[IC] I Remain: Desolation (A Zombie apocalypse RP without the zombies!)

[Mixtape Ghost N]

---

---

In the Middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Nevada

---

"Kick those this way. Don't need either of you doing anything else stupid."

... Unfortunately for Gregorio, they beat him to the punch. By the time he looked over there, Cindy and Meifeng were gone.

And Cindy was completely dumbfounded by this stupid white girl. Like absolutely confused as to how somebody this stupid would have lasted this long. Instead of just keeping her hands up - or, in all honestness, just going with Meifeng's plan that would have been a lot smarter - the girl just chucks a knife at him. A fucking knife. And there are two of them, both better armed. Cindy's eyes were wide opened and it came to no surprise when the earth-shaking bang of the pistol came out of the other chick's pistol. She was glad that the psychopath didn't just unload on all of them, but she wasn't going to let this go to waste.

Using the distraction, Cindy shoved Meifeng as they dove back behind the rock. The closest piece of cover and reunited with their weapons! The girl who got shot was probably not going to make it - probably not the guy who got stabbed either without the proper medical equipment. Infection is a bitch in the apocalypse. Cindy knew they simply didn't have the supplies on hand... and to be frank, she didn't see the worth in going out of her way to save her when they can just worry about cutting and running.

Cindy looked at Meifeng as she clenched the shotgun tightly. The two grinned at each other.

"Sorry big guy, you were a little slow on the draw there!" Meifeng shouted from behind the rock as she pumped her shotgun. "Stupid's our middle name!" She pumped her shotgun again.

"But I think this has gone a little too far, don't you all think!? How about weeeeee just kindly call it good and walk away?! You got a guy that's wounded and probably needs medical attention ASAP! A lot of people die from infection, you know!" While Meifeng tried to bargain, Cindy peaked from behind cover at the two. This wasn't good... if she was able to she would just unload her entire clip on them and run. However, that'd be tough and she would prefer to just walk away. This was getting way out of hand.

Then a third one approached. Perfect. Cindy got behind cover, this was gonna suck.

Little did they know, in the veil of the night. The crimson fog was approaching them fast.

[Asesina]

"Hey! What the fuck?"

"Jane! Watch your mouth."

"He took our gun!"

"Yes, I saw. But had he wanted us dead, he would have shot us by now. Come on, let's see what's going on outside."

"He said stay here..."

"Oh, so you do what you're told now?"

Jane shot her step-father a certain look before walking down the hall and then down the stairs, Dean following suit. "Oh lovely, it's a party," she remarked once she was downstairs and able to see through he window the group of people that were gathered outside. Someone had been shot, yet they weren't jumping at each other's throats. Maybe they were talking it out, but that would seem a little off as someone was gravely injured.

The two stared at each other.

"I don't suppose our unexpected visitor brought the rest of them here. But whatever his story is, we need to get our gun back from him-"

"Sounds good!" Jane started moving towards the door, but Dean lunged forward to grab her upper arm, the girl protesting in turn. "Hey! Didn't you just say we ought to get the gun from him?"

Dean let go of the grasp he had on her arm. He hadn't intended on grabbing her as hard as he had just then, but he couldn't let her go outside given the current conditions. "Sorry if I hurt you. We get the gun back once whatever his name is comes back inside. We don't go out there for now; we're not sure what those people are capable of."

"Well, a little verbal warning would have sufficed." Jane sighed, knowing that their plans had been ruined without much of an option. Her step-father had on his typical troubled expression, one she wasn't too fond of given that it usually meant they were in some sort of predicament. They were already in enough trouble with her missing mom and grandparents, and they didn't need to be fighting other people when they had those monsters already out for blood. "Okay, let's wait in here I guess. No use getting in between all of them."

[Darcs]

---

---

The (very) familiar album wasn't quite blasting out of the speakers, it was pretty soft in fact, but it was certainly ringing loudly enough to serve as an annoyance in Maya's ears. The woman's wild mane of hair was tied back and flared out behind her as they sped down the lone desert road. She had been leaned out of the passenger side window, elbow propped where the window had been rolled down, allowing her head to rest against her had as she looked blankly into the ever flat horizon. She tried to ignore her companions for the moment, the father-son duo she had come to affectionately refer to as her 'boys' over the past few months of their travels. She wasn't paying particular attention to their surroundings as they sped by, instead blankly focusing on single features in the distance and tracking them until they passed her letting the whirring wind drown out the softly playing punk of the car speakers, occasionally, she'd check for any imperfections in her appearance in the side mirror. While she wasn't paying attention visually, she was growing increasingly aware that the once warm desert air was cooling as it blew through her hair. An unfortunate feature of the night, she supposed. Glancing sidelong in the cabin, she saw their driver tapping his fingers on the wheel to the beat eyes focused on the road and the world ahead., Riley... Hattie. She had come up with her own nicknames for the youth, though, to her amusement, none he was particularly fond of. The pair must've looked strange sitting in such close proximity to each other--

—————————————————————— MAYA STARLESS RILEY LACEY TOM LACEY━━━ —————————————————————— ━━━🧭 Interstate > Parked near nowhere manor, Nevada ━━━🕑 Early evening > Evening ━━━⛅ Relatively clear > Distant red mist storm ━━━🗣 Maya, Riley > Maya, Riley, Tom ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

