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Rena

Victoria:

August 2nd, 2027, 11:45 AM

You didn’t know where you were at first.

A single glance around you told you that the setting was foreign to you. But still, the rubble-strewn streets, cracked and faulted pavement, and crumbling buildings had that vague familiar feeling, as if you may have passed through here before. You knew better than the trust that feeling though, because rubble had a funny way of looking alike, and even though you felt that you may have ventured through the area before, the complete lack of any recognizable landmarks told you that this was someplace new, and you did not have the slightest idea of where you were.

Or how long you had been walking.

The last thing you remember was trying to fall asleep. The sun had set already, and the clouds had blackened the sky for some hours earlier. You lay against the floor, as you had yet to find a cot or mattress to pad your hearth, but you had the benefit of having a smelly old blanket, one that served its critical purpose of keeping you warm through the frigid nights. The last thing you remembered as turning to your left and seeing the familiar body of Lily, the golden retriever you had grown to love, curled up in the corner.

Then you awoke here.

Though clouds obscured the sun, you could tell that it was approaching midday, as the light seemed to come almost directly overhead. To the west, you could smell the sea. That must be the Hudson River pouring into the bay. A glance around told you that you were standing outside of downtown proper, as the buildings here—or at least, what was left of them—did not jut out so magnanimously into the sky. Older brick buildings stood in their place, often with entire stories and walls obliterated from the bombings. You saw trees against ruined storefronts, with their windows shattered and their inventory looted. There was a quaintness here was absent at home, almost as if this part of town was the quieter, slower district before the bombs fell.

A brisk breeze blew through your layers, and even though you wore several sweatshirts, the air chilled you to the bone. Worse than the thought of the long trek home and the fear of walkers, you knew that this region was Banner territory, and the last thing you wanted was to face one of them. Most of your hegemon experience came against the Crimson Saber, when you lived in Central Park, but you had heard many stories of the notoriously ruthless Golden Banner, and you hoped, more than you ever remembered hoping for anything, to avoid seeing one of them today.

There was nothing left for you to do but walk.

Victoria Guerra

Timestamp: August 2nd, 2027, 11:45 AM

Victoria’s eyelids slowly parted as she began to stir awake. She lay, back against the floor, wondering for how long she had slept. The darkness that surrounded her made it clear that, once again, she had not slept through the night. The insomnia that she was experiencing, of which was so familiar to her was finally taking its toll; she could feel it affecting her body. Even so, she knew not what had caused it, she was almost sure that she had come to acceptance of the death of her parents and even the poor situation that she and the rest of the stragglers were forced to endure. Why then did she wake this night?

It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the darkness upon coming to consciousness. When her sight did return, Victoria tried to make out the form of a familiar object. There were none. The girl did not panic immediately, for she knew that sometimes details managed to escape her and that landmarks were not permanent. The soiled smell of the blanket that she had curled under was gone, in fact, feeling around her body she could not locate it at all. She then turned to her side, calling out to Lily, the golden retriever, in the darkness. Her voice was quiet but not yet panicked.

Only when Victoria sat her body up fully and gazed into the night did she realize that she was not home, but instead gazing down a street outdoors. Lily was no longer curled up in a corner nearby, there was no corner, only the rubble of the street and herself. It was now that Victoria panicked, she did not like being on the streets, especially not alone. She found herself instinctively retreating from the streets, trying to escape being out in the open while also making sure that she didn’t box herself in.

She found herself crouched behind a rusty mass, most likely a car long forgotten right where it was parked, stripped of useable pieces and weathered considerably afterward. Behind this cover though, Victoria found herself brave enough to take in her surroundings. There was a bit of familiarity in the area, and though she was never the personality that was any good in direction, she had a bugging feeling that she’d been there before. She could not grasp why though and in the end figured that it merely looked like every other place she’d been. Rubble and rust all around. No landmarks other than the same decrepit buildings, the same piles of broken concrete, and the same busted streetlamp long downed.

