nat(alie)

"really?" she'd never thought of the penthouse itself as something worth seeing, her entire life within a floor of a building. it had always been the people who made it worth while, fallen silent in disinterest when her siblings were preoccupied with life eternal. even now, it would only be returning to a bit of reading and art hanging on the wall. but, she so rarely had her own guests— no matter who they happened to be. "i don't see why not."

What was Nat hoping to find in the penthouse? Dirt on the Wexleys, maybe, or some evidence on what Tobias was doing to her. Honestly, at the end of the day, though, she was just fucking bored. "How are you feeling about all the diner stuff?" She asked. "You know, about people zombifying each other and all that."

She nodded at Nat's suggestion of taking the battery. Someone could make use of it--Zach, maybe? And there would be no point in leaving it by the time they were done taking what they needed from the station. It would be just another empty building filled with nothing but reminders of what was and how quickly they'd lost it. Val dropped her own helmet with a soft thud, too eager to get a move on to place it more quietly. "Nat.." Val called out the other woman's name in concern. There were several empty vehicles in the garage and that in itself was expected, however, the bold lettering on one patrol car in particular caused the hair on Valerii's neck to stand. NYPD. K9 UNIT.

Valerii took her knife out and turned to join Natalie just as the glass began to splinter. Her eyes went wide with excitement as the figure fell on top of the other woman and several more moved towards the hole in the broken glass. She was vaguely aware of something not making sense here--why Natalie had howled in pain before the glass even broke--but now wasn't the moment to hold that thought up to the light and examine it. Val had watched the scene unfold before her as she waited for an opportunity to help. Before she could offer much assistance her shoulder was grabbed by one of the other creatures and Val had no choice but to turn away from Natalie and deal with her own situation.

The smell of rot was thick and wafted from behind the broken glass that the zombie was reaching at her threw. She was able to pull herself forward and out of its grip, turning to quickly stab her knife in the top if its skull without pausing to think. Muscle memory. Instinct. The creature continued to move despite the knife and Val realized it must not have gone deep enough. With horror in her eyes she applied pressure on the knife to force it deeper, feeling a sickening crunch as it slid through the officer's skull and finally hit brain matter. When the monster fell slack she knew it was safe to pull her weapon out and turn to her companion. There was a heavy feeling in her chest, having been forcing herself to ignore the sounds of Natalie's struggle while she dealt with her own. Had she been too late?

Relief fled through her when she saw the monster charge at Natalie only to impale itself on her weapon, sliding down the blade with no life left in its empty body.

The body beside her felt cold against her touch. Once, she’d had a sleepover with a girl from her middle school soccer team and had lay next to her for the first and last time just like this. Perhaps Val could take it apart and understand the undead’s inner circuitry, how it managed to stay alive without breathing, whether or not it needed to drink water to survive. She watched Val’s knife plunge through a zombie’s skull a few meters away from her, couldn’t tell if the action left Val thrilled or horrified. She tracked the other woman’s weapon, ears alert to the crack of bone as her knife pushed through. Had Val done this before? And if she had, how many times? Nat’s lips slid into an easy grin as she took Val’s hand, slipping her jacket from her shoulders as the woman examined her.

“No bites. But my ass is going to bruise tomorrow for sure. You?” She pulled the sword—some sort of bizarrely functional military replica—from the undead next to her and drove it through the mouth of the remaining zombie as it lunged at them. The once sexist asshole made a fucked up gurgling sound. Nat used the momentum of its thrashing to push the tip of the blade through its brainstem, quieting it for good. “Not much of a loss then,” she said. She scanned her surroundings for a zombie dog and shrugged when she didn’t see one. “Maybe his buddy got hungry and ate him.” A jolt of pain shot through her head as she stepped through cracked glass of what was once the station door, but she sucked up her pain as best as she could.

"Here- let me show you," he placed some things back and turned on the radio to show Zach what he meant, "everything is working in the back," carefully pointing out its old circuit as the switch flipped on, crackling of static began and he then turned the knob for a frequency. Nothing. No changes, not even a lick of a skip in its frequency to prove its jumping through channels. "I can't get it to hook onto any frequency. I even took apart the receiver antenna to test it if that was working." Ashton turned his attention back to his paperwork and simply frowned at it, eyes darting between drawings, mind running through the calculations again.

"So," he tried to sum it up, "no matter what we do, we can't tune the radio... And yet, nothing's wrong with it." Like a useless switch that doesn't do anything, but doesn't fuck up anything either. Complicated as it sounded, it made sense to Zach; the only question was – could they do something to get the coil working, or maybe replace it with something that would do the trick.

"I had one of these things in prison," Nat commented. "Used it every day until it was basically an old toaster." She took the radio in her hands and examined it, unsure of what the fuck part of its interior Zach had been working on. "This one looks a lot more complicated, but mine would always come back on if I hit it in a specific way." She shook the radio vigorously a few times, then gave it a whack with her palm to the corner. The radio fizzled. A few more taps, and a man's voice crackled out. "The situation in-" she could barely make out, before the voice was overwhelmed by static. "See? Like magic."

