Orsay managed to convince Orc to stay with her long enough for them both to rest, wash up in the river and talk for a little bit longer. Orc seemed pretty quiet to her, he didn't like talking about himself and mostly turned everything around so he could tell her about God which was a little irritating but at least it passed the time and kept him with her. One thing she did manage was to get him to tell her about everything that happened after she had been killed back in the FAYZ.
Because Orsay was well known from her time, it was easy for him to pick up where she had left off. It was shocking for Orsay to hear of what had happened and she wished she knew if they had managed to stop Gaia in the end. It hurt to think of Gaia because she was essentially Nerezza. Nerezza had been Orsay's friend when she had finally met other people in the FAYZ and she had trusted her, allowed her to guide her and protect her only for Nerezza to be the one to hurt and kill her in the end.
"You still the prophetess?" Orc asked once he had finished telling her of the moment he was blown away by something unknown.
"What?" Orsay blinked.
"You know... Can you still see stuff?" Orc asked, lowering his voice like they were sharing a secret.
"Oh. I... I don't think so. I haven't seen anyone's dreams since I came here but I don't know if I ever really was near enough someone while they were sleeping to do it. Maybe I should test it with you." Orsay shrugged casually.
"I dunno..." Orc said nervously. He wasn't sure he wanted Orsay to see anything in his head. She didn't recognise him and that felt nice to be able to be normal again. Not even again because before the FAYZ he was a dumb bully that everyone knew to be scared of. Orsay might actually be his friend as long as she never found out any of his pasts. She didn't know the people he had hurt or his monster version of himself. It was better for her to just think of him as Charles.
For a moment Orsay was quiet. She didn't want to lie to Orc but if she told him the truth then he might leave her. She was so desperate not to be alone any more. Alone was so frightening, she needed someone else to be with her but was she going to lie to the only person here to keep from being alone. In the end she didn't lie, she just didn't tell Orc that if she had her powers she would be in his dreams whether he liked it or not. She had no control over them. Never had.
As they stayed silent they listened to howls that seemed to only be growing louder and more violent the longer they listened. Orsay recognised them. They were the sounds of the dogs gone wild, the sound they made when they had finally caught a child and were eating the child happily tearing him or her apart. It was a sickening sound.
"Try and block them out." Orsay whispered, her voice suddenly dead of emotion.
"The dogs?" Orc asked.
"No..." Orsay said then hesitated for a moment to listen again.
Normally there were screams that came along with those growls but today there were only growls in the air. It was strange and she waited, listening but no screams followed. It was a first. Maybe they had torn off the persons tongue and jaw or throat before he had a chance to really scream. There were endless possibilities, really. But for some reason the lack of a child's scream unnerved her more than the actual children screaming.
They were both quiet. Orsay was trying to listen out for the sound of screams mixed in with the growls or any sign as to someone being attacked which was why the dogs were sounding the way they were. But no matter how long or how hard she listened she couldn't make out much more than a few excited animals. Meanwhile Orc just didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to say when Howard was around and Orsay was much worse than Howard. She was the Prophetess. She was a big deal.
"I need to find Howard." Orc said after a moment of silence as the growling continued.
"He's probably dead." Orsay mumbled and blushed, looking down sadly into her lap. "I'm sorry. That was blunt but most likely true. No one lasts very long here. Either the dogs get to them before anyone else can, or they just grow sick of trying to fight and they end up giving themselves up to put a possible end to it."
"If that's true... Why haven't you?" Orc asked, frowning at her.
"Me?" Orsay seemed surprised by his question.
"You've been here longer than Howard." Orc said slowly. "Why haven't you given up yet?"
Orsay stared down at her hands, reaching down and digging into the soft dirt by her feet. She wasn't sure what to say at first but Orc didn't rush her so she was able to take her time getting the words together.
"Honestly, I'm too afraid to kill myself." Orsay whispered. "And I'm so desperate to make it through... And... I can't explain it..."
"Try." Orc said gently. He found himself suddenly very curious as to how Orsay had stayed so strong. Even if she was the prophetess this place already seemed like too much for him.
