On his way out the exit, Alexander (unknown to most) was interrupted by a somewhat drunk man, probably from England based on his words. As the two men both backed up, Alex made sure this wasn't a purposeful introduction to an attack, and saw a look of shock on the man's face. The English man claimed "it wasn't his night," and asked if Alex was "a guard or a blue top". Alex knew what a guard was, of course, but had never heard of "blue top."

"Neither," Alex replied, "I am a Scavenger, and I will carry my weapons wherever I so chose." Alex figured that this man might be a good fellow, but as a drunk man, he should probably be left alone until morning.

"Are you still sober enough to tell me where any tents are that I can fall asleep in, or do I have to ask another person." All Alex was hoping for was that the guards or the "blue tops" didn't show up, and didn't know about him until morning. Although, getting an answer would be nice, and getting a map of the base would be better...

Jack narrowed his eyes as the man mentioned he was neither. In all honesty Scavengers were nothing to him but wannabe heroes. However the man was armed and his arrogant dismissal of the camp's rules tickled Jack. Though his knowledge, or lack of, meant he wasn't a local. Hell Jack had had enough of being told what to do by the camp, and it's prestigious guests. Walking forward he gestured out of the door.

"Have you seen the state of the camp fella? We are packed in here and if there was much spare room it would be taken." Then pointing to one of the dirtier looking ends of the camp he spoke again. "See, I was one of the first ones here and I get shitted on. Now I may have a bed in my bunk that is free, but a decent space to sleep is hard to come by around here so..." Jack looked off into the distance and then smiled.

"Tell you what! You can have the bunk for thw night, if you get me something nice. Don't care what! But something I can't get this side of the fence." Turning Jack was caught in a slight daze but then righted himself. He then offered his hand and plastered on a cheeky grin.

Alex was a little skeptical at how quickly this man's mood changed, but still reached out and shook the hand, unable to keep a completely straight face. Alex decided that he might as well try to have at least one friend in camp, for when he placed his bombs at the main guard locations. He still remembered the damaged house he used on the edge of the city, and left his makeshift bombs there. I will use the shack as a base, and leave my rifle there. I will get him "something special," and then come back.

Alexander hoped the house still had its barricades on it, and hoped that even if it didn't, the hidden compartment in the closet on the west side of the house wasn't discovered. He still knew a couple of stores and locations of the city that weren't scavenged, by him at least.

"Do you have anything in particular you want?" Alex asked the man in a hushed voice. People were starting to take notice, and as such, Alex asked the man if they could go somewhere less crowded to talk, as he double checked all his supplies were still fastened tightly, and that his pistol and rifle were still in place.

The drink was really starting to make Jack's head spin, the moonshine kicking in, and after sacking the mans hand he had to half listen, half stumble out of the door. Slumping to the side e fell down in the muck besodes the ntrance and hung his head between his legs. Shuddering he felt his body quiver and then vomited between his legs. The expulsion was mostly a dark looking goo, from the drink, and Jack felt better as he stood, avoiding to get any on his clothes. Already his stomach was calming down and the night air felt more brisk and less dulled. Sighing he then turned back to his new companion.

"Okay, well I got a knife, some drink, a lot of fags, a sleeping bag and half rations for tomorrow. Oh and a couple of lighters. If you can get me a gun, I would be eternally grateful, however if not that then just use your imagination. Something useful but not obvious. A spear for example is no use." With that Jack started walking down a small alley way. Outside the bar very few people were to be found, except slightly lighter drinkers, and so the way was mostly clear. This was Jack's usual way home and whilst it didn't command spectacular views, it did indeed get him home whilst avoiding guards. Which probably wouldn't be too happy on his condition, or his friends armaments. Turning another corner Jack was smiling.

"It seems we didn't run into Ru-" Jack was cut off. A bear of a man appeared from the shadows, flanked by two weedy looking men. Each man bore a knife and a club, and was dressed in all black, except from a red bandana they wore over their mouth, like a half balaclava. Rufas was the ear, he was burly and fat at the same time. Though he didn't move too well. His sidekicks were grunty and stumpy, nicknames of course but it didn't take away from the fact they could smack the shit out of most. They ran most of the back alleys in the camp and took a 'toll' for the service.

