Charlie Hall

There is always something left to lose

[charlie-hall]

Lead Me Home || Kimi & Charlie

[kimi--sato-deactivated20160504]

Kimi doesn’t mean to lean on Charlie so much. She’s dead weight. Quite literally. But that thought doesn’t send a cold chill through her as Kimi imagined it would. No she’s burning up with the infection spreading through her veins. Kimi had always pictured death to be cold.

She’s burning up and she hasn’t felt so ill in a while. The cool hand to her forehead has Kimi’s mind flicking back to her childhood. A simple stomach bug or the flu and her mother - or Pai - checking her temperature. It’s a fleeting happy memory wiped away as quickly as Charlie is. A blur of red hair, sound and movement. There’s another monster. A bigger one and stronger one. The details are, however, lost in a feverish blur.

With Charlie thrown aside Kimi’s left to stumble again. Falling backwards and hitting the ground once more. She can hear Charlie cry out and Kimi wishes Charlie listened to her moments ago. Left her in the horde because dying alone’s better than dragging someone with you.

Kimi wasn’t expecting this to all happen so quickly. Didn’t expect the fever to hit so suddenly. For the pain at the bite to reach the point that it simply blurred out in nothing. The orange flames die and the light of her runes struggling to keep going. Even the monster in her peripheral seems to fade out of importance.

She tries to push herself up but all at once it’s too much. The shuffling groans of the horde. The stink of rotting flesh. Charlie’s cry of pain and Kimi’s overwhelmed with the state of the world.

Every moment of the scene of her death floods her senses.

She’s tired as her head hits the tarmac for the last time. Kimi knows there’s no point in trying to get up again. It’s easier now to stare at the sky. The clouds drifting by in a blue sky. Fluffy and ever peaceful.

Untouched by the horror of this world.

Kimi doesn’t cry as she stares forwards knowing this is it for her. Not blinking or shutting her eyes because she wants to feel the sun on her and have the images of a peaceful sky burned into her retinas. She doesn’t want another moment of darkness whilst she’s still in this world.

It’s a beautiful day and the sun’s out and Kimi’s eyes remain open even though she can no longer see a thing.

[charlie-hall]

Charlie scrambles to roll over, swiping her leg as she does to knock the mutilated beast unconscious. She climbs on top of it, one axe in her grasp as she slams the blade repeatedly upon the creature's skull. Its hands grip at her as blood spouts from its mangled face, splattering against her skin in gory specks. She doesn't even hear her own strangled screams with each crunch of the blade against bone and then the being isn't moving anymore. But there's no time to bask in glory.

Swiping up her other weapon, Charlie struggles to reach Kimi, tiny stones in the asphalt scrapping against her knees as she pulls herself towards the fallen woman. "C'mon, Kimi," she instructs but when she reaches her, she doesn't find an injured woman. She finds a dead woman. Her eyes gaze up towards the sky, wide and lifeless but there isn't any anger or fear written upon her soft features. Just quiet peace, possibly even happiness. Her fight is over. She can rest easy.

There isn't time to mourn the kind soul floating somewhere above her, because if there is a god, he isn't going to send someone like Kimi to suffer for eternity. And while she doesn't close the woman's eyes, Charlie does wedge to blade of one axe between her eyes, crying raggedly as she does so. Whatever infection is in her bloodstream, she wouldn't allow someone in her family, because this group is her family, to become one. That's a fate she wouldn't wish upon anyone still left in this world.

Red blood seeps past the wound, distorting the peaceful expression of the young girl now lifeless and Charlie sobs upon her cheek. But there isn't time to mourn, she reminds herself. There isn't time to even give Kimi a proper burial. The horde is closing in, still heading for the group who is struggling to keep them at bay. They need time, time none of them have to give.

Except for two of them.

Charlie will forever be sorry, she thinks, as she kneels over Kimi and drags her blade across the woman's throat, blood gushing from the drying veins and calling the attention of hungry walkers nearby. She takes a breath, a quick breath to calm herself and swallows down that lump in her throat that hopefully had been constructed of courage. Because Charlie would need all the courage she could get.

The scent of blood calls the attention of a few walkers but Charlie rises to stand, fingers closing tightly around her weapons no matter how much her arm screams in pain at the action. Kimi's scarlet blood stains her skin and Charlie releases the small control she has over her power to dig her fingers into the small slices in her arm. The hot pain is too much to keep silent, and she grunts against the digging, ripping flesh to expose more blood, more meat for these monsters.

