Realistic or Modern Patient Zero (A Zombie Survival RP)

[TheMightyRedLemon]

Painful Memories

Feburary 3, 2003 - 8:00 am
Location: Perth, Scotland - city slums

Vanessa tightened her grip on her brothers hand as they were guided up to the front doors of the ramshackled looking orphanage. The policemen knocked on the door as James McUlann looked down at his younger sister, giving her a reassuring smile. The old wooden door creaked open to reveal a tall old woman with a wrinkled, angry face. Her graying eyes glanced over the James and Vanessa for a moment befor focusing on the cop. "These are the two you phoned ahead about, I presume?" She asked in a low, almost spiteful tone.

"That's right ma'am. Their names are James and Vanessa McUlann. They just lost their parents." The policeman replied.

"I see. Very well then. Come inside children. Come, come!" The old woman said as she ushered the pair inside befor grabbing the edges of the door. "Thank you officer, and do have a nice day." And like that, the old wooden door slammed shut. Peering out the window, she watched as the officer walked back down the drive and got in his car. Tires crunched against gravel as the cruiser drove off into the distance. The old crone turned her gaze to the children now.

"My name is Felicity Grace, but you will call me Miss Grace. I am the headmistress of this orphanage. I expect no trouble out of either of you." She uttered as a horribly twisted smile came across her face. As she snapped her fingers two men appeared from a doorway to her left. "Gentlemen, please take this boy to his designated quarters. I'll take the girl to her room myself."

..............................................................

Vanessa's eyes shot open as she jolted awake, a warm stream of tears rolling down her right cheek as she began to silently shake. Pulling her arms around her knee tighter in an attempt to comfort herself, she tried to block out the horrid memories the dream had brought with it.

Vanessa recalled her first night at the orphanage more vividly than she cared to admit. The decent down the stair with that mean old crone of a woman, the stench of filth and foul disease, the crying and the screaming echoing through the basement halls. All of this played back in her mind as she sat in silence for a few moments.

She remembered being shoved into a small concrete room with a bed in the center of it. Aligning the wall were various shackles and chains, as cold to the touch as the hands of the man that came in to 'Visit' her that night. After a quiet moment to compose herself, Vanessa glanced around the room swiftly to check an make sure her episode went unnoticed by the others as she absentmindedly rubbed her wrists. She didn't want to seem even more vulnerable in front of them than she already did.

(Figuring out how to word this to give the implied meaning took me forever XD sorry it's not longer but I fear it a bad idea to elaborate further.)

Mentions: Luca Brax , Andy Maj , Harriet Togy , Hector shadowz1995

 

[Rumble Fish]

3rd of July 2005
13:26 PM
Stanhope Ranch, below Back Allegheny Mountain, West Virginia

The grey gelding chuffed delicately as he turned in his stall, following the girl’s gentle lead by the reins before directing his attention onto the hay net that had been hung in his absence. His tail flicked as he paid little attention to the woman as she undid his cinch, lifting his saddle with a groan.

“C’mon. Let’s get this heavy thing off, hm?” She grunted as she slung it over the door, before allowing him to spit out the bit neatly into her open palm as she slipped the bridle over his tall ears, “There y’go. That feels better, don’t it Dollar-boy?” she crooned as the horse stretched his jaw before returning to his hay. With a chuckle, she left the stall, the door clicking behind her. She would put these away, give him a brush and then send him back to the pasture. She’d then have the oh so glorious job of trying to rein in Widow-maker, the half-mad mare her father had paid $50 for to save her from slaughter. Unlike gentle Dollar who she had just ridden, Widow-Maker was… hopefully not going to live up to her name. It was not unlike Brookes to do something like this. While built like a brick house and stoic to any unknown man, he had a love for horses. If he could save one, he would. It was because of this philosophy, their herd had grown from five when she was ten, to almost thirty at present. As she was about to re-enter Dollar’s stall, a shout from outside caught her attention.

“Jane! C’mere!” Brooke’s baritone bark broke through the barn, “I need yer hands!” not wasting a second, she dropped the brush and headed out. She found her father standing next to the large, faded blue truck, the hood popped and his toolbox next to him. Brookes was a tall man, over six foot, built like a brick-house and with a salt-and-pepper beard as his black hair integrated with the grey seeping through as his head was predominantly a shimmering grey under his trucker cap. He held the aura and authority of a great, silver bear. He wiped his sweaty brow with the back of his hand as he turned to his approaching daughter, still holding her helmet in one hand.

“Y’ridin’ Widow-Maker?” His beard creased as he chuckled, remembering how she saw him be thrown by the mare the day before. She was getting better but still threw a mean buck, sending him flying into a nearby hay-stack. And this was the man who was able to break in Thunder, a furious mustang x draft he had rescued two months ago, a stallion so hot headed, none of the stable hands wanted to handle him. However, as Brookes himself said before “Stallions’r rowdy boys needin’ t’blow off steam. Mares are… Mares.”

“Eeyup. Goin’ in the round pen, gonna see if I can wear her out on the lunge first.” She answered as she set the helmet on the ground and approached the truck, “What’s wrong with Ol’ Bertha?” she asked, patting the said truck on the door, watching as her father peer into the engine with a torch.

“Gasket. Gotta see which cylinder’s blown.” He spoke laconicly. He was not a man of many words unless it was needed. Collette could see he was stressed. Understandable, tomorrow was the 4th and he needed to bring supplies to the town square for the street party so needed this truck running properly, “First we'll run a scope into the engine to see if it's worth savin' but need to locate the blow. Pull the spark plugs.”

The pair spent a few minutes pulling out the spark plugs, but as they looked into the engine, it was still too hard to see anything. Brookes stood up, rubbing his chin, his fingers running through his wiry, well-groomed silver whiskers as he thought of the next course of action, while his daughter leaned against the driver door, watching the horses frolic.

“Darlin’, git in the truck ‘nd turn ‘er on.” Jane turned her head with a tilt. Her father’s green eyes gazed back at her, his great shaggy brows raised as if to say “what are you waiting for?”

“Uh, pa, are ya sure that’s a good-?” he raised a hand. He knew his trucks, as much as she was the apple of his eye, his daughter was brilliant with guns, horses and ranch work, she hadn’t the first clue when it came to trucks.

“Trust me, just do it, I gotta see what’s goin’ on.”

“But pa, I really don’-!”

“I’m no’ askin’ y’again, gurl, turn it over!”

“…Pa-!”

“Gurl, if Imma ask ya again, it won’t be Widow-Maker who’s gonna kick yer butt. Turn it!” Collette blinked a few times before throwing her arms up in the air.

“Sho.” She grunted as she jumped inside, the hood still up so she could only see the top of her father’s hat as he continued to peer into the engine, leaning in close. Once she was in the seat, she turned the key. Almost instantly, the air was filled with a shout that scared the birds in the nearby red spruces.

“Damn, dagnabit-dangit-nabit-nabit-dagit!”

“…Pa?” the hood suddenly flew shut as Brookes leapt up and what greeted Jane almost gave a heart attack in hysterics. His face and his beard were coated in a gooey concoction of oil and coolant, it ran down his face and dripped off his now greenish brown beard. His cap had been thrown off of his head. His green eyes were the only thing uncovered; he must have shielded them as soon as saw it coming. His eyes met Jane's as she hopped out of the driver’s seat, red faced and with a stupid grin so wide it was hurting her cheeks as she fought back laughter. She opened her maw to speak, but was met with a pointed finger.

“I’d better no’ hear one. Fuckin’. Word outta yer mouth, gurl.” He growled, his burr straining against a wheeze of a held back laugh. He had to keep up his image of course. His daughter put up her hands in surrender as she snorted through her nostrils, waiting until Brookes had cleaned his face before finally laughing hysterically, snorting periodically as she fought for breath. Brookes stood with folded arms, releasing a short chuckle. Now that he thought about it, it was pretty funny. He released a long sigh.

“Eh… Looks like Ol’ Bertha’s no’ gonna work fur us t’morrow.” He gave the truck a swift kick to a tire in retribution.

“We still got that cart?” Janespoke up, lifting his cap off the ground from when it fell from the force of the oil. He took it from her, shaking off the oil and putting it back on, its red fabric now a dirty green.

“Yeeup. Why?”

“We could hook up Homer and Marge and take the supplies into town that way. Could also use ‘em for cart rides for the kids, Mr. Murphy said he couldn’t do the pony rides this year, remember?” Homer and Marge were Brookes’ prized Mogan horses and bombproof enough to stand next to a cannon and would not bat an eye. The corner of Brookes’ eyes creased as he smiled towards her.

“Sounds good, darlin’.” He ruffled her hair (with his clean hand), “Yer better at this stuff than yer ol’ man. If I drive the cart, think y’could bring Dale? Homer and Marge might be too big fur the kids.”

“Wait- ya want me to ride Dale?!” She turned to look at the tiny and fat Exmoor pony as he grazed contently nearby, “But pa, I’ll look stupid!”

“’Ey.” He pointed towards her, “I gotta look stupid, so so d’ya. Gonna take about twenty showers to get this shit off.” He rubbed his face again, but he still looked as though he had stuck his nose in the end of a laxative-addicted bison. Jane rolled her eyes.