She tried to focus and give words to how she felt. It was hard but she was determined to do it, even if only for herself.
"I just have this feeling. A strong feeling in my mind that tells me not to give up. It tells me that something will happen soon if I just keep fighting to survive. That something is after this as long as we fight and keep trying to survive long enough." Orsay explained. "Honestly, I think mostly it's just that I'm afraid but that voice is always there."
"Me too." Orc admitted.
"You hear a voice?" Orsay blinked in surprise.
"Uh, not really. Not yet. I'm just afraid." Orc mumbled.
Orsay smiled at him and reached over to take his hand. He shied away for a moment but then gently closed his hand over hers. He was much bigger than she was and his hand easily completely covered her's, but it was comforting and he felt so warm, as if his hand was shielding her. "Give it a while. Maybe you'll change." Orsay shrugged and smiled up at him. "I hope not."
Orc wasn't sure what he liked more. Her hand or her face. Her face because of the way she smiled up at him in a way no girl - not even Astrid - had ever looked at him before. She was really pretty when she smiled, her eyes sort of light up in the dark world. While her hand was just something he had missed. Skin to skin contact. She was cold but extremely soft and he found himself too shy to look her in the eyes after he had looked down at her hand and so instead watched her fingers and the way they tilted ever so slightly against his wrist, much smaller and more delicate than his own.
"Are you okay?" Orsay asked, kneeling closer to him.
"Fine." Orc mumbled.
"If you say so..." Orsay whispered and let out a sigh as she suddenly moved so she was sitting right beside of him. "Do you mind if I sleep beside you? It's been a while since I've had someone near me. And it'll make me feel safe."
"Okay." Orc mumbled, feeling his face heat up at the idea.
She lay down beside of him, curled into a small ball and shut her eyes with her fists clenched in front of her face, just slightly touching Orc's leg as if to assure he was staying there. It was nice to have someone else around because it didn't feel like such a frightening place. It didn't feel too big any more. It didn't hurt that Charles was such a big guy. There was something about a large strong boy that made you feel like he could beat anything and so to be by his side meant to be safe. If Orsay was honest then even if Sam was here she would feel safer with Charles.
Orc didn't bother going to sleep at first, instead he watched Orsay. She seemed a lot smaller and a lot younger while she was curled up asleep. But after a while he did lean back and shut his eyes facing towards the sky.
Maybe things would have been better if he had a friend like Orsay in his life before the FAYZ, or maybe even just a sibling. But that probably wouldn't have worked out. The FAYZ made him a new person than who he had been originally thankfully after he had escaped his parents and the crap hole he used to live in. In fact, if it weren't for the mutation that left him a monster then Orc would have been perfectly happy in that world, even with the hunger and the constant fighting. At first alcohol helped numb him while everyone else struggled and by the time he had given that up for God, there was enough food and water for everyone to live well enough. The only real problem was the Darkness and that little Gaia girl that attacked and killed everyone for no reason. That and people like Zil, but Orc was still numb and drunk when that idiot was attacking properly.
He wondered what his family thought about him dying. Honestly he wasn't really sure exactly who had killed him. It just seemed to happen and come out of nowhere while he was fighting off that little Gaia monster by the wall where everyone could see him. They were probably glad he was gone, out of the picture and no longer their problem any more. That should make him sad but Orc had long since stopped caring about how they felt, nor what they thought about him.
This world was a dark place but Orc was used to that now. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do or how he wanted to live in this world but it would help him if he had Howard with him. Howard was always the smart one and would know what to do. That was if he found him. Orsay said he might be dead by now. If he was then Orc didn't know what to do but he was sure that he was alive. He was too smart to have been caught and killed by now. He was alive and Orc would find him. Maybe Orsay would help, maybe he would travel on his own. It didn't matter.
Finally sleep caught him and he was under in a dreamless world of darkness much darker than this world. Nothingness that was both peaceful and disturbing.
As soon as Orc drifted to sleep, Orsay felt it. She didn't know what it was. It was just a feeling that entered her mind.
