Survival means compromise | Closed

She nodded sadly "hopefully somebody,somewher is finding a way to put an end to this" she said sadly before turning on her heels and making her way to the cabin. "I used to come up here with my dad every summer... we didn't hunt but i loved the thought of camping. We'd light a fire and eat smores... it was happy. that was all I could think of when I came out here".

Standing up on her tip toes she reached above the door to retrieve the key and let them in. "Its small... but at least it's shelter" she commented with a shrug, placing the duffel bag onto the floor by the small kitchen, before perching herself on the edge of the small single bed with a moth eaten blanket hanging loosely over it. "Theres some books on the shelf over there if you like reading, and there's a battery radio but I havent been able to find any active stations".

Casey felt drained of all energy after her trip to town, and let her eyes flutter closed as she still sat on the edge of the bed.

Jonathan nodded following her inside the cabin. He only half listened to her talk about the cabin and spending time here with her father. He looked around the place and was a little envious, it was much nicer than where he'd been staying since this all started.

"It's nice," he commented walking towards the table. He stripped off his rifles placing them on the table, then he removed his dark jacket and placed his knife and slingshot onto the table also. The last thing removed was his small shoulder satchel he'd had hidden under his jacket filled with ammo.

He never went anywhere without all his weapons and ammo, the last thing he wanted was for his hideout to be raided and his ammo to be stolen.

@ KhaleesE16

Caey's eyesshot open as she heard him moving around, not realising she had been falling asleep. "Yeah it could be worse. when this all kicked off at first I was in a larger group, there was 15 of us holing up in the attic of my old house, with no toilets and tensionshigh that place got rough quick" she commented, falling silent as he unloaded all of his weapons on to the table.

"Did you own alll of those before this started?" she asked him, her eyes wide. He seemed so prepared for a disaster like this,and in a weird way she envied him for not seeming as weak and afraid as she was. "When did you last eat?" she asked him, standing up slowly just in case she got dizzy to see what she had retrieved from town. inside there were several cans of soup and tinned fruits, a large box of crackers, spray cheese and only one litre bottle of water. "We probably have enough food to last a month or more... but this water wont last more than a week or two,and thats at a push..! she told him, a little disheartened they would need to go to town to find more so soon.

Casey looked him over, he was still dressed in the same type of clothes he used to wear to school everyday and it once again strook her just how little she knew about him.

@ A Drop On the Window

Jonathan took a seat, "yeah they were all mine, I wanted to get into competitive shooting, but the school therapist told them not to let me join," he explained lightly. He knew young people being into guns put people on edge, but didn't understand it at all. He wanted her to understand that he wasn't made at just the students for making him an outcast, but the teachers did it also.

He looked up at her when she stood, "no I'm okay I at last night, I have some water stored away you can have some when we head to town next," he suggested. Despite not trusting her quite yet, he also wouldn't let her die of dehydration.

@ KhaleesE16

Casey nodded, looking at his face, trying to see what she could read from it. She always believed a persons eyes gave away the type of person they were."You mustbe good at a shooring then" she commented quietly, taking a cracker from the boxand breaking it in to four quarters. she palced 3 pieces back in to the box and slowly began to nibble on the small piece left in her hand.

"Thank you, I still have alittle left in the cupboard over ther that should see the both of us through for the next day or two." she pointed to a small cupboard with a lock on it just behind his head. "So have you just beeen squatting in a house in town or something? she continued, savouring every tiny bite of the cracker.

@ A Drop On the Window

Jonathan remained in his seat, he could see her staring at him. "I think I'm pretty good at shooting, I've killed quite a few walkers." He put his hand on his rifle lightly, "the key is knowing your weapon and looking after it," he said lightly.

He watched her eating slowly, "I've been hiding out in the small tower thing on city hall," he said lightly. He figured it was only fair to let her know where his stuff was, she'd shown him hers. He moved to stand up, "so where are your uncle's guns stashed?" he asked lightly.

