Chapter 1
Ben yawns, glancing at his well-used watch. Alex was late.
Alex walks in. “Quit complaining Ben. You KNOW my watch battery died a month ago.”
Ben huffed, arms folded across his chest as he scowled over his glasses. "Have you been looking for a replacement? Why haven't you taken one of the spare time pieces?"
"Because," Alex frowned, folding his arms in an odd mirror image of his brothers pose, "There are more important things to do with batteries. And except when you get annoyed that I'm late, I don't really need to be able to tell the time."
"Well, at least you're here." He sighed, shaking his head. "That's all that matters, I suppose. Did you bring me anything?"
"Tsk," Alex grunted an almost laugh, chiding Ben, "First you berrate me, then you beg for presents?"
He pulled a box out of his pocket and tossed it underhanded to his twin, "Here...ammo for your god aweful bigger-then-necessary hard to find that caliber gun. Yes, I know. I'm incredible."
Ben gave a little happy sound, snatching the box out of the air and clutching it closely to inspect it.
"Oh! How wonderful!" He examined one of the bullets, found it to his liking, and tucked the rest away in his coat pocket. "A very fruitful mission, indeed."
And thus, all of Alex's lateness was forgiven.. for now.
"What no big warm thank you?" Alex said, lifting an eyebrow, and pushing his luck. "You know, you could find a nice gun that takes a .45 caliber...then it wouldn't be so magical when I found you ammo."
Ben lifted an eyebrow, glancing at his brother over his shoulder. "I like my gun, it's the best we have. There's no way I'm trading it for something else. Besides," Ben gestured with his hands. "Without the magic-esq of you finding such bullets or useful trinkets, I'd be mad at you more often.. and for longer periods of time. It's one of your only redeeming factors."
Alex snorted irritably, "Everything else is unimportant next to fetching your ammo, huh?"
"No, but it's a nice perk when it does happen." Ben replied, grinning at his brother. "Did you find anything else?"
"Good haul for the kitchen, bad day for the Doc's supplies." Alex shrugged. Then pulled a little packet out of his pocket and held it up, triumphantly, "And some stuff I'm going to hold over your head..."
The packet said 'twinings' on it, and smelled lovely like black tea and flowers.
Ben's eyes widened at the tiny [but precious] packet. "Y-you found some?! Oh Alex, come on.. give it to me!" He darted towards him, snatching at the little packet. "We haven't had any in so long."
Alex evaded Ben nibbly, dancing the packet just out of his reach.
"I dunno...I might save it for our birthday."
He certainly wasn't going to let on that he'd found a case of the stuff. He was saving that information to really savor. He could just imagine Ben's expression...
"Oh?! You cannot be serious. That's far to long away, Alexander... " Ben darted after him, following his steps. "Wouldn't it be lovely to sit and drink a cup of warm tea?! I think so.." He huffed, attempting to get the upper hand and snatch the packet.
If he were smart, Alex would give keep the whole lot and give it to Ben one box at a time, just to torture him a little. But he actually couldn't stand drawing it out that long.
"Of course you think so, you addict." He said, leading Ben along after the tea packet.
"I'm not an addict!" He hissed back, following Alex. "I just really, really need that cup of tea."
Ben sniffed, darting forward to snatch the pack from him again. "Give it to me!!"
"Your a....a....complete tea junkie." Alex said, growling in response to his twins hiss. He tried to skip backwards, but in an attempt to let Ben get especially close to snatching the packet he got a foot tangled with Ben's and toppled backwards.
In a desperate attempt to keep the pack out of Ben's hands, he tossed it, flat like a frisby, into one of the battered boxes in the pile of waiting supplies.
Ben let out a yelp, flying forward and crashing down onto his brother. His glasses were half off his face as he looked up with a grunt. "Was that truly necessary..."
He glanced around, eyes narrowed before he adjusted the glasses and was able to see properly. "Ah, there you are!" He leaped off his brother, crawling towards the box of supplies with the little packet on top.
"Absolutely." Alex answered, or tried to answer, the wind had been mostly knocked out of him so it came out a little bit less vehement then it would have been otherwise.
"You're heavy."
Alex had spectacular aim; the tea packet had landed neatly on top of a box that was, one could see through the gap between flaps of the lid, full of boxes of a similar color, labeled 'Twinings' just like the packet...
Ben made his way to the boxes, moving the flaps slightly so he could reach the precious packet. He was about to gloat victoriously when he spotted the crate.
"... Is.. this?" He tilted his head, ripping the covers off the crate to get a better look at it. "It is!" He spun around, eyes wide. "You found an entire crate of it?! Why didn't you tell me!?"
Alex was smirking wickedly from where he was still sprawled on the ground. His brother's expression was just as excellent as he thought it would be. Totally worth it.
"Because it was so much more fun to make you suffer and then see that expression on your face that you're wearing right now."
"... and THIS is why you have few redeeming qualities." Ben stood up, dusting himself off. He tucked the single packet into his pocket before draging the crate out to take as well.
"So much tea~" He sung as he worked on dragging it across the floor.
"I like to think of this as one of the redeeming ones." Alex muttered, "There's gratitude for you."
He stood, shaking off the ache of the impact.
Ben paused, flopping onto the crate for a rest. He leaned forward, arms resting across his legs.
