living_history (living_history) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-04-18 15:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 07, bridget mackenzie, jared bivens, john james searle, molly williams, | bridget and jared |
Week Seven - Sunday
Character: Bridget, Jared, and Searle
Location: Bridget's truck, then UNLV Library
Summary: The trio go off to UNLV and encounter Molly at the Library.
Rating: PG
Bridget was not feeling her best that morning.
Breakfast had decided to stay in her stomach for a change, but the queasy feeling had hovered in the background nevertheless, and she'd had trouble getting going. She was running five minutes late by the time she finally made it downstairs and out to the parking lot. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting," she apologized when she saw Jared and Searle standing by her truck. "I'm running a little slow today." Fortunately she'd already tossed a few bankers boxes in the back of her truck cab the day before, so there wasn't anything else they needed to get before they left. Hopefully they'd get done with everything before the day really heated up.
Jared had just barely got there himself, so he just shrugged. "It's not like we've got anything else to do," he pointed out. Without checking with Searle, Jared hopped into the front seat, leaving Searle to squeeze onto the bench in back with a couple of meaningful elbows to the boxes sharing the seats.
"This doesn't have to be a big raid if you're not feeling well," Searle assured Bridget. "I doubt library books are in huge demand."
"That's all right," Bridget assured Searle as she started up the truck. "This is more of a scouting expedition, I have to be back in time to leave for the meetup anyway." She glanced at both teens as she put the vehicle into gear and started out for the Campus. "The main goal is to see if the computer catalog is still working there, and then we'll just grab some targets of opportunity. If either of you two have specific areas you want to check out, we'll do that while we're there."
"Besides, I need something to read or I'm going to go crazy now that I'm in one spot."
"Same here," Jared said, looking back at Searle. "Never thought video games would start getting boring, but I'm getting there."
"Yeah." Searle nodded, sounding disappointed. "Except if a video game is boring, I don't see how a book can be any better."
Bridget tried to choke back a laugh to avoid offending the teens, but a suspicious sounding snort did escape her lips. She waited a moment until she had her mirth under control and glanced over at Jared, then back at Searle. "You just haven't found the right books yet. The world a good book can conjure in your head is better than anything a video game designer can possibly program."
She would definitely have to grab some of the classics while they were there.
"Jared, if the system still works do you have some specific titles you'd want to search for?"
Jared had trouble holding back an eyeroll. He sincerely hoped the book conjuring comment was for Searle alone. Either that, or the hot thing on legs thought he was twelve. "Yeah, I don't really have books in mind. But get me to the physics section and I'll find a few."
"Can do." Bridget nodded as she turned the corner. "I have no idea where the physics section would be, but I'm sure we can figure it out easy enough." A glance back at Searle. "Anything in particular you'd like to try and find while we're here Searle? This is more of a scouting mission than a heavy raid, but we'll have time to get a few boxes worth of books. I'm sure they'll have DVDs and CD's of some sort too."
"Don't know, maybe a book on blueprints. I'll look through the DVDs and CDs, too." Searle looked out the window, wondering for a moment if he should bring up Molly.
"There's this girl that I met on the campus last week. I told her I'd come visit her again, but then I didn't get a chance. I don't know where she lives, but she might be around."
Smirking slightly, Jared looked back at him. "You went scouting and found a little action? Why can't I get that lucky?" A thought. "Oh yeah, 'cause I got Alice dogging my tracks."
Bridget rolled her eyes at the teenage male banter. She'd taken them for their backs, not their brains, so she'd just have to put up with it. After growing up with three brothers she was more than familiar with it, more than she wanted to be. The brunette opened her mouth to respond, then closed it as she thought better of putting the teen down.
"If we get time we can take a look around and see if we can find her," Bridget finally said after a moment, choosing to ignore Jared's comment altogether. "She really ought to come stay with us at the Suites, it's dangerous for her to be out here on her own."
"She's not alone," Searle corrected, not responding to Jared either because of Bridget's presence. "She's with some guy named Drew - but yeah, I'll see her again eventually." He just hoped Molly wasn't going to be angry with him for saying one thing and not showing up.
