The Technician

It’s a fun little moment watching his victim decide how to react to a ball of snow to the face. The laughter only encourages Wes, scooping up two more of his pre-made stockpile.

The insult hurled his way gets another bright peel of laughter followed by an impressed “Ooh!” as the snowball lands just next to dangling leg. A little to the left and he’d have gotten a hit.

“Incoming!” he flings the two balls at the same time.

Bambi wasn’t sure why having a snowball fight was even fun, but it seemed like it was, and it had been a long time since he’d ever had one. So much had changed and he knew some would find solace in the little things, especially those that gave them a little nostalgia. 

This time, Bambi know the snow is coming, and he doesn’t just dodge, but covers his face with his arm just in case he didn’t manage to get far enough from the incoming balls. 

“Someone’s a big kid! Don’t you have anything better to do?”

He asks, but his big brown eyes are full of mirth as he picks up more snow, moulding it and throwing it back.

Ladislav gave a small chuckle when the man asked him if it was true that Croatians drank a lot. He nodded his head, despite knowing that it was a blanket statement to say about everyone in his homeland. “I start drinking at early age,” he says. “Is common to have good drink where I am from. Not all of Croatians think so, but I am always…troublemaker.” 

“You did? I wasn’t allowed till I was 15, and even then it was a glass of wine with my meal, or a beer if I was lucky.”

He said with a small smile and chuckled. He wasn’t allowed much stronger till he was 21, but he drank with his dad, beers over an engine as they fixed it. It was family bonding, and he missed it, but he supposed this was bonding really.

“Yeah I can see you being a trouble maker as a kid, you still are. What about your sister? She doesn’t seem like the alcohol at aged 10 kind of girl.”

Yeah, he is one of them. The ones who didn’t want to welcome her group in the first place. Even if he didn’t say it, he is definitely giving off the vibe. Though granted, there isn’t as much hostility there as some of them have shown so far. It doesn’t exactly bother her much about being welcomed or not, because lets face it, Ellie hasn’t really gone out of her way to be very friendly either.

“Your knife will be of no use to you if I turn violent….”

Now it’s her turn to let a small smile form on her lips. There is a lot of confidence talking and she certainly knows she isn’t invincible, but she will never admit that out loud.

“I have my knives too…and know how to throw with accuracy…so there will be no need to get close to you to plunge a blade into your gut.”

She offers him a wink, this time it is a little more playful than before, though he probably won’t see it that way.

“Right okay…so I’ll take them for now…use what’s over there if they are useful..those what you pointed out..and see if I can make some headway with it all…because, shit…I have been meaning to start it all for a few fuckin’ days now.”

She’s thinking out loud, her train of thought going over everything she has done since arriving here and funnily enough, the moonshine has been finished before the generator has been started.

“Rolling ya eyes pisses people off ya know?”

She can’t help but smirk because eye-rolling is something she tends to do a lot when angry—frustrated–bored….and the list goes on.

“You should try it on Nate when you see him…he absolutely fuckin’ loves to see a good roll of the eyes.”–he hates it and Ellie damn well knows this.

Casting a look over at him, she nods.

“Okay. Suppose I should say cheers then…so yeah..thanks.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I’m quick.”

Bambi replied, but he wasn’t used to teasing with strangers and he felt a little awkward, he hadn’t decided if he liked her yet, but his opinion was mostly that she thought of herself as a tinkerer, and she was probably going to screw it all up. Still, everyone needed practice.

The way she made it clear she was only taking the offered bits of discarded material was a little comforting as he didn’t like the thought of her taking his stuff, but the fact she’d put this little project off for a few days told him she was inefficient and that was never a good trait, especially now their lives were always in danger. Why put off till tomorrow what you can do today?

“I know. But I roll them because people say stupid things or piss me off, so it’s kind of tit for tat.”

He said stoically, uncaring if he odd ended her, as she was a little annoying if he was honest.

“Well if I knew who Nate was, I probably would, because I don’t give a shit who he is or what he likes.”

It was obvious whoever Nate was, he definitely didn’t like people rolling their eyes at him, but Bambi didn’t give two shits about this other group, until he was told they were one big group permanently, he was going to keep his opinions that they were nothing but a burden.

“You’re welcome. I’d say if you need help, come find me, but you seem the type to do it yourself, too proud to ask, and I’m not the type to help you when I don’t know you. So good luck.”

Part of him hoped her idea would fall flat on it’s face, but then, if it worked and benefit his group, he’d congratulate her for the aid.

“Oh right….and you have us all pegged and fuckin’ judged, yeah?”

