Rae sighed. Yeah, she'd be lucky to ever get on the security team, especially since Silas had to share leadership duties with Brandon. “If you think it's going to put a wedge in your friendship, then forget it,” she said with a fake smile. She wished, sometimes, that he would just give it up and – not even like her – tolerate her, but she knew that it was a pipe dream. I can just do the unofficial thing you were doing back when the killer was loose,” she smiled weakly.
Her smiled turned pursed-lipped and she shrugged a shoulder. “You know,” she pointed out, “men always seem to point out how things are unfair for them, but we have just as bum a rap!” she said dramatically. “I mean, we always have to do the impressing before we even get the time of day. How is that fair?” she asked him in faux-seriousness.
“It's trying sometimes,” she mused, thinking about constantly having her cousins and their friends in her space. “I mean, getting a few minutes by myself with my son is practically impossible, with everyone always coming and going. And sometimes, Lucas comes back from George's a little late and wakes me or the baby up on his way in,” she shook her head. “But it's better than being alone all the time.” She hated that. She always needed someone accessible.
His laugh drew her attention, and she looked at him, the sadness turning into a bittersweet smile. “We didn't, really. I think David, like... his equipment went nuts and everything? But it was just a temperature fluctuation or something.” She chuckled a little bit. “He had this obsession with finding things where things didn't exist. Anything to keep his ghostly dreams alive, you know?” she asked with a smirk. She missed him, almost as much as she missed Elliot. “I don't mind fantasy novels, and the idea of guardian angels or whathaveyou is nice, but... if there really was such a thing, how could they stand aside and let everyone die like this, you know?” she asked.
“Something like that,” she nodded her head. “Leah and Evan used him pretty heavily when we first got here. I'm not speaking ill about them or anything, don't get me wrong, it's just... narrow-minded.” She shrugged. “I don't know what it was, but he seems so regretful of all of it, you know? It's hard to see people hate someone nice like that.”
Everything happened so quickly. They hadn't been out the door but three seconds when the high pitched shriek of a leaper's cry permeated her ears. She cringed, having forgotten exactly how ear-piercing it could be, and she looked around, trying to figure out where it came from. There was a leaper around. Maybe they shouldn't be out here. Maybe they should've waited inside. She pulled her gun back from over her shoulder and looked around for any signs of the leaper she heard, and when her back was turned, she heard a thud, immediately followed by a sickening crack.
Oh God, Topher, was all she could think as she whirled around and looked at him, on his back, on the ground, with a leaper trying to tear him to shreads.
He didn't even need to call to her. She'd already ran forward and kicked the leaper off of him with all her might, then put a bullet right between his eyes. Turning her attention to the rest of the infected in the vicinity, she aimed and fired a few times, taking out any that were nearby before they could close in. This was her fault. None of this would've happened if she wasn't such bad luck. If she wasn't cursed. If she didn't break everything—everyone—she touched.
Brandon was right about her. About everything.
“A-are you okay?” she stuttered. “C-can you get up?” she asked, obviously shaken.