𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐈𝐓 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒 ≡ Joel Dawson (Pt. 2 on hold)

𝟎𝟐 ∘ string bean

His dark eyes were blinking quickly as his hands rose in defence, watching the girl's movements. What confused her, was that he had thrown down his weapon. He had had a crossbow aimed at her also, but when she asked, he dropped it.

Delilah stepped closer to the boy who attempted to move back, not lowering her crossbow. "Can you read?"

The boy's brows pulled together in confusion, hands lowering slightly, "Can I-"

"Can you read?" Delilah repeated, growing irritated with the intruder.

"Yeah. Yeah, of course, I can read," the boy responded, urgency in his voice as he brought his hands back up and tried not to piss the girl off.

"Okay. So, do I need to use a different colour of spray paint or something? Because the bus clearly says 'go away'," she said through a clenched jaw.

The boy nodded nervously, words stumbling past his lips, "You're right, it does. That is completely my bad, so I'll just-"

"What are you doing here?"

"Is the crossbow really necessary?" He asked, shrinking back from her. As the evening sun's light shifted through the window, he was able to see her better and his eyes widened. Her shirt had fresh red stains, and he had seen enough to know what it was.
"Oh, my God, whose blood is that?"

Delilah looked down to see that she did indeed have blood staining her shirt. She figured some of the blood must have gotten on her when she had driven the machete into the monster. She shrugged as she looked back up, "Some monster who tried to kill me. I killed it first."

The boy's mouth fell open slightly, surprised that she had been able to kill one on her own. He himself became quite terrified when in the presence of the monsters - not that he was about to admit that to her, of course.
"Right. Okay. Look, I'm not looking for any trouble. I swear, I didn't know anyone lived here. I was just following him."

He pointed to Boy, who tilted his head to the side as he looked between the two humans. As far as he was concerned, he was just helping the nice humans so that they didn't get eaten by monsters.

The intruder seemed sincere and also appeared to be terrified of the girl on some level. It was enough to make Delilah lower her crossbow somewhat. But then she looked at Boy and remembered the rule that they had with Brax - trust no one unless they proved themselves trustworthy.

"Where are your friends? Are there more on the way?" Delilah asked, her instincts kicking in as she brought the crossbow back up, not letting her guard down.

"No, there's no one here or on their way. I'm alone," the boy responded quickly, not wanting to be shot. "I swear."

"Then, you're either lying or just downright stupid," a gruff voice laughed. Delilah knew it was Brax without even having to turn around.

"I'm not lying," the boy assured quickly.

"Then you're stupid," Brax stated. The man stepped into the bus, turning his machete in his hand. "And who have we got here, Lilah?"

The girl went to answer when she realised she had never actually asked the boy for his name. She glanced at the boy expectantly, raising her brows for an answer.

"Joel. Joel Dawson," the boy choked out, a slight whimper in his voice. It wasn't every day you had a girl pointing a crossbow at you and a man holding a very threatening looking blade. "Is- is that a machete?"

Brax grinned, turning the blade again, "Yes, Joel Dawson. That is exactly what this is. Now, do you want to tell me why the hell you're on our bus?"

"I followed the dog. Boy," Joel said quickly, eyes not leaving the machete as he pointed to Boy. "He saved me from one of the monsters."