Alone? [complete]

[ticking]

Elisa crept through the burnt library, her eyes sharp for any movement and her ears pricked for any sound. She had managed to find a burnt sandwich on her way in and had she not been on the verge of starvation she would have wrinkled her nose at the sight. However, hunger made you do strange things and thus Elisa’s stomach was full if not a bit perplexed on what type of sandwich she had just eaten.
The library was large for the city’s size and Elisa had been in it several times before the war had broken out. It was nothing like she remembered it. The corner where she would snuggle herself into and take out her sketchbook, pencil and sometimes a book was destroyed. The comfortable reading chairs, which were scattered around the building, were shard, missing huge parts of their bodies and fluff and spring were sticking out of the bottoms of many of them. The windows had been smashed in on the raid, the cool wind of the evening air trickled in, and danced along Elisa’s skin causing goose bumps to ripple across her. She shivered a bit.

Carefully, she reached the end of the library and was thankful to find some of the materials she had left there earlier were still there. A blanket, box of matches and a lump of twigs. Unlike many others, when she and Vince had had that fight that had sent her over the edge Elisa hadn’t curled up into a corner and cried herself to sleep. No, quite the opposite. She had rummaged around the camp and been able to steal the blanket and matches away before anyone noticed.

Sitting down Elisa took the fuzzy pink blanket and draped it over herself. The sun was setting fast and soon she would be alone. Leaning forward she started to build a triangle mountain of twigs and struck a match. Her gun was tucked under the blanket with herself, ready to shoot if the owner felt threatened. Staring into the hearth of the flame Elisa let her mind wonder.

[LoLi]

Yogurt had perched herself on top of one of the more stable, taller buildings in this area of the city. She was keeping a watch for activity. Waiting to see how the nomals would move, how fellow Oculi would react or vice versa. The day was quiet, and the sun was setting. This was actually a bad thing. It was likely that something was up. A group, or several different groups would keep a low profile during the day to strike out at night.

Usually, Yogurt would pick a spot that not only had the better vantage point, but also had some sheltering features so she could camp out for several days. This part of the city didn’t harbour a great selection. She chose a place where she could watch for the day, but she knew can’t stay in some place so open. She was on some sort of apartment or office building. It’s been blasted away so there are just about no walls and some remains of what was an upper floor or roof. Yogurt had to use what remained of an escape ladder to get up here since it was so torn up.

Although she might have been safer hiding on the upper floors of this building, but to her dismay, they were near impossible to access. With a full stomach, She was feeling rather gutsy anyways. She’d eaten a fair portion of that fox meat since she got it, and was able to make it so that the cloth could tie around her waist now. Yogurt still thought about her run in with Harvey, and wondered if he was all right. She ventured down to ground level and looked for some place to hide out for the night rifle slung over shoulder.

She came across a low, wide set building. Cautiously, she entered. Her rifle was at the ready, and she crept in. This looked reasonable enough for shelter, but that’s exactly what anyone else would think. Occupation was plausible. The interior was large and cluttered with broken shelves and scraps of furniture. The city library, she guessed. Helix had a library. It wasn’t nearly as big, and this looked like it might have been impressive before it got destroyed. Most of the books were illegible now.

There was a light coming from the back. A fire by the looks of it. Bringing her sniper rifle to her shoulder, she stepped closer. Yogurt would usually avoid confrontation, but it was getting late, and it would be even stupider to venture out at night. She was dangerously close to normals territory. It’s probably better to face one (or few) people than a (larger) group. The lit fire would dim her glowing blue eyes anyways.

Someone was curled up close to the fire under a pink blanket. There was only one person there to Yogurt’s surprise. She came up directly behind this person. Her rifle pointed not at the person’s head. She cocked her rifle threateningly. ‘Don’t move. I just want a place to stay for the night.’ She needed control over the situation, even if she was all she’s asking for, and this was – unfortunately – the best way to go about it. ‘Let me stay and nothing complicated has to happen.’

[ticking]

Elisa felt the rifle prod in between her shoulder blades and froze. Oh for the love of God! Really? Just after she had found a safe haven, someone else just had to come waltzing by and OF COURSE had to have a bigger gun then her. The person holding the gun felt more confident with their weapon then Elisa did with her own. There was more power and confidence in the shove than whenever Elisa had held her own arms and Elisa felt the blood from her face flicker away. How many people had they killed with it? Slowly, she turned her head to face the one who had her life in her hands.