Ashton was taken aback by her snippy reply at first but his eyes darkened for a second before lifting his hands in defeat, but his words cold and sobering, "fine. Your call. Just don't be stupid. Know your limits. I've paid that price before." And he never wanted to pay that price at the expense of his or his comrades' lives ever again. His words had a certain sting and venom he didn't expect to come out but he stood by them; he trusted her to know her limits but he rather Nat hated him, never wanted to recon with him again, think that he's insulting her abilities and whatever, he was willing to be the bad guy, always. As long as she was alive. That's all that mattered. He couldn't make the same mistakes again. The tension only lasted but a few moments of their exchange until Nat sighed and Ashton let his own exhale escape. His words now soft once again, letting the tension dissipate completely, "..sorry, of course. Take all the time you need."

She’d yet to process her dad’s death, his…conversion, if she was being accurate, and she knew that. Still. Death, mortality…to live in fear of it was a waste of time. People made choices. Every couple of years, she’d get a letter about someone she knew, an update about a person her age who used to live in the neighborhood she grew up in. Not a nice one. But she wasn’t condescending enough to hold anyone’s hand, and she expected the same courtesy. The possibility of death at any time meant that she had to live fully, to run hard and rage for everyone else who should’ve still been alive. Anger…at least that shit pushed her forward. Better than sitting around crying and hating herself even more than she already did.

Soon she was on her way to Nat's apartment, glad that she didn't have to run all the way up to her own place because much as it would probably count as a mini workout, she didn't find sweating too much fun. Especially now that unlimited baths and showers weren't an option anymore. Finding the pills wasn't difficult since they could be found exactly where Nat told her they would be. Ria grabbed them and ran back to the diner, asking Charlie for a glass of water before she returned to the table.

"Aaand I'm back! Here," she said, handing Nat both the painkillers and the glass. "I hope it will help."

Ria’s voice was loud enough to make her cringe. “Thanks,” Nat said. "I really mean it." She swallowed a pill with a gulp of water and waited for it to kick in. “You wanted to ask me about something?”

Truth be told Val was kinda pissed.

Every time she overheard Nat asking about which highways to take for best mileage or which roads would be most congested, Val could only picture her body torn apart by monsters or taken out by a sniper. The entire city was looking for a way out and Natalie thought that somehow she would be the one to slip through the cracks? What pissed off Valerii the most was the utter waste it was. How she was running towards her own death.

So maybe when it came time for Val to make her own supply run, as so many others had been doing the past week, Natalie hadn't been the first companion she'd considered. Valerii had ran through a mental list of potential candidates but none settled as neatly into her plan as Natalie. No one else would fight with that ferocity, that anger. That fuck you i'm going down swinging attitude.

"Just make sure those things don't catch us." It was less of a command and more of a plea. Val put on the helmet and threw up the gate, turning her head to watch it close as the duo began pulling away from the building. She wore her parking pass lanyard around her neck and kept it secure under her leather jacket. The plan was for Natalie to get them to the gate and Val would buzz them in before a crowd gathered.

Being this close to Natalie might've been distracting in other circumstances but currently Val's attention was strictly on not getting eaten. She kept a tight hold of Natalie's waist and tried to keep an eye out for potential dangers. Admittedly the rush of the wind against her felt good, grounding. She gave Natalie's left side a squeeze to remind her of an upcoming turn.

“Don’t worry, I’m a fast driver.” Nat pushed the handgrip all the way down and gunned them forward at what must have been 90 miles per hour. The air stank of hot trash as they sped onward, the reek of rot and burning rubber on the wind that buffeted her nose. It was fucked up to see so many bodies, so much utter aloneness and carnage. All these miles and not a single sign of life.

She screeched the bike to a halt by the parking garage, nearly bucking the two of them off as she only just managed to avoid hitting the curb. Val’s parking pass did surprisingly work to pop up the gate—which meant the system had to have an emergency battery installed—and Nat guided the motorcycle into a parking spot inside. “See? I'm good at this," she said. "Also, it might be a good idea to grab that battery on the way out. With that much charge, it could power a few systems in a pinch.” She pulled her motorcycle helmet off and shook her hair out, her ears alert for signs of danger. Robbing a police station had always been an action item on her bucket list and to be doing it now with no repercussions was kind of awesome. Petty as it was, it felt like sweet revenge for how inhumanely they'd treated her.

A dull thud from inside the station door snapped her out of her thoughts, and Nat drew her sword, her gaze registering three zombies in police uniforms behind the glass. “Do you know these guys?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. “Because they seem kind of excited to see you.” No sooner than the words left her mouth did a cracking sound vibrate through the air. The glass spiderwebbed. Then something lower, monstrous, guttural. A wave of pain from her medication withdrawal shot through her head just as a clawed hand broke through the full-body glass window, and suddenly, a deformed creature was on top of her, its flesh translucent and sticking against her with a thin, mucus-thick film. Jeez, what a time to glitch out.

