Ashes to Ashes

Cassie

Cara had to have the most annoying shriek Cassie had ever heard. She thought she was starting to get a migraine from it.

"We can help you look for your stuff," she volunteered - anything to get her to shut up. "Right, Amp?" She stepped on his foot and gave him a pointed look.

"Are you crazy?" Amp hissed.

Cara Rose-Miller

"Thank you," she said quietly, calming down a little bit. "You have no idea how much that stuff means to me. And we could encounter anything out there. Would anyone else like to come?" Cara sighed as everyone else seemed a bit skeptic.

"Alright then," she said, gesturing towards Cassie. "We'll be back."

Cassie

"Do you have any idea where it could be?" Cassie asked as they headed out of the shelter. She was relieved to be outside again - the shelter was a little too cramped for her liking.

"Not really," Cara confessed. She reached down to pet Shadow, who had followed them out. The dog cringed away from her.

"She doesn't really like people," Cassie said, since Cara looked a little offended. "Anyways, I guess we'd better start - "

"Wait up!" Amp called from behind them. "You guys shouldn't be wandering around here alone."

Right. Like he really cared about their safety. He probably just didn't want to stay in the cramped shelter any longer than he had to. Still, Cassie was glad that he was coming.

Cara Rose-Miller

Cara sighed, looking back at Ambrose.

Oh, Great, she thought, This should go well. He was probably still holding a grudge against her for the way she'd snapped at him.

"Listen-" she said quietly. "I'm sorry..."

When he didn't respond, she sighed. "Please, if you're going to help us find it, then come on."

Cassie

"Yeah," Cassie said, glancing up at the sky nervously. It was streaked with pink and gold, and the sun was starting to sink below the horizon. "We'd better hurry or we're going to be wandering around in the dark."

They started off again. Cara took the lead, leading them in what Cassie suspected was a random direction. Shadow bounded ahead of them, sniffing around like crazy, while they looked behind trees and under bushes. No one said much. She could tell that Amp was still angry about Cara's remark, and Cara obviously wasn't going to apologize again.

"Hey, guys!" Cara suddenly called. She was staring at something at her feet. "What do you think this is?"

(OOC: Is there anything specific the item should be? Or is it up to me? I'm assuming it's not Cara's stuff...)

AMBROSE

"Girls," he muttered, following behind Cassie and Cara both.

He wasn't really a grudge holding person. In fact, Cara didn't seem that bad. Still, he didn't like the looks of her. She was pretty. Her fingers had new callouses. Meaning, she had hardly worked a day in her life until now. She was probably rich and popular.

Amp envied her for that. He wished Maddie could have had a life like that but they were both stuck on the streets, begging and stealing. She would have been one of the ones who gave him a disgusted look.

It wasn't fair to judge her but Amp didn't care. He had judged all his life. Just because the world had pretty much came to an end, it didn't change man-kind. Man would always be plagued by sin. That was that.

"Hey guys!" Cassie shouted. "What do you think it is?"

Amp walked over there, startled out of his thoughts.

**Take is away Magnus...I have no idea where you're going with it xD**

*Umm...should I wait to post? It might get a little confusing with everyone in different places, and it's not like anything new has happened that would be worth saying. *

*** I have no idea where I'm going with this either xD ***

Cassie

"It's a necklace," Amp said, rolling his eyes. "Big deal."

Cara picked it up and let it dangle from her fingers. The scratched gold locket sparkled in the last rays of the setting sun. An "M" was engraved on one side. It was pretty, in an old, dented kind of way.

"Does it open?" Cassie asked. They passed it around, all taking turns trying to pry it open, but it wouldn't budge.

"Oh well," Amp said, handing the necklace back to Cara. "Someone probably dropped it. Now are we going to find your stuff tonight, or should we just look in the morning?"

Cara tore her eyes away from the necklace long enough to glance at the darkening sky. "I want my book tonight," she said.

"We'd better hurry, then," Cassie said. They began to search again - but first Cara pocketed the necklace.