"What do we have here boys? Old Jacko out for a midnight stroll is he. You owe me two weeks toll Jack. Where's my money?" The two goons laughed like rats and Rufus was smiling widely as he stepped forward. Clearly they had no intention to leave Jack and his acquaintance alone.

The man shook his Alex's hand, with a misty look in his eyes. The drink had started to take effect on him, and he went over to a wall, slouched down, and threw up. The man quickly got up, apparently trying to avoid the stuff, and it appeared that the night air had a good effect on him. He sighed while turning toward Alex, and gave Alex a list of supplies he already had. A gun was what he wanted most, but that would be hard to come by. At least he then said if Alex couldn't get one, be creative, and Alex had an idea. Before he could speak it, however, the man proceeded down some alley ways, away from others.

As we reached what looked like our destination, the man turned toward Alex and said, "It seems we didn't run into Ru-" before he was interrupted by a man with two scrawny sidekicks who came out of the shadows. Alexander thought he saw something when they arrived, and he knew he should have spoke up. The men were in all black, to help hide in the shadows, but ad a red bandanna over each persons mouth. The big one, the leader by the looks of it, stepped forward.

"What do we have here boys? Old Jacko out for a midnight stroll is he. You owe me two weeks toll Jack. Where's my money?" The leader said. So know I get to learn your name, wasn't hoping it would be like this, Jack. Alex thought as he let out a sigh. He really didn't have time for this, so decided to finish the job quick and efficiently, like he learned how to do. Drawing his knife, he quickly threw it into the leaders throat, but the drink made him aim slightly off. Instead of cutting off the windpipe so he would choke to death, the knife stuck into the side of the leader's esophagus, causing a bleeding effect. He would either die within five minutes, or he would be dumb enough to pull out the knife, crumpling his esophagus, causing him to die instantaneously. Drawing his pistol, Alexander shot the man with the cudgel above the right eye, slightly off center, and slid it back into its holster. This all happened too fast for the other man, so Alex tackled him, and put him into a choke hold, after throwing aside the man's knife, which landed by Jack's feet.

"What should we do with him?" Alexander said as he faced Jack, with the ruffian still in a choke hold.

'Those are good guys.' Olivia thought to herself. 'Without them, this entire fucking camp would probably be worse than outside.'

Her thoughts, as she sat in her darkened, damp corner of the Bar-N, were of course referring to the UN troopers that had appeared a while ago, taking care of the juvenile fight that had ensued with professional grace. She was amazed, really, how hysterical people still were.

She sighed and raised her glass of... lemonade to her mouth, only to discover a moment too late that she had drank it all. She ought to stop doing that. Pretty much anything in the camp that wasn't water or beer was in short supply, and there was only so much beer because there were people home-brewing the stuff. Not good for her; one of the reasons why she insisted on sitting in a dark corner was due to all the drunkards who mistook her for some kind of post-apocalyptic prostitute.

'Post-apocalyptic'... times really had changed. It wasn't too long ago that Olivia was actually under direct, imminent threat from hordes of shamblers just lurking outside, as she waited, golf club in hand to smash their hollow heads in. Nowadays they only popped up in small groups outside, and were usually quickly shot down. She wasn't sure whether to be thankful for the return of a fairly peaceful lifestyle, or disappointed that the 'zombie movie' chapter of the ordeal was over. That was always her favourite part.

The mentally reformed woman, worried that she was over-thinking things, got up from her seat and nonchalantly went over to the bar. Like others, she was supposed to be on watch sometimes, but for some reason she hadn't received the post in a while...

"Hey." She said to the barman, leaning against the... well, the bar. "I'm guessing I've drank all the Lemonade in the entire camp, so... if I could just have water, that'd be great."

As she made her query, she turned to the side briefly to notice the man next to her. Well... 'man' wasn't really the right word, perhaps 'teenage man-wannabe' would suit more. He looked a bit like one, with his sorta-muscular-but-not-quite build, unfinished tattoo, piercing scars (if you're gonna have a piercing or tattoos, that's a commitment, damnit) and... quite frankly, amusing hair. If it was any more amusing she'd have giggled to herself.