"Hey, Jared, when do you think Alice will let you have your own room?"
"Hell if I know," he said with a huff, leaning heavily against his seat. "She keeps going on about tests and proving myself. But it's not as though I could prove I'm not going to kill you all in your sleep by carrying some books around."
"Letting you come with me without her to watch you is a test, I'd say." Bridget responded, glancing over at the unhappy teen. "Though frankly if you were going to kill us all in our sleep you probably would have done it by now." She hoped her read of Jared was the right one, that he was just a kid who'd fallen in with the wrong crowd at the wrong time. If not this was a big leap of faith to be the only one armed and heading into an unknown situation.
"I bet it'll be soon," Searle said, though even as he did say it he had a strong feeling Jack would be very upset if Jared was removed from Alice's supervision. "We'll just have to go on lots of book raids, right Bridget? Jared's an important member of our team so he's gotta come every time." He had no clue how Jared survived, having his life dictated to him like that.
Jared gave a snort, but couldn't hold back a smile. It was nice, feeling not only trusted but needed. "Yeah, it's not like just anybody can carry books around."
"Not everyone recognizes the value of books, so that's a point in your favor," Bridget smiled momentarily, glancing over at Jared. "I'm sure you'll have your own place or at least out from under Alice's direct supervision soon enough, just be patient a little longer."
"I know, I know. Just gotta wait until I'm older," he said, giving her a half smile. "I've heard that a lot before, probably will keep hearing it until I'm dead."
Searle didn't like the sound of that. "Nah, when we're older we'll be the ones calling the shots. Then you can tell people they're too old to do stuff. I have a feeling it's gonna be like that from now on ... at least for a while."
"Watch it you two," Bridget warned with a smirk as they entered the UNLV campus. "You're only a few years younger than I am, if I get to be too old to do something how long do you think you'll have before the youngsters are trying to stick you in a rocking chair beside the fire? I have a feeling that you'll both be in the thick of the decision making soon enough." The teens weren't that young, Jared especially. It would be only fair to include them if things were put to a vote.
Jared cocked his head to the side, looking Bridget up and down. It was good to have some sort of excuse to do that. "How old are you? I'd guess twenty-two."
"Thank you for that," the brunette rolled her eyes, but the smirk was still in place. "I'll be twenty-five next month, so I'm not ready for the rocking chair just yet." Unless it was with an infant at her breast, perhaps, but that was many months away.
Searle laughed. "When you need one of those, you know who to call. I'll custom-make one for you."
"Show off," Jared teased, sitting back. Then he thought about himself in a rocking chair, old. He just couldn't see it. "You think people are going to get that old any more?"
"Maybe," Bridget's smile faded as she thought about the question. "We know a lot more about what killed people younger than they did a century ago, but the world's going to be a much more violent place than it has been in a long time, I think. The next few years are going to be rough, but if we make it out to the other side alive we might live into our seventies."
"We have our group," Searle said, trying to sound optimistic, but his tone was solemn. "It seems safe. We haven't had any problems at Siena." Even as he said that, though, Searle thought of Grace.
"Yeah, yeah, we're probably fine," Jared said quickly. It had been a stupid thing to say, with everything that had happened last week. "I mean, once we get things growing, we won't even have to worry about food so much. It's a pretty safe set-up."
Bridget held her tongue about the issue of safety. Better not to scare the teens about how bad things really were outside Siena, and her own lingering worries. The library building loomed as they turned onto the access road to the parking lot. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it guys, for now let's worry about books, yeah?"
"Yeah," Searle agreed.
****
An hour or so later saw the trio dumping books on a table near the elevators on the Library's third floor, by the first level of the stacks. The plan was to gather everything in one spot, then box the books up and take them down to be deposited in the bed of Bridget's truck. A cart sat nearby, requisitioned from one of the staff areas to help transport everything that much faster once they'd gotten them boxed up.
"So any treasures on this haul Jared?" Bridget deposited an armload of texts from the fifth floor onto the table and glanced over at the teen, knowing he'd been after some works on physics on this expedition.