She stared. A girl?

Her length long blonde hair was tied back and strangely, no bangs adorned her forehead. Her face was messy, dirty and grubby, looking no better if not a bit worse than herself. Her attire was a strange mixture of a t-shirt, a half burnt lab coat and a pair of loose fitting jeans. If the muck was washed off her face and her hair was brushed a bit more often Elisa could see the girl as being the envy of many other pretty girls. A twinge of jealous slithered through her mind at the thought, she had never seen herself as that pretty and seeing other girls reminded her of what she thought she lacked.

“All is fair here.” She said, trying to keep her voice level which was hard when you had a gun stuck behind you.

Her own gun, that was still hidden under the blanket twitched as the hand holding it readied it’s self for any unsightly nature. After that incident with the bunny Elisa had felt a rush of a new and scary feeling and emotion. She could control life and death with this gun. Just like how she had put the bunny out of its misery. Then again shooting a human and a bunny were totally different ball games. But then again this wasn’t exactly the ball game she had chosen to play.
She found herself eying the girl closer, taking in every molecule of her body and face. Looking how her nose curled, how her eyes were that perfect size and shape and how the girl’s lips were not overly cracked with lack of dehydration like hers were. Elisa was about to make another comment, a one of friendliness when she saw the very thing the other girl had hoped to hide by the light of her fire.

“Oh…” She found herself whispering with dark amusement, “seems like I have more than just a guest here.”

Her stomach churched and clenched as she stared at those awful blue glowing eyes. The fire may have masked the light by a fraction because there was still light outside but now Elisa had seen it and she could not ignore them. Her whole mindset changed. An oculi was not human. Not something to even be remotely associated with one. How could a human look like they did? Speak like they did? Act like they did? It was un-natural and uncanny. It wasn’t human, no matter what those damned scientists at that crack house spouted. She would never accept them. Ever.

Sorry for the awfulness of this post...ew...so bad DX

[LoLi]

‘Fair game, huh?’ Yogurt didn’t move. The girl, as it turns out, turned slowly. Yogurt passed the seconds by thinking about the false, yet overly commonly used threat “don’t move”. Clearly, the person must move to see their adversary. It was probably because “don’t move” sounded better – and had less syllybles – than “move, but only in a way that isn’t too sketchy”.

The girl before her was mundane looking to say the least. Yogurt couldn’t help but feel pierced by a powerful set of blue eyes. It was almost scary. It didn’t help that the girl’s eyes narrowed in a glare. She knows.

Yogurt lifted her right hand off the trigger. Slowly she razed her hand to cast a shadow over her eyes. ‘You know what I am. What now?’ If the girl were stupid enough to lunge at her and strangle her to death, she’d let her, that’s what. Even if Yogurt was willing to go far enough to kill her outright, she wouldn’t waste a bullet at this range. She raised the barrel of her rifle, holding it with her finger on the trigger with her right hand with the butt still against her shoulder.

This girl was the hostile type. That much was obvious. Yogurt’s mind was running in overhaul. Should she go for the friendly approach, and risk being killed, even now that she’s established her position? Or stay hostile, and give the girl a reason to kill her at worst, hate her at best? She decided on the former.

‘Name’s Yogurt,’ might as well stay consistent. ‘We’re on the same side here, right?’ With her free hand, she untied the meat from her waist. ‘Hungry?’ She offered.

[ticking]

If Elisa could have narrowed her eyes anymore, they would have become like cat slits. An Oculi was being friendly to her? And not just that was offering her meat? What was her angle? What possible reason would the thing have to keep her alive and not shoot her?

“Interesting name.” she finally responded, not keeping the friendly tone like yogurt had tried to. In her mind, there was no reason to be friendly with a creature, especially of the species that had destroyed her family. She had a theory that the Oculi had something to do with beginning the war, no matter what others said. Either that or they would have caused one eventually. And then there was the fact of her mother. No one could deny an Oculi had killed her.

