It was about midday with a chilly breeze that gave everyone the stern reminder that summer was fading and winter was on its way. Juliet sat in a grassy patch on a small hillside that was along the edge of her camp walls. It was her usual space to think and clear her mind about whatever weighed on it. Being the elected leader, there was usually quite a bit weighing on it too. For now, it was the changing of seasons that had her slightly on edge. Despite the progress they had made as a group to reclaim society, winters were still incredibly difficult.

Their homes were patched together from wood and ruins. They were stable but not insulated. A cold draft would be difficult on Laura, the young child who had somehow managed to survive this far. Plus there was always the worry about any sickness spreading around. But she'd figure out a way to deal with it. She always had.

With that thought, she relaxed and laid back in the grass, flinching at the sun's harsh light. She lifted her left hand to shield her eyes, unintentionally forcing herself to look up at the two tattoos that lined her arm. Her darks eyes traced over the pink butterfly that was meant for her mother. What had once brought sadness to her eyes now brought a sense of relief. Her mother could have never survived in this world, sick or not. The way she had left it wasn't ideal either but at least she didn't have to witness everything turn to ash.

Her gaze danced over to the other tattoo on her wrist. This one did bring a hint of sadness to her gaze and a small feeling of loneliness that had yet to be filled. It was a dandelion with just one seed floating away. Simple in design, it was just lineart with a couple fine details added in to make it look a little more sophisticated. It did it's job in always reminding her of her best friend, John. Having been separated from him during the attack that started it all, Juliet never figured out what had become of him. She had tried searching for him when she and her family had first left the basement but her efforts had been fruitless. She had held onto the hope of finding him for many years but the longer time went on the harder it became to hold onto that hope. At one recent point, she found that she was even beginning to accept that he was likely dead, often closing her eyes to think to him and her family that had passed.

"So are you going to lay out here all day or actually help us get some work done?"

Distracted by her thoughts of the past, Jules hadn't even noticed Adrian approach. She blinked and turned her head to look over at her second in command who was standing with his arms crossed over his chest with his usual unamused look. Pulled back into the present, a grin spread over her features. "Excuse you last I checked I was leader. I'll work when I feel like." she joked, waving her hand dismissively at him.

Adrian rolled his eyes, but she caught a glimmer of a smirk taking over his lips. "Well are you going to feel like it soon, o'great and mighty leader?"

Juliet pursed her lips with mock thoughtfulness. "Hmmm... Maybe." she gave a laugh and moved to jump up to her feet. "I guess I'm feeling up to it now."

"Thank god." Adrian said with an exaggerated sigh.

Jules rolled her eyes and moved to follow him through the small cluster of homes as he lead the way towards the front gate. "Soooo what requires my immediate attention?" she asked glancing up at him.

"Just the regular. I figure we check on the garden outside, make sure it's ready for fall, and do a quick scout of the perimeter outside." Adrian explained.

"Perimeter checking? We haven't done that for months. Why do you want to do that now?" Juliet asked. When Adrian hesitated to answer, she narrowed her eyes at him. "Did someone see something of concern out there?"

"Skye may—may—have spotted someone from a distance when she was out hunting early this morning." Adrian admitted. Juliet blinked in surprise. It wasn't often that they ran into people. In fact, as the years went on, it back a less common occurrence to meet other survivors. To hear that there was potentially someone near their area was more than exciting to her.

"What!!! You should have said something earlier! Let's go!" Jules grinned, increasing her pace as she hurried to the front gate. "If they're a traveler I'll bet they'll be excited to find us here! It'll be nice to have someone new join us!"

"Jules we don't even know if this person is friendly." Adrian frowned as he trailed after the energetic woman. "We need to observe them first before we go throwing out invitations to join us. They could try to kill us you know. Plus we don't know if they're alone."

"Oh it'll be fine. Skye only reported one person right? So it's probably just one! And if they are hostile, there's two of us and one of them." Juliet pointed out with confidence. "Now hurry up slowpoke and start telling me where exactly Skye spotted them."

It was rare to find established settlements these days, and when there were establishments, they never lasted for long. John Woods had learned that lesson pretty quickly over the years, being a part of a couple of them as he started off in what was left of society. Things often quickly turned south whenever he had the displeasure of being tangled up in bands of survivors. Whether it'd be personal disagreements, disagreements about how the group was ran, or simply just resources running out and tensions running high. Someone would end up dead and the others would be nowhere to be found. John had quickly learned that it was better that he fend for himself.

