Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Yeah, sorry. I haven't had a lot of practice with that pose, so I wasn't really sure how to draw the other jacket. I normally don't draw anime/manga style, anyways. So this was a learning experience for me lol. Anyways, I'll do another one where Eleanor's wearing the jacket from the reference pic.))

Ellie came out shortly after Tyler, buttoning her jacket back up and dusting her skirt. With a short flip of her hair, she followed her love to the blanket and managed to bet him. Vampiric speed, after all. Crossing her legs, she plopped down next to Nicole. "I'm willing to listen. What're you in for?"

((Lol, just saying details here. Don't worry, I can't draw boobs at all.))

"Right then, making me sound like an inmate." Nicole nodded to herself and chuckled. She popped the lid off the can and took out a piece of fruit. "Well, I guess it was, what...A couple years ago? Yeah, it was. Anyway, my family had held out mostly through the zombie outbreaks, not many where I lived were bit by one, so we were safe. One day when I was coming home from my school off the bus, my brother had went to stay at our father's place, I noticed the garage door was open and my mother's car was in it. Not unusual. But the front door on the porch was also. I thought to myself that my mother'd be ticked off that our dog had gotten out, and she was probably trying to track him down. I went into my house and dropped my school stuff at the table, heading to the fridge for some food."
She paused briefly to eat some of the fruit, then continued. "I was in the middle of stuffing my face when I heard noises coming from the garage. Curious, I went to check. I must have guessed my mom was looking for something in the car, so I went to the window saying, "Hey mom, forget something?" all happy like. My mother, hearing me, turned towards me. But...she was different. She must have gotten bit." Nicole looked into the can of fruit, swishing it from side to side. "But she wasn't a zombie yet, she was just turning. What should I have done? Here I am, seeing my mother turn into something in front of my eyes, hearing her ask for help while groaning hungrily. So, I went back inside, took the shotgun, clicked the safety off, and slid the barrel into the small open space of the window, and pointed it at her head. When I pulled the trigger, the gun jammed into my shoulder, I'd never shot a gun before. The thing was that I'd missed because of that. Half of her face was..."
She frowned and downed the fruit juice at the bottom of the can. "...Was shot off. She was still alive. But I couldn't finish her off, kill my mother, right? I went back in the house, emptied a bag, tossed food into it, and took the shotgun and ammo with me. You know, it was hard to do that, not the journey to my father's house where I took the walking stick, glad to see they'd gone somewhere safe. It was hard to walk away from my mother, yelling, screaming, cursing at me, for help and for food, when I couldn't do a darn thing about it." Nicole sniffed a little at letting out her story, never having told anyone before. "I guess that's why I kill zombies. Put them out of their misery, or just because I'm too much of a coward to end it myself or turn into one of them. No offense intended, Russ. And, that's my story, in a nutshell."

((Sorry for the giant post...heh heh...))

"Gruesome it may be...but at least we all have this in common: we've all lost someone dear to us. That's why we have to stick together. As I said before, I promise you all that we will reach the Promised Land. And if there's no Promised Land, after all--then we'll build one ourselves!"

"True, true." Nicole remarked to both what Ellie and Tyler had said. She felt Troy put an arm around her, though she wasn't showing if she was very upset or not. She'd thought of what she'd had to do countless times before, it didn't bother her too much anymore. Besides, she loved to hug people anyway. It reminded her of her friends, before they'd disappeared somewhere. "But, that's how life works, huh? Didn't you say that the Promised Land might be in Canada? Then, to the land of bacon and maple syrup, the best combination ever!" She victory punched the air. "What about you then, Troy? How'd you get into this whole shindig?"

((Rofl, that's how we roll in the Shire! Lul, got that from a show that did a LoTR reference. =3 ))

((Lul, I'll give you a run down. You left off when we were in the train car, after WalMart. Well, we stopped at one place and Russ went off to scout. The rest of us stayed at the train. Gravemind and Stryker hitched a ride on the train, so Gravemind sent zombies after us. Everyone held them off for a while, until Russ's radio went dead. Tyler went all crazy and stuff, but Ellie calmed him down. Troy joined up with us. We started to go again in the train, but Ellie scented Gravemind and Stryker and went on the roof. Tyler slammed on the brakes and fought with Gravemind hand-to-hand. Stryker tried a plan to slow the survivors down. Russ showed up, now a special zombie guy, and captured Gravemind and Stryker. Train went moving again. Tyler got his injuries patched up. Russ threw Gravemind and Stryker out of the moving train, so now they're behind the survivors. The train stopped again. Tyler and Ellie got comfy in the train, and now we're having a picnic and swapping stories. That help? =D))