Jed Bailey (jokerandthief) wrote in the_colony, @ 2009-12-31 22:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 02, alice munroe, jed bailey, john james searle, ~ series: nv meetups |
Week Two - Tuesday
Characters: Alice Munroe, John Searle, and Jed Bailey
Location: Nevada State Museum, morning
Summary: Searle follows the signs hoping to meet new people. Instead he finds Jed. And Alice. Alice, he doesn't mind meeting.
Rating: PGrific
One morning, on his way to the grocery store, Searle saw something that he was sure had never been there before: a sign addressed to survivors. Apparently someone was trying to gather any survivors to the Nevada State Museum, and no matter what the reason Searle decided very quickly he wanted to go and meet whoever was behind the sign. Even if he had made a couple friends already, knowing as many people in the area would probably be to his advantage - not to mention he was starving for a sense of community. Maybe some people would want to come live in the mall, or maybe they were living in one of the many hotels in the area and Searle could move in again. But those thoughts he'd keep to himself. Searle didn't want to seem desperate or anything.
Instead of shopping, Searle ate his breakfast in the grocery store and then left for the museum, enjoying the breeze while riding on his bike. It was only morning, but the temperature was rising rapidly. Coming from Vermont, he wasn't used to the heat Las Vegas generated every single day. Instead of hanging around outside, he was usually happier inside where the air conditioning worked. It was worth it to be out a little later in the afternoon than he otherwise would have liked it if meant meeting new people in Las Vegas.
It didn't take a long time for him to arrive, and he parked his bike right in front. After taking a breath, hoping the meeting with whoever was inside would go well, Searle pulled open the front door of the museum and went inside. "Hello?"
Alice had been filling the cooler with water and Jed was taking a better look about the museum's interior, as they really hadn't gone further than the foyer the first day. Not with the first new contact. Searle's voice echoed through the wide open space, bringing Alice out of her own internal musings as she quickly shut off the water.
"You're early!" she called back, flipping the lid on it and hefting it out with her as she moved from the bathroom.
The woman's voice in response threw him off, especially when she spoke to him so familiarly. "I am?" was how he responded as he paused in the foyer, dumbly.
"By a half-hour," Alice said as she rounded the corner, her steps a little jerky with the weight of the heavy cooler but otherwise constant. Her eyes immediately fell on the young man and his dirt bike. Despite herself, she felt a spark of camaraderie; it took a certain type of person to ride a mechanical bike of any type. "Guess I forgot not everybody's got a watch anymore." She plopped the cooler down on the table next to the glasses, running the back of her hand over her forehead. "I'm Alice."
"Oh." Right, he'd barely thought of the time when he'd seen the signs. Alice was right: time in any numeral amount was lost on him those days. The heat was what dictated where he was and when, or what he felt like doing.
When Alice told him her name, Searle's eyes immediately widened as he recognized it as the name Jed had mentioned. "Do you know someone named Jed? He mentioned you. I've been looking for you to see if I could run into you." The last bit Searle regretted saying as soon as it was out of his mouth, feeling it might be too much information for just meeting her, but that was just his nerves talking.
Everything had come out in a rush, and Alice found her lips quirking slightly. Why is everyone so damn excited to meet me? Honestly... "Yeah, I do. He's going over the premises since we had some time to kill. You must be the boy who was hanging out with Jack." She grabbed one of the glasses, filling it from the cooler and bringing it to him. "Here."
"He told you about me?" Searle averted his eyes pretty quickly after hearing that, knowing whatever Jed had said was probably not exactly good. They'd met under bad circumstances, and even though he'd gotten along with Jed the morning after the confrontation, another one had occurred which led to them all splitting up. "Thanks." He looked up as she handed him the glass, and didn't hesitate taking a long drink.
"Nothing so bad," she affirmed at the tone of his voice, retrieving her water bottle from her rucksack. "Just that when the cats are away, et cetera. He was upset that you both ran off. 'Specially Jack." She paused to take a drink, looking him over all the while. "You seen her at all? She's been gone a week. We've looked all over for her."
When Alice asked if he'd seen Jack, Searle fought against averting his eyes again, instead shaking his head. "I've been looking for her too, but I haven't seen her. She didn't tell me where she went." Instead of worrying about Jack's well-being (he didn't think she was unsafe), he worried about whether she hated him or not. It made him feel more guilty than he had before to know Jed and Alice had been looking for her, as well. "Are you guys hoping she comes when she sees the signs?"
"That's the plan," she said, moving to one of the chairs and sitting down, her legs stretched out in front of her. "Or part of it, anyway."
"How many people do you think are living here?" The world seemed much bigger without things like the internet and cell phones, and Las Vegas was no exception. If there were others living in the area, if he never ran into them he'd never know. If they were like him, they were indoors most of the day avoiding the heat.