"Very well. Come to the medical centre once you have eaten." Captain Ishida Hisashi said, before looking once again at the canned food they had been consuming. It would have been fine if canned food formed the minority of their diet, but it had become their main source of sustenance. In medicine, it is said that anything that was consumed in excess was poison. It applied to food as well, or at least the chemicals (or the lack of it) in it.

After that, he ruffled Alexis' hair a little as he patted her in the head. Before leaving, he opened the door slightly to check on the weather. Sure enough, the rain did not let up. "Do use your umbrella. It is terrible night." And with that, he left.

Conrad had given up watching the other men nearby. It wasn't an excitement that really drew him in anymore. He'd seen enough of that sort of thing growing up that he just didn't care. He'd looked around the room again, considering taking a table seat, but thought better of that at the moment as well. There was nothing wrong with here, and if he went and sat on his own he'd just end up reading his book again and no one would talk to him. Not that he really minded all that much if people ignored him. But sometimes, it was nice to talk to someone.

He'd pulled out his book anyways though, sitting down on a wobbly stool to read it through his glasses that he'd finally pulled down out of his hair. He was worrying one of the rings through his lip with his teeth while he stretched the back of his book out so it might hopefully stay open without him having to hold it open. It was a battered old Iain Banks book, the name of which he couldn't remember, mostly because the cover and the front page were gone. But he'd read the author before so it wasn't hard for him to figure out who's work it was.

The movement near him made him look up at the woman standing there, asking for water of all things. Then she looked at him and he flashed her a nice smile "Dunno if you really want to drink the water from here," he shrugged, placing his book print side down to hold his place open while he talked. "Been sitting for a bit and all. Gone a little skanky with slim maybe. Your name's Olivia, right?" They'd never really met, but there wasn't a lot of people in this place either. And word about someone who looked like her got around, so even if they'd never spoken, he knew her name.

Jack's face was a shade of white when Rufus had come forward, however after Alex was done it was simply ghostly. He had just shot him!? Jesus christ. Jack had seen a share of death since the outbreak but that didn't stop it haunting him and he hadn't been witness to twp humans. He had only seen foghts woth thw things. All sense of sobriety returned to Jack and his hands begun to shake as he ran his hands through his hair and tried to think straight. Even before the outbreak he had witnessed violence, and new how to cover it up. But he had never killed a man.

"Shit. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Okay so someone is going to be here shortly. And we cannot be around for that. Firstly, since we might as well, check them for anything valuable. Rufus was a dick but he had some good stuff." With that Jack looked around, the alley was mucky and there was clearly two pairs of bootprints leading back to the bar-n. Grabbing a wooden pallet from the trash he used it to wipe out any and all evidence of their bootprints, before hurling the pallet into another nearby alley. Turning back to the bodies he stepped forward and grabbed the mans knife. Jamming it into the other lackeys throat. Scratching around very un-clinically he dragged the round out and pocketed it. He then looked down. Blood now covered his hands and stains had appeared on his jacket. Turning back he looked down at the one lackey still alive. He knew Jacks name.

"Deal with him. Can't have a witness knowing my name." He had heard an old boss say that once, though was naive and didn't realise its meaning then. It made him sick to think of what he had just saod, but times were tough now. Sighing he leant down and searched through Rufus himself. He couldn't bear to look at the situation now. Pulling out Rufus' knife he thentn pulled out a small satchet of a white powder and a clip of ration cards. Taking all three items Jack then wandered over to the side of the alley.

"So we cant go straight back too mine. Follow this alley and then take a right, then a left and then walk through the small shack with the red roof. On the other side is a slightly main path so watch for guards. Go across and through a camp of tents. I will meet you in there to take you back to mine. And if you can avoid being spotted, my friends around here wont rat on me, but you. Hell you look scary as fuck, they would rat on you." Woth that Jack walked up the alley and turned left. He had a different route.

