PLOT

Leonie moved away from the others at a steady pace she guessed, calling out to the woman who had gone away but having to rely on vague terms as whom Eloise actually was the Austrian didn't know. Remembering what Olivia had done, Leonie held her water canister awkwardly beneath her arm and peeled off part of the outer layer of the garlic bulb and began rubbing the inner flesh onto her neck, around her throat, then over her exposed forearms. Verdammt, I really hope this works.

"HEY!" Leonie called out as she trudged on. "GIRL IN THE GREY SHIRT!" The brunette was lucky Huck had noticed that detailed; she would have been screwed without it. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" If she had taken the time to truly think about this than simply run in without a plan, Leonie may have started to worry that by yelling she was possibly attracting the attention of things nastier and more dangerous than spiders and mosquitos. Perhaps she would have started to agree that making a shelter ot looking for food was the best thing to do. Or staying with people? That might have been a good move to make. But she hadn't and now she was searching for a woman whom she couldn't name or really remember any distinguishing physical characteristics of, thinking only that if this had been a mountain trail Leonie would never have left someone behind. So she walked on.

Quinn hadn't known Eloise, and if a girl wanted to walk off into the jungle by herself, well he was the last person to try and stop them. They didn't know what sort of power she had, maybe she was like the predator and could bend light around herself so she wouldn't get attacked. Maybe she was from this part of the world. But when Leonie decided to walk off after Eloise, Quinn decided to follow. Leonie was one of the people he actually knew in the group and he wasn't about to let her run off too. She had a personality similar to his sister's and as much as he was younger than Leonie... Well that brotherly feeling was there.

"Hey! Leonie!" He jogged up to her. "Ya shouldn't just walk off by yourself too." Quinn handed her another tube of sunscreen. "Here, em, you should really put this on before ya burn."

He just hoped that should they run into anything dangerous, that his power might kick in so he can create something to protect them. Maybe a short wall. Though without his sketchbook and he could do was hope it would happen and hope that it wouldn't fall apart like that stupid parasol.

Salome still hadn't said shite to him over the new one he made her. Quinn was two-minds about that whole situation. He didn't want Salome to think he was a freak on one hand- she had seemed nice- and on the other he was pissed off that she was being such a closed-minded bitch about it. If he was a more aggressive person, he would have told her off, but he really wasn't... At all.

Chris swore under his breath. Why would she do something like that? They could have just talked through the entire issue and maybe ended up all going together, instead of... This insanity! Others, not so sympathetic of the girl's situation could very well stay behind. Splitting up would no doubt lower their chance of survival - though he doubted anybody had the ability to make food pop out of thin air, it would still be smart to stay together just in case somebody had an equally useful power. Christopher could only pray that his reasoning plus Leonie's spontaneity would be enough to convince others to follow. Because if they didn't, if they hesitated too long... They would disappear into the underbrush and it would be near impossible to locate them.

He stuffed his hands in his jeans' pockets - yes his jeans, not PJs, which was kind of creepy but the least of his concerns right now - and walked on in brooding silence. He had no good feelings toward Leonie whatsoever, but the truth was, if he had to stick around with people in this environment, he'd rather it be people he knew. If he'd learned anything from yesterday's experiment, it was that there were viciously cruel people in the Unit, who wouldn't bat an eyelash while taking your life.

Quinn followed after Leonie too, probably for different reasons than Chris himself. He seemed sort of friendly with her, not that Chris cared. He only barely knew the man, having bumped into him two nights ago at the library. They didn't get along that well either.

Should he call out for the girl like Leonie was doing? Nah. "Hey, I understand you wanna find her and all, but could you maybe tone down the volume? If you keep that up, we might end up dead before her." Chris was never known for picking his words carefully. Whatever. She could take offense if she wanted.

Finding Leonie was harder than Huck had expected. Especially since he went the wrong way and ended up getting lost. The garlic bulb had been stuffed into the pocket of his jeans, the water bottle looped onto his belt thanks to the little chain with the machete in one hand and the first aid kit in the other. He felt a little bad for taking so much but if they found Eloise and she was hurt then they’d need the first aid kit.

The machete was coming in handy too as Huck cut a path for himself when he ended up in a thick patch of plant life. As he hacked his way through, he cursed on the unit and once again grumbled, “Why the hell did they have to ditch us in the Amazon?”

Huck could think of a million other places he’d rather be....even though it was rather pretty. Even in his bad mood, Huck couldn’t deny that and maybe if he had chosen to come here he wouldn’t be so pissed. I wouldn’t be so pissed if the girls hadn’t run off either, he inwardly grumbled.

What had possessed the women in the group to do something so goddamn stupid? If he ever found Leonie or Eloise, he was gonna shake ‘em! Runnin’ off half cocked without a lick of common sense between ‘em. Oh you’re no better, a voice silently reminded Huck. You don’t know where you’re goin’ either. Didn’t think before you ran, didcha boy?