She noticed something else about her area though, as she did not feel nearly as enclosed in this surrounding. The buildings were much less grand in height here and there was less shattered glass and metal and more brick, a material that she had rarely seen. It became clear that she was not in her home area but in one that may have been quieter and older before the bombs hit the city. She worried that she was in Golden Banner territory, she had heard that areas such as this fell under their jurisdiction. The mere thought of meeting one of those monsters of which she had heard stories about made Victoria very uncomfortable. With no intent of meeting any of them, she set out.

As she walked, she tried to think of why she had walked there. She was now positive that this was Lala’s doing, for she knew of know other personality and Lala was the one who knew direction. Was that bitch trying to get them killed? Victoria found herself getting angry, at her second personality but did not dwell on it for long besides wondering why. Victoria tried to move quickly but carefully as she reached out her hands so that she could carefully climb over a rotted tree that was lying along her path. As far as she knew, she was headed home.

Rena

Victoria:

You began walking nondescriptly, but without proper orientation of where you were. The sky was cloudy, like so many other days, and it was almost impossible see the orientation of the sun. Either way, it was impossible to check which direction you were going by the sun, as it was nearly dead overhead by any crude estimation that you had. You thought you could smell the faint waft of sea air to your left, but you were unsure which direction that actually meant. Damn living on an island—the passage of space and time got so distorted after the Fallout. Besides, even that may have been imagined. The rubble had such a permeating, nauseating stench of death that your nose would often catch onto any other smell just for relief.

You slinked past the rusty car, carefully, though bravely, moving into the road to get a better view of where you were. The streets still offered you the best vantage point for where you wanted to go, but the reality was that they were rarely safe. Even though the fog and upturned concrete meant that the line of sight along the roads was interrupted every few hundred feet, they were still the most vulnerable open spots on the horizon. Who knew what lurked just beyond your sight, ready to pounce on you when you were least expecting it.

You missed your teammates—your family—the most during this time. Zephyriah would probably have known what to do. She always seemed to know what to do—the girl, as far as you knew, was next to unflappable, she seemed to have all the answers. Felix would probably have interjected with some wisecrack: an offensive one, but one that managed to make you smile. Adrian probably would have already taken charge of the situation, reassuring everyone that it would all work out. Even Ella and Lily would have managed to keep everything in perspective, to remind you that there were still things in this world that were worth trying to protect.

But none of them was here now. You were completely alone.

The sense of panic grew as you realized that you were lost. The rubble around you looked quaint, different from before, but still hardly anything that you could orientate. You edged away from the center of the road. Probably a wise decision. Still, you could not afford to creep too far from the streets, as that was a great way to get lost, or to find that the rubble and ruin formed an impossible roadblock. You knew this; from all the years that you spent growing up in Central Park, from all the experiences you had with the friends that you had come to cling to with all your heart, you knew what to do when you needed to navigate the Manhattan ruins—

Point yourself in a direction and walk until you found a landmark. The strategy felt so juvenile; so silly, now that you had to use it. But you knew that it was the only viable option. You simply couldn’t stand there and hope someone found you, especially if most of the things that could find you were not things you wanted to encounter.

After you scaled the rotting log, you continued down the street, on what you felt was the remains of a sidewalk, though this particular area of the road was too grungy, too obliterated for you to tell for sure. You came across what looked to be your first big obstacle. In the middle of the street, a burst pipe must have caused a crater that spanned the entire intersection. The rubble on the sides of this crater made it nearly impossible to climb over. You either had to backtrack or traverse through the basin. Neither option felt particularly safe, but both felt better than remaining where you stood.