(of course, no one would have seen them, unless someone approached unrealistically fast from behind, but even then, the kid would probably catch it. Their driver preferred to have meetings with people be on his terms)-- But the simple fact was that they contrasted quite a bit in appearance. Riley was wearing, more less, what he always wore-- dark clothing, roughed up and stitched fixed, and a practical leather jacket-- he easily fit into the archetype of post apocalyptic survivor, with a bit of youthful flair. Maya, meanwhile, wore an asymmetric ivory and silver sequins top and purposefully distressed jeans that would have been better suited for getting brunch than looking for gas supplies in the desert. Her black sandals were at least silent-- but not suited for running in the slightest (though, she could still run fairly quickly in them), and the platinum and silver jewelry she wore, the pendants, rings, and earrings, only had some functionality in being used for bartering and mostly in making Maya an even bigger target than women already were. Of course, Maya wasn't particularly worried about all that. Her boys might not have always looked it-- but they were pretty tough! Together, the three of them made an effective team-- they could get in and get out, get the things they needed pretty quickly. The boy had even been in a few scraps before-- not as many as Doc Lacey-- but they somehow got out a bit strong each time, even if they lost things, they were all still alive... Maya frowned. This was a common line of thinking for her nowadays. Yeah, they were alive, but they sure as shit weren't living. Never going after what they wanted, always what they needed! And never even getting enough of that! As Maya huffed, Riley split his attention from the road and the album to include Maya. He completely knew what was coming-- the pair had had a variation on this conversation nearly every day for the past few weeks. He didn't blame her, all this driving could be boring, and they'd been doing a lot of it. She was open book about some aspects of her past, too, and Riley had learned enough to know that sleeping in a passenger seat for most days was not exactly Maya's idea of comfort-- even if he'd managed to adjust the seats to go much further back so that they were almost cot-like. Talking helped break up the monotony of... whatever they were doing. Maya leaned back into the car, "Fucking bullshit." Reaching between her legs, she unclasped her satchel and downed one of her mini bottles of vodka in one swift movement. It went down like water. Riley didn't take his eyes off the road, but sheepishly smirked as she downed her booze with practiced ease, "What's bullshit, Maya?" He knew the answer would be something like-- "You know! This! All of this!" She gestured with her arms, throwing the bottle out to the desert sands as she did, "It's all bullshit. I hate it-- Don't fucking give me that look! You know exactly what I mean, little man." "I guess so." He shrugged. His smile became a full grin as he glanced over at her, "I think littering is bullshit, personally." Maya's face flashed red as her eyes went wide with faux-anger, "SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU LITTLE SHIT!" "... Mm..." A grumble came from the back seat, interrupting the rhythmic light snoring that had been coming from the sleeping Doctor Lacey moments prior. The pair waited in silence for his snoring to resume before they continued their exchange. Maya whispered, "... Bruh, I'm going to hang you by your shitty fucking dreadlocks. Giving me shit for a fucking bottle..." Riley just laughed, though after a moment he added, "Don't call them that, dude." "Oh, fuck right. I'm sorry." Maya rolled up her window, slightly regretful that it was getting too cold for her to leave the thing open-- the car was no dutch oven... but... Well, the group's patchwork hygiene was starting to catch up to them, was all. She continued. "Black is beautiful. Your locs aren't dreadful, they're beautiful. Fuck the Afro-oppressive patriarchy. Don't touch my hair." "Thanks, comrade." Maya looked ahead, "You know, I once worked with Solange?" "I know, Maya." Her eyes glazed a bit as she reminisced, "Craziest parties. I think you two would have gotten along." She smiled, "Could never hook up with Bey, but--" "Sure, sure. Almeda was a really good song, Maya. Not usually my style, but you did a good job." There was a silence for a moment. Compliments like that were rare nowadays, even traveling with her former therapist. Maya was going to cherish the moment for a bit. Riley, meanwhile, had returned his eyes to the road-- though his head was leaned against the "window." His side of the car didn't have a window-- neither did the back seat-- the only functioning window in the car was on Maya's side. The rest of the "windows" were pieces of plywood, with thick glass quick cemented as makeshift portholes in the middle. From the outside, these looked like normal windows to most passerby's-- as the wood had been spray painted black, and the glass had been tinted as dark as possible-- like the other windows and windshields in the car had been after the fall. Riley figured it helped if you couldn't actually see inside the car. "Soooooooo...." She stretched the word out for a minute, basking in the praise a second longer. A part of her worried that she may never get such praise again. She buried that part of her deep down, focusing instead on the moment, the task at hand. "So, speaking of music..." "Ugh." "Look, man!" She made a pleading gesture with her hands, "I'm not saying it's bad! I'm just saying variety is the spice of life, you know? Artistic variety is one of the keys to a good life! Philosophers and shit said this stuff. I'm not an animal! I want to do drugs and listen to some fucking Mariah, is all!" "And get laid, right?" "YES! Someone finally gets me! AND get laid." She ran a hand through her hair, "But it's like your dad would never go for it, and I'm not sooo depraved as to be jailbait's first--" "--You actually wouldn't be my first." "Sure thing, mop head." She continued. "Anyway, it's like that fucking pyramid of needs or whatever your dad always goes on about. I need drugs and weed and booze and music before I can move on to getting laid and showering." "Those are really good priorities, man." "I know!" They were quiet for a moment, before Riley asked; "Anyway, isn't it repetitive to say you need drugs AND weed?" "Nah," She held up a finger, as if to say she was making a Very Important Point, "Weed isn't a drug, dear Watson. God, the things I would do for a bong right now..." Riley gave a nod that was clearly playing into the bit as she continued. "Anyway-- a person can't live like this! Just because things are a little shitty right now--" " 'A little.' " "Shut up." She continued, undeterred, "We need more music! Or I'm going to die! Of boredom! And possibly also for real if I end up thinking whatever that red shit is sounds better than this shit!" Her chain hit against her chest as she banged on the radio. "Alright, first of all," Riley held up a single hand, as if to say 'stop,' "Poison Girls are fucking dope." The hand shifted to hold up one finger, "That's one-- two-- It's not like I had a whole hell of a lot of time to look through my fucking collection. Downtown was going to shit and we had maybe 5 minutes to get enough shit to last us for... fucking... until we could see shit wasn't getting any better. You know how many mixtapes from my friends and local bands I'm never going to hear again because all the broadcasts were like 'Oh, this will be over in a week...'? So you're right about that, I guess it is bullshit." He huffed at the tragedy of his lost record collection. "Hey..." Maya said with a calming voice and a sympathetic touch, "I'm not blaming you for any of this, okay? I can't thank you enough-- you're one half of the reason I'm even alive right now." She heaved a sigh, looking upward, "I just think a lot of this is hard, okay? All this driving, all this running and hiding... it takes a toll. I think you could use a break? I know I could." "Looking for more food and gas might be nice..." Riley muttered under his breath. He sighed, louder... he hated to admit it, but she was right. Since his father served as their dedicated lookout, this made Riley the defacto leader of sorts as they drove during the night. Making decisions was EXHAUSTING and he absolutely hated every part of it. When he was with his friends, the group always came to a consensus, but now-- major decisions fell to him, because Maya assumed he had his dad's vote. "Alright. Fuck it. You're right. Did you have anything in mind?" For a moment, he considered waking his father to see what he thought-- but he quickly discarded the though-- if he had his father's vote, he may as well use it. Her smile widened as she fumbled with the dash, opening up a map, "Well, according to the map we got at the one outside of Lovelock, there's not anymore rest stops until we're east of Vegas. But, still being north, as far away as we are... there should be some assorted towns... and just, random places people used to live, far away from other people, maybe?" "Rich people, who wanted to be secluded from the hungry masses, you mean." "Always forget to add that part..." She blushed weakly, rubbing the back of their head. "Still..." He put one hand to his chin, the other on the wheel, "Might have gas and car parts." "Could have weed and booze." "Probably have food, somewhere..." "Actual beds..." The pair looked at each other, practically speaking in unison; "Dude-- CDs?" "NEW MUSIC!?" Riley slowed the car, looking for the next exit. His grin was smug as he spoke, "Let's go." "The fuck is all this?" It was rare for Tom Lacey to curse. Being stirred by the car alarm wasn't enough to cause such a phenomenon-- but being woken up-- jolted awake-- by the sound of gunfire might be enough do it for anyone. He was about to ask what going on again, as he leaned over the front seats, where Maya and Riley were still sitting. Their expressions were mixtures of excitement, joy, and horror. The ridge they had parked on gave them all a full vantage of what had them making such expressions. Tom was sure Riley could make things out the best, but from what he could see-- there was a complete Mexican stand-off happening a ways off. At least, as he adjusted his glasses in the dimming evening light, he assumed that's where the gunfire was coming from. Everything was blurring, and getting harder to see. He could just barely make out more figures approaching the commotion. Like moths to a flame. "Sweet Jesus, you two..."