"Hey!" Charlie calls out to them, smearing her own blood against her cheeks before banging the steel of her axes together. "Hey! Come on! Come get me. Yeah, you, come on ya fucker," the redhead cries, all the stubborn pride pushing her voice to new heights and grasping the attention of the horde closing in around her.

She begins to back up when she finds much of their attention is upon her. "Come on! Come and get me. Fucking walking meal for ya," Charlie informs the hungry beasts closing in on her, and it's only then she can hear her voice crack, feel the tears beginning to stream down her face. This would be the end. No more seeing the group. No more reading with Cian or hanging out with Kris. Sharing tents with Rose. Evie's smile. Kip would never remember her and she would never remember Devin. All the memories she'd never recover. It would all just be over. All the fighting and the suffering. All the pain and heartache. The mere torture of just existing.

And Charlie's relieved.

As she turns away from the group, she sends out a silent goodbye to her people, the ones she loves, who had saved her more times than she could count. And if she could do this for them, to keep them safe, then she's happy to. Charlie sprints off, screaming obscenities to the walkers as she passes by, swinging her axes wildly and slicing at limbs and throat as she goes. She wouldn't go down without a fight, without giving these shamblers and devilish creatures a bit of trouble. And they follow their runaway food, most forgetting about the people rushing to their cars to feast upon the immobile women or the blur of red hair.

[charlie-hall]

Lead Me Home || Kimi & Charlie

[kimi--sato-deactivated20160504]

Kimi was never made for this world . The most useful thing Kimi had managed to do well in the end was to cook. Make a daily meal and make people laugh occasionally. Be nice to people like Vincent who’d never felt that before. Be a friend to Evie, the young girl with hardly anyone her age. Kimi was suited to a simple life that’d they’d never see again. The life of home cooked meals and happy families. Where the bad things are nothing but stories or happen in far away places. She’d always known this. 

Even when Kimi shouts for her to run, Charlie stays. Charlie seems strong enough for this world. Able to fight her way through, even when her diamond encrusted arm is injured and they’re literally surrounded on all sides Charlie refuses to leave. It looks like she’ll make it. Against these odds Kimi can see the red head fighting her way out.

There’s no time to argue because that would leave Charlie stuck in the horde and one of them needs to survive this. So Kimi pushes through the pain. Tense jaw and pursed lips. She can at the very last spend her last few moments being strong.

"Ok," the sting of scratches on her palm are nothing now in comparison to the throbbing pain in her back. The pressure on her palms is almost soothing in comparison to the bite mark turned black with ash mixing into the blood. It tires her out to throw the body off her back and pull herself up and try so very hard to get her magic going. 

Try to get the runes which damned her to fall to a bite going again. The flames are weaker. It’s no longer the burning hot blue but weaker orange flames. The heat doesn’t hit her as the flames grow along her arms. It’s simply a warm glow as she’s fading out.  Kimi throws another ball of flames. It only drops one zombie. Barely scorching through it so there’s’ no chance of it even dropping a second one. Perhaps she can’t even be strong in her final fight.

[charlie-hall]

Kimi continues to fight and Charlie might admire that later, when they're not surrounded by walkers. But there's a little voice in her head that's telling her to leave here there. That Kimi's been bitten and the infection is in her bloodstream. That there's no way out of this. But she couldn't leave this woman behind to die alone. And she had to hold out hope that the sweet little lady would make it. Because without her, there's a little less light in the world, a little less hope and happiness. The old world would die within her chest.

Charlie struggles to hold onto Kimi, trying to take as much of the woman's weight as she can, but there's blooding dripping on her jeans and she's not sure if that's hers, Kimi's, or maybe a combination of the two. Her companion takes down a few walkers, but the brilliant blue hue is lacking from the flames. Her power isn't burning up, but she's beginning to. Charlie stops, pressing the back of her hand to Kimi's forehead, and she can't help the quick descent of color from her cheeks.

