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Live action
--Let it be noted that this action sequence takes place three days before day twenty eight, on day twenty five--
I helped to lift Ei up the barricade. The other survivor was watching us as he held up the system of wrought iron cross-bars to let us in. Monk was already inside, as was Hunter and with him, Teddy. I was going to go last. As soon as I lifted Ei up to the platform she turned around and held out her hand, which I graciously accepted and used to help myself up. We had met up with some survivors through a HAM radio signal that Monk had picked up. He asked if we could meet them, more of demanded actually, so we did since the signal was live and not a loop or anything.
The survivor camp was large. They had plenty of supplies and weapons with them, but there were a few things that were a little strange. One of them was that most of the people were wearing bloody police uniforms. The other was that there were no women. All of them were men and they all had a barcode on the back of their neck. It was clearly visible since every one of them had a shaved head. I looked around a bit, looking at Ei who nodded back, understanding what I had said even though I had remained silent. A man walked up to me, his eyes beady beneath a rather prominent brow. He extended his hand to shake. "Hello. I am Like, and am the head of this camp." I took his hand and shook it once. "I am Red." I responded. "This is Hunter, Ei, Monkey, and Teddy." I pointed them out respectively. Like nodded, though his eyes lit up a bit upon seeing Ei. Teddy growled, looking up at the bear of a man. Like frowned back and then looked back at me. "Is she..?" He asked. I shook my head. "No. I would've shot her myself if she was. The same goes for the rest of us." He nodded. "I'll need to have them check anyway. Precautions, you understand, right?" I nodded and nodded to the family and they nodded back. Ei raised her hand. “I’ll be checked out by a woman thank you.” She said. The man paused and looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “No women here.” Ei blinked. “Then you’ll have to take it on faith.” She dug into her collar and took out a rosary on a chain, holding it up to him. The man smiled softly, rolling up his sleeve. He had a faded black inked tattoo down his bicep in the shape of a cross in a bed of roses. “We’ll keep an eye on you.” She nodded. “Understood.”
I looked at her oddly for a second, raising an eyebrow. I had occasionally seen her bowing down at the altar in Saint Thomas Moore’s church when we were still out there, but I never knew she was religious at all. In fact, she said some of the most blasphemous things. Ei generally swore a lot more than just about any drinker or any soldier I had ever heard of, even in every movie I’d ever seen in my life. And I’ve seen some pretty gritty ones too. I could tell that the man and Ei were going to get along just fine. He must’ve been a soldier as well at some point or something. And he was religious as well.
I sighed heavily, just thinking about that. I never got the concept of religion. It was kind of depressing actually. It reminded me of those grade school clubs that you’d always try to get into and do anything for. And everyone in it knew some kind of strange secret code that I would never understand, no matter how many kinds of masses I went to or confessions I took. I couldn’t force myself to believe. It seemed wrong, so I stopped even trying. I got rid of the rosary I usually wore, and I threw out all concepts of God in my mind. It didn’t seem right to fake myself believing. But it was just stranger even to be caring about lying to a God I didn’t even believe existed. At least Ei respected that. She asked me once, I said a simple ‘No.’ Then she asked if I was hungry. It’s appreciable that she can just take such a massive concept and allow it to be passed by with only a two letter answer. Leave it to a soldier to keep things simple, no matter how complicated.
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