He was a lone wanderer. Once in a blue moon he ran into a group of survivors, but it was better that he stay out of their way. You never really could tell what the intentions of everyone was. He made the mistake of trusting them and he had just barely to managed to escape with his life as a result. After one too many close calls, it was time to call it quits. Any group, he tried his best to stay away from. Numbers were important in an environment like this, and he was never ahead in the numbers game. Though, sometimes, he just had to engage. He needed to survive, and if taking out a group was something he needed to do to survive, he was going to do it.

Right now was one of those instances. John was running dry on supplies. At most, three days worth before he ran out. Coming across this settlement of sorts was a great stroke of luck for John. Now came the challenge of coming in and trying to get as much as he could. Communities like these were often very protective, and not very welcoming to visitors. It was more likely that they hold him hostage and take his stuff, and maybe even his life. John had very little reason to trust that a settlement like this would welcome his company. He valued his life way too much to even think about taking that risk.

Unbeknownst to him, someone had spotted him while he was scouting out the settlement. John was in the middle of looking for weak points, potential locations to get supplies, and just how many people were there. It didn't seem like that big of a group. Maybe less than ten people? If he came during the night time and played his cards right, there was a very good chance he could've gone in and out without anyone even noticing until he was long, long gone. All he wanted was some food and water, and maybe some ammunition if he could find any. He didn't want to take any lives or hurt anyone. He just wanted to take some things and be on his merry way.

He had determined that he was going to go through the rear. Getting in through a hole and onto the compound so he could duck and weave in and out of buildings. Staying low and staying out of sight, it should not be a rough undertaking. The guise of night should be more than enough to keep him concealed. The moon was his friend, and he was more than willing to use what it gave him for his own benefit. John was situated on a nearby hill, keeping an eye on the compound and watching people coming and going. If stuff got rough, John had a pistol and rifle handy to hold his own.

Granted, he didn't have much ammunition left for it. He was hoping he wouldn't have to use any of it before he would hopefully get replenished. John didn't like having to take lives, but if he had to, he would.

Juliet traveled after Adrian with a slight bounce in her step. While he was clearly tense at the idea of someone new being near their small settlement, she was excited. Sure she had had bad run ins with people in the past, but she had also had plenty of good ones too. Society wasn't going to be rebuilt unless they had people to rebuild it with so she didn't see the sense in acting hostile until need be. Her gaze swept over the area. Adrian had insisted upon traveling the back way just incase they were being watched.

As she looked around, she spotted slight movement on a nearby hill. However, the trees around them blocked her view making it difficult to tell exactly what the movement was. It could have just been an animal, or it could have been the person that Skye had seen earlier that day. "Something's on the hill top there. It's either lunch or a person." she told Adrian in a quiet voice. While she was grinning excitedly, he studied the hill from afar with clear tenseness.

"I hope it's lunch then." Adrian grumbled quietly as he pulled out his pistol.

"Wait, what are you doing? Shouldn't we check what it is first before we start pulling out our guns?" Jules frowned.

"It's a safety precaution." Adrian shrugged.

Juliet let out a sigh. As much as she disliked approaching a fellow survivor with guns drawn, she knew that Adrian was right. Not everyone out there was friendly and having someone who was prepared for the worst wasn't a bad thing. Still, Juliet didn't reach for her own gun. Not yet at least. Instead, she motioned for Adrian to back her up from behind as she took the lead in heading towards the hilltop. She moved with practiced stealth that she had learned over the years from having to occasionally hunt for her next meal. However, as she drew closer to the bottom of the hill, she was quick to realize that it was in fact another human rather than an animal.

Unable to make out the features of this stranger aside from guessing it was a man by it's shorter hair and figure, she came to a stop near the bottom of the hill and waved. "Hello!" she called out offering a friendly smile. "We're from the settlement nearby." Juliet paused as she glanced at Adrian, who still had his weapon drawn and had his gaze narrowed in on the stranger on the hilltop. "We don't mean any harm, we're just being cautious. My name's Juliet and my friend here is Adrian. Who are you?"

John was in the middle of checking the ammunition of his rifle. Pulling the bolt back just a bit, he saw that he had a round chambered. Four shots until he had to reload, which was plenty if he picked the proper shots. However, before he could even think of where to shoot or who to shoot, he heard a voice call out to him. His heart jumped, before backing up against a tree with his hand on his pistol. John had no idea how they'd managed to creep him up on him without him even noticing. It was rather embarrassing to him, letting his guard like that. Now he just had no way out and no way to back himself out of this snafu. As much as he wanted to run away, he couldn't. Not while they were aware of his presence like this. If he ran away, flags were only going to be raised and they'd up security.