"No clue," Alice replied, tapping her fingers on her water bottle and seriously tempted to call Jed back early. Something stopped her, though. This boy was just so... sad-looking. Bringing Jed about after what happened seemed like a bad idea. "It's a very big city, and most of it was evac-ed. But then, people've found me, and I've found others. There's bound to be more."
Searle nodded at that information, taking a moment to digest it. It seemed like Alice had met more than just Jed and Jack. "Have you met someone named Lily?" he asked, going to a chair nearest to him and sitting down before taking another drink of his water. Alice was nice and didn't seem to mind talking, so he thought he'd stay a while. Alice shook her head in answer.
"We only just started the meetups yesterday."
That likely meant Alice hadn't met Lily, so Searle nodded with comprehension. "This is a good idea," he admitted, after a short pause on his part. "I don't know why I didn't think of it. It would be nice to know who's around here."
"I'm..." Alice started, then frowned a little. It felt wrong to express her concerns with a kid; he didn't need to hear about how she didn't trust people at large, or how there was a huge risk of this ending up badly. She didn't doubt that Jed had already gave him that talk or something very similar to it, anyway. "It's probably better that you didn't try and do it alone, especially being... how old are you?"
Alice's hesitation didn't make Searle suspicious of what she was going to say. Her asking how old he was just made him sure she was questioning his abilities because of his age. The context in which Jed had done the same thing had annoyed him, but Alice wasn't aggressive or outright telling him he couldn't do anything, even if she did clearly doubt him. "I'm fifteen." There was a little bit of defiance in his tone, though.
Alice gave a small half-smile at his answer and his moxie. Clearly he was of the mind that he was old enough to take on the world, and part of her didn't want to burst his bubble. If anything, she wanted to take him on and really teach him what needed to be learned. "I would've pegged you for seventeen," she said honestly. "You're tall for your age." She chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. "You ever been in a fight before?"
Well, Alice saying he looked seventeen helped to warm Searle up to her in a second. He couldn't help but smile, then feel more than a little embarrassed, because a woman he noticed was very attractive was complimenting him. "No," he said, looking a little sheepish suddenly. Searle wasn't ashamed he hadn't been in a fight, just that he was feeling suddenly shy. "I don't really believe in fighting. Words should be enough to get your point across."
"Sorry to say, that's not how the world works anymore," she said. "People are mean as hell, and it's all about fighting to survive. If you can't fight, well. You get the idea. What if a group of people had shown up and thought you had something of worth? Beat the hell out of you? Would you be able to stop them?"
Searle's eyebrows drew together on his forehead as Alice was straight with him about the state of the world. The confrontations he'd been in thus far hadn't required him to fight back. "I don't have anything I couldn't give up if they really wanted it," he admitted, and currently that was true. "If I had to defend myself I guess I would ... but --" He paused at length. "Have you had to fight anyone around here?"
"Not yet," Alice replied, sounding very serious. "But that doesn't mean nothing. This city used to have gangs and crime bad, and that was before everything got a shorter shelf life. There's still looters, still people out there who don't give a damn about people. Chances are they might even swarm this place, what with all the valuables about." She took a sip of water. "S'called being cautious. Takin' care of you and yours. Some people might kill ya just because it means less competition for resources. I remember the riots."
While Searle wanted to say there were probably so few people that there was enough to go around, he knew that the things they lived on currently would run out pretty quickly in the grand scheme of things. Even though he'd done a lot of thinking while he was on the road by himself, he'd done a lot of avoidance of certain topics also. The reality of their survival situation was much more serious than thinking about if drinking laws should still be in effect; it was life or death.
"It'd be good to have a network. People we can rely on." Searle's eyes were downcast as he spoke, looking into his glass.
"That's what the trends are sayin'," Alice said, "Still not completely sure what we'll do after we get a network started, but at least people won't have to think they're alone in this world. If they need companionship or someone t'go raid with, or they get hurt or something, somebody'll be reachable."
Searle nodded. "We could have meetings to keep in touch with people and see if anyone has problems," he suggested thoughtfully. "I don't know what you need or I can do, but I want to help if you should need anything." His tone was strong and determined when he said it, but afterward he felt faintly embarrassed. Alice was older than him, pretty, and he didn't know what he could possibly offer, so he hoped he wouldn't want to eat his words later on.
Alice nodded. "Very likely. We're-- Jed and I are already going to be doing this daily for a while, so. I'm pretty sure if people want to just come by to sit around, shoot the shit, I'm pretty sure that'd be fine."
Alice heard a crackle on her walkie talkie and reached for it, bringing it up to her mouth.
"What was that, I didn't hear you?"