---

---

[silvermist1116]

╚══════════════╝

Belen stomped her feet on the ground. Why did this have to happen? Couldn't just find a fucking house with a shower and relax. No. She had to deal with a crazy white chick with a death wish, and two idiots that thought smashing a rock through her car was a good idea. She was done. Just fucking done. This isn't her job. She shouldn't have to deal with this shit. She wants to go home, back to San Diego and stay locked in her house and wait for her mother to come home. Not be out here in the desert with a bunch of weirdos from the gutter!

"The sound of you voice is grating my ears." She pistol whips the girl, then kick her in the face just because the bitch is ugly and pissed her off. "I'm out." She storms away back to the house, Cruz follows behind her, never taking his gun off the three with Gregorio pulling up the rear. Once they clear the threshold, Gregorio locks the door behind them. "And who are these two? Are they with them?" Belen points to the father-daughter duo waiting by the door.

"That's Jane and her drunk step-dad. They seem like good people." Gregorio pulled the gun he took from them out the back of his pants and hands it back to the man, trusting his intoxication won't cause him to do something stupid. "We'll be sharing the house with them."

"Right." Belen shook her head, because she didn't care anymore. As long as they stayed the fuck out her way, they could whatever the hell they wanted.

"Srta. can you take Cruz to the bathroom and help him tend to his wound. I have to pull the truck into the garage." Then he turns to step-dad. "I need you to cover me. We have a vehicle with supplies we'd be willing to share, while we wait out the night, then we'll be out of your hair once the fog clears." Gregorio went to the garage door off the kitchen and pressed the button on the side to let the door up. He held his gun up, crouched down, and ran to the car furthest from the girls he encountered before. He hoped they wised up and won't try a repeat.

~.~

Belen helped Cruz to the bathroom on the first floor. He placed his gun against the sink and did his best to wash his hands. "Srta. I need you to create a tourniquet and tie it around my upper arm to staunch the blood flow, so I can pull this knife out."

She grimaced. That's disgusting. She doesn't even want to handle her period blood. How's she supposed to deal with someone else's blood? Still, she did it anyway and went to get her purse from the living room where she left it, then came back with a LV handkerchief and tied it twice around his arm, tight.

"Gracias." Cruz took two deep breathes, then pulled the knife out slowly. He grunted behind his teeth, a dizzy spell hit him, but he stayed up right against the sink. He threw knife on the counter and took a look at himself in the mirror. He was a hot mess. Blood and sweat stained his white t-shirt, and he looked a little pale. "Do you have a lighter?"

Through the whole thing she couldn't look. Just the sound of the blade sliding through flesh and the metallic smell of blood made her gag. They should've stayed in San Diego. "Why would I have a lighter?" She dug around in her purse anyway. Nope. "Nada."

"Fuck." He grabbed a towel off the rack and held it to the wound. "We'll have to wait for Gregorio to pull the truck in." In the meantime, he motioned for Belen to grab his gun. She stared it.

"You want me to carry that?" He nodded. "Hah. You're funny. It weighs half as much as I do and the kickback on that will knock me off my feet."

"I didn't say you had to shoot. Just carry it for me. Por favor, Srta?" Belen sighed, stomped her feet again, because she didn't want to, then picked up the gun anyway and dragged to the living room following behind Cruz. He sat on the couch, breathing kind of labored and looking worse by the minute. He better not die on her or she's going back out the kill that bitch.

[Mixtape Ghost N]

---

---

Bumfuck Nowhere, Nevada is gettin' a little red (and I'm not talking about Meifeng's underwear!)

---

"I'm out."

"Oh shit, it worked?" Meifeng peeked over the rock and saw that the psycho-bitch had fucked off with her bodyguards. "It worked!"

"... Well, that's a first." Cindy said as she peeked over the rock.

"What?"

"You managed to reason with somebody," Cindy said as she put her gun back in her waistband as she got up to her feet. This was fuckin' ugly - well, at the very least they didn't get shot or have to use any of their resources. However they lost the house and, well, Cindy was willing to take those losses - looks like they're sleeping on...

"Fuck!" Cindy shouted as she turned the horizon and saw the mist coming.

Fast.

"We gotta get inside!" Cindy shouted as she ran towards the house - damn that ho with the goons. However, she looked behind her to see Meifeng kneeling over the chick that just got shot. "C'mon, Feng!"

"We can't leave her!" Meifeng said as she grabbed the girl from under the shoulders. "She'll be another thing for the monsters to claw at that aren't us!"

Cindy stood quietly for a moment.

"... You're right!" Cindy said before she ran up and grabbed the girl by the legs and they power lifted the chick and ran into the house fast as possible. They put the girl down and Cindy ran to close the door... other people came in - and she wondered how many jackasses are out here in one house in Nevada. Then the fog hit... and all they could hear outside were shrieks of the beasts and their screeching as they were on the house.