But hesitating had been a mistake. A few walkers close in around them and Charlie struggles to hold the axes in both her hands, swinging them wildly at their chosen targets and lodging the blades deep within the skulls of dead men. She spins, red hair whipping around her as she shoves one axe into the throat of another biting monster, multiple arms protruding from its torso that attempt to grab at her. It rips the edge of her tattered t-shirt, sending her plummeting to the ground and landing painfully on her chest and injured arm, causing a sharp cry to rip through her throat.

[handfulofdust-rp]

CHARLOTTE "CHARLIE" HALL || 24 || MAGI || KAREN GILLAN || TAKEN

“I always said I wanted to be in a horror film. I take it back.”

→ formerly: sister, college drop-out

✔ loyal → empathetic → clever ✘ quick-tempered → stubborn → impatient

B I O G R A P H Y

In the quiet suburbs of Montclair, New Jersey, Charlotte Hall was the apple of her father’s eye. Charlotte always preferred being called Charlie, much to the chagrin of her overbearing mother who had named her only daughter after her deceased mother. However, Charlie proved herself as the resident tomboy, preferring to play in the mud with her two older brothers than have tea parties with the neighborhood girls. Michael, 4 years older, and Shane, 2 years older, brought their young sister with them everywhere, protecting her from schoolyard bullies until she became old enough to throw a punch. Not that she frequently did. In fact, despite her short temper, Charlie had only been in one physical altercation in her whole life when high school junior from her class waged a verbal attack on a terrified freshman. If Charlie were to be totally honest with herself, she would admit the tormenter had it coming. As soon as the graduation ceremony was over, Charlie packed her bags for the big city, NYC. Accepted to NYU for Sociology, Charlie found that the world of academic achievement bored her to death. After a two and a half years in college, she dropped out, picking up a waitressing job at Market Diner. Charlie’s witty quips and fiery nature has helped her keep her job for the past three years, but her mother’s disdain for her daughter’s lifestyle had kept the two at constant odds. Now lacking confidence in her mother’s support, especially financially, Charlie has to learn to grow up and start making actual attempts at a brighter future.

The cool metal grating and the warm liquid sliding down her cheek were the first things Charlie noticed upon waking up. Pulling herself into an upright position, her hand sought out the source of the liquid, it’s red thickness coating her long fingers. A sharp stinging sensation swelled from the small scrap on her forehead. Charlie doesn’t remember passing out on the fire escape of her studio apartment. She doesn’t remember leaving the window open behind her. And she most certainly doesn’t remember how she got those strange, blue swirls on her hands. Charlie can only remember a mother’s pleas and her now missing cat, Dodger. The apartment building is empty, devoid of any inhabitant it previously had. Her street looks deserted as well, except for a few drunk shamblers from a rowdy night out. Only they aren’t walk-of-shame drunks, they’re…creatures. Human-like, but Charlie can’t quite figure out why they aren’t exactly human from this distance. She isn’t sure what happened but suddenly a man was crying out as one of those creatures chomped at his leg. As the panic settled in, Charlie bolted for her apartment, grabbing a backpack and filling with food, her first aid kit, and any other supplies she deemed necessary. Tears pricked her eyes as she packed. She didn’t know why she was crying or really why she was scared precisely. All she knew was that she was alone. After securing the heavy backpack, Charlie swore she could feel the furniture in her room rumble as she crept out the door. But furniture couldn’t move on it’s own…could it?

P E R S O N A L I T Y

Playing with the boys meant Charlie grew to be willful, but also strong-minded. Once her mind is set, there’s no changing it. Though Mrs. Hall can be proud of some thing: her daughter received her short fuse. Anything and everything can set Charlie off into a tantrum consisting of vulgar language and thrown objects. From a freezing laptop to a driver cutting her off, her infamous temper has family and friends stifling laughter or rushing to leave the room. Despite her fits, Charlie is well loved amongst her family. Her loyalty is unwavering and everyone can depend on her for a shoulder to cry on as well as a good listener. Charlie’s friendly nature makes her someone who is easy to get along with. She approaches life with humor, sometimes with too much humor as her mother has chastised her on numerous occasions for laughing during a couple of funerals. Her clever tongue gets her into people’s hearts as well as into trouble, her comments proving that some people just can’t take a joke.

P O W E R S

to be determined

MAIN || PLOT || CHARACTERS || RULES || APPLY

[charlie-hall]

Lead Me Home || Kimi & Charlie

[kimi--sato-deactivated20160504]

Charlie’s attention at least give Kimi a glimmer of hope that’ll she’ll manage to get up. Manage to knock down a few more with some help. Even though they’ve found themselves in too deep. The horde seemingly everywhere. They’re surrounded.