@ KhaleesE16

"That's good then, because I don't even know how to shoot one" she stated with a small laugh- at the back of her mind she knew it was no laughing matter. He really was very interested in guns.. At least they hadn't made that part up about him.

Casey nodded "Oh, where the big bell is? So you would have a pretty good viewof everything around you like a castle's tower, that's smart!". She pulled a small key out of her bra and lifted up the mattress on the bed, unlocking the small door beneath it. "Thats all of them there, as far as I know there should be 4". While she felt wary of showing him where all of the weapons she had were kept, she figured if he was going to kill her he already had a gun, and it wasnt like she knew how to use any of them.

Jonathan watched her remaining in his seat. His eyes finally taking a moment to notice how attractive she is. He smiled slightly, "It has it's negatives but I've been sitting up there killing walkers with my suppressed rifle for days," he explained.

"Do you mind?" he asked finally standing up walking over. He wanted to see what weapons there were in the floor. He figured there would be a hunting rifle and probably a shotgun, this being a hunting cabin, but he wanted to check.

@ KhaleesE16

"No go ahead" Casey told him, giving him what she hoped was a warm smile. Casey took a small step back to let him take a proper look at the guns without feeling like she was watching his every move. she pulled bher copy of 'Heart of darkness' off of the shelf and opened it on the bookmarked page. she wasnt really paying attention but she wanted to give him time to take in the guns.

She tried to watch him subtly over the top of the book to gage his reaction. "My uncle could be a bit of a recluse when he wanted, his guns were his babies" she said softly, not even looking up the novel.

@ A Drop On the Window

Jonathan nodded stepping over and pulling out the guns. There was indeed a hunting rifle and a shotgun, but to his surprise the other rifle in there was another much higher calibre bolt action rifle, he surmised it was probably for bears or other large game. The final weapon was a handgun, a pistol.

Jonathan lifted the weapons and fiddled with them checking they all still cocked, and appeared to be sighted in correctly. He sighed softly taking a seat on the bed for moment. "These are good, one problem though they're all gonna be super loud," he told her lightly. He had learnt the first time he shot his own hunting rifle, noise was your enemy against the walkers. He hoped that maybe one of the other gun nuts in town might have hidden a suppressor somewhere in their place.

@ KhaleesE16

Casey glanced up at him from over her book and gently placed it back down on the table. "Is there a way to fix that?" she asked him raising an eyebrow and watching him fiddle with the guns for a bit. Her head was hurting from lack of food and also everything that had happened today.

"Hey... can we forget that the apocalypse is happening for like 5 minutes... itsnice to have someone to talk to for once. Go ahead, you can ask me anything you want." she said, smiling at him again, straightening up in the chair a little, rubbing her arms with her hands. She thought maybe if she got to know him a little more she would feel a little more comfortable being around him- after all he was kind of cute in an unusual way.

@ A Drop On the Window

Jonathan paused for a second, "see the long black cylinder on the end of my rifle, we need to find some more of those," he explained to her. He slowly continued to go about checking the guns, he checked in the floor safe again and found stuff to clean all the weapons.

Jonathan looked up at her again when she spoke, "okay, what did you want to do when you left school?" he asked. He was interested in hearing about why she stuck around, he was sure she would of gone of to some college and joined a sorority.

He slowly began cleaning the guns one by one, occasionally looking up at her. He knew what she was trying to do, and hoped that it would help them get to know each other.

@ KhaleesE16

Casey glanced over at his gun and saw thae black tube that the other guns didnt have. "Oh okay, I see..." she muttered, looking over at him. "You think, maybe tomorrow you could teach me to shoot? she asked softly, her cheeks blushing slightly to be asking him for help. She really did think being able to use a gun was important given the current circumstances.