There was a bang on the wall that kept going until it was all the way to the roof... and Cindy let out a sigh as she faced Meifeng. She pulled out a towel from her assault pack and she really didn't want to contaminate it but she had no choice. She pressed against the bullet wound on Lena and kept the pressure on it the whole time.

Now, before she went to work patching this girl up, Cindy had to do something first. She gave the girl a light pat on the cheek as she said,

"Hey, hey," She started off very quiet as she was trying not to alert the monsters outside, "Can you hear me? Hey."

[Blizz]

“Yea-yeah...I hear you...” She said, swallowing a bit of blood from the Spanish Kick of Death no Jutsu she recieved just then. She was going to try to pull the coat off to make things easier but by then she was already being helped. Lena silenced her breathing as best she could out of habit from a long while back, and clutched a knife in her other hand as she immediately locked her gaze into a window. She couldn’t see the mist just yet, but she could hear what sounded like monsters, and that window wasn’t entirely covered. Lena wasn’t quite aware of the rest of the people in the house, aside from the clanking of the knife -which she made herself, fun fact - falling out of that guy’s arm. She looked up at the woman who was helping her.

“They’re outside, aren’t they...” She whispered. She was just a little off out from getting kicked.

[KatKook]

---

"God... What is wrong with everything?"

---

——————————————————
_{In some house or something? Idk.}

Hyoyeon was a little late to everything after she was told to come join in surrendering her weapons, then everything else happened, a spray of blood in in this middle of nowhere suburbs. She followed along after the whole incident of a light knife throwing. Alright, maybe it was not light at all but really, really dangerous. Was those one of those moments where it she had introduce herself? She did not mind but she did not know if the situation called for it, maybe she should just- "Hey!" She called out, pulling her backpack to her front and fishing out a rather thick piece of cloth, and some rubbing alcohol (with barely anything left). "It's... All I got, I didn't really expect the world to go to shit." Said Hyoyeon as she held out the two items the black girl, if she was hearing things correctly her name was Cindy but she did not want to say it until she introduced herself. Hyoyeon was still relatively polite in terms of Korean standards even if the world would not stand for it.

She took a step back and lowered her golf club after she holstered her gun. She brushed her hair to the side and put her backpack down to the side, taking her jean jacket off and revealing the gray tank top she was wearing underneath. She stood by the window, standing guard but she let out a quick "Hyoyeon." Before turning her attention back to the window.

---

Mentions:

Interactions: @Ghost Note

[Asesina]

Dean glanced over at Jane, giving her a reassuring nod. "Stay put until I get back, I won't be long."

She sighed in response, not wanting to be left alone with those people but not having a choice in the matter. She stared at the man and the girl as they headed towards the bathroom, the thought of offering them her first aid kit momentarily popping up in her mind but it just as quickly diminishing. They'd already been screwed out of a quiet night in the house due to a number of strangers, and to willingly relinquish their supplies wasn't a smart move in her book.

Shaking her head as she walked away, Jane took a few steps before she sat not he couch, not that much time passing when a few others entered the house. To say she was unhappy was an understatement. Now they'd have to worry about surviving the night in a big house with a bunch of strangers, some of which may not have the best intentions in mind. Please hurry up, she thought to herself right before noticing the familiar and utterly terrifying mist slowly beginning to make its appearance from the corner of her eye.

Instinctively, the girl got to her feet and rushed to the garage door, calling out to her step-father who was still outside.

"Hey, get back here, the mist is approaching!"

Jane saw him waving at the man to come back inside, and she was glad Dean was within a reasonable distance. "There are more people inside." The hint of urgency was evidence in her voice.

"It's alright babygirl, we're coming back." Dean was feeling the effects of the alcohol a little less now that they were in a life-threatening situation, his head was clearing and he was already preparing his next move.

[Shovel]

Cheung Ji

---

The House in the Middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Nevada

---

"Shite, shite, shite." Cheung Ji cursed under his breath as he darts toward the house atop the hill. To be honest, he is out of breath. His lung is on fire. His heart boiled. His muscles tensed, and his skin is having goosebumps on goosebumps. For despite being a "survivalist" for more than half a month now, he wasn't very keen on staying in shape per se, often spending more time reading and collecting various goods on his way. But, he wasn't keen on the idea of stopping for breaths either. The limited experiences between him and the mist are not exactly something worth remembering, with him usually hiding in some corner while waiting for the horror to go over. And there is no good hiding place except for the house. So, using all his strength, he ran.

He passed over the three that just arrive in a car. And almost barreling into the living room had he not hold himself against the doorframe to stop the momentum. Even then, he wasn't relieved. Not because the room was filled with strangers, they can kill each other later, but because the mist was here. Its scarlet color promised blood to be spilled. And Cheung wasn't ready for his blood to spill. So, gulping for breaths, he moved himself to one of the corners, where he coincidentally placed behind the girl holding a golf club and the duo who are taking care of an injured.

Perhaps this is where he should stand by the girl's side. Perhaps this is where he should hold his ax and protect the women. Perhaps this is where his morals would win and he will be a hero. Thankfully, it is his fear that is in control. So god be damned and so are these women. Holding the fire ax across his chest, Cheung slowly placed his flashlight on the floor, making sure that the light is directed toward the window.

"God. Just let me live..." Cheung Ji muttered under his breath, tracing imaginary figures in the blood mist like a fisherman in the open sea.

[silvermist1116]

Belen hefted the gun onto her lap, using the couch as back support just encase she had to shoot a group of people. First to die is the bitch with the busted shoulder.

"Oh, great. You're back. Well," she kept her finger on the trigger. "You're all staying right there. If you move from that spot I'll shoot you. Best be glad I didn't do that when you came through the door."

"Srta. please." Cruz nudged her in the arm, but she shrugged him off. Because of them he got hurt. Meaning, they're no friends of hers. Fuck them.

"Every alright?" Gregorio asked, back from pulling the truck in the garage, gun aimed at the newcomers. As far as he's concerned, if it's not his people, Jane and her step-dad, everyone else is a threat.

"Just peachy. Be a dear and get first aid for Cruz. He's probably dying." Gregorio sighed and went into the garage. It was just as secure as the rest of the house, which was good or they'd be ass out of supplies. He got the large red case from the trunk, closed it back, and carried it into the living room. He opened it and got to work on Cruz's shoulder. He put on gloves, poured peroxide into the wound, then stitched it up. Cruz breathed in sharply, but he didn't make any other noise than that.

