When Karkat woke up, he refused to believe that it was anything later than nine am. The sun was barely up and the shadows from the trees only made it darker. Karkat sat up from his excuse of a bed, his vision blurry. He turned to the side and noticed Terezi was already out of the tent, most likely already up and asking Dirk more about Dave. The poor guy probably was wishing Karkat were there to pull her away. Once the girl got hooked on someone, she would talk non-stop about them. Nepeta's small but loud voice echoed in the silent morning. The piece of tarp that made up some kind of door opened and Equius popped in.
"Newcomer, please try your best to wake up as early as the rest of us. Everybody needs to be out there before we can start." He walked back outside and Karkat decided it was best not to get the scary looking guy aggravated.
The group was already up and eating a little of yesterday's food supply for breakfast. Everyone had very small portions but that was understandable since food was valuable in a situation like this. The girl whose name started with a 'K' called him over to where she was sitting.
"Hello, Karkat. By the look on your face, I am assuming you don't remember my name?" She laughed and handed him his plate. "I'm Kanaya."
"Riiight. Sorry about that, Kanaya. I'm not too good with names..."He trailed off awkwardly, staring at the ground. Kanaya stood up and looked into the horizon. The sun was still rising, its sunlight barely shining through the thick foliage. Admitedly, Karkat wished he could sit here and not worry about fighting, dying, or becoming one of the undead. He didn't even have a clue how it started. All he knew was that the damn virus is what took his dad away. If Terezi hadn't shown up when she did, he'd be a walking zombie too.
Karkat averted his thoughts to today's activities. The two leaders had asked him to scavenge with them last night and he was in no position to refuse. Now, he was heavily regretting that decision. Nepeta stood in the center of the group and attempted to get everyone's attention.
"Attention group! It's about time we get this show on the road~! Let's all give a round of applause for today's trainee, Karkat!"
The group gave each other worrisome looks but clapped for the boy anyways.
"As you know, we usually take volunteers too since any help would be good. Would anyone like to come?" Nepeta scanned her audience for raised hands but sighed when she saw none. She got off the podium she was on and started walking towards the scavenging gear, accidentally pushing Karkat to the side with her shoulder. He noticed the disappointed look on her face and wanted to do something to help. After all, most people would be terrified to go into zombie territory and Nepeta and Equius go almost every time. He took a deep breath and looked at Terezi, who somehow knew what he wanted to do. She gave him a stern nod of approval and smiled her wicked smile once again. Karkat was almost trembling when he reached the podium. Taking a pot, Karkat banged it against the side of the podium until everyone was looking at him.
"H-hey everyone," he stuttered. "Listen, I know it's scary to think about going out there and how big of a possibility it is to get attacked but…we can't just keep letting Nepeta and Equius risk their lives every day! I mean, just think about how much supplies we could get if more people came?"
The man named Eridan spoke up. "Why don't you just shut it, newbie? There are plenty of supplies left and those two can handle themselves pretty fine. Most of us would only slow them down anyways! It's better if we don't go."
As the girl next to him, Feferi, tried to calm him down, a hand raised up from the crowd.
"I will go with them. Maybe I'll be able to find my brother and his stupid friends," Dirk said. He stepped over to the side to join Nepeta, who was putting some gear in a bag. Jade pushed her way towards him and declared that if it helped find Dave and the others, she'd go. The remaining six people stood there, waiting for them to leave.
"Tch. What a bunch of scaredy-cats," Karkat said, frustrated. He kicked a pebble to the side but froze in fear as soon as he heard a dog whimper. The dog, Bec, ran to his owner and she laughed, petting his head. Jade motioned Karkat over to pick out a weapon.
"When we raided a weapon shop a while ago, we found these. You're free to pick one of them to take, Karkat."
There were some interesting weapons in the box, even some Karkat had never seen before. He curiously held each weapon up one by one and swung at random, praying that nobody would make the mistake of walking around him.
"How am I supposed to know which one I'm good at?" he whimpered. Dirk walked over, picked up a sickle, and nearly cut off Karkat's hand by throwing it at him.
"You seem like a violent person. Maybe you'll enjoy cutting off heads from close range?" He chuckled although no one else thought it was funny. "Go ahead, try it out. We have a fighting dummy over there."
At first, Karkat thought he was pointing at Eridan and no matter how much he wanted to hit the guy, he would never actually attempt it. Dirk noticed and thrust his pointing finger over a little to the hanging bag of…things. It was tied to a thick branch on a tree nearby and was the size of a normal person. Karkat swung at it a few times until he was completely satisfied with how he used the sickle. Once he was done he walked over to the day's scavengers and got all his gear; a backpack, flashlight, water, and one of three walkie talkies.
"Wait, if there are five of us, how come we only have three walkie talkies?"
"I plan on staying with Dirk the whole time and Nepeta usually stays alongside Equius so we gave you one in case you get in trouble or get lost," Jade told him, scratching her head. "Sorry…"
"C'mon guys! Let's get a move on!"
Nepeta was jumping up and down, trying to grab their attention. Her partner was leaning against a nearby tree, with his palm on his face. The three laughed and went to join Nepeta, who was looking very out of breath by now. Silence fell over the group and they walked to the ladder in the hole.
"So, Karkat, are you nevous?" The leader asked, walking in front of him. Karkat thought about it for a little while before he answered.
"To be honest, I am a little…" He twirled the sickle in his hand as they treaded through the barely lit tunnel, very nervous indeed. When they finally reached the end of the tunnel, Karkat felt like he was going to puke. He leaned against the wall with his hand, hunched over. Equius attempted to comfort him with a pat on his back but accidentally sent him face first into the ground.
"Er…sorry about that. Sometimes I forget how strong I am, newcomer." Equius helped Karkat up and noticed that the others were already waiting up at the top. They climbed up and Karkat was dreading every step they took on the ladder. After Equius was out, he peeked his head out of the tunnel hatch and let out a big gasp. Nothing could have prepared him for this.
"Oh my fucking God."
A/N: And from this point on, the story will be completely fresh! I hope you all enjoy reading my story and sorry it took so long to update things!