Jack's face was that of a ghosts, the palest Alex had ever seen. Jack started panicking some, but stayed under control. After scavenging the bodies, Jack tossed Alex back his knife, and Alex used it to slit the man in the choke hold's throat, being careful not to get blood on himself. Alex then wiped the blade clean and let the rain fall on it, before drying it and sliding it back into it's sheath, and listened to the rest of what Jack said. He stated the obvious, that we couldn't go straight to his house, but he seemed to have forgotten that there was a silencer on the pistol, but someone would show up eventually. Jack gave Alex some instructions, and walked off.

Right, left, red roof, across street, camp. That was repeating in Alex's head as he ripped some of the men's clothes, and kept the spare rags. Lifting his head and having a mouthful of rainwater, Alex started down the path. He turned right as instructed, and then took the left. As he was walking in the darkness, he heard people starting to get settled into their homes. Then he saw the red shack with a flash of lighting. It wasn't very tall, and the lighting wasn't coming so often, so Alex jumped up, and performed a kip-up onto the top of the roof. Getting into a crawl, he looked over what was probably the "main rode" and saw the tent camp ahead of him. There was only two people, and three guards traveling the path, and with good timing, he Alex could cross while both had their backs turned.

3.. 2.. 1.. Move Alexander dropped down and hurried across the street, moving at a slight crouch. He entered the tent city, and started to quietly weave his way to the other side. After a bit of trekking, and a few close calls, Alex made it through the camp, and settled down to wait for Jack. He covered his rifle with his backpack mostly, and pretended to be a man who had fallen asleep on a backpack. Staying awake might be a little difficult.

The man behind the bar was rather haggard... like most people there, really, and rather unremarkable. And quiet. He certainly acknowledged Olivia's request, if his epic journey to the water drums near him was any indication, but he didn't say anything.

But that didn't matter, though, because the fellow with the funny hair next to her spoke up instead. And said something weird.

"...'Skanky with slim'? ...Huh..." She sort-of muttered to herself, raising an eyebrow. It almost distracted her from the fact that the man also seemed to know who she was. Well, more people than they should knew who she was, if only because some considered her memorable, for all the wrong reasons. Especially in this more primitive state of life they were now... well, living in.

"Yeah, my name's Olivia, though I don't know if I should have admitted that or not. How'd you know who I was? I mean, I can make an educated guess, but just to be sure."

As she asked him with a look of simultaneous confusion and caution, the silent barman had come back over with her glass of water. The glass was dirty, like most of the glasses, but... oh yes, he had mentioned something about the water. This comment made Olivia stop and hesitate with the glass. It'd take a lot of poison and bacteria in the water to make her puke after two years' worth of crushed skulls and people getting devoured by their own cousins, but best not to take any chances.

"...I guess you're right about the water. But really, we've gone backwards as a species. Hopefully we've regained our historical immunities to contaminated water." She joked, hoping that the man wouldn't react in a stupid way. It could still happen.

Alexis smiled as Captain Ishida ruffled her hair, Tanya watched him getting ready to head out of their RV and gave him a quick nod. "We will be there in about an hour." Tanya said as he left hearing the door shut, she looked towards her sister for a moment and then went over towards a cupboard and pulled out two plates out of it, before setting the plate down onto the table. "Thank you sis." Alexis said as she went to start pouring some of the beans onto her plate and handed the can back to her sister, Tanya would pour the rest of the beans onto her own plate and the two started to eat.

After they finished eating Tanya would stand up and reached over towards her leather jacket and puts it on, and handed another one to her sister and grabbed an umbrella. "Ready to go?" Tanya asked, Alexis gave her sister a quick nod before heading out of the door Tanya turned around to make sure that their RV was locked and secured. Opening the umbrella Tanya held it over her sister and herself a few minutes later they ran over towards Ishida's medical tent and smiled. "Sorry if we were late." Tanya said.

But Captain Ishida was unable to attend to Tanya immediately. He was tending to a wounded soldier; he was fortunately the only casualty in the last Kyonshi raid. What was even more fortunate was that the wound he suffered was a gunshot wound, a friendly fire. It was infinitesimally better than getting ravaged or bitten by one of the Kyonshi. Sergeant Miller was probably watched over by Buddha himself, as, while the bullet had punched through an organ, it'd exited right through him, and the damaged organ was the liver, not the lungs nor the stomach or heart. The incident was two weeks ago, and he was already walking, albeit with a crutch.