"I'd give you something for the pain, but..." he motioned to the new group. They had to stay alert. He wrapped up the wound, then handed Belen the bandage wrap to keep in her bag, before he carried it back to the garage. She put the bandage in her bag, then handed the gun back to Cruz.

He's fortune he got hit in his left arm and not his right. He aimed the gun at the crowd and kept an ear out for the noises outside. It wasn't the same as back home where they bunked in the panic room during the night. He felt exposed. He looked at Belen, she seemed calm and collected. Break a nail, she freaks out. Someone talked shit about her on social media, she'd end their career. She gets dumped first, and she's out for blood. But monsters take over the world, nothing, nada, it's just another Tuesday.

Gregorio came back with waters, chips, and a bag of fruit. He got Cruz situation with his snacks and water, then handed two bottles, two chip bags, and apples to Jane and her step-dad, before he took a seat next to Belen, gun aimed for the next sign of trouble.

Belen rolled her eyes, because of course Gregorio would feed these two nobodies. But they haven't irked her yet, so they probably deserve some type of reward for that, especially since the man had Gregorio's back out there. Good enough for her. Three adults on the couch was crowded though, God she needed her space, but she's safer where she is. She pulled her feet up against her chest and pulled out a protein bar. She needs to eat while it's still early. Just cause it's the apocalypse doesn't mean she can skimp out on her diet.

[Darcs]

---

---

"Yeah, yeah-- and then--" Maya attempted to chime on to the explanation the pair was giving to Tom, of what they had just seen take place-- in medias res, of course. Riley cut her off-- "They were staring each other down with guns, they took their eyes off the girl in the middle-- which was a mistake-- when she had an opening she pulled out a knife and straight GORED this one big dude's shoulder. Shit was gnarly and cash as FUCK!" Tom gripped the ridge of his brow, "That doesn't sound very 'cash' to me, Hattie." Riley smiled wide, "Pops-- you're alone in the desert-- four assholes who probably want the same thing you want all greet you-- not with a fucking--" "Language." "--hello, but with their fucking... 'boom-boom-me-have-big-dick sticks' instead of laying down and taking that she decided to go out like a G." Riley shrugged, "I think it was cash. Plus they didn't even actually kill her... which... now that that I'm thinking about that..." "..." "..."

—————————————————————— MAYA STARLESS RILEY LACEY TOM LACEY━━━ —————————————————————— ━━━🧭 Parked near nowhere manor, Nevada ━━━🕑 Evening ━━━⛅ Red mist storm approaching ━━━🗣 Maya, Tom, Riley ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Yeah." Tom squinted toward the house. Riley had been able to make out everything in detail, but Tom could at least confirm there were others besides just the 5 involved in the altercation being attracted to its promise of relative safety."At least this gives us an in. One of them is injured and needs medical attention, and whatever reason they kept the girl alive-- hopefully out of pure altruism-- they probably don't want her concussed, or worse." He winced at the thought of worse. Tom's heart rate was still a bit high after hearing the gunshot. "Wait!" Maya objected, a half-smile on her face, "Wait wait wait. Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait." "Okay. Maya looked between Riley and Tom nervously, "W-well why do we need an 'In?' What the hell does that even mean? It was fun to watch, but we're not dealing with those guys, right? We're looking for another house, right??? I know we have the gas for it!" Tom looked calmly toward Riley, both of them had already begun to gather some of their things, "You didn't tell her? Riley sucked in air through his teeth, and gave a sigh, "I didn't want to worry her, or you... I thought I could outrun it, you know?" "If we were in a new car with 200 less pounds, maybe!!" Maya exploded. "You're a good driver, Hattie." Tom looked out of the rear windshield, Hattie had done a decent job outpacing it, but they still had less than 5 minutes before it would be upon them, "But you have to remember. You're still so young-- and those demons don't have to follow the same rules you do." "I guess so..." Riley opened the driver door, ready with his bags to approach. He noticed a man with an axe running past him. Riley smiled and gave a wave-- the man was in no position to return-- before finishing his point. "I'm also worried about the car... I've noticed gunk in the engine. I think the break downs might have something to do with that red shit. I think it might be fucking things up." "Hmm." The theory gave Tom pause, it was certainly an interesting train of thought-- and he could follow it easily enough. Though, while he wasn't a car expert, he knew enough to know that Riley's expertise was only a few rungs above his own. Besides that, it wasn't really the time. "It'll have to wait. Right now, we have to make ourselves useful enough to that estate full of... what you so aptly called 'Boom boom sticks' so that we don't have to--" "I called them--" "SO THAT WE DON'T HAVE TO SEE WHAT THE MIST DOES FIRST HAND." Tom said flatly and sternly, "Bring any food and essential supplies we can spare. No weapons-- they would just confiscate them. I'm going to offer my services to the man with the injury and the girl. You two do your thing. Break!" The tan woman gave a sigh, "B-break..." He voice was completely downtrodden and laden with sighs. She didn't want to be doing this. "Fuck football." Riley wondered if the knife girl would loan him one. To say the three "descended" the slight incline to approach the mansion from the side would be a bit of an overstatement. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Maya practically sprinted toward the door of the mansion once she saw how close the mist was. Who knew the skinny alcoholic was capable of technically beating Usain Bolt's best time in the 100 meter dash? While slightly buzzed-- in heels, through sand, no less? It was all Riley and Tom could do to keep up with her. Surprisingly, the door to the mansion was open. Or, rather-- someone had been watching for the possibility of others seeking refuge there. The three stumbled in to quite a scene. A nervous Korean woman, the man with the fire axe that had passed them moments prior, The five from the stand off from before-- the young woman and large man had a third with them, apparently. Only Riley noticed the other two new faces who had also been in the house the whole time. What Tom saw was the knife girl was on the floor, she needed assistance-- with the other two gun toting women near her-- pretty much engaged in a much more complicated version of the Mexican standoff from before. More guns, more people without gun, even MORE nerves. It made Riley upset, it was close to triggering Tom, Maya was scared shitless. She had entered first. Scrambling in moments after the man with the axe. Tom entered slowly, with his hands raised coolly, Riley was somewhere in between the two, not running, but not moving so slowly as to capitulate-- and his arms were crossed. Maya swerved behind Riley, hiding behind him as he spoke to himself, loud enough for others to hear. "Ugh." Riley rolled his eyes, "More guns. More people threatening to kill each other while there are literal hell beasts outside. Very sexy, very cool. Glad it was more of this instead of something cool at this place, guys." "R-riley, shut up..." Maya's whimper of a whisper was barely legible, let alone audible behind the boy. Usually Tom would reign Riley's destructive idealism in, in moments like this-- but it seemed that gunfire really shook him. His hands were up, and he'd closed the door-- but he hadn't introduced himself as a medic. Hadn't looked at the still bleeding man, who seemed more concerned with maintaining order than tending to himself. Maya had only seen behavior like that before in the bodyguards some of her celebrity friends once had. Tom wasn't taking his eyes off the girl on the couch with the gun. Was she not practicing proper trigger discipline, or whatever he went on about? Man. Maya. didn't like all this tension. To her, doctors usually got a free pass in moments like this, right? And she was with the doctor! All she needed to do was get the doctor moving. She could do that. She would just... 'do her thing.' "I'm just fucking saying, it's--" "That's enough, Riley." Maya spoke in voice Riley had never heard before-- but as Maya continued, Riley knew what she was trying, and could only sigh, holding up his hands like his father did. "You'll have to excuse my son," Maya addressed the room, but primarily the woman on the couch and the men who she assumed were her guards in some capacity. She gave a wry laugh, "He's a bit stressed out by all of this, as I think we all are!" Her voice was that of a cheery suburbanite mother. A role Rico had gone over with her once when she was younger-- bringing life to extras, he had called it. She continued. "But please-- my husband saw your altercation and said we had to stop to help anyone who was injured!" She loudly whispered, "He says it's a Hippocratic oath, but I think he's just a big ol' soft teddy bear! Why not even the end of the world can harden his heart!" She sighed, looking over to Tom, who had been nodding when appropriate as he caught on, "But that's why I love him."She finished by adding, "Anyway, sir, he'll say he's only a medic, but I've never met a General Practitioner as able as him! He can get your arm properly checked out if you'd like? He even thinks the girl may have a concussion-- so you could keep an eye on her while he checks you both?"

