"Her getting out man, that had nothing to do with me. I left her to die! I may hate that girl of yours, but she is a survivor."
Cassie Grimes never thought she'd see her family again, but when she met a young couple in a pharmacy, her luck changed.
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Violence for violence is the way of the beasts." -Obama, from someone's dream.
✩｡:*•.───── ❁ ❁ ─────.•*:｡✩
For the past few days, things had been strangely quiet. The constant background noise of danger had faded, leaving the group in a comforting tranquillity.
Rudy was perfectly happy with their new state of living, able to sit back and relax. He hadn't felt this way since he was with his family, and he vowed to savour it as best he could.
Cassie was as she always was - nervy, alert. He could tell that she still wasn't letting herself trust this place, still cautious after her last time settling down.
Rudy hadn't seen much of her, even when he did the two of them barely talked. It was strange, worrying even. Whilst his best friend never clung to places, she always clung to people, but now it was like she was pushing him away.
Even now, where she'd usually sit next to him in the circle, she'd decided to sit with Beth, leaving him to sit next to the terror that was her little brother.
"Do you have any sixes?" T-Dog asked her, holding his hand out expectantly.
"I saw that." She rolled her eyes with a playful scoff, handing him three of her cards. "You cheated."
"You can't prove that," T remarked, smirking as he placed his full set of sixes in his victory pile.
She rolled her tongue against her cheek, pouncing to snatch the sixes from T-Dog's hand. It was an amusing sight, watching her practically fling herself for the sake of cards.
"Nuh-uh," T-Dog exclaimed, raising his cards higher. "I won fair, and square."
"Liar." Cassie narrowed her eyes, attempting to wrench her cards from T's grip. "They are my cards, and I swear to god, I'll fight you for them!"
"Oh yeah?" T-Dog lowered his cards, playfully raising his eyebrows. He was as competitive as Cassie, and it was clear neither of them was letting this go. "Slap-fight or arm wrestle?"
"How about real wrestle?" The girl asked, a slight smirk over her lips. "Or are you scared you'll get beaten by a girl?" She tilted her head, jokingly staring T down.
"You're on, Grimes," The man challenged, punching her lightly on the shoulder. "Shaw, why don't you referee?"
Rudy looked over to his best friend, who was very obviously avoiding his gaze. Her face was screwed up in what seemed to be deliberation, before she sighed lightly, her shoulders sagging.
