Stepping Stones

[Adrian Bennett]

It didn't matter how many times he spent out here. Adrian still hated it. No, he loathed it. He knew his so-called duty was being a supply-runner, but having no affliction to any of the groups, it felt sort of pointless. Sure, he still had mouths to feed, namely his sister and his best friend, Oliver. But that didn't mean going outside the city walls was easy. It was a means to an end. Something he had to do.

And yet, he couldn't shake of that stupid feeling of being six years old again, when he met his very first Doomed. He'd been terrified. Frozen in place. And the very same fear coursed through him now as he stepped over the endless dunes, covered in sand.

He could feel the sun burn through his clothes, making his skin irritated and soaked in sweat.

And that's when he saw the body. From his distance, he couldn't tell if it was a male or a female - or if it was even alive. The first thought that crossed through his mind was the Rot and he stopped. And then he watched. He tried staying as quiet as he possibly could before he laughed -- not at the body, but at himself. He was terrified of this person, lying on the ground in front of him. It seemed stupid, honestly. It wasn't even moving.

"Hey!" he called out, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. "Oi!" he tried again. "You, over there!" No response. Sighing to himself, he looked over his shoulder, towards the city. He could always turn back. He didn't have to do this. But he already knew that he would. Stepping forward, Adrian cursed to himself. "You okay there, mate?"

[Jack McCarthy]

There’s so many stupid things that a person could do in this life, in fact some people rarely go an hour with doing something stupid, ranging between some minor form of stupidity or something pretty damn stupid, Walking into a door, biting your own tongue, Watching reality TV. Stupid things seems to outnumber sensible things at times…

But universally speaking there are several things that are ...really fucking stupid. One of them being the act of walking for days in the desert any water or any real sense of knowing where he was doing….Why I hear you ask? Because the sun was hot.

Very. Very. VERY hot. and in the desert it was even more so...In fact there was nothing but sand and heat in the desert Well...that and vultures, predators. and other horrible things that the desert is a home too

..so naturally only a total idiot would even think about walking through the desert, only an pure and utter moron would even consider doing something like that to a place he wasn't even totally sure the right directions were...

Jack McCarthy was that total idiot.

He had been walking through the sandy wasteland for a grand total of three days fourteen hours and twenty minute and.....well, it was a percale he was still standing, any other man would have just sought out the cold comfort of the shade a long time ago, but Jack was far from an average person, and through pure stubborn instinct alone his feet trudged on one foot in front of the other sure his hair was dirty, his skin was almost bright red and his eyes having the same gazed out expression in his eyes like his brain was being microwaved but yet he still kept walking....Until someone approached him "Ohhhh hey....." Jack stammered out looking more then a little little loopy "Sir, I have to compliment you. You have the best sunflower blueberries this side of candy mountain. I tip my cap to you sir. We shall dine on the marrow, but first a quick nap"

And with that Jack's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed on the stranger

[Oliver H. Basille]

Oliver had been out on his own sort of run early in the morning, once again looking for his twin sister that had been gone from him for three long years. He wondered what she looked like, if she was still as bright-eyed and full of curiosity as she had been when they were separated. He had taken a few hours to gather himself, recollect himself and remember that no one else was aware of the burden that he carried on his shoulders because he was Oliver, happy-go-lucky, mouth like a sailor, Ollie. Being weighed down by such loss wasn't his style. He liked to make inappropriate jokes about the Doomed and the whole end of the world thing that they were facing.

Once he was composed again, he had taken off to find Adrian. His boo-thang. His buddy. His good ole pal, Adrian. The little group of theirs informed him that Adrian had gone on a supply run just a half hour or so before Ollie had returned. The trek was through the desert and Oliver had told Adrian to wait for him before he left. Though Ollie had taken much longer than he intended. Lucky for him, he knew every path that they took to go on runs and he would easily be able to catch up to Adrian if he just hustled a bit.

At first he'd made good time, he knew he had to be catching up to Adrian, but once he hit the sand, his feet sunk in and it slowed him down. He pushed with all his energy though (and for Ollie that was a lot) and he could make out Adrian's shape stumbling over one of the dunes as Oliver was climbing up it. With Adrian stopped looking at something dead and zombie-like, Oliver finally caught up to him, and with more exerted force, he pushed off Adrian's shoulders and over his head in a leap frog sort of way (though it was much, much more extreme), "Eyyyyy, oof." He landed with a roll and back on his feet. "What the fuck man, I told you to wait for me ya impatient twat-waffle."

His eyes traveled down towards the other thing. Guy. Ollie arched an eyebrow at his little..er..speech he made. The guy collapsed on Adrian and Oliver snorted out a laugh, "Dude, I think he's fucked." Ollie nudged the guy with his foot to see if he'd move or stir. "Yup, brain baked."