---

---

[Mixtape Ghost N]

---

---

It's getting really red

---

Good, she's responsive.

"Sssssh, honey, there's nothin' out there," Cindy tried to reassure her... because this chick's probably going to panic. If she goes into shock, then she's as good as dead. Which is what Cindy's going to try to avoid. She smiled at the girl as she stood over her... and this other chick (was she the one poking her head over the rock?) handed her some rubbing alcohol and some cloth. Perfect.

"Thank you... name's Cindy." Cindy was honest here - there was no way that she could pronounce Hyoyeon's name, it took her ages to get Meifeng's name right. Alright, it was time for Cindy to get to work. She wished that she had some pressure dressing. Before she turned to Lena, "I'm going to get you patched up, don't worry."

Now, Cindy wished that she had her army equipment but they lost that awhile ago. They had to grab what they could and get a move on - which was her biggest gripe. However, she knew what she could do best. She turned towards Meifeng and asked,

"Can you any blood on her back?"

Meifeng glanced over and saw no blood, and said, "Nope."

"Good... no exit wound," Cindy said as she finally got to work as she pulled her knife out of her assault pack. She let go of the towel and grabbed onto the bottom of Lena's shirt... she turned towards the other stranger and narrowed her eyes at him. She whispered to Meifeng, "Block his view with your body."

Meifeng nodded as she put her back to him and made sure he couldn't see anything. That was when Cindy pulled off Lena's shirt by the bottom until it was completely off. Now Cindy got a good view of her wound and it was nasty... Cindy never saw this shit firsthand but years upon years of training have taught her exactly what to do. Also, they had to be quick because there was a chance that the mist doesn't leave in the next hour or so.

In that case,

Cindy was going to take her chances.

Cindy sighed. The wound was still bleeding, however, so she had to be quick. The first thing she did was put the rubbing alcohol to the side... Cindy knew that wouldn't help even in the slightest. Instead, Cindy reached into her assault pack again and pulled out a bottle of water and a container of hand soap. She poured a bit of soap onto the towel and then added some water and wiped off the wound. That was when Cindy wrapped the cloth against the wound but after one loop she pulled out a pen that she had on hand with caps on both ends. She tucked the pen underneath the wrapping, holding it together. Before she began wrapping it the other way. She kept wrapping it. Conveniently it was on her shoulder and it'd be a lot easier to get her makeshift pressure bandage on nice and tight.

Cindy thought of it as the field training exercises where they made it abundantly clear that this was life and death and her battle was hit with shrapnel. This was key to saving her life... even though all her battle buddies are probably dead. Cindy then finished wrapping it and tucked slack underneath the wrapping.

With a sigh, Cindy said to the girl,

"Are you feeling lightheaded or woozy o-"

That was when a window upstairs broke and Cindy immediately shut up. Maybe it was nothing... before they heard a loud growling sound and footsteps. Cindy held her hand to her mouth as she looked up at the ceiling - with every step a piece of it fell. Shit.

"It's in..." Cindy whispered before she turned to her friend, who brandished her baseball bat and held it tightly with both hands.

"Somebody, go kill it."

[Blizz]

“No..I’m fi-“

Shit.

Lena instinctively grabbed her knife and held it in front of her. Her face went from painful to almost pissed. “God dammit” she had zero intention of actually hunting it down, since she was already hurt, but whatever that thing was, it made her reflexes kick in. She also reached into her bag that was now on the ground, and pulled out a second knife, a chopper kind, the kind you could cut a limb off with if you’re crazy enough. She slowly took it out and handed it to the girl helping her. “Here...In case you don’t want to waste bullets.” She whispered, bullets were already pretty hard to come by without them being unloaded into a monster. She held onto her other one with a death grip.

The window was upstairs, so they had time to run and hide, but that would just make more noise. “The fuck do we do?”

[KatKook]

---

"This world has fully gone to shit."

---

——————————————————
_{In some mansion or something? Idk.}

"It's not like things are just going to-" Her eyes darted from the window, the ceiling, hearing the noise from upstairs had definitely startled her. Her eyes then jumped back to Lena who was still on the ground in a lot of pain, "I'm going up there... Someone want to volunteer to come with?" Asked Hyoyeon as she gripped her golf club tightly, her hands ready to move to her gun at any given point. "If I die it would be one hell of a story, I'll tell you that." Said Hyoyeon. She took a few steps towards the stairs and moved on to look behind her now looking at Lena and said. "Keep pressure on the wound and don't move too much." She then took another step before turning back to her once more, "Actually don't even move, we'll be fine, It's just one weird bug thing right?" Said Hyoyeon with both confidence and nervousness.

