Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I know the feeling," Isiah offered back, quietly. "You seem a little young to have to put up with all that s**t, though. I made my bed. Sounds like you woke up in yours." He pulled his now bone dry undershirt from his back pocket, wiping his face off with a wince. It was crispy with sweat.

Isiah glanced behind him, slowing his pace a little to let him catch up, wincing as he glanced upward. "******** sun," he mused, freckles popping up on his face and shoulders. He was irish through and through and the sun was not kind to his ilk. He shook his head like a wet dog, short hair soaked. This didn't bode well for water consumption, but it wasn't like he had a choice. He wasn't sure how safe it was walking at night. Not because he thought there'd be robbers or thieves, or even animals or what have you- but a broken ankle or sprain wouldn't help the situation much.

Isiah sniggered- he was heavy enough that he only shifted an inch or two with the shove, shoving back on Tsurai's shoulder with what he considered to be an equal amount of force. "Sorry, forgot you were down there." He looked at himself for a long moment, groaning. "Sunburned won't be the half of it," he grunted. "I'm gonna be a lobster in about an hour."

Isiah stumbled sideways a few inches, curling his brow upward. He couldn't really figure what the relatively smaller male was up to. He gave a smile, snickering. "I burn either way, might as well keep walking."

He watched him with a half smile for a moment, trying to figure out what the kid was thinking in vain before giving it up. He trudged along with growing fatigue, sweat dripping off his chin, glancing behind him as the boy asked his question.

He paused for a moment, shaking sweat off of him with much less fervor than his previous attempt, combing down his face with his forefinger to wipe off the remaining liquid. "Then he follows us. We'll deal with it when it comes." Truth be told, despite the previous display of aggression in the vault, he wasn't too worried about the frenchie. He ate 'model' boys for breakfast.

Isiah wasn't asleep yet- but he certainlly looked like it. He had promptly collapsed to the ground once they'd decided to stop, his body temperature just now beginning to reach a normal level. He was burnt all over, in obvious pain, though he went to great lengths to hide it. His head was perched on a softer part of the duffel, his eyes half open, waiting for his pulsing headache and nausea to subside.

He was so out of it, in fact, that he was oblivious to the light footsteps that approached them, in the darkness. That was Joshua's intent, of course. He hadn't found any fresh survivors in what felt like weeks, which felt like years. It was hard enough to get by these days, much less when there was no one to poach off of. He squinted in the dark, trying to get a better look of who was out in the distance. Two men. Good start. He brushed chin length blonde hair out of his emerald eyes, tucking it behind his ears- it was dirty enough to stay, for the time being- lifting his tee shirt to wipe most of the dirt off of his face with the inside of it, letting it drop. He was dressed in what would be considered fashionable before the bomb dropped, though it was tattered, dirtied, bloodied and worn- a form fitting deep v-neck tee with a pair of formerly black, now sun-worn grey skinny jeans. His shoes were torn and beaten vans that had seen better days, held together with duct tape. He was gaunt, but then again, these days, who wasn't?- with well defined bone structure and a boyish face.

He watched a while longer, trying to decide if this would be something to risk or something to wait out.

By the time Q had arrived Josh was wrist deep in the duffel bag about twenty feet away from the sleeping pair. How he'd managed to nab it right out from underneath fro Isiah's head was anyone's guess, but Isiah was more or less out cold and dead to the world after his sickness had finally passed. Josh dug through it quietly with a smile, squinting against the moonlight. Food, water. Even an old cell phone. Wasn't of any use to him but he knew people that would trade for it.

Isiah twitched in his sleep, rolling onto his back with a thump. It was enough to wake him up, sitting up slowly. Josh froze in place, hoping he'd be less than lucid and would lay back down if he was silent, eyes wide open with fear.

"Tsurai," Isiah grunted, looking over toward him. No duffel bag. No- he glanced behind him to see the teen bent over his things. "Mother ********!" He pushed to his feet, still a little woozy from sleep. Josh yelped, zipping up the bag, picking it up before turning to run- by then Isiah had tackled him linebacker style, arms wrapped around his middle to bring him down, the duffel landing with a thump and clank of cans. "Who the ******** are you and what the ******** do you think you're doing?!"

Josh didn't struggle, coughing as he had the air knocked out of him, curling up in a fetal position as much as Isiah's grip would allow. "I'm sorry! I was hungry and you had so much food- you're the first people I've seen in weeks who weren't eating each other!" He shivered, shutting his eyes tightly. He was a good actor when he felt like it.

Isiah grunted, taking Josh by the shoulders, lifting him slightly just to slam him back down into hard earth to make his point. "You're lucky, ********," he hissed, standing up and brushing himself off. He didn't greet Q but glanced over to him just to acknowledge he was there. "Where the ******** are you from?"

Josh's breath left him in a woosh when Isiah slammed him down again, coughing once or twice before turning onto his side, taking long, shaking breaths. "Nowhere," he hissed. Isiah resisted the urge to rear back his leg and kick the boy. <******** that. You're from somewhere," Isiah growled. "Where'd you come from."

"A ******** vault, Jesus!" Joshua sat up at long length, hugging his ribcage painfully, his pants riding low leaving a space of open skin on his back between the bottom hem of his shirt and his beltline. "Why do you care! You're just gonna let me starve, anyway." He turned his eyes downward, guiltily, furrowing his brow forward. He looked young- too young to be out wandering on his own, anyway. As angry as Isiah was, it wasn't in him to turn away the helpless. Hence, Tsurai, even with all of his issues.

Isiah would try to buck his instinct for now. He knew that he didn't have enough food to feed four- he hardly had enough to feed two. And certainly not for long.