#ziggyturner

It was like a nightmare, and at first all Aggie could do was blink, trying to force away the unreal in favor for the real, a task that had gotten easier and easier with each passing day. But now, the image wasn't disappearing as she blinked, and other people were reacting to it as well. Finding herself face to face with the nice man who made silly faces at her to make her laugh every time he passed her bench was now running at her with a furious pace.

Back away on the bench as his speed caught her off guard, all but crawling backwards into Eric's lap to escape the man who came crashing hard into the pair of them, knocking all three to the floor in a tangling, snarling and screaming knot of limbs. The tone of her blood curdling screams turned from fear to pain as teeth latched down incredibly hard onto her cheek, taking purchase on one of the few point of skin that wasn't covered in her now usual layers. It was a wonder that an entire chunk wasn't pulled away as Eric's hands seemed to come from nowhere to pry Bob's face away from her own. There was nowhere to go once she was free, watching Eric struggle with the formerly kind man, and it left her with no option but to back herself into the old atrium fireplace across from her bench, curling up inside and pressed into a corner.

april 8th

There were only a few people Via actually cared about getting infected in this building. That didn't mean the others weren't nice or good people, they just weren't important to her. Of course, when the infected event broke out, no one truly mattered enough for her to stay at the Wexley. Hannah and Aggie were out for the day and if Sher was still in the building? Via knew her neighbor was tough enough to handle herself. Grabbing her packed bag, she jumped out onto the fire escape and didn't look back.

Chaos wasn't new to Via. She heard panicked screams and a gunshot as the elevator ticked down to the second floor. Via reached down automatically for her gun, but she didn't carry it much now she was at the Wexley in innocent ballerina mode.

She'd been immersed in people screaming, dying or crying enough that it was merely static around her when the golden doors opened. One tactical sweep of from the doors of The W across the atrium to the diner's swinging doors told her enough of what she needed to know.

A flash of strawberry hair caught her attention as Via stepped off the elevator, clicking into survival mode. Aggie. From here she could see the nasty bite on Aggie's cheek; Eric must be fighting the chomper that bit her.

"She's delayed!" Via shouted to Ziggy as he ran to his sister as though he wouldn't know his own sister's diagnosis. Via memorized the charts while her blood was being taken for testing that first day.

Grabbing a lamp from the nearest side table, Via ripped the cord from the wall. She couldn't get close to Bob -- she was delayed too -- but she could help. Via ran forward and stopped ten feet away. She rolled the heavy metal lamp across the floor to Eric. "You have to smash its brains in or it won't be fully neutralized."

For the longest time She'd been watching them from the sidelines, hiding behind things and studying every movement. It'd just taken so long to just feel like she truly didn't have to worry about the world becoming non-real again, that She could trust what she saw with her own two eyes, and heard with her ears.

Now here, in the middle of this place filled with warmth and laughter, Music seeming to come from every corner, there they were. Beau... and then from behind him, Ziggy. She'd seen them interact with others, she'd seen them talk and laugh and hug. There as no way they were ghosts and if Hannah could be real... why not Ziggy?

The moment she caught his eye across the Atrium, Aggie finally abandoned her bench to rush toward him, throwing her arms around him with a sob and the tightest of clinging hugs. So tight it felt like if she let him go he'd disappear with her breath.

The moment the door opened and she actually saw him, Ember threw her arms around her friend in a body slam of a hug without a single beat of hesitation and squeezed him for absolutely all she was worth. Face dug into his shoulder to just breathe in the scent of him, reenforcing in her mind that he was there and alive.

Not just a voice, a hallucination on the other side of the door.

"Oh my fucking god. Beau must be so fucking happy." Words muffled by the collar of his shirt and the crook of his neck, it was a long moment even after that before she let go. Looking at him with a blinding smile, eyes bleary with happy tears, cheeks flecked with speckles of waterproof mascara, and once perfect make up an unabashed mess.

It was finally time to talk to Ziggy, her voice finding it's feet still so rare and so difficult, the sound of it striking anxiety in her chest she wasn't sure would ever go away. A forced conditioning to expect the worst at the sound. Of all the people, in all the world, though... the one she could always talk to before this, and she knew she could now after all of it, was her brother. Her safe space.

Smiling as she spotted them among the little sprouting plants and well tilled soil, Aggie made her way over and paused behind him, waiting a beat before finally speaking to catch their attention.

@ziggyturner - 'Is it weird if I want to get contacts so I can fake matching eyes with him next time we go clubbing?'

"Oh my goodness, you guys totally figured it out! Beau is definitely the beard for Ziggy and I."