He sighed, before backing off of the tree, hands up. As humiliating as it was, it was the smartest and safest play he could've done. He faced the two people looking right at him. One had their gun aimed right at him, as was expected in a situation like this, and the other female was most likely the one doing the talking. He glanced around to see if anyone else was pointing their guns at him. Just seemed like it was the two of them, which wasn't as bad as he had anticipated. Taking a deep breath, he sighed.

"John. My name's John."

Juliet watched as the unknown man moved into further view, holding up his hands as signal of surrender. She was glad that the meeting hadn't erupted into bullets right away. There was real chance of having things turn out just the way she was hoping they would and the leader was already excited. As she looked up to meet the stranger's gaze, she faltered. Something about him brought a warm sense of familiarity but she couldn't put her finger on it. That is, until he announced his name.

She stared dumbly at the stranger, or originally thought to be stranger. "No way..." she breathed. It didn't seem possible. As optimistic as even she was, Juliet had already begun to accept the likelihood of her old best friend being dead. However, now there was a man who shared an uncanny resemblance to him and the same name standing right in front of her. It just seemed too good to be true. Unknowingly, the leader had fallen into a silence as she stared at the man across from them, still trying to decide it if it was truly her friend or not, when someone elbowed her.

With her trace broken, she looked over to see Adrian eying her questioningly. "Something wrong?" he asked tensely, his gun still trained on John.

Instead of answering her second, Juliet focused her gaze back on John and cautiously stepped forward towards him. "John?" she echoed his name with a hopeful tone. "I... Are you... I mean..." she stumbled over her words, unsure what to say or how to say it. Lost for words she decided to go another route in hopes to confirm it was really him. Juliet displayed her wrist to him, making the tattoo of the dandelion visible, and looked up at the stranger, hoping to see a look of recognition or rememberance or anything that would tell her that he realized who she was.

John watched the woman, who was known as Juliet, apparently, glance over at her little buddy and then back at him, before walking toward him. What was she doing? Was she going to take his stuff? Search him? Stab him in the gut? People said a lot of things these days, and John had very little reason to trust what this Juliet person was saying right now. The last Juliet he knew, as far as he knew, was long gone. At least, that was what he made up in his mind to keep the pain of losing her and being separated from her from hurting too much. It was what numbed the pain the best for him.

But instead, she showed him something. Glancing over to the wrist, the amount of shock struck him like a lightning bolt as he processed wha was happening. There was absolutely no way that was what he was actually seeing. There was no way this girl, who just so happened to look like Juliet, had a tattoo that looked just like his. The two had gotten matching dandelion tattoos way, way back as a sign of their friendship. The two had been inseparable until the bombs had dropped, and he had never seen her again.

There was no way. There was absolutely no way. It was too good to be true, and there was no way that this was, in fact, Juliet. Was this some sort of hallucination? Was this a sick joke? Had the radiation finally gotten to him? Was the radiation getting to people and turning them into things? John had so many questions, and there was no way he was going to be trusting this. For all he knew, this was someone who looked just like Juliet and the tattoo was a cult or something. No fucking way. The sheer shock was preventing him from processing and accept that was, in fact, Juliet in front of him. "W-What are you showing me? I don't... get it."

For a brief moment, she was certain that it was him. He seemed to stiff up with shock at the sight of the tattoo and it sent a burst of hope through her. However the hope was short lived as he questioned what she was showing him. Her gaze lowered disappointedly, feeling her hope sink with it. It had been foolish of her to think that there had even been a chance of running into her old friend, especially like this. At some point, she needed to accept that the John she had known and cared for was long gone. She let out a soft breath of disappointment, still reeling from the sharp sting of her shattered hope.

"My bad. I.. I thought you were someone I used to know." Juliet admitted as she retracted her arm. She glanced down at the tattoo and traced over the inking with her finger. "He had the same name as you. And you look a helluva lot like him. Must just be something with the name John." She added with a half hearted joke. Recovering from the blow, she shrugged her shoulders in a dismissive manner and lifted her gaze with a renewed smile. He might not have been the John she was hoping for but he was still someone new to potentially welcome into their community and that was enough to lift her spirits.

"Anyways, I'm from the community not far from here. I'm the leader of it actually. One of my people saw you in the area and I figured we'd better introduce ourselves." she explained, flashing a friendly smile. "We're trying to rebuild what was lost and it takes people to do that so I like to extend invitations out to the survivors I do come across."

