6 feral corpses lay in the lot an old doll held in ones hand, it was soaked with blood. A feral skulked at the far end of the lot. It bent down and smelled a gun. Then walked off into the trees.

"What? I could've sworn someone should be here. Damn! We could've helped them!" He examined the pistol, rifle raised, and took it.
He shoved it in his pocket, sighing. He turned around to go inside.

Sensing no immediate threat, but staying alert, Cam had made his way out to the car. As X turned to leave, he stopped him. "Look. Blood leads off that direction." He observed.

There was a nois behind X a quick noise followed by a shreak as a feral lunged at him. Its mouth agape ready for its fill of flesh.

@Patient 43Delta
Cam efficiently put a bullet in the things head.

X followed Cam, until he shot the feral. He then walked upstairs, not waiting for Cam. X came upstairs, staying happy. "Hey, you wanna watch a movie? I've got Star Wars! I think we could watch the whole trilogy, then watch Indiana Jones. Of course, we need to be sparing so we still have enough gas for the generator so the lights can be on." He got 'A New Hope' out of the cabinet, and inserted it.

A lone street light came on as the sun set behind the trees. Its light a grim reminder of what was. And what now is.

As X watched A New Hope, he thought about what could've happened if he had gotten there earlier. Could he have saved them? Or, did he want to?

Alone a stray dog wanders into the parking lot And sniffed the ground. It looked up at cam with sad lonely eyes.

Cam lingered for a moment, wondering weather or not to follow the blood trail off into the woods or to wait until morning. Not from any great sense of heroism or anything, he severely doubted that anyone from this encounter was still alive and waiting for rescue. The ferels didn't keep their meat alive.

No, it was something else that had caught his intrigue, but he was quite sure what. Perhaps he had pretended to be mad for so long, it was finally starting to get to him. Or maybe not.

He knelt down to examine his newest guest, checking the animal for wounds that would signal infection. Convinced there was nothing he asked, "Well, who are you then?"

He waited, as though expecting an answer as he looked for a collar on it's neck.

X cleaned his rifle, as the imperial march song started playing. He turned it down so it wouldn't attract ferals, and continued to watch it, for a long time feeling...happy. He was slightly worried about Cam, but he continued to watch, afraid of missing the best part.

@Camthe collar had a nice faded blue color and it said "cupid" and on the back it said " tough as a demon, but has the heart of an angel. It also had another tag that had an old address on it as well as a phone number. The dog was a beautiful Saint Bernard with mat black fur with streaks of gold and white. It looked at cam with a look of love and sat down. Waiting to see what cam would do.

X walked outside, having shut down the generator. He saw the dog and smiled. "Wow, didn't know dogs were still alive. Let's keep him!" He pet the dog gently, with a big grin.

The dog Nuzzled up to X, its tail waging. It looked at X then ran to the middle of the lot and looked back. It had a look in its eye that it needed something. The. It sat in the middle of the lot looking at X and @Cam.

X ran upstairs, and came back with a small piece of meat. Using it, he lured the dog upstairs, and made a small bed for it, giving it water and food. He sat there, petting the dog. It felt...normal. Except for the rifle in the corner, and the burned out husks of buildings.

The dog walked in and layer down on the floor, clearly agsosted. And fell asleep.

"Stupid. So stupid. " Rose muttered to herself. She knew better than to get stuck outside at night, alone. It was too late to find safety before nightfall and she knew she was screwed. I'm going to get myself killed. she thought. She had her pistol in her left hand and knife in her right, trying to move as quietly and quickly as possible.

But then she heard screams. Rose quickly started sprinting toward the sounds, but she was too far away to make it to the people. Rose was long past the phase of guilting herself. They were stupid, too. They shouldn't have been out here either. But that little voice inside her head told her that that's not how she really felt. That she did care, she just can't live with guilt anymore..

She slowed back to a quick walk, and before long found shelter. It looked used so she cautiously scoped it out. As she was watching a feral snuck up behind her. "Damn it" she said fairly loudly because it scared the crap out of her. Her right hand instinctively jabbed the feral's head. She breathed heavily and tried to regain her composure.

@Patient 43Delta

Accepting the fact that he no longer had any choice in whether the dog stayed or went, Cameron shrugged. "Cupid is a stupid name," he told the critter simply. "Henceforth, I'm calling you dude."

However, before he could concede himself to end the night and ready himself for bed, he heard the new commotion off to the southern perimeter of their motel safe-house. "Hey kid, get the rifle handy and cover me from the roof! I'm going to check that out!"

Not waiting for Xavier's reply, he readied both of his pistols and rushed towards the source of the disturbance.

As h reached the other side of the building, he found Rose struggling with her feral adversary. With no clear shot, he was reluctant to fire, not wanting to risk hitting the girl. He took aim and shouted for her to "Duck!"

Rose struggled with the feral. Normally she could handle herself a lot better, but this one caught her completely off guard, causing her to drop both her weapons. So she just couldn't kill it. It pushed her up against a tree, that she was able to use as leverage against this feral. She got a little too cocky in the moment and it snapped at her shoulder, luckily she was able to keep its head barely off her shoulder.

And then she heard someone yell duck, so she smashed her elbow to its head and dropped to the ground.

The 9mm barked with satisfaction as Cameron squeezed the trigger once, then twice, then once more. The feral collapsed into a bleeding heap more or less on top of Rose, although it still was not quite dead. Wailing in pain and anger, it made a viscous attack for the tender, vital flesh of her throat.

There was little else that Cameron could do for her now.

Rose just couldn't win. For a brief second while the feral collapsed on her she thought this was the end, but then her hand bumped her knife. She grabbed it, and as the feral went for her throat, she stabbed it in the skull. She sighed a breath of relief as she pushed it off her. She made it this time, but that was too close for her comfort.

Rose felt around for her gun and backpack that had slipped off during the struggle. She was covered in blood from the feral and looked a mess. Her braid had been disheveled and had dirt and grass all in it. Her face looked like a child finger painted on it with feral blood, and her clothes were torn and dirty as hell.

She stood up and called to the man that tried to save her, "May I come in, at least for the night please?" Her voice sounded weak from the event that just occurred.