Victoria Guerra

Victoria’s eyes were heavy from lack of sleep, nearly to the point of stinging. But with her head hanging solemnly, she kept walking down the street in search for something familiar. All of the landmarks that she could think of raced in her head. And as she thought of them, she looked around for an indication of any sort. She saw nothing though, and this block was beginning to look like the last. There was not even a flicker of color, the world around her seemed so lifeless at that moment, so depressing, so full of despair. What if she wasn’t even in New York? New York was her home, it was all she knew. Taking her away from that would be unbearable.

Victoria frozen in her tracks for a moment as she considered the high possibility. What if she really was alone in the world now? Were Zephy and Adrian and Felix and Ella all looking for her? There was no attempt to force back tears as Victoria soon began to sob. She began walking again but slower now, stumbling over rubble not seen clearly through waterlogged eyes.

She could only hope that if she kept walking, she would find her way home. That was the way that they all traveled, it was the way of a lost straggler. This straggler was alone and defenseless and growing more and more paranoid of her surroundings by the moment. She knew where the walkers near her home lurked but now she had no idea where she was and where those walkers were.

‘At the very least Victoria wanted to find shelter away from all of the bad things. If only I had somewhere to go and hide. Maybe then they could come rescue me like last time.’ Victoria thought just as she reached her arms up to the top of the rotted trees trunk. She clambered on top of the trunk carefully and though it took her several minutes to climb it completely. Once on top of it, she realized just how high up the tree was. It was a surprisingly steep fall. She could make it without injuring herself but the sight of it made her a bit dizzy. She hugged to the tree tightly as she let her body slide down its other side. She felt a moist grime chafe against her hand but paid it little attention as she climbed down.

Looking around, the scenery was the same as before. She couldn’t see very far ahead. The street was clear but dangerous and very much out in the open. Victoria fearfully pressed herself into the shadows as she walked the street. She saw nothing familiar still but she clung to her hope. She scanned the streets as she moved, not keeping her back to any place for too long a time. For who knew who or what was also walking these streets.

Victoria looked down at her feet as the area seemed to change slightly. There was not much of a sidewalk, much less a place to hide. She stood there fearfully considering the survival tactics that she had learned and that her family had told her. Up ahead she saw a true mess of things. The street had a large crater in it, taking up any paths that she had thought of traveling. There was no way around it, she could only go through it or find another route. Victoria liked neither of these ideas.

There were other streets back the way she came, on the other side of the tree. Victoria wiped the grime from the tree onto her clothing. But those streets seemed like her, good places to be set up or trapped by gang members or walkers. Those streets were far too narrow for her. The way that Victoria saw it, going forward was the only thing that made sense. Not only was she lost enough already, she was also hated narrow streets. How could she face such a fear alone? It was usually Zephyriah or Ella that tlked her into facing her discomforts and neither of them were here. ‘No one is here.’ Victoria thought. ‘Why am I here? Where was Lala trying to go?’

Victoria bit her lip and forced back tears. She was trying to be strong now. She began her climb into the basin it was difficult but she found herself at its mouth. It was then that she thought of giving up, sitting there, but how stupid would that be? Victoria would have to keep going if she wanted to survive.

Rena

Victoria:

The decaying bark of the tree crunched and snapped beneath your feet, but it did not give way. You were able to scale over the fallen log and make it to the other side. Outside of the whines of the log, you heard no other sound, and you began to feel this eerie sense of dread overcome you as you made your way into the basin. With each ginger step, you began to second-guess your idea, wondering if this was really the right move to make. The feeling grew from the pit of your stomach, and by the time you were completely in the crater, your legs practically shook from anticipation.

The sun, though nearly overhead, did little to hide the pale shadows of the dark clouds. Nerves made you stop and look around, as you checked the surroundings. Old trinkets lay in the crater. Bits of scrap metal, some tattered pieces of old paper that probably served as newspaper or notices littered the ground around you. You saw that kind of debris every day, so you did not pay them much attention. One particular object, however, immediately caught your eye.