By all intents and purposes, Nat was probably going to die.

While they sat and waited, Ashton noticed Nat's gaze sometimes lose focus whenever he looked up from writing his notes, taking a second to check in, "hey, you good? We can cut today short if you're not up for it. Don't need to take unnecessary risks." They technically already accomplished what they set out to do, anything hereafter is an added bonus, more medical supplies, food, technology, mechanical parts, but none of those matter if they lose focus and slip up.

She seem to come back for a bit, even making a snarky answer to his rhetorical question, "huh, what happened to client confidentiality?" Not that he'd actually tell someone with a life coach sign anything significant in his life. Sorry Mauve. "Sounds good," Ashton nodded, letting out an amused scoff, "are twinkies really a priority?" He took the initiative to head down first, scoping out the entire shop from the window, making sure not a single soul was in sight. Guess the chompers really did get distracted by their experiments. He paused before heading through the window, looking back to Nat, words weighted in graveness, "I'm dead serious though, say the word and we'll head back." He hopped in and did a sweep through the entire shop for threats, aisle by aisle, closing the front door that they shuffled out of earlier. "We're clear, three exit points if things go sideways, let's grab what we can," Ashton reviewed the mental list of requests from inside the building; antibiotics, water, painkillers, bandages, toiletries, tampons? (Sorry Mauve.) He wallowed with a look of confusion at the shelf before lifting a random tampon box up to Nat, "are these any good?"

"Confidentiality's bunk," Nat said as she hopped through the window. "Pretty sure my prison therapist used to snitch on me so I stopped telling her anything. Could be the right move for you too." She stood silently for a moment, only moving down an aisle once she was sure nothing was stirring inside the store. She slung a few tubes of toothpaste into her backpack, three-packs of plastic lighters, silver tins of sardines. Her eyes caught sight of Ashton's product in question and it took all she had not to laugh. "What, you think I use those? Just because I'm a woman?" Her lips curled into a characteristically manic grin. "Kidding. Yeah, we should actually grab more boxes of those. Free bleeding isn't really as liberating as they say."

𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 ;  𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒃𝒐𝒘 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 …  ( 𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 )

send any of the following emojis a headcanon about my muse.           please specify a muse if sending to a multimuse blog.              🏳️‍🌈 ᴴᴬᴾᴾʸ ᴾᴿᴵᴰᴱ ᴹᴼᴺᵀᴴ 🏳️‍🌈  …  ᵖᵉᵗᵃˡˢᵖʳᵒᵐᵖᵗˢ ᵖʳⁱᵈᵉ ᵖᵃʳᵃᵈᵉ

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Ria was just leaving Rosie's Diner with two freshly brewed coffees in both hands when she spotted Natalie. Perfect! She had been dying to hear her opinion on something and wanted to talk to her since her last conversation with Courtney, and now she ran into her. Pretty lucky! "Nat!" She would wave, but the hot beverages she was holding stopped her from doing so. "Nat, can I talk to you for a second?"

Ashton flashed a grim half smile at Nat's question, "you'll be surprised what you can find at embassies." Those buildings honestly feel like a double edged sword, in some cases it's meant to be a safe haven for their citizens in another country, in other cases... they're the last line of defense for their citizens in war. A few more tests, experiments, and it felt at least that they now know more than they did when they left the apartment building, it'll make the quarantine day worth it at least with some newfound information on the zombies. They spent a few more moments without any action, Ashton writing down the entire report while Nat munched on a sandwich. "Huh, softball sounds like fun," doing college while in service was a completely different experience and he often wondered what it'd be like, going to campus, taking up a sport.

"Ha, where did you hear that from?" Ashton dryly joked, slinging the rifle back over his shoulder. Before the outbreak he rarely told anyone about his time with the marines. Just a PhD student, that's all they needed to know. But it's not like he can hide the obvious anymore unless he wanted to be completely useless and feign ignorance. And none of that sat well with Ashton. "I used to be a marksman during college too, I guess," he shrugged, playing off her answer, which was while, half true, perhaps half disturbing if one didn't have deduction skills. He peeked over the edge and watched the horde movements, its been quiet for awhile now and he kept his book, getting ready to move on. "Think we can give the CVS a quick raid before the Embassy?" Since they were standing a top a treasure trove of pharma gold, might as well see what they can get now that the zombies were probably out and gone due to the sound.

Time slipped from her. She'd noticed the glitch in her head a few days ago after going cold turkey off Tobias's drugs. Sometimes, her head hurt so much that she couldn't stay upright, her brain on fire, a side effect of withdrawal or whatever the fuck else was going on. Other times, she'd stare out into nothing or feel confused about where she was. It'd pass. This was all temporary. Becoming dependent on the drugs would be like a death sentence if she ever wanted to get out of here, so she'd have to make do.