Brenda is (notacrank) wrote in freedomtownic, @ 2018-05-01 22:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | ~brenda |
Who: Brenda and Thomas
Where: Freedomtown Park to their apartment
When: Right after their arrival
What: "Is this place for real?"
Rating: low
Brenda was feeling pretty edgy after showing up here with only some weird explanation. She felt a little better with Thomas being here, but only slightly. She wasn’t convinced this wasn’t some kind of Wicked trick, some sort of twisted test. It wouldn’t have surprised her that some remnant of the company found the safe haven and took them. Seeing Thomas would probably go a long way to convincing her one way or another.
She had found a corner to linger in as she waited for Thomas to show up. When he did she stepped out warily. “Thomas?” Her eyes watched him closely for telltale signs that would assure her that this was him for real.
*
Waking up in a strange place had been weird enough, but a talking dog had just been the icing on the cake. Thomas still wasn’t sure if this was real. It couldn’t be real. Right? Nobody just blacks out and then wakes up on a whole new planet. Except apparently he did that. And he wasn’t alone. It looked like this place had nabbed Brenda as well. It had made him wonder if the other Gladers had been taken too, but he hadn’t seen any of them and neither had Brenda. So, for now, it looked like it was just himself and Brenda dealing with all of this.
He made his way to the park, after a few wrong turns, and finally found Brenda. “Brenda,” he said as he took a step towards her, “hey.”
*
Her head tilted a little bit as she watched him approach. There was a slight twinge to parts of Thomas’ movements. Brenda recognized it from the injury that had been healing when they got to safe haven. Had to be Thomas then. Brenda let a hint of a smile come to her face.
“So this is fucked up weird on so many levels.”
*
He was still healing from the gunshot. It hurt. A lot. But he was pretty much ignoring it as much as he possibly could. There were other things to think about right now.
“You can say that again.” She wasn’t wrong. Not one bit. This was fucked up and strange and he still felt like there was more to this than that dog communicated to them. “Should we look for the apartment or do you want to look around first?”
*
She was feeling nervous and it showed in how much she kept scanning her eyes around. “Apartment,” Brenda said. “Establish a safe place first, scavenge second.” Jorge taught her that. There was no point in stocking up if you had nowhere to stash it. “Not that I have the first idea where to find it.” She smirked as she shrugged.
*
“Sounds good.” It made sense. Find their safe place and then do everything else that needed to be done. They probably shouldn’t have to think like this, but this was unfamiliar territory and it was kind of hard to break out of the habit of thinking like that. “With the both of us looking, I’m sure we’ll be able to find it.” Even if it took them awhile. “Come on,” he said as he turned and started to lead the way back out of the park.
*
Being on edge made Brenda more like a survivalist than normal. It was just something that made her feel more in control. So did falling in with someone else in the lead. Brenda could take the lead if necessary, but she preferred to be in a support role. So she fell in right next to Thomas.
“What do you make of all this?” she asked in a tone only he’d be able to hear clearly. Looking around these people seemed...normal? Walking around. Going about their business. So weird.
*
“I’m not sure yet.” It still didn’t feel real. Like how could a place like this exist? It had to be in their minds only, right? Maybe something happened back at the Safe Haven and they just hadn’t realized it? There were so many what ifs when it came to this place he really wasn’t sure what could be true and would be chalked up to paranoia.
As they walked, he kept a lookout for anything funny. So far, though, everything seemed normal. Or as normal as this could all be. “Did Cosmo give you anything? Other than the phone?”
*
Brenda took a little into the small pack she’d been given then shrugged. “Seems about it.” Then she got that look on her face that always made Jorge proud. “Guess we get to fend for ourselves.” Which was just how she liked it. By the looks of the people around here they might not like it, but oh well.
*
Thomas watched Brenda for a moment before looking forward again. “You would think that we would get more information.” Apparently not. “Looks like it.” Not like they hadn’t done it before. They could very well do it again. The only difference fending for themselves here was the amount of people and how they might not like any kind of law breaking they might have to do to survive. “Hey, look,” he said as he pointed across the street at an apartment building, “I think that might be it.”
*
“Would you believe them if they did give us more information?” Brenda arched a brow at Thomas. “I wouldn’t. I barely believe what they told us already. Nothing is this good.”
Brenda slowed to a stop when Thomas pointed out the building. She wanted a good look at it before getting any closer. “Vulnerable. I won’t sleep a wink.” She shook her head. “I’d rather be underground.”
*
“Probably not.” It was too hard to trust anyone. It was easier to distrust them and let them prove that they weren’t out to hurt them. “Any other information would be helpful, though.” Mostly they were on their own and guessing. They barely got any info as it was and could that little bit of information be trusted?
“We should still check it out.” They were more vulnerable out on the streets. He looked both ways before making his way across the street.
*
As they started across the street Brenda tugged on Thomas’ sleeve. Both of them were still in the beat up, scavenged clothes they had on from Safe Haven, and were severely out of place here.
“You have any weapons on you?” Because she really, really didn’t.
*
The tug on the shirt made Thomas slow down a little and look over at Brenda. “No, I don’t.” All he had was the letter from Newt, the cure for the Flare virus and the stuff he had gotten from the talking dog. He was entirely weaponless. “Do you?”