Out of the corner of your vision, you saw fur. You turned your head to get a better look. A tattered teddy bear, with its feathery insides torn open and leaking from a number of rips and tears, lay pinned beneath some debris. One of its glossy eyes was missing, and the other one seemed to stare eagerly at you, as if it was calling your name. You could only begin to wonder what kind of stories the teddy bear had to share: about its life prior to the chaos and the destruction, about a child who must have abandoned it many moons ago.

As you turned to look at the teddy bear, you heard a crack, and something passed through your field of vision. You whirled around suddenly, alert and afraid, as you swore you saw a shadow dart across the top of the basin. Your heart pounded in your chest, as you wondered what to do. Stuck in the bottom of the crater, you were vulnerable. Your vision was limited, and who knew who—or what—was gathering confidence just beyond your sight?

Victoria Guerra

Victoria was a wreck as she passed through the basin. She felt her body tremble as she anticipated the worst of all possible outcomes. Once again she was out in the open, only now she had nowhere to run and the walls of the crater were difficult to scramble upon. The thought that she may have possibly trapped her defenseless self seemed to only make her sobbing heavier and the more she tried to muffle her sounds so that no one could hear her, she could not. Instead she moved past shattered rock and piles of litter left unnoticed on the ground.

Hardly any of it mattered to her; she’d seen it all before and it was growing to be quite repetitive. Victoria had given up sifting through such useless debris a long time ago. It was, once again, trash. Few things were considered trash in this day and age, almost anything could (and should) have been reused. Unfortunately, the woman found that often the paper was good for little more than kindling and the metal in bits too small to matter. Therefore it didn’t matter and therefore she didn’t even notice it as she anxiously moved across the crater in search of safety.

Paying more attention to where she was than what was in her presence, Victoria nearly hurried by the one unique item in the debris before her. Se stopped in her tracks as she did a quick double take in the direction of a decimated stuffed bear. With its soft insides protruding out and its body worn from its original distinctive shape, it took her several moments of staring to make heads and tails of the figure. An eye was missing, and though she realized that the object was inanimate, the sight of its single remaining eye tugged at her emotions. What had this poor thing been through to stare at her with such desperate eyes? Where had its owner gone? Was this person careless enough to leave the bear behind… or was their fate similar, if not worse, to that of the bear’s?

Again, she had to remind herself that it was only a toy. It had been so long since she’d seen one, the thought came to her t present it to Ella as a gift. Ella would love the bear, Victoria thought. By now, Victoria’s sobbing had already quieted then stopped. She was intrigued by the object that was partially trapped under concrete. She mulled the thoughts of taking the bear with her on her journey as she began to take a step away from her original path in order to get a closer look. This was unusual of Victoria. If she wasn’t anything else, she was focused. Added with the fact that she was currently scared out of her mind, it would seem like a very odd thing for her to do. However, such an object was a rarity and Victoria wanted to adopt it as her own.

It was then that she heard a crack that didn’t seem natural if she were truly alone. The paranoia in one brief moment had managed to rush back to her and she trembled as she whirled around to try and face it.. Then, form the corner of her eye she saw a figure pass over the basin. Now she knew that something was there. Her eyes did not usually play tricks on her and her careful nature wouldn’t allow her to pass it off as just noting. Victoria furrowed her eyebrows fearfully as she searched around the crater, looking in every direction and backing up toward the crater walls. The only reason she didn’t take off immediately is because she didn’t know where or what it was that she saw and did not want to run right into it.

Meanwhile, blind to the eyes of most casual observers, there was conflict deep within Victoria's mind. Personality traits individually lashed outward, trying to be most prominent in order to do what it thought best. Fear, the expression that Victoria actually currently expressed was allowing other traits to pass through. And that is when a personality composed itself... This personality, compliments of the fragments of Victoria's mother, understood the rules of fight or flight. It just so happens that Lesleigh was a fighter... Victoria stopped backing away and instead her head tilted in concentration as she studied her own brain briefly. She searched for the most effective areas of the brain to sever if she were to make it out of the crater alive. She'd come to realize with this more rational personality being adopted, that she was not a very dexterous runner and that she would have to slow them down. It was then that Victoria went searching for a nearby mind, hoping that it had a mind. all the while her mentally augmented mind was focusing upon the earth around her.