The medical officer had just concluded the soldier's checkup and given him his prescriptions, and sent him on his way, one of his subordinates supporting him. The wounded man brushed past Tanya. "You were, but it does not matter. I was occupied." With that, he went right down to business, "Children first. That my policy. But do you or Alexis-Chan have complaints? Discomforts?"

Conrad shrugged his one shoulder, lips pursed for a moment. "People talk. There ain't a whole lot else to do around here sometimes, ya know." He turned a bit more on his stool so he faced her more, leaning his side up against the bar still. "You got nothing to worry about from me. Just thought I'd make conversation is all. Besides, you do look familiar. Swear I've seen your face before." And he surprisingly did mean her face. Even if the rest of her wasn't unfamiliar either.

He looked back over to the barman when he returned with the water. Raising both eyebrows up at that he shook his head some before looking back to Olivia. "I was joking before," he said a little skeptically. "But I suppose the funnest jokes are the ones that are at least a little true."

He thought about it for a moment before holding out his hand. "My name's Conrad, by the way. So that way you know mine too."

A conversation had developed between the Brit and a scavenger after Jack took his leave from the bar Matt was at. He took no offense to the man abruptly ending their conversation, it was the nature of the beast. In fact, Matt had begun to grow weary of the night and was planning on returning to his bed. Matt finished his drink quicklu, paid for his drink, and then took his leave from the bar.

The tent where Matt called home was located just inside the vehicle depot. It was a loud location but it was the only one available when he first entered the camp. There had been promises that were made regarding a new home, but they were empty ones. For now, Matt would live here. He did not have many belongings. Most of what he had gathered was just necessities. Matt lived that way. Things he needed, not things he wanted.

Tanya looked at Sergeant Miller as he brushed past her and left the medical tent, then she turned back to face Captain Ishida and shrugged slightly. "Just some headaches lately that's about it." Tanya answered and looked over and spotted a seat, motioning for her sister to go over to him and smiled. "I was going to have her go first anyway." Alexis walked over towards Ishida and shook her head. "I don't have any pain or discomfort." Alexis answered she went over and sat down on the medical bed.

"So Captain Ishida, how are you doing on medical supplies?" Tanya asked turning over to look at him leaning her back up against the chair she was sitting in, she was one of the few people who were able to go out on supply runs or even just to take down the population of zombies that were outside of the walls. She wanted to know if she had to go out on another run again soon or not.

Alex had one of his meaningful dreams, being unable to keep awake. The dream started with him in a coma, in a hospital. His parents and his younger sister were weeping, and watching him. He had been unconscious for 6 months, and showed no signs of waking. The military came in, and tried to take his parents away, but they said they wanted to take Alexander with them. The military refused, and forced the family along, leaving Alex on his own.

The next "dream-piece" left Alex in an abandoned house, scavenging. He heard movement in a closet of own of the bedrooms, and drawing his pistol, flung the door open. Alexander was on edge, and as soon as something tried to move, he shot into the closet. Falling out was an around ten year old girl, who had a bullet hole in her throat. She fell into Alex's arms, and Alex could do nothing but watch, as the girl, who's eyes were filled with pain, and whom couldn't speak, bled to death right in front of him. The worst part was, the girl reminded him of his sister, and Alex imagined that was his sister bleeding out, and left a scar in his mind.

The last part of the dream didn't start out so bad. He was out scavenging, and with him was a women, no more than 19 or 20. They were searching for supplies for a camp, and were in an infected area. A few infected were killed, and then Alex saw the children. There was an orphanage, and it was filled with zombie children. An image flashed in his mind, of the children being trapped as the Z's entered, infecting everyone inside. This image caused Alex to collapse on the side of the street.

Then he awoke...

Captain Ishida Hisashi began examining Alexis. The usual palpitations and proddings. He checked her pulse, her blood pressure, her ocular reflexes, placed a stethoscope to her chest and back. Shining a torchlight down her throat. Checking her hair for lices. Weighing her and measuring her height. Asking questions. Had it been a pre-apocalypse check-up, it would have been more complex. It would have included blood-tests, exercises, x-rays. But they didn't have equipment for that.

