Heavy Cross |LUKE|

[ELLA KINGSLEIGH]

Beforethiswhole thing started, Ella wouldn't have been caught dead walking around for hours on end without a personal assistant. In fact, up until the "incident", she had only ever wore gym shoes in the privacy of her own home gym. Being born into a wealthy family was once a gift that others had to be jealous about. But when the virus spread, she was the one left waiting around with no experience and no knight in shining armor...or a PA. No, Ella Kingsleigh was as helpless as the commoners that once annoyed the shit out of her and even they had more experience! She was an outsider in this new world until she came across a group of survivors. She "befriended" them, ate their food, learned from them and killed them. This wasn't the kind of place where one can just make new friends and trust everyone. In this new world, everyone is fighting for survival. Of course, there are those who are too dumb and naive to grasp this revelation. Ella, is not one of those people. Trust is not a concept that she was ever very familiar with. She figures that it helped in the end...killing people wasn't the easiest thing to do, at first. Sometimes, it still isn't easy. Killing Walkers, on the other hand, is like playing a videogame. It's thrilling, violent, and it saves your ass. Now, being alone for the past few months...it's been chaotic.

Well, should say was. It was chaotic. Ella nearly starved to death before she finally caved and began...eating...other people that she killed. Not walkers, of course. Only a dumbass would do that and Ella was anything but. The whole, staying-with-a-group-keeps-you-alive thing was a correct concept. Ella survived for a few months, yes, but she wasn't sure how long she could have kept that up without any human contact or food. It was much more important than she had anticipated. But then, her knight finally appeared...and she almost killed him. Well, she tried. Who the hell was he to walk into her space? Much less, armed to the hilt. Whatever. That was in the past and Luke Black was still a pain in the ass. And always right, which pissed Ella off like no other. This princess bitch didn't back down so easily, however. Playing the victim to get your way always works. Until the savior find out you have a gun and knife on you. Then, it's a fucking battle to the death. Like in Mortal Kombat...not that she would know about videogames, once again. Anyway, since Luke came along, they've been on the road, running and driving around, finding unsuspecting victims to mangle. Honestly, you'd think that people would have gained an ounce of common sense during this whole thing. Apparently, that was the first thing that some of them lost.

Tucking a strand of her behind her ear, Ella rolled onto her back, looking up at the top of the tent. Sleep was a gift when it actually occured, but that was rare, now. Glancing over, she noticed that Luke was either awake or on guard duty, seeing as he wasn't in her line of sight. Letting out a small sigh, she sat up, unzipping the front of the tent- walking out to find him there. After taking a seat in a chair near a small fire, she ganced up at him, speaking quietly. "You know, I still don't think we should be traveling with this group. They're idiots, Luke, they're going to get us killed." She shifted slightly, moving her eyes to the fire, a sneer on her face. "I survived on my own for three months and made better decisions than the ones they come up with." She looked at him once more, a small grin appearing on her face. "Let's just kill them now. They're asleep, we can just slit their throats." And there was the Ella that he knew. Violent, bloodthirsty, and unforgiving.

[LUKE BLACK]

The desire to survive was the drive for someone in this new world. Before, it had been the chance to make something of one self. People were attending colleges, studying for subjects that would not matter much to their lives unless it was related to their interests in life. People would have children gladly, accepting the terrible noise that they would bring into life for the first few months. Being wealthy meant something in the world, it meant power. Having siblings meant that you would never turn on one another, protecting each other. This new world caused people to lose their sanity. When the outbreak first started, he had been at college. Not exactly the most popular one, given his attitude, but one of the smarter ones. He kept away from other people since attachments meant losses for him. Having seen his mother commit suicide at an early age was traumatizing enough for him to back out of relationships with others. The outbreak occurred when his sister was on campus with him. The TV showed the news that people were turning into vicious things. Snapping their teeth at people, looking for a bite. Their skin was decaying slowly as they lived on from a terrible fever. The eyes of these people were glassy, no longer showing any resemblance of being a human. News ended within a matter of time, the broadcasts stopped. At this, Caroline and him ran from the campus since military entered to start shooting at students that showed any signs of a fever. They made it to their oldest brother's home where Caroline had ended up outside. Safe from the herd, she watched as a herd surrounded the house for a few days. Starved from hunger, the oldest of the two attempted to attack Luke. Perserving, Luke stabbed him in the forehead and ended up with blood on his hands. Not resisting his hunger, he slowly made his turn into a cannibal. The need to survive had kicked in for it saved him from the herd when they went for the body of his oldest brother, giving him a chance to escape.

