighed for a moment then shrugged. "It's been a year. Figure he's probably dead already. But I mean, if you want to, 'sup to you." What he did was his business, and if it helped her, well that was alright with her. If not, that was also fine. 

"Heh." She let out a weak laugh - not even a real one at that, as she touched her jaw. "Figure there's no point in wearing a gas mask anymore. Radiation sickness is already gonna kill me. Might as well make it a bit quicker and less painful, you know? What about you? You ain't wearing one either." 

Scott smirked at that. "I've scouted this building out with my geiger counter. The air's pretty safe here, believe it or not, so I figured it wasn't necessary." He wondered whether she was being reckless or just fatalistic. What she said about her brother's fate hinted towards the latter. It was depressing, to be honest.

"Well, that's good to know," Neasa said, not that she really cared that much anymore. She didn't expect to make it out of the Zone alive, nor did she expect to live much longer. 

"So, what are you doing here in the Zone?" she asked, ready to get the conversation away from herself.

"Heh, why did I come?" Scott's reasons were certainly far less rational than hers. "Thirst for adventure, I suppose. Where else can you go on Earth where you're completely free from the bounds of the law?"

Neasa's jaw twitched slightly and her mouth thinned to a white line. Her previous loose grip on her gun tightened slightly. 

"Oh yeah? And which laws are you excited to be free from?"

"Relax, relax..." Scott said, sensing her apprehension.  In hindsight that probably wasn't the best way to phrase that last statement.  "Only the dumb ones, like parking laws, taxes, shit like that.  Maybe it's more accurate to say that I wanted to get away from society and experience something new."

He suddenly felt a bit thirsty.  He had been asleep for some time.  He decided to reach into his bag, slowly so as not to spook Neasa, and pull out a plastic bottle of clearish liquid.  He took a swig of it straight from the bottle, grimmacing slightly.  "You drink?  It's rum.  A bit watered down, but not horrible."

Neasa slowly nodded her head, not sure she believed he was telling the truth. She hoped he was, but she wasn't naive. Trusting somebody too soon was how you got killed. He seemed like a fairly decent person and she would give him a chance but that didn't mean she had to play dumb. 

"Not horrible, huh? Tell your face that," she said, the slightest smirk on her face. 

"Oh please, you should know you can't be too picky here."  He put the bottle away, assuming that meant "no".  He allowed himself to return to a comfortable position, but his expression hardened a little.  "Right, so, about this business with your brother.  Do you have any ideas at all as to where he could be?  Any leads?  Surely someone must have seen him at some point somewhere."

"Thought I had a lead some months ago," she confessed. "But it didn't go anywhere. I'm just sort of at the point of wandering and asking if anybody's met a teen boy with an Irish accent."

"Surely someone must have ran into someone like that.  I've only run into a couple of Irish dudes here, and..."  He stopped for a second.  "Did you just say he's a teenager?  What the fuck is he doing here?  How did he even get here?!" he asked, clearly surprised.

Neasa sighed heavily. "Now you understand my annoyance. Our older sister was a soldier back in the war. We were told she had died, but we never got her body or anything, and we figured it wasn't so much that she died and just... I dunno, vanished. Well, my dumbass brother got it in his head that she was still alive and here for whatever reason. As to how, beats me."

"Mmm." Scott stood himself up and threw his backpack on over his shoulders. "Well hang with me for a bit. I know some folks who may know a thing or two." He grabbed his pistol and holster and strapped them to his hip before picking up his M4, taking out the magazine and racking it for Neasa to see before reloading it and slinging it over his shoulder. "Fair warning, I also know some people who won't hesitate to waste us both."

Gaining a companion was probably the last thing Neasa imagined would happen, and yet here she was, nodding along and pulling her gun back out. She was still a bit skeptical but she figured he could have killed her - or worse - already if he had wanted to. 

"Why are you helping me?" she asked. 

Scott turned to look at the woman again, and in all honesty there was no single reason he could come up with. On one hand, he did feel that it was a decent thing to do, but he also just needed something to do. He just shrugged and left her with that before leading the way out of the building.