Pushing herself up on one hand she wills the runes to light up as gnashing jaws and clutching hands reach for her. She burns through one. Grip tight on the zombie as blue flames engulf it’s rotten flesh. Pushing herself away from it’s straining neck and snapping jaw as she makes slow but thorough work of that zombie. Turning the bones and flesh to ash, burning white hot and blue through the neck, jaw, then the skull.

Ash drops and covers her arm whilst she’s still struggling to stand up, still feeling the sting on her wounded palms from her earlier fall. The fear weighing down on her but with Charlie sprinting towards her what looks like diamonds (beautiful shimmering lights which are alien amongst all the rot and decay) Kimi keeps herself up. Pushes herself to light her runes once more. Keep her flames alive and make the undead around her stay well and truly dead.

Even with this new found determination there’s no such things as miracles through sheer force of will. When the odds are against you that’s well and truly it. Even if Charlie drops any on her way (as she’s bound to do) one always take it’s place. The dead have no problem with clambering over their fallen. Kimi can drop one on her right to only have one of her left take the opportunity to grab her.

And that’s exactly what happens.

Surrounded she fires into the crowd. A blue ball of flames clearing a line of the dead to her left only to have those on her right snatch u the opportunity for a meal. The cry of pain leaves Kimi’s lips before her mind can even comprehend what just happened. Before it can understand what the sharp pinch in her shoulder means. The magic flairs up. Runes along her back igniting and burning the teeth still embedded in her shoulder. Destroying the head entirely she has the dead weight of a zombie landing on her. Making Kimi stumble. She stares wide eyed at Charlie, knowing she’s lost and Kimi wishes she never called the red head over. She won’t be the reason someone else will fall.

"RUN!" she shouts, voice choked with fear and ash and most of all regret.

[charlie-hall]

The muscles in Charlie's legs scream out with each push forward, propelling herself to the fallen friend. She doesn't know Kimi all that well, they had never really sat down and chatted. But she's a kind person, some odd sense of sweetness that most people lacked these days. She's a small beacon of hope that the redhead refuses to let burn out.

The magic rumbles beneath the blue runes lining her skin, Mike's voice beginning to command her in her head, calling to mind ideas on how to get Kimi out of there. Her left hand jolts out after she transfers both axes to her right hand, and fissure in the earth builds, rushing towards a few shamblers making their way over to Kimi. Jagged spikes shoot from the ground, the earth breaking through the road and piercing through the walkers. Two are dead upon impact and one is impaled, gargling through blood as it continues to reach for the redhead who sprints past him.

Blue fire blinds her for a moment, a spark shooting through a herd closing in on her. Kimi continues to fight, a hidden strength lying in the unassuming smile of that small woman. But the next sound is too familiar to ignore. Charlie knows that sound. The cries that tear through Kimi's throat, the sound of flesh ripping and the hungry jaws of walkers. It's too late. Charlie hadn't been fast enough or clever enough. She should've risked accidentally breaking one of Kimi's bones and just shot off as many spikes in the ground as she could. But instead, she had been cowardly and a woman had paid dearly for it.

"KIMI!" Charlie cries out, voice hoarse as the scream tears through her throat and she'd be feeling that for a few days, a constant physical reminder that she'd been a disappoint. That a woman will now die because of her. She doesn't stop, even when Kimi demands she run for it and escape the horde. She stops beside the woman, grunting cruelly as she swings the axes with both hands, a walker's jaw splintering upon impact and she fights to get Kimi out of there.

Another walker steps up to replace the other, teeth gnashing at Charlie and instinct has her raising her arm up to deflect, a stupid mood from someone who has blue marks lining their skin. The diamond hardens, a barrier against teeth but it cracks under the weight of the bite, threatening to give soon. The shards dig into her flesh and she can feel warm blood coating her arm. She cries out in anguish, white heat bolting up the veins under her skin. She swings the axes with her left hand, the blades slashing into the skull of the monster until it's teeth give and it crumbles beside her.

"C'mon," she demands that Kimi move, hissing through her teeth as she holds the axes in the hand of the injured arm, holding it close to her stomach as she bends to try and pull Kimi up. "I'm not gonna leave you here."