Maybe if things didn't go to shit so fast she would still be fine, she loaded her gun and added, "As much as I don't want to waste bullets, you can't be safe with these things."

---

Mentions:

Interactions: @Ghost Note @Blizz

[silvermist1116]

Belen didn't pay any attention to the three no names that tried to appeal to them with the "doctor" act. Maybe the man could help, but she wasn't the one that was hurt. If Cruz needed it he could speak up for himself. She finished up her protein bar and uncapped her bottle for a drink, when an upstairs window broke. Everyone froze, the only ones making noise were the troublemakers. One girl with a golf club crept towards the stairs. Suicidal much. Belen pulled out her gun. She had five bullets left and an extra mag in her purse. She's not sure what it takes to get rid of these things, but this ain't it sis. Better than nothing and she has two lines of defense if push comes to shove. Except, Gregorio stood up and went after the girl.

"Gregorio, where are you going?" She whispered.

He held a finger to his lips and shushed her. Belen rolled her eyes. He motioned towards the stairs. Of course he's going up there, and while she can't agree with this, it's better to handle it before it came down a slaughtered everyone else. She didn't want to spend the night with corpse and blood might get on her clothes. She shooed her hand. Cruz looked forlorn like he might lose his friend, but he knew he had to go to keep Belen safe. He nodded, crossed from his forehead and across his chest. Belen did the same halfheartedly. Obviously God ain't home if the demons are out having field day.

Gregorio nudged the girl with the golf club out of the way, then motioned for her to follow him, but quietly. He got to the top of the stairs and pulled out his mirror. It wasn't in the hallway. Good. He heard moving around in one of the rooms. Sounded like it was in the room Jane and her step-dad were in earlier. These things ate people, maybe it smelled them on the sheets. He stuck close to the wall on the side of the hall the door was on, then crept swiftly, but quietly to the door. He checked with his mirror again. It wasn't too big. About the size of a person. Big enough to fit through the window at least. It's wings fluttered as it sniffed around the bed. He looked back at golf club girl and told her to stay. He could shoot it and draw attention to the others outside, but that's dangerous. They need a plan. Gregorio looked again. The monster's back was to him. He quickly grabbed the door, pressed the lock on the other side, then closed it. The door wouldn't hold it long, but it might buy them time.

He turned around and went back to the stairs and down. "I locked it in the room, but we need a plan. We gotta get rid of it without making too much noise. There won't be a house left if we get into a gun fight and draw attention."

[Darcs]

---

---

"Ha!" Riley whispered as Maya stood in front of him, response-less, "I guarantee you no one cares what I say, dude. A chick just got shot and dude got... knifed, and there's demons. No one cares." "Shut up, Hattie." Maya gave a small 'tsk' as the gun continued to be trained on everyone-- while deflated slightly, she hadn't dropped the character. Yet. Then came the noise from upstairs. Maya gave a shrill, but contained 'yipe' practically jumping at the thump. As it became clear from the input of the others that that was one of... them. Maya, as if a switch had been flicked, immediately went back to hiding behind the teenager. He had, conversely, seemed unsurprised by the noise, or at least unshaken. At the request of the woman treating knife girl's gunshot wound for 'Somebody to go kill it[sic]' a woman and a one of the men with rifles went up the stairs-- Riley followed far behind, intending to wait at the base of the stairs and see what he could. Maya's grip on the boy loosened as the boy took steps forward. "Riley! What are you doing? Hattie." The woman whisper-yelled. Riley shrugged. He figured they were trapped in this capitalist McMansion of excess no matter what while Red Dawn was going on outside. If one monster could get in, more could-- Riley would at least like to know if the one they knew of was headed their way if those two couldn't kill it. He moved slowly, not trying to creak any floorboards as he moved, but move he did. Maya's teenaged 'cover' was gone after mere seconds.

—————————————————————— MAYA STARLESS RILEY LACEY TOM LACEY━━━ —————————————————————— ━━━🧭 Nowhere manor, Nevada ━━━🕑 Evening ━━━⛅ Red mist storm ━━━🗣 Everyone ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

She whined as he went, slumping against the heavy door of the mansion. Tom, on the other hand, was snapped to full attention by the more imminent threat of a demon being this close to them. His attention turned from the treating of the less pressing knife wound, admittedly for self-preservation, to the more pressing gun wound the girl had sustained. He had been trying to ignore it-- but luckily someone else hadn't. Clearly military trained-- she was already treating the wound with skill, despite a lack of supplies, and the less than ideal circumstances. Still... getting the bullet out was only half the job. To stop the bleeding and prevent infection they would need to cauterize. The idea of this worried him, as it would cause... some noise... for sure. But not would probably be worse down the line. "I'll go see if this place had a private gas line... or... anything to start a fire." He primarily addressed the woman with the braids treating the girl who had been shot, but turned to the man with the knife wound and the others as he finished, "Both of those wounds will require sealing sooner or later-- ideally sooner-- and I'm not sure anyone has any actual, proper supplies for sealing them. Anyone want to come with? There may be other... things lurking."

---

---

[Asesina]

Dean accepted the snacks offered to him and Jane with a quick "thanks" and a smile, giving the other share to his step-daughter. They weren't necessarily hungry per se, but it was good to eat now before anything happened. The duo were seated on the floor with their backs to the wall, and they simply watched when another group came in as they continued eating. Three newcomers through the door, their arrival not a surprise anymore. It seemed the house they'd found earlier was a hotspot. Or so that's what Jane thought.

"At this rate, we'll be getting kicked out of this place," she whispered with an annoyed look on her face.

"You better change your attitude and stop being selfish. There are beasts out there and no one can be outside," he whispered back to her.

"Great, we'll just die from within..."

"That's enough! Now finish eating."

They both heard the crash from upstairs. Jane froze for a moment, her grip suddenly tightening around the bag of chips. Dean's reaction was to drop his snacks beside Jane and stand up

"What are you doing?" Her voice was shaky as she suddenly grew concerned. She wouldn't allow Dean to go upstairs, not when there were other people there with bigger, better guns who could very well blow the monster away whenever it came for them.

"We've obviously been compromised," he responded.