Molly had been wandering the campus with her sketch pad and some pencils for a few moments, trying to figure out just where she was going to spend her time that morning when she found herself at the front doors of the library. She walked in without stopping to really look around her, if she had, she might have seen the truck that hadn't been there all that long. She sat at one of the tables on the first floor for a moment, before deciding that a view of the campus would be awesome from the upper floors. She hesitated by the elevator for a moment before thinking better of it, you couldn't see what you were walking into from an elevator and instead opted to take the stairs. She was halfway up the second set of stairs when she heard a voice in the otherwise silent library.
Molly stuffed her pencil back into her pocket and reached for her gun, the gun of course was more for threat factor than actual use as she could barely shoot in a straight line, not that she expected anyone who took refuge in a library to be threatening. However, she did remember what the big guy at the meeting had said and decided that she'd rather be prepared. Slowly, she came up the stairs the rest of the way. She popped out of the stairwell and was going to attempt to sound threatening when she noticed Searle.
"Jeez, Searle," She breathed, letting out a breath, relaxing a little, managing a small grin. "I wouldn't have expected you to be the library type."
"Molly!" Searle sounded both surprised and pleased as he grinned at the newcomer. "We're here to get some books for a library we're going to set up. This is Bridget and Jared." He turned to the two colony members. "And this is Molly."
Jared had jumped back the moment he heard a voice, and though it was clear this was the girl Searle was talking about and she was perfectly safe, he didn't come any close to give a half-hearted wave. She was holding a gun, after all, while the closest thing he had to a weapon was Bridget. "Hey."
And Bridget had reached for that weapon, the Beretta on her hip before relaxing at Searle's welcome. She was still twitchy enough from her experiences on the road that her first instinct in a unsecured area (which to her was anywhere but the Siena) upon hearing an unfamiliar voice was to reach for a weapon.
"Hello Molly, always good to meet a friend of Searle's." She looked around to see if the teen had brought along any friends. "Are you here by yourself?" Her brow furrowed slightly in concern, it just wasn't safe for anyone to be out by themselves, let alone a teenage girl.
Molly eyed Searle's companions suspiciously as she slid her weapon back in the waistband of her jeans. She figured that the other two people were trustworthy, probably from the group that Searle was in, so she ventured a few steps closer to where they stood, letting her eyes wander over the covers of the books.
"Um... not really. Drew is here. Well, not here, but in the radio tower a little bit down that way." She said gesturing in the direction of the radio tower. "But the university isn't really a high traffic area, haven't seen anyone around here but Searle and well, now you guys. But I don't need any protection anyhow." She added, trying to act a little tougher than she did normally, suddenly realizing why Bridget was asking if she was alone. For some reason it seemed important to make the woman think she could take care of herself, despite whether it was the truth or not.
Bridget's frown deepened at Molly's words, but there wasn't anything she could do about the situation. She exhaled and shook her head slightly to dismiss the images that came to mind of all the bad things that could happen to the girl. "Fair enough, but if you change your mind about that you know how to find us."
"Hope you don't mind us stealing your books," Searle cut in, glancing between Bridget and Molly quickly. "Sorry I didn't get over here last week like I said I would, I was hoping we'd run into you."
"It's not like they're her books," Jared said dryly. "Just being somewhere doesn't mean you own it."
Bridget rolled her eyes at Jared's comment. Not that she disagreed, but that wasn't really the point. "They're as much hers as they are anyones, but it doesn't matter." She forced a smile toward the girl. "What brings you up to the stacks this early in the day? The view or the books?"
Molly glared at Jared, she really had no problems with them taking the books, there were of little use to her for the most part, and it wasn't like she didn't have a million other ones to choose from. "I could stop you if I wanted to," She told Jared, "Just cause you come here to take them doesn't mean you have anymore right to them than I do." She knew it wasn't in her best interest to start fights with Searle's other friends, but that didn't mean he could be as jerk to her. With a roll of her eyes she made a show of ignoring him to answer the other questions asked of her, "It's alright, Searle, I didn't think those other two were going to let you out of place anymore after the argument that Drew and the big guy--Jed had. They didn't seem to impressed that I ran into you in the first place. And um, I was coming up here to draw, I figured it had a great view of the campus." She rushed a little as she spoke, not wanting to ignore anything that had been said to her.
