<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=86983.msg3850791#msg3850791">Quote from: toysintheattic on November 03, 2010, 06:12:31 pm</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">The teenage girl's hardened eyes met Kayla's in a familiar way. She seemed haggard, hopeless, and untrusting. The girl shot Trish down, declaring that she would only speak to Kayla. For only a moment, this puzzled Kayla. She didn't look friendly, kind, or inviting, while Trish spoke in a soft and respectful tone, looking exactly the part of a kind and understanding woman. The girl spoke to Kayla, her unwavering gaze boring into Kayla's brain.<br/><br/>"Name's Abigail. I'll answer three questions, but only three. And I need to know them all upfront. Sorry. Been burned too much by fake kindnesses in the last few years."<br/><br/>Her eyes darted to the clock hanging on the wall.<br/><br/>"You have thirty seconds.."<br/><br/>Kayla had no problem with this. She held the girl with her eyes, quickly gathering exactly what she wanted to ask. Kayla seemed to feel another presence in the room, and she turned to find the hunter in the background, looking like  he could collapse from weariness any moment. Kayla caught eyes with him for only a moment, then quickly turned her attention back to the girl. <br/><br/>"What happened to your sister to make her as sick as she is? How did you get here, to Hatchet Falls? Is anything or anyone possibly following you?"<br/><br/>Before the girl could answer, Kayla went on. There was some things that absolutely had to be said.<br/><br/>"Girl, I do not speak for the rest of the townsfolk, but I want you to know that there are two people in this town that will protect your sister at all costs, even if it means their own blood is spilled. That is myself, and that man standing behind us. If you do not give all the information you can regarding your sister's condition and how she came to be like this, we may not be able to do anything for her medically. I do not know why, maybe you can tell me, but your sister must be kept safe."<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>Abigail blinked twice at Kayla's earnest declaration. Trish was equally surprised. Outside of her classroom, no one had heard the girl string together so much as a few sentences, her gruffness was usually so apparent. Still, her passion was evident to all on hand. After Abigail stammered a bit, she launched into a short speech of her own.<br/><br/>"As to the sickness, I do not know. When we came down out of the mountain wastes to the west, she suddenly fell violently ill and began ... seeing things. Specters. Shades of what was or what will be or ... I do not know. And they seemed to chase her into a state of unrest, driving her more and more as we got closer to here. Her last words to me were, 'I can see them, Abigail, I can see them.' That was five days ago.<br/><br/>"As for how we got here, all I know is she guided me. She heard the transmission, not I. How, I do not know. Our radio once worked, but it hadn't for years until she pulled in your signal. Where did we begin? It was once San Francisco, but it is no longer called that. It is empty now, except for the violent ones. We had hidden there for ... many years, but our time was running out. I do not remember as much of the journey as I should, as if I blacked some of it out. And it seemed as if it took us years, though when I was a little girl, I used to stare at the maps of this country in my classrooms, so I know it couldn't have taken more than a few weeks. The horse was very fast.<br/><br/>"I do not believe anyone to be following us. We saw a few other people 'out there,' but always at too far a distance, thank God. The other people still alive ... they're not who they were. They're hungry and desperate. I don't know how they haven't found you yet. But when they do ..."<br/><br/>Her voice trailed off, and she stared down at her dirty fingernails. Abruptly, she spoke again.<br/><br/>"She said the dark ones were following her. I do not know what this means. I did not see anything out of the ordinary, but she is often aware of things well before they happen. It's served us well, but it seems to be ... consuming her." With her brow knit with worry like this, Abigail looked double her young age. How long had she been her young sister's sole provider? And hadn't San Francisco been decimated in the beginning? It must have been awful.<br/><br/>"The point is, if what she says is right, you're not prepared. Not in the slightest. This town has good sentries, I can tell, and an advantageous location, but you seem to have little in the way of defensive weaponry. And what will be brought against you will be fire and metal and hot ash. Just like that which buried my home city." She blinked back tears, refusing to add "and my parents." "But my sister spoke to me of a secret place, a place where there are supplies and possibly housing, prepared by the government that was and just a couple of weeks' walk from here. A mountain, but not just any mountain. A mountain with four men carved into it. I do not know what this is. Perhaps you do. But inside that mountain may lay your salvation."<br/><br/>She flitted her eyes at all three in the room with her, first the skeptical-looking redhead, then the one who said little but always spoke wisely, and finally the mountain of a man standing in the back.<br/><br/>"When Katya gets better, we will take you there. Before the first snows."<br/><br/>The guard knocked at the door. "Time's up." The others started to go.<br/><br/>Abigail grabbed Kayla's hand roughly. "Listen," she all but growled, "it is vitally important that this. Town. Survives. You are all we've seen of what was, and you may be all that's left in the whole world. You must listen to me." There was something almost too desperate in the way she said it, and her eyes flashed with a bright, hot light. Kayla had seen students attempt to lie to her before, and she was excellent at capturing them in it. Something here, though, made her feel both uneasy and oddly excited. At least some part of her believed the tale, but at least some part of her was certain the girl was lying. She could tell, from glancing at the others, that John wholeheartedly believed, while Trish was much more skeptical. Perhaps more would be understood in their discussions.<br/><br/>She left the room with the other two and headed for her classroom. If she hurried, she might make the afternoon's classes. She would gather with the others tonight - though the social interaction irritated her - at the Blue Moon, the last bar in the world. There, plans would be hashed out.