Welcome to Gaia! ::

Things were moving quickly these days. The pace of proactive survival was nothing like the terrified waiting game of before, where it was a matter of counting the seconds between attempts on one's life.

Sue, personally, preferred it this way. If he wasn't studying maps, planning defenses, or looking up battle tactics in his newly-acquired encyclopedia, he was scavenging for supplies. There was no time for sitting on his heels; none of that nonsense of reflecting on the past, which dulled the senses, slowed the reflexes, and got people killed.

He'd just stopped back at the math room, having collected a pile of singed laundry underneath some rubble at the dormitories (he explained that they could probably strip the cloth, wrap it around some green wood, and light it up to make some torches - the fact that he was now wearing a school uniform jacket over his pajamas was just a bonus, surely.) Just seconds after he'd gotten his breath back, though, came a message on feline paws.

Stripers had been patrolling outside, looking for some mousy meal, when she'd spotted a person. Like Sue had told them, she'd hunkered down in the shadows to wait for them to pass, but she'd gotten a good look. And it looked like a survivor.

Sue didn't need anyone to tell him that living students were rarer than diamonds in Barren Pines right now. "C'mon. We've got a live one out there," he told Yahya on his way out the door, cats tagging at his heels. He knew that they'd have to move quickly if they were going to find this student, especially if they were going to get to them before a zombie did. But that was all right - as mentioned. Sue liked it when things kept him moving too fast for the regrets to find him.

The best cure for Yahya's mental distress was putting him through so much work that he didn't have time to think. Wherever Sue went, Yahya was sure to follow, lending a helping hand where he could, and taking distinct care to avoid a certain member of their newly formed team. Jess. He didn't like thinking of her name, because it'd upset him again. Sue let her go ahead with her crazy, stupid, pointless plan to kill herself. It was one of the few things that made Yahya mad more than upset. He didn't want anyone to die, and yet it seemed like everyone else didn't give a rat's a** so long as it was the person's own decision to kill themself off.

"Bull. s**t." he muttered sourly, those words likely the very first curse words to be voiced around his new group of friends. Yahya was far from violent, but that didn't mean he was immune to getting mad. Yahya could be happy, sad, upset, joyful, MAD, and the rest of the spectrum of emotions. He did not agree with this, did not agree with it one bit. He had plenty of opportunities to tell everybody but that, but he held his tongue. It wasn't time to fight, anyways. They had to be a cohesive group... and Yahya wouldn't threaten the survival of the rest of the members by starting up an argument. He wouldn't do it, wouldn't let someone else die because of him.

It was why keeping him busy right now was likely the best thing for him. Yahya was a far more pleasant person when he wasn't thinking about dying comrades. At the moment, Yahya was multitasking, feeding the squirrels a milk supplement (the baby animals got more care than the humans, really), petting Columbus in between, and reviewing all of Sue's battle plans again, looking for flaws and weak points. It wasn't his strong point, but it was something he could do when taking care of his charges.

Blinking, he glanced up to his friend, only taking a few seconds to gather up his baby animals, tuck them nicely away, and get up to loyally follow after Sue. "Really?" he asked, a little astounded that anyone was surviving on their own right now. Like a good little minion (what else could he be described by at this point?) he followed just after Sue's heels, watching his friend's back and scouring the surrounding area for zombies... and the survivor.

Vera didn't lower the bow, although there was a bit of wobbly hesitancy as she attempted to keep them both in her sights. "Why," she started, then stopped, coughing as though she didn't really need that lung again. She hadn't really spoken a lot (less than usual, even for her) lately, and it showed. Her voice was raspy and wheezy, and it took a few more coughs before she started speaking again.

"Why shouldn't I?" she asked, much more calmly, trying very hard to hide the shakiness of both voice and limb. It wasn't as easy to hold a bow taut as it used to be, Vera mused while she waited for a reply.

Yeah, Sue was right with Yahya on that one. Getting killed by a zombie, that would be a damn horrible way to go, and Sue wasn't planning on it - but getting killed by another survivor instead? That would just be ******** tragic.

"Because blood draws the ******** greenies, dumbass! You kill us, then they're coming after you right after!" Sue hissed at the girl, waving for her to lower her weapon already. He didn't know if that was true, to be honest, but he would have said damn near anything in order to get her to stop threatening them.

There was a factor here he hadn't quite counted on, though. And that was the cats. You see, Sue was important to them. And while their intelligence levels weren't high enough to figure out exactly why Sue was acting so threatened by this girl and her weird sticks, they could understand the idea that Sue thought she was going to kill him.

