Memories

"It's good to officially meet you, Victoria. I wasn't able to catch your name last time as you left so quickly." Leo says with a barely noticeable hint of sarcasm in his voice, his lips formed in a slight smile. 

Victoria rolls her eyes when she hears him, her grip on the taut string slowly easing as she lowers her bow.

"Now that you know my name, how about you start asking some real questions?" She says impatiently, curious to find out what he wants to know. 

'Alright Charisma, time to go work,' he thinks, thankful that he actually found someone that is willing to talk. 

"Right, of course. Um, so this might not be totally believable, but I uh, kind of woke up in the middle of the forest with no memory?" Leo awkwardly says, his left hand scratching the back of his head. 

With a raised eyebrow, she looks at him weirdly and asks, "Is that a question?"

"No, um… Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that I have absolutely no idea what's going on in the world. The first person I ran into was a 'walking' corpse that tried to eat me. My question is, what the hell happened?" He replies, attempting to fill his voice with want. 

Leo doesn't tell her the whole truth, especially not the part about him reincarnating and getting a system; that would just be stupid. That's a secret he's willing to take to the grave if need be.

"Well, for someone who apparently has amnesia of some kind, you seem to be doing a good job at surviving." Victoria says in a complimentary tone, motioning towards his bloody crowbar with an arrow of hers. "Usually, I'm pretty decent at reading people, Leo. I really want to believe you, I do, but you understand how unlikely that story sounds, right?" 

He needs to find a way to convince her, but he has no idea how. The best chance to get her on his side is to gain her trust. 

"I know it sounds unbelievable, but that's how it is. When you got the drop on me the first time, that was really the very first contact I can recall with a live person. I've seen what the Grizzlies are like, you and I both know what they'd do to me if I went to them for answers."

Chewing on her bottom lip, Victoria looks unsure, still on the fence about the whole situation. Wanting to show her a little faith, Leo slowly lays his crowbar on the floor to show that he's now weaponless and voluntarily at her mercy.

She looks at him with a critical gaze, he can tell that she's thinking very hard about whether or not to trust him at all. 

Seemingly coming to a decision after a few minutes of silence, her shoulders seem to relax slightly and she finally speaks. "You know that I'm not going to apologize for before, right?"

For a second he thinks that she's referring to pulling her bow on him, but then he realizes that she's talking about holding a knife to his throat and taking some water from him. "Don't worry about it," he chuckles lightly. "Maybe this kickass scratch will turn into an awesome battle scar." Leo jokes lightly, raising his chin so that she can see the little cut she left on his throat. 

Seeing the mark she left, Victoria lets out a small laugh of her own. Listening to her soft tinkling laugh, the smile on his face widens.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure everyone you meet will be impressed with such an awesome scar." She jokes in return, putting the bow over her shoulder and the arrow into the quiver on her back. "I suppose I'll hear you out, come on, sit on the couch and I'll try to answer all your questions as well as I can."

Letting the relief show on his face, he decides to leave the crowbar on the floor for now and moves towards the gray couch next to the coffee table. As he makes himself comfortable on the nice comfy couch, Victoria goes into the kitchen behind him.

Thankfully, his clothes were clean and weren't covered in blood and viscera like one of his other outfits. He doesn't think she would appreciate it very much if he got gore all over her couch. 

"Would you like some orange juice? It's freshly squeezed. I found an orange tree in someone's backyard near the edge of town," she asks from the kitchen.

"Honestly, that sounds absolutely amazing." He replies, gazing out the balcony window in front of him. 

"I'll take that as a yes," Victoria says from next to him, handing him a tall glass of orange juice as she takes a seat on the opposite end of the couch. "Thank you," Leo says gratefully before taking a quick sip of the orange liquid. 

As soon as the delicious drink passes his lips, he sighs in relief. He hasn't had anything that tasted so good yet. 

Looking over at the woman near him in gratitude, he barely notices a knife hidden next to her leg before she covers it with her thigh. It's not like he doesn't expect her caution though, he knows she won't just trust him the moment she meets him. Besides, if she wanted him dead, he'd probably be dead already. That knife is merely a precaution.

"So, you've lost your memory and have no idea what's going on, hmm?" She asks inquisitively, trying to get the 'facts' straight. 

"Yeah that about sums it up. That happened about four days ago now." He confirms between sips of his drink, quite enjoying the fresh taste. 

"And how have you been able to survive?" Victoria inquires curiously, having not really expected him to survive on his own after the last time she met him.

"Meh, surviving has been kind of easy. Sure, there've been a few close calls when it comes to the undead, but I've been getting pretty lucky with scavenging. Not only that, but I seem to have good instincts when it comes to certain things. I can't really explain it to be honest." Leo answers, throwing half truths in when regarding his abilities. And he sure as hell isn't going to tell her that he has an inventory that he can just load up with supplies.

"What kind of instincts?" She asks, wondering if he's talking about a sixth sense or something along those lines. 

"Well, like I said, I can't really explain it, but I guess before I lost my memories I must have been a scout or something like that. I don't remember them individually; however, I know how to instinctually tie specific knots and seem to know their names. Well, I feel that those are their names. I can't really know for sure unless I find a book or something on the subject. " 

Victoria raises her eyebrows at his explanation. "Maybe your memories are still there somewhere and you're slowly remembering things a little bit at a time?" 

