{AU} Braaaains!

[Penelope Adams]

She ran into the toy store - she could hear the moans and growls from somewhere behind her. Thankfully, she'd gotten a head start, so she didn't technically have to run as fast as she did. But in this kind of world, you could never be too sure. Shutting the doors behind her, she leaned her forehead against the wooden door and allowed herself a moment to breathe; it had been such a long time since she'd gotten to do that. It felt nice.

Then, a sound behind her caused the brunette to swirl around, already reaching for the knife at her waist and holding it up. Her brown eyes scanned the darkly lit room and she could feel her pulse rising along the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

She waited; watched the shadows, but all she could hear was the moaning coming from the other side of the door. Yet, she couldn't move. She wanted to make sure. She didn't want to lock herself in here if it was just as bad as it was out there.

Yet, the brunette remained perfectly still - every single muscle in her body tense and ready for action. She was prepared.

Tag: Trevor Paige

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor threw his heavy backpack over the lip of the roof before pulling himself up and collapsing onto the tiles. Rolling onto his back he stared up at the sky, chest heaving as his lungs gasped for breath. For just a moment he lost himself in the clouds overhead streaked with red, orange and yellow from the setting sun. On any other day he probably wouldn't have bothered to take in the scene. Usually he found himself far too busy to be troubled with sitting and watching the sunset. If only things were different and the moment hadn't felt so surreal and strange given the horrors he'd only recently waded through to get to safety.

Carefully Trevor shifted to push himself up to his feet, wincing as a searing pain in his side reminded him why he had been so desperate to escape the shambling hordes of creatures that were giving chase. "Why couldn't the apocalypse have happened on a school day?" He grumbled to himself, clutching his side with one hand while tugging his backpack up off the roof and shrugging it over his shoulder.

The hatch to the roof was, thankfully, unlocked. It was an arduous chore for Trevor to climb down the ladder that lead to a large, darkened storage area without causing the wound on his side to flare up. By the time he dropped off the last rung beads of sweat had formed on his brow. With the aid of a flashlight produced from his pack, Trevor made his way through the dusty boxes to the only door he could find and cautiously pushed it open. He didn't know if the things that had been chasing him were inside the building and he wasn't going to take any chances. Slowly, he crept out and started toward the ground floor.

It was only when Trevor stumbled his way out of the back room that he realized where he was at. He paused, shining his flashlight onto the cold, emotionless face of a large doll sitting on a shelf and shuddered. "Because we can't get anymore creepy." He mumbled before turning away and shuffling along down the aisles.

Trevor had moved toward the center of the toy store before his legs gave out. He was done. Exhausted and losing blood. He dropped to the cold, tile floor and coughed, uttered a croaked curse in the process. With a groan he shifted to a sitting position and scooted to where he could press his back against a display. He gave little effort to remain quiet at this point as he began digging in his pack in an effort to find something he could use to patch up the wound at his side. "Oh, fuck this." He muttered between clenched teeth.

[Penelope Adams]

She stepped further into the room, brown eyes trying to make out any movement or shade. It wasn't easy - with no electricity within the store, it was darker than what she would have preferred. Still, the brunette moved carefully, her eyes taking in every detail of the area around her - her ears on guard.

Then she spotted the huddled up figure and stopped. She could feel her heart hammer in her chest. She was almost sure the figure could hear it, and if it did, it didn't react to it. There was only one way to find out though. "Say something," she ordered. Though her voice shook. It trembled with fear.

"Give me a reason not to kill you."

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor rummaged around in his bag a bit more. The pounding in his head had dulled his hearing to the point where he had only heard the female voice cutting through the dark. At first the sound made his blood run cold with the realization he wasn't alone. It took a few moments for his mind to catch up and piece together the logic that the creatures roaming around outside couldn't speak.

Lifting the flashlight toward the source of the voice, Trevor's eyes squinted in the dimly illuminated girl. "I don't think you really want to do that." He said a-matter-of-factly. He shifted a little, wincing in the process before lowering the light so he wouldn't blind her. Even though his was relieved to see someone who seemed like they were still alive he wouldn't his guard down. "The things outside already tried like hell."

[Penelope Adams]

The audible sigh of relief crashed through the brunette's body and was only interrupted by the light nearly making her go blind. Squinting, she shielded her eyes. She remained quiet and listened to him, her previous relief immediately cut short at the realization of that the boy, the only living human she'd seen in a while, was hurt.

"Did they bite you?" she asked, her pose defensive once again. She couldn't hang around him if he turned. She wasn't really looking forward to doing him a favor either, if that was the case. Killing the undead was one thing, but killing another human being, regardless of the situation? She couldn't stomach it.

