"How had it ended up like this?" Murmuring under her breath she continued down the road. It was the same on every one, leaves and dirt from the lack of occupancy other than the corpses that now resided on the sides. Her partner shuffled behind her, she was becoming uncomfortable with the increasing number of bodies the further they went. Most of the time meant more of them were going to be around.

Her eyes darted around the empty road and into the trees, nothing. She twitched when she heard a squishing sound come from behind her, looking over her shoulder she saw her partner. He had stopped by one of the corpses and had picked up a stick to poke it in the eye. The fascination of poking a corpse for him creeped her out, especially when a wide grin crossed his face as the eye twitched from the contact with the stick.

"Aela! Look!" He continued to poke different spots on the body; Aela sighed and put her hand up to her face. Under her breath she began to count to 5, when she heard her partner shriek she looked up to see he had lodged the stick into the corpses head as it had begun to move and had a grip on his leg.

After it became motionless again he breathed a sigh of relief and wiggled his leg out from its grasp, "Well that was fu-" Before he could finish Aela's fist made contact with his nose, he fell onto road in a ball, holding his nose.

"You fucking idiot! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Aela walked over to her partner, he was in the fetal position shaking, "Tech…" She harshly whispered as she glared down at him. He popped up off the floor and threw his arms up in the air, "Oh please, the only thing I'm worried about killing me is you!" Tech bopped her nose and quickly turned around to continue walking down the road.

Aela felt her blood boil, she hated it when Tech bopped her on the nose, treated her like a child when he was the child. She walked behind him this time, he happily walked along, occasionally making a popping sound, and every time he did Aela's eye would twitch. She knew he was doing it on purpose as well, because he would snicker every time he did it.

It kept up like that for half an hour before Aela finally had it, she went up behind him but before she could reach for the man's neck he stopped walking; Aela collided into his back. A slur of swears came from her mouth as she Peeled herself from his backside, she peeked around Tech to see what had caused him to stop. Her eyes widened, and she began to back up slowly, "Tech… I think we need to run, now."

Heading in their direction was a horde, their staggering figures where coming down the road and up from the forest. Tech spun around and bolted back in the direction they came from, Aela close behind, "Jesus, see what that bloody popping sound does!"

"How is this my fault? They couldn't have heard me from back there! You always have to blame this shit on me!"

"That's because you always manage to start shit!"

"You're such an asshole…" Aela huffed out, the two of them sat up on a tree branch watching bellow. They decided sitting up would be better than running, as the numbers would increase and they would tire themselves. Aela felt Techs foot dig into her side, she turned to glare at him, he gave her a mocking expression and put his finger up to his lips. She rolled her eyes and shoved his foot away.

It was almost an hour till most of the freaks had all wondered off, there were two still lingering around the trees further up, but those could be taken cared of easily if need be. Tech hopped down first, looking back to see if his partner needed help, she had already hopped down as well and walked passed him. Aela look back at him over her shoulder and smirked.

Tech smiled widely in response and kept behind her. "So where do you think we should head next? I mean for supplies and what not." Aela remained looking ahead, her brow furrowed; she didn't even know where they were anymore. She had lost track, but there had to be something eventually, there had to be a gas station along the road sooner or later. She breathed through her nose and replied "I really don't know, there should be something sooner or later. We'll head back up to the road; follow it for a bit longer."

Tech nodded, he looked back up ahead as well, following Aela to the road. It was clear again, no freaks to be seen, but Tech kept an eye open in case.

Night was approaching and they hadn't come across anything, Aela was losing her patience with Tech, his irritating cries about his feet hurting were driving her up a wall. She was hungry, he was whiny, and they were lost…

"Aela!" Tech drew out her name in a long exasperated whine; he came up beside her and tugged on her sleeve. "C'mon, when are we gonna find something!" Aela's brow twitched, at this rate she was going to gain a permanent twitch in her face if he didn't act his age soon. She debated whether or not to smack him again, but he really couldn't afford to lose anymore brain cells.

She took a slow breath in and out and turned to him, "We'll find something, ok? Just give it time." She grabbed his hand and kept walking forward; Tech kept going but the frown on his face resembled a 4 year old that was denied his cookie.

Something caught Techs eye and he looked up, to two bright dots up ahead; head lights. "Aela, look." He pointed towards it, he smiled down at her. Aela looked at him and back at the lights, she knew that meant there was someone, but they have been trying to avoid real people since their previous encounters.

She knew what he wanted to go do, but she had to say no, for their safety. Tech knew this as well; the look on her face told him so. His smile disappeared, he sighed and let go of Aela's hand, "I'm guessing it's a no? Fine…" He breathed; he turned back to the direction of the lights.

Aela raised an eyebrow; he never gives up that easily. "Guess I'll go first then! I'll give ya the signal!" He bolted forward towards the lights. Shit. It was never this easy with him; Aela let out a growl in frustration and went after him.

As they neared Aela's hand shot forward and grabbed his arm, "Will you at least check to see if it's safe first? Please." She whispered, he quickly nodded, and both of them crouched down by a nearby tree. There wasn't anything there, just a truck with its lights on. Not even a corpse showing attack. Aela frowned, even though it seemed safe, something was off. But Tech being his self, bounced up and chanted safe to himself.

It was when she felt the cool tip of a gun at the back of her head was when she closed her eyes, "You idiot." Tech froze and turned around to see a man behind her, his arms dropped to his sides. "Now, stay there and don't move and nothin' will happen to ya friend."

Techs fists balled by his sides, he looked at Aela and back to the man behind her. He sneered at him, but all he did was plop to the floor and stare at the man. He noticed one of the man's hands were missing, his sneering look was replaced with fascination. He couldn't quite see it exactly from where he sat but there was a metal piece with a blade attached at the end.

"So… What happened to your hand?"

"Oh my god." Aela sighed and dropped her head into her hand. Tech was unbelievable some times; did he not notice the situation at all?

"What? I'm just curious." The man chuckled behind her. His face full of amusement, her partner was a moron. His lack of picking up the situation at hand and the danger it carried was something. "I feel bad for ya girly, he always like this?"

"Oh you have no idea…" Aela shook her head and looked up at Tech; his face was filled with confusion.

"Are you killing us or letting us go or…?" Aela made a gesture to scene, "Not for me to decide." Before Aela could open her mouth to respond another man came up behind Tech, soon after two other men joined behind him. All he did was stand there and yet he screamed authority, it made Aela shiver the way he looked at her. His eyes were warm but behind them was nothing but coldness.

He looked to her and then down to Tech, "So what do we have here?"