Jane too got to her feet, standing between Dean and the stairs. That's when the Asian chick and their "friend" went upstairs to investigate. She thought they were suicidal for volunteering themselves, but she wasn't about to say anything. Why not just hold the position and react accordingly instead of looking for trouble? But eventually they came back down not so long after the fact, and she was relieved. It that thing hadn't killed them yet, her and her step-dad would be alright for the time being, though now they had other issues such as trying to kill the damn thing that was still in the house.

"Please stay with me," she begged, hoping he'd agree to her request.

[Mixtape Ghost N]

---

---

In the Middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Nevada

---

The girl, who just had a bullet go through her, was pulling out her knife like she was in any condition to fight.

Once they get to safety they'll have to get that bullet out but Cindy was, unfortunately, not a medic. And they'll definitely have to get out of here - especially if the storm persists. The longer they stayed in an area, the more of those... things, showed up and the more likely one of them is gonna get killed by it. The pair already had one lucky break so far and Cindy was definitely not dumb enough to bet on a second. She sighed as she pushed the girl down.

"It's nothing to worry about," Though, after examining the girl's chest there was something off about it, she didn't know what. "Just... stay down and we'll figure something out." Like Hyoyoyo or whatever her name was said, just put pressure on it and not move. Thoooooooooooough, at this point it wasn't Cindy's problem and she only felt any sense for responsibility for Meifeng. The girl was guarding the two like she was ready to die if it came down to it... what a great friend, Cindy knew that keeping her was a good choice.

A group went upstairs and there was a crash as Cindy was worried if the monster was attacked but that woman's goon came down and said they locked it in the room. Perfect, but that wasn't going to hold it forever. It would have been better if they killed it.

Cindy sighed,

"Let's not poke the hornet's nest," Cindy suggested, "We can leave it there until it does something."

There were screeching and all sorts that sounds that Cindy knew felt alien outside and she knew that even the slightest trigger will have them getting swarmed. She could hear them scraping against the walls and her heart started racing. The only thing saving them from certain death was luck and this flimsy ass house. What brought her back to reality was the older gentleman saying that he was looking for a fire source.

"Can we set it on fire?" Meifeng asked and Cindy rolled her eyes.

"No, Meifeng, go with him to get stuff," Cindy ordered her, "Her condition can change in a heartbeat."

"What about you and Jessica Voorhees?" Meifeng asked.

"We'll be fine, I'm watching her to make sure she doesn't go into shock or something," Cindy said, she wished they at least had some ice.

Following Cindy's instructions, Meifeng threw her baseball bat over her shoulder and casually walked over to Tom or whatever his name was. Though she felt like it was weird they were loosely using names, "Name's Meifeng, lead the way."

[Shovel]

Cheung Ji

---

The House in the Middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Nevada

---

It is strange to see how people still able to care these days, Cheung Ji thinks as the Asian girl left her friend to join with the man to find something to stabilize the girl with the gunshot wounds. The monster or whatever that just broke through the window is still upstairs. The mist is circling like hawks and yet, people care for other people skins. Like why? Why risk their lives for a stranger? And that makes Cheung Ji has all these sorts of thinking at the back of his mind. Mainly about whether these strangers would do the same for him and the extend that he would go to save them.

Maybe he could just slice the woman. She doesn't seem to be very attentive to him than the girl she is trying to save. Maybe, if he could just injure her so that all of those outsides would just swarm in. And meanwhile, he would just run in a different position."

Cheung Ji looks at her. At the African American. At the stranger that is trying to save another stranger. He could feel it. How his blood begins to race. How his jaws clench and the vision of him splitting this woman's head like a watermelon.

How he would run.

And he shuddered at such thought.

Letting out a long sigh, Cheung decided to focus things at hand. Things that he can control.

"Here." Cheung Ji said, placing a lighter and a roll of toilet paper next to the African American girl before retreating back to his position. Usually, these would have traded for something much better than a connection. But, he overheard their conversation earlier, so this is his way to help.

"I'm sorry for not helping much." Cheung Ji said before retreating back to his corner, his grips are still firm on the ax handle. He wants to say something, to ask whether the stranger would make it, to show them that he cares and not this completely selfish prick. But all that he was able to do was opening his mouth and yawn.

[silvermist1116]

Belen's hand shook during the minutes that Gregorio was gone. She stuffed her hands in her purse to hide her fear. She already lost her mother (maybe), she couldn't handle it if Gregorio disappeared too. Or died in this case.

"Srta. it'll be okay. Gregorio's strong, smart, he'll survive." Cruz whispered to her, his thigh pressed against hers. She knows he's right, but she's never lost anyone before and doesn't want to think about it. Having one missing person on her mind is bad enough.

"I know that. He'll be fine." No sooner had she said it Gregorio and the girl came back down. It's locked in a room, seems like it didn't notice them, since it's still knocking around up there.

"Let's not poke the hornet's nest. We can leave it there until it does something." One of the troublemakers said.

"I agree, but if it does move we'll be sitting ducks." Gregorio looked around the room, a plan formed in his mind. "Alright. We need defense and that means." He look down at the girl Belen shot. "We need to move from this area. It's too open. Get her up." He said pointing at girl bleeding out. He went back to the living room. Two sectionals, an arm chair, and a TV stand case almost a long and as tall as the wall. That'd be too heavy to move.

"Srta., Cruz, I need the couch." He addressed everyone in the room, Jane and her step-dad, the man with the ax, the girl and the boy that followed him upstairs, and the woman that came with the doctor. "I have a plan. We need to move the couches to block the stairs and the front door, the arm chair to block the black door, and someone to help get the girl off the floor and back towards the garage door. We'll set up a line of defense. Anyone with a gun in the front, melee weapons in the middle, and the injured and anyone attending to the injured in the garage. Let's get to it."

Cruz struggled off the couch, still a little dizzy, but Gregorio grabbed his arm and held him steady. They looked into each other's eyes, an understanding passed between them like when they were in the same unit and crazy shit was about to go down. "You good?"

"Never better."

Gregorio clapped his arm. "I'll be right behind you."

Belen rolled her eyes, and stood up, her bag on her shoulder. She peeped whatever was going on between them years ago. It's almost like watching her dads. Grossly cute. Cruz moved as fast as he could to the garage door, Belen right behind him. He opened it, then handed her the key fob. "Get in the truck. We might need to make a getaway if the house comes down." Belen climbed into the truck, her hands gripped the steering wheel, her eyes forlorn while she watched Cruz go back into the house. Gregorio said for the injured to stay in the garage. That's only two people. Of course he wouldn't listen.

Gregorio set his plan into motion.