[charlie-hall]

Lead Me Home || Kimi & Charlie

[kimi--sato-deactivated20160504]

Kimi’s head snaps to the side as the redhead stops firing, immediately thoughts being that the woman’s been stopped. Distracted by Charlie’s apparent insanity as she’s running head first into the horde Kimi calls out.

"What are you doing!?" she doesn’t know the woman well but it seems ridiculous for anyone to go charging forwards so viciously into a horde when they could easily be shooting. If there weren’t so many Kimi would be doing the same right now. Keeping her distance as she fires at the horde using the runes on her arms. Instead she’s in the middle of it and the gnashing jaws and groans are almost too much.

Kimi’s momentary distraction is interrupted stink of rotting flesh hits her nostrils with a sudden ferocity. Looking forward again her eyes widen as a small group of the zombies are headed straight for Kimi. A startled shout and her arms up — teeth ready to bite down on blue tinted flesh so easily destroyed — but at the last minute more flames erupt from her hand. Disintegrating the zombie in front of her but that doesn’t stop her from tumbling backwards or the others from closing in. Charlie and the rest of the horde to her back as Kimi hits the tarmac.

There’s only a moments of relief at the close call because in reality she’s only worse off. Scratched palms dig into the road as she tries to push herself up, the pressure making her eyes sting. The horde’s already moving quickly. Covering them like a liquid. Finding their way through any gaps and over any obstacles. One of those obstacles just happens to be Kimi. Too concerned with getting up from the floor to use her magic she’s left only stumbling backwards as they move in closer.

"Charlie!" she calls out, voice wavering as she watches the dead approach not entirely sure why she’s calling. Kimi should be able to fend them off herself but fear’s starting to stop her. She’s never faced this many at once. The last time she saw so many she had Ezra and he simply scooped her into her arms and they ran far away.

She’d almost forgotten about them — them being the very real threat zombies still were. What was now your ‘plain old zombies’ seemed to be no trouble when they’d been stuck in demonic fog and terrifying screams for months on end. Zombies only seemed like big problem when you’ve scuffed your palms and fear suddenly paralyzes you as you can’t even push yourself off the ground.

[charlie-hall]

The thick, wet snap of bone breaking as Charlie dislodges the axes from the shambler's skull, dark blood following in a trail from the tips and splatters along the road. Another steps up to her side, but she's quick to thrust one axe through its eye socket accompanied by a heavy, angered grunt from the force. She's vengeful and in pain. Her body still aches and there's scars along her memory that will never go away. Eli and Samson are gone. Her family is gone. Mankind is just as cruel as the demons controlling them and the walkers stumbling for her.

A cry sounds out in the form of her name, causing Charlie's head to turn in its direction. The startling sound causes her to fumble the axe, the shambler falling with her weapon still protruding from the wound gushing blood at her feet. "Kimi," she whispers when she spots the woman scrambling upon the tarmac.

"Kimi!" Charlie cries out, fear clogging her veins followed by the slight guilt that the woman may have followed her out here. Without a second thought, the redhead wrenches the axe from the dead shambler's skull, darting in Kimi's direction as fast as her legs would carry her. Diamond sparkles along her skin, adrenaline pushing the limits of her magic much farther than they had ever been.

[charlie-hall]

Lead Me Home || Kimi & Charlie

[kimi--sato-deactivated20160504]

Staring out the window, Kimi’s been sat in silence for the most of the car journey. Wondering off into her own little world she starts as the car halts to a stop.

Before she knows it everyone’s piling out of the car. Kimi calls out meekly asking what’s going on but everyone’s obviously much more with it than she was. There’s a few seconds where Kimi’s alone in the middle seat, watching everyone pull out their gun’s from the relatively safety of the car.

She makes a small squeak as she eventually jumps out unprepared for exactly what’s out there but sure she couldn’t stand sitting in there alone. Being a dead weight as everyone helps. Dumping her bag and the thin jumper she’d been wearing in the car she hops out. Blue runes on lighting up. Small blue flames licking at her skin as she prepares for a fight and she turns wide eyed at the huge horde that’s closed in on them.

