Niesha was silent for a few moments as Riley spoke, a few thoughts rolling around in her mind. Finally, she said very softly,
"Sometimes it seems that we have these months of okay day to day life, and then something happens, like a switch flipping, and.... everything just seems to go to hell" She let the words trail off, falling silent once more, looking back the way they had come, waiting for Ravi and Chloe. Once more, she let herself think on what they were doing. And why. Going beyond the walls was nothing, not when you compared it to the reason, to giving Miss Sally a proper send off.
That was what mattered, and she wanted to be gone, to be back so that they could give her the proper burial she deserved. It was a chance to be reminded that they were all human, and human traditions needed to be respected, that reminder... so maybe they could all heal.
"But doing this is right, and I know we will come back" Riley listened to Niesha as she spoke and gave a slight nod, except for yesterday everyday seemed to be a living hell to her at least in her eyes. The only things that she cared about now were her sister and Amelia both still alive and well within the walls, with her.
"Things will get better, and then go bad its an endless cycle." Riley said with a slight shrug as she picked up her supplies and strapped them over her shoulder looking over at Niesha.
"Are you still okay, I mean going out there that is?" Riley asked, she had been on a few runs in the past but nothing recent that she could remember, she then looked forward as she crossed her arms over her chest as she patiently waited for her sister and the new guy Ravi to swing on by and they could finally get on with this supply run.
"Also are we going to be getting anything else while we are out there?" She knew that they needed embalming supplies but that's about it, she wasn't sure what else they would actually need.
Niesha gave a shrug,
"I'm okay. It's for a good reason, and I'll be fine out there. I was for a long time before being brought in here, after all" She said, her tone light, before she shook her head,
"No, i don't think so. just the embalming supplies... and... hm. Do we get a casket? Might be hard to bring back though. I guess we can see" she said thoughtfully, before shrugging once more,
"Whats taking them so long, we should be gone" "We're right here." Chloe said bitterly. She and Ravi had just made it to the gate. They had taken a little longer to arrive, mostly because both Niesha and Riley split off early. And of course, the entire way over, Chloe was wordlessly checking herself for symptoms. If Irish really had drugged her, she didn't expect the hallucination to be a one time thing. It made her be a little bit crabby in general.
"Let's move," Chloe muttered, before marching off already.
Ravi looked at Riley and Niesha a bit apologetically. From what he could tell, Chloe was getting crabbier by the minute. Had the world not gone to hell, he would've suggested a Starbucks run in order to get her some apparently much needed coffee. Instead, all he could do was stand around and feel a tad bit awkward.
Riley looked towards Niesha when she mentioned a casket and gave a slight nod, it would be more respectful if they could find one but that's if they were able to actually find one while they were there.
"A casket would be nice, that's if there is one there we will find a way to bring it back." Riley said as she heard her sister her eyes looking over towards Ravi and gave him a friendly smile, she instantly however picked up Chloe's attitude and wondered what was wrong with her.
Riley waved for the guard at the gate to let them through and started to follow along side Chloe, she gently rested a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with a concerned look.
"Whats wrong Chloe? You look like you want to eat someones face off." "Nothing. Everything's fine," Chloe said. She didn't exactly want to tell her sister that she suspected there was an unknown drug in her system. Everyone had a lot on their plates and she didn't feel like destroying the trust that had recently been formed.
Use to mere indifference from Chloe, over the last few months, Niesha found it particularly unpleasant to be on the end of her bitterness. She turned to the other woman's retreating back, and said
"You don't have to like me, but if all you're going to do is bite our heads off, then just shut up. We aren't here for you, we aren't here for any of us, we are here for a woman who died, a good woman, who gave her all to this community, and if you can't appreciate that, if you can't focus on that, then what the hell are you doing here?" More then a little annoyed, Niesha started off, but stay as far away as she could get from Chloe as was reasonably possible. She didn't know why Chloe didn't like her, and right then, she didn't care.
She turned ehr thoughts to their mission, and getting what they needed, in and out as quickly as possible, perfectly without losing anyone. Just a run. She'd done plenty of them before, before finding Newman. Easy. Right? She hoped so. She sighed, shifting her things into a better position on her back, ready to grab the borrowed bow at the slightest sight of anything dangerous. Focus on the mission.
That was all she could do right then.
Chloe raised an eyebrow at Niesha. She hadn't, in her opinion, said anything of the sort. It was just more evidence to her that Niesha was too emotional to go outside of the walls at the moment.
