Kick the Can

"Tsk tsk tsk!!" Came the disapproving cluck of yet another lunatic -- one that might appear to Misten's chagrin. Manson strode by on his back legs with his nose in the air, as if disdained to look down on such "inferior" dogs. He acted for all the world as if he knew better than Misten, and understood Cheshire's actions. In his own mind, he did. "Do not comment on actions you don't understand lad." He leaned over to try to sniff the mushroom Cheshire had placed on the ground, but ended up losing his balance. For a moment he tipped precariously forward, trying in vain to regain his balance, before flopping heavily onto his face, crushing the mushroom. For a long moment, he lay still, drinking in the mushroom's fumes, before rolling over onto his back and spitting the taste of poisonous mushroom out of his mouth.

"The mushrooms are agents of the Mothership. Cheshire was obviously gathering information from them, to give to us lowly inferior beings. You should be grateful." He sniffed obnoxiously, as if this ludicrous bit of information was obvious.

A rather different creature had walked into the scene on a single pair of legs, thankful for the jacket surrounding her torso. She was less thankful for the odor of home that came along with the attire, though. Rotten blood of the undead was the one of the few fragrances Nicole was familiar with. Once upon a time, the smell would have saved her. Now, these strange walkers, referred to as 'zombies', appeared to not have the same disgusting odor. It was a shame Ms. Jayden was unable to find any salvageable clothing to change into. Still, the jacket got the job done when it came to keeping warm. That was all that mattered.

"Find supplies, stay warm, and you'll get through this," her voice murmurred out, a mixture of New England and southern accents. It was a habit of hers to stay quiet, fearing that the walking dead would hunt her down if her voice was too loud. Her eyes glanced about the area. What was this place called? It seemed familiar. Where had she seen it before?

Oh, right. It was a junkyard. She found one while tagging along with her father for supplies. As she stepped quietly in the area, alert for anything sudden, she recalled the tale about how her father had survived a life threatening experience while investigating a junkyard. Getting nearly crushed by a car compactor probably wasn't the best thing to be thinking about while maneuvering through a junkyard, yet Nicole couldn't help but be reminded of the story her dad had told her about as she continued walking through the scrap heaps. She hadn't paid attention to where she was going after a while. It was around that time she started hearing voices. People? Possibly friendly people?

Before she knew it, her foot had sent a scrapped can flying into a larger pile of discarded metal, making a bit of a racket in the process. She bit her bottom lip hard to restrain herself from cursing outloud. That could have gone much better. Alright, keep calm. Everythin' is gonna be just fine so long as ya stay calm.

Hayseed was busily burying her claws into the dirt which surrounded the base of a pile of garbage.  There was an unpleasant smell about the place that just struck the wild rabbit as unnatural.  But again, everything she had been doing seemed unnatural.  How far did she need to stray from her comfort zone to survive anyway?  Well, one thing was for sure, she was not about to sleep in the open.  The doe already had a scrape going into the earth.  Piles of wood and metal overhung her budding burrow, hiding it in shadow.  If elil came by, Hayseed needed somewhere to run to.  She wanted to be quick getting that finished.  Afterwords, she needed to find at least some grass, which seemed oddly absent in the man-place.

A sharp clutter startled the red-brown rabbit.  Hayseed went running, bolting over the ground.  The rubbish was thick and one of her hind legs struck an empty tin, making a metallic pop.  She zig-zagged for a moment before turning sharply and huddling up to a wooden box.  Where would she go?  Her hole was a distance away.  Ears pressed flat against her head as she remained small and crouched, hiding.  She convinced herself it was safe and she relaxed, inching further into the open.  A short distance away, the rabbit saw something that made her lean up.  Hayseed was reluctant to approach, given that who she saw were known enemies to rabbits.

"A dog talking to a human?  Now I know I've gone loony," The doe huffed.

True to her old self, Victoria had been observing the ongoing interactions from a safe distance. Her first notion was one of confusion when she saw the other two dalmatians nearby, both with black patches similar to the one on her back and the one on the tip of her ear. She'd come to not question parentage here, for it was a waste of time, but she couldn't help wondering. The second thing to catch her attention was the presence of a young rabbit and a human. Well... She'd seen stranger.

"...What are you guys even talking about?"

Surely her mothers would have balked at the idea of her speaking up. After all, she'd always been the reclusive one of the original three pups. Victoria had come to find her voice, though, and discovered she needed it in order for her and her siblings to survive. The heart-spotted female approached slowly, coming to a stop when she was roughly a foot away from where the rest of the group was, and tilted her head ever so slightly to the side.

"Ah, I see," Victoria managed to say. She had to admit, she had never seen a dog like Misten before. He seemed nice enough, though, so maybe sticking around with this group wouldn't be too bad for herself and her remaining siblings. Wherever Teresa had taken the others didn't concern her. So...

"Well, if it helps, my siblings and I would be interested in joining up with you. We kind of tried and... failed at establishing a sort of home. I heard you guys were looking to rebuild, so... Uh... Any extra paws around to help have got to be good for something, right?" Victoria asked. She just hoped that he didn't mind Buttons being a doof, same as Twiggy, or that she and Carrie didn't have a lot to offer in terms of strength. It was also then that she realized she hadn't even introduced herself.

Smooth...

"Oh, right. I... I'm Victoria, by the way."

The rabbit's ears folded back and her shining eyes narrowed suspiciously.  It wasn't exactly that the dog was talking to her, although that helped, but more that he didn't go chasing after her that bothered her.  With so many dogs, especially impulsive young puppies, Hayseed thought she was going to need to be dodging them left and right.  The animal that was usually preyed on had good reason to be suspicious.

"My name's Hayseed.  Why do you want to know, dog?  I thought you'd try chasing me.  Are you trying to be tricky?"

Hayseed paused for a moment before she dropped to her front paws and jerked her head around her back.  Sometimes smart dogs hunted in packs and she was wondering if this was some sort of ambush.  Often, both humans and dogs were very difficult, if not impossible, for her to understand, but they seemed to be speaking rabbit language fine.  Still not certain she should trust them, the reddish rabbit scooted closer to the pile of wood and things in which she could hide in.

"And I came here to dig a burrow under one of these piles of human rubbish.  I assumed I'd not be bothered.  Then, it seems it was I who ran into you - so why are you not chasing me?" The doe huffed as-a-matter-of-factly, then added curiously, "What are you doing here?"