“Fine…”

“Atta gurl! C’mon, Widow-Maker’s gonna be tearin’ her stall apart now. I’ll help ya with her. Heh, y’all need it.”

“And ya didn’t?”

“Shuddup, gurl.”

---------------
Present Day​

The place was still jumping, friends, relatives, they were all here. Why wouldn’t they? Cass had graduated from police academy; surely that called for celebration. It was clear to the older man that this would continue long into the night. With everyone tipsy on craft beer and full of barbeque, many had settled outside onto the deck, gathered around the fire pit, watching the dancing embers. Many were wrapped in their winter jackets, huddled as ‘Captain’ Stanhope played a simple country tune on a rustic guitar. Brookes had forgotten how good his father was at the instrument. Normally he would join them. But not tonight.

Muttering a husky excuse, he left the pit, pulling his denim coat closer around himself, trudging from the deck into the snow. The sky was calm, and the stars were emerging. The trees whispered in the breeze and the wind was thick and cold. With the warm light of the lodge behind him, he sat on a clean tree-stump, facing a small clearing as it dipped into a valley, towards the towering mountains, the moon casting it’s cold light onto the world.

He could not have been prouder of Cass and he had made that clear all night. He had nothing but the upmost faith in her, she had pushed so hard and it had finally paid off. This was her night, as it should be. But as the night went on, and talks turned from light-hearted to somber, questioning life and thoughtfulness, his own mind began to divert. He loved Cass like nothing else but with only one of his girls here, he was only half a man.

He missed her laugh, her snark and her smile. Why did he let her go? He cursed himself, he should have put his foot down. He should have said no. Taking out a cigarette, he lit up a foot of the forest. Holding it between his teeth, he breathed heavily. It had been months since he had talked to Jane. And it had frightened him to the core when he heard her speak. Her slurred speech, her stumbling over words and the defeated tone had set off his papa-wolf side something fierce. Even now he had half a mind to take the next flight there and bring her home. But he promised he wouldn’t. It killed him inside. Whenever someone asked, he’d deflect, not for his sake but for hers. With a heavy sigh, he lifted his head. He could not tell her he was thinking of her. But if there was any other way, he would do it. She would not hear this, but it did not matter. He would sing this to her when she was young, and up until she left, he would still do it when she asked. He wanted her back. He wanted his girl. His Jane.

“I got sunshine, on a cloudy day. When it’s cold outside... I have the month of May..."

 

[BloodThunder27]

Colt & Shinoa - Aftermath
A Collaboration between myself and Rumble Fish​

Colt could not sleep. After hearing Leliana and Ralph vaguely through the door, she could not relax. The veteran sighed heavily and slipped off of the bed to sit on the floor, on arm slung over her knee as she felt around the ground for anything containing ethanol to take. She found a mostly empty bottle and took the last sip from it. As she finished, she heard a knock at the door. In a panic, she threw the bottle under the bed. If this was Leliana, she’d kill her. “Yeah-Uh c’min."

Shinoa opened the door to see a stumbling Colt and was surprised by what she had greeted with. "Oh, hey Colt. Couldn't sleep either?" Following the zombie attack, the young woman catching her breath following the attack and ensuring that Dr. Fisher was safe. The young woman was genuinely shocked that she wasn't bitten or made any contact with the zombie blood. None of it got into her mouth. None of it got into her eyes and she lucked out once again on sustaining wounds. Now she was completely disarmed and baby Valerie was upstairs sleeping in her bed, safe and sound. Sadly, Shinoa couldn't sleep, her mind weighing heavily on her missing grandmother. "How are you doing?"

"Sleep, um, yeah sleep." Colt mumbled as she ran a hand down her face as she listened to the young mother. "Shitty. But Imma guess everyone's feelin' shitty so no point in belly aching." The woman added as she grabbed her water that the nurse had given her, releasing a small sigh as she finished her sip. She then turned to the younger woman with a glazed expression, "Eh, what can I d'ya fur?" she asked, stumbling over her words as she spoke. While not all that eager to talk, she did not want to dismiss the woman.

"I'm worried about my Grandmother." She responded, looking out the nearest window. "And its been about two weeks since. I was actually hoping to go back into town to look for her. At her age, I doubt she'd be able to hold against either the Hazmats or the Zombies."

Colt was unsure on how to respond, the conversation already taking a depressing turn even though they had just started. She glanced away from the mother for a moment, scratching her stomach as she did. "I don' really have anyone here. All my family'r back home. I dunno how they are or if it even reached 'em." She didn't want to think of her father. Right now he was probably still furious at her failing to call him back or go home like she said she would. She hadn't spoken to Brookes since that phone call and it was weighing on her mind terribly.

"I just have my Dad. He's probably worried sick about me." The younger woman straightened out her hair before looking back at Colt. "I want to go back and look for her. But...I don't know who'd be willing to help me with that. Or if anyone is willing to watch Valerie while I'm away."

Well, she could now add that to the ever growing list of people who were looking for someone. The veteran sighed lightly as she turned back to the mother, a hand running through her hair, which was already sweaty despite her lack of activity, "Can't promise nothin' but... if I can, I'll look for her. Dunno when, but I'll try." she tried to sound assuring but her slurred voice probably did not come out as she had hoped. It seemed she was unable to say no to anyone.

"I don't know who to talk to, but I won't object on going back into town to look for my Grandmother. We can...go together. There are a few people I'd entrust Valerie to." She said before slowly pulling out her gun and handing it back to Colt. "And I think you'll be wanting this back. I didn't get much of a chance to use it since the zombies attacked. But wasting ammo was probably a bad idea."

Shinoa only gave Colt a frown seeing how the older woman was. No doubt she was in a bad mood after the undead ambush. "I'm not angry in the slightest. With the amount of noise that we make. Even without the gunfire, they still would be hearing arguments and the cars turning on and off, or driving around, to be fair." She looked at the gun sitting in Colt's lap. "So...have you decided what we're going to do with the food vacuum?" She then asked, referring to Michael.


"Still. I certainly didn't help." The woman sighed before she then mentioned Michael. The veteran groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. "If that boy don't learn soon, imma corpse him up and mail him back to momma." Removing her hand, she looked at the woman again, "I'll need t'think of somethin'... when I actually can." Her words were still slurring and it was hard to keep a thought in her head. It was already a miracle in itself that he was still alive after that stunt he pulled the day before.

"Well, hopefully something is done before we all starve to death over him stealing large quantities of food." Shinoa responded uneasily. "You've been working really hard. Should go get some rest. I'll get out of your hair, going to go check on the little one." The young mother got up from her seat and proceeded towards the stairs in order to return to her room to check on Valerie, wondering about her Grandmother, who was probably in town, holed in the apartment, worried sick...

"If I don't, Tre will. Or Luca. Basically anyone. That boy's gotta learn." Her brows raised as the mother told her to rest. Why was everyone telling her to rest? She did fuck all! But as the woman left, the veteran called after her, "Git yerself fed and rested up! Y'need it as much as everyone else!" when she was gone, Colt grumbled as she pulled herself by her arms back onto the bed, collapsing into it, head to the side of the pillow. Maybe if she counted the trees in the clearing that could help her sleep. Or give her a nauseating headache as they seemed to be moving.

Mentioned: Luca & Tre Brax , Michael Hyped_Taco

 

[Maj]

​

November 12, 2018
4:32 AM
Andy’s Dorm


When it was her turn to take over the watch for Luca, Andy had done so without complaint. In fact, she was mostly awake when she had been nudged, lingering somewhere in the twilight between consciousness and sleep. It was hard to sleep with the never ending mouth sounds that came from the bodies littered around her room. To think she had paid extra to have a dorm without roommates, and now she had four of them.

She slipped over the rail and down the ladder to make room so Luca could take over her spot in bed. The blankets still held the warmth that she left behind, exiting into the chill of her room. Taking Luca’s seat by the window, she resumed his watch, doing her best to kill the next few hours so that the Italian could hopefully get some rest. They would have to travel back to the lodge in the morning, and moving through the city almost never happened without incident.

The white noise of the room gave the woman plenty of time to think. She worked in her sketchbook, scribbling familiar profiles. The fact that the power was still whirring through the wires of this place didn’t set well with her. If there was a group hiding out here, it was something that she felt they should know. No matter how good the people were who lived at her lodge, when supplies got low humans had a tendency to become selfish and violent. When all the food in the cafeteria finished rotting, would people come for the lodge next?

When Hector stirred awake, Andy put her sketchbook back into her bag. It was clear that she had intended to leave for several hours. Her boots were on and laced and her bag packed. She gave Hector a curt nod as a greeting.

“I’m going to go check a few last minutes things out before we leave. Can you take over my watch?” She asked in a low tone. Andy could hear Luca stir at the sound of her voice so she looked up to the bunk bed to address him.

“Are you coming with me?”

The man removed his face from the pillow, turning his head slightly so that half-open eyes could get a look at the person who had been beckoning him. Light hues remained fixated on her face for a moment before he turned over and sat up. Luca could have used more sleep but it often wasn’t his call. It hadn’t been the first time his beauty sleep was interrupted and it sure as hell was unlikely to be the last. Without response the man crawled down the ladder. He picked his rifle up, the butt of which had been sitting on the ground while it leaned against the woman’s desk underneath the mattress.