Ellie looks over at him blankly. Why does it always seem when she tries to rein in her defensive attitude and show just a flicker of normal conversation, the other person just throws out a comment that gets her back up?

–and yet playing nice, just doesn’t always come naturally at all to her, especially with those she doesn’t know very well.

“For all I know…you lot are thieves or even worse, just appearing to welcome people–then swipe all their shit and have us for dinner–literally.”

She keeps her gaze on him, not sure if the slight hostility between the two of them will continue. Either way, it won’t bother her too much. She is pretty sure there are two lines forming, ones which like her and ones which don’t and the latter line is far longer.

“From scratch…tried using an old generator at the police academy and it had been fucked with–someone had taken bits from it…so this time gonna do it all myself and I know exactly what’s what.”

Her head tilts and Ellie looks in the direction he points before returning her visual back to him.

“So if you have set them aside for later…the wires and shit…that mean I can’t use them?…because ya know…wouldn’t want to get accused of nothing.”

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes before letting out a heavy breath.

“I won’t tell you again…I took the tools because they were out on the side and not in anyones bag…not like I was gonna fuckin’ keep them…so no..not stealing…using…lending…and tell me right now if I can’t lend them,  ‘cause you can have the fuckin’ things back!”

Bambi just smiled, not dignifying that with an answer as they both knew how he felt about the newer members of the base. He didn’t need to say it again and he didn’t want an argument. If he did, he wouldn’t be offering a few materials for her to use, he’d probably be kicking her out of the hanger and telling her where to go. He was the mechanic around here.

“I can’t speak for the others, but I’m not a thief and don’t worry, i have my knife ready if you decide to turn violent. I guess we’re all worried about that, but I’m not the violent type.”

Not unless he had to be. He wasn’t a big fan of any kind of bloodshed, but he knew it was a necessity and wasn’t against it either, in fact he was happy to watch his friends fight his enemies when he was sure they would win. It was a little like a show, only he wasn’t able to eat popcorn and there was a lot more risk.

“Well I don’t need them for anything right now, so if you do, it’s logical you use them.”

He gave a shrug and then looked at her with a small roll of his eyes as she said she wasn’t stealing. He really didn’t care as long as it wasn’t his stuff. If she stole from people like laid, she’d probably lose a hand and that would be her penance, so he wasn’t sure he actually cared at all.

“If you want them, they’re there, and if you can’t get it to work, you can always break it down and put the bits back.”

“Are you joking? Hasn’t everyone these days?”

“I don’t know. All logic goes against it, but it’s a nice notion, just a bit of a fantasy one.”

@rachelxvanallen

Bambi was never 100% sure how he felt about The Surgeon, maybe it was all that blood. He didn’t know, but he was glad she was on their side, that was for sure. It was like Shia, it was better to know a psycho and like her, then to piss her off and worry he’d come to a quick end in his sleep. 

Rachel had been someone he tried to get to know, and in a way he was still trying, despite the time they’d been together in the group. He just wasn’t great with people, and he doubted their differences helped.

“You missed a spot.”

He said to her as he pointed to the splodge of red on her neck, probably from some spurting lab rat. Bambi might not of liked what she did, but he admired her work ethic, and she seemed to keep late nights like he did.

“on a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.  everything dies.  that doesn’t matter.  it’s how you choose to - l i v e - that makes the difference.”

a quick counter to the espousing of doom and gloom.  for while it was easy to fall into the melancholy of this existence - there had to be some inspiration, some hope, some kind of fucking fight left in every goddamn persons bones to keep on going from day to day.  and if that fight needed a little fuel to the fire, a little air breathed back into the flame as a reminder that they were – still fucking here – then gabriel was happy to provide said - spark.

“law does exist.  anyone oversteps the line, and watch if i don’t become judge and jury.”

the words aren’t a threat.  they hold that same steady tone, a clip of accent to each word.  but he does believe that.  the peace and relative safety of the group relied on just that.  knowing that the people there wouldn’t slit your throat in your sleep to steal a shiny trinket they liked the look of… or help themselves to ammo or a gun… or just for the sheer hell of it.  sure, some of them were still granted the hard gaze from gabriel, not entirely convincing him of their… cooperative nature.  but it had worked… up till now.