Rena

Victoria:

Your heart pounding in your chest, the use of your powers suddenly flared within you, as you noticed the activation of a dominant personality. Your power to search out for other minds triggered, and you scanned the area for signs of intelligence. But the structural interference and lack of visibility of the crater hindered your sweep for another human being, preventing you from scouring in as wide of a range as you liked. You still had to overcome the limitations of your environment, and perhaps staying in the crater was not the best of ideas.

Yet you couldn’t shake the lingering feeling that something was out there. Maybe it was a walker; you knew from experience that those did not respond to your power. And if they were out there, it would be doubly dangerous for you to stay in the crater—who knows when it would return, or if it would bring some of its friends along. Being in the bottom of a crater was one of the last places you wanted to be in then.

Doubt spread across your mind, as you began to wonder if you simply imagined the incident. You didn't notice anyone when you entered the crater, and you failed to notice anyone now. Maybe it was all a figment of your imagination—after all, the cloudy shadows often played tricks on people’s minds, making them see things that were not actually there. Part of you wanted to believe this was the case, but you had the sinking feeling in your stomach that you weren’t alone.

Victoria Guerra

The dominant personality, cocky in her abilities, mentally dared any human to come approach her. She knew that she could take them. In fact, she felt that she could devastate them with nothing more than a few thoughts and this version of Victoria knew just how quickly a thought could be formed. This personality knew what she had, she understood what her weaker self often ignored, rarely embraced, and seemed to even fear. Victoria tried to scan the field for minds but the foolish personality that was most often in control failed to ever exercise her abilities, thus limiting what she could hope to find. It didn't help that she couldn't see this mysterious figure, searching bling made it a lot harder.

She began to doubt, not herself, but her original personality. This Victoria liked to view things rationally and, realistically speaking, she had not quite seen what had passed through her vision. She, like Victoria and her many other 'faces' had seen the passing object just as Victoria had and therefore even she was not sure. From what she saw, however, there was no need for immediate panic because she was not even sure of what had occurred. Maybe her other side was merely over thinking things, alarming herself for no reason at all. The clouds could have been playing tricks on them and they'd lacked days of sleep which could cause all sorts of crazy daydreams.

At last, the girl gave up. She was confident but not stupid enough to stand in the crater's center and wait for something that may not even be there. As much as she hated having to turn away, she really saw no other choice. Step by step, Victoria proceeded out of the crater. with each step she took, she thought of another way to discredit herself. By the time she was digging her fingers into the crater's sides, she was convinced that nothing was amiss. And yet she stayed the dominant personality... Something would not allow her to let it go. She knew not whether it was the numerous other personality traits telling her that something was there, or just a deep suspicion due to misplaced traits of paranoia, that told her to be ready but before she reached an arm upward to climb, she grabbed a pipe that was protruding from the ground as a weapon before continuing her ascent.

Rena

Victoria:

As your fingers gripped around the pipe, the coldness surprised you, and you felt a chill jolt through your body. The rusted metal pipe chafed at your fingers, and in attempting to remove it, you found that it was stuck fast. You figured that the pipe must have been buried underneath the ground below many decades ago, as part of the original construction of the asphalt and concrete streets. No matter how much you tugged at the extruding pipe, however, it failed to budge, and you began to wonder if it was worth trying to excavate at all.

As you struggled with the pipe, the dense clouds overhead parted just a little, revealing a ray of sunlight that briefly lit the earth around you. You were distracted momentarily by the sudden radiance, but just as soon as it came, the blackened clouds had obscured everything again. Just then, you thought you heard something scurry behind you, from the other side of the crater. Startled—your breath caught in your throat—you whirled around, trying to see if it was still there.

