(Oof dead)

He noticed her reaction to his flirting. Or well…..lack thereof. Though not knowing whether it made her annoyed, uncomfortable, or just shocked, he decided he would keep testing the waters.
But not now, he didnt want her to mess up on his leg and him having to get more stitches.
Jess didnt know how this stuff worked though, so he didnt want her to get mad at him for being annoying. Any other time he would expect her to be hitting him upside the head or receiving a slap in the face.

“I knew how to fight before this. My dad taught me before he died” he says nonchalantly.
“I was constantly in trouble with the police, street fighting and a lot of illegal boxing. But because I’m under 18, theyve got nothin on me” he says with a smile

Nina raised her eyebrows slightly after hearing that Jess had been involved in illegal business, but she supposed none of that mattered anymore since the country had fallen apart. Besides, he still seemed like a decent person, and his skills were certainly coming in handy now.
"I bet the police don't have anything on anyone these days," she remarked, wrapping Jess's leg in bandage and sitting back to collect her tools. "I'm sorry about your father…..do you have any other surviving family? My little brother and parents are…..somewhere out there, I just don't know where."

Jez chuckled at her reaction to his illegal business “dont worry, I’m a good dude. I don’t bite unless you ask me too” he joked, though regretting it soon after.
He truly was a good guy with good intentions. The only reason he got into street fights and illegal boxing was well…. reasons he didnt want to talk about.
He soon replied to her other comments highheartedly. “Thats fine, he was a cool dude. Shame to see him go, but hes in a better place right now” he says with a smile that immediately went away and froze into more of a shocked look for a split second.
His mother and his little brother were dead. But Jacklin……shes in that lab. He wasnt going to tell her about it though. He didnt want any more people knowing. He knew though that soon they would ask questions while going to the lab. Why he was so determined to get there.
Would he tell them its just because of the reapers and the mystery behind them? He wanted answers just like them? Or would he tell them about his sister? He didnt want them to pity him or feel bad.
But he was sure he wasnt the only one keeping secrets.
He didnt dare fully trust any one of these people, Nomatter how much he wanted to. He doesn’t know their lives, nor who they were before this. Could they be fooling him? Could they have a deeper motive?
He just didnt know

Jezariah snapped back into reality and out of his churning thoughts and looked back at Nina.
“Nah, i dont know where by family is. But I’m sure we’ll find them. Your family too.” He says leaning forward and ruffling her hair with a kind smile

She smiled and ducked away, recognizing too late that she'd brushed on a touchy subject and not wanting to push her luck. "You're right. We'll find them, and go home. Or, if our homes don't exist anymore, I guess we could always build new homes somewhere safe. And maybe we'll find a cure for Screamers, or….something, and we won't have to worry about them anymore either." She was only partly forcing herself to stay positive–it was in her nature to see a bright future and believe in the best possible outcomes. It made her feel a pang to see how Jess was obviously trying to hide his own worries and misery, and she hoped that by staying positive herself, she could help him forge onward at the very least.
"Shall we go find something to eat?" she suggested, tying back her hair more neatly. "I'm starving."
(gotta go to bed, seeya tomorrow!)

(Okay see ya!)

He read her expressions and admired how positive she stayed, not knowing what lay deeper in her mind.
Did everyone hide such emotions all the time? Jess wasnt really used to being around people even before this apocalypse happened. He was very shut in, only having about three friends that always got into trouble. Nothin exciting going on in his life other than boxing and getting in trouble with the police.
Hopefully he would be able to trust these people and become friends with them. He didnt even think about romance in a time like this. But it was also possible.
Whether he believed it or not, he would come to trust them and hopefully they would trust him.
The guilt of keeping his secret was only going to weigh him down more even if he didnt know it.
When he tells them…will he lose their trust? Or will they trust him more?

