"Hey wait!" The girl says. She jumps in front of Serenity, blocking her from moving any further. The red haired girl glares, her gun clutched in her hands as it hangs at her side. "How do you know she's not infected?" She asks, eyes narrowing, "It's so easy to turn these days, especially with a wound like that." She gestures at Serenity's injured shoulder.
"Because I know." Zero sighs. He crosses his arms over his chest and glances from her to the other two strangers, "Is there a reason you guys are here?" His eyebrows raise.
Serenity shuffles on her feet, glancing back at him. He gives her a nod, and with a bite of her lip, she side steps the girl and walks into the kitchen. The girl doesn't hesitate to follow her.
"We saw the smoke from the fire." The brown haired guy answers with a shrug.
"And that's an automatic invitation to someone's camp out?" Zero's eyes narrow, lips curving with distaste.
Serenity comes back out, backpack in hand as she shoves a can of yellow corn into it. The girl behind her shoots wide eyes to Calvin and nods her head in Serenity's direction.
"We want to make a trade." Calvin says, eyes glued to Serenity as she takes a stand beside Zero.
"And what could you have that we want?" Zero asks, chuckling at the audacity the three of them have.
They barge into their campout for the night, harass Serenity about her injury and they want to make a trade?
"You said you needed a first aid kit." Calvin says, shoulders lifting in a half hearted shrug. He waves a hand in Serenity's direction, "And we want food."
Zero glares at him and takes a step forward, the floorboard creaking beneath him, "You said you didn't have one."
"We lied." The red haired girl shrugs, a grin spreading across her face. "Why waste medical supplies on a girl who's going to be dead in a couple hours for nothing? Besides, you didn't have anything we needed, until now."
Serenity watches the exchange in silence. This is not something she knows how to go about. She has little knowledge on the world she woke up in, and even knows less about the people. She doesn't know the hardships they went through, or what they had to do to survive. So she lets Zero do the talking. He's been here longer than she has, he's gone through what they did. However, the thoughts still bother her.
Why should anyone struggle to live?
"What's in it?" Zero asks, head tilting as he eyes the three of them.
"You gonna trade for it or what?" Calvin glares, not answering the question. He shoves his hands into his pockets and leans back.
Serenity bites her lip, "Um," She raises her hand, drawing their attention to her. "Hi again." She smiles at the three strangers and ignores Zeros glare. "We wouldn't have to trade if we stuck together, right?"
The red haired girl snorts. "Where did you find her?" She asks, "She's like a child."
Serenity frowns.
"Ignore her." Zero says, "She doesn't know what she's talking about."
"Hey!" Serenity glares at the back of his head, "It's a good idea."
"So, trade?" The brown haired guy asks, fingers twitching. His eyes are glued to Serenity's backpack, not once straying away.
Zero eyes the girl, taking in the metal weapon she clutches in her hand. The people on this planet call it a gun. During his time on Norin 1658 - 7, he learned a lot about them. First, is that they are loud. Unnecessarily so, and attract the attention of the undead. Since arriving at this town, he hasn't seen a lot, assuming most of them traveled to where Serenity first landed. However, he does know there's enough lingering to cause unwanted trouble. Second, they hurt like a bitch and leave behind significant damage to the body.
He figures the outcome of this can go two ways. One, they make a trade and go their separate ways. Or two, they don't make the trade, lose the first aid kit and possibly the food because based on their skinny frames and ravenous faces as the other guy eyes the bag of canned food, he and Serenity will get shot and they take their food anyway.
Zero sighs and scratches his head at the bothersome situation. Running into other people wasn't on his list of plans, not so soon anyway. He and Serenity were lucky to find the canned food, they're a scarce source these days.
Not to mention they won't tell him what exactly is in the first aid kit. If it doesn't have what he needs, then it's pointless, but anything would be better than not having it at all. Even an ointment would help Serenity's wound. It's already healing on its own, albeit slower than what's normal for her. And they don't have a can opener so getting those things open would be a pain in the ass.