[Adrian Bennett]

Adrian's body immediately tensed when he heard the approaching footsteps, and he was about to raise his fist and throw a punch when the younger boy pretty much threw himself at him. Adrian's head jerked to the side and glared down at the boy he was all too familiar with. His expression softened slightly as he saw who it was, but it carried an edge to it. Adrian didn't very much enjoy being snuck up on. Oliver knew that. But still, having his best friend made this situation a little less threatening.

...Not that he found the clearly delusional and dehydrated boy lying in the sand particularly threatening, but hey. Details.

"You would know," he replied as he rolled his eyes. Adrian then took a few steps towards the unfamiliar boy and fished his water bottle from his belt. Unscrewing the tap, he knelt down before the boy and tapped him on the shoulder. "Oliver, help me get him up," he threw over his shoulder. As much as Adrian wanted to leave the boy be, he knew that he'd never be capable.

It was one of his biggest flaws; he had a heart and no amount of work ever seemed to chase it away. In a world filled with shit and heartlessness, he was weak. This would be his downfall and he knew it. While still holding the bottle of water, he tried wrapping his free arm around the boy's shoulders and help him in a sitting position, but he honestly didn't think he'd be capable without Oliver's help.

[Oliver H. Basille]

Oliver snorted at his best friend and waved off his snarky comment. Of course he knew Adrian wasn't really mad at him, though he was sure he got under his skin. Adrian was just always so grouchy. The whole point of having Oliver around was to lighten him up and make him laugh or at least not be as grouchy. But then, Oliver did torment him and poke fun at him a lot just because he could and knew he wouldn't face any consequences. Other than the offhand sass. That was normal coming from the older boy. He could be such butt-plug sometimes. Ollie shrugged, "I dunno what you're talking about, man. I'm sharp as a ticky tack."

Looking down at the stranger, Oliver tilted his head. They should just leave him. He wasn't going to be of any use, hell he could have been infected which was causing his delirious nonsense just as equally as dehydration. Though, Ollie figured he'd be a bit more hunger crazed than talking about whatever the fuck he'd said. More 'Nom Nom I want your brain' and less 'sunflower blueberries.' Ollie glanced up at Adrian, and he saw a familiar look on his face. The same look that he'd seen when he was curled up against a fence, half-dead, starving and left to die because he was incapable of caring for himself.

Adrian wasn't one to let someone waste away to nothing. Ollie had seen it before and been saved by that trait, so he didn't argue when he was asked for help. For once, Oliver kept his mouth shut, bent down and threw the unconscious man's arm over his shoulder. With a little effort, he stood up straight, making sure to take more weight on himself than Adrian. He may not have been the strongest, but he was a little bit bigger than Adrian.

"You think he's lost? Or a wanderer like us?" Oliver grunted, shifting underneath the weight on his shoulders.

[Adrian Bennett]

"Right," Adrian replied with a roll to his eyes. Sometimes he wished Oliver would take things a little more seriously. After all, with the kind of world they lived in, they had to be careful. They couldn't just run around doing whatever they pleased. And sneaking up on someone wasn't as innocent as one would think between two friends. What had happened if Adrian had used his pocket knife on Oliver thinking he was someone else?

Adrian was glad that Oliver helped out without complaining and as he threw the boy's arm over his shoulder, Adrian did the same and within short time, they'd managed to get the boy up. He managed to lean the boy's head back and started on the process of dripping water into his mouth from his bottle.

"No idea," Adrian replied without taking his eyes off the other boy. "Could be anyone, I suppose," he added with a shrug. In this kind of world you never really knew what to expect from others. Even if this guy turned out to be a Doomed, Adrian still was glad he had enough humanity to help. He didn't expect anything in return, but at least he could go to bed with a good consciousness. "Hey," he started, nudging the unconscious boy. "You alright there, laddie?"

[Oliver H. Basille]

"What if he's infected?" Oliver figured it was best to throw that out there. They had to be careful in situations like this, taking on some complete stranger to see if he's okay. If he was infected, there was nothing they could do and too close of proximity could mean them getting infected as well. Not only did Oliver not want to die before he could find his sister, but he also couldn't fathom the idea of Adrian getting infected. The thought of it made him sick and he refused to believe anything like that would ever happen. Oliver was going to make sure it never did. If Adrian went down...well, Oliver wasn't sure.

He wasn't going to go there.

Ollie half expected the guy to wake up and lunge at one of their throats. Like some kind of animal that hadn't eaten in days. He looked fine, as far as not super gross and deteriorating. The delusions could have been from a number of things. Dehydration being at the top of the possibility list. They were in the desert, this guy had been for who knew how long. If he was lost, where were they going to take him? He had to wake up for them to know anything more.

Was there someone back at his home who cared for him? Who needed to know he was alive? Who depended on him as their own lifeline? Oliver figured that was something to keep in mind as to why he was helping Adrian do this without complaint. If there was someone out there depending on this man, Oliver was going to do his best to get him back to that person, the way he was trying so desperately to get back to Nyx. "Yoo hoo, wakey wakey, bud." Oliver shook his shoulder gently, fully remembering how awful this guy looked.