Door 4 - The Forest Green Forest

[SiberDrac]

"But Tony... I mean, Miss Jordan, he's hurt, and they said I could help..." Jesse's complaint was only half-hearted as he let himself get dragged away. He still couldn't believe it. These were... well, to him, they had been invincible not too long ago. To have them all battered and bruised like this was incomprehensible to him.

"I don't... really do hugs..."

"I do."

Alex flickered his way to the surface and leaned into Ton'yell and wrapped his arms around her. Jesse quite chivalrously "looked away", but Alex couldn't help but giggle quietly as in the depths of his mind he heard,

"Boobs, don't look, boobs, don't look, boobs, boobs, boobs..."

"What do... what do we do?" he asked her.  

[Isa-sama]

Ton'yell gave a small nod towards Shepard and then returned to paying attention to Alex. "Right now," she tried to answer him, "we rest. A lot has happened." The Crazies, the MADmen versus Workmen, death...We've been through more than our fair share.

She hugged him and felt herself tearing up. Now now. Can't cry here. Not in front of Alex and Dawn. "Try and sleep if you can. Maybe Chris will come back to you during that time. I'm sure that if you call for her, she'll come. She cares for you."

She let go of him and gave him a weak smile. "If you don't want to sleep, we can always talk. I'd like to know more about this new person. I leave it up to you." It might be good to also talk about the fighting that they'd just witnessed. Or the dead lady. It's very traumatizing to see someone die in front of you.  

[SiberDrac]

Alex nodded slowly against Ton'yell when she finished speaking. Quite a bit had indeed happened. It had cost Alex (for the moment, at least) a quarter of his psyche, and somewhat more importantly, had presented the idea that it was split into quarters at all, rather than thirds.

It was true that he felt exceedingly tired, now that the pace had slowed down enough for him to become aware of it. Much like a small child does immediately after their adrenaline high wears down, he felt drowsy within seconds, snuggled against the

MILK. JUGS.

Shut up, Jesse.

softness of Ton'yell's chest. "I think I'll just... try to sleep for a little while..." His body and mind pushed beyond their normal levels of endurance, the boy fell asleep in Ton'yell's arms.  

[Elesariin]

Dawn's enormous, almost glowing green eyes peeked out from under the comforter. "... But... I'm not sleepy! Can I go pick flowers, or something? I'll be really, really careful!"  

[Isa-sama]

Ton'yell was feeling uncomfortable with Alex nuzzling her cleavage. He's just a young boy, he's just tired, he doesn't mean anything by it other than sleeping...

Dawn had provided that distraction quite well. With a small smile, she turned and said, "I think it'd be good if you took a nap now. We're probably going to be doing a lot of stuff after this. You don't want to get tired along the way, right?" She looked down at the sleeping Alex with mixed feelings of motherly affection and queasiness. I've never held a child like this...I hope this isn't uncomfortable for him. Returning her attention to the little girl, she offered, "If you really don't want to sleep, why don't you come sit over here with us and draw something? I'd certainly love to see your pictures."

She gave a tired smile. "So how about it? Draw or nap? I'm sure we have room over here for either of those activities."  

[NativeForeigner]

Cindy, Alastair, Juliet, and Gwen all stumbled through the door into the clearing. Looking dazed for a moment, Cindy scanned the area.

"I...think it's this way." she said, heading off towards the treehouse while the others followed. Within a few moments, they had arrived at the treehouse.

"Helloooo?" Cindy called out to avoid startling anyone that could be inside. Two cops, a soldier, and a young girl with a gun wasn't an ordinary sight. But then again, this was Empyrea.

Cindy gestured for everybody to start climbing up, pulling the rope ladder away from the tree trunk to allow them to see.

Alastair allowed Juliet to go before him, followed by Gwen. Cindy let him go before her.

"There's more children here, lass..." he said quietly to Juliet, "Even younger than Gwen."

"Uh...hello, everyone." Cindy began as she climbed into the treehouse, "We're just heading in from the Wasteland, if you don't mind."  

[Elesariin]

Gwen, who really had wanted to go and look around the mansion for her brother a bit, was looking subdued and rather unhappy. Maybe she'd made the wrong choice; if her priorities didn't include her brother... But they DO; you're just not going into debt to strange, magical people at the drop of a hat. You're being smart. She was happy that Cindy had decided to accompany them, though.

Her train of thought was derailed somewhat when she noticed an extremely familiar boy lying on the floor. Dark coloring... What was his name? Hernandez. Something Hernandez. Corona only had one small high school, and he went to hers; she was almost sure. Not that she was friends with him, obviously; she didn't really have any friends at school. Or anywhere else. Taking care of her family didn't leave much time for socializing.

