"No fricken way, you play video games TOO!?"

Gabe's eyes were wide and glossy looking as she sat in front of the Clawer, the Infected that saved Aras and her from those survivors hours before. After an ease of tension, the long nailed, witch-type girl turned out to be a sweet, shy Infected. The Hunter and Smoker introduced themselves to the rare case of Infected, one that Aras hadn't come across his search at all. From what the girl-Jordan as she called herself-said, she's basically just a nail shredding Infected. Almost like a sister Infected from the Witch, sans the crying.

The two girls continued to chat in a geeky manner, leaving Aras to just roll his eyes and feast on the mutilated corpses. He'd expect him to feel sick, nastified at the fact he was eating human. Well, what else were you going to do when your stomach was eating itself? Plus, that one Hunter he met said he should find a survivor to snack on. Aras pulled the meat off the survivor's neck with a sick rip, chewing thoughtfully and swallowing the raw meat, surprised that it didn't taste half as bad.

He turned his attention to the two girl Infected, both still talking about movies and video games similar to typical girls who'd chat about hair and makeup.

"So, where you from?" Gabe asked politely, one of the tentacle tongues behind her neck itched a section behind her ear. Jordan looked up above the two, a pondering expression on the girl's face.

"Hmm…Canada. Yes, I remember now, I came from Canada." The Clawer softly smiled, pleased with remembering something that easily slipped off her mind more than once. Gabe nodded, satisfied with the answer since a Canadian accent wasn't very common down here in the south.

"What about you two? You seem out-of-place yourselves…" Jordan commented, nudging her head to Aras who was busy snacking on the corpses of survivors.

Gabe glanced at Aras before turning back to Jordan, "We actually came down here to get back a friend. He wasn't doing too well where he was staying before so he moved down here to get away from his problem." Gabe made a painful smile, not liking the words that were about to come out of her mouth, "But…it didn't turn out any better. His problem just came to bite him back in the ass and he was pretty much stuck here. So, we got fed up with how it was treating him, got a vehicle big enough to hold all seven of us to bring him back with us. I mean, we're all legal adults now."

The Smoker sighed, finding a more comfortable position to sit on the black top. "At least that was our plan, till this happened." She stretched out her arm, exposing her tumor covered arm that emitted smog from its pores as they pulsated.

Jordan nodded, staring a bit in awe with the Smoker's story filling the silence. "Sounds legit, did you manage to find him? Or…" The Clawer's words trailed off, worried that she might say something out-of-place.

Gabe blinked her eye before small smiling and shaking her head, "No, we're actually looking for them. We haven't had any luck these past hours, but we're not giving up. Two or three of us just isn't us."

Aras belched loudly, making Gabe look behind her, glaring at him. Jordan just snickered, covering her smile with her talon stretched hand. "But if you're from Canada, why'd you come here? Family? Just strolling by?" the Smoker questioned, giving the Clawer a small smile before repositioning her sitting again.

Jordan grew quiet, her eyes growing wide in thought, she trailed a talon against a miscellaneous crack on the parking lot they sat on. She bit her lip, her mind and memories too fuzzy or confusing to place them in order or even make out were illegible. "I..." she started, looking up at the Smoker and the Hunter who was still busy chowing down.

She blushed, embarrassed as she felt like a dummy for an instant. "I don't exactly remember. There was a screen...like a window that showed many pictures. But the pictures didn't stop, they just followed one after the other as if they has no one else to look up to. But then..." Jordan's eyes shifted, they looked scared. An image torn through her mind.

A concession stand.

A hunched over person.

Teeth.

Blood.

"...rdan?...JORDAN!"

The Clawer blinked, her vision refocusing itself to see Gabe with a worried expression on her face. The Smoker's hand was clasped on Jordan's wrist, trying to pry it from the black top. The Clawer looked down, seeing her nails being painfully dug into the hard surface leaving the sharp-nailed fingers to bleed. She withdrew her hand, wiping and softly rubbing her hand free from the pain and blood.

"S-Sorry, something came over me..." she mumbled, still looking a bit troubled by what she partially saw in her mind.

"It's common for not remembering what you were before this 'change'," Aras spoke, spooking the girls for a minute. They almost forgot he was there. The Hunter crawled to where they both sat, plopping a bloody chunk of an arm on to Gabe's lap. The Smoker concealed her urge to screech at the gory limb, instead she shot a glare at Aras. He ignored her, offering a thigh bit to the Clawer.