"When the fucking hell did I say any of that? When did I bite your head off, huh? Do you want me to be a bitch to you, because I can be a bitch. I'm proficient in bitch-craft. Get angry at me for the things I've done, but never fucking accuse me of things that I haven't. Not once have I said this was about me. Not once did I say it was about everyone else. Hell, all I've done is try to fucking help. I get you're hurting, but don't take this shit out on me. " Chloe wanted to march off, but she felt like an intense fire was burning through her. This was anger, new anger and old anger, all at once.
"I didn't have to come and fucking help with this. But this isn't for Miss Sally at the end of the day. It's for the people who are still alive. The dead don't give a shit because they don't know shit. Death is something that happens to everyone else, not the person who died. It's awful that Miss Sally died, but it's shitty that everyone died. Those tributes Tatiana made for the dead? They're for the living. Don't forget that." Ravi wasn't sure whether or not he should intervene. He didn't know the two gingers had history, but this fight wasn't going to help anyone outside of the walls.
"I'm not trying to be a git, and I don't know you two, but you need to stow it, both of you," Ravi said bluntly.
"The more energy you put into fighting with each other, the less you'll be focusing on getting the job done."Riley's eyes wondered between both Niesha and Chloe, she could easily feel the tension between the two once Niesha had spoken she rubbed the back of her neck letting out a slightly annoyed sigh. Then Chloe snapped back at Niesha, this was certainly going to be an interesting run a new guy and her pissed off sister and Niesha.
"We all need to work on this shit together, we are all hurting today but we really cant afford to be at anyone's throats now like the new guy said. We need to just stow it and get this stuff done and the sooner we can all get back." "You can still respect the dead, and thats what this is. Respecting her. Your tone was biting, and that is that" Niesha replied, before she feel silent, turning away from Chloe. she just wouldn't deal with her. Worked so far, so well. She walked a little bit away from the group, deciding right then that that was for the best. She just wanted to get this over with. She wanted to get back to those she cared about.
She sighed, taking her bow in her hand, so that she was at the ready should anything sneak by, turning her energies to that task.
Chloe was walking on ahead. She had heard what everyone said and she honestly didn't have anything else to say. She hadn't disrespected Miss Sally, but it was clear to her that Niesha was just an emotional mess. As soon as this was over with, she was going to head on home, find anything in the house that she could smoke, and blow off some steam. If it wasn't for Riley, she'd likely have left Newnan that day, with or without Ryan. She was ahead of everyone else by a fair few paces, scanning the road ahead of them.
"Right. Now that that's settled, does anyone know what the funeral parlor should look like?" Ravi asked.
Riley shouldered her crossbow over her shoulder and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she watched Chloe and Niesha walking ahead of her and Ravi.
"Sorry about my sister, she really isn't snippy like that, neither is Niesha." Riley said towards him as she kept her eyes very close to Niesha and Chloe as the two walked ahead of them, she would have to check up on Chloe when she had a free moment during the run or when they got back behind the walls.
"I've walked past it a few times on a few other runs, its a big white building looking like a southern manor back during the civil war times or something like that." "It's no problem, really," Ravi replied, smiling kindly at Riley.
"I've traveled with a crazed Texan for more than a month now. I can handle two distressed ginger girls." As they continued to walk, Niesha kept her gaze out for the funeral home, letting Riley do the talking for now. As the large white building came into view, Niesha was relieved that they arrived safely. Guessing that it would be dark in the building, she automatically reached for the borrowed flashlight.
"I'm sure that you got some interesting stories with your partner then huh?" Riley said as they got to the funeral home, she stopped for a moment as she noticed in the parking lot that there looked to be a set of tank tracks? Riley walked over to get a closer look at them and knelt down to get a better look.
"Looks like someone is driving something big around here." She said to herself, before getting up looking over towards Ravi, Chloe and Niesha.
Ravi blinked for a moment, hoping that
partner was meant the way it was in western films. If she had the impression that he and Gavin were more than just mates...He opened his mouth to protest for a moment and to remind everyone that he was, in fact, straight. But he closed it abruptly, only to gawk once more at the large tracks left in the snow. Beyond the general size of the contraption, the tracks didn't tell him much. He didn't have the luxury of asking a forensic tech to match the prints in this scenario.
"Fucking hell," Chloe frowned.
"What made that? Another Hordebuster?" Chloe snorted.
"Shit, maybe we aren't alone in the world after all. It could be aliens." She wouldn't have been too surprised at this point. As angry as she was, the entire day had been insane. There hadn't been any return to normalcy, so why would that happen now? It was foolish to expect that.
"I know you guys are still pissy at each other but please stay close and pay close attention." Riley said looking towards Ravi.
"Stay close as well." She said as Riley opened the door, it opened rather easily, seeing that all the windows had been boarded up it was pretty dark inside taking out her flash light Riley started to take a step inside so far it seemed to be Walker free.