She’s ready to fight — but not alone. No, she watches everyone go their own wa. Running head first into the danger she’s just go to pick who to follow. She could do this. Yeah, she totally could. Spotting Charlie seeming pretty confident with herself, Kimi follows in her general direction. With a steeling breath the flames around her arm flare up and she fires into the horde. Knocking down a few in a smoldering heap of scorched flesh and smoke. Although the gap she cleared fills up quickly. Zombie’s clambering over the fallen and - ”Oh my god NO.” She thinks to herself in a panic as a few walk through the flames no problem. Except now they’ve got feet on fire. Now she’s got to try and put those out and make sure she actually drops a few others zombies.

[charlie-hall]

There's a blur of movement beside Charlie, and sudden fire that fall her attention. She keeps her weapon up as her eyes glance at the woman beside her, Kimi. She doesn't know the other all that well, but she'd always struck the redhead as quiet and kind. But to see her out in the midst of battle, flames licking her skin and determination in her eyes is like watching a caterpillar transform into a butterfly. Almost amazing.

Another shot, and another walker falls. Charlie fires rounds carefully into the pack of shamblers, watching a few plummet until her gun clicks. There's extra ammo at her hip, but she simply holsters her gun, opting to draw out her axes instead. It might be a death wish. Maybe the prison had proven to be too much to handle in her mind. Too muss loss, too much suffering. Too much heartache.

Magic rumbles to life under her skin, a strong vibration that has small flecks of diamond collecting along the skin of her arms like armor as she rushes towards the herd. One shambler heads straight for her, dragging its broken leg behind it as it gnashed its ugly teeth in her direction. But it's motion ceased when both axes found a home in its skull, cranium emitting a thick, wet crack as the bone breaks.

[charlie-hall]

Lead Me Home || Kimi & Charlie

Charlie had popped open the car door as soon as the convoy came to a halt. Her reflexes had kicked in, causing her little time to question her actions, but everyone else inside Thomas's car, spaced towards the back of the moving caravan, had done the same. Her palms casts a dark shadow of her eyes as she shields her gaze from the sunlight, but there's no mistaking the noise, the small groan of a crowd.

They've been ambushed, and there's too many cars in the way on the road and too many walkers to simple ignore. Perhaps it's a death threat that spurs the action, the quick snatching of her handgun from her hip as she lifts it up towards the horde. Someone might've yelled at her not to, but she doesn't stop. "Move the cars outta the way," she instructs to anyone behind her, because someone would need to clear a better path for the group to navigate through to their next destination.

She fires off a round, the bullet lodging inside a shambler's cranium and letting him drop to the ground. Her footsteps are quick and deliberate, beginning to close distance between herself and hungry walkers, despite the blue marks on her arms that promise death if one bites.

[jack-isaacs]

Welcome. [Jack takes a piece for itself and pops it into his mouth, chewing it for a few moments before he nods in agreement.] Yeah, ‘specially since it’s a year old. [He chews quietly for a few moments. Part of him wants to let Charlie know he’s glad she’s back, glad she’s okay - or still alive, at least - but he hopes she knows that and he doubts she wants him to bring any of that up again, so finally he just says,] I wonder if gum can actually go bad. 

[charlie-hall]

{Charlie thinks she has an answer for that. Maybe. But mostly Jack's taking her mind off the nightmare, the prison, the cell, her guards, the dark shadows in her tent. He's helping to push all of that to the back of her mind and allowing her a simple conversation that isn't him just looking at her with sympathetic eyes and asking if she's really okay.} I think it goes stale. Did you ever find a pack of gum from like a year ago and the gum kinda crumbles in your hand cause it's all hard?

[mike-tso]

[Mike meant no harm by the simple action, but the second Charlie recoils he wants to smack himself in the head. She’s been through hell for the past month and to think that he could easily be this familiar with her or even just do something like putting a hand on her shoulder was just stupid on his part. He was careful in his approach, to make sure he could startle her or anything, but the second he was sitting beside her he forgot that. Mike instantly scoots back and pulls his hand back giving her the space that she needs.] No, no, no, I’m the one who should be apologizing. [He says quickly.] I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry Charlie. 

[charlie-hall]

No. No, it's okay. {Charlie reassures him quietly. Mike doesn't have anything to be sorry for. It had been an unconscious reaction, as if it's been ingrained as a part of her nature now, something her body is now conditioned to do. She shakes her head, eyes closing tightly to allow herself space to breath before she opens them again to gaze upon her lap.} It's fine.