“Andiamo, bride of Chucky.”

He peeked his head out from a crack in the door, looking around to make sure there weren’t any zombies roaming around the halls to his left or right. Then the man pushed it completely open before walking out first. It wasn’t hard to decide to make a left turn, seeing as the group had come from the right side of the hallway previously. Perhaps they could find some usable items within the rooms in this section of the school. It was certainly worth the time it would take to find out. Anything the group could carry, they could bring back. As far as Luca understood the car he had left outside was in working condition. Once he left it, the zombies outside had little reason to continue attempting to rip it apart. He assumed that the vehicle that the three had used to get from the lodge to the city was still operating at decent capacity as well. With the extra cars and supplies the group could possibly make out with far more supplies than they had assumed initially.

The two rooms next to Andy’s were not lush with supplies. Unfortunately, the first room had nothing worth taking back with them. All the goods that were in the room had long expired. In addition to this, the second room had but a few cans and rolls of toilet paper to bring back. It was to be expected, given the barren nature of the university currently. Anyone who got out was probably smart enough to take all their important items with them. Then again, it was college. Most kids were idiots.

Luca pushed open the door to the third room. The bridge of his nose crinkled slightly as a mixture of smells hit his nostrils. Blood, fecal matter, and moldy laundry came to mind immediately. The Italian held a hand up slightly, letting Andy know that it was possibly unsafe within the confines. She was sure to keep on his heels, her bow already drawn when she noticed his body language tense. He made his way into the room, looking around to find the source of the smell. After a moment of not being able to find anything out in the open his attention turned to a closed closet door.

Slowly, his feet led him to the wooden door. One hand continued gripping his rifle as the other moved the door back slowly. The first thing he noticed was a blood splatter on the wall behind it. His eyes trailed down to find a body slumped against the wall on the ground. There was a gun on the floor beside his hand. The boy’s clothes were completely covered in blood, probably resulting from the wound that was the size of a bullethole right between his eyes. Luca kneeled down slowly, his hand reaching out to grab the deceased’s hair. As he pushed the student’s head back, the Italian peered into the pair of lifeless open eyes.

“I knew this boy.” He lamented, though he had mostly been talking to himself. Andy had seen him various times, but they had never spoken. He would nod to her when they passed in the hallways. The frown across Luca’s face was prevalent as he continued staring at the kid, though eventually his hand’s grip on that head of frilly hair would loosen. As his head dropped once more, Luca found himself copying the same motion. Silently, the man mouthed a few words:

“Into your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brother. In this life you embraced him with your tender love; deliver him now from every evil and bid him enter eternal rest. The old order has passed away; welcome him then into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping nor pain, but the fullness of peace and joy. With your son and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever.”

Luca picked himself up so he was standing once more, though his eyes remained on the corpse of the boy before he shut the door once more. His body would have to decompose in the depths of what would be his final resting place. As a young teen, this person was a drug dealer with a bad habit. Over time he got clean, eventually earned his GED and even made it to college. He was on the right track in turning his life around. It was unfortunate that his efforts were cut short due to such unforeseeable circumstances.

She watched him in mild fascination. Andy’s family and Luca had gone to the same church growing up, so she knew the rites. Mrs. Jordan had raised both her and Owen as Irish Catholic, but as soon as Andy was old enough to stop going, she had. While she respected other’s right to believe, she knew that wherever the man at Luca’s feet was going, that he’d be going alone.

He didn’t look like he had turned. There was no gore smeared across his lips, no flesh caked under his nails. The boy had died, but thankfully he had stayed dead. It was possible he had been the one keeping the power on around here, but by the state of his stench he had been dead a while. Andy could feel the unease tighten her empty stomach.

“Come on,” she commanded, exiting the deceased’s room. Curiosity finally won over caution, and the girl led them to the maintenance rooms. Over the years Andy had gotten familiar with the older men who normally worked down here. They were also responsible for maintaining the grounds, and on more than one occasion she had to fuss at them about moving their targets and equipment. Anything keeping power on in the entire building would like be accessed through their domain.

Collab: Brax
Interactions: shadowz1995
Mentions: TheMightyRedLemon Togy
[/border=5px dotted Yellow]

 

[Brax]

When they neared the door, Andy could hear the familiar groan of undead echo through the hallways. It wasn’t overwhelming as it had been on the other side of the cafeteria doors, but a single mindless moan. When she saw the slumped shoulders, dressed in work coveralls she was silently grateful. If she had come down here to find the doors locked, she would have to hear Luca bitch at her for wasting their time. However, this man would have another keycard on him. More importantly, a keycard that could access any room in the whole building.

He turned at the sound of the soft padding of her boots against the lenolium. White eyes wide, they stared just past her face, not seeing her at all. Her bow had already been in hand and with expert speed she was able to retrieve an arrow from her hip and lock it into place. Unflinchingly, she dispatched him. Confident in her aim, she was already walking toward him as his body slumped to the ground. The redhead took a half second to ensure the arrow had penetrated the thing’s skull deeply enough to keep it from reanimating and she let her bow drop in her sling, reaching down to loot the man’s pockets. Her prize was in plain sight, and ID badge clipped to his chest.

Without explanation, she clipped it to her belt and quickly made use of it to open the door labeled “Maintenance.” It was abundantly clear from the moment the hydraulics from the door sounded that someone had once called this room home. Sleeping bags lined the dingy concrete floor, the shelves were stocked with as much food as they were tools and supplies. The small treasure trove of supplies was dimly lit by the monitors on the far wall, surveying most of the campus.

Someone had been living here.

Andy could feel the hairs on her arm stand up as alarm bells sounded internally. She reached down and grabbed the hunting knife from her boot. The smooth surface of the deer antler hilt was cool in her sweaty palm. Her eyes quickly surveyed the room. There was a lot here they could take home. Stocks of cheap ramen noodles, canned goods, power tools, but Andy couldn’t pry her panic away long enough to take advantage. Emerald eyes darted down to the overturned crate that had been being used as a table. The familiar styrofoam cup of noodles sat on top of it, cooked but not eaten. Hesitantly, the girl reached down and picked it up.

Whoever had left this behind had done so a long time ago. Mold was beginning to grow on the surface of the water. Fuzzy green and brown splotches floated over the top of the noodles, the sour smell of mildew invading her senses. Andy sat the cup back down and turned back to look at Luca.

“Whoever was here hasn’t been back for a long time.”

“Yeah, fuck this place. I wouldn’t want to come back to it either.” Luca spoke nonchalantly as he removed a spare garbage bag from his backpack and began filling it up with items. Harriet was found within the depths of this school so it only made sense that others were around at the same time. The question was, did the man have any sort of knowledge regarding who it was? Did Harriet believe he was here alone? Was he being watched? There was essentially no way for people to keep tabs using security cameras by remotely hacking in, as that would have provided a stable internet connection. In addition to this, it was possible that the person who had left the cup of ramen was someone just trying to figure out where to go next in the safest place possible.

This person must have had plans to come back. Judging by the food that was left and the supplies still available, it was more than likely that they had left in a rush rather than not. At least that’s what the evidence was pointing toward. Luca didn’t care much, but he wondered if Andy could trust the person they had ran into fully. If he had knowledge regarding this it wouldn’t even be useful at this point. The group had enough supplies. While the woman was busy having an anxiety attack over moldy noodles, the Italian was already heading back to the door they had used to gain access into the security room.

​

“We don’t need to stick around here any longer, Andrea. Let’s get the others and go home.”

One hour later, the group was separated into two vehicles. Andy drove, as well as Luca. Both cars had been stockpiled with items that had accumulated over the two-day run, enough to certainly fill the lodge with non-perishable items for the time being. The drive back was oddly peaceful; perhaps it was due to only sharing his car with one other person, but not a word was exchanged between the two on the ride back.

The sight the caravan had pulled up to was not anything knew. It was apparent the lodge had been attacked due to the corpses that had still been lying about, but not surprising that it had happened while Luca and Andy were away. It wasn’t the first time and it probably wouldn’t be the last. However, no one had come to burn the bodies. This was procedure that Luca initially put into place to make sure the reanimated stood dead. Now, it was a precaution; if other groups of hostiles that weren’t zombies had found the lodge surrounded by dead zombies, they’d be tipped off to the group that was living inside. There was no insight at all, from any of the people inside to clean it up.

Luca walked into the house first, after angrily slamming his car door behind him. He tossed his personal bag into his room and dropped a few garbage bags worth of items onto the living room table before extending his orders to the lodge. He peered down to the sleeping form of Tre, softly slapping him in the forehead to wake his ass up. The kid hopped up with a startle to see Luca staring down at him. As the two exchanged glances, Luca kneeled slightly to get at eye-level with the boy, who was sitting.

“There’s about five guns in the new car out back. Go get them.”

Tre lifted his hands to rub his eyes before getting up to his feet and walking outside. As he watched the boy go, Luca turned his head to part his lips to begin shouting orders to clean up the outside. However, before he was able to let one syllable escape, someone had already beat him to the punch.