Oh shut up, Huck told the voice when he heard something. Someone. Huck paused for a moment listening carefully. Come on, yell out again! As if she knew what he was thinking, Huck heard Leonie call out again, screaming where are you. It was definitely coming from further left so Huck changed his direction and started following the noise. As he drew closer, the young man thought he could hear other voices too.

Chris? Huck was surprised his roommate had gone after Leonie since hadn’t he just left him back at with the group. Guess he had a better sense of direction than I did. Him and the kid, he thought as Huck came through the trees and finally caught up with the others. “Leonie, what the hell were you thinking?” Clearly Huck was the one not thinking because that just came out of his mouth a lot angrier than he had meant. Huck was angrier at the woman than he had expected to be and had trouble keeping it to himself. “We’re all worried about gray shirt girl but you can’t just run off like that! Jesus Christ!”

Huck then turned to the other two guys and snapped at them, just in case they were feeling left out. “Where’s the other guy I left you with?”

Leonie turned towards Quinn as he came jogging up, giving the dark haired guy a small relieved smile. It was completely selfish on her part; the Austrian was just happy she wouldn't have to do this alone. "Thank you," she pushed the garlic into her jean pocket and took the offered sunscreen with a shaky hand. Tu das nicht! She never had reactions like this, no matter how loud her instructor's yelled or how many times she would be ordered to repeat a piece. Shaky hands spelt death for a pianists career! But this wasn't the Konservatory. This was unknown territory and Leonie was terrified.

She dabbed some of the cream on her cheeks and rubbed it in, brushed over her nose, forgetting her ears like most people. Her eyes widened as Christopher caught up with them; they didn't like each other--well, Leonie had a weird aversion to the Brit and she got the feeling she wasn't his most favourite person either--and Leonie had thought Chris would have stayed with Olivia, the one who actually said she knew the area. And not a crazy woman who goes off on her own?

"If we don't yell, how will she know there are people searching for her?" Leonie frowned. The logic was flawed of course. Eloise couldn't have wandered that far in such a short amount of time. If she hadn't answered by now the woman was probably hurt and unconscious. "I--Wait." There was noise coming from the trees. Maybe the grey shirt girl had heard her after all! It wouldn't take any time at all to go back and join the others!

No. Not Eloise. Huck. Leonie released her held breath, a smile starting--which was stopped in mid movement as the Southerner was not at all happy with what she had done.

The Austrian blinked her eyes. And again. And again. She wasn't going to cry, but why did he have to yell at her like that? And who did he think he was telling her what she could and couldn't do? But you don't know what you're doing! That's the point! You wandered off just like that other girl and even you think that was a stupid idea! What if Huck had left instead? You would have been-- Well, he was her friend. In comparison to how long she had actually been in the Unit, she and Huck had spent a lot of time together. Of course Leonie would have been worried. Maybe even angry. Was...was that why Huck was doing this? He had been worried about her?

"Stop it," she tried to speak calmly, but her jaw was tighening with the effort of keeping herself in check. "Just stop it." The brunette took a shaky breath. "I am so scared, and you yelling at us is not helping--Verdammt!" Leonie dropped the tube of sunscreen which hit the grassy wet undergrowth with a heavy thud. It was frozen solid. She wiped her frost-covered hand furiosuly on her hip. "I'm sorry!" she blurted out. "I'm sorry I ran off, I'm sorry the three of you felt compelled to follow, but I would have felt infinitely worse if that girl died out here--alone--and I hadn't done something to find her!" The last was a little choked, but Leonie swallowed it back. No tears. It wouldn't have helped anyway.

Quinn smiled softly at the relieved expression on her face and only nodded to her thanks. The shaky hands of hers were noted, but he wasn’t one to point out something like that. She was obviously off kilter from the whole experience. If he wasn’t only recently given up by his family to this place, maybe he would be more afraid by being left in the rainforest with few supplies and a group of strangers. It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid, just not letting it get to him. Quinn had the ability to look on the lighter side of dark things, because he could appreciate the dark things for what they taught him.

When the words of Chris came from behind him, Quinn rolled his eyes. If there was one person he wished was lost in the rainforest by himself, it would be Chris. For an odd fellow, he sure as hell was judgmental about everything. He nodded in agreement at Leonie’s statement. “Em, right because we can just use our psychic abilities to call for her. Usually animals are afraid of loud noises they don’t hunt them down.”

Ironically Huck’s similar reaction seemed more normal of a reaction than Chris’. It was the reaction of someone actually personally worried about not only Leonie but the other lost girl. Though the force of him snapping at both Chris and him made him less than appreciative.

“Em, we got here before ya mate. So how should we know what happened to the other guy?” Quinn kept his response level, slightly quiet but his anger was in his eyes at being yelled at.

Quinn’s eyes widened at the frozen sunscreen. It was more than amazing to him. Well she must not work about sunburns, but worry about frost bite… He thought to himself. Crouching down, he picked it up off the ground and inspected it for a moment.

Standing up, Quinn furrowed his brows in worry. He hated when girls cried. Her reaction reminded him so much of her sister that he stood there wanting to give her a hug, but unable to really move. Instead he did the first thing that came to his mind and handed her back the frozen sunscreen tube.