[beth-magus-blog]

[Beth nods, smiling a bit more, if only to let Charlie know that she was being sincere.] Alright. Well, I was going to go get a sweatshirt anyone, it’s getting colder, isn’t it? [There was a bit more wind and the heat had died down with evening coming.] Why don’t I bring what I have and you can go through it? 

[charlie-hall]

Yeah. Yeah, sure. {Charlie expresses quietly, blinking her eyes a few times as if it's difficult to wrap her head around human kindness after the past month.} Thank you.

[jack-isaacs]

[Jack lets out a soft laugh of his own when she makes a joke, and he goes along with it easily, unconcerned with the subject.] Yeah, and they’re even uglier than the lizards. Smell worse, too. [He looks over to Charlie and smiles, falling quiet for a moment before he pulls a worn packet of gum he’d found at the mall from his pocket and offers it to her.] Want a piece?

[charlie-hall]

Wow. {Charlie's eyes widen a bit as she smiles at the pack of gum, a small luxury she hadn't indulged in in awhile. She nods after shrugging her shoulders and sneaks a small sliver out of the packet.} Thanks. {She's grateful for the small gesture, unwrapping the silver packet and shoving the stick in her mouth, chewing slowly.} Pretty good.

[jack-isaacs]

Yeah - Holes. [Jack nods, and he keeps a small smile on his face mostly for Charlie’s benefit.] I think that was the only book I had to read for school that ever actually got all the way through. [She makes a small joke, and Jack lets his grin widen. Even if her smile is barely noticeable, it’s something, and he’s glad to see it.] Yeah, maybe. I guess in that case I’d have to eat ‘em. Otherwise the creepy lizard things might get me. I always sort of wondered if those are actually real, or if they were just made up for the book. Maybe we’ll see some if we ever end up in the desert. Though actually - I guess I hope we don’t. [He comments after a moment’s pause.] 

[charlie-hall]

{A quiet breath of air leaves through Charlie's nose, something like a laugh. She doesn't think too hard on the lizards, almost certain they had just been made-up, though she thinks there are lizards and snakes out there that could kill them if were ever bit. But that reminds her of something else and there's a light smile on her face of something she shouldn't be joking about.} We do. We just call them shamblers.

[rose-benedict]

{Rose nods, taking a small breath before speaking.} If you want, you can stay with us. Noah’s been sleeping through the night, only waking up every few hours… {She trails off, not quite sure how the proposal would be received. She knows she doesn’t like sleeping alone, and Noah’s crying in the night is more of a relief now than anything, but Rose doesn’t presume to know if Charlie preferred solitude or not.}

[charlie-hall]

{Charlie's lips pull into a quick, gentle smile. On any other occasion, she'd argue politely with Rose, telling her she doesn't wish to impose upon her and the baby. But the thought of being alone right now crushes heavily at her chest every night until she thinks she might burst. And maybe being in a small space with another person won't feel too much like her cell. She nods.} If you don't mind the company.

[melrose-vincent]

[Felicia was unfazed by the outburst. She honestly expected it considering the amount of negative response she had in the past by being a realist. You feel the pain, you move on. That was it. The minute people got emotional over thing’s that can’t be changed was the minute people expose their weak spots. ] I know. It was terrible.[ Was all she said. not trying to prompt the red head into further outbursts. There was always trauma in the world now. ]

[charlie-hall]

No. {Charlie stated sternly, shaking her head back and forth as a cruel laugh bounced in her chest momentarily. This woman doesn't know what it was like in there. And while Charlie couldn't begin to fathom the things the other had been through, and probably couldn't understand the heartbreak and hurt she had to encounter, she doesn't try to right now. The experience in the prison had been too specific for her liking, and she doesn't think the other member of the group had been held captive by religious zealots and tortured for conversion and death. She pushes off of the bench, wanting to rid herself of this feeling of aggravation, mostly at herself for being so quick to scold the woman. But she doesn't truly regret it or take it back. Charlie know it was terrible in her cell. And this woman doesn't. She stomps off past her, unwilling to continue more.} No, you don't know.