After that, Luke and his sister took off with no sense of direction. They stumbled upon a group that were like Luke, willing to survive by eating other humans. While out alone, he stumbled upon a blonde girl. She had played a victim when they had first met. That was until he discovered that she had a gun and knife on her. This led to the two fighting, hoping one of them would fall. After all, they were both cannibals thus they had originally been hunting each other. The fight ended with the two basically calling a truce given, he had a knife to her throat. She had a gun to his head, so either of them could have killed each other right then and there. Ella joined the group that Luke has been in since the outbreak along with Caroline. Being in the group has led to more muscle power in finding large groups to kill and devour. Not too many people were smart in this new world. Then again, they were not too smart in the old world. Remember the chick who spilled coffee on her pants then sued McDonalds for it? Killing people was never something that Luke had thought of, but given the circumstances, he'd take it over dying any day. While out during a hunt, the two had lost Caroline. She had straggled behind the two which they didn't notice right away due to a walker appearing out of nowhere. They handled the walker before realizing that she was gone. Retracing their steps, there was no sign of her in the woods. That had been twelve hours ago. The sky was pitch black at the present time, no moon out to show light in the woods. Only sound that could be heard in the night were crickets chirping. This was not the time that someone would want to be keep watching as everyone slept given that it was dark outside. It made it near impossible to see a walker emerging until it was mere feet away from the camp.

However, Luke had a flashlight which he would light, if he heard the moaning that most walkers made. Even a shadow of someone slowly moving, he'd light the flashlight. In his left hand was a knife which had dried blood on it. It was a hunting knife that he had discovered at an old campsite in the woods. The owner of the knife had been gnawed by walkers judging by the appearance of the owner when they stumbled upon him. Had the man not been gnawed, they could have made a meal of him. Never would someone eat a walker unless they wanted a death wish. Some hunters would do it, to opt out of killing anymore live human beings. Such dumbasses sometimes, he thought. Luke was sitting up against a huge tree branch which had fallen long ago. His blue eyes were intently watching the woods, for any sign of a walker or another human. Occasionally, thoughts of his sister would appear though she wasn't some weakling. Rather the opposite. She was rather smart in this new world despite him not giving her much credit. A small fire had also been built by him, giving some more light into the dark night. His blackish-brownish hair was soaked from the heat in the night. Georgia's heat was a never ending thing even at night. His thoughts were broken when Ella appeared out of the tent. She spoke quietly, something he wasn't used to given her loud nature. Ella was not a cinderella type girl in terms of the manners. Rather bitchy she was though he didn't care about it. He wasn't exactly one to take manners seriously. She spoke of how the group were idiots which he concluded long ago. Getting them killed? He doubted it. Merely cause he knew that they both could handle themselves. She spoke about how she survived on her own along with the idea of slitting throats.

Luke smirked with recognition of Ella's violent nature. He said, "Good evening to you too, Barbie. The weather has been marvelous, hot as hell out. Hotter now that you're sitting here." The discussion of the group separation would happen, but for now he wanted to piss her off. It was always his daily goal to piss her off, mainly to see her cheeks flare up red. Speaking up again, he said, "Not going to ask if any walkers were hoping to rip apart your body limb from limb, but your amazingly good looking savior managed to stop them?" His eyes were lit up with mischief before showing some glory in them as his right hand lifted up a head. The head had a knife wound in the back of it's head. His right hand was holding onto the straggly light red hair. The walker had small pieces of skin dangling from it's mouth, showing signs that it had been bitten as a human on the mouth. Its eyes were motionless, grey eyes which showed no humanity in them. Hanging from the head was some meat, perhaps it's veins that had previously led to the whole body. Luke asked, "Isn't she a beaut? Perhaps, even better looking than you." He lightly threw the head to Ella's feet as he just folded his shoulders, looking back out into the woods.

