Abigail Theien (resistance_) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-10-14 13:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 21, abigail theien, nathan theien, | abby and nate |
Week 21: Tuesday
Characters: Abby and Nate
Location: Their camp, just outside the Farm
Summery: After Greg's encounter with Jed and Tom, the siblings discuss their apprehension about meeting the new group
Nathan had been lost in his own thoughts since Abby and Greg came back with more than just their adventurous pack horse. In the back of his mind, the aloof and rational side, Nate knew that there was no sense in dwelling on the people in the passed, there was really no room for it when you had to be more focused on survival. But there was a child and they always complicated things. The boy was young and starving, and he couldn’t help but think of his son and his last few days with him, the days were everyone was hungry and sick and miserable.
It wasn’t that Nathan was unfriendly towards their guests, he just... didn’t go out of his way to talk to them. He listened to news of the group, cautious about anything that involved large groups of people, all of whom were organized. Yeah, the place seemed nice, but Nate wasn’t going to make that mistake twice, the other place had seemed nice too.
Nate had excused himself from the group on Monday and went to bed early, and as a result, woke up early on Tuesday with nothing to do while Greg scouted the new group. Nate didn’t exactly have wilderness survival skills, short of making sure the fire didn’t go out. Occasionally, he had wandered out to check on Greg and make sure nothing was needed, but most of the day was spent by the fire.
The news that Greg brought back with him, after being spotted by the group was interesting. Teenagers. Pregnant women. Live stock and dogs. It seemed like an okay group, but who knew what it would be like if they stayed there. Nate was paranoid, reasonably so, and once again lost in his own thoughts.
Abby could recognize the internal withdraw of her brother better than most, even if it was obvious. The reason being: she did it to. Whenever she was alone, which wasn’t often (and she wasn’t complaining), the ‘what ifs’ and unanswered questions flooded her mind like a swollen river, choked with the debris of memories and trauma. Seeing it in her brother was no less heartbreaking--even more so, especially when she saw the look on his face when he saw Walker.
She recognized that too--because it had been her same expression.
Now, the warmth of her hand slid across his back when she sat beside him and the fire. It rubbed back and forth a little, then just stopped: her weight settled close and comforting for them both--but she didn’t say anything. Just kept those big purple-blues on the fire.
Nate felt the corners of his lips twitch up just a bit as his sister settled down next to him. His eyes slowly turned from the fire to look at her. He knew that he was miserable, and he knew that he was uncertain about the group in question, he could only imagine that Abby’s thoughts were similar. Chewing his bottom lip, he let out a sigh.
“Thoughts?” He said after a moment, his eyes moving back to the dancing fire in front of them. Nate didn’t really want to discuss any thing, but he did want to know what his sister was thinking about the new group.
Her lips pressed into a tight line, but the corners turned up slightly. A mirthless smile. She gave him a little squeeze, and just curled her fingers into the fabric of his coat--partly to keep warm, but mostly to just stay close. It made her shrug a little awkward.
“I dunno.” Her voice had about as much confidence as her words themselves. She looked at him then, thoughtful and worried. “Sounds nice... an’ we ain’t built for these winters.” Still... she’d take freezing to death over another mistake of trusting the wrong people again.
Nate nodded slowly. “Seems real nice.” he echoed shrugging his shoulders a bit. “They have livestock and children. Seems like their painting themselves a real nice picture over there. I just think it might be a bit too nice.” He said, his eyes dropping from the fire only long enough to glance at his sister and back again.
“I’m not about to go running into another situation. Made that mistake before. More contact is needed, I’m just not terribly fond of walkin up to someones front door where they can train a million and one guns on ya before you’re even aware, there you are walkin into an ambush.” He wasn’t fond of that thought. He didn’t have any real skill in fighting and neither did Abby.
She nodded ruefully. Nate had said everything she had been thinking--nearly word for word. In the back of her mind, she had always known they needed to find something more permanent for the winter (at the very least, anyway), and here that opportunity seemed to be. Just like before.
It was more than frustrating.
“I don’feel like trick’er’treatin’ either.” Agreeing that just strolling up to the place was not first on her list.
Nate let out an agitated sigh. The whole situation was unideal, but that was the way of life now. He didn’t say anything, what else could he say? It was one of those damned if you do or don’t situations.
“Not going to let anything happen again, you know.” He said slowly, still not looking at her. He felt guilty for the things that had happened to his younger sister under his watch. He knew that there was little he could have done, but he still felt that he should have done something more.
Abby moved her hand from his back to link under his arm, and leaned into his shoulder with a sigh. She squeezed--a breed of hug that just didn’t end. It was a few moments before she spoke, considering the memories were just piling in the back of her throat, and tasted like bile.
“I know.”
His arm slid out from his side and wrapped around his sister before squeezing. He chewed his lip, it was only going to get colder and while Greg did a good job of keeping them fed and warm, he knew they couldn’t really keep asking that of him. They’d be a burden, having no real survivor skills to really pull their own.
“We kind of have to stop somewhere. It might as well be here.” He said with a sigh, “but we’ll be prepared this time.”
His sister nodded into his shoulder, keeping her eyes unfocused on the fire. It was a turbulent mix of feelings that twisted twine around her heart, thinking about this... and none of them were pleasant. The last year had virtually sucked all the capacity for joy out of both of them--things were hollow and gray when Abby stopped to really think about them. The only sparks of anything resembling normal emotional warmth had been in the time since they escaped Eugene.
Strangely, she thought a lot of those were in danger of disappearing if they stayed in this place. Like they’d leave with Greg. The thought alone churned in her stomach, but she stayed quiet. Like usual.
Nate couldn’t really fault her for being quiet, it was her nature more than it was his and even he didn’t feel much like filling the silence. He just sighed, his lips pressing together tightly as he stared into the fire. He never made decisions, he’d often said his mind just wasn’t built for that sort of thing, but it had to be, didn’t it? There wasn’t room in this new world for indecisive.
“It would be good for us. A home.” He said softly, not that the word home held much meaning anymore.