Once again he had to shake himself out of his thoughts as he stood.
“Yeah sure lets do that” he says with a nod and limping to the other room. He could walk and run on it like he did before, it just hurt like all hell.
But he was in an environment where he was safe. For now. So there was no need to run through the pain.
Jess didnt know how long they were going to be able to stay here safely.
He stepped into the kitchen and nodded at everyone else with a smile. “Hey, there anything to eat in here?”

( @StarkSpangledMayflower @Whats_Up_Its_Brooklyn)

(Thats fine! Sorry i just didnt want this to turn into a one on one!)

He shrugged, leaning against one of the counters. The house was more well kept than he thought. He was impressed, with the circumstances they were in.
“Does the house has electricity? I know the reapers didnt knock down all of the power lines around here.” He asked, actually curious.
He looked over to Val with an uneasy look, thinking about how he was going to ask her about the profiles and his sister. If he knew anything about it……
Turning back to Caelen, he spoke again “if so, cereal would do just fine though. If we have milk” he laughed

Nina followed Jess into the kitchen and accepted the offered eating utensils. "Thanks, Caelen. If you don't mind, I'd like to use the running water in the sink to clean off my surgical tools." She thought about why this place might be so well-stocked and powered, despite the devastation surrounding it. "Maybe somebody built this house on a different grid than the rest of the town?" She suggested. She didn't really know how this stuff worked, but her father had been the repair man for their small apartment complex and he talked about it sometimes. "It is kind of sitting on city limits. Maybe there's an intact generator and water tank around here somewhere if we look."

Well there was probably nobody in the house at the time for the screamers to want.” Jess spoke up through a mouthful of cereal, loving every bit of it. It wasnt the best, but to him it was the best hes had in months.
“I don’t think they would destroy anything just to destroy it. They dont like to bother going around things if its in their way but i dont think they had a reason to destroy the house. From what ive simply studied from these things, thats what ive gathered. But i could be wrong” he says stuffing another spoonful of cereal in his mouth

Nina listened for a minute to their theories. They seemed logical enough to her. "How long are we thinking of staying here?" she asked. "If we plan to turn this into our base, we should probably understand where it gets power and how to keep it safe. But if we're going to move on soon, I guess it might not matter that much."

(So there’s a few successful quarantine zones like underground and in military bases n stuff. But if there is, our characters could find one somewhere in the roleplay on their mission to find the government or whatever!)
(Also guys! I was thinking that what if all of the government secrets and experiments and stuff were in Area 51? Idk i thought that seemed pretty cool)

(Well yeah thats kind of where i was going with this in the first place XD)
(Like the American government was running experiments to create hybrids, like mutant humans for wars and stuff. But it failed miserably lol)

(I think all that sounds cool! Let's go for it! ^^)

(Nice okay!! I'll try to get my post up soon!!)

Jess finished his bowl of cereal rather quickly, setting in the sink before actually washing it and drying it off.
"Well i dont think it's a good idea to stay here forever. That's for sure. And if we want to get to wherever the government is running these experiments….well we should keep moving. We could stay here for a few days but that's it if we wanna be smart" he shrugged

Jess considered the idea and thought it was actually pretty bright to think of. He was sure he himself had that thought cross his mind once or twice, but he never dwelled on it. Not with everything else going on. Always on high alert in case something happened. Simply trying to survive and not get eaten.
“Thats…well yeah thats possible. Do we have any radios? And any batteries? Maybe we could pick something up and find one? I mean, if there are any that is. We could be wrong but i dont think it’d hurt to try would it?”

"I agree," Nina piped up, copying Jess and washing her own dishes out of habit. "I think we should stay here long enough to find all the useful supplies in this town, then pick a destination and start walking. I have to find my parents somehow too, and I think that'll be easier if we're on the move rather than sitting still."

Jess nodded, turning back around and leaning against the counter, accidentally hitting his head on the cabinet. “Ah” he says, cursing under his breath.
“Well….” he blinked hard before returning back to the subject “do we have any maps? We probably shouldn’t just wander aimlessly, thinking theres a destination and then we come to it and find out theres not” he chuckled, still rubbing the back of his head.