those hands pulled me from the earth || ethan winters x donna beneviento

vi: a wondeous place.

february 10th, 2021.
11:00am.
umbrella facility, usa.
———

ethan had went into the hall earlier to get some actual clothes for himself and donna. luckily, his jacket and jeans still intact, so he was able to put those on, as well as a plain, black bsaa t-shirt that chris had so generously donated. donna had been given the same black t-shirt and a pair of jogging pants, also given to them by chris. they had also donated a pair of plain canvas shoes her size to wear so she wasn't barefoot.

ethan was standing outside of her room with his back against the wall, waiting on her. his eyes looked up and down the halls, looking for anyone else he may have known, but after chris left, he didn't see anyone he recognized.

he stood up straight once the door was opened to the side of him. he turned to see donna standing there in the clothes, angie clutched in her arms.

ethan looked the woman up and down for a moment, examining how awkward she was standing. "not really your style, huh?" he teased.

donna shook her head. "the material is weird and i don't like the sleeves... and i've never worn pants like these before, they're so soft." she explained. "but i like these clothes much more than i like the paper-y dress they had me in earlier."

ethan chuckled at what she had called the hospital gown. he examined her once more, noticing little goosebumps on her arms as she held angie. he slipped off his jacket and held it out to help her out it on. "you look cold, this'll make it feel better."

donna hesitated, but slipped into the jacket with his help. it pretty much swallowed her whole, but at least this way, she'd be warm. "this is better," she said with a pleased smile.

ethan looked down the hallway to the right of him. he had gotten directions to the cafeteria from chris earlier, and he could also spot a map on one of the walls. "let's go get some food," he stated and then began walking in the direction he had been looking.

the walls were mostly plain and the bright fluorescent lights were already starting to give him a headache. there were a few paintings in the walls and people running in and out of rooms, but that was mostly it. he wandered down the halls for a few moments, taking a few turns and slipping past people. he looked back every once in a while to make sure that donna was still following him.

when they finally reached the cafeteria, ethan let out a sigh of relief. there were plenty of people there, grabbing breakfast. he recognized an australian person as one of the agents from the village and saw chris leaving with another man. he spotted mia in the line, rosemary held so carefully in her arms.

when ethan looked back to donna, he saw her eyes wide and her mouth lightly agape as she looked around in awe.

this had to be pretty different for her. the village was pretty midevil, he wasn't sure how much she even knew about the real world. "nice, huh?" he asked her.

donna was snapped from her thoughts and looked back to ethan, nodding as she clutched into angie. a few people gave the doll odd looks as they walked past her, but she didn't seem to notice.

ethan led her into the line, they were a few spots behind mia and she seemed to be busy talking to one of the female agents with a clipboard. she didn't even notice them behind her.

"and who's this?" ethan heard from behind them. he spun around on his heel to see a brunet male agent with his hand on the small of donna's back. she had spun around a little after him, flinching away from his hand a little.

before ethan could get a work out, the man started speaking again. "you new here, doll?" he had asked.

ethan instinctively took ahold of her hand, stepping a little bit closer to her. he didn't recognize the agent at all, which kind of scared him, to say the least. "she's with me," he said.

"oh, relax, winters." the agent said with a wave of his hand. "it's all good over here." he went to touch angie, and the second his hand got near to her face, the doll opened her mouth and hit down just between his thumb and index finger.

the man jumped back, swearing and clutching onto his hand. "fucking bitch!" he hissed.

now, almost everyone in the cafeteria was turned to look at the group, wondering what all of the yelling was about.

ethan swallowed the lump in his throat, glancing around for a moment. he met the worried eyes of mia and saw rosemary wiggle in her arms. "you better watch out. she's a bioweapon," he said lowly. "you better go get that checked out by a doctor, there's no telling what that doll could carry. maybe you have the plague now," he joked with a small chuckle.

the agent looked taken aback, glancing between donna and the doll before he turned around and made his way down the hallway ethan had come from.

donna then looked over to ethan, her ice cold hand still in his. "what was he on about?" she questioned.

"he's just a creep. he'll be fine." it looked to ethan that the guy was new and still learning the ropes.

this was the first time ethan had actually gotten to look at donna in good lighting, and god, was she beautiful. her skin was as pale as snow and her eyes were a dark chocolatey brown. her nose was thin and slightly upturned, it almost looked like a button. her frame was dainty and small, she, herself kind of reminded him of a doll.

donna then stared down at angie with a sort of happiness. ethan had worried that since the village was gone that angie would no longer be alive, but it seemed that she was just pretending. maybe it was some sort of defense mechanism for her to play dead.

soon enough, everyone else went back to what they were doing. ethan and donna moved up in the line, eventually getting two trays with breakfast on them. each tray had individually packaged cereal and milk, sausage, eggs and a hash brown. they also got little containers of fruit juice.

they made their way to a table and sat down across from one another. donna set angie on her lap, protecting her from anything else that may happen as she poked at the food.