Ashes to Ashes

Alec

"It's killing her. Slowly, but it is."

Alec nodded. "I know what you mean. I feel the same way sometimes. Don't worry, though. She looks strong. And she has you."

Alec looked away as a flood of emotions threatened to overwhelm him. Tears welled in his eyes, and he squinted to clear them away. The charm on his wrist suddenly felt much heavier, and he rolled his hand in circles to shake the feeling off.

Natalie

Natalie frowned when she saw Alec's sudden change. "Are you okay?"

**Eep. >.< Sorry for the shortness.**

Alec

Alec's heart stopped as he turned to look at Natalie.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said with a shrug. "You just seem...upset."

"Oh, right. Yeah, it's, um, nothing. I'm fine. Don't worry."

With that, Alec slowed his pace until he was well behind the other two, making it clear he wanted to be left alone.

Cara Rose-Miller

The words stung Cara like a wasp. Many months ago, she too had been like Ambrose. Waiting for her family-searching, only to come to grips with the fact that they were dead. Only wishing to help, she had hurt Ambrose. I'm so messed up, she thought. She couldn't think of anything to say, so she went back and joined the others.

She sighed as she slowly saw them walking away. When Ambrose came closer to her, she quickened her pace.

"Mind if I join you guys?"

Her eyes were still flecked with tears.

*Elinor: A campfire?! We have one? And I think Kelsey is sleeping on Natalie's back...walking awaaay. *

Elinor, Knightley is only trying to help, you don't have to snap at him. Reading back through the SB is very helpful when you want to put your character back in, because Kelsey is sleeping right now. If you want her to talk with someone, have her go to Natalie. She's not occupied at the moment, only she, Kyle, and Alec are walking away from the rest of the group, going to Kyle's safehouse.

I'm not being scornful or anything, I'm only saying.

Natalie

Natalie sighed. "Luck probably had a lot to do with it." She was still watching Kelsey, making sure that she didn't do anything stupid. The girl tended to act without thinking. It had gotten them into trouble numerous times.

Kelsey handed the water to the girl and wandered over to the group, swaying slightly and yawning widely. "Natalie... 'M tired."

Natalie sighed and went over to the little girl. "Alright, alright." She picked her up and put her on her back. Kelsey laid her head on the back of Natalie's neck and fell asleep instantly.

Cassie

She hovered on the outskirts of the group, feeling awkward. Amp had wandered off after fighting with that Cara girl. She was starting to wish she had gone with him. Shadow, probably picking up on her mood, seemed fidgety and on edge too.

"It's okay, girl," Cassie whispered, reaching down to stroke the dog's ears.

Alright, I'm sorry for the way I acted, I've edited my post and now let's please put this all behind us.

Hey, it's fine. Everyone gets frustrated sometimes.

Natalie

Natalie turned. She shrugged. "You can if you like, I mean, we can hardly stop you, can we?" she smiled nervously. "Besides, according to Kyle there's plenty of room."

**Hm, what if Amp stayed but like, didn't really leave. He just doesn't want to rely on anyone else.

Ambrose

He wasn't going with those guys, as much as he wanted. He could make it on his own. He looked to the group walking away. Cassie wasn't exactly doing anything. Just looking at her dog.

Amp frowned and walked toward her. She seemed alright. Not stuck up and...rich, like so many others.

"You going with them?" He asked. Cassie shrugged.

"Well, I'm going to follow them but I ain't going to trust 'em," he said, narrowing his eyes. "I'm a theif. And, if you ask me, that Kyle guy has enough food to last him a while. I'm going to steal what I need and go look for my sister. Or, well, I don't plan on just sitting around one house just because he has power."

Cassie

"I don't trust them either," Cassie admitted. "But it might be helpful to stick with a group for now. And it's not like we have to stay with them. If things get weird, we can always take off."

"Coming?" Natalie called, looking a little impatient. The rest of the group looked eager to get moving.

"Come on," Amp said. Cassie whistled to Shadow and they followed the group, trailing a few feet behind everyone else.

Kyle

Kyle turned and started walking up the hill, everyone following him. They crested the hill and started down the other side, "There it is, over there just a bit." He was pointing to the little shelter that was sticking out of the ground, shabby, but still standing. He opened the door and went in, he stopped in the middle of the floor and turned.

"Is this it?" Natalie asked, glancing around. "This tiny little shack is supposed to house all of us?"

"No, it isn't. This is," Kyle knelt down and pulled up on a lever that was barely noticeable above the floor. The trap door lifted and the light from the room below lit up the shack. Kyle smiled at Natalie's face, "Yeah, I've had this place for about five years now."

Kyle held the door open for Natalie to start down the steps, then Alec followed her and then Cara, Cassie and Amp. Kyle went down last, closing the door after him. After he got down from the steps everybody stood around him in a circle. "Okay, well as you can see I do have a lot of equipment in here, but we can move some of it around and make everybody comfortable. I do have one rule though, please do not touch anything without talking to me first. There's some stuff down here that can kill us if we're not careful."

Cara Rose-Miller

She smiled, feeling warm inside. It wasn't a nice place in the slightest, but at least it was an upgrade from lying in a sleeping bag in the middle of the ashy barren with no one for company. It felt cozy to her, like she was at home.

Cara started to proceed to set her stuff down when she came to a horrible realization.

"Oh no!" She shrieked. "Oh no. I left my sleeping bag and my knapsack down when I heard voices. I thought I would be back for it soon, but now that we've gone far...I have no idea where it could be. At all. I had everything back there...my book, my clothing..." she trailed off. Now that she was in a safe shelter, she did not want to go back outside.

Natalie

Natalie nodded. "Sounds fair enough for me." She looked around. "Is there somewhere that I can put Kelsey, or am I just going to have to carry her for a while longer?" Her back was aching quite a bit now, and Kelsey seemed to have no intention of waking up anytime soon. And besides, she couldn't help move stuff with a sleeping sister on her back.