<div style="margin:20px; margin-top:5px"><div class="quotetitle"><input class="button2 btnlite" onclick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = '';      this.innerText = ''; this.value = 'Hide'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerText = ''; this.value = 'Show'; }" style="text-align:center;width:100px;margin:0px;padding:0px;" type="button" value="Show"/></div><div class="quotecontent"><div style="display: none;">Name: Cole Brooks<br/><br/>Age: 22<br/><br/>Gender: Male<br/><br/>Appearance: An athletic young man of Native American descent, Cole is around 5'10" and weighs 170 pounds. He has a very active lifestyle, but isn't exactly a bodybuilder, so while he's in good shape he's not huge. His skin is naturally dark, and his eyes are a similar shade of brown. He's got a strong jaw, a somewhat short and flat nose, and narrow eyes, and keeps his hair very short. Most of the time, he wears a slightly grown out buzzcut. On his left bicep, he has a tribal tattoo. He takes pride in the fact that he's the only one of his peers who can have one without looking like a total douche.<br/><br/>He has a very plain, practical sense of dress. Jeans, work boots, and short-sleeved shirts with little decoration. He owns a few hooded jackets for nights and winters, but the temperature is normally high enough to forgo them. On his wrist, he almost always wears a bead bracelet his mother made for him as a child. It's required some slight modification to still fit.<br/><br/>Personality: Cole is outgoing and somewhat overexcitable, and has a love for nature. Animals and plants are his favorite thing, and he enjoys raising both pets and gardens. He's much calmer when working with them, but in situations that don't require too much patience or care, he'll let loose. Recently, he's taken an interest in photography and filmmaking, and sometimes makes video blogs while hiking through the desert, camping, or doing basically anything. He particularly enjoys taking stylish pictures of his plants and animals, often trying to coax them into 'posing' for the camera.<br/><br/>Other:  Has a wide variety of pets and plants. Two very large bearded dragons, four desert tortoises, each one the size of a small dog, an emperor scorpion, and a desert kingsnake make up the animal side of his companions. His garden consists of a variety of bushes, cactuses, and small trees. The non-garden part of his backyard has a pen he lets his reptiles 'play' in. His grandmother, who he lives with and takes care of, shares his interests in animals. When not at home, he works as a mechanic.<br/><br/><br/>Name: Kelly Anderson<br/><br/>Age: 17<br/><br/>Gender: Female<br/><br/>Appearance: Kelly is shorter than she'd like to be, barely passing 5'5". She weighs 140 pounds, and has light skin. Her hair is very red, a natural shade of auburn, and has many natural curls to it, making it wavy when long. She tends to keep it at neck length, usually brushed off to the left side of her face. Her skull structure gives her a heart-shaped face, fairly large eyes, and decently prominent cheekbones. She occasionally plays around with temporary tattoos, but hasn't figured out anything she'd want to permanently have.<br/><br/>She enjoys wearing flannel shirts with sleeveless undershirts, jeans, and normal shoes most of the time. At work, she'll dress a little nicer, but for lounging around or doing things outside, she'll only wear what could be considered extremely casual.<br/><br/>Personality: Laid-back and relaxed, Kelly is easy to get along and talk to. She prefers the company of few close friends instead of huge gatherings, but she's not entirely unwilling to join social events. Aside from reactive snark that arises when people do dumb things around her, she's very friendly and isn't the type to judge people. She likes animals, particularly rodents, but isn't a fan of anything venomous. A lot of her free time is spent reading or watching things in the horror genre.<br/><br/>Other:  She works at her father's restaurant, though since she's too young to legally handle the alcohol that attracts a lot of its patrons, she tends to mostly work with cash registers and waiting on tables. She's snuck a few things out for herself on occasion, but since she'd feel bad about stealing, she always pays for it when nobody's looking.<br/><br/><br/>Name: Gerald Anderson<br/><br/>Age: 52<br/><br/>Gender: Male<br/><br/>Appearance: Gerald was once very fit and imposing, impressively tall at 6'5" and weighing close to 250 pounds. In his younger years, it was almost all muscle, but age and a much more slow-paced lifestyle caused some deterioration. His face is starting to wrinkle, especially his forehead, eyes, and cheeks. His skin is light, but darker than his daughter's, and his hair is a much less impressive shade of chestnut brown. It's greying, especially his sideburns and beard. He keeps his hair well-groomed and combed.