It was pitch-dark and must have been past four in the morning when the first pebble hit the window outside the hotel room. At that point, Skyler had just barely managed to pass out after the earlier shower escapades and getting back into clothes, and at first she wanted to pass it off as something blown by the wind. Oh god, don't make her get up off this fucking bed. Soon afterward though, a second followed, plinking off the glass door leading out onto the balcony. Too deliberate to not be purposeful. She heaved out a heavy groan before opening her eye. Well, she supposed she had to check it out. She didn't think the infected got someone's attention by flicking stuff at the windows, but hell, what did she know anymore?

Her stirring roused Adrian- who, surprise surprise, had opted for hunkering down under the bed- slightly. "Yeah, yeah, I'm getting it," she grumbled half unintelligibly. She caught a glimpse of the gleam off his eyes as she stepped out of bed, but waved dismissively. There was no doubt in her mind that he would freak the fuck out if this was in fact another survivor. Although, given the only other uninfected person she'd seen out here, she couldn't say she was sure what was about to go down, either. Best to be prepared in case it turned ugly.

And sure enough, when she shuffled out of the room and stepped out onto the frigid balcony, there she was. Cat had returned to the building across the way and stood on a parallel balcony, a big grin on her face and holding up a large piece of posterboard upon which she'd sharpied, "Meet me outside? :)"

Well, there was absolutely no way this could go horribly wrong. Skyler looked out over the barren expanse of snow-swept city for a few moments in consideration. It was quiet enough that a dozen-odd crows dared to gather around a scrap of something unidentifiable and dead in the street without threat of themselves being snacked on. Finally she exhaled in a cloud of steam and gave a thumbs up. The girl pumped her fist in victory, quickly turning back into the building. A moment later, Skyler followed.

"If I'm not back in an hour, call the cops," she mumbled as she passed by the Hunter's head sticking out from his hiding spot. He started to follow as she got closer to the door, until she stopped and held up her hands. "No. Uh-uh. You are staying right here. You know what "no" means?"

He seemed to give this a good deal of thought, before finally sitting down on the floor and tipping his head up at her and rumbling tentatively.

She flashed a thumbs up. "Fantastic. You've gotten "no" down. That's at least a whole two words. You continue to impress me. And I will be back. Hopefully."

As a further deterrent against him following, she shut the door behind her. From her cursory inspection when they'd got here, it was relatively clear, but she still wasn't taking any chances. Somewhere farther in she heard a muffled, moaning sort of noise that she was fairly certain was a Witch, but she was very much going to let that mellow if she had any choice in the matter. If anything, she was glad for the tougher infected scaring anything else off.

She slowed a bit as she picked her way through the remnants of a makeshift checkup station set up in the lobby. The smell of musty death wafted over the place, but the closest she could find to a source were a few scraps of scattered bone. Among the broken medical equipment and shards of broken glass, she caught sight of at least one intact blood sample, turned clotted and sickly purple with a positive test for the infection. There was a story here, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know it.

Cat was already waiting outside, practically bouncing on her feet.

"Ah! Skyler, you said it was Skyler, right?"

"Uh. Yeah."

"Excellent. So, I've been reading over Teen Vogue's "Top Flirty One-Liners to Try this Year". Would you be open to me taking them for a spin?"

All Skyler could really do was shrug her shoulders and see where this went. "Let's hear them."

"Okay, okay, great! Here goes," she cleared her throat, tugging a crunched page from her pocket, "Hey, cutie, do you need to see my library card? Because I'm checking you out. Is your body from McDonalds? I'm loving it! Could you take a look at my phone? I think something's wrong with it, your number's not- Ah that one doesn't work anymore, just forget about… Never mind."

This was turning out even weirder than expected. "So, uh. This all you got me out here for?"

The girl clapped her hands together and rubbed them like she was thinking of something particularly juicy. "Ah haha, no. It is not. I… have something for you." She tugged her pack over one shoulder and dug through it, until she came up with a couple of magazines. And amazingly not the "Teen Vogue" kind, but the exact 5.56x45mm rounds that she needed.

"Holy shit," Skyler breathed out, fairly certain that her remaining eye had just gone pretty wide.

Cat looked understandably satisfied with herself. "You like?"

Okay, so she was willing to put aside some of her initial misgivings for this. "Uh. Fuck yeah? Merry Christmas to me," she enthused as she accepted the ammo. "Where'd you even find this?"

"I know my way around. Got an idea where to look. It is no problem," she assured, waving a hand.

Maybe Skyler had gotten the wrong kind of idea here. She meant, a few months going it on your own with nothing but the infected around would be enough to make pretty much anyone a little funny. Besides that she didn't exactly have much room to speak, spending most of her time looking like something that crawled out of the garbage and or hell.