While she slept it was a dreamless sleep of darkness that passed quickly and she was awake before she knew it when she had been on her own. But this time the darkness was more noticeable and it lasted much longer. She was able to take a longer note of it. She felt as if someone else was in her mind with here and there was just the smallest spark like a light at the end of a long tunnel that was so tiny it was a pencil spot far away.
Orsay felt herself moving mentally towards the light and the feeling that grew stronger the closer she got to it. She tried to focus, pushing herself to pay attention and make the feeling move closer to her which was more complicated than it sounded because she wasn't quite sure how to do it. She wasn't sure what she was doing. For a moment she thought it was Orc or his dream because she had been prepared for that but then she began to feel like it was something else.
She tried to pay attention to it and force it to become clearer for her but it never did. After what felt like hours of the night, but what she knew was only a few minutes, she was woken up and hadn't come any closer to the light nor any answers as to what it was.
Orc had woken up already and was poking at the ground with a stick. He wasn't doing anything serious, just drawing lines in the mud when Orsay crawled up beside of him.
"Is there any way for me to convince you to stay?" Orsay asked quietly. She knew he was planning his leave and found herself desperate for him to stay even more than before.
"I gotta find Howard." Orc mumbled.
"Thought so..." Orsay sighed.
"Sorry?" Orc blinked, not sure why exactly she was so upset.
"I guess it won't be so bad." Orsay mumbled to herself. "We stick to the water and we keep an ear open for dogs..."
"We?" Orc blinked.
"There is no way that I am staying here any more. I have been alone for so long. I have been so afraid but with you I feel a bit safer and I can help you too because I know more about it here so we would be better off together. Beside, even safe isn't always best when you're alone. And like you said, life doesn't always mean living." Orsay said quietly.
Orc stared down at her, still not quite sure why she was offering to go with him. But part of him was relieved to have someone else come with him. He felt better having someone smarter around and until he found Howard he was glad to have Orsay. She was smart too. After all, she was the prophetess.
"So you're coming with?" Orc asked, making sure everything was clear between the two of them.
"Yes." Orsay decided before she could chicken out.
"Okay then." Orc nodded, feeling better.
Orsay smiled but inside she was feeling suddenly very cold. She couldn't believe she was doing this. She was leaving her same home. It was the only home that she had left now and she was voluntarily leaving it. With it's home made walls, water protective river that she could wash herself in and tidy up when she needed to, not to mention avoiding the sickening dogs that wanted to hunt her down and kill her.
She had to be brave though. She had to be brave like how everyone else was in the FAYZ. She was never really brave when she was back in the FAYZ, not even when she allowed herself to be used by Nerezza. The bravest thing that Orsay had ever done was tell Nerezza she wasn't going to be the prophetess any more and all that did was get her killed. Was this just going to get her killed again? Had she made a mistake by agreeing to come along? Was there any point in living in this life if she lived in fear?
Orsay felt tears building in the back of her throat but swallowed them back. This was different, she told herself. She had Charles with her this time and he was big and strong and he would help her and protect her and maybe she could help and protect him with what she knew. Maybe she could live properly and have a real life and maybe it was possible to escape too!
No. She was getting her hopes up for nothing. All Orsay wanted to do was live, but maybe she could live if she had company. She liked having Charles with her. If they could find as many people as possible maybe they could start fighting back and defending themselves. They could make a small home like area where they could build from and make walls in the middle, surround with water and live together.
It was a pathetic idea. But it had quickly became a happy dream that Orsay desperately wanted to happen. She wanted to live, to survive, to be with people. If she had to be stuck here, at least she could be stuck here with others who understood what she was going through.
"We can do it." Orsay whispered, smiling at Orc. "We'll leave as soon as we're both rested up. Okay?"
"Okay." Orc nodded.
They didn't say anything else for the rest of the 'night' while they rested. It was colder than normal, or maybe that was just Orsay's imagination. She felt colder inside and knew it was from fear of the unknown, the world she was about to force herself to step out into and face. Instead she shut her eyes and forced herself to rest while she had the chance.
Next Chapter: Dennis and Bette