Who: First Penny and Keith, and then Terry and Jas. That order. When: Day 2, around noonish. Where: First some random street, then the Aletheon Hotel.
The streets were quiet, but in the distance Penny could still hear the sounds of gunshots. She jumped every time she did, and held her own gun tighter; she had never been so afraid in her life, not even in her childhood with her step-father. For all the times she was afraid she would die, at least she knew that beast. This one was completely new.
Her fingers shook on the handle of her brand new butchers knife, grabbed from a destroyed corner market store. The idea was to make herself more confident, but at the moment it was failing. Penny swallowed thickly. A noise came from her left and she let out a small gasp, jumping and pointing her gun there tremulously.
Keith ventured out into Detroit feeling a little more refreshed and a bit more ease at mind than he had that morning. He felt hopeful and maybe even kind of cheerful. ...well, as cheerful as one could be this day.
The humidity still got on his nerves though. He tugged at the collar of his t-shirt to let a little more air in as he wandered through the streets, looking for people to find; especially since he knew about the group at the hotel now. Information like that should be spread...
He was breathing a little heavy from the physical exertion, but... he'd be okay.
He kept wandering around 'til-- "Ah...!" He held up his hands, one of which was holding his own gun.
"Um. ...h-hi."
The moment Penny recognized him as human she lowered her gun, breathing hard. She slipped it slowly into her waistband, and then went over and hugged him, hard, even though she had never met him before in her life. She was just so relieved to actually see another person, hear another human voice, that she couldn't control herself. Tears started in the corners of her eyes and she sniffed, before pulling back. "Oh my God, I can't believe it."
...okay, no lie, Keith was a little taken aback by the sudden contact. Which got him blushing a tad... no um. Let's just pretend that was the heat. Yeah, it was hot. The weather. Cough. He scratched sheepishly at his cheek. "..h-hi." He repeated timidly. "Um. Are... are you okay?" He glanced up and down at her. She didn't look to be terribly injured...
"I'm fine, I just… I can't believe anyone else is alive," she gulped, looking around. "I haven't seen anyone since before all this started." Penny took a deep breath, trying to steady herself, and wiped her forehead with the back of her forearm, looking around and trying to determine if there were more people with him. What a relief that would be, to have found a whole group of people. She was terrified of being alone.
"Yeah... I couldn't believe it either..." Keith glanced back the direction he came, where the hotel was. "I... actually found a group of people earlier... They've found shelter and there's food and stuff..." Hopefully they'd let her in too... He didn't even think that anyone could refuse someone else at this point. That would just be... too cruel.
"Um. My name's Keith by the way..." He held out his hand and smiled softly.
She shook it, smiling shakily, still trying to get ahold of herself as she shook it enthusiastically. "Penny, Penny Lane." She looked at where he was looking, hoping to catch a glance of this mysterious group. "Really? There are people? How many?" Penny had thought hoping for a group was a bit of a stretch, but now that it seemed plausible, she couldn't have felt more excited.
"Eheheh..." He grinned at her enthusiasm. It was kind of nice to be so welcomed. But maybe not under these um... pretenses. "Um... I'm not positive how many..." Keith scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. But he knew there were others! Which was better than nothing, right? "But I can show you where they're at."
Penny looked over his shoulder again and grinned, and then immediately got on the defensive when she heard a weird groaning over her shoulder. She looked around, definitely spooked, and clutched her knife harder. She would be so happy when those things just… died, although how they could all spontaneously die at once she had no idea. Then again, she had no idea how any of this could have happened, either. "Yeah, let's go..."
Shooting a wary glance over at the strange noise, he weighed the options in his mind. Ignore, or investigate? Admittedly, he was curious but... he wasn't really looking to pick a fight at the moment. ...Or ever, really. Especially considering what those... things left over. He'd learned from his earlier conversation... maybe he shouldn't ask about it this time either.
"Right..." His eyes glanced back and forth between their front and back path. He held onto his gun, which was going to get diluted with all his sweat and fall apart. Poor thing didn't even get to see any action. Er. That he knew of, anyway.
Penny noted how nervous he seemed and pulled out her gun, now armed with two weapons. Then again, she couldn't blame him; she was petrified. Still, she had yet to actually get up close and personal with one of these things, and she wasn't about to. "C'mon," she whispered, edging away from it. "Lead the way."
Keith nodding, retracing his steps and keeping alert of his surroundings. God he didn't know what would happen if they got attacked, and he kind of really didn't want to think about it. He walked in silence for a few moments, before deciding to break it with some small talk.
"Um..." He swallowed. ...oh, shoot what could he ask? What could they talk about? Uh. Um. ...Uhhh... uhhh... ahh... "A-are you from around here?"
Penny lifted a brow at him, at his stuttering. She chalked it up to nerves and shrugged, looking over her shoulder again. "About ten blocks west, give or take. I stopped counting after a while."
"Oh." ...Keith was a real winner at this, wasn't he? "Um. ...Where. Were you? When... this... started." He clarified, rather awkwardly. "I mean. Only if you want to say. I. I don't mean to pry or anything," he threw in apologetically.
"Can we talk about this when there isn't something possibly tailing us?" she hissed, on edge and not shy about showing it. Penny looked over her shoulder again, swallowing and then looking forward. "And then I can tell you whatever you want to know, just shut up and walk."
"S-sorry..." Right... not going to try that anymore. Keith redirected his eyes towards the ground. People could smell his embarrassment, he couldn't make eye contact or else they'd see it in his eyes too. ...though they could see it in his flushed face too, but that was because it was hot outside right...
Keith hurried up his pace, following her command to shut up and walk.
She looked at the kid and smiled grimly. Any other day she would've had a nice chat with him, giggled when he blushed, enjoyed teasing him… but this was far from any other day. Penny followed him quietly, looking over her shoulder every now and then. The groaning was gone, but Penny knew absolutely nothing about these… things. Did they hunt in silence? Did they just scare you silly and wait for your heart to explode before they jumped you? What the hell were they, these things that had once been human?
Maybe they'd be okay. Maybe they'd get back to the hotel without any confrontation, and um... he could sorta just go back to doing his own thing again. And endless cycle of meeting new people and being awkward with them. Was a good life. But even though he was trying to be optimistic, he stayed alert, glancing over every now and then and keeping his ears open for any noises.
"Are we any closer?" she hissed, feeling like they'd walked forever.
"Um. Ah. Y-yeah." Keith directed his hand over to the entrance of the hotel in the distance, the gun in his hand held loosely. "Over there..."
Penny nodded and let out a slow, shaky breath, quickening her pace. They were there, they were going to make it, they were there, they were going to make it… She heard something to her right and jumped, but kept going, if anything bordering on a jog.
Her pace having quickened, Keith followed with her feeling more nervous than he had been. Maybe it was the adrenaline of something possibly chasing them, maybe he was just starting to crack and he wanted to curl up in a corner and cry, but oh God.
He placed his hand on the door, as if there was some kind of magic aura that would protect them from getting mauled to death, but hey, the fantasy calmed his nerves a little as he breathed heavily more from the emotional exercise rather than physical.