"Seriously? In pairs?" Waylen complained, crossing his arms adamantly.
"Well, we do have an even amount of people for that.." Axelle answered, shrugging nonchalantly.
"How about a vote? The majority wins." Lorrell said, and sat down, legs crossed, in the middle of the room.
"Who's in for pairs?" Lorrell asked, and waited for the hands. Already, it was the majority. Ruby, Eli, Rexine, Axelle, Lorrell and Ty. It was only Perry, Christian and Waylen who didn't raise their hands.
"Yeah, duos it is. Choosing a partner is up to you guys."
It had been 10 minutes since everyone was trying to find a partner. Ruby and Rexine. Axelle and Waylen, even though kind of begrudgingly. Eli and Maverick, Ty and Lorrell.
"No way. Maverick, switch?" Christian almost pleaded, but Maverick chose right then to be stubborn.
"No thanks.. I'm fine with Eli." He said, smiling awkwardly. Christian groaned. Perry did too. Why was it always them together?
"Hey Ruby, c'mon, please switch with me. You can't do this to me." Perry said, almost begging. Ruby shrugged and rolled her eyes to the side. Perry dramatically dragged a hand down her face.
"I'm fine right here, Perry."
Then, they both turned to Axelle and Waylen. That's how Perry and Christian actually ended up without each other. It was Axelle and Perry, Waylen and Christian.
Finally after everyone got settled, Lorrell told them the plan. Since everyone else seemed so indecisive.
"Got it? And don't beat around the bush." Lorrell explained.
"Bonus if you don't get bitten," Ty added after her.
•───────•°•𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋•°•──────•
"You have this song on your device?" Christian asked, as 'careless whisper' had started playing. It was Waylen's 'genius' idea to wear earbuds while they went scavenging for two missing teenagers. Christian loved music, how could he disagree? And honestly? He didn't mind the song.
"..Not bad, for you." he then added.
Waylen refrained from retorting another sassy comeback, since he wanted some peace— the main reason he wanted to switch with Perry as much as she did with him.
Meanwhile; Rexine was giving Ruby a piggyback ride, walking through streets, turning every now and then, while Ruby was looking around, claiming the 'higher ground' helped her look around better.
"Ruby, so for real right now, my back hurts like hell."
"It's fine, Rex. It's good exercise!"
"Not if you break my spine, girl."
Ruby sighed. She clearly wanted to stay on Rexine for longer, but decided it'd be more sensible if Rexine didn't break her back.
"Ah.. about time." Rexine said, stretching her back.
For the time being, Eli and Maverick— they weren't sure why or even how they ended up inside a building, when a clear instruction from Lorrell was to not enter any buildings or apartments. Mainly so it'd be easier to fight off zombies and stay safe.
"Thank the lords," Eli panted under his breath, hands on his knees.
"They weren't gonna.. catch up to us… anyway.." Maverick spoke up as well, struggling to breath beside Eli.
They ran a marathon up the stairs of the building, because the zombies they didn't realize were following them had caught up. One without much spatial awareness, the other just a stupid idiot.
"They weren't even that close, why the bloody hell did you run so fast?" Eli said, but it wasn't much of a complaint.
Back to Perry, she and Axelle were probably the only normal duo, doing normal hunting things, like walking around and actually looking for clues of Dave and Darren.
"This is boring." Axelle stated simply, walking alongside Perry.
"Isn't it?" Perry replied casually as well.
There was no further conversation between the two.
"Well that's over with, let's go." Lorrell spoke, closing the door behind her, and heading for the stairs.
"That took a bit longer than I expected, but seems just fine." Ty nodded, as he followed along.
"At least we finished before the rendezvous time." Lorrell replied. Once they managed to reach the top, she glanced back at Ty. "So? What now?"
"We try to find the twins, of course. What else?"
•───────•°•𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋•°•──────•
"We should just go back to pairs." Ruby stated stubbornly.
"Yeah— but they're still not here. They're 20 minutes late, Ruby." Perry replied.
The group had been waiting for Lorrell and Ty for the past 30 minutes, yet they never appeared. They were starting to get a little worried. But mainly, they didn't know what to do. Waiting was 'boring', according to Waylen. And majority agreed to go venture around together, just for another 20 minutes, until they can be sure Lorrell and Ty would be back.
"Seriously, let's just go. They've already made us wait long enough out here." Waylen proposed. Of course he did.
Either way, majority of them did agree with him. So, they ended up roaming around the streets once again, this time together. That was until Maverick felt a waterdrop on his forehead. He looked up and almost stopped dead in his tracks. He hadn't realized that it got so dark and gloomy.
"Since when was it this dark out here?" He asked no one in particular, wiping his forehead.
"Huh?" Waylen also looked up and noticed the dark gray clouds surrounding them. "Oh brother. I hope it doesn't start raining…" Waylen mumbled to himself. It's like the heavens above heard him, because he swore he felt a raindrop on his hand.
"Well, I like the rain. So I actually hope it starts raining." Axelle answered to Waylen's annoyed mumble, walking beside him.
Waylen rolled his eyes, and scooted away from her as if it physically hurt him to be near her. It did. Kind of. Not literally. But you get it.
"Guys, isn't that the apartment building we ran into the not-so-blind zombies?" Rexine asked, walking beside Eli. Everyone turned their heads towards where Rexine was pointing, and indeed it was.
"Yeah, that sure is…" Eli muttered an answer.
"Who wouldn't notice? It's weirdly shaped." Maverick said, looking away almost immediately as they passed it, uninterested.
Waylen didn't say anything, but he thought it was really weird. Like super weird. Though, who wasn't?
But then, something quickly caught Maverick's attention again. Something ordinary. "Hey.. isn't that an underground subway station??" he kind of yelled, pointing, and unconsciously walking towards it.
"Maverick, wait up!!" Rexine sighed, going after him.
The group now stood in front of the underground subway station, at the edge of the stairs that led down.
"Not now, alright? We have to go back, Mave. Lorrell and Ty are probably already waiting for us back at the store. "