“Don’t feel sorry… em, we were being selfish not going after her immediately… Em, here’s your sunscreen back.”

“When I left you were still with him”, Huck retorted, still pissed. “Did you two leave him behind?” That was obviously what happened and now Leonie was babbling on telling him to stop yelling. She was right, they both were but Huck was getting frustrated and didn’t need this. Then he noticed the frozen sunscreen Leonie had dropped.

Huck was probably lucky Leonie hadn’t frozen him and maybe it wouldn’t have been better if she had for the man was more than a little hot under the collar. He was half tempted to throw something but it wouldn’t have done any good and since the only things Huck had on had were important to their survival that would have just been stupid.

Take a deep breath and calm the fuck down, Huck silently ordered. The man wasn’t the type to normally lose his head in a crisis but he had encountered few crises like this. “Alright”, Huck began, pinching the bridge of his nose while he thought before looking back at the others. “From now on, let’s try to stick together, shall we? I get you were scared”, Huck said with a glance at Leonie, “But it dangerous to run off. We don’t know exactly where we are, we don’t know what’s out there and now we don’t know where four of the others are.That’s bad”, he added in case they didn’t realize how seriously fucked they were.

“Losing one person was bad enough. Now we have to waste time looking for them too. Time we do not have. Sun’s getting higher as we speak and nights not that far off. We wanna survive we’re gonna need a source of water. Food and shelter wouldn’t hurt none either but definitely gonna need a source of water”.

Looking at Leonie and then the frozen sunscreen, Huck wondered if her power could work in their favor. “Can you make ice or do you need something to freeze?” It was probably a stupid question but Huck had no idea how her power worked. Better to ask than to assume. “If you can simply make ice than we might not have to worry so much about water”.

He was right of course, what Huck was saying was absolutely correct, they were not safe, they were in a strange environment, and though Leonie had known this--it had been the impetus for her leaving the relative safety in numbers and running off after Eloise--she now needed to suck back that fear and concentrate on the here and now.

"Thank you," she forced a smile for Quinn when he handed her the sunscreen, not sure what she could do with it now though. Would it even be ok to use after it had thawed or would it's properties be ruined? That's not something you really have to worry about right now. Trying to refocus, the Austrian still couldn't get a complete hold on her fear. She was only human and completely outside her comfort level. But she was smart enough to realize that any more protesting about the lost girl could in fact get the four of them killed. A group. She needed to now think of Huck, Quinn, Chris, and herself as a group. These were the ones she needed to help. She glanced at Chris. Yes. Even him.

Leonie opened her mouth then shut it again, staring down at the tube she held. It was embarrassing. None of the guys had randomly used their powers, or used them at all as far as she knew. Why did she have to be the outcast, the freak, during this time? The doubts her parents had instilled in the brunette were rising to the surface. How was she going to be able to help them? Like she had said in power training, her powers were random, they came up at random times, often inappropriate and dangerous times!

Verdammt! Get a grip on yourself. Do you think these people want to have a session on your deep-seated emotional problems? Unlikely! You can finally be of use to someone here. You do not want to look like a loser? Well this is it!

Leonie thought of her time in the yard with Damian and those two other girls. How she had been so frustrated and had created snow from the falling rain.But I didn't create snow! I created the cold! Enough! Leonie bite her lip but looked up at Huck and gave him a firm nod. "I can do that. I'll get us water. If...if you guys want to concentrate on shelter, I'll get us water." It may turn out to be a series of snowballs but at least they would still be hydrated and cool. This group was not suffering heat stroke, not on her watch.

He blinked a few times. Maybe he would feel sorry for Leonie if he was not too busy staring at the frozen tube of sunscreen. As it was, he barely registered her words.

Huck blamed them for leaving. Well, that sucked. If he was not in such a fowl move and his clothes weren't freaking plastered to his skin with sweat, causing extreme discomfort, he might have apologized. Currently, he only grunted and averted his gaze.

Chris watched in silence as Huck took charge, dictating that a source of water was important. They had finally decided to get their priorities straight. He thought about time. Still, the others were casting disdainful looks at him already, better to not risk pissing off anybody else and keep his thoughts to himself.

While grateful for her offer (as grateful as he could be towards her), Chris did not completely trust Leonie to be able to help completely with the water problem. Obviously, he knew her power, even before the frozen sunscreen had happened. But since his own power was similar, he understood that it was not something that just happened when you snapped your fingers. For what it was worth, he had spent more time in the Unit than her (snoozing through lectures, sure, but nobody needed to know that).

"Hey," he spoke up, not really sure how the others would react to what he was about to say, "maybe I should stay to help. I might be able to... Melt the ice." Huck and Leonie already knew his power, so what the heck, in a situation like this, he might as well disclose it to Quinn too.

"And while we're on that topic, if either of you got a power that'll help us survive, you oughta use it." It needed to be said. Just in case one of them was holding something back. Huck, probably not; but Quinn... Chris didn't know the person, nor his power well enough to judge.