And that was not a thought they appreciated, thank you kindly.

Of the three cats it could have been, it turned out to be Nibs that was the brave aggressor. The smallest of the trio, the most human-shy, and the most feral, with her one missing eye and ruffled fur. With a hideous yowl, the cat went flying out of the bushes at Vera.

No one would quite know how she managed to get all four of her claws pointing at the girl at once - Sue least of all, who could only sit in stunned amazement, unable to even worry after the cat in his disbelief. The other cats had manifested, and were pacing anxiously just out of reach. It hadn't even occurred to Sue that he should be calling them off yet.

Yahya yelped, and manliness be damned, that shot had scared the s**t out of him. What if it had hit him, or worse yet Sue or Nibs? Someone could have seriously been hurt, and the blood would have probably attracted zombies. Yahya was horrified by the thought... and very much hiding behind Sue at this rate. It wasn't hard to do, just scoot on his a** a little to the side and he'd be right behind his friend. There, he felt remotely more comfortable. "We don't have anything to pay you with, if we owed you," Yahya replied in his usual sensible way, though there was just the edge of defensiveness behind his voice.

He didn't trust this girl, if only really because she had aimed an arrow at Sue and him, and had been careless enough to release the arrow. Vera was face down in the dirt, but Yahya was far more concerned over poor Nibs' well-being. He'd always been able to connect with animals better than people, but in this case it was just plain prejudice against the girl-who-nearly-shot-them. "Don't be mean to her, she was just trying to help us." Yahya's courage was returning enough that he could bring himself to stand, cautiously moving out of the cover of Sue's body.

"She's such a smart cat, really. More loyal than any dog I've seen, at least when it comes to Sue." He knelt down again, this time beside Vera. He'd push his momentary prejudice aside, because really, seeing another survivor was a good thing. And she had probably just been spooked by seeing someone that wasn't a zombie... Well, there were plenty of reasons to explain her behavior. "I'm Yahya," he introduced as he peered at the girl curiously.

Vera sighed and counted to ten. "Owed me a new arrow," she said, sounding entirely too calm for someone who'd just taken a faceplant into the ground after being attacked by a cat. This was...just great, really. One of them was going on about cats (Vera had been ambivalent about cats before, but that had swung sharply towards Do Not Like in almost an instant), and she mentally tuned him out, barely registering his name.

"Vera," was all she offered as the girl struggled to at least get flipped over and on her back once the cat had unlatched itself. After managing that, she closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts, cradling the bow to her chest.

"Sharpened with what?" Vera spat out, cracking open an eye to glare balefully at the other boy. At least he had returned the arrow. "Haven't exactly found anything to use, and I don't have the apparently copious free time you do," she continued, voice rapidly losing it's raspy edge as she got used to talking again. That was still a fairly long sentence for her, though.

There was a moment where Sue suspected that Yahya was jumping the gun. Selfishly, he wasn't really sure he wanted someone who had pointed a cocked bow at him on the team. Especially if it was just a damned bluff, and the arrows were duller than ******** Mr. Magoo.

But then again... if they got these arrows sharpened up, they could be useful. In fact, they could be useful in a lot of ways besides just hitting zombies. And maybe the fact that Vera wasn't afraid to point a weapon at another person would mean she'd been that much better a fighter, if....

"... Yeah, all right," he muttered grudgingly after several seconds of intense consideration. "You. You wanna keep hiding in the bushes until they hunt you down like a ******** dog, or would you be interested in an alternative?"

"Oh," Yahya murmured, realizing that maybe a rock wouldn't be quite enough to sharpen the dull points of Vera's arrows. Meekly he glanced to the side, a little disheartened that his suggestion was probably the worst one he could have made. Oh well, he could cheer himself up easily with some time with Columbus or the baby squirrels. The former of which was meowing angrily at all the rough treatment he was made to go through. Columbus went everywhere Yahya went, even when the boy fell down onto the ground. At least the kitten wasn't running off again, and was loyally staying in the little mesh-pouch at the side of Yahya's backpack.

"We're going to take out a bunch of zombies before they get the chance to pick us off one-by-one." Sue would explain it better. Yahya still didn't understand every element of the plan. All Sue would have to do in battle is tell Yahya what to do, and Yahya would do it. That was the easiest way for everybody, really, as long as Yahya kept on taking down zombies. He was surprisingly good at it (very much so, given his peaceful nature). "We're not going to let anyone else die without putting up a darned good fight first." He still couldn't swear under normal circumstances.