"So ah. Your buddy," Cat eventually spoke, looking around. It was easy enough to guess what she meant.

"The Hunter."

"Yep! Him. He still around?" After Skyler hummed a confirmation, a playful, wicked gleam came into her eyes. "You wanna ditch him for a little while and come up with me?"

Hell with it. Skyler had just been put into a pretty good mood, and maybe if this girl really did know her way around, she'd figure something out about how she was getting out of here. She started smirking herself, feeling a little like a sneaking teenager. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

A chuckle from the other girl goaded her into her own.

"Come on. Come on, before anything notices us."

She ushered her quickly along across the street and into the opposite building.

"You know, like. A weird amount about guns for a kid," Skyler mused, maybe an hour into having ventured up into the offices. Currently they were sat on the floor with one of a couple bottles of Old Crow, screwing around with half-assed drinking games on the fly.

Cat snorted a little when she laughed at the statement. "Kid? I'm nineteen. Like, how old are you?"

"Listen. I'm twenty-three, but in my soul I am a hard fifty-something."

"Fair enough, fair enough." Abruptly her expression became more serious, and her tone shifted to match. "I, uh. Grew up in this kind of compound, right? Sort of one of those "end is nigh" deals. Yeah. Gunpowder, kid brides and all. Real fucked up."

Skyler wasn't quite sure what look was on her own face. "Uh. Shit," she mumbled out lamely, up until Cat started cracking up.

"Nah, nope. Just went on some hunting trips with my dad, messed around with the collection. Got into it on my own. Shot."

Ah, hell. Skyler sighed and poured out another shot of bourbon, downing it in one go.

The girl really wasn't in bad shape, considering how long she'd allegedly been roughing it. She travelled light but with just about all she needed, was wearing the right kind of gear, and had a nice little setup in this office. Either she hadn't been here long or she simply hadn't left much indication that she was there, so she wasn't exactly stupid, either. It didn't answer the question of why she had opted for staying out here in the first place, though. Had she missed the evacs? Was she headed to Mass the same as her? It was something she was going to have to find out.

She swished her tongue around the acrid taste left behind in her mouth. "Yeah, well. You wanna know how I picked up the leaper? I was out all on my own, right? And this fucker…" She drew her fingers over the bandages on her face, "Scratched out my fuckin' eye. And so I stabbed him."

Cat deliberated this, visibly turning it this way and that in her head before finally deciding on, "Mmh… calling bullshit on this one. Sounds like something you'd make up for how you lost the eye."

Skyler grinned slowly and victoriously. "Shot."

"Ahhh!" Cat enthused, slamming down her own shot. "You're a kick, you know that? What made you keep him around?"

Now that was the part that was hard to explain, not that it was totally clear even to her, if she really asked herself. "He was… stubborn. Didn't want to die, didn't want to give up. Guess he kind of reminded me of me." Probably the least stupidly sentimental way she could describe it.

Cat gave a considerate nod. "Weird. But I kind of get it. So, uh. I've got another question. You, ah. Into girls?"

Surprise, surprise. "Well, you know. Swing both ways with a knife."

That one got a laugh and nod. "I'm not into…"

"Let me guess. Labels?"

"Men."

It was Skyler's turn to snort. Her buzz was already pretty decent, but not quite enough that she didn't remember some of her misgivings. "I'm, uh. Not interested in anything any time soon," she clarified.

Cat immediately nodded, waving her hands dismissively. "Message received. Can say a lot about me, but I can take no for an answer. Consider it dropped."

For the weird first impression that she'd gotten, this girl was turning out to be unexpectedly cool.

"Yeah, thanks. Let's just keep getting drunk."

"So, uh. What- what's up with that fuckin' pack of Hunters anyways? They always been hanging around here?" Hours later, three quarters of the bourbon was empty, and they had the radio turned up as loud as they dared without drawing anything to the location for some music.

Cat's face scrunched as she lay sprawled out lazily staring up at the ceiling. "Oh yeah, yeah. I mean. Mmmore or less. This half of the city's new turf for 'em. Been running into them for a while now." She sat up on her elbows and started to smirk. "Used to be five of 'em. Took care of one myself. Pink one's their leader. Hates me, but can't decide if she wants to fuck with me now."

Skyler gave a thumbs up, righting herself when she nearly tipped the photocopier she was sitting atop. "Badass. I mean. 'S kind of the fucked up part of it though, isn't it? Like. Shouldn't give a shit, should they? If they weren't thinking about it."

