Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mills warily peeked around a corner a moment before thrusting herself into the open and skulking nonchalantly down the hall. Mills considered herself pretty tough -- she had to believe it or no one else would -- but some of these gijinka patients were damn scary. Da-yam scary. But she wasn't going to let anybody think that. No siree. Siree? What the hell? Mills snorted to herself.

Up ahead there was movement. She saw a form poking around at doorways with what looked like a long tool of some kind. Normally this would be a good excuse to turn the other way. But you know, Mills had to keep up appearances, even if she was the only one paying attention. It was a matter of principle. Plus, something about the movements was curious, and vaguely familiar.

She took a deep breath before opening her mouth. "Hey! Who are you and what are you doing?" she bellowed.

Mills saw the figure's pause and braced herself. She really should learn to hold her tongue before assessing the level of danger posed to her. But she wasn't the sort to go slinking through the shadows... Well. Anyway.

Mills. Mills! Whomever this was knew who she was. A woman with a familiar voice, whom was it?

Then the figure was running after her with surprising speed. Mills' muscles tensed one way, ready to react; then they tensed another way, completely paralyzed. "Bell?" Holy... crap... "What..." she mumbled. Then, snarling: "What the hell are you doing here? Are you an idiot?" Never mind the original idiot, the fact that they were in good company, and that they were both likely stuck here, unable to leave even though they had no better reason than they were a couple of numb skulls.

Obvious? Obvious had been the sentiment that no one would be stupid enough to come after Mills. After nearly nine months, only three possibilities as to her whereabouts existed: she was dead, still here, had gone off to school... or worst, locked up and knocked up. That was four possibilities. But some of them were ridiculous, so they don't count anyway.

The stricken look on her face was slow to bleed away. But which realization was more difficult to swallow, that no one had wanted to come for her, which she had assumed all along, or that someone had risked everything - life and future - to do so? Now that she considered this possibility though, the one person crazy enough to come, other than Mills herself, was Jezebell.

She wanted to argue bitterly, and her lips pursed to do so, that there was no way out. That was her current state of mind. Stupid Bell! But hadn't she insisted all along - to herself and anyone willing to listen - that someday she would get out, with that army of resurgents in tow? She blinked rapidly, her churning thoughts finally catching up to Bell's seemingly random ramble. "Wait... what did you say? A neighborhood?" This... this had possibilities! She growled, wiping a grubby sleeve across her face, "Something's... in my eye..."

(Stomach upheavals; cuuute, Akki. xD )

Mills did not move when Bell hooked their arms together. She was too busy considering what her friend was saying and what she personally had to offer to the project. She was moving ahead as she liked to do, pushing annoying emotions aside and grabbing hold of the useful ones. She batted at the wrench and muttered, "Forget it," before straightening a little, leaving a small wet stain on her sleeve. "Well you know, I have lots of stuff I found too, cause you 'never know what you'll need,'" she smirked as she parroted Bell's previous words. They were like-minded because they had lived so long in similar situations. And why were they so giving without a second thought, such as 'who else is involved,' or 'am I going to regret this'? Who the hell knows. "Maybe I've got some stuff this new neighborhood needs, right?"

Mills rubbed at her scalp with a heavily-sleeved hand. "Well I guess if you run out of space you can bunk with me for a while until everything's moved into place. Or you know, we could move stuff around so I can stay over and we can take turns watching it," she smirked. Bell happened to be 'leading' them in the right direction, so when she slowed, Mills tugged her along without slowing their motion too much. "Yeah, it's this way." She glanced back at Bell. What a crazy girl, thinking such things of Mills. But then, she'd have to be if she went into a place like this. Crazy or stupid. "Heh. Yeah, that's me." She almost said something about recruiting and armies but she doubted Bell would ever leave. There were too many things right here that needed fixing that she would no doubt want to fix. Mills would have to address that little problem later.