[ELLA KINGSLEIGH]

Mistakeshad been made. Ella wasn't always one to value other people and when the virus spread, the little value she had for humanity, went on the back burner. Mainly because she was trying to save her own ass, which was extremely important. She was more upset when she realized she wouldn't be shopping at Dior or Chanel anymore; two very important places in her life at the time. Call her materialistic, that's fine, because she is...or was. Was. But Ella was the queen of making mistakes. According to her long lost mother, that was all she did; mess up. Which is one of the reasons she sent Ella away to boarding school for the majority of her life. However, when she realized that she only had her own back, mistakes couldn't be made. If they were, it would cost you your life. She didn't want to die by being bitten by a walker, going through the virus that spreads so rapidly in your body. If she died, she wanted it to be by her own accord- which would be a gun to her head. She had a plan, if all else failed, most survivors should. Which is what brought Ella to her next thought: Caroline. See, Ella met Caroline after she and Luke had decided not to kill each other after their little run it. She looked like a little innocent sheep, until her mouth opened. Caroline wasn't rude like Ella, but it was apparent that she also knew how to use weapons, considering she help a gun pointed between Ella's eyes. Having your life threatened by a Breather twice in a row, wasn't something that Ella wanted to have happen often. Nevertheless, Ella became sort of friends with Caroline- always trying to talk her into becoming a cannibal. She would never budge, though, being all holier-than-thou, or whatever that saying is.

On a hunting trip, Caroline joined Ella and Luke on their journey in the woods. The girl is wicked good with a bow, excellent aim. Anyway, they were walking through the woods, when they came in contact with a small herd. Trying to get some distance between them and some of the Walkers, they hadn't realized that Caroline wasn't with them anymore until they realized Caroline wasn't replying. They retraced their steps numerous times, but there wasn't a single trace of Caroline anywhere. Ella was worried, as much as Ella can actually worry, uncertain of Luke's sister's fate. However, Luke must've known something she didn't, considering her was much more calm than she. Ella knew the girl could fend for herself, but if they had ran into one herd, more could be wandering the woods near them. That was the biggest mistake that occured since Ella had joined the little group- Caroline's disappearance. It wasn't her fault, but some of the dumbasses were acting suspicious of her. If they only knew that Ella had already planned each of their death's in her head, they'd sure as hell be weary of her. Of course, at this point, Luke and Caroline weren't on her kill list. She had seen Luke in action, she didn't want him as an enemy...probably ever. Not that she couldn't put up a good fight, but he could wield a knife like a motherfucker.

Memories linger, which is obviously why she's at the point that she can never sleep anymore. Hence waking up in the middle of the night and seeking out Luke. She thought she was sarcastic, but he took the cake. Mmm, cake...

Ella narrowed her eyes at his remark, he was such a smartass. "Good evening to you too, Barbie. The weather has been marvelous, hot as hell out. Hotter now that you're sitting here." Barbie? Yeah, right! Maybe before everything went to shit! Nevertheless, it was a compliment, and Ella loved receiving compliments. "Hotter, eh? Feel free to take your shirt off, I wouldn't protest, I can assure you. This Barbie has seen better days." Ella arched an eyebrow at his other remark, glancing down at the head hanging in his hand. She wrinkled her nose, the smell was gross, but his comment that it was better looking than her is what actually made her make the face. "Please. It's a ginger and a rotting, decapitated one, at that. Can't hold a candle." She grinned, watching the head he tossed at her feet roll for a moment. Picking it up by the hair, she unceremoniously dropped it into the fire, mumbling, "A fire crotch, even after reanimation. Ain't that a bitch." Letting out a small sigh, she stood up, shoving her hands in the back pockets of her jean shorts. "So, dark knight, any other Walkers appear while I was asleep a whole half hour? Also, you can't ignore the convesation you know needs to happen, for much longer...and I'm not talking about sex, before you can make a remark about me hinting." She smirked falsely, walking back into the tent for a moment to get the kit to clean her revolver, before reappearing.

[LUKE BLACK]

