"Ok well...what do we do now?" Evie was already bored of what was around her.
"We should build the tents, but we should build them under something in case it rains or something." Ari suggested.
"I agree." The suspicious looking man she had seen earlier spoke. His voice was deep and luring.
"Sorry, who are you?" Evie raised an eyebrow.
"Jayden, but call me Jay." He answered quickly.
"Well Jay, come help us get everything out then." Evie smiled. Ari could already tell she was flirting with him.
He nodded silently and went back in the ship. Some other people followed him to help out.
"Um can someone go scout out the area?" Ari said while picking up a box.
"Oh! I'll do it!" Zara immediately volunteered, this was her chance to prove herself.
"Zara...no it's too dangerous." Hari shook his head.
"This is my chance to show everyone that we aren't a burden." She whispered.
"Hari, was it? Can you please help us lift the heavier stuff?" Ari called.
Hari gave a concerned look toward his sister and sighed.
"Please be careful, don't touch anything foreign."
"Hari?" Ari called again.
"Ah, be right over." He answered and gave another look to Zara before leaving.
Zara trekked in the woods, admiring all the interesting looking plants that she had only learned about in school. She hummed happily as she looked around and mentally took note of all the land marks. Eventually, she came across a large pond. It was green with algae but she thought it might be useful at some point so she remembered where it was.
"Fuck! What is this shit!" She heard a voice behind her.
She gulped nervously when she saw it was Cass. He was annoyed with some mud that he had stepped in and groaned.
"Cass? Why are you here?"
"I didn't want to lift heavy boxes so I decided to tag along." He shrugged.
Zara held in her annoyance, she had to put up with him.
"So what are we looking for?" He kicked at a loose rock which landed into the pond.
"Anything useful I guess."
They walked together in silence. Zara didn't mind that he wasn't talking, she just simply enjoyed the environment.
"So miss India, how does it feel to be in my presence. Alone?" He smirked.
"Can you stop calling me that? It's offensive. A-and I don't care about you. I would've been fine alone." She huffed.
"What do you want me to call you then?"
"My name!" She scoffed.
"Mmm nah, I like the name I gave you instead. It really suits you." He gave a cheeky smile.
"What's that?" Zara pointed at what looked to be an animal.
"I think that's a deer?"
"Can I touch it?" She gasped in excitement.
"Hell no!"
When the deer turned its head toward the commotion they both gasped as they saw that the other side of it was horribly mutated and morphed into a big blob of flesh.
"Oh my god." Zara put her hand to her mouth.
"Looks like the radiation had an effect over the years." Cass said.
They both continued walking without paying much attention to the direction they were going.
"Man I'm starving." He complained.
"Why don't you go back to camp then, they might have something."
"No way, all those people do is judge me."
Zara glared at him. That's all he's been doing since they met.
"What's this?" Zara saw something shiny on the ground and plucked it out.
"Is that...."
"An arrow." She breathed as she examined the arrow head.
"Shit, that means we aren't the only ones here." He gulped.
"L-let's go back now." She backtracked.
Suddenly a roar of thunder echoed in the sky.
"Rain?" Cass looked up and saw the dark storm cloud suddenly forming.
As the droplets started falling Zara heard a hissing sound. At first she thought it was an animal but when she looked around she saw that the droplets were disintegrating the leaves.
"Fuck!" Cass hissed in pain as a droplet hit him. When she examined his skin she saw that his skin blistered and festered.
"We need to go NOW!" She grabbed his wrist and they broke into a run.
"What is this?!" He let out a grunt as more droplets hit his bare arm. Zara was wearing full sleeves so she was a little bit more protected.
"Acid rain!" She shouted.
The droplets accumulated and they both knew they would make it back in one piece. She looked around, trying to ignore the burning sensation on her skin.
"There!" Cass pointed at a small opening.
They both sprinted inside and panted, half from running and half from pain.
"Ah shiiiit." Cass slumped against the wall and slid down.
Zara took deep breaths and checked her skin. It wasn't that bad, just a few managed to get through her shirt. When she looked back outside it was a downpour. When she looked back at Cass she saw he was holding onto his arm and wincing.
"You ok?" She crouched down to his level.
"Do I look ok?" He looked at her with annoyance.
"Let me see."
He willingly showed her and luckily there were only a few blotches on his skin, but they were worse then hers.
"What about the people at camp?" He pulled his arm away.
"I don't know..." Zara said with a worried tone.
"That's the last of them." Ari huffed as she placed the last crate down.
"If we ration carefully, this food can last us for a while." Jay calculated.
"Hm?" Evie munched on an apple.
"Really?" He rolled his eyes.
Hari looked back into the forest, the stress was quite visible on his face.
"I'm sure she's fine." Ari put a hand on his shoulder.
"She's out there alone..."
"No, Cass is with her." Ari said.
"What?"
"I saw Cass follow her a little bit after she left."
"God damn it. I'd rather her be alone then with that prick." Hari hissed.
"They should be coming back soon, it's almost dark."
As they were talking, two figures emerged from the forest into the clearing.
"Oh thank god." Hari sighed in relief.
Zara walked up to her brother first and he noticed her small injuries.
"What the hell is this?" He gasped.
"There was acid rain." She looked exhausted.
"Acid rain?!"
"Ya, did it not rain here?" Cass grunted and sat on a tree stump, still in pain.
"No, everything was dry here." Ari shook her head.
"I don't think some flimsy tents can stop acid rain." Cass said without looking at anyone.
"I think we should set them up for as long as possible, we need a place to sleep for tonight." Evie interjected.
"I agree." Jay nodded.
"Whatever." Cass rolled his eyes in annoyance.
