The South Wing

jessecartwright:

He felt a small wave of proud that she was warming up to him, and he had to bite back the grin when he saw the faint blush on her cheeks. He was glad he had someone who was comfortable talking with him, normally when they first meet him they give him space not used with someone being so open when they first meet someone. He looked around the empty classroom, the heavy benches evenly spread out, again no luck. He thought for a moment “should be, it is a school after all, we’ll just have to find the gym,” he wrinkled his nose at the word gym. It doesn’t matter that’s he lived here for nine years, that word didn’t sound right to him for being the room where students did sport. To him a gym was where you had to pay and as far he was aware no one would pay to do sports in a school.

Felicity noticed the creased brow and raised an eyebrow. “Not a fan?” She asked, using that to get her mind off the almost numbing need to find water and soap. It was a wonder she had survived this long, but then again, the infected had pressed a little harder on her mind until now. “But then, you said you did track because your school made you so I guess I can understand not liking gym.” She didn’t realize it was a culture thing at all. Leaving the classroom – her breathing slightly heavier with effort to keep the numbers inside her head – she started to look for a map of the campus, hoping that what they needed was near by. Not that she had a change of clothes, but she was sure they could find one there. All sorts where bound to be left in the lockers and there were no laws now, she reminded herself.

(Source: felicityharper)

The South Wing

jessecartwright:

He smiled softly, when he used to put himself down his friends used to laugh and agree, so someone trying to reassure him made a nice change. It made an even nicer change when someone seemed to take an interest in his art, before he either got a ‘that’s nice honey’ or picked on for doing something like that. He gave out a small laugh “we’ll have to see.”

She glanced at him, surprised by the sudden confidence she felt around him. “No, I’m afraid I have to insist that you draw me something Jesse.” She said taking a few longer steps so as to hide the slight blush on her cheeks. “I won’t take no for an answer.” Maybe it was because he was so open and friendly she couldn’t help but talk confidently with him. Whatever it was, she was enjoying it. She paused at the next set of doors and pushed round them, sighing when it led just to more classrooms. Her fingers ran through her hair as she tired to think. Eight stroke of the red locks was enough to make her cringe. She pulled her hand away an bit her lip to hide the shudder. She didn’t want to freak out in front of Jesse, but she really needed a shower or else she was going to break. How had she not realized how dirty she had gotten? “Do you recon they’ll be showers around here?”

(Source: felicityharper)

The South Wing

jessecartwright:

“The Hungry Caterpillar was one of my favourite books as a kid, that and The Tiger Who Came To Tea even if it was gender typical.” He smiled at her enthusiasm, she was unusual, the friends he had refused to watch anything that wasn’t in colour let alone didn’t have people talking in them. “That’s different. You’re really not you know, it’s interesting. I love art, painting, drawing, sculpting, anything in which I can be creative. Singing is another one even though I’m shocking, honestly I sound like a cat being murdered. I used to run track as well, long distance running, but I don’t really count that as a hobbie it was something my school made me do.”

“I’m sure you’re not that bad.” She said softly, smiling comfortingly at him. She hated to see other put themselves down, even if she did the same on a regular basis. “I’d love to see some of your work and to prove you wrong about your voice.” She commented, walking now with a bit of life to her steps. The boy was nice and he seemed at least to humor her attempts at friendship if not genuinely find interest in her. She still was a little unsure as to if the boy really didn’t mind her ramblings or if he was just like the others, putting up with her only hiding his disinterest better. Still she was happy just to be humored.

(Source: felicityharper)

The South Wing

jessecartwright:

He nodded and adjusted his shirt, it was beginning to get uncomfortable to be in. After the amount of running they’ve done the sweat as just piled up in to, he was glad he had a change in clothes. He started walking not really thinking about where they were going. “So since we’re going to be together for a while, we might as well get to know each other. So Felicity what are your hobbies?” He could tell she was the quiet type, luckily for them he could do enough talking for the both of them.

