It was strange. She hadn’t really thought about how things would come to an end for her, but here she was, out in the middle of…well….nowhere. And at the moment, Riley had not the strength to even open her eyes to look, let alone lift her head. It was rather difficult, and not to mention unsettling, for her to be in the position she was currently in. Usually she was good at taking care of herself. But Riley had not been prepared for being away from any sort of civilization for the amount of time she had now.


Riley was weak. Quite possibly dying, unless by chance she got lucky and got rescued. But what were the chances of that, really? Dying seemed like a much better option than losing her body, losing herself. She’d lost track of the days, afraid she was going to start hallucinating soon. But….people didn’t feel hallucinations, did they? And it sure was hot! Her thoughts were mostly incoherent, mixing memories and loved ones with the strange and unusual. Vaguely, during one of her few clearheaded moments she wondered if this was what going mad felt like. But those moments grew farther and farther apart. Riley couldn’t remember when she finally lost grip and succumbed to unconsciousness.



Slowly, as if subconsciously realizing the sun was not beating down on her, Riley started to wake. Because… something felt different. Forcing her eyes to open, she saw the stars, twinkling in the night’s sky like diamonds. Riley smiled and turned her head to the side, and realized that she hadn’t moved. Not an inch. But thankfully, it was cooler. Groaning, Riley rolled herself over onto her stomach. Her arms felt like spaghetti as she slowly and weakly tried to push herself up, which didn’t work the first time. But the second attempt, she steeled herself, because there was no way she was going just continue to just give up. No way in hell.



So she crawled, trying to get over to the tree she spotted. The sun was bound to rise and she needed, needed the shade. So she crawled, slowly, her body giving protest with every inch. But Riley only got about five feet before her arms collapsed and she fell ungracefully back onto the hard ground. She sighed, and tried to push herself back up…but it just wasn’t happening. Just a few minutes rest, she told herself, and then she was moving. Riley closed her eyes only to snap them back open as she felt herself drifting off. Slowly they closed again, and this time she couldn’t fight it, unconscious had claimed her yet again.

Rutinary patroll, something that for Will was natural, he had done it already for a long time, and even more when others went out on raids. He felt it was his duty to keep everyone in that place as safe and comfortable as it could be possible in the circumpstances they were. Still no matter the souls, well the enemy ones, he would try to let the people living in there know that the hills were home and a safe place for any human and also any soul who decided to betray its race to help them, the humans.

He already walked the inner perimeter and told others about what he found, nothing bad in fact, then he told them he would go check the outer perimeter. He told them to go and check the green house that they needed to have good vegetables for the people, specially the kids, they needed to be strong. So after giving some extra orders about the way people should organize their stuff, he walked out. 

He hadn't walked too far from the entrance when he saw something on the ground, he walked closer and noticed it was a human shape, but was it human or was it alien? He walked closer and looked around, he had his long hunting knife already in his hand, in case it was a trap. "Hey... hey... " he said and then pushed her shoulder with his boot, then he squatted and checked her eyes, they were human, so he sighed and put his knife away and then lifted her in arms. "just hang on lass... you'll be fine in a while." and started walking back into the hills.

Outside was where Emilie belonged. Out here was space, the ever-foreboding but beautiful stars, and clean air. Sure, they had given her a place to sleep underground, with a sort of bed and a place to put things. It was nice, normal - human. But going down there just felt so claustrophobic. If anything that meant her harm came down there, there wasn't any place to hide and only one exit. It felt the opposite of safe for her, and besides, she didn't really have "stuff". Anything she had could be carried on her person.

The blonde survivalist had taken to sleeping outside, near one of the semi-decent buildings at the edge of the ruined city. From there, she could safely go any direction, and the wide open desert at night could be quite beautiful. She was leaning against her "house" tonight when she saw someone walk out into the desert. She squinted, trying to make out who it was, but night had fallen hard and it was too far away. Interested in what this figure might find interesting in the waste beyond this settlement, Emilie got to her feet and started after it. When she was still a few hundred feet off, she saw the figure stop and sort of kick at something on the ground. After a moment, it picked something up - something human shaped.

Emilie walked faster, closing the distance between herself and the figure. Once she got close, she could tell it was none other than William Robinson, town leader and savior. The girl he held looked weak, dehydrated, and was pretty limp in his arms. "You really sure this is the best idea?" she asked him, starting to walk backwards now to face the pair of them. She wasn't going to forcibly stop him - after all, she had no problem leaving if this new being got dangerous. "You don't know what she is, or why she's here. And you're just going to bring her in and hope for the best?" She looked from William's face to the girl. It certainly said something that she had made it out this far, that she was resilient even when she ran out of supplies, but not everyone who survived was the friendliest of beings. If she was a survivor at all, and not here for another reason.