Night fell upon them and you could hear the crickets chirping. The air became much colder and became more crisp.
"So, let's get this question out of the way folks. Who's sleeping with who? Three people per tent." Evie announced.
It didn't take long for everyone to gather with people they knew.
"Hey, Zara, wanna be with us?" Ari asked.
Zara looked back at her brother. He didn't seem to object this and gave a simple nod. Ari looked back at her with a smile.
"Sure." Zara laughed.
Evie grabbed her hand and they all entered the tent.
"Alright listen, I've been dying to ask. Why do you always listen to your brother? Isn't it annoying?" Evie sighed.
"Evie!" Ari nudged her, knowing that question was somewhat personal.
"Oh...he was the one that took care of me when my parents passed away. It would make me feel guilty if I didn't listen to him." Zara tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at the ground.
"That's understandable but don't you want to make your own decisions?"
"Evie stop being such a bad influence. Besides, your brother has good intentions. He really cares for you." Ari smiled.
Zara smiled with her, her dimples finally showing.
"Oh my gosh, why are you so cute?!" Ari suddenly exploded.
"Huh?" Zara blinked.
"I'm sorry, I just never meant someone as innocent as you and I feel like we need some of that around here." She sighed.
"O-oh."
Evie squinted at her and popped the question.
"You're a virgin aren't you?"
Zara's face turned hot and even though you couldn't see the blush because of her skin tone she was definitely blushing underneath.
"Evie!" Ari covered her mouth.
"I guess...I never really had time to think about that." Zara laughed nervously.
"Oh honey, we gotta change that." Evie tutted.
"No, no we don't. Zara, you're fine just the way you are and there's nothing wrong with it." Ari interjected.
"Ok ok! I'm just trying to break the ice." Evie raised her hands in defeat.
"Oh what an ice breaker." Ari rolled her eyes.
"Well, I'm exhausted. I'm also very hungry." Evie yawned and laid on the ground.
"We'll figure out what to do with food tomorrow." Ari sighed and laid down along with her.
"Are you sleeping?" She looked at Zara.
"Ah no, not yet. I'm going to say good night to my brother." Zara said and swiftly left the tent.
To her surprise, only the men were awake and wandering about. There weren't many females to begin with in the group so it felt very intimidating to Zara as the only males she's been around was her brother and her father.
"Zara? What are you doing?" Hari surprised her.
"I just wanted to say good night to you."
"Well, how do you find your new friends to be like?" He chuckled.
"A little bit overwhelming but they are very nice." She admitted.
"That's good to hear. I decided that having some allies would hurt, especially, if something were to go wrong." Hari said with his arms crossed.
"Well, I'm sore from lifting all those boxes. Make sure you go to bed." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and left her.
She watched as he entered his tent and settled with his 'roommates.' Zara enjoyed the cool air against her skin and decided to stay out a little bit longer to admire the sky. Though she had been seeing stars her whole life these stars felt different.
She hadn't even realized how much time had passed and everyone was asleep. As she was on her way to her tent she happened to bump into someone.
"Oh I'm sorry! It's a little bit too dark." She apologized.
"Don't worry about it."
There was a moment of silence until he spoke.
"Zara was it?"
Zara couldn't see this man's face due to how dark it was.
"Ah, ya." She answered.
"Sorry, I'm just about to head into the woods because I lost something important to me." He sighed heavily, seemingly distressed.
"Do you need some help?"
"If you don't mind?"
"Oh not at all, I like the air tonight." Zara nodded and went along with him.
"Alright, it should be somewhere here."
There was almost no light so it would be impossible to find whatever he was looking for.
"What is it you're looking for?"
Suddenly Zara felt some hands around her waist, startling her.
"Oh, uhm, uh. Excuse me?" She stuttered and attempted to get away.
"Don't run." He whispered into her ear. His hands slid up and down her body, groping her.
"Please stop." She tried to push him off.
"Oh come on." He laughed and held her head in attempt to kiss her.
"Stop!" She turned her head to avoid it.
"You bitch!" He growled and slapped her across the face, making her fall to the ground.
Zara couldn't see this man's face and only a looming shadow towering over her. She frantically crawled backwards to get away.
"Hey." Another voice interrupted them.
She heard a muffled thud and a grunt that followed.
"Back up dickhead." Someone cursed.
There was a shuffled of footsteps as one person ran away. She felt a hand on her wrist, making her flinch and stiffen up.
"Relax it's just me, Cass." He sighed.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better." She pulled her arm away and stood up, dusting her pants off.
"Oh and are you naive enough to follow a strange man into the woods?" He scoffed.
"He needed help." She mumbled.
"If he really lost something and had common sense he'd look for it in the morning." Cass said.
Zara frowned and hated that he was right. Was she that stupid?
"You're so stupid." He said as if reading her thoughts.
"Thanks..." Zara said with a low voice.
Cass didn't seem to hear it or he just chose to ignore her.
"Why are you awake?" Zara asked.
"I can't sleep." He shrugged.
"Me neither. It's probably because I'm in a new place." Zara sighed.
"Wanna walk with me?" He offered.
Zara raised an eyebrow.
"Well miss India?" He asked again after Zara didn't answer.
"And constantly get offended by you? No thanks, I'm going to bed." She shook her head.
"Oh? Only after one day you seem bold. It doesn't suit you." He smirked.
Zara was flustered by those words and immediately went back to being like a turtle, shy and always wanted to hide.
"I'm going to bed. Enjoy your walk." She cut their conversation short and went back to her tent.
"Hm, you're quite interesting." Cass laughed softly after she left.
ns 18.68.41.175da2