[Trevor Paige]

"What?" The question resonated within Trevor's mind for a moment. He was out of sorts due to the minor bloodloss and his recent evasion of the steadily growing horde outside. He though a moment then glanced down at at his side, peering at it in the dark before his head shook. "No. I cut through the junkyard a few blocks away to try and lose the things after me and I got caught on... something metal." She shrugged his shoulders and clicked off the flashlight in order to preserve the battery. If this girl had it in her mind to hurt him or steal his stuff he was too exhausted to put up much of a fight anyway. "I think it was an old bed frame."

Trevor fell silent for only a moment as he watched the dim, faded outline of the girl standing at the end of the aisle where he'd taken up residence. The tension settled over the two of them as they lingered in the darkness. For a flash it occurred to Trevor that his next sentence could very well define whether or not this girl cracked him upside the head with whatever she could get her hands on. With a deep breath Trevor finally spoke, spilling the first thing that came to his head. "I have Twinkies."

[Penelope Adams]

The various emotions that moved around inside her head finally settled, once again, on relief. Now, it was stupid of her to trust the boy. For all she knew, he could have been lying, but truth be told, she didn't really have the energy to both fight the undead, and every single stranger she met. She decided to believe him. "Okay," she finally said.

Still, she wondered if maybe leaving was a better option. Surely, the boy, with being hurt, would slow her down. Then, he spoke and she couldn't quite help but to smile.

Moving forward, Penelope set her backpack down next to the boy and knelt down in front of it. "I have bandages and some rubbing alcohol," she replied. "I think we should get that wound of yours covered before you bribe me with candy."

[Trevor Paige]

A dry, raspy chuckle escaped at the girl's response as another wave of relief washed over Trevor. The tense situation had been diffused through a combination of an asinine offering of sugary treats and mutual exhaustion. Neither of them had the strength to fight everyone and everything at the moment and Trevor, for one, was glad.

The boy's eyes shifted upward as the saw the outline move closer and kneel beside him. "Oh, thank god." He said. "For a minute there I thought I was going to have to use the cream filling to make a paste to patch this up." It may have been a bad attempt at humor but Trevor didn't care. Whoever this girl was she had yet to try and eat him or anyone else so he considered it a win in his book.

With the flashlight's soft glow illuminating Trevor's wound it was found to be deep enough to hurt and cause a minor amount of blood loss but it was nowhere near severe. If the circumstances had been different the injury would have taken a handful of stitches to bind and a couple days recovery time before he was back on his feet. Not being able to tend to the wound combined with sheer exhaustion to put him in the sluggish state he was in.

"Goddammit." Trevor winced when the rubbing alcohol was applied. He was getting a good look at the wound for the first time and went so far as to nod to himself in relief that it wasn't something that would keep him hindered for nearly as long as he'd thought at first. "Looks worse than it is." He promised, turning his eyes away from the bloodied gash in his side. He fell silent while the girl worked, letting her tend to the wound in peace. Once he felt the clean bandage press against his skin he nodded slowly. "Yeah, uh, thanks." He said quietly. "I'm Trevor, by the way."

[Penelope Adams]

The brunette immediately started working on the wound, putting most of her attention and focus on the task at hand. Yet, her eyes often lifted to take in the boy's mental status. After all, the wound might not have been as bad as she'd thought, but it was still a wound that would hinder him and slow him down in many ways. Still, she tried to work as quickly and efficient as she possibly could and within minutes, the clean set of bandages had been applied.

"Penelope," she replied as she sat back down, leaning her weight back on the palms of her hands. Closing her eyes, she focused on the dull banging on the doors leading into the toy store. "And you're welcome," she finally added after a moment of silence.

She could afford herself a moment of breathing before figuring out a way to get out of here - along with getting the wounded boy, Trevor, out as well. It wouldn't be an easy task - of that she was sure and even though she wanted to leave him behind, her moral code wouldn't let her, simply because it would have been easier that way.

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor nodded faintly at the sound of the name. He was still basking in the relief from having met someone who hadn't tried to chew his face off just yet and was willing to lend him a hand. It didn't hurt that she didn't seem to be in the mindset of leaving him here to fend for himself either. Slowly he pushed himself up to his feet, wincing a little as he favored his injured side in the process.

"Those things are all over the place." He said after pausing a moment to clear this throat. While he was in no hurry to leave the one sanctuary he'd found in the last few hours it was evident a toy store wasn't a great place to hole up for any real length of time. He moved down the aisle where he'd been sitting and tried to peer around the sales floor of the store for a moment. Even after his vision had adjusted to the dark there wasn't much to be seen. "I saw them when I was on the roof." He turned to look at Penelope in the dim light.