She sighed, rolling head back and laughing softly. "I wanted to study music in Berkely or Julliard... I play the piano and sing and wuld really have loved to be like a professional, and they have the best programmes... but my grades were too low to get in to Berkeley, only by a little they wanted a 3.2 I had a 3.0 so that was that.. and after getting caught up in senior year, and homecoming court and all of that kind of stuff.. I missed nthe deadline of submission for julliard and didnt get an audition" she told him, a hint of sadness in her voice as she shrugged her shoulders. "A part of me didnt want to leave Kyle behind either. After mom died it kinda became my job to look out for him".She remembered seeing Jon at her moms funeral, most of her middle school had shown up, she didnt even really know who he was back then but she could remember getting a small bit of joy out of the t-shirt he had worn that day, it had had some sort of funny slogan on it.

Casey figured because of his dad he hadnt gone to college, and since he had avoided the question earlier she felt best not to bring it up again. "Did you have any other friends in School? Like other guys as into video games as you or something?" she asked gently.

@ A Drop On the Window

Jonathan listened to her closely, "music is neat, I never really developed the coordination needed to play an instrument," he commented. He slowly continued to work away, cleaning the guns. He smiled weakly, "not in school, I had lots of friends I played with online, there was this one guy an engineer from overseas, we had some long chats about life," he admitted.

Jonathan knew that the reason he hadn't lost his mind throughout high school was long chats with strangers in online games. He also knew that most people wouldn't understand that. He looked away from her again, "I'm sorry about Kyle, I wish I could of helped," he sad with a twinge of sadness.

@ KhaleesE16

Casey giggled softly "It's super easy once you get the basics down..." She watched him as he cleaned the guns, amazed by his ease around them.It had made Casey unnerved just to know they were beneath her as she slept. Her whole family apart from her uncle had always been against guns.

"Is it the same? having friends online?" she questioned softly "I would always be afraid it was like some old dude catfishing me or something..." she felt a little bad that because of her and her friends Jonathan had had to find his friends in other places beccause they had made school so hard for him.

On eraing him offer a sorry for kyle, she just shrugged. "Thanks... it's not like it was your fault.I just wish it could have been me though, the only reason he ended up out there was because he tried standing up for me.". It felt kind of nice opening up to someone about this, even if it was the school weirdo.

Jonathan put the guns back in the safe after he'd cleaned them and stashed his own hunting rifle in with the others. He looked at her, "I didn't mind, we spoke about our lives and enjoyed ourselves together, I never planned on meeting any of them in person so what did it matter if it was someone catfishing?" he commented.

He stood up and moved the bed back into place, before moving back over to the table. "What do you mean you wish it could have been you?" he asked a little confused. He had never thought he'd have a conversation with Casey or any of her friends in a genuine setting, and to be honest it was nice to let her know that he wasn't psycho.

@ KhaleesE16

Caey looked across the table at him and shook her head before looking down at her hands. "Before I came out here on my own, I was with most of my friends from high school. Lets just say, in the first few days none of us took it seriously and basically just partied for three days solid. On the last night.." she trailed off looking back up at him, What would it hurt telling him? It's not like there was anyone left to spread it to. "Well on the last night we all took some drugs, and while we were all tripping I ended up making out with Courtney. Her boyfriend wasn't too happy about it and stormed off. The next day none of us could find him in the house and Court was really pissed. She tried to make me go out and find him and Kyle stood up for me and told her it wasnt safe. Courtney told him that he could go find him so and locked him outside. by the time I got her to open the door... Kyle was gone".

A tear rolled down her cheek and she wiped it away quickly, "If I hadn't acted like such an entitled dumbass he would be here right now" she mumbled, her nails digging in to her palms once again. She didnt expect him to feel sorry for her, she had been nothing but cruel to him for years.

@ A Drop On the Window

Jonathan nodded listening to her, 'it wasn't your fault Casey," he said lightly. He wasn't surprised at all that they'd stuffed around and thought it was a big joke, that's how they had always been. He looked down at the table, and sat back.

"You should get some rest, I'll keep watch if you want," he suggested. He was done sharing for now, and hoped that she would take the hint. He had his own horror story, that he was trying to not think about.

@ KhaleesE16