“Do you guys like getting the plague? Because this is how you get the plague.” Andy slammed the lodge door behind her. It was still early, many of the people were likely still asleep, but the sun was up and it was time to get to work. She put down the rather heavy bag of canned goods by the front door as she surveyed the damage to her home. More windows had been damaged, everything smelled like rust and bleach, likely from someone’s attempts to clean the floors. At least they had been intelligent enough to get all of the bodies out of the house. Andy’s emerald eyes somersaulted.

“Anyone who isn’t maimed needs to get out here and help clear the bodies. Now.” With another heavy slam of the door, the irritated girl went back outside to gather the supplies and drag the corpses to the burn pile.

 

[TheMightyRedLemon]

Date: November 11th, 2018

Location: The Lodge


After Owen had left him there to awkwardly hold the zombie near the window outside with only a bat, Michael began to get nervous ¨Holy fuck this thing is gonna get inside¨ the neckbeard thought to himself while he pushed back the zombie from time to time to keep it outside.


And just before making an even bigger fool of himself, Leliana grabbed the bat from him and quickly dispatched the zombie herself in a matter of what seemed like seconds; She promptly asked him to move aside and to grab a knife so he could stay behind and watch the lodge for them ¨Oh sure, leave the useless guy to defend the fort¨ The man thought to himself, not being willing to say it out loud after being threatened by her just a while ago.


The neckbeard grabbed one of the knives near the kitchen, preparing himself for an attack in case any other wandering undead decided to enter the property. Michael waited, and waited… and waited, yet nothing happened at all. He could hear them shooting outside, so the zombies had probably started to chase them already, not leaving them with any reason for which to attack the lodge anymore "Man… that was anticlimactic" Michael said, feeling a tad bit disappointed at the outcome of all of this.


Once the attack was over and all the undead were… well, dead, Michael finally could exit the property, feeling more relaxed and disappointed than before, due to all of this finally coming to a close.


The Next Morning


Vanessa looked up at the gory scene of the lodge with trepidation. The sight seemed to only anger Luca and Andy, who promptly began carrying supplies inside as Vanessa stepped out of the vehicle. She wanted to help but found herself wary of meeting more people. Ultimately she ended up staying by the car and observing the place. The yard was littered with corpses and many windows were broken or boarded up, but it seemed to her almost peaceful, nestled out in the woods as it was.


After surprisingly having slept better than ever that night, Michael finally woke up full of energy for once not feeling tired even one bit… to bad the energy would go to waste though. And as his usual morning ritual went, he changed his clothing from his nearly 3-week in a row unwashed pajamas into his normal outfit; which was composed of a trench coat, jeans and his fedora, the only one of them all which he never left behind. And although he was obliged to not eat for two days in a row, the neckbeards still left his RV to go check out for anything that could server to entertain him for a while.


Michael had barely taken a step outside before he was able to observe a new female near the facility, she seemed… European, for some reason; and she appeared to be wearing a brown fur coat that seemed several sizes too large for a woman of her size, which lead Michael to believe that she probably wasn't from around here, since, well, people usually were prepared for winter with clothes their own size.


Deep down, Michael knew that this would probably end in disaster, just as any other time he had attempted to speak to a woman before, but it was worth giving it a shot; Well, even though his aim had already been proved to suck by now since he had missed every single shot he had thus far, but perhaps this time it could work out.


The Neckbeard approached the girl and decided to introduce himself "e-Evening M´lady" he quickly tipped his fedora "m-My name i-Is Michael Schmidt, what would your´s be?" the man stumbled between his own words, but still managed to finish the sentence.


Vanessa stared at the large man as he approached her, awkwardly introducing himself. Silence befell the pair momentarily before she answered him. "Vanessa the acrobat." She said, her thick scottish accent cutting through the air as she bowed in an overly showy fashion. She could not fathom why he stuttered so, but his size admittedly unnerved her somewhat. She didn't have the best experiences with… larger gentlemen.

Nevertheless she bowed and spoke politely to the man. If he was here, then he must be a part of Luca's group, after all. The last thing she would want to do is get herself yelled at again by the ex capo. She mentally shivered at the thought of it.

For some reason the Scottish accent that came out of her mouth when she spoke surprised Michael, as if he were expecting any other, even if he didn't actually expect anything at all.


But nevertheless, the show had to go on right? "Wow, an Acrobat? Like- jumping from spaces and stuff?" The neckbeard felt kinda Stupid after asking that exact question, since he knew damn well what an Acrobat was in the first place.


"That's right. Me last act was the flyin trapeze before… well…" Vanessa gestured to the piles of corpses. "That started happening."


"Oh- yeah... the flying trapeze, that's like my favorite act of them all" Michael said having no idea of what that even meant "It's similar to like the Trapeze...Finale?. y-Yeah, the Trapeze Finale, It's like an old old Russian act" the neckbeard said once more, this time pulling out of his ass the Trapeze finale thing which he had just invented.

"Man, that must have sucked" The neckbeard replied after she told him of her possibly first encounter with the zombies "You know, I found out about them while on my way out of my half Time job at gamestop… I mean, I did not see them physically, but like through a streamer" Michael told her his kinda pathetic "first" encounter with the undead plague.


Vanessa raised an eyebrow as the man began speaking of this 'Trapeze Finale'. It was true enough that her act had been the final one on several occasions, although she had never heard anyone call it that before. She chose to disregard this, as his next words caught her attention. Confusion spread across her face as she tilted her head slightly. "Through a streamer? Fucks that mean?" She inquired, sounding genuinely curious.


"Oh- I'm uhhh… glad you asked" he was quite in fact not glad that she basically asked for more detail on his kinda embarrassing first contact with the undead "So uhhh, after finishing my half Time job at Gamestop, which Is like a videogame store" Michael knew that she had not asked for details about the gamestop, but he specified It just in case.


"Anyway, so while on my way home, I like pulled out my phone to ya know, pass the time and stuff. I then went to the Twitch app on my phone and began watching Purplenoodle, my favorite streamer; and she just happened to like get attack by a zombie and stuff." Michael added detail to his story since the girl seemingly had not understood It the first time.


As the rounded man explained, Vanessa's confusion only grew. She never had a reason to leave the circus grounds at any point, and as a result, she hadn't experienced the technology boom that had passed her by in the years she spent under Yuri's wing. Sure, she had seen people in the crowd using their 'flat cameras' at the circus performances, but she never actually had reason to question what else they could do with such a device. "H..how are ya suppose to…" she began, but trailed off, not sure how to word her question, as she had to many that she wanted to bombard the man with. "I.. I'm sorry. I'm completely lost 'ere. I've lived with the circus all me life." She explained, not wishing to make a fool of herself for not knowing what he was presenting as basic knowledge.


Originally, Michael had come with the intentions of trying to flirt with the girl, but apparently his plan had now changed into explaining to her one of the most known apps in the entire internet… he did of course, since he was still speaking to her in the first place.

"Well uhhh- since you seem like your confused, I'll explain It." Michael said before continuing "Alright so basically, Twitch Is like an application or site in which you can watch live recordings of other people doing a bunch of things like playing videogames, drawing, etc" the neckbeard explained to the girl what Twitch was in the quickest way he could as the woman listened with intrigue. She was honestly surprised that this man was taking the time to dumb it down for her. He still creeped her out, but Vanessa was beginning to think he may not be all that bad if he was willing to tolerate her ignorance on the matter.


The noise of the group’s return caused the youngster to jump awake, almost hitting her head on a low-hanging beam. She had moved back in with Adryen under the stairs and was already having a hellish night from nightmares the second she fell asleep. Still shaky, sweaty and flushed from her thankfully diminishing fever, she poked her head out of her hidey-hole like an anxious gopher, seeing not only the returning adults, but what caught her eye was an unfamiliar female speaking to Michael outside. At least, she thought she was a stranger, Andy didn’t have brown hair. The girl bit her bottom lip, eyes downward. She was unwilling to speak to a stranger, but at the same time, her mum had always said it was rude to not introduce herself. Stepping outside, the younger girl shuddered from the cold as she peered outside.


“Um, hello?” she squeaked as she emerged, wrapped in a white blanket, holding onto her bear in the middle of the wrap. It was not her weighted blanket, which she missed terribly, but the feeling of being wrapped like a burrito made her feel safe. And safety was a luxury she was not willing to give up, even when it was just a blanket


A look of shock and wonder played across Vanessa expression for a moment as the young girl came from inside the house, drawing her full attention away from Michael. Her expression was soon replaced with a genuinely warm smile and a much more upbeat tone. "Why hello, malen'kiy!" She said, the russian at the end sounding very fluent, despite her scottish accent. Her eyes quickly glanced over the girls blanket wrapped frame as she leaned a hand against the car to steady herself as she lifted her left leg slightly. The brace was becoming more and more uncomfortable, and sleeping with it on didn't seem to help with that. "Are ya cold at all?" Vanessa inquired, noticing the slight shiver from the girl.