"We are low on medical supplies. Low for weeks. We resupply by sending out convoys, but no, there is never enough." The medical officer said as he was checking through Alexis, this time looking closely at her skin with his flashlight shining all over her. With some difficulty, he got Alexis to remove her shirt. He sighed at what he saw before dressing her up again, "If only you Americans stop drinking and hurting each other..."

"Tanya-Kun. It may not look like it, but your sister is in poor health." The medical officer said gravely, "Alexis-Chan is slightly malnourished. She is displaying early symptoms of Scurvy. I could hear phlegm building up in her, which indicate the beginnings of a flu-like illness and therefore weak immunity system."

"This is common problem." Captain Ishida said as he swivelled his chair once again to face the boxes behind his desk. " Let's see..." For a moment, he had returned to using native Japanese.

"Here." He produced two packets of vitamin-infused gummy candy. This time, a packet contained Doraemon-shaped gummies, manufactured post-infection, as indicated by how the factory had to get creative with what little ink they had. It had an outline of Doraemon flying with his head-copter gadget and shooting a cartoon zombie with his air-cannon. The other packet had Kenshin on it, with appropriately shaped gummy candies. After that, he instructed Sergeant Maiko, his impromptu pharmacist, to put together a package of anti-biotics and flu symptom suppressants (cough syrup, mint, paracetamol, etc). After the medicine was placed on his desk, which was neat with several notepads and pen at a corner and his family picture in another (wife and 9-year-old daughter in kimonos), he laid out instructions on dosage and usage, "And Tanya-Kun, Alexis is not to exert herself. Take the right medicine as symptoms emerge. I will instruct ration distribution centre to pack the fresh berries we found into Alexis' portions."

"And speaking of exertion, you look pale, Tanya-Kun. It is your turn." And Captain Ishida went through the same procedure with her, and although he found her nutrition to be sound (in comparison to the deficient)... "I believe I have found the cause of your headache. You have been dehydrated. Stressed. You've lost some weight, and some of that lost weight is due to lack of water." Wiping sweat away and scratching his scalp, looking rather dismayed at bad news coming in with every patient, he swivelled his office chair as usual and started rummaging through another cardboard box. He had Sergeant Maiko fetch drugs again.

The prescription: 4 bottles of unopened distilled water and... a tube of wafers meant to be thrown into the water to produce quick isotonic drinks with the necessary salt and ions. The tube was decorated with colourful depictions of Hamtaro and friends. "Sorry, no more adult versions." Sergeant Maiko brought even more paracetamol for the headache. "You should rest more just like Alexis. Keep within the shade. Do not worry, just relax."

"If symptoms persist, return to me, and I will check you again. This is why you do not miss medical check-ups."

Tanya took a moment to look around the medical tent, she would occasionally look over towards her sister as Captain Ishida examined her Alexis didn't like doctors or dentists before the apocalypse started but she didn't fight and did every little thing that Ishida had told her to do. She would look over to her sister reluctantly when Ishida asked to take off her shirt. "It's okay sis." Tanya would say in a motherly tone, taking a reluctant sigh Alexis took off her shirt and continued with the examination. Alexis did have a hard time breathing lately though Tanya assumed that it was just allergies which she had.

Upon hearing the grim news about her sister's health Tanya would look over at her sister with a worried look, Alexis was the only family she had left she wasn't sure about her relatives and extended family before the outbreak happened and didn't talk to them as often as she should have, but with no real way to communicate anywhere else was hard enough. "I'll be fine Tanya." Alexis said reassuring her older sister when she was handed the gummy vitamins to take, though it was childish Alexis still liked things like that.

When it was Tanya's turn she got up and headed over to where her sister had sat, passing her by Alexis took the same seat that her sister had been sitting in. Letting Ishida do her examination Tanya would look over towards the picture at his desk seeing what she assumed was his family there which made Tanya smile softly. "Is that your family?" She asked, taking all of the prescriptions that Ishida was giving to her and her sister she stood up putting her shirt back on and looked down at the tube of wafers seeing the little Japanese cartoon characters on it. Though they were for most likely the younger kids. "Thank you again, and i'm sorry we didn't come any sooner."