Who: Julia Denning and Vera Parker Leigh What: Picking up Vera When: After this exchange on znet Where: Wilderness Warnings: None yet
Julia should have stopped to ask for help, to catch her breath, but ever since she'd discovered Vera's post on the network her heart had been racing, mind barely able to comprehend that not only was the young girl alive, but she'd been so close all along. Just another city away, god, the knowledge nearly tore her chest in two, but she didn't have time for self-recrimination. Not when Vera was waiting for her out there, alone and so close to those dreaded projects. She'd barely managed an apology as she sped out of the infirmary, dropping out in the middle of her shift, but not really giving a damn as she made her way back to her cell. Right now she wasn't the smiling nurse putting everyone's priorities above her own as she rummaged underneath her bed. Checking her bow and quiver that had been temporarily discarded in her time here, as if these walls suddenly made the need of them less important when she could do so much more with her hands. But she needed them now, needed to discard the false comfort of home and safety if she was going to be truly prepared for what might be waiting for her out there. For Vera.
She'd be damned to hell first before she lost another child.
Quiver strapped to her back, hunting knife harnessed in a thigh holster, Julia grimly loaded her gun, knowing it would be her last resort, before she tucked it away behind her back and under her jacket. Picking up her bow she quickly left, using her personal knowledge of the prison to get out quickly while avoiding large groups of people because the last thing she needed was to be stopped and asked questions she didn't have the time to answer. She was running toward the gate before too long, shouting up and startling the sentry, barking out her reason for leaving as 'a medical emergency,' abusing her position to get out without having to properly explain. She didn't bother waiting for the door to fully open or heed the shouts that followed her, bow waiting and ready in her grip as she entered the forest and finally took a short, pointed breath.
She let go of her fear and anxiety on the exhale, her frantic pace slowing down now that she was surrounded by the uncertainty of shadows, alone in the wilderness that was no human's friend. On the inhale her arms came up faster than they'd ever had in the practice range, turning thirty degrees to her right as she shot an arrow through the center of a lurking zombie's empty eye sockets. Just one thankfully, but while a maternal instinct beg to move, to run again, what was left of her training pulled her forward, boot weighing down on the inanimate corpse's neck before she reclaimed her arrow with a crack of decayed bone. She had no arrows to spare for the dead, not if she wanted to get to Vera and bring them back alive.
Nocking it back in place she made her way methodically through the forest, keeping track of sounds and movement, taking down every zombie that got in her way, four so far, but it could have been much worse. Especially now that she'd made it closer to the projects. She hadn't wanted to scare Vera any more than the girl might already be by bringing up the supernatural threats that seemingly gathered in the dilapidated apartment buildings she could finally see in the distance through the trees. But now she wondered if that had been wrong choice. She was close now, she had to be, but if the child wasn't there then what would Julia-
She heard a sound, the loud shuffle of the walking dead and something impacting a hard surface. Feet taking her there before thought could guess at what it might mean she moved around the trees to see not one, but two zombies scrambling with violent energy against the wooden door of a tool shed. Vera. Fear got the better of her for a terrible second as her first arrow missed its mark, impaling the female zombie through the neck and causing it to turn, ready to stagger forward. Before it could lunge though she sent another arrow through its skull and then did the same for its companion which fell against the door like dead weight. Once the danger was gone Julia rushed forward, flinging the dead body off the door and to the side, vibrating with the instinct to shout and see if Vera was alright, but she knew she couldn't. They weren't safe here so she had to be quiet, they both did.
So she knocked gently three times before she spoke in a shaky, but low voice, "Vera? Are you in there? It's Julia."