It took the youngster a moment to decipher the stranger’s accent. She sounded like Ivan, the Russian was clear, but it was mixed with another one she had never heard before. Irish? Her dad’s dad was Irish. Milly grumbled a little and shook her head at the thought of her father, pushing it back to focus on the woman. She seemed nice enough.


“Um, no I-I-I’m just,” she muttered as she panicked over a response, “I just wanted to see everyone come back.” the girl blinked gently, her grip on her teddy tightening. The others would not have brought back this stranger if she was a threat, right? She let out a gentle sigh before finally being able to come up with another answer.


“I-I’m Milly.”


"Well it's wonderful te meet ya Milly. I'm Vanessa." She said, taking off her long fur coat to reveal a Harlequin-esque outfit underneath, colored with purple and black patterning. She held the coat out to Milly. "Ya do look a bit cold. Ya can wear this if ya want. It's real fur so it's quite warm."


“H-hi Vanessa.” she chirped, her nerves settling at the friendliness of the woman, but stopped for a moment as she offered the youngster her jacket. It was rude to take things off of people, that is what she had been told. But, she was being offered it so surely that was different? A lump crawled down her throat as she gulped, looking at the woman’s face rather than in the eyes.


“Um, are you sure? Won’t you be cold?”


A lighthearted chuckle escaped Vanessa throat. "Aren't you a sweetheart. Don't worry, I'll be fine." She said as she began to remove the contents of the pockets, placing Yuri's lighter and revolver on the trunk of the car beside her. "I can handle the cold well enough. It may be a bit big on ya though." In truth it would swallow her, as It was already far too big for even Vanessa.


Her cheeks flushed pink at the woman’s compliment and assurance that she was okay. Gingerly, she took the coat from the woman as she offered it. She gently put it on, and just as Vanessa had said, her arms barely made it to the elbow of the coat, but she was snug, ingulfed in the fur. The small girl brought it tighter around herself and shifted in her stance a little. She flopped her arms a little, entertained at the amount of sleeve still left.


“Th-Thank you.” she cooed, rocking on her heels a little, simply out of nerves, “Di-did Andy, Luca and Hector find you?”


The colorfully dressed woman tilts her head to the side, pondering how to answer for a moment. "Luca… he saved me life truth be told." She said, meeting the girls gaze. "He fed me and brought me with 'em on his way t' the collage."


Milly blinked a few times at this explanation. She hadn't interacted enough with Luca to get a full opinion of him. What she did know seemed to conflict with each other. He could be mean and snarky, but mean people wouldn't help others. It made no sense. She was already trying to recover from her fever induced headache, thinking about contradictions only furthered it.


“That's good. There's, um, a lot of monsters out there.” She decided to leave out anything to do with the assault on the Lodge that day. Lying was bad but it couldn't be too awful if it was to assure someone, right? “You coming in? It's so cold out here.”

Vanessa gazed past the little girl for a moment, looking at the lodge befor looking back to her. "Sure," she said with another warm smile. "let's go in then shall we?"

 

[Togy]

HARRIET HENNIGAN AND NILE CRAYMAN
​

Stepping out of the vehicle, Harriet let the door make a loud thud behind him as he stepped towards the lodge. Dead, or dead-er, bodies littered the ground in uneven patterns across the lawn, each spilling tainted blood from their heads. Their blood mixed with the snow itself, painting it an unpleasant dark red. Most of the Lodge group, he figured he should just call them Lodgers, seemed to be scurrying around and carrying bodies to a pile away from the building itself.

Well, as much as he didn't want to, he figured he needed to help sort the bodies. He just hoped he didn't spot one of his neighbors in the pile.

Spotting a rather short man with Frost forming and melting on their stubble pick up a dead-est zombie by the feet and begin to slowly drag them towards the pile, Harriet decided he'd start by helping whoever that was. Trudging through the blood and snow towards the man, Harriet greeted them by asking "Need any help?". They seemed to be panting. Must've exerted themself during the attack Harriet had missed.

"Yeh, sur-" They began, but left off upon facing the man. Nile just stared straight at the Hazmat covered Harriet, a look of shock on his face. Looking around at the other lodgers, Nile checked to see if anyone else took notice that a fucking Hazzy just waltzed into their camp to help pick up bodies. Slowly reaching for the Pistol tucked in his pants, Nile asked "Who the hell are you?".

"Harriet Hennigan, History Professor" Harriet sad with what looked like a kind smile behind their gas mask. It was hard to tell really, because the visor was dark as hell.

Stopping halfway to grabbing his gun, Nile continued to stare at Harriet, which kind of unnerved aforementioned history Professor. Their smile faltered a bit, but Nile took no notice.

Finally, Nile made a little snort. "Harriet? Yer name's Arriet'?" Nile asked, a shit eating grin on their face.

This time Harriet's smile really faltered. He was bit too focused on his name being insulted, again, to care about Nile's obvious slurred speech. "Yes" Harriet stated. "Go on, I've heard it all before" Harriet said with a wave of his hands.

"Nono, I'm just sayin'. Who the hell name's their son Arriet'?" Nile asked, the grin growing shittier by the second.

"A PTSD ridden Vietnam vet who didn't catch the memo that Harriet was a girl's name. Want some help?" Harriet restated.

The grin fading just a little, Nile said "Yeh, yeh, I wan' help" Nile said, gesturing for Harriet to go pick up the zombie by the head.

Finally noticing Nile's slurred speech, Harriet shrugged it off and explained it away by the man having a strange Accent. Or they were drunk. They might've been drunk.

"So, mind me asking who you are?" Harriet asked Nile as he grabbed the shoulders of the dead body.

"Nile Crayman, Architect 'stroadinaire" Nile said, lifting the body with Harriet. Both felt their muscles strain, Nile because of the constant aches in his body and Harriet because he was as strong as a Spaghetti Noodle. The two were carrying their fifth body to the pile when Nile, breathing hard, sat down to take a rest. "Can you take off at' damn mask? You ound' like Darth Vader when ya breathe" Nile said.

"And you sound like the Big Bad Wolf huffing and puffing" Harriet said from where he stood in front of Nile. "I think you need some rest bud" Harriet said.

"I'm good, just gimme a break, alright?" Nile said, still breathing hard.

"Yeah, that's what I'm giving you. I can hear you breathing from 10 feet away, you should really call it quits" Harriet said, looking at the few bodies still left in the yard.

"Yeh, no. Lucifer'll have my ass" Nile said, starting to get up.

"lucife-Oh, Luca. I'm sure they're reasonable" Harriet said.

"Like hell" Nile said with a snort. "Just gimme five minutes Hailey, and I'll be up" Nile said.

"Hailey? Nevermind, at least you're taking a break" Harriet said as he trudged toward another body, the blood tainted snow attaching itself to his shoes.

Interactions: Nile (Me) Harriet (Also me)

 

[FireMaiden]

This is a collab between The Mad Queen and FireMaiden

November 11th, 5:37 pm​

"You've been a doctor for how long, and have never once encountered a man like Hector?" She asked bluntly. "Have you talked to him about wanting to help? Did you give him the notes I gave you?" Men. Complicated creatures that always made things so much harder for everyone. "Just, talk to Hector instead of waiting for him to come to you."

"I spoke to him before, about your findings and my own and have been meaning to speak to him since the raid... I found something rather troubling in the woods right before we were attacked." Ralph admitted, taking a step toward Leliana "He had an infected strung up in a snare trap. It almost took my head off." His voice was close to a whisper "I chopped it's arms off and removed it's jaw so that it wasn't a risk to anyone."

"I was going to confront him about such a blatant safety risk and that's when the shooting started. Neither of us have spoken to the other since." He shrugged lightly. "I was crippled and he was working on the wounded."

She wouldn't say it out loud, but catching test subjects was a good idea. And it was true Ralph's concern was right and most likely didn't affect the way Hector could study it, he should also realize the reason behind doing such a thing. "When he gets back, we'll both talk to him, alright?" Leliana suggested. She didn't want to be left out, and there was surely a thing or two she could learn from the older men, but they just needed to find the time. "He's certainly more focused on finding answers than he is in requesting help." She shifted slightly, looking towards the stairs, unconsciously scratching her arm. "Put that brace on, you're going to need it if your intend to be walking around as much as you have today."

"I suppose that would be better than just me doing it." He shrugged "I just don't have the fire in me to call the man out properly for such reckless methods. Not like you do, anyway." Ralph actually managed to smile, letting out a very light chuckle "You're one scary lady when you want to be."

He clutched the brace in hand, and sighed. He wasn't going to put it on in front of anyone, as he knew it was going to hurt and wasn't going to show the others just how much the injury was slowing him down. They'd already seen enough of that for one day, between having to be helped up by a recent mother and his embarrassing breakdown in Colt's room.

His smile faded slightly, a stern expression plastered across Ralph's face "If he's even half the scientist his father was, he'll be almost twice as smart as me. If not more. Still, trying to do this alone, even for a man with his intellect is incredibly idiotic."