"That is if you're not an asshole of course." Adrian grunted, his gun still raised. "We don't just take in anybody."

John glanced at this Juliet tracing over her tattoo. That damn tattoo looked just like the one he had on him. The two had decided to get the tattoo for whatever reason, and it was the only reminder of her since then. He was still in utter disbelief, as if there was no way that the Juliet he once considered the closest friend he had ever had was still alive. He had accepted that she was vaporized or captured or shot and killed by now. That was the only way he could've rationalized what happened to her. For whatever reason, he just couldn't accept that she was standing right in front of him. There was absolutely no way.

Glancing at her as she looked up, John decided to leave what she said alone, before she came in with another thing. It was the same old schtick about the community and what they were building. Stuff that John had heard before. It wasn't entirely new to him, but it didn't mean that he was willing to buy into it just yet. But he was here, and he didn't exactly have a choice to do what he set out to do originally. He just wanted to spend twenty minutes in there tops. In and out faster than a bolt of lightning. But no, there was a gun pointed at him.

Still, this community seemed like it was worth checking out, at the very least. He was here, why not see what they had? Maybe he could've gotten away with some supplies and be sent on his merry way. Keeping his hands up, he shook his head. "Won't get any trouble from me." He said, a pleading look in his eyes. Hopefully they'd buy it and let him in for a bit, at least for the night. That could be an opportunity for him to slip out in the night if the night guard wasn't too packed. "If I wanted to cause trouble, I would've done it by now."

Juliet glanced towards Adrian with a small frown as he gave a clear warning to the stranger in front of them. She was still reeling a bit from how much the man who apparently wasn't her John but shared his name looked so much like him. Of course, there were some differences. Small but they were there and big enough to make her accept that it wasn't truly him. Perhaps so much time had passed that the image she had of him in her memories was beginning to get distorted. The thought made her frown deepen. She didn't want that image to fade.

So lost in her thoughts, she almost missed him speak up again. Blinking, she finally came out of her thoughts and looked over at John with a rather blank stare as he tried to assure that he wouldn't be of any trouble. Brought back to the situation at hand, she gave a curt nod and crossed her arms over her chest. "I would hope not but you can never be too safe these days." she mused with a shrug of her shoulder. Her first instinct was to believe the words that came out of his mouth but past experiences had taught her not to buy so quickly into the words of people she didn't know. However, that didn't mean she wasn't going to give him a chance.

She offered John a smile. "Well now that we've got introductions out of the way, why don't we start heading back to the community? You don't have to stay with us if you decide you don't like it but I hope you'll give it a fair chance." she said before beginning to turn to walk away. Juliet moved to rejoin Adrian, who still had yet to lower his weapon. He sighed, clearly displeased with having the stranger accompanying them into their community, but unwilling to address it directly to Juliet. Instead, he moved forward to approach John.

"Hold up. Before you go with us anywhere, I want your weapons." Adrian grunted as he kept his gun trained on John. "Just toss them over to me and then you may come with us."

John had an internal sigh of relief as Juliet nodded. He assumed that meant he was in the clear, considering he wasn't already shot and left bleeding out on the ground. Juliet's determination to have John be a member of the community was honestly inspiring. In spite of all that was going on and how the world was at this moment, the girl's readiness to trust someone that she'd just met was rare, if not impossible to find. Usually people who were this trusting didn't end up far in this world, but Juliet seemed to be the exception. Considering the community she had surrounding her, and the people willing to fight tooth and nail for her, she was quickly proving to be one of the only exceptions to the case.

John had to see what Juliet had to offer in her community. It was the least he could do, and it was in each other's best interest to do so. John still had every intention to disappear at some point, but he figured he should at least humor Juliet. He wanted to see just what exactly this woman and her trusting powers had managed to accomplish and build. Not like he had anywhere better to go or do. But, just before he was lulled into a slightly lessened alert state, Adrian had brought up John turning his weapons over. John looked at Adrian as if he had said some sort of blasphemy. "Really?" John glanced at Juliet and then back at Adrian.

"I mean, like I said, I'm not gonna do you guys any harm." John said. The man next to Juliet seemed unwavering in his ways. It was going to be like that, he figured. Sighing, he reached for his rifle's sling and let it fall onto the ground, before reaching behind and pulling out his pistol, his hand still up as he slowly sank and put the pistol on the ground. "That's all I got on me." John informed, glancing between the both of them again, "Happy?"