She wasn’t sure what to make of this Oculi though. Compared to the other one she had met in her life she hadn’t tried to slit her throat the moment her back had turned. She had had a chance but had let it go. Elisa deep in her heart wished she could trust the girl, and see her as that but her soul and mind refused to corporate with that feeling. Instead, a feeling of hatred ran through her mind as a picture of her mother’s smiling face drifted in and all she could do was to push away feeling and try to control it.

“I hardly believe we are on the same side Oculi.” Elisa growled, emphasizing the term with as much spite as she could muster. “However,” her stomach gurgled and grumbled, “I will die at this rate without food. You have food and I a fire. Though,” Her eyes darkened as she withdrew her folded arms from inside the pinkness and showed Yogurt her gun. “Give me a reason and I swear I will.”

[LoLi]

Interesting. That worked out better than she thought it would. The girl made it clear that she hated Oculi with a passion. She rejected Yogurt’s alliance proposal, but that was justifiable. However, in the same way the food had brought Harvey and Yogurt together, food had kept this one’s hatred at bay. At least just long enough to stick around for the night. The girl flashed a pistol from under the blankets and returned the earlier threat. Fair enough.

First move she made was setting her rifle down. Like always, in such a way so that she could take it up and fire in less than 2.8 seconds. They calculated that back at Helix. They think of everything. Then again, war was, is and will be a reoccurring event in human history. Turns out war might be the only thing humans as a species are good at. Kneeling down carefully, Yogurt didn’t take her eyes off the girl until she began to unwrap the meat. What was left could have lasted her a few more days. Yogurt left it open, taking none for herself.

The wind started blowing and the sun was just about under the horizon. Not that this mattered for visibility, it was that it was a reminder of how tired she was getting. The breeze blew through and caught onto her lab coat collar. Ducking, Yogurt settled next to her rifle. She’d sleep sitting up, like she always has since liberation, with her rifle snug up under her arm. Often times she’d wake up leaning up against her rifle with her hand gripping the barrel too tightly. She would have fallen over every night if it weren’t there. It was kind of like her best friend at this point.

‘She never told me her name.’ Yogurt said just loud enough. Yogurt meant for that to be internalized. It probably wasn’t the best thing to strike up a conversation with a hostile. Too late now. ‘You never told me your name.’ She repeated, to make it sound less like a mistake and more like she meant to ask.

[ticking]

“Really now?” Elisa said, looking away from her and not will to expand any further at present moment. She did not like the way the Oculi watched her as it sat down and made its self-comfortable. It unnerved her to say in the least. It did not even seem that overly bothered by the sight of her gun either, taking away that superior feeling that had kept Elisa going for the last few hours. Great, now all she was running on was starvation and fatigue and to her knowledge, those were not the best of things to be living off.

“Elisa.” She said, as the wind blew in, rattling some of the curtains that has managed to survive the raid and causing her to grab the blanket and reach it around herself. She felt pathetic, showing such weakness in front of the creature. The thing- Yogurt- as it liked to call its self laid out the food in front of her but did not touch it. Neither did Elisa. Despite her stomach, demanding she reach out a grab a hunk of meat her mind would not let her. Her stubbornness got in the way.

Therefore, to take her mind off the growing hole in her belly Elisa reached behind her and grabbed the Notebook and pencil she had when she had first met Harvey. Elisa had thought about Harvey and what he was doing now. However, not for as long as one might think. She had indeed been curious if he was still alive and well but that was about it. She wasn’t about to let stupid friendliness get in the way of her survival or her true goal.

Flipping the notebook open, she found the page she had last been working on and couldn’t stop a small smile from crawling across her lips. Though, she wasn’t the Leonardo Da Vinci of her day Elisa was pretty good at drawing realism for her age and the fact alone it helped her to zone out of this hellhole she called home made it the best way to pass her time. The picture she was working on, was one she had started months ago, left and come back to several times and in her eyes, it would never be finished.

The picture of her mother would never be able to show the shining quality of her smile, the way her eyes would catch the light when she laughed or her voice. In her mind, this was the only way she was keeping her mother alive and had started to draw this picture when her mother’s face had started to fade and dim. She would never allow herself to forget. Never.

[LoLi]

She didn’t take the food. Stubborn girl. Yogurt was sure she would eventually. Maybe she’ll take it in the dead of night while Yogurt was asleep. Her name was Elisa. Yogurt thought it was a cute name. Then again, all the names Yogurt knew about were names from textbooks and novels. Not too many female names to be found in history textbooks. Many sound foreign anyways.