Jordan smiled, but shook her head, pushing the meat lightly away from her in the process. Aras shrugged, cramming the raw piece in his mouth rather grossly. Gabe grabbed the piece of human by its end with two fingers, plopping it next to her and attempting to wipe the blood off her jeans.

Aras burped again before he continued, "Many of the Infected I ran into, before I found this moron," he jabbed a thumb in Gabe's direction, she glared in return. "Don't have the slightest idea or care for what they were before. It's like the change everyone has undergone erased what existence we had before, now only giving us the urge to hunt, so to speak."

"Surviving is what I hope you meant to say..." The Smoker mumbled, a troubled look glued itself to her face as she hung her head low. Aras blinked to his friend, shaking his head as resuming, "The point is, Jordan, don't be all bummed if you can't remember something or you can't bring yourself to wanting to remember it. No one's telling you to, more importantly no one's forcing you to do anything. It's the apocalypse for Pete's sake! What authority figure is really going to trudge down here and demand something of someone without being eaten?"

Jordan lightly laughed at Aras, feeling a little better.

Gabe rolled her eyes, whacking Aras behind the head making him face-plant the black top. "Even if there's no police porker to bark laws at Infected, who's to say Survivors will oblige to said porker." Jordan and Aras were quiet, the Clawer looking back at the bloody mess of people she tore up moments ago.

"These people are on the fritz, survival meaning more than anything to them at this moment. They'll do anything to get their way, shooting Infected and humans alike. There might be no real law existing at this moment, but that doesn't mean you can just go prancing into a survivor camp like a walk-in buffet."

Aras removed his face from the ground, brushing off pebbles sticking to his face. "I didn't say act stupidly, Gabe. I just meant it's literally a do-as-you-want world, no listening-to-anyone kind of thing."

The Smoker sighed, rising from her seat. "Anyway, we really should get moving. If those guys came crossing our paths, who's to say there's more wherever they came from?"

The Hunter stretched, yawning as he did so. He scratched his chin before looking at Jordan, she tilted her head in response. "You...Do you have anywhere to go?" Aras asked, rubbing the back of his sweaty neck. Jordan shook her head, shrugging in as she replied, "Not really, I just kinda wander and go as I please." She kept a blissfully, happy expression visible, but the more she thought about how unsafe it was—even if she had deadly claws with a one-hit KO attack—she grew more troubled on the inside. The Smoker and Hunter exchanged looks before returning their eyes to the Clawer.

Gabe smiled, offering a hand as she said "Would you like to come with us?"

Jordan flushed, immediately standing up and shook her long nailed hands frantically, "Oh no, no! I don't want to be a burden! Plus I-I might get in the way or worse!" Aras laughed aloud, making Jordan blush harder. "You'd get in the way? Jordan, you pummeled those asshats back there! You'd be a great help if we ever need a deadly combo attack on some survivors that come in our way."

The Clawer relaxed some, her cheeks still glowing red. "I just..."

The Smoker smiled, "It's not like you're inviting yourself and being rude. It'd be much safer to go in a group than alone." Jordan entwined her claws, mumbling gibberish to herself as she looked at her hands with great interest.

Aras turned his head to the sky, seeing how late it was. "Well, if you're content going your own way, no hard feelings. But the offer is still open."

With that he crawled away, Gabe shot him a confused, angry look but Aras shrugged it off, gesturing the Smoker to follow him. Gabe looked back at Jordan, then to her Hunter friend who was already creating a greater distance between the two. She sighed, offered Jordan a polite nod and smile before jogging to Aras.

For a minute Jordan stood there, contemplating what to do. She was alright by herself since she changed—even if she couldn't remember how long she's been on her own since then—but the more she thought about it, it did get lonely and she was afraid.

Those survivors were nothing but Gabe did make a point, there was always more. More with massive numbers in groups and bigger guns no doubt.

The Clawer bit her lip, stared at the ground before looking at the two Infected ahead. She took a deep breath before running after them, "Hey guys, wait!"

. . .

Hi :D

Well, how to put this without having the Author's Note not be seven paragraphs long. Hm, well to put it bluntly; I'M NOT DEAD!

I'm very sorry for leaving you guys hanging for a long, long time and I have a semi good reason for it but it's not too important. :3

Let's just say life sucks and leave it at that.

I've been itching to get this chapter done since God-knows-how-long. Mostly because it featured a pretty awesome Infected OC that wasn't vague and had an interesting background :D

If it's all alright Jordan's owner, I might have her stay a bit in the story...if that's ok with you!

Welp off with life, hopefully I can get more time of freedom and get some damn work done!