"No one man can save the world by himself," Leliana said, "Hector is smart enough to know that, you'd be a valuable asset, all you need to do is take action." There a brief pause as she registered what Ralph has said about her being scary. She laughed, truthfully, a sound like silver bells that came from deep in her belly. "I suppose I had to be. See, my mother had breast cancer, and wouldn't take care of herself. Always worrying about other people more than her own needs, so I guess it's just something you have to do. You know, when dealing with stubborn people." Her smile faltered slightly at the mention of her mother, completely falling as she observed Ralph. "He's a genius, but that doesn't mean he can do everything on his own." She paused. "Would you like some help putting that brace on? I promise it will help with the pain. And the sooner you do it, the sooner you reap the benefits."

The doctor leaned against the wall, a hand on the cane as he listened to the young nurse."My father had Lymphoma. Cancer is a real bastard." He slowly shook his head "But he didn't go quietly. Too stubborn for that. We Fishers usually are, apparently." He gave a light shrug "So dad said anyway."

His attention moved to the brace as she offered her help. "Problem is a lot of geniuses tend to think they can do everything alone. I never did, a bit too stupid in some areas to be considered a genius." He gave the nurse a smile "Sure, I can spot West Nile virus from a mile off but don't ever ask me to say... Name species of dinosaur from the Jurassic era, or about the diet and behaviour of a tree frog. Or perform a C-section."

Trying to change the subject wasn't going to get him far, but he wasn't about to cause another scene over the pain in his leg.

While she couldn't relate to the father issue, she could agree that cancer what a bitch. She watched her mother slowly waste away all because they didn't catch it in time. It had spread to much for a mastectomy to help...not that they could afford it anyway. "We all have our strengths and weaknesses, Ralph," the woman replied. "Having to lean on other people from time to time doesn't make you any weaker or any less of a man. Being in pain, psychical or emotional, not relying on people who are there for you is only going to make it worse. I'd like for you to put that brace on before you come downstairs to help, and if you would rather have me leave while you do so, that's fine. But I'm not going to let you get away with putting yourself in harm's way like this."

"I'm still figuring out what my remaining strengths are, to be honest. Outside of my knowledge on outbreaks, small amount of medical training and my common sense." He finished with a light chuckle "I do think the last one is something we could do with a bit more of around here. Before Nile burns down the forest or Michael forces us into cannibalism."

He turned away when she brought up the brace once more. It seemed unavoidable at this point."If you're offering, then you might as well help me with the darn thing." He winced a little, the idea of creating another scene or showing his physical pain on full display being painful in of itself. "Chances are I'll take too long, and we've got work to do. It'll get it over and done with."

Leliana brightened when Ralph finally relented about letting her help with the brace. Gently taking it from his hands, she knelt down on the floor next to his weakened leg, taking a moment to allow him to be prepared for being touched, she slowly lifted his leg and wiggled it over his shoe. The brace was loose enough already so that it was easily guided over his shoe and pant leg, and was on his knee before he could say anything. She tightened it, and stood. "So, you'll stay inside, and make sure that everyone is getting things cleaned up. If you notice any injuries, tell me or take care of them yourself since my hands are messy."

Fisher winced a little when the brace was attached but was relieved it wasn't quite as painful as he'd thought it would be. Still, the doctor kept it in. "Thank you." He said with a nod and a smile "Hopefully everyone else is in one piece." His smile slowly dropped "I'm sorry about Cletus. He seemed a good man, even if he was a bit reckless sometimes." The two had only spoken in passing, but the loss of somebody else would always be a gut-punch to Ralph. Even if they had made some serious mistakes, risky ones at that. He imagined he'd feel the same way if Michael's actions caught up with him and the large man was killed due to being thrown out.

He wouldn't last half an hour.

When he mentioned Cletus, her face fell. She felt sick, and it finally hit her in full force. It was impossible to hide the fact she was reeling from it, and she just...it was her fault wasn't it? She hadn't made sure that he was inside and honestly, she hadn't been keeping track of him at all that day, Leliana almost couldn't believe it. His wife, that poor woman suffered so much, at least he had spared himself from that. "I...we'll have to bury him. It's the least we can do." She was quiet, pulling on her bloodied fingers, Leliana wasn't ready for that. They kept losing people, and she knew that if she dwelled on it she would drive herself crazy, but...taking a deep breath, she motioned to the stairs. "Let's get this show on the road."

Testing out the brace, it took Ralph a few minutes to descend the staircase but there was no time for rest as he reached the bottom. There was work to do, after all. They stuck to moving bodies and repairing defences. At least that way there was less of a chance of more getting in. As the others worked, Fisher kept an extra eye on the gluttonous thief known as Michael in case he snuck away to raid their supplies again.

The afternoon became evening faster than expected. The bodies in the back yard we're piled up quickly, but the group outside ran out of daylight to quickly. Chill took hold of the air, and they were forced inside after giving a quick service for a stranger Fisher had never known.

Hyped_Taco (Micheal) shadowz1995 (Hector) Togy (Nile)​

 

[FireMaiden]

This is a collab between FireMaiden and Maj
​

Her body ached, there was blood under her nails she couldn't seem to wash away, and Leliana couldn't seem to get warm. Even after the two, maybe three hours of weak sleep she got snuggled up next to Bethany, after a few hours of trying to get the bodies in the back yard piled together she could go with never seeing a dead body again. Daylight had run out and it had gotten too cold for them to continue cleaning up, nobody could do any work exhausted and frozen.

Leliana had just come downstairs after checking on Colt, ready to get people up and moving to finish everything g up when Luca and Andy walked back in. She smiled, if only for a moment, Luca and Andy both immediately showed off the fact they were angry. Leliana understood why, but at the same time, maybe they should wait a few minutes before jumping on their case. With a slight huff, Leliana said nothing to Luca as she walked out the front door after the redhead. "Andy!" She called, looking around for a moment before she spotted her. "This would have been cleaned up, but the sun was already setting by the time we finished killing them all. We can't clean up the bodies if we all froze our asses off."

Andy was bent over, digging in the open door of the shed when Leliana addressed her. She exhaled, blowing a stray strand of her crimson hair out of her face, and stood. The woman held tarps and ropes in her arms as her eyes met the blonde’s.

“How bad were our losses?” Andy asked, her face softening. It was hard to stay grumpy at the woman personally responsible for saving her life. It was clear they had fought hard while she had been away. Her show of aggression wasn’t for someone’s who’s intelligence she respected like Leli’s but rather the other lazy imbeciles that roamed the lodge that seemed incapable of taking any action without someone holding their hand.

"Just...just one." Leliana started, moving closer and extending her hands to take some of the materials that Andy had picked up so she could help. "We were training, target practice and Colt left to go secure the supplies in the truck that girl stole. Suddenly this huge horde came out of the trees, and we rushed to get inside, but Aubrey and Cletus were trapped outside. That was my fault. Anyway, she managed to go and find Colt but Cletus... I guess he wanted to try and get in the house instead of staying in the RV, he got overwhelmed." She fell silent for a moment, glancing at a freshly dug grave just barely visible from where they were standing. "We already buried him." Looking back to the redhead, she sighed a little. "Colt brought someone new home, Aaron. He's actually part of the reason we aren't trapped in the house still, but we have what was left in the truck."

Andy had no love for Cletus. From almost shooting her in the face to his idiotic pranks, she hadn’t gone out of her way to get to know him. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Aderyn she would never have brought Cletus back to camp, to begin with. The forest might have a chance to grow back now without his stupidity. However, he had fought for the lodge and so his death was a loss. She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest uncomfortably.

“We have a few newcomers as well,” she added. “We picked up some circus clown and my old history professor at the university.” The woman handed the rope to Leliana so she could have both hands to shake out the tarp and spread it on the ground. Out of her back pocket, she retrieved a pair of work gloves and pulled them over her dry hands. Andy reached down and grabbed the closest corpse by the ankles and, using her legs as momentum she pulled him across the ground and onto the tarp.

“Don't beat yourself up,” she said with a grunt, looking up to Leliana out of the corner of her green eyes. “By the look of all these bodies, you guys had your hands full. The casualties could have been far worse.”

"Mr. Hennigan?" It was the only name she recalled for a history teacher there at the University, though Leliana didn't have to take his class for the program she was in. "He's still alive? That's...surprising." Well, the fact that any of them was still alive was a surprise, but when you looked at Harriet, he never seemed like the type of man who could make it in a survival situation. Nevertheless, Leliana was glad they could help more people, and that also meant more hands for them. Leliana took the rope without question, taking a half step back as she watched Andy work. Leliana didn't have any gloves at the moment, or else she would jump in and help, but that could wait another minute or two. "There were so many of them...the fence is broken, and I don't think the blood is ever going to wash away completely. Aaron and Colt ran down the ones closer to the tree line, and that took care of I don't know how many, but we were all exhausted by the time it was over, " Leliana explained, twisting the rope between her hands, "Did you guys make out okay? I don't even want to think about how many infected are still in the city."

“Yeah Mr. Hennigan,” Andy confirmed with a huff. She was stronger than she looked. Upper body strength came with lots of archery, but she was not accustomed to dragging human-sized bags of deadweight across the ground. At the end of the day, the lodge was still standing. Repairs could be made and things could be rebuilt.