Her mouth went dry as she tried to think. Hobbies. What did she do that could be called hobbies? She had always liked reading and films, but they weren’t exactly sociable things and Felicity figured the boy wouldn’t be interested. He seemed like the type to have lots of friends and be out going to her. But there was nothing else she could find to say. “I like reading. I’ve read everything from Hamlet to The Hungry Caterpillar. I’d pick up a book and wouldn’t put it down until I’d read it cover to cover. And Films. I like films too. Before…” She paused, unable to say the words for a moment. “Before the infection, I used to go to this little theater in my hometown, every Sunday. It was a tiny place, still stood from the early days. It played the silent, black and white shorts and the early talkies. The great train robbery is my favorite. It was so advanced for it’s time. It even had color! I loved it.” She was smiling softly, her cheeks tinted with pink as she released she had got carried away. “Sorry… must seem boring to you. What about you… what are your hobbies?”

(Source: felicityharper)

The South Wing

jessecartwright:

He shrugged looking up “it doesn’t matter.” He listened to what she was saying, she seemed so caring to stay with someone who has got infected. He’s never seen a family of his be infected, he’s sure they had but he didn’t know about it. “Noble thing to do, staying with someone who has infected. I don’t know whether I could do it or not.”

He glanced up and saw the canteen, he tried to suppress a shudder. School dinners, well what they called dinners made school for him even worse. He just had to remind himself that those dinner ladies won’t be there, he raised his eyebrows  at the food they would to get through the week. He shouldn’t be he knows as now that’s what he should be thinking of, he’s just never been a good planner or thinking in the long run.

“Oh erm…” She looked at what they had found and chewed her lip. Obviously it would be safer to have everything stored in one accessible place, but it was a lot to carry with only two of them. “Perhaps we should leave it here for now, keep looking around and then see if we can get the others to help move it all?” She made a mental note of the water and wondered if there were working showers on the campus. Perhaps near the sports hall? She smiled shyly at him and headed back to the door. She wanted to talk to him, but what could she say? Everything seemed too trivial and stupid in the situation they were in. Was it okay just to act as normal? Then again, Felicity wasn’t even sure was normal was. She had never had friends before. She wasn’t exactly the sociable type – at least not once people found out about the counting.

(Source: felicityharper)

The South Wing

jessecartwright:

He shrugged looking up “it doesn’t matter.” He listened to what she was saying, she seemed so caring to stay with someone who has got infected. He’s never seen a family of his be infected, he’s sure they had but he didn’t know about it. “Noble thing to do, staying with someone who has infected. I don’t know whether I could do it or not.”

He glanced up and saw the canteen, he tried to suppress a shudder. School dinners, well what they called dinners made school for him even worse. He just had to remind himself that those dinner ladies won’t be there, he raised his eyebrows  at the food they would to get through the week. He shouldn’t be he knows as now that’s what he should be thinking of, he’s just never been a good planner or thinking in the long run.

She was a bit lighter in her mood, jogging towards the canteen gave her a destination and purpose again, letting her take her mind off other things. Silently she directed Jesse to the other side of the door, pushing in and inspecting the large hall slowly, pressing their way through to the storerooms of the various food places. Once it was clear there was nothing around, Felicity tucked the gun back into the back of her trousers and started to check though the cupboards.  

“I hope Gyles and Luce are okay…” The red-head mumbled, only half-aware of what she was saying. Her attention was more focused on the rice she had just found piled up next to tins and tins of pea’s. “Jack pot!” She said with a grin, looking up to see where Jesse had got to. “Any luck?”

(Source: felicityharper)

The South Wing

jessecartwright:

He nods eyeing her necklace she was grabbing. Her hair was a beautiful colour, which complimented her pale skin. She was pretty but he noticed that when he first saw her. “I know how you survived. You’re clever, pausing around each corner to look.” he said giving her light nudge with his elbow. “Rather boring story really, my Dad got a promotion from the drug firm he was working for and we came out here, didn’t see much of him afterwards. Constantly flying over the world to this different countries. Last I heard he was in Italy.” He shrugged, talking about his dad made him realise how little he actually knows of the man.

“N-not really. I only started doing it after meeting up with Gyles and Luce. They’re a lot better at this then I am.” She blushed, swaying with his elbow nudge and turning to walk down the corridor. As Jesse spoke, Felicity could feel an awkward, sad tension grow and twisted the gold number between her fingers. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She muttered, glancing at the teen with slight guilt having asked him about it. “My mother died when I was 10. Cancer. I never knew my father. My Grandmother… She was infected. I stayed with her until she started calling the hoards.” Her voice was quite, as if she was unsure if Jesse was interested and didn’t want to annoy him with her talk.