Cara

Although she kept telling herself that it was impossible, Cara was convinced that she'd seen the necklace before. But where? She just needed time to study it a bit more, and then maybe it would come to her. She slipped it her pants and hoped the others wouldn't see-they would never understand.

That was when they came to a low hill. "I remember climbing something like this to get to you guys."

"That's good," said Cassie. "Hopefully, if it's here, we'll see it soon."

They soon came across the sleeping bag but it was a total mess and not as Cara found it. cotton stuffing from her sleeping bag-coated in a thick, ivory liquid-caked the ground; all traces of food were missing from her knapsack. The only things left intact were her book and a dagger. She snatched them, holding back tears.

"Come on, let's go," she said weakly.

Cassie

They walked back in silence. Cassie could tell that Cara was upset about her ruined things, but she didn't know what to say to comfort her.

It was dark by the time they got back to the shelter. (Thanks to Amp, who had gotten them lost. Twice.) A worried looking Natalie was standing outside.

"I thought something might have happened to you," she said, obviously relieved to see them. "Did you find her stuff?"

"Kind of," Cassie said. They explained what had happened.

"So," Natalie said when they had finished, "do you think an animal destroyed it, or a human?"

"Definitely human," Amp said. He frowned. "I think... I think there's someone else out there."

Cassie shivered, a little afraid. The night suddenly seemed much darker. They quickly went into the safety of the shelter.

Alec

As Natalie walked back into the shelter, followed by Amp, Cassie, and a dangerous-looking Cara, Alec looked up from his place on the floor. He waved and called out to them.

"Find anything?"

"Yeah," said Amp. Alec listened in silence as they explained what had happened with Cara's things, and then about the old locket.

Alec held out his hand. "Can I see the locket for a second? I might be able to open it."

Cara seemed hesitant to hand it over for some reason. "It's fine," he said reassuringly. "I'll be careful."

She still seemed skeptical, but took it out of a pocket and tossed it to him gently. He caught it mid-air and studied its face. A slender "M" graced the front, twined with vines and flowers. Holding it in one hand, Alec slid one knife out of its sheathe at his side and brought it to the locket.

"Careful!" Cara exclaimed with a gasp.

Alec gave her a look that said plenty and went back to his work. Aligning the sharpened side of the blade parallel to the locket's seam, he was able to work the blade under the edge. With a gentle twist, the locket door swung open with a quiet click.

Not bothering to see what was inside, Alec walked over to Cara, handing her the jewelry with a smile that said, "I told you so."

"There you go," he said.

"Thank you, Alec," she replied gratefully.

Cassie

Everyone crowded around Cara. Cassie wasn't sure what she had been expecting to find inside the necklace - A picture, maybe? Or a note? - but she was disappointed. It was empty.

"That's kind of lame," Kyle said. Cassie had to agree with him.

"Well, now that that excitement's over, I'm going to bed," Natalie said, plopping down next to her sister.

Cassie laid down too, exhausted. Shadow curled up by her side. Alec and Amp were talking softly across the room, and the steady rise and fall of their voices lulled her to sleep. Everything had changed since that morning - for the better, she hoped.

Cara Rose-Miller

Cara stomped her foot, angry at the others. There didn't have to be anything inside the locket, did there? Because she remembered where it came from now, the locket had great significance.

Her boyfriend, Sam had given it to her when she was fourteen-the "m" had been for "Miller". She had worn it to the freshman homecoming dance, and when he was killed two years later, she kept it to preserve his memory. But it had been lost in the apocalypse.

"I miss him," she said quietly, tears rolling down her cheeks, growing angrier at the others with each passing second. They couldn't understand.

Kyle

Kyle watched as everyone started settling down for the night. He went over to his work space and checked his monitors. Nothing had changed, Kyle turned away and headed for his bedroll in the corner. He had just gotten under the blanket when he heard a ping from one of his monitors. He got up and ran over to it, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Uh, guys.... I think we may have a problem here."

"What? What is it?" He heard Natalie say sleepily.

"I'm not entirely sure but it looks like bugs of some type," Kyle turned back to look at everyone. "And it looks like they're headed here!"

*cue evil music!*