Save Yourself, Serve Yourself

[Casey The Undead*]

Brenda highly doubted that April was alright, but she decided not to push the matter for now. Getting sleep was a good idea, and soon everyone had settled down for the night.

That didn't make it easier for Brenda to sleep, however. There were a lot of thoughts swimming in her head. Zach disrupting the night had changed a lot of things in Brenda's mind, and she wasn't really sure how to deal with any of them. Eloise had wandered off without a word, which was pissing Brenda off more than she'd like to admit. Eloise was on her team, she was owed a bit of respect. No one was supposed to go off and their own. People would die, and then it would be Brenda's fault.

There was also the very harsh fact that Jhamel and Jeanette were not on her side. They would not all make it out alive. Jhamel seemed to be working with them, for now, and Brenda was grateful. But what if-

No. Brenda shut her eyes forcefully. There were no more what if's. She had to be prepared for when Jhamel would turn against them, yes, but she hoped that it would be a best case scenario. A peaceful scene where they went their separate ways and no one tried to to kill anyone. If they met again after that, it'd be a different story, but she hoped...

She hoped that Jhamel wouldn't figure out that real gun vs nerf gun would lead to a very good ending for him.

Brenda sighed and stared up at the stars. They were lovely. She would have never seen things like this in Detroit. She would have never bonded with Jhamel, never met April or Jeanette.

But she might have lived a little longer.

Desperately, Brenda turned over and tried to sleep.

---

When morning came, Brenda learned that Karen had killed someone else, and that the boy from last night was, in fact, a murderer. Neither of these things made Brenda feel much better.

What was worse was that April was wandering off, and everyone was starting to follow her. How was Brenda supposed to help people she didn't even know? She rubbed her temples. There had to be a way for her to do this, there had to be a way for her to save as many people as possible. She had too-

"You really shouldn't let your allies wander off alone. Next thing you know, you won't have a team."

There was a disembodied voice coming from her collar? Hadn't the announcement man said something about this? Mentors or something. Jeanette and Jhamel had gotten some advice, too.

Brenda decided that hers was only marginally more useful.

She pushed herself off the ground and stared at the retreating group. None of them had asked Brenda to save them. None of them had asked Brenda to be a leader, or anything. But Brenda was doing it anyways.

Because she wasn't going to lose her team.

She started after them without saying a word, steely determination setting in her gut.

((Brenda Hernandez continued in Follow Me, Don't Follow Me))

[Carrion Queen]

Jeanette wasn't paying much attention to the goings on. Eloise had wandered off somewhere. She'd prefer it if April's teammates didn't just run off, but she wasn't going to stop anyone. Whatever. They set up and for the night and she slept just fine.

She wasn't scared. She was sure that she could take care of herself.



When she woke up there was an announcement and again, she didn't care much. She was safe and April was fine and if she could find Peter than they could figure something out and everyone else could go to hell.

Wait.


She heard Peter's name. Her friend. She loved him and he was dead. She hugged herself for a moment, feeling strangely empty. This was all wrong. This wasn't going how it was supposed to. Now it was just her and April. Her and April....

The problem was that when she woke up, there was no April. She looked for a brief moment. No where in sight. She sighed and checked her skirt for her knife. It was there. So was her bag. She took up her stuff and started off in the direction of some April-sized foot prints in the dirt.

((Jeanette Buendia continued in Follow Me Don't Follow Me))