*
“No,” she said with a frown. “And I feel naked.” Brenda gave a little shudder. “Gonna have to fix that.” And by “fix” she meant liberate some nice hardware from somewhere it wasn’t appreciated properly.
A car was approaching which made Brenda burst into a run automatically. It was instinct. She wasn’t with known friendlies so any vehicle was suspect, and she reacted as if they were still back home.
*
Thomas didn’t feel the same way that Brenda did. It still would have been nice if one of them had something, just in case. He noticed how Brenda was acting. As if they were still at home. He didn’t blame her. They were in an unfamiliar place. They didn’t really know who was friendly and who was not. All they could really do was keep a look out and get to a safe place.
They had made it across the street without a problem and now all they had to do now was go inside the apartment building and figure out which one belonged to them. “Come on…” he said as he started to head on inside.
*
People in the area looked at Brenda as if she’d grown a tail. She didn’t care and ignored them as she followed Thomas into the building. The stairwell and the hallway with the doors into the ground-floor apartments looked like some of the buildings they’d used for shelter, just in much better condition.
“Do we just pick one or were we assigned a number?” And she was assuming they would be in the same place. If she was wrong, Thomas would tell her.
*
“I don’t know.” Thomas was as clueless as Brenda when it came to how this worked. Did they just pick an empty apartment? Were they supposed to be told where they were staying? There was no paper that said so. And he didn’t remember the dog ever saying anything either. “Let’s just pick a place and go with that.”
*
Brenda shrugged a shoulder then started testing doorknobs. Locked. Locked. Locked with an angry voice behind it. Ah. “This one’s open,” she called out to Thomas. The door was practically kicked open. She was used to not allowing anyone to be hiding behind a door. Now she really wished she had a gun!
But inside Brenda stopped dead and stared. The place was furnished, clean and seemingly just waiting for someone to use it. It was like what she would expect people’s homes to be like behind the walls of the city. “Are they kidding?”
*
While Brenda checked one side of the hallway, Thomas checked the doors on the other. One of them had to be unlocked and just when he was starting to wonder if any were unlocked that’s when Brenda found the one. “You’re not supposed to break it…”
He walked up behind her and too a glance around the place. It was small, furnished and pretty nice looking. “Does it matter?” He shut the door and locked it. It was theirs now.
He put a hand to his stomach and tried to ignore the pain. He had been doing it for a while now. But his body was letting him know that he was doing far too much when he has hardly had any time to heal. “We should look around.”
*
Brenda heard a tension in his voice, only because she’d been paying attention for it. She stopped on her way toward the kitchen and turned around with a frown. “You are going to sit down on that couch before you tear your stitches.” She advanced on Thomas with her lips pressed tight. It was easy to frown. It hid the concern that matched her fear.
She put her hand to the small of his back to turn him toward the sofa. “C’mon. I’ll see what I can scrounge in the kitchen.”
*
“I’m fine…” He was trying to play it off. But it didn’t look like Brenda was buying it. So without any hesitation he started to make his way towards the couch. Once there, he sat down and looked over at Brenda. “Hopefully there’s something in the cabinets.” He honestly didn’t think there would be anything. That would just be too easy and nothing was every that easy. Not when it came to them. “Do you think anyone else will show up here?” He wanted to know what Brenda thought. Were they the only two that would get taken or were the others going to wake up in that park as well? This was all starting to feel like another messed up Wicked experiment.
*
“If there’s not I’ll go back out and find us something.” A lopsided smirk pulled her lips to the side as she made sure Thomas was settled. She was itching to check his injury but knew her hand would get swatted if she tried. She’d settle for stealing some food if there wasn’t anything here. “Let me check the kitchen.” Brenda got up to busy herself before she caved in to temptation.
“Oh man,” she said with a chuckle. “Could you imagine Jorge here?”
*
“Okay.” There was no way he was getting back up again. And he was pretty sure that Brenda wasn’t going to let him get back up.
While Brenda headed for the kitchen to look at what could be there, Thomas just sunk down more in the couch. Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere. Not for a while. “I can imagine everyone being here. Rummaging through everything.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “Did you find anything yet?’
*
Brenda didn’t want to think about who they knew that could be here. More specifically, who they missed that could be here. It was still too raw. Still hurt too much. So she busied herself with searching the kitchen thoroughly.
“...holy crap.” Brenda had reached the fridge. “Motherlode.” She began pulling things out. Milk. Fresh milk at that! Some fruit that wasn’t rotten on one side. There was even a block of cheese that didn’t bear green spots. It was all shoved into her arms before she practically ran back to Thomas. “Look!”
*
Thomas could hear Brenda rummaging through different things. As curious as he was to sit up and see what she was doing, he stayed put. He was pretty sure if she found anything good she would bring it over into the living room.
And she did.
He opened his eyes and looked up at Brenda. She had a lot of stuff in her hands. “Wow…” He sat up a little. “I guess we won’t be starving.” Not today anyway.
*
Brenda smiled at Thomas as she sat on the floor next to the couch. Most of what she brought was put on the coffee table. She picked an apple out of the bunch to hand to Thomas. “We’re going to get fat.” She chuckled as she picked a peach for herself. “If this place is anything to judge by I’m ok with a little weight. I think we’re actually going to be ok.”