Her eyes glanced around the hallway, spotting a sign pointing to a canteen. “Hey, we should head there. With there now being 9 of us, we need exactly 20 can of soup or 34 other food stuffs to get us though the week.” She said, pushing open the doors of the side corridor slowly, looking around. “I hoping they might have plenty more then that.”

(Source: felicityharper)

The South Wing

jessecartwright:

“Really? That’s when I loved it most. None of those people who you didn’t like, trying to push you to your ends. When no one is there you can do what you like.” He replied. He walked by her side looking around the corridors, seemed like any other normal school. He nodded “yeah I am, Nottingham actually. I moved here when I was eight.” He looked her over once more “have you always lived in America?”

She couldn’t bring herself to explain that silence made the numbers louder. She liked solitude at school plenty – if anything as a kid she had preferred it, much like Jesse – but there had to be noise, something for her to drown out the numbers or else they ruled her. Her fingers grabbed the eight around her neck and squeezed it. “Yeah,” She said quietly. “Grew up in the next town over. Came here when my Grandmother couldn’t fight off the infection any longer. I honestly don’t know how I survived.” She glanced at him, allowing herself to properly take him in. He must have been younger then her, shorter then her by a few inches in her boots, with eyes she could possibly drown in. He was cute… sweet. She smiled. “How’d you get out here?” She asked, wondering how he’d met the infected. She paused at a corner and looked round it the same way she had seen Gyles do at least twenty times on the way over. She felt stupid, her cheeks blushing when the hall was empty, just like every other.

(Source: felicityharper)

The South Wing

jessecartwright:

He has breathing heavily when they arrived, he was a good long distance running but that was pushing it for him. He looked around from where they were, definitely in a college. Great… He looked around so the amount of people that would now be in their group, it made him feel more secure this number of people. Safety in numbers and all that. When it came to inspecting their bodies to prove they were safe, he gingerly showed them never being to comfortable with his body. He would prefer it if he had more muscle on his body, but in times like this that was doubtful to happen. When the man was splitting them up into their groups, he looked over to the one he would be with. She seemed nice, hopefully when talking to her she would be. He gave a small wave to Gwyn and Audery, thankful that Gwyn managed to fit in teaching him how to use a gun. He was going to miss not being around them, but meeting new people was always exciting for him.

He walked over to her smiled “Hello Felicity, I’m Jesse. Yeah I think so, exploring an empty school exciting isn’t it?”

Well, he seemed nice enough. She tucked the small gun into the back of her trousers and started to head back for the doors, counting the steps in her head. “I, er, guess.” She replied, blinking a little. “I actually think it’s a little eerie. I never liked being in school after everyone had gone home.” She admitted, taking one last look back to Gyles, nodding and opening the door quickly, leading Jesse out into the hall. It was silent, empty and dark. Felicity couldn’t help but shudder and start to count their steps out loud. “So, you’re from England?” She asked suddenly, trying to get her mind off the world that surrounded them. The girl was surprising herself by being the one to talk – she had been doing that a lot lately – but she put it down to wanting to fill the silence with something other then her numbers.

(Source: felicityharper)

The South Wing

The walk had been long and tiring and dangerous. By the time they reached the college, Felicity was warn out and wanted nothing more then to sleep. Still she managed to stay awake and re-gain some energy as Gyles ran his ‘check’ on the other survivors he had found. She watched him from where she leaned on the wall, chewing the inside of her lip while counting and grouping each word that was spoken. He had saved her 3 times already, and given her basic knowledge of gun use. Plus he was attractive. She found it hard to keep her eyes away from him. Still, they had to sort things, arrange the hall space and scope out the college. She have vaguely heard someone say there had meant to be help here – food, supplies, safety. If there ever had been, it was long gone. Finally Gyles paired them off, a buddy system to scot out the grounds and find out what was there. The red-head had to admit her disappointment at not being paired with the male himself, but shook it from her mind. She chewed her lip as her partner approached.

“Hi, I’m Felicity.” She muttered, looking down at her shoes in awkwardness. She didn’t do well with meeting new people and had only coped with Gyles and Luce because they had been thrown into companionship. But then, wasn’t that the same case here. “Gyles said the south wing right? Shall we head out….” She waited for him to fill in his name, her hands twisting round each other nervously.