Growing up, he had always been the loner. Keeping away from others since he saw his mother commit suicide. She committed suicide, not knowing that he had been watching. This effected him for the rest of his childhood, staying away from other people. The reason being that close relationships led to pain. Pain that was sometimes too unbearable for him. While appearing at the typical asshole, he did have emotions in that he didn't want to see anyone close to him die again. Certainly not in a world so easy to die in now. His years in highschool were spent having one night stands along with friends with benefits. Rarely, did he have a girlfriend so to say. If he did have a girlfriend, their relationship didn't last for a long period of time. Also, Luke had gained a trait that some people hated about him. He only cared for himself. When he had a girlfriend, he wouldn't care that he was skipping out on something with her that was more entertaining to him. It was always about him, always going to be about him. This prevented him from gaining any close relationships with anyone. Even with a rather large family, he believed all of his siblings could look out for themselves. Most brothers would get rather overprotective of their sisters in particular. Luke was protective of her though knew she could handle herself. He wasn't the type to constantly jump to her rescue unless it threatened her life gravely. Mainly because it would mean that he would lose his family. Even if saving her life resulted in someone else losing their life, he wouldn't care. As for Ella, she clearly could handle herself. That was perhaps the reason that Luke tolerated her unlike most girls. If she couldn't fully agree with him on stuff, she could leave him. He wouldn't care much, if she left as his decision was to remain with the group.

Luke felt it was smart to stay with the group because it meant numbers. Meaning that if they ran into a herd, there was plenty of meat to leave up for grabs, for the walkers. He had repeatedly thought of how to kill each hunter, detailed in his head. From slitting their throats to gutting them, things that no one would do in the normal world. For now, they were necessary to stay alive. They would be the distractions, if the group ran into a herd of walkers. Ella and Luke had the ability to handle themselves though not against a whole herd. A herd sometimes were relentless. They would not give up on chasing a person, not needing to stop for a breath. A human still needed to stop due to fatigue after running for so long. Fatigue was probably the only weakness that someone had in the new world, if they were capable of supplying themselves with food. Plus, the usual flaws in their personalities which led to certain decisions being the wrong ones. Being with the group had cost him, Caroline though. There was no sign of her nor a walker that appeared to be her, so he knew that she was alive. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that she was alive. They had been traveling together since the beginning, so he knew she would be fine. She had learned some things from him, he had surprisingly learned some things from her. The only thing that could kill her was probably herself. Caroline was still sane enough to not begin eating others nor killing them for food. One time, the group had been stuck force feeding her in order to keep her alive. She was so stubborn to keep her humanity. Being in the middle of the woods meant food was scarce. They had some good hunters, but big things such as deer were hard to come by. Luke thought it was stupid of her to not do everything to survive instead still holding onto something that no longer mattered. He had no problem telling her too, everytime that she would turn down the offer of 'food' for other sources of food that she was an idiot either.

He had mentioned that it had gotten hotter with her coming out of the tent to sit with him. The compliments were something that she enjoyed though they weren't hard to give to her. If one thing kept him around her was that she was a hell of a lot better looking than some of the scum that they would run into. Luke smirked as she spoke, saying that he should take his shirt off. His own eyebrow arched at that remark. He said, "You could just take it off for me, ya know. If you wanna see me naked, just ask for it. I concur Barbie has seen better days." That final statement was obviously about different times that they had spent together. He had lifted up the head which he had kept near him, mainly cause the smell tended to keep other walkers from coming over to the campsite. A comment that it was better looking than Ella, caused her to comment back with a grin on her face. With the comment said, he tossed the head at her feet before she picked it up by the hair, dropping it into the fire. Luke pretended to look upset and said, "Ya know, she was keeping me company out here and you just had to do that..." Her comment was quite hilarious given the fact that the woman had been a ginger. Ella had stood up, asking if other walkers had appeared. His attention had diverted from the woods to her as she stood up, not bothering to hide the fact that he was checking her out as he had done so often. She also entioned the conversation of the hunters along with a side comment about sex. Luke said, "Why would one talk about sex? That is quite boring, if you ask me." Before he could finish talking, she had walked back into the tent. During that small amount of time, he kept an eye on the woods. An owl appeared to be flying in the dark sky now, above them though it had landed on a tree branch. That was the only sight of something in the woods though it was doubtful to stay that way for long. Or perhaps, they would get lucky for one night and avoid anymore walkers. She appeared outside of the tent again which led to him continuing what he had been saying before. Luke continued, "I think we should stay with them for now. If we run into a herd, we can't handle it on our own. Atleast with them, we have bodies to distract walkers, while we make a break for it. You know how many rumors we've been hearing about herds in this area now." There had been rumors of walkers traveling in herds more as humans began dying off and reanimating. He said, "No other walkers appeared which is why I'm glad that you made an appearance out here. Quite boring though not so much not that you're out here making comments about sex." Just like that the conversation went back from being normal to being what it always was. Bantering between the two, while at the same time seducing? Usually at night, his sister would awaken in the night and keep him company, if he was on watch. They would talk though not about those things obviously. Mainly about past things that they wouldn't be able to go back to.