"''Course they're thinking about it," Cat shrugged. "How you think they can set up ambushes 'n all? 'S it matter?"

Well, yeah. Kind of. She hated getting fucking introspective and drunk. "I don't know, I don't know. 'S just. That kid's got me thinking about stuff more than I like to."

"Fuck thinking about stuff," Cat laughed in response. "Just get stupid and have fun."

"That sounds like the best plan ever." Be nice if it was ever that easy.

"Okay, so. Cat. What's'at short for, anyways, like, Catherine?"

Cat pressed her lips together and hummed. "Mmh. Nope, no. 'S not my name. It's, ah. Cathedral. Parents were, like, those people who wanted me to have a unique name."

Skyler smacked her hand down onto an imaginary buzzer. "Bullshit. 'M calling it."

"Ehhh! Shot. You are wrong! This is my actual, real-life name!"

Unrestrained, Skyler laughed out loud. "Ooh my god. That is… fantastic. 'F it makes you feel any better you can join the official club with Theodora Skyler."

This was shaping up to be pretty fun after all.

"Can't stay at home, can't stay in school/ Old folks say, you poor little fool/ Down the streets, I'm the girl next door/ I'm the fox you've been waiting for!"


Where was she? It was hard to tell just how long it had been since the monster had left, warped as Adrian's sense of time was. And however unsure he may still have been of her, he hated waiting.

By now he had spent about as long as he could stand pacing the floor, trying to make out patterns in the ceiling, plucking at odd soft objects before finally settling in the water room. The harsh light had gone away, making it far more bearable, so he'd stayed there for a while.

He should… he should really just leave. The monster had shut the entrance behind her, but it wouldn't be impossible to knock it down, if he wanted. There was nothing else here. Nothing besides him, and… that other him in the image here.

Just looking at it made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. At the same time though, there was something about it that captivated him and made him keep staring. It didn't help that whenever he looked away he still felt as though it was watching him while his back was turned. In the absence of anything else to think about besides wherever the monster had gone to, his mind churned as he laid with his side to the floor.

There was a sense of disconnect with what he was seeing. A clash between recognition and this feeling like someone else entirely. Faintly he could almost swear he heard whispers of nothing understandable that drifted in and out of his awareness. He wondered if this other him was as miserable as he was.

The longer he looked at it, the more convinced he was that he could see differences, too; just a couple, almost too small to notice at first, but if he just… looked a little closer… Adrian's nose wrinkled as he frowned, carefully reaching out a couple of claws to stroke along the surface.

A harsh chill overtook him and his gut plunged uncomfortably. Startled, he quickly got his feet under him and fled from the room, kicking the entrance shut behind him to hide it. Automatically he sought out the smallest and darkest space he could find, heart jumping unevenly. Eyes shut he hid there, unable to shake the feeling of his skin shuddering.

And strangely enough, he found himself wishing that the monster was back.


"I'm headed up to Boston. Gonna meet up with one of our… extraction teams. Still lookin' for people to pull, you know," Skyler put it out there, the question fairly obvious.

Instead of an immediate response, Cat pushed herself up to sit half up on her elbows, giving her a long look that came across as analyzing. "I'm gonna be real with you, Skyler. 'N my mind, there are… people who aren't really meant for the same kind of world you folks are trying to maintain over there. I get the feeling you might catch me."

That stare felt very intense suddenly. Or maybe it was just because yes, the first thing that went through her head was that she might just know exactly what she meant. A little hesitantly, she nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, I feel you."

A satisfied smile came onto the other girl's face before she edged closer to pat Skyler firmly on her shoulder.

"You can do what you want, Skyler. 'M not the type to tell someone… what to do, how to live their life an' all. I just think we might have a lot in common. Just wanted you to know that."

Up this close, Cat smelled distinctly of old blood and gunpowder. It wasn't as unpleasant as one might think. She still held a faint trace of that smile, playing about the corners of her lips. From a subtler, fainter scent, she was pretty sure she was wearing chapstick, despite there still being a couple little spots of blood crusted on her chin and cheek.

For a moment there, Skyler considered it. Like, really thought about just how long it had been since she'd gotten fucked. She'd thrown herself so deep into service she hadn't really been focused on it. This wasn't the first time she realized that she was feeling pretty pent-up, but right then it did sound damn appealing. And then she opened her mouth and said something stupid.

"I've gotta go."

Cat waved, giving her shoulder another squeeze before letting her go with a low hum of, "See you around."

Yeah. Somehow, she was certain that she would.

"See you."

"You know we can't slow down, we can't hold back/ Though you know we wish we could/ I said there ain't no rest for the wicked/ Until we close our eyes for good."