Never pet a burning dog.

[thirdboxcar]

Something in Walt’s brain clicks when Sgt. Colbert shoots his smoke grenade, blue gas escaping from it, but the car doesn’t stop. He faintly remembers the LT telling Brad he doesn’t like the idea of this, that they’re here to stop suicide bombers, and smoke grenades basically do shit, really. Maybe it’s sleep deprivation that makes him do it, maybe

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[asinglechange]

Knees tucked up and into her pilfered Ohio State tee shirt, Alice makes an effort to keep up the pretense that she's still reading. Heller's lack of chronological order was giving her a bit of headache when mixed with the sun so the distraction is welcome.

"Hell?" she supplies, pretending to turn the page. "Not even close. Too much water, too much pie."

[thirdboxcar]

Walt turns toward the girl sitting in the sand next to him and studies her. He should be saying something else, but one can only go for so long with delicious, amazing pie, so what Walt actually says is something along the lines of, "Pie?" with his eyebrows slightly raised and his eyes full of hope.

Then he remembers at least some of his training courses when he was in the BRC, and he asks, "Where the hell are we?"

[asinglechange]

"Yeah. I think it's lemon meringue and apple strawberry, but I haven't tried either."

Alice folds the book over knee and gives the guy a once over while she scratches the side of her nose. Wherever he's just come from it sure was sandy.

"Tabula Rasa, an island in the middle of the quite literal nowhere. You're safe, but you can't go home. I'm sorry about that, but we do have good pie."

[thirdboxcar]

Walts steps slightly closer to understand her better, feeling his mouth already starting to water at the thought of strawberry pie. His mama always made the best one, he thinks.

The thought of being safe momentarily overweights the thought of not being able to go home, because he couldn't go home that easily either when he was in Iraq.

He has a lot of questions, but the first one his brain decides to ask is, "Why haven't you?"

[asinglechange]

Shrugging she doesn't see anything wrong with continuing this line of questioning. Food is a lot more fun than 'oh my god, does this mean I'm dead' or something like that as far as conversation starters go.

"I've been reading and I ate breakfast late. I can always get some later." She pauses, wiggling her toes in the sand. "So can you. No one is going to stop you."

[thirdboxcar]

Walt wants to believe this, he truly does, but this still feels all too much like a dream [where everything feels really fucking hot, thanks to the tropical sun and his MOPP suit] so he gives the girl a small shrug.

"Have you been here for long?" He asks, flopping down in the sand next to her.

[asinglechange]

"Eight months," Alice answers, feeling that's an awfully short amount of time. Baby amounts. She also knows that she's one of the few people that feels this way.

Pointing to his clothes, she nods. "You're going to get heatstroke or something. Not that I would be completely opposed to playing rescuer, but it might be kind of embarrassing if I had to drag you to the compound and the air conditioning."

[thirdboxcar]

"I'd love to see you try."

Walt unbuckles the Kevlar, a smile slowly making it's way onto his face as he drops the Kevlar into the sand beside him. He stops in the middle of unbuttoning the jacket of his MOPP suit to reach his hand out for the girl to shake. "I'm Walt," he offers, his other hand fumbling with the jacket.

[asinglechange]

"Hey, don't say that because I always love a good challenge," she teases laughing slightly. Leaning forward to shake his hand, her book slips to the ground and she doesn't really care. It's not like she doesn't have time to restart it.

"Alice. Nice to meet you, shiny newness and all."

[thirdboxcar]

Alice's hand feels tiny, almost to the point of being fragile, and so soft in his hand, compared to the rough, calloused hands of the men he's been around.

Pulling his hand back, he takes off his jacket, placing the Kevlar on top of it as he puts it on the floor.

"Does this happen often? People just appearing like that?" He asks, turning towards her with curiousity.

[asinglechange]

"Yep. Suspiciously so." Alice herself stumbled right out of one battle and into humanity. She's still very impressed with the fact that she didn't end up throwing up all over Mikal's shoes in shock.

Shrugging she chews on her lip as she thinks about the whole thing. "I don't think anyone thinks about it much. It's kind of just how it happens. People come that way and people go that way. Though the leaving is more of the disappearing mysteriously in the dark of the night type."

[thirdboxcar]

Walt nods, trying to process all of that information. This island really doesn't seem like the normal type; the way he got here in the first place says a lot.

"D'you think people go back to where they came from when they leave?" He asks.

[asinglechange]

"I don't know," she answers, picking at a freckle on her forearm lazily. It's not exactly the easiest of questions to answer, but it sure is interesting.

"I've never met anyone who left and came back who remembered being here before. Or going back and coming back. I don't think this is a place you remember after you leave."

[thirdboxcar]

"So there's a chance of people coming back here?"

Now, that is interesting! Not even in his wildest dreams Walt would've thought about ever landing on an island like this one, but here he is.

[asinglechange]

"Yep. Those are few and far between. Most of us are unique. For given definitions of unique."

Alice is more unique than most, even here in a place where everyone is some sort of special. But she's got friends who look like other friends and people with metal arms. Special is a dime a dozen things.

"It's kind of neat if you like that sort of thing. Which I do."

[thirdboxcar]

Walt thinks about this before asking, "So you don't miss home?" The way she talks about this place makes him think that back home (if she had a home at all), she doesn't have anything, or anybody, she's missing or that might be missing her.