"I said I heard voices," came Jed's reply, overlapping with a distant echo down the hall. "You all right?"
Alice felt her lips curl up just slightly. "Searle's here."
No response came, but they could both hear his footsteps, approaching at a rapid pace. He tore into the lobby, eyes finding Searle as he sprinted forward. "Where's Jack?" he practically spat as he stopped between them.
Jed's voice over the walkie talkie made his nerves jump a little already, but when he rushed into the room, staring right at him, Searle's heart began to race and his hand clutched the glass he was holding tightly. Even though he felt a strong urge to he didn't run, but just so he wasn't entirely at Jed's mercy Searle did stand up. "I don't know," he said, sounding as scared as he felt.
"Jesus, Jed, you think I didn't ask him that when he showed up?" Alice snapped, a little surprised at him. "Be nice."
Jed looked at her, the scowl he hadn't exactly meant to do melting away. "I was bein' nice; I coulda been pointin' the gun," he said before looking at Searle again. "You ain't seen her at all?" It hardly sounded like a question; more like hoping his answer would change.
The gun? Searle couldn't help looking a little alarmed at mention of that, but immediately tried to force a straight face. "No, I've been trying to find her but I haven't seen her." Thinking about Jack missing again helped Searle take his mind off any threat Jed might have been and he frowned. "Look, I'm... sorry about what happened." Searle lifted his eyes to Jed's face. "I didn't mean to make her leave you."
The honest apology and utter adultness Searle was trying to pull off only seemed to highlight how young he was. Jed didn't have an argument with the kid, and he realized he probably should stop acting like he did. "Hey, it ain't your fault," he said, shaking his head. "I dunno if I done something or she juss got an idea in her head, but it wasn't anything you did." He let out a breath, not exactly looking relaxed but far from the intensity of before.
Alice frowned as she looked between them. This twelve-year-old girl really was bordering on more trouble than she was worth. How could she wrap these two men around her finger that tightly that they'd spend time looking for her and missing her? Or enticing complete strangers to drop what they're doing to go look for her? It seemed so... juvenile and childish, everything that had happened. If she'd really wanted to run away, all she could have done was gone down a few floors at the Hardrock, or across the street. She didn't have to be gone a week, or on the other side of town.
God, if Kay had done something like that, I would've spanked her, twelve or not, she thought, though thinking about her daughter made her feel a different feeling altogether. How was it fair that a girl like Jack could live, but Kayleigh had to die? Life was just cruel.
"I'm gonna see if there's anyone outside," she said after a moment, heading off in the direction of the doors without another word.
Jed looked a bit surprised but didn't object, taking a seat across from where Searle had been sitting before. "Sorry I jumped on you like that," he said after a while. "Just thought you'd know where she'd gone. Someone else we met saw her get in some trouble, so I'm worried."
Searle didn't exactly like when Alice left, but since Jed didn't sound accusing or upset anymore, Searle assured himself everything would be fine. It was only when Jed said someone saw Jack get into trouble that Searle looked surprised again. "What kind of trouble? Is she okay?" Jed clearly didn't know where she was, but maybe the person who'd reported to him about Jack knew if she was all right or not.
Jed didn't want to alarm him too much; last thing they needed was another kid running around town without anyone to help. "She juss had a run-in with some punk kids. Woman who saw her, ZoƩ, she chased 'em off and said Jack drove off after. So it ain't bad or nothin', juss, those kids're still out there. You oughta be careful, too."
What Jed said made him think of what Alice had discussed with him about fighting, which made him frown. He'd told her he didn't have anything he wouldn't give up in order to avoid a fight, but what about if he ever had to defend Jack? Searle looked to the ground, feeling his heart sink. He just didn't like thinking about the world being a violent place, especially not a world in which he'd have to fight.
"I will," he promised. "Do you want water?" Searle looked over at Jed, trying to get past his saddened mood. "It's hot out there."
A smile tugged at Jed's mouth but he held it back. "Sure, water would be great. Was a long walk, explorin' this place. Doesn't look like nobody bothered lootin' here, so it's all still set."
After setting his glass down temporarily, Searle got Jed a glass of water and handed it over to him. He hoped that they could remain on good terms, and made a silent vow to himself to watch it around Jed. The guy wasn't bad, and he'd just have to get used to allowing someone else to look out for him. His offense that Jed would try to tell him what to do was probably on account of his anguish from the loss of his parents, so he knew it was his problem, not Jed's, that kept them from getting along in that regard.
"I told Alice I'm here to help," was how he answered, jaw set with determination. "If you need anything else...."
Jed looked a bit surprised, feeling yet again that he'd too quickly judged the boy. "Not right now, I don't think. Right now we're meetin' people, seeing who's out there. Then we'll make a plan. You still stayin' at the mall?"