Anyway, he and the man next to him seemed to be sleeping... Or unconscious. "A-are they alri--" It was at about this point that she noticed the zombie and an extremely tall man with gray skin coloration, and her sentence sort of dissolved around itself as she stared.  

[Isa-sama]

While waiting for Dawn to respond, she heard a distant hello. From one problem to another, eh? She carefully maneuvered her way from Alex' side without waking him up. Ton'yell stood up in front of the couch and canopy bed, ready to keep the children safe (at least as much as she possibly could).

"Hello." She had her hands in her pocket, favoring one leg more than the other. Her right hand was firmly holding her swiss knife with the blade out. If they're friends, great. If they're harmful to the kids, then I'd rather have a trick up my sleeve for dealing with them. Pierre was crawling all over her body, which only made her seem more creepy. Especially since she wasn't flinching at the contact.

She studied the people that were coming into the tree house: a teen (probably older than Alex) and three armed people. If the others let them in, then they must be safe. But the others were injured quite badly; it could have been that they weren't able to defend themselves or stop these people from entering. "Would you mind telling me who you are?" Better to play it safe than sorry.  

[SirBayer]

"I see that," Juliet whispered back, "but who's the one -" She paused, her eyes going wide with shock, before launching herself over to the bed.

"Dad!" she cried, sliding to a stop on her knees by the bedside. "Is there something wrong with him?" Her eyes watered up, but she bit back tears, which were mostly of frustration. Had she come all this way - through a warzone - to find herself too late? That couldn't be. That just... couldn't be.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

"Sleeping," Shepard said from behind Juliet, his head poking up from the ladder. "He just exhausted himself. Now, I believe a question was posed as to your identities."  

[Elesariin]

Gwen took a small, involuntary step back as one of the strange zombie-people spoke to her. "I-I'm Gwen," she replied quickly, "Gwen Mantle. Gregory is my brother," she added uncertainly, glancing around the treehouse for some sign of him. Juliet had found her father, after all... But she couldn't see anything.  

[NativeForeigner]

"We're friends of Smith." Carpenter quickly interjected in a hope to put the newcomers at ease to their appearances, more Carpenter's appearance than Shepard's. He waved at Cindy with his good arm from where he was sitting.

Alastair approached Juliet and knelt beside her, his hand on her shoulder as he inspected her father. He smiled, they had found what they came here for. However, his smile was chased back by the sudden realization that he had no idea when they would be able to return home.

He stood to address the treehouse denizens, "The name's Alastair, and this lass here is Juliet, we're both officers from Corona." he explained, "Arthur here is this lass' pa."

Carpenter winced inwardly, "Gregory's your...brother, kid?" he asked, "I'm sorry to tell you this, Gwen, but Greg went with the MADmen, and he was damned set on it, too."  

[Elesariin]

Gwen's shoulders slumped a little. "Yeah, I... I heard something like that, but I hoped..." She swallowed and pressed on. "He was okay when you saw him last, though... right? He didn't seem lethargic or...?" She trailed off hopefully. Maybe she could just... take a break from this and go find him. Give someone in his new group all of his meds, and explain what to do in certain situations. It didn't seem like anything much was going on, here; everyone looked like they were trying to recoup. Nice as that sounded, maybe she could use this time to go check on him. Not join the MADmen, just... check.  

[Isa-sama]

Ton'yell minimally relaxed some. Seeing as everyone was comfortable around each other, she decided that she didn't need to worry about any fighting. No harm in introducing myself then. "My name's Ton'yell Jordan. The boy sleeping is Alex." Pierre gave a tiny chirp to garner some attention. "This little bug is Pierre."  

[SirBayer]

Juliet let out a sigh. Just sleeping. She had panicked and he was just sleeping. Her shame was washed away by comfort, though. This had been... nightmarish. Swept into an impossible world, drawn to the frontlines of a war, all searching for a father there had been a very real chance she would never see again. And it had all come together. Thank the heavens, it had all come together.

Of course... it wasn't over. She couldn't even guess how far she would have to wander to pull it all together, to get out. What she'd have to do.

She could do it, though. He was here, he was alive. That was good enough.

What about her mother? She'd done nothing to indicate where she was going... she'd go crazy too. There would be some huge search going on by the time she got back, what with all the people who must've disappeared. All these people... she'd run into some of them patrolling Corona. Imagine the search that must already be going on.

"Heh," she muttered to herself, standing. She'd already been introduced.