“We made it okay. The university was surprisingly empty.” She dusted her hands as she finally got the first body into position. An irritated glance at the door showed that no one else had bothered to come out and assist them yet. Andy rolled her eyes before reaching down to the next body.

“We had one close call at the gas station. Some other survivors tried to hold us up, but Luca took care of them.” She paused as she wondered if she should voice her concerns about the men. They had known her name, a fact that still clung to her thoughts. However, she hadn’t had the chance to converse with Luca about it and the more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t help but worry if she was making mountains out of molehills.

“I didn’t see any hazmat soldiers though. However, we still need to be prepared for the worst. Nile is best put to work fixing the fence. Once we get the bodies dealt with you should probably meet up with Hector. We were able to gather a lot of stuff at the school.”

"He started working on it last night, but there's only so much he could do, " Leliana spoke, gesturing briefly to the half downed fence. It did look like someone had tried putting it back together, at least to hold for the night, but they had either failed or given up. "I think something may be wrong with him, but I haven't had the chance to ask yet." He had been acting weird, well weirder than normal anyway, though a few frantic antics we're understandable. After the incident at Moe's, he seemed to take the threat of the infected seriously. "Wait, other survivors?" Leliana questioned, brows furrowing for a moment.

Greed and fear will make the worst come out in people, Leliana wasn't surprised that there were other survivors who weren't all that friendly, but she didn't expect them to be in the city. It was swarmed with the undead, any noise louder than a whisper or well-placed stab would draw unwanted attention to them. And while the redhead assured her that Luca handled it, something about the way Andy's face had settled told Leliana something was bothering her.

"Maybe the hazzies finally left?" They knew this was an airborne virus or parasite or what the hell ever it was, they had obviously dealt with it before. Maybe they had given up or we're all killed off, Leliana could only hope. Which meant one other glaringly obvious thing. "That...that means we can leave right? Or at least, it might be safer. If you didn't see any maybe they won't be at the barricade? Maybe we can try and find somewhere safer." By the tone of her voice, not even Leliana was convinced by this thought. But optimism may help.

“It’s worth looking into,” Andy finally said after several moments of thought. She had paused, with her hands still firmly wrapped around the ankles of another body at Leliana’s words. Was there anywhere safer? Likely not. If the Hazmats were no longer flooding this place to try and keep the citizens from Aurora from the rest of the world, then that meant it was too late. That was the only logical explanation. Alternatively, they had just retreated to the barricades. If that was the case, trying to leave the town would be suicide. If there were people who wanted to leave, she couldn’t blame them for wanting to do so. But if the world outside those walls was the same as it was inside, she would stay in familiar territory.

“However, we need to do so carefully. Once we get the lodge fortified again, we can send a group out to scope out the borders stealthily and decide the best course of action from there. I don’t know about you, but I’m not really trying to get into another shouting match with the military if I can help it.” Her hand went to her side instinctively where she could still feel the scar tissue pull as she moved. It was still pink and ugly underneath her clothes as a reminder of what heroics could cost her.

Leliana nodded, silent as she continued to watch Andy. Andy was right, if they weren't careful and went in guns blazing and hopes high, they would get killed or worse. The nurse didn't even want to think about the pain, the suffering. Even more so, it haunted her that Milly and Aderyn would have to watch..."The scar, is it bothering you?" She asked, watching Andy touch her side. The redhead was lucky to still be alive, and a nasty scar was a small price to pay. Not.ally though, they would have access to better medical care or some ointment at least which would help minimize it. But now, it was a story to tell. A living relief she had survived something horrible. Leliana couldn't imagine what it was like to get shot, but something told her she might find out eventually.

“Where are all the big fuckers?” She finally asked with a disgruntled sigh. Andy dropped the corpse, sweat beading up across her brow. “Isn’t there a Wally or Westly or something? Some huge asshole that should be lifting these? And where is my brother? If he’s strong enough to smash skulls,” she gestured to the zombies by the window that were obviously Owen’s doing, heads caved in from a cylindrical item. “He’s strong enough to lift bodies.”

The nurse then chuckled as Andy began to mention Wally. "Warren, actually. And your brother probably shouldn't be lifting bodies. Exerting enough force to kill one of these it a lot less than what it takes to move their bodies." She paused briefly, looking around for another pair of gloves, something she spotted quickly and then put on so she could help out. "Even those they're up and walking around, they're still decaying. The bones and muscles are getting softer, easier to destroy, which is why running them over worked well, but they still weigh the same, or mostly the same. He helped yesterday though, cleaning up inside." Her voice stopped as she grabbed the arms of a nearby body, slowly moving it onto the tarp.

"It's airborne. Whatever this is." Leliana spoke suddenly, after another few moments of silence, "It's why they have the suits on. They're armed to the teeth, I mean, you don't go into what you expect to be a war zone dressed in hazmat suits."

It was obviously airborne. Andy had seen more than her fair share of people turn without being bitten, that paired with the unique style of dress code for the soldiers was enough to solidify that in her mind. However, she didnt feel the need to tell Leli she had figured this out long ago. Instead she just nodded in agreeance.

"That's why we left," the red head began. "Hector thinks there is a chance we can make some sort of vaccine from my blood. We raided the university for supplies so he could do testing." Andrea grabbed the arms of another body, helping Leliana lift it on to a tarp. The she knelt down to start tieing the rope to the metal eyelets so she could more easily drag it across the ground. It was mich how she hauled deer out of the woods. If her ATV in the shed was working, she could use it to haul the bodies to the burn pile but she knew nothing about mechanic work.

"Why from your blood?" Leliana asked, looking up slightly with a cocked eyebrow. She wasn't aware that Andy had been at the hospital when the outbreak started. Well, maybe someone had mentioned something about it, but honestly, Leliana wasn't sure. Regardless of how it got done though, studying this and making a possible cure was too good to pass up.

"Me and Luca were at ground zero when the outbreak happened." She informed the blonde. "The soldiers got a sample of my blood at the middle school. And that's the only reason I can assume they wanted me during the raid. Something important is in there, or at least something valuable enough they'd sacrifice that many people to try and obtain."

Leliana looked at her, a bit of concern washing over her face, "So you were close to Patient Zero? Maybe you have some of the original virus or maybe..." Every possibility was dark, the nurse letting her voice trail off, focusing back on the bodies. As they worked to move the bodies, Leliana couldn't help but get a good look at some of them. So far, at least two of these things used to be people she knew. Not very well, but she recognized the gas station attendant she would often buy breakfast from. And, the kindly older woman who would always make sure she got in her car safe and sound before she herself went home. So many lives just gone, turned into nothing but mindless corpses.

"Go round us up some muscle Leli." Andy commanded as she struggled to pull the tarp over the moist ground. "There is no way in hell we should be pulling these things alone"

"Yeah, okay. It would be a good idea to make sure Luca isn't killing anyone yet too." Leliana straightened up, carefully taking the gloves off and sitting them aside she turned and began heading up to the house.

"Who Luca?" Andy asked with a slight smirk. "I cant imagine him ever doing anything so crass." Andy dropped the tarp with a huff and waited for Leliana fo being reinforcements.

Leliana knew that Nile and it looked like one of the newbies we're already hard at work, and Micheal was outside talking to a new girl. "Hey, you two!" Leliana spoke, "Go and help Andy, the redhead. She'll tell you what to do." Leliana stepped past them, making her way up the stairs to the front door (obviously saying hi to Milly before she went inside. "Hey!" Leliana called out to anybody listening. "Andy wants whoever can help one bodies outside! And Owen that excludes you."

Togy (Nile/Harriet) Rumble Fish (Milly) TheTreForce (Warren) Hyped_Taco (Micheal) TheMightyRedLemon (Vanessa) Brax (Luca/Tre) Maj (Owen) ​

 

[Brax]

Aderyn snapped to attention as she heard the slamming of car doors. She donned a pair of heavy working gloves and a toque she’d found in the garage. Her down ninja turtle cloak was still damp from being washed last night, as she had been wary of putting it in the dryer, and her clothes were stained. She was relatively unharmed in the wake of the zombie attack - only a cut on her face and another on her arm indicated that there had been any trouble at all.

She had been pulling bodies from the backdoor into a single pile a few yards from the tree line. The girl had not been able to sleep, so instead she had rose early, and cleaned inside as well as she could before coming out to get to work. Abandoning her gloves on the back porch, she made her way through the lodge, peeking through the cracks of the barricaded front window.

The car wasn’t one she recognized, but she could hear Andy loud and clear. Luca caught her attention as he made his way out of the hall next to the stairs.

“Nice to see you, cugino. Care to help me outside?”

The sound of another person speaking had initially prompted Luca to turn around to find the source. However, it was not something he needed to do. He knew well enough who had been trying to get his attention due to the sound of her voice, as well as the splash of Italian that had been mixed into her speech. Blue eyes stared down the face of the child before his features softened slightly. The man squatted down so that his elbows could rest on his knees. Luca didn’t know why she had left for so long but it was apparent that he didn’t go after her. She must have recognized this before deciding to turn back.