"Thanks, Alexander." He pushed his glasses up out of habit. "You know I appreciate it. I'll even share some with you, how's that for gratitude?!"
"Guess that's pretty good, coming from an addict like you." Alex admitted, grinning a little and absently brushing dirt off his pants.
"I thought you'd like it. Had to argue tooth and nail with a couple of the guys - since its not exactly a one of the necessarities."
"Of course it is," He mumbled, petting the crate absently. "Did you guys run into any problems out there?" He lifted an eyebrow, glancing back at Alex. "There's been some stories going around that the Crimson in the central city are starting to spread outwards further."
He lowered his voice, not wanting to alarm anyone who didn't need to hear their chat.
Alex settled down next to his twin, crouching next to the box. He didn't follow suit with Ben's change in volume.
"Not much today, but we've been seeing 'em more often lately. S'why it took us longer this time around to get everything back. We unearthed a good cache, and then couldn't get it back for awhile."
"How many did you see?" Ben frowned slightly, not liking the sounds of this at all. The reports of Crimson moving out in wider 'packs' was enough to make his skin crawl. There were so many survivors, an attack on thier haven would be a massacre.
It was a lot more easier when they kept to the center of the city.
"Do we have enough supplies to last us for a while.. I'd really like you and your team to stay inside for a few days."
Alex fished a small very worn notebook from his pocket and flipped it open to a marked page.
"Eh...We do here, but Oakhill doesn't." He shrugged lightly, "One more trip to the same place will do it, for them, but I don't like the idea of leaving off. We need to find a new place to go through, we'll have cleaned this one out. Who knows how long that'll take. Someone was suggesting we try the old strip mall across town, but that's a damn hike."
He simply didn't answer the first question.
"Across town?" Ben sat up, shaking his head. "That's too far away. Maybe a few weeks ago.. but not now- not after what I've been hearing. It's too dangerous, Alex. Is there no other place?"
"Dunno, we'd have to LOOK. That's my point Ben." Alex answered, frustration lacing his voice.
They could both feel the argument coming, and neither of them was likely to shrink from it.
"But lets face it, we've cleaned out almost everything close. Anything left is small and hard to find. We can root through rubble, but it takes so long its more dangerous."
Ben stood, sighing. "You're talking about going across the city, Alex. That's across the center.. and into a part of the town none of us have been in... in a very long time. We don't know what's over there... and that's IF you get through the center of the city. It can't be reached in a day, you'll have to hide somewhere out there."
He turned around, gesturing with a hand. "You prepared to put that many people in danger, for something we're not even sure exists. What if that strip mall burned down?"
Alex pushed himself to his feet, practically stalking around Ben.
"I don't know yet. I haven't decided. But we have to look somewhere Ben. "
His voice raised a bit, as he argued, "Eventually we'll have to cross the city, one way or another."
Ben folded his arms across his chest, chin lifting slightly.
"Yes, well you won't be doing it right now. Going across town can wait til we know what the Crimson are doing wandering so far from the center of the city. Until then, look closer to where we are."
"I make that decision, and you know it Ben." Alex continued stalking around, voice raising again as he ranted at his brother.
"You know what the Crimson are doing? They're looking for food. What do you want to investigate?"
Ben's expression changed, sad. "I don't want you to become food, Alex."
Alex deflated, and cursed half heartedly, "Ah come on Ben, don't talk like that."
He frowned, "I'm not going out looking for trouble you know." He paused and grunted, "Don't give me that look, its true, no matter what people say."
"Oh bull-" Ben fired back. "Ninety percent of the time you're out there being a crazy vigilante... the other one percent you find things to bring back for us. You know it, and I know it." He lifted a hand, jabbing a finger into Alex's chest. "If you had the opportunity to wander across the city to the far side of town, who knows what you'd get into.. and I am SO not going with you because that's insane.. but you wouldn’t have anyone to watch your back.. so then I'm forced to go with you, aren't I?"
He took a breath, eyes narrowed. "Happy?!"
Alex was immediately back to almost yelling.
"No. Oh absolutely not. If I were to wander, as you so unkindly put it, across town, YOU will most definitely NOT be coming."
He was pointing back at Ben glaring, "You could get HURT!" He said indignantly. And then, as if realizing that didn't help his argument, he added, "And you're suppose to protect THIS place."
/flail
"Why not?" Ben blinked, shaking his head. "That's no argument! This place has plenty of people to protect it while I go with you."
"If you're going across town, then I'm going across town. So...HA."
"You AREN't." Alex said, shaking his finger at Ben, "I have a whole bunch of people meaner then you to go with me. YOU have to tell all these nice boys here what to do!"
He was perilously close to going back to stalking again. He paced when he was annoyed, or tense, or frustrated...or thinking...actually he paced alot of the time.
Ben shrugged, not seeing a point in arguing anymore, since his mind was made up.
"Uh huh.. right." He turned around, grabbing the crate of tea again and began tugging it back across the room. "You... keep... thinking... that-" He grunted, sliding the tea crate across the floor.
"Oh for the love of god!' Alex growled, and charged over to snatch half the crate up off the ground to help carry it.
"Fine. Then I'm not going." he said, petulantly.
"Good," BEN. smiled, hefting his half of the crate. "I knew you'd come around."
/end
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