"Yeah, they definitely weren't impressed I went out alone." Searle half-smiled. If Molly and Drew had already gone to the museum and had an argument with Jed, they probably weren't going to be moving into Siena anytime soon.
"They aren't impressed by much," Jared said, coming something to close to agreeing with them. He started on boxing books, having decided Molly wasn't really worth their time. "Surprised Jed didn't wet himself over having another little girl to take care of. Maybe that's why he kicked Jack out, 'cause he figured he had a replacement."
The frown came back out, this time directed at Jared. She was going to have to have a talk with the teen one on one before they went out on another raid together. Whatever he thought of Jed or any of the others at Siena he shouldn't be discussing them in front of someone who wasn't a part of the group. It was the first she'd heard of Jack not staying with Jed anymore, and she should have considering she lived right next to them.
Making a mental note to follow up on both issues later, Bridget turned to help Jared box books. They were running out of time before they had to get back, and she wanted to make a quick run through the history department faculty offices on the way. "I'm not going to throw any stones at anyone for going out on their own," she looked over at Searle and Molly, "but speaking as someone with experience both going it alone and with a group, I personally prefer a group. I don't care if you're eight or eighty: it just isn't safe to be on your own anymore."
"Get where you are coming from, I do." She said slowly, "But I am not alone. Drew is here too, and the campus is a safe place to be for the most part. Yeah, I run into you guys, but I'll tell you that the bad guys killing people, they aren't interested in setting up libraries and robbing classrooms." She was tired of having this conversation with everyone she ran into. She had met a total of four people lately and two of them had decided that what she needed was a lecture on safety. Sure, she wasn't a great shooter, but there was no way they could have known that by looking at her. She was frowning slightly, "If Drew and I leave the campus, then we'll consider the group. We went to the meeting, we talked to your advertising group, we'll go when and if we decide to go." She didn't mean to get an attitude, she really didn't, and she glanced apologetically over at Searle for arguing with the people he'd have to deal with later. In the back of her mind, Molly knew that Bridget was right, that they weren't as safe as she wanted to pretend they were, but that didn't mean she wanted to be lectured about it by people she didn't know.
Bridget really didn't like the way things were going but she also wasn't going to lose any sleep over it. "That's your choice, I'm just telling you my experience. You've been on your own and I don't know you, you're obviously old enough to make your own decisions."
Searle caught Molly's look, frowning back at her. The whole conversation wasn't going how he'd hoped, and Jared mentioning Jed throwing Jack out for a replacement touched a nerve, too.
"We can't dictate everyone's lives to them." Searle's voice had a hard edge when it came out, and he looked toward Bridget briefly before looking down at the books in front of him. He began to pile them into boxes, trying to ignore how his heart began to beat faster than usual in his chest. Thinking about what Jack was going through and the power the adults were asserting over the younger members in their group was troubling to him.
Though he tried, Searle found he couldn't tame his anger in the moment and abandoned the books. "Molly, you want to help me get more books? I left a stack back there." He motioned vaguely to the book collection beyond the hallway, and wasted no time walking that way as well.
Bridget watched them go and turned toward Jared, irritation clear in both expression and voice. "If you ever want to go on another raid with me again you'll keep your mouth shut about the others in front of strangers, clear? We'll keep Alice out of this for now, but you and I are going to have a talk later. You don't like Jed and Jack, I get that, but they're part of our group and Molly isn't."
Jared didn't look up from boxing, though his shoulders visibly tensed. "These aren't just strangers, though. We're inviting them to join the group. They need to know what they're getting themselves into, good and bad."
"They haven't accepted yet, have they? Besides, you aren't exactly an unbiased party when it comes to Jed and Jack." Bridget shook her head. "This isn't the time or place to talk about others, but you and I are going to sit down and have a conversation before we go out together again." And she was going to bring another adult with her on the next book raid, take Cassidy up on her offer of help.
She finished up a box and taped the lid shut before placing it on the cart. "Let's get this finished up, I have to be back in time to go to the meetup."