thearena | (no subject)

Who: Kieren Walker and Beth Greene
What: Kieren being exposed to poppy pollen and his subsequent reaction and death
Where: The woods
When: Week 5
Warnings: Death, vomiting, violence

Everything had been going...well, terribly, to be honest, but not as terribly as this. He'd learned in a rather unpleasant way that there were limits to how much cold even a PDS sufferer should try to take, and had to stumble into a shallow cave to keep from freezing more than he had in a quite literal sense. When the weather warmed he thawed, however, and he emerged from the cave, only to find himself getting sick.

Soon he was huddled up, hidden as he could be in a group of trees, knowing all the while that the sound of him vomiting was giving away his position. Still, it hadn't seemed like too many people had wanted to kill him, so there was a chance that no one would take advantage of his current vulnerability.

Still, as he heaved up black bile, splattering the trees around him, he wonder what was making him so sick. He hadn't eaten anything, after all, and far too much time had passed for him to be going rabid now. Maybe his lack of cooperation was being punished. Maybe they'd poisoned him with something while he slept. Either way, he supposed the only thing that mattered now was how he was going to get through it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's been so incredibly quiet with Rick and Daryl gone, and Beth has to admit that the loneliness and isolation was beginning to get to her. She's unused to being completely on her own before. She's always had her family, and even when they got lost, she had Daryl with her. This is a new experience, understanding that there's no one around to help her. That she has to rely on herself. In some ways, it's just like Grady Memorial. She doesn't know who she can trust. When she moves camps, she does it quietly, moving with her knife out so it's clear that she's not an easy target. That she'll fight back if she has to.

Still, she can't ignore the sound of someone clearly in trouble. So when she hears the sound of heaving, Beth creeps forward, a little uncertainly.

"Hey," she calls out into the woods, nearing closer to the source of the sound. "You alright over there?"

"Uh..." Well, at least he'd stopped vomiting for the moment. He turned to the sound of the voice, standing slightly so he wouldn't be in quite as vulnerable of a position when he turned to face the stranger, giving her a full view of his gray, pale skin and dead yellow eyes. He noticed her knife, and decided to proceed with caution. Of course, in this place there were plenty of perfectly innocent reasons to have a knife, so he decided not to act too suspicious.

"Actually, I feel a bit off."

By off, naturally, he meant extremely nauseous as well as something else...a feeling rumbling at the back of his mind. An anger that he didn't usually feel...but he dismissed it as just frustration at his situation and nothing more.

Oh.

That's not exactly what she was expecting. It's confusing, because that instinctive part of her mind is screaming walker, but she knows that walkers don't talk. That does against all of the rules they know in their universe. Walkers don't talk, and they don't think for themselves. They're not alive.

"Your um - your eyes are a different color. Did you eat any plants? Anythin' that might've been poisonous?" she doesn't know a ton of first aid, but her dad taught her some things. She's got no idea what could possibly make him look like this, though. "I've got some water. Maybe that'll help."

"No, my eyes are usually like this. I'm a bit...well, dead you see, so I haven't eaten anything. I don't really drink anymore, either. I think the people who brought us here must be doing something to keep me from going rabid, though. Should have gone rabid days ago."

Then a dawning realization came over him as he felt rage surging and boiling under the surface, letting out a small, angry growl. Why was he angry? There was no reason, no reason at all. This woman was trying to be helpful, after all. However, the Capitol wanted him to kill, and he'd staunchly refused to do so until now. He supposed if he refused to entertain him, they had little reason to let him hold on to his humanity.

"You know," he said, struggling to swallow that feeling rising up inside him, "I think I just realized what the problem is. I think you'd better run."