[ELLA KINGSLEIGH]

Ellawas a social butterfly...that is, before everything went down. She was always surrounded by a clique, usually of girls that acted like her. They were the real life Mean Girls, but she was queen of their boarding school. Nothing happened that she didn't know about. She threw the best parties that everyone wanted to attend and she was the girl that all of the guys wanted to get with. To say that she loved herself, was a minor understatement. She was fucking perfect in every aspect. If someone would have gotten on the ground to kiss her feet, she would have let them. She felt that she deserved the world and most of the time, she got it. She had minions waiting to be her minion. And it was so desperate and pathetic, that she let them follow her around like little lost puppies. When she and her friends would show up to school hungover, they'd have their parents pay off the headmistress and teachers so that it wouldn't get out. In college, she had her own dorm room to herself and had a new little clique to follow her around. She had it all...but it was all violently torn away from her. Her first few months were unlike anything she had ever experienced. When she killed her brother, she didn't talk to anyone. She knew she was a heartless bitch, but she had never planned on killing someone. It tore part of her soul out, she just knew it. It made her more cold and more unforgiving than ever. She knew that she couldn't go back to being her old self, then. There was no hop for humanity and she had just forever lost hers.

Luke was unlike any guy she had ever met. Of course, he was sadistic and she had met men like that, but he was like her- in that, he too, had lost his humanity. Ella had been feeling partially responsible for Caroline slipping away during the attack. Then she remembered; why give a single fuck. Little Snow knew how to handle herself, so, why worry about it? And that's exactly what Ella did; not worry. So, now, Ella was awake keeping Luke company and she was fairly sure that her conversations were vastly different than the ones that he had with his sisters. Unlike Luke, however, Ella had no family left. Not that she knew of, at least. She was pretty sure that the rest of her relatives were old and senile. They probably ate each other, for Christ sakes. It was pretty nice not having to worry about anyone else, though. Of course, if Luke was ever in a situation where he needed her, she'd help; though that'd be a rare occasion. She knew very well that he could handle himself. No person Ella had ever fought with in this new world had been able to get their weapon anywhere near her. The fact that he had showed her that he was probably capable of more than she had seen. Since he had never asked her about how she had ended up here in the first place, she had never asked him the question in return. However, that didn't mean she wasn't curious. Ella had a feeling it must've been pretty bad, too. But at the current moment, she didn't care. She felt like being inappropriate.

Being inappropriate wasn't a hard thing for Ella to do. She wasn't very ladylike when it came down to it. What was the purpose of that after the world ends, anyway? It's not like she had someone to criticize her and even if she did, she'd tell the to go to Hell. When Luke mentioned her taking his shirt off for him, she smirked, walking over to him- not before tucking her gun away in it's holster. Running her hands under the bottom of his shirt, she replied, "You know, that's very tempting. You know how much I like seeing you naked. Almost as much as I like seeing myself." she smiled innocently, walking back over to the chair. It was then that he threw the ginger's head at her feet- allowing her to make one of her rude ginger remarks. What was the point of being nice when you could not give a shit and be a bitch? It was so much more rewarding. Instant gratification, if you will. Ella watched Luke pretend to be upset, a grin spreading across her face. "Oh, you know I can keep you much better company. Anyway, if you put that thing's head anywhere near your...you know, she'd bite it off. What a sad day that'd be for Luke Black...losing your little friend." She couldn't keep a straight face during that little remark, ending up with her snickering. Ella was playing with a lock of her long hair idly when she made a comment about a "sex talk." Of course, talking about sex was boring. "Duh. Why would you talk about sex when you can have sex?" That was when she made her way into the tent, retrieving the kit to clean her gun. She felt his eyes on her the entire time and it only made her smirk. When she walked out, however, he brought up the issue she had actually meant to talk up- staying with the group. She listened to his points, which were valid, of course. Luke was always right, even when she didn't want to admit it. She just nodded to his statement, she didn't want to give him the opportunity to gloat. Instead, she began cleaning her revolver, listening to him talking. "There you go again, just talking about sex. Weren't you going to get naked or something? That'd make me a happy girl. You can even take my tank top off, if you're lucky." she smirked. She loved seeing how far she could push him before he reacted.