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dream on

"Wh..." He had a perfect example of Sleepover Voice, scratchy and exhausted from a lack of sleep. Relaxing out of his balled up position, Dawson scooted back up against the pillow and yawned. "Sheeyit...Uh...Wha' was...I-Iunno, four I guess."

Bad moon rising

She nodded, giving half a smile. "Yeah, I know what you mean. They don't bother me none when I'm playing left for dead, but this..." The smile slipped away again. It wasn't the same, and saying so seemed obvious and understating. So she gave a little shake of her head, hair sliding over her shoulders.

"I dunno how much I really helped," she confessed softly, self-deprecating, picking at the hem of her t-shirt. "We saved a girl though. Found her running through one of the stores, and Lukas, Cain, and I got her to the relief base in the center of the mall. Not sure what happened after, but I hope she made it." It was the one thing about the mission she thought she could be proud of.

"It wasn't just zombies though. I mean that's how it started, then where were bigger things that showed up. Awful things." Just thinking about it now made her cringe.

nerd alert

"Weird?" Dawson made a face at her. A cupcake-filling-cheeks-hamster-approved sort of frown. "I oughta compliment ya 'til yer used to it, then," he decided happily before finishing the chewing and swallowing. Mmmmm.

"Oh, that? Funny story: I fell through a second floor story floor." And Dawson did bark a laugh because it sounded ridiculous when put like that. "Old plantation home n' all. But hey, save a lil' girl, break a leg, I'd call it a nice trade off."

Bad moon rising

"Lovecraftian sorts of awful things," she offered, not looking up just yet. She was pulling at a loose thread, twisting it around her fingertip. "One looked like giant hands had taken a bunch of the infected and smashed them all together. The other was enormous, and when it screamed it sounded like countless lost souls."

nerd alert

"Ohhh, I see." Dawson winked. "Like Fight Club, 'cept it's Cool Club. Gotcha." He proceeded to lick his fingers and around his mouth for stray bits of icing, humming happily.

After pig-snorting at the donkey-laugh, he explained, "Naw, nothin' like that. Well, uh, sorta like that. We was trackin' what spooked this ol' random middle a'nowhere village, n' it led us to this here plantation home. We had ta chase this like necrowhatsit thing n' their pal up some stairs, n' then the fight got kinda heated. They been feedin' off this lil' girl's fears fer," he shrugged, shook his head, "God knows how long, so I dove in ta try n' get her out, n' the floor just kinda collapsed under us. Y'know how real old places can get."

He gently slapped his leg cast. "Prob'ly the universe tellin' me I really gotta lose weight," Dawson added with a laugh.

Bad moon rising

The thread finally gave, snapping off, and Gretchen finally looked up. "No, that's J. R. R. Tolkien," she offered mildly, waiting, then lifted her shoulders in a small shrug. It might have sounded like a rock band, but Gretch wasn't quite ready to downplay it yet.

"Um..." She had to thank about his question, brows dipping as she thought back to all the faces she'd seen in the mall. "Horace, I think. I dunno about anyone named Maebe." There was a chance she'd seen her, but Gretchen still didn't know everyone on the island yet.

Bad moon rising

"Probably," she agreed, lips giving a small twitch. The change of topic came as a relief, as she knew it would. He'd told him because it had been a big deal, but Gretchen was trying her best to forget about what she'd seen there.

Her head tilted at the question, eyes rolling upward in concentration. "Nothin' else like that, nothin' big. Some new faces are up 'n about though." And now she'd smile. "Met a few, some are real nice."