His brother had always been the one to keep track of things, insisting on logging events day in and day out, keeping track of dates and times to the best of his ability and scribbling them into notebooks. Jesse was like that too, to an extent; keeping a notebook to fill with his thoughts, to keep track of things that were important - but time had become meaningless to him at one point. At least, it had before Liam had disappeared. Once his brother was missing time mattered a little more - keeping track of where he’d looked and how long it had been since he’d last seen him, running through everything again and again in his mind…
Then keeping track of things had seemed more critically important. If not only for his sake and sanity but also for Liam’s - because when he ultimately did find his brother he knew the younger boy would want all the details. Absently his fingers flipped through the pages of the tattered notebook in his lap, scanning the scribbled approximate dates in the corner until he came across the last time he’d written about the younger boy. Nearly a year prior.
Now he wasn’t a fool - he knew the kid was only that, a kid, out there fighting for his life on his own. But he had a feeling that he was still out there surviving, a gut belief that one day he’d see him again. A belief that his entire family wasn’t taken from him in his freak apocalyptic storm, not yet anyway…
He chewed absently on a pen that had been very quickly running out of ink before flipping to a fresh page and scribbling in the corner until it colored in black. The cold definitely didn’t treat the writing utensil well, but it had survived thus far. Jesse was stationed in the corner of the main cabin, one leg splayed out before him and the other propped up so that the notebook could rest against his thigh as he began writing. His attention shifted up towards the door to catch sight of the person who entered in a brief whirl of snow and cold air before resuming his work.
“How is it out there today?”
Day in and day out on camp for Lily could be quite mind wrecking. She, who was used to the lack of routine, exciting places and different stories every now and then, had to stay grounded to one place and do the same thing over and over. Don’t get her wrong, she was glad to be alive, but she couldn’t even pretend that it wasn’t maddening.
Not that she was helping her case much. Laying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, Lily could almost tell the cracks on the wooden cabin by heart. She could have taken another shift of class, but she felt as if she was exhausting her useful knowledge. Could that happen? Could she become useless to the group? She shook her head. No, she was probably just having a anxiety crisis. Overly confident before, it was hard to stick to the same confidence when life as they once had was over.
She jumped off the bed ─ she had to do something better than keeping her mind with useless and dramatic thoughts. Lily put on her second coat, for the outside wind (not that it was much warmer inside), and decided that it was time for a walk. The wind howled against her ears as it passed through her and invaded the cabin. Lily closed the door behind her quickly not to bother the rest of the people who were there. Friends. Family. She still didn’t know what she felt about everyone in the camp, despite the time she had been living there. They probably also didn’t know what to make of each and every one either, but they were thrown on a situation that they needed each other. Maybe there were other camps, elsewhere, but that was the only civilization she knew for sure.
Her walk was cut short. It was hard to endure the weather for long and Lily made her way to the main cabin.
There was never a time that the main cabin was empty. As Lily entered, she soon saw someone sitting by the corner. Being an extroverted, she was always happy interacting with someone though it seemed that the big freeze had frozen them within themselves too, distancing people.
“Cold──” she said uninterested, but she grinned a little, “and very white. We could even call it winter wonderland if, you know, people weren’t dying or hypothermia and hunger.” Her dry humor and sarcasm had been the source of many disagreements in her life, but she thought that in the post apocalyptic scenario they were living, not knowing if they would survive for another day, she was allowed a morbid every once in a while. They had worst worries than sore feelings. “When things change, sure someone will run here screaming.”
“And here?” She asked politely, finding herself a seat.