"Maybe, but I guess we'll just have to see if that's what it is. Only time will tell." He shrugs, finishing off his juice. 

[New skill acquired: Acting]

Seeing the notification, Leo tries not to show any reaction outwardly, but inside, he lets out a small cheer. 

"Hey hold on a minute," he says as he puts down the empty glass onto the coffee table. "Didn't I come here to ask you questions?"

Having the decency to look slightly guilty at his accusatory stare, a small smile forms on her face as she releases a light chuckle upon seeing Leo's own smile.

"You're right, you're right. I have been a little curious, I suppose. Please, ask away, and I'll try my best to catch you up with the world." Victoria says while leaning back against the couch to get more relaxed.

"Well, let's start off with the obvious: how did the outbreak start?"

Hearing his question, she leans her head against the back of the couch and stares at the ceiling for a little bit before answering. 

"Unsurprisingly, whatever the disease is, was made in a lab. Whether that lab was government funded or privately funded, I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if that's where our tax dollars went though. The disease or infection or whatever it is, was designed to be a biological weapon of mass destruction. 

"With all the experiments they were doing on viruses, well it was just bound to happen sooner or later. The only problem is that I don't think anyone working on it expected the disease to get out as soon as it did. The infection spread like wildfire; the world's governments weren't able to keep up—weren't able to contain it. 

"Marshall law was soon declared after the first outbreak, but all that happened was that more people were killed. Everyone was so scared, and people make really irrational decisions when scared. The military were ordered to contain it and keep order, but they knew as much about the disease as anyone else did. They didn't know if it was airborne—they didn't know how it was spread, period. 

"Soon enough, the military realized they were fighting a losing battle. Many, many cities started to fall, and then, even countries began to fall. When that happened, they no longer tried to protect us… they couldn't protect us even if they wanted to."

Leo listened to her explanation in total silence, not wanting to interrupt her train of thought. With every word she spoke, Victoria got quieter and quieter, her mind completely elsewhere as she stared up at the ceiling unblinking, reliving the memories in her head.

Living through something like that must have been awful. Knowing that everyone you used to know is probably dead out in the world somewhere—your neighbors, your friends, your family… everyone.

Not wanting her to feel like she's totally alone, he gently places a hand on her shoulder in an attempt at comfort. 

As soon his hand touches her slightly tanned skin, she reacts. Almost immediately, she jumps out of her stupor, grabs her knife, and places it directly in front of one of his eyeballs.

"Do not ever, ever, touch me. Do you understand?" Victoria practically hisses, her watery eyes barely holding back tears as she glares at him fiercely. 

Leo doesn't want to trigger her to stab him or something, so he just swallows hard as he stares at the sharp blade centimeters from his eye and simply nods.

After holding the knife on him for a few more seconds, she eventually lowers it and looks towards the window. Following her gaze, he notices that it's pretty dark outside, not realizing how much time has passed since he got there. He did leave his apartment as the sun was going down, so it's kinda expected. 

Not meaning to ruin the light mood they had going, he tries to apologize. "I'm sor—" before the words completely leave his mouth, she holds up her hand and sharply turns to face him, her eyes still full of tears, though none seem to have spilt yet. "I'm not feeling well, I'm going to bed. Tomorrow, we can continue your questioning if you like." Victoria suddenly says, moving at a brisk pace to her room. Reaching a door, she stops with her back to him. "You don't have anything to apologize for, Leo. You may sleep on the couch if you wish; it's not very safe outside after dark.

Before he has the chance to respond, she enters the dark room and locks the door behind her with a click.

A frown forms on his face as he stares at the closed door to her room. When she was talking to Leo with her back to him, he could swear that her voice was quivering. 

Turning back around to face the balcony in front of him, the frown stays unmoving as he goes into deep thought. 'I should probably be careful about asking her questions, I didn't even think about what it must feel like to relive those terrifying memories.' 

From the way she said it, she implied that the military stopped taking any chances and started killing innocent people… He couldn't imagine being in a soldier's position during a time as chaotic as that. Everyone must have been so scared. Then to get orders from above to kill innocent people because they may or may not be sick? Surely they must have felt conflicted, all because they're killers doesn't make them heartless.

It's easy to give an order to kill someone innocent, but to pull the trigger..? 'That must have been so difficult.' 

Releasing a forlorn sigh, Leo takes off his backpack and removes the sketchbook from within. Drawing has been a big help in raising his mood a little, but he isn't quite sure what to draw at the moment. 

Looking around Victoria's apartment, he spots a dead rose in a glass vase on a table in the corner. 

'That'll do.' He decides, beginning his work on the rose. Leo doesn't want to draw it withered and dead, so he pictures the rose healthy and beautiful. While he may not be a great artist yet, he can easily sketch something that he can see or imagine, even if it may not be perfect. 

About twenty minutes into his sketch, he gets a level up notification for his drawing ability. 

[+1 Level in Drawing]

Glancing at the notification, he continues on with his rose. Leo's a fan of realism, so he tries to add as much detail as possible, almost as if to try and bring the rose to life.

When another ten minutes pass, Leo puts down his pencil and examines his creation. 

"Ok I like it, Picasso."