Another breeze sent brought the chills. Yogurt let go of her rifle, removed her gloves and rubbed her hands. Her palms were unusually clean compared to the rest of her. She could see the marks of where her skin ended and her gloves began. Each finger capped with a layer of dried mud. In the flickering light, her skin was unnaturally white, almost ghostly. She slipped her gloves back on, stretching her hands to encourage the leather to form back in place.

She glanced up at Elisa. She had shifted and moved under her blanket. Yogurt wondered how one would go about finding such a great blanket in such decent condition, picking out possible locations to look for one. Not like she planned to, it was just a weird habit to think about scenarios like that. Curiously, Yogurt leaned over to get a glimpse of what Elisa was doing. Elisa had angled herself so that she could get enough light onto her notebook. It was flipped open to a page with a hand drawn picture of a smiling woman. Yogurt straightened up, feeling like she’s pried too far into Elisa’s life.

Yogurt glanced over at the untouched meat. The last time she took a bite out of that was the day before yesterday. Unlike when it was first cooked, it was now stale, chewy and cold; colder now that it was exposed to the elements. She only needed a bite. That’s part of what made her an Oculi. But instead of lingering on this thought, she wondered why so many people mistakenly (or worse yet, knowingly) call earth, wind and fire elements when it’s been a known fact that they technically aren’t elements for centuries.

[ticking]

Elisa yawned, stretching her arms high above her head and cracking her back. Her eyes were growing heavy and her tired body was demanding she drop to the ground and curl up into the blanket. Side glancing the Oculi Elisa withheld a frown; the gun the creature was holding was one she had never seen before. Probably got it from those crazy scientists she thought bitterly to herself letting out another yawn.

Flipping the notebook closed, Elisa knitted the pencil behind her ear and glanced at the food again. Her stomach rumbled again and she found herself reaching unconsciously for it and only just managed to catch herself. Quickly she stared at Yogurt to see if she had seen her action, if she had she didn’t make any sign of it. It was hard to control herself but she had to. She couldn’t risk anything.

Rolling her shoulders, Elisa started to lay herself down so her back as facing the fire and curled herself inward. With her legs tucked inward, she pulled the blanket over her skinny body and made herself comfortable. The library’s floor was nothing like a bed but at least it was soft carpet and not a cold hard wooden floor. Drawing her sense of warmth in Elisa nuzzled her head inward, making her whole body curve even more and making her look like she was a ball. Letting out another yawn Elisa felt sleep trying to take over and reached absentmindedly for her gun under the sheets. After she had found it, she clutched the safety on and fingered it closer to her. At least she had something to defend herself in case the Oculi tried to attack her in the middle of the night.

[LoLi]

The morning sun was burning the back of Yogurt’s neck. Soundlessly, she lifted her head of her arm, which was holding onto her rifle. Usually it was just one hand, but this time, both were gripping it hard. She thought about all the possibilities as to why this was as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Then she remembered last night’s development and thought about the chances of her opening her eyes to see Jesus or St. Peter because she was dead. Or would she see Lucifer? All considered she couldn’t be too sure.

Inhaling, she opened her eyes. In almost a relieved sigh, she saw a daytime version of the same setting from last night. Yogurt would usually be up while it was still dark, and if the situation called for it, relocated before sunrise. She slept in. Could the presence of one other person really influence her that much?

Yogurt looked over the pink mass that was Elisa. She was curled in a fetal position. Yogurt remembered once learning that sleeping positions were a good indicator of a persons overall personality. Was fetal position a sign of insecurity? Yogurt couldn’t remember, she didn’t think it was too relevant when she was learning about it.

Yogurt stood up, letting go of her rifle. She stretched her back, which groaned and cracked from being arched too long. Oculi bodies are more flexible and nimble. She couldn’t imagine what it was like for a normal if they have it worse. She ran her hands over her hair. Dusty and dry, it was still drawn back in a near perfect ponytail. Then she picked up her rifle, and out of habit, made sure she loaded it. It wasn’t like she shot anything since the fox.