“morality, honesty, loyalty… they’re not extinct concepts.  just because the world ended doesn’t mean we have to – devolve.  we aren’t the same as the beasts out there.  you want true lawlessness - take a stroll into the wasteland.”

the truck rode the hard ground with ease, rolling over potholes, gabriel manoeuvring carefully to avoid the worst, and any scattered debris in their way.  however - where his previous words had been conversational… there’s a sharper set to his jaw… a harder edge to those steel blue eyes as they kept track of their location.  seemingly finally satisfied with their distance and rolling the vehicle to a halt.  and before he retrieves his weapons and exits, there is a half turn, making sure he can look the other in the eye…

“’logic’ doesn’t know shit.  not in this instance, and neither do you.  so feel free to question my decisions.  go right on ahead and question my choices.  but don’t ever question my motives.”

“We live well enough, considering how fast that scale tipped from our favour.”

Which as something Bambi truly believed. Everything happened so suddenly, nobody expected the world to go to shit, let alone for it to happen so quickly. They all did the best with what they had and the hand they were dealt, they were still doing that now. Living was never going to be how it was, but they made do and Bambi tried to enjoy the little things, but usually for him, that was cleaning a carburettor or fine tuning a radio. He definitely liked that buzz, even if there was no signal from anyone or anything.

“Our reasons and actions are different now. I’m not ashamed to say I’d kill for a meal if I needed to now. Before I don’t think I ever contemplated harming someone, but things change, and I would hope if you do become judge and jury, your sentences reflect the situation as it is now.”

Though he was glad someone still held true to the morals and rules of the world they used to have, he wasn’t 100% sure they could be applied anymore. It made him feel like a bad person, but it was only human nature to adapt.

There was always going to be those people that would stab first and ask questions later, band people like Gabriel were there to stop that happening, but Bambi, he wasn’t sure where he would stand on the matter. He might sit on the fence and watch the fireworks, or jump down to Gabriels aid. Maybe he’d have to be in the situation before deciding. But then, machines and technology didn’t steal or lie, it was why he preferred to be around them to being around other people.

Bambi gets out after the other man, rounding the vehicle and watching their surroundings for danger. He’d noticed a more quiet tone in the car, and he knew sometimes he could rub people up the wrong way if they sensed a lack of emotion, but he had never been one to get too attached and he’d adapted to this post-apocalyptic world by developing that skill.

“I wasn’t, just giving an opinion.”

He replied honestly and gave a small shrug. He hoped he hadn’t pissed off the older man, as it wasn’t his intention, but he was stating what he saw, and potentially, how he would feel himself should a shadow of the old world fall upon him.

“And I didn’t mean any offence, I don’t know what your relationship is to these people or this person you know, but if they’re from your past… Well if they were from mine, I think it would be hard to get past that.”

He followed Gabriel at a short distance, enough to talk quietly and have his back if it was required, but also give a different vantage point.

“Lucky for you, eh?”

She blinks, her expression stoic but her voice calm. It might sound like sarcasm has seeped its way into her words–because lets face it, this is usually the case, but Ellie is actually being genuine. Not once has she ever been able to leave her stuff around freely, not unless it’s bagged up anyway and even then, she usually stuffs it out of sight somewhere.

She watches as he moves closer, not really on edge with him at all. Ellie just knows from experience when it comes to conversations going downhill, it can happen at any time. The only time in the group it turned into a brawl though was with Bryce.

“Just this……thing.”

Her line of vision shifts to connect with him properly now and she feels like he is taking an interest, but she is not going to assume so in case he suddenly dismisses her reply–because that will just piss her off.

“Gonna make a mobile generator from scratch…something that can be moved when we have to leave…”

–because they will have to leave…it always happens at some point.

“Got a lawnmower motor as the main thing to build around….”

Nobody really takes much notice of what Ellie does when it comes to what she is experienced in. Only a couple have ever really shown interest and even then, it quickly filtered off when she talked about it.

“Could do with a few materials, yeah…why…you offering to find some?..or just gonna point in the general direction?”

“We were.”

Buuuurrnn...

Bambi  kept telling himself to be polite, but it was hard. Luckily since their last encounter he’d spoken to Gabriel and after thinking about the other mans words and how he trusted them, Bambi was willing to give a little more of an olive branch than he was before.

When she said ‘thing’ he rose his eyebrows wondering if she knew anything about tools or just tried them all until she found one that fit. It was a little disconcerting, especially if she was using electrics.

“From scratch? Or from the shell of the old generator in the main hanger?”

Because he’d thought of something similar but it got put to the back of his ‘to-do’ list. But then she mentioned a lawn mower and his other option would of been a car battery or two, but he supposed a mower would work, if she could expand it.

When she asked if his reaction was to point in a general direction, he scoffed and nodded.

“Yeah actually, the right corner of this hanger, there’s some discarded metal, pipes and wires, things I set aside for use later.”

He shrugged.

“Or you could just make do with whatever you can scavenge without stealing from people.”