<br/><br/>His usual outfits consist of worn-in jeans and flannel shirts, and occasionally bowling shirts. He attempted to wear hawaiian shirts after aquiring a few, but they mysteriously vanished. He's since avoided anything with gaudy patterns. <br/><br/>Personality: Kind-hearted and soft-spoken, Gerald is known to be exceptionally nice and a very pleasant person to be around. He has a strong passion for cooking, which he puts to use well in the family's restaurant. He'll often converse with people who visit on slow days, gives the workers free lunches when they're on break, and generally do anything he can to help someone out, even if it's only a small thing. He has a wide variety of personal interests, his personal favorite being firearms. He owns a few bolt-action rifles and a couple handguns, which see use either at a local shooting range or hunting out in the desert. He's supportive of Kelly's interests as well, but can't stand horror movies. They freak him out too much.<br/><br/>Other: Acts as the head chef at the family restaurant. Initially, it only served Scottish food and drinks, but an increase in business every St. Patrick's Day convinced him to add things from Ireland and even England to the menu. The restaurant's decor has taken on a sort of multi-national aesthetic because of it, which passes over a good amount of the town's population.</div></div></div><br/><br/>"A little to the left...Theeeere we go. Perfect!" The telltale click of a camera's shutter went off, immortalizing the scene prepared for it. A bearded dragon sitting atop a tortoise, both of them resting in front of a barrel cactus. The sun was positioned behind them, the rays of light giving the scene an impressive look. After the picture was snapped, the tortoise stood and began moving, while the lizard continued to bask on its shell.<br/><br/>"Good job, guys. This'll make a great poster," The cameraman said. As he carefully placed the cap of his camera's lens, a voice called out for him.<br/><br/>"Cole," His grandmother said from just inside the backyard's doorframe. "Are you almost done? You said you'd go into town for me today." She held an exaggerated pout, hoping it would convince her grandson to get some actual chores done that day.<br/><br/>"Oh, yeah, just finished up. What did you need me to get again?" Cole asked, hopping up off the ground. He glanced back at the pair of reptiles that was still roaming around, the dragon perched comfortably atop its moving bed.<br/><br/>His grandmother produced a piece of paper. "Everything on here. Try to make sure you've got it all by six." It was just past noon, so he had plenty of time to screw around in between store visits.<br/><br/>"Sure, I've got ya covered." He started to walk inside, but his grandmother stopped him by gingerly putting her hand on his chest.<br/><br/>"Aren't you forgetting something?" She asked. Cole responded by giving her a quick hug, which she returned with a smile. "Be careful while you're out there."<br/><br/>"I'm always careful." Cole liked to think that, but he really wasn't. He planted quick kiss on his grandmother's forehead, then slinked away. He made his way through his house and out to the front, where an old model of pickup truck awaited. It wasn't the prettiest thing ever, but he'd put it back into working condition by hand. It took half a year of time and paychecks, but it was worth it.<br/><br/>A twist of a key started the vehicle's ignition, and a push of a button turned on the radio. He buckled himself to the seat, pulled away from the house, and began driving to the nearby town of Lago Seco.<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>One of the popular restaurants in the tiny city was Anderson's. One of the few places that served something other than Mexican food, it added some much-needed variety, and got quite a lot of business based purely on that fact. Lunchtime was bustling, as close to 'bustling' as one could get with a city population of about 2,000 people.<br/><br/>Kelly was on break, sitting at a booth near the corner and slowly picking at a plate of sliced sausage. Since she wasn't a chef, her apron was one of the small 'belt' ones that didn't interfere with comfortably sitting down, so she left it on. Her shift ended in a few hours, and while she didn't dislike working, the following weekend made it hard not to want to get out and do something.<br/><br/>It soon occurred to her that she had no plans to work off of. Her expression dropped, and she silently cursed. What was there to do, really? The movie theater was open, but nothing that was playing drew her in. She could head out of town, maybe. The closest neighboring city was 30 miles away, however, and she didn't have her own car.<br/><br/>Some time at a non-dried lake seemed like it could be fun. Warm weather and swimming went together hand-in-hand. The water in the desert, what little there was, generally stayed at a comfortable temperature. Except at night. It became terribly cold at night. Kelly shuddered at the thought of staying out there after dark.