The two players continue their journey toward the factory. Most of the travel was uneventful and consisted of silence between the two players. The environment changed accordingly to where they were and once reaching sixteen miles South, they begin to head West. Before reaching their destination they stopped in their tracks and pulled off the small dirty path to the factory and set up a tiny encampment to refresh themselves. Jimmie sits down on a log, opens up his pack, takes out a ration and begins to consume it. As for Ashley, she begins to count her rounds.
"You going to eat something Ashley?" Jimmie asks.
"I didn't bring any food to eat, I only brought ammunition and money," she responds to him.
"I have an extra ration, would you like it? Can't go into battle on an empty stomach."
"...sure, I'll take your ration..." she grudges.
Jimmie hands her his last ration and she sits down next to him and begins to chow down on the beef that was contained in it. A moment of silence is shared with only a few hours till sunrise. The sky remains gloomy but beautiful with the shades of color that casted. The trees around them have gray toned leaves with green peaking through. A small fire lit in front of them to warm them up along with a damp rag heating over the fire placed by Ashley to help heal Jimmie's wounds. Through the silence, a few crackles from fire are heard, crickets singing in the distance and a harsh wind on the other side of the hill they arrived from. As Jimmie finishes his ration, he gets up and starts collecting wood and starts to build a small temporary shelter for the two as in the distance Jimmie can see rain will come in an hour. Ashley notices Jimmie working and quickly scarfs her food down and jumps up to help him.
"Hey Jimmie, why don't you sit down, you're hurt so let me take care of you," she tells him.
"No. We got to get a shelter up or we'll suffer in the rain," he refuses to sit down.
"Jimmie, please just sit down and warm yourself up next to the fire, besides you can be lookout for intruders while I build up a little shelter for us."
After a few seconds of silence, Jimmie thinks about it and realizes she's very insistent on it due to his injury. "Fine, I'll relax," he grudgingly says back to her.
"Thank you, Jimmie," she speaks softly caressing his shoulder.
Jimmie turns around and places the logs in his hands. He walks over to the fire and sits down on the log and stares into the fire. Ashley looks over to Jimmie and let's out a small smile of appreciation. She bends down to grab the logs he placed down and walks over to the tree line near the fire and begins to construct a small lean to for the both of them with sticks to patch up the openings. She forces down the logs into the ground and builds a single opening, on the top, it leans down with logs to position it at a downward slope. She then grabs nearby brushes and leaves and starts stacking on the back for the shelter bottom up to cover the holes and gaps that would allow water to seep into the shelter. She then goes around and grabs more brush and shoves it inside the shelter and pats it down for a cushioned bedding area. Ashley gets up and looks over to Jimmie,
"Hey, give me your pack, I'll put it in here for you," she commands Jimmie.
Jimmie slides the pack off his back and hands it over to her, "here you go."
Ashley reaches grabs it then turns around and slides into the shelter and places on the left side corner. She then takes her pack and places it on the right side corner. She crawls back out and sits next to Jimmie.
"Shelter is up Jimmie," she informs him.
"I can see that, thanks for doing it quick."
"May I see that wound? I'm proficient in the medical skill tree so I can heal you better," she asks.
Jimmie looks at Ashley then nods in agreement. He takes off his jacket and pulls up his shirt, exposing his heavily damaged back. It looks worse than it did at first. Ashley feels the wound lightly; gently with her fingers feeling up and down his back to find the most critical spots. She pulls out vodka and pours it on his back.
"Ahhhhh shit shit!" Jimmie lets out.
"It's okay, it's suppose to burn."
Ashley reaches over to the heated damp rag and puts it over his back and presses down on it. The warmth of it relaxes Jimmie but he is uncomfortable with the pain in his back. She keeps the rag on him then grabs bandage rolls that she brought out and opens them up. She slowly removes the rag and begins to apply the bandage wrapping to his chest and back completing six rotations around him. She taps on his back.
"How does it feel?"
"I don't feel the pain of you tapping me, I think I can manage now. Thanks," Jimmie thanks her.
Jimmie puts his shirt and damaged jacket on and stares into the fire once more. Small rain drops hit the player's heads and hits the ground around them. It only sprinkles in the surrounding area but a heavy cloud is in the distance where heavier rain will soon come from.
"Jimmie go inside. The rain will damp the bandages and slow down your healing," Ashley tells Jimmie.
He agrees, "alright Ashley, I'll crawl in there."
Jimmie gets up from the log and walks over to the shelter and crawls into it. Ashley remains outside of the shelter watching the fire and remains on lookout for a short while. The fire glows in her eyes and the sprinkling rain drops continue over head. Jimmie closes his eyes and begins to rest his body.
"Say Jimmie, what were you like before coming here?" Ashley asks.
A small period of silence before he answers. "...uhhhh, I just got out of high school, and started working with my father as an automotive mechanic," he responds, "what about you Ashley? What did you do before coming here?"
"Me? Oh, I too got out of high school," she chuckled, "and worked at my friends coffee shop but was getting bored of my life so I picked up this game since I heard I could meet new people here, never thought I'd have to live it all though."
"So this is your first game you've played?"
"Technically... no, I played arcade games when I was younger, but this is my first online game."
A brief moment of silence is shared among the two.
"What kind of music are you into?" Ashley asks Jimmie.
"Uhhh, I'm more of a rock and roll kind of guy, you?" He responds.
"I like a lot, but I guess my main type of music is hip hop. I may have to give rock a try."
Jimmie peeks out the shelter to look at Ashley, "so tell me, why did you want me in this mission?" He asks.
Ashley takes her time to respond to his question. "Umm, wanted to have a friend in this game. Plus, I'm new to the game. I mean I'm only a level three but I can manage on my own," she responds to him.
She waits a few minutes through silence.
"Jimmie, what do you think of me? Am I a good companion? I mean you seem to play these games more and you were the only one to actually take me up on coming with me somewhere. You know, which I appreciate and all, but you didn't have to go out of your way for me. Like do you find me attractive or something?" She asks him.
A moment of silence turns into a long period of silence. Embarrassed by what she had said, she looks over to the shelter to hear Jimmie snoring and his arm hanging out of the shelter. She becomes relieved that he fell asleep during the conversation.
"Why were you the only guy in this city that paid attention to me?" She whispers softly to herself.
She waits for the rain to put out the fire then crawls into the shelter beside Jimmie, placing his arm back inside the shelter. She closes her eyes and listens to the rain impacting onto the roof and slowly drift into sleep