"Yeah, I thought maybe people might come to it and I could meet them, but so far not that many people have. You've met more than me. I guess it's because you move around more?" Searle didn't know exactly; he didn't know Jed's habits. "It's too hot outside for me, though. I can't survive in this weather out there." Maybe if he went out in it more he'd get used to it, but then again Searle wasn't sure if anyone could get used to exposure to 104 degrees for prolonged periods of time.
"I juss go from air-conditioned car to air-conditioned building mostly," Jed said with a grin before cocking his head to the side. "The mall's got a/c, right? Yer comfortable there?"
Searle nodded, and he wondered if he shouldn't scrap the bike for a car in order to get air conditioning. Or maybe he could just keep both. "A shower'd be nice, but it's more fun than sitting in an apartment or hotel room all day."
Jed nodded. "Good point. Hadn't thought of it like that before." He'd been half tempted to see if the kid wanted to move into the Hardrock, but if he was good where he was, guess Jed shouldn't bother asking. After a longer than comfortable silence, he asked, "You been alright? Stayin' out of trouble?"
"I've been good. I met a girl who came to the mall to get a movie, but other than that I've been alone." Before the H1N1 tragedy Searle wouldn't have called being alone for so long a good thing, and he still didn't like it, but it was better than trouble or turmoil. "I hope you find Jack soon. If she finds me before you I'll tell you."
Alice returned in better spirits to the two of them talking quietly, something she was glad for. She hadn' really wanted to have to actively separate two brawling men. She gave a nod to them both as she refilled the empty glass of water she'd left.
"Doesn't seem to be anyone else in the vicinity," she said.
Searle looked up when Alice came back, nodding once at her words. "Maybe once the sun starts going down."
"We don't try staying that late," Alice replied, sipping from her glass. "Three hours max. If they don't come within that window, there's always tomorrow."
"Oh ... okay." Taking a seat again, Searle let his eyes linger on Alice for a moment after replying to her, then looked to his low glass of water. "Well, I'll stay here a bunch with you guys." He looked up, eyes on Jed quickly and then on Alice. It'd be a lie to say he didn't want to get to know her better.
It wasn't hard to miss Searle's interest. Jed had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. "Sure, yeah, stay as long as you like," he said, not bothering to hold back his grin. "Hell, maybe you wanna look around the place. You could take Alice."
Alice cocked a single brow at Jed's suggestion as she looked in his direction, something about his tone making it sound like a big joke to her. She rolled her eyes a little. "Right. I'd rather not waste energy lookin' around if you've already gone over the place. I don't wanna leave the lobby only occupied by you; ya might scare everybody away."
"Yeah, I don't think I'm the one they scared of when they come in," he teased, nodding at Searle. "I'm not scary, right?"
What Jed was doing went right over his head, and though Searle thought it might be cool to check out the museum he wasn't going to insist when Alice clearly didn't want to. He was sure just sitting around every day would get boring eventually, and then he'd look around. It would probably be fun to do so with Jack, but thinking of her didn't do much to keep him in good spirits.
When Jed asked him if he was scary, Searle blinked himself out of his own thoughts and looked over at Jed absently for a moment before smiling somewhat unconvincingly. "Uh ... at least not right now."
Alice smirked a little at that, crossing her ankles in front of her and drinking her water nonchalantly.
Jed gave a laugh, leaning back. "And how 'bout Alice? What you think of her?"
Searle's eyes found Alice quickly, then he looked away. "She's nice, just like you said."
Alice blinked as she looked between them, her eyes focusing on Jed before she scowled a little. Was this some kind of joke that they'd talked about doing while she was outside? Jed raised his eyebrows at her.
"What? He said yer nice."
Alice huffed, still scowling. "Whatever."
All at once, Searle felt a bit uncomfortable. For whatever reason, he'd clearly said the wrong thing. After finishing the last of the water in his glass, he stood up. "I think I'm gonna go check this place out after all. I can go alone." With that, he began to do just that, leaving the area unless anyone wanted to stop him.
As soon as his steps faded, Jed gave a laugh. "Now who's scarin' people off?"
Alice aimed a punch into his shoulder, her scowl deepening. So it had been a joke; just not one that Searle had also been in on. "Laugh it up, Goliath."
He only laughed harder, though he rubbed his arm. She had some strength there. "He likes you, y'know," he teased.
Alice glared at him a little, standing up and pushing her hair over her shoulder. "I'm gonna get my pack from the truck. Try not to burn the place down while I'm gone."
"What, no response? Don' tell me you like the kid!" he called to her retreating figure.
"Only room in this city for one pedophile, but thanks for your concern!" Alice called back over her shoulder, heading out the door.
There was a pause before the door cut off his disgruntled, "Hey!"