But there was nothing. Nothing but the remnants of a battered intersection and deserted cars.

You still desired a weapon to defend yourself though, and since the pipe wouldn’t budge, you figured that you would have to collect something else. You knew from experience that walking around, alone, in unfamiliar territory was not something that you wanted to do, especially in these times. The recent battles between the Golden Banner and Crimson Saber made you tense about leaving the headquarters. But now, you were wandering in the deserted city that was so eerily devoid of sound and activity that the hair on the back of your neck stood on end.

And you still needed to find out where you were going...

Victoria Guerra

Victoria’s alternate personality was fuming now and curses filled the girl’s pretty head like water fills a basin. Survival was being compromised and she was regretting the decision to step into the crater at all. What could that part of her mind been thinking? How stupid a move could she have made? Crawling into a crater was a mistake and it was taking her an extremely dangerous situation and an angry personality to get that through her weak little mind. Absolutely pathetic! How is it that she is the dominant personality?

Vitoria’s eyes glared angrily across the crater. She wiped her cold hands against her clothing to brush the rust from the pipe off and meanwhile put warmth back into her palm. She clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles were white. She called out to the empty space before her eyes. “Come out if you’re there!”

She scanned the scenery around the cars for a moment sure that it, whatever it was, was in that direction. After a moment of not seeing anything she turned to the crater wall once more and began to scale it determinedly trying to exit the crater. Regardless of if something was there or not, she wanted out. Her hands scraped against the jagged rubble but she ignored it and pressed on until she was nearing the ledge.

She looked over her shoulder and down below her o check for something coming her way but before she could get a good look, she was attacked by something else. Her fear of heights… All of the sudden, she felt her fingers, tightly gripping the jaded concrete tremble and she feared falling. Her foot slipped but she desperately replaced it onto the foothold. With the arrival of this fear, the dominant personality was becoming more self aware and returning back, afraid as ever.

Rena

Victoria:

The sense of doom grew in the pit of your stomach. You wanted this ordeal to be over, so you could curl up in your warm bed and listen as Felix cracked jokes or Zephyriah told you that everything would be alright. The feeling that you suddenly had was something you had always despised: that sense of uselessness and inability. You were paralyzed by your own insecurity and fear, and you knew that this was not the time or place for that to happen. There was too much at stake here. There was no one there to help you.

The fear was not alone, however, as you also felt anger swell up inside you. You wanted to do something—anything—if it meant you could leave the crater and go home, but your feet felt like lead, and you fought the growing urge to give up and accept your fate in the crater. But the mere thought of walkers rushing at your body and burying their rotten teeth into your flesh made you shiver and cringe. They were such primitive beings that you knew it would be painfully messy; they would likely bite at whatever they could find first, with no ability or willingness to ease your pain and suffering.

The cry you uttered met no response. Your spine tingled as you were growing increasingly confident that the shadow was a walker. They obviously would not respond when you called them, and they evidently lacked mental functions for you to detect. Somehow, though, believing that it was a mindless beast—as opposed to something far more dangerous—did not give you any comfort. You needed to know for sure. What if your enemy was something legitimately far worse? What if you came into contact with one of the terrifying members of the Golden Banner?

Your foot slipped as you scrambled up the embankment. Your arms reached down beneath you to brace your fall, but you were not quick enough in your frenzied, panicked state. Your elbows grated against the chewed up gravel, and you felt immediately the sting as you scraped them. Without even reaching to touch, you knew that the dirt had cut open the skin, and the warm sensation of a thin trickle of blood down your arm verified that you were bleeding. But the real realization came a few moments later, when you figured that those beasts out there would smell your blood and sense your weakness...

They would close in for the kill; you had to get out of there. The good fortune of avoiding them while you were sitting duck in the crater probably would not last. And you did not want to be unprepared when your luck ran out.