[beth-magus-blog]

Oh, alright. [She smiles softly, understanding that she might not be hungry. At her question, however, Beth speaks in the same quiet voice, as they were beside each other. She nods, thinking of the mall.] Yeah, I mean, there’s always a few hitches here and there but we’re alive. [She knows it’s probably not the most reassuring thing but it’s the truth. She shifts, slightly, though when she remembers that Charlie probably doesn’t have much right now, by way of clothes if her things were taken at the prison.] I, uh, I mean, if you want I don’t know what you’ve been given but…the mall we were at had a lot of shit, clothes and stuff. I grabbed some extra stuff? I mean, if you want. [She has enough for herself and can part with a few shirts or so.]

[charlie-hall]

{Charlie watches Beth carefully, little emotion written upon her face except for exhaustion hiding in the heavy bags under her eyes. But she's touched on the inside by the woman's kindness. It's not that everyone hadn't been nice since finding them in the prison. Many people in the group had been quick to ask if she needed anything or help her with something. But there's some simple gentleness in offering clothing. Benjamin had managed to obtain some of their belongings, weapons, her backpack, which, luckily still had the picture of her family and a few clothes. But other things had been taken and probably distributed amongst those freaks. She licks her lips once before smiling softly at Beth, nodding her head slowly.} Thank you. That'd be nice.

[jack-isaacs]

Yeah, maybe. Hopefully those won’t ever be the last two foods we’re stuck with though. [Jack agrees with a shrug. Both before and after the world ended there were times he’d dealt with extreme hunger, and there’s a small part of him that still doubts brussels sprouts would be worth it. But the story is one of few happy ones he has, so he’s quiet for a few moments before he thinks of something else.] I wonder if there are any canoes or kayaks or something around. It’s a camp, right? And there’s a lake. And I doubt anyone would have taken one with them. That’s be sort of weird, to be lugging a canoe around. [Jack has no idea where he’s going, but he’s mostly just talking to fill the silence, to give Charlie something to listen to, so he continues to ramble on without giving his words much thought.] Did you ever read that book about the kids who dug holes in that desert? I think there was something about one of them surviving because he was living under a boat or something. 

[charlie-hall]

{Charlie shrugs her shoulders carelessly. She hadn't thought of there being a canoe or some other boat like contraption on the premises, but she hadn't thought much of the camp at all.} Could be. Never went to camp so I don't know where they'd store it. Maybe in like a shed or something.

{Jack's a bit scatterbrained in his stories and questions but it's surprisingly helpful to her, refusing to allow her mind to settle upon one thought, about one place. About the prison.} Yeah. Holes. Read it in like seventh grade, shit. {She gives another shrugs, trying a smile for Jack's sake, even if it's small.} That boat had some food stored away. Maybe we'll find some brussels sprouts for you.

[mike-tso]

[When Charlie looks up, Mike takes a few slow steps forward, putting one foot in front of the other until he finally finds himself sitting by Charlie’s side. He’s hesitant around approaching the others or even thinking about it, but he figures that he can sit next to Charlie without asking. And even if it wasn’t okay with her, all she needed to do was say so and he’d distance him because the last thing he wants to make her feel uncomfortable after the hell she probably went through. It saddens him to see her like this, hell, it just makes him sad to see how strung out everyone from the prison looked, but sitting to Charlie this close it makes his heart feel even heavier because there was always bright aura around her and now it seems to have dimmed. Mike smiles softly at her and shakes his head.] I’m good. But I think I’m the one that should be asking you that. You okay? [Mike says, reaching over and gingerly placing a hand on her shoulder. The answer is obvious but it doesn’t stop him from asking because he can’t help but worry. ] 

[charlie-hall]

{Mike sits beside Charlie and she doesn't question it, or even mind. He's just a friendly presence beside her, reminding her of a simple happiness, of hope that they could survive in this new world as long as they pushed on and kept fighting. But that prison cell had robbed her of that light, that small, flickering candle that she had refused to let be blown out. But if it isn't out completely yet, it's a dying flame. Hope is just a dying flame and maybe Jessica had been right, that they're just putting off the inevitable.

When his hand falls upon her shoulder, Charlie can't help her initial reaction, that quick inhalation of air as she shrinks away from his touch. She hadn't been watching him carefully to see the movement and it had caught her off guard. She instantly tries to right herself, blinking furiously at the bits of grass she can make out below her in the darkness.} Sorry, sorry.