"Alright, fine. We'll trade." Zero nods his head. He waves Serenity forward and she steps up, bag in hand. He takes it and holds it out for them. Calvin doesn't hesitate to move forward, but before he can snatch it, Zero pulls it back and clicks his tongue at him. "Where's the first aid kit?" He asks, an eyebrow raising.
The brown haired boy steps forward, hands eager as he pulls out a red and white box from his backpack. Serenity eyes it as he holds it out. At the same time, Serenity takes it just as Calvin takes their pack of food.
"Great doing business with you." The girl smiles. "We'll be on our way now."
Serenity bites her lip as she watches them walk out the door. They've made it clear they have no intentions on sticking together, and it's hard to watch their only food source disappear.
Once they're out of sight, she spins on Zero and glares, "Shouldn't we stick together?" She asks, "Wouldn't we have a higher chance of survival if we do?"
Zero waves his hand, the other clutching the box, "It's also a higher chance of getting infected."
She frowns because he didn't tell her that earlier.
"But, if they stayed, we wouldn't have to split anything up." She frowns. "We could all have food and the first aid can be used for all of us. In case anyone else gets hurt." It made the most sense. Everyone benefits from it.
"Don't take this the wrong way," Zero says, nose scrunching up as he stares at her, "But people like you always die first."
Serenity gasps, hands curling into fists, "Because I want to help others?"
"You're too nice for your own good." Zero shrugs, "Which is good that I'm here."
"But…" She tries again, stomach growling in hunger. Yet now she has nothing to eat.
"Let them go. They're bad apples." He waves it away.
"Bad apples?" Serenity frowns, not understanding the phrase.
"Ah, nevermind." He says. He grumbles under his breath and walks into the kitchen, gesturing for her to follow.
With one last look out the open door, Serenity lets out a huff and walks after him.
His backpack is on the counter, along with the first aid kit. He unstraps his sheath from his hip and puts it down next to them.
Zero snaps the lid open. Peering inside, he frowns at the scrap of colored cloth. He picks it up and tosses it on the counter. He doesn't find anything else inside, there's no needle for stitches, or ointment, or gauze or anything that would be first aid related.
"Fucking scammers!" He throws the box across the room and it slams into a wall. "They tricked us. I knew they were sketchy."
Serenity stares down at the cloth on the counter, brows furrowing, "Well that isn't very nice."
Zero glares at her, leaning forward on his hands as the tighten around the edges of the counter.
"At least we have more cloth. I can wrap it up now." She shrugs, figuring she can look on the bright side. She glances down at her shoulder, chewing her bottom lip at the gruesome sight There's still a gaping hole, her muscle tissue exposed to the stale air. It's taken on a darker color, reminding her of the cooked rat meat she ate last night. The flesh is angry, swollen and red.
Huffing through his nose, and with a clenched jaw he walks around the counter to look at it.
"We need to get it cleaned soon. Or it will get worse." He murmurs, voice dark. She whimpers when he pokes at the tender skin around it. He pulls out his flask of water, "We'll use this for now. Until we can find something."
She nods and bites down on one of the cloths to keep from screaming as he pours it over her shoulder. At first contact, her arm pulses, fingers curling at the sudden touch of something foreign. It eases as the coolness of the liquid lessens the burn, however short it lasts.
"Why would they trick us?" She asks, voice soft in the quiet atmosphere as he dabs a wet cloth to the tender area.
As she thinks about the encounter with the three strangers, she finds that it doesn't make sense to her. They were all struggling, Serenity with her wound and in need of medical supplies, and them with the starving look on their faces. Why wouldn't they stick together and share their resources?
Zero said it also increases the chance of infection, but doesn't it go both ways? Wouldn't more people in their group increase the chance of survival? There would be more people to protect each other.
She bites her bottom lip, then again, she knows nothing about the situation they're in. And Zero has more experience, maybe it's better to do things his way.