The click of the rifle made Elisa stir. Yogurt would have left, but leaving now might have registered as suspicious to Elisa. She stuck around, maybe be lucky enough for a nice goodbye. As unlikely as that might be.

[ticking]

She was running, running from what she wasn’t sure all she knew is if she stopped she would die. Smoke was billowing around her, a mistress of death and destruction, laughing down at her as she slammed on the front door that wouldn’t open. Tears caressed down her face as she felt the flames inching closer to where she was. Her slamming on the door before more argent but she was losing strength fast. She was screaming now, begging for something, anyone to help her.

Click.

Elisa stirred from her nightmare and blinked a couple of times to make sure she was really awake. She lay still for a moment letting all the emotions she had felt in the dream start to ebb away. The dream had felt so real, so terrifying that actual tears of fear had rolled down the young girl’s face as she had slumbered. Wiping the useful liquid off of her face Elisa straightened up and let the blanket’s warmth slip off of her. Stretching she turned and froze. She had forgotten she had been sleeping next to a creature. An Oculi. It was looking right at her like it expected something from her and Elisa felt her heart skip a beat. Had it finally decided it was going to kill her after all?

She grabbed for her gun but where she remembered leaving it last night it was no more. She must have kicked it away when she was asleep! Elisa stared with complete and utter fear at the thing staring back at her. The memory she had dreamed about had brought back all the fears and misery she had tried so hard to hide. She was not Elisa, the cold, hard and blunt girl. No, she was Elisa, a mummy’s girl, who was terrified of thunder and cried herself to sleep most nights.

[LoLi]

Elisa look mortified at the sight of Yogurt. Poor thing. Guns and weaponry had been such an everyday thing at Helix; Yogurt forgot they could be things to fear. Her expression softened. She took her hand away from the trigger and slung her sniper rifle over her shoulder. It was pretty massive, so it was a hard maneuver. Four feet of steel isn’t the most convenient thing to carry around.

‘Thanks for not blowing my head off last night.’ Usually, this kind of statement would be sarcastic. Yogurt meant it genuinely. ‘It was a pleasure, Elisa.’ Yogurt turned on her heel and began to walk out of the library, only to stop when she put her hand in her pocket and remembered something. ‘You can keep the food!’ She said over her shoulder.

Yogurt didn’t have a plan for today. Impulsively, she stationed herself on top of a three-story building that had a good view of the library and surrounding area. Yogurt wanted to keep an eye on that girl. Even if she was hostile towards Oculi, she did show a glimmer of kindness.

[ticking]

She watched Yogurt with uncertainty. An Oculi had thanked her? Was the world ending? But before she was able to voice her opinion on this the Oculi had already turned on her heel and was leaving, giving her a hunk of meat in thanks. Elisa stood there for what felt like an eternity not quite sure what to make out of the situation. She looked to her left, at the meat just sitting there, cold and waiting for someone to eat it. Her mouth watered. No, she shook her head. It was a trick, she couldn’t fall for it.

Elisa sat, her back to the meat and took out her notebook and pencil again. Opening to a new page she began to draw a new picture. One of the Oculi she had just met- Yogurt. Her hands went crazy as she drew line after line, trying to remember exactly what the thing had looked like. After a good hour the picture was done and Elisa stared at it. Yogurt was leaning against a wall, rifle leaned next to her and a small smile sweeping across her face.

Throwing herself backwards onto the blanket Elisa groaned, “What’s happening to me?” why had she drawn the creature with a smile and in such a friendly pose? It didn’t make sense. Rolling over, she stared at the meat again. Gulping she wondered if it really would be such a bad thing if she took a nibble at it. Just a taste.

Pushing herself up she edged towards the food like it was a bomb that would go off at any minute. She sniffed it and then her sense of starvation just took over. Needless to say in the last 10 seconds the meat was completely gone and Elisa let out a loud sigh of relief. Now that felt better! As she laid down again she fell upon something hard and reached under the covers to find it was the weapon she had been searching for an hour before. She rolled the weapon in her hands and stared at it. If she had had this when Yogurt was still here would she have shot? Elisa sighed and brought the handle to her head, thinking deeply.

“Dad…what would you do?”

After no one responded, she sighed again. Packing up her things-finding a burnt backpack in the children section of the building- hitching it upon her back and leaving the Library.