“No. But, I do have something you can help me with.” He offered instead, standing up and walking from her before exiting the back door of the lodge. There was nothing to tell the girl to follow, but a small whistle as he turned the corner outside and exited her view. The two made their way to the shed. It had been in pretty good shape, probably because no one was using it to hide out from any of the since-deceased zombies that had come across the lodge. The man made his way to a large sheet of wood that had been stacked alongside a few others against the back of the poorly-made wooden structure.

“Help me pick this up.” He nodded toward the opposite side of the wooden panel. Once Aderyn had picked it up the two walked toward the cutting board, where they placed it down.

“We need a new door for the back. I know exactly where to cut, but you’re going to do the hard work. Start by positioning the wood cutter.”

“I can do that.”

Aderyn followed his directions to the best of her ability and adjusted the wood cutter until it was reasonably straight. “Do I cut it here?”

Luca placed his finger down beside the cutter and traced a line straight down before his hand returned back to his side. “Keep one hand on the trigger, the other on the top. Cut as straight as you can, because this has to fit as the second door leading into the lodge. If we’re just a little bit off, we’ll have to try again with another board because the amount you can remove is extremely specific.“ He waited as the girl cut downward. She nailed it on the first try.

“Good. Let’s stand this up.” The man continued instructing her as they grabbed the board and leaned it vertically against the wall on the inside of the shed. He moved a few paces over to the toolbox, removing a rather sharp and long metal piece from its depths. Then, Luca grabbed a piece of plastic packaging withholding a different handle than the previous door. Lucky for them, it seemed like Andy's relative had a good habit of saving things he wasn’t using. The doorknob was definitely outdated but it still would work just fine in this case.

Luca pressed the rounded back of the doorknob against the wood. He kept his weight on it until it made a slight chipped impression underneath. Then, Luca pressed the tool into that portion of the wood and began clearing it out so that there was a perfectly-sized hole through. It took a total of ten minutes to fit both sides of the doorknob in alongside the screws. That part was done. Next would be the hinge, one side of which had to go into the opposite side of the door. Luca handed the screws, the screwdriver and the metal hinge over to the girl before nodding toward it.

“Go ahead. Just make sure it’s lined up correctly.” He watched, continuing to coach her slightly as she put pressure on the screwdriver and used it to push the hinge into place. Together the two walked outside. With ease, luca ripped the rest of the door from the frame before unscrewing the hinge that was left. Then the two stuck their new door against the empty hole where the last one had been. Luca screwed it in, resulting in a beautifully placed piece of wood.

The man placed a hand on the girl’s head, looking down at her with a small smile on his face.

“Sono contento che tu sia a casa, ragazza.”​

 

[Maj]

​

The familiar sound of his sister’s bitching woke Owen from his rather unrestful sleep. The entire night had been uncomfortable from straining his muscles the day before. He knew that he shouldn’t have been swinging his bat, but honestly, what in the hell would the lodge have done if he hadn’t. Owen and his baseball techniques were all that stood between his sister’s lodge and the monsters until Aaron and Tre had shown up. With a groan, the ginger sat up slowly, feeling his torso protest with each movement. He wasn’t sure how useful he would be at moving bodies, but it was better than hearing Andy’s mouth later if he didn’t at least attempt. Owen threw back the blankets, revealing his boxer clad waist and stood in search of clean clothes.

Dressed in faded jeans and a graphic T, the man started the slow descent down the stairs. Warren’s fear that he would fall down them ever present as he braced himself on the hand rail and slowly lowered his tired body down each stair. Relief washed over his tired bones as he made it to the ground floor, standing firmly on his own two feet. Owen started for the front door to greet his sister.

Or he would have until a figure with a full gas mask on rounded the corner and roughly planted a hand on his chest, preventing his forward motion. This prompted the red-head's instant, knee jerk reaction of fear. Which was to punch the living daylight of whatever the hell was threatening him. A second hand, more firm and restricting than the first, clamped down on the arm that was meant to deal the intended damage. Owen's free arm moved to mimic the action of the restricted limb only be halted by a muffled but familiar voice, "Stop Niño. It's me."

The doctor said with a small amount of struggle. The fact that the injured Owen could make Hector struggle to prevent one of his blows spoke volumes of Owen's raw strength. "You shouldn't be out of bed. Much less moving corpses around."

“Jesus fucking Christ Hector,” Owen cursed. “You scared the hell out of me.”

It was then that he heard Leliana’s voice call from the front door that he was exempt. Fabulous. Poor, crippled, Owen was to sit on his ass again while the others worked. In the previous world he would be grateful for a day to do nothing, but he didn’t love the idea of being a liability to the others. The giant red head threw up his hands in defeat, exasperation taking over his still sleep crusted face.

“Do you want me to limp my ass back upstairs?” Owen asked grumpily, clearly a cup of coffee short from his normal cheery demeanor. “Or would you rather do tests down here?”

"Yes, I would rather you be upstairs and away from any further temptations of action." The smell of blood still clung to the boy like a shroud and Hector was only spared the death stench in the area due to the mask he had on. But he was close enough to Owen that some of it got through. Curiously close to how they first met.

"Mr. Jordan, I want you fully recovered more than you do. You can trust that to be true. You can also trust that the more you move around improperly, the longer the recovery process will take. You want to make yourself useful? Then rest." He commanded, not needing a queue to take the young man upstairs and supporting most of his body weight along with the heavy bags he was carrying. "You will be joining me in morning exercises soon enough as part of therapy. You'll be back to your old self before you know it."

After a moment, the doc added, "Better even, if you quit smoking."

Owen winced. The doctor had a point, he hadn’t exactly been the best patient in the doctor’s absence. It was Luca’s fault. Smoking in front of him was like dangling a cheeseburger in front of a ravenous dog. As for the fighting, that couldn’t be helped. Surely Hector agreed.

“You are right. I’m sorry,” he sighed. “But Hector look at this place.” Owen gestured behind him and out the glass pane. The pile of bodies near the living room window was almost entirely his doing. “If I hadn’t helped them, I’m not sure we would have held them off until the cavalry arrived.” The rest, including the smoking was entirely his fault though. Owen would take that on the chin. He let himself be led back up to his bedroom and collapsed back on his bed, unlinking his arm from the doctor’s shoulder. The hulking redhead groaned, as his body relaxed into the plushness of the mattress.

"I don't fully understand the gravity of the situation that happened here yet, Owen. We just got back. I do fully comprehend that you did what you believe was necessary. At the cost of your well being. As you have been known to do." Dr. Salazar stated very neutrally. As if reading from a book to a class. "The issue comes from the fact that you are running out of well-being to sacrifice for others, Mr. Jordan."

The older gentleman wasted no time in examining his soon-to-be-regular-patient and ultimately surmising that Owen would live to see another day. His wounds were certainly irate and inflamed from the harsh movement it was subjected to but otherwise unchanged. The pain must have been hell though. Something the doctor could relate to.

Took his mask off as he thought about that for a moment. "Good news is you're fine. You didn't make it worse. Bad news is that your body won't hold out if you put it under that much strain again anytime soon."

“Understood.” Owen agreed. There was no sense in refuting Hector. The redhead knew who he was and it was apparent that Hector had a decent idea of it too. As much as it sucked, he was back on bedrest for the next few days at least.

“Do not let this sap lecture you Owen,” Andy’s voice cooed from the doorway. She swung it on its hinges, exposing her slender form as she dried her hands off on her jeans. It was obvious she had just washed her hands. Her full lips were turned in a half smirk, emerald eyes sparkling mischievously.

“He’s a big softie. Apparently, he had a crush on our mom. Isn’t that cute?” her tone was mocking, but light. She gave Hector an exaggerated wave and exited as quickly as she came.

“Andy wait-” Owen called after his sister, but it was too late. He turned back to the doctor. “Hang on. Is that true?” The redhead behemoth was grinning now, showing off his pearly whites.

"So Ms. Jordan seems to believe." He said with a slow glance to Andy's last known position.

“And why would she believe that?” Owen asked, his smile widening.

"From my understanding, it is because of my desire to bury her body and because I knew your mother was very talented when it comes to art. Your sister seemingly inherited that gift and I made a passing comment on it." The Hispanic's gaze refocused on the male twin in what could be described as a somewhat bored, somewhat uncomfortable expression.

Owen watched him carefully, the same grin on his face. Andy wasn’t entirely wrong. Not many knew about Mary Jordan’s artistic abilities. In fact, it was really just her closest family members who knew after fighting over getting his mom or Andy at pictionary. Hector had told him that he had known his mother, but he hadn’t realized to what extent.

“Is that why you saved me then?” the boy asked.

To this, the doctor's expression changed to one of confusion. As if he couldn't fathom the thought process behind that question. It took a few seconds before it clicked into place and his expression returned to it's normal, bored appearance, "No. I actually hadn't recognized her when I ran into you. I only realized who you were mourning for after you told me your name and mentioned your twin sister. Otherwise, I would have brought her body along."

The doctor did adopt a somewhat wistful expression at that memory. If he had taken a second to study the scene, perhaps things would have turned out differently. But it also means perhaps they may not have gotten out of there with their lives. "I never comment on what people deserve, Niño. But Mary Jordan did not deserve that kind of end. Of that, I have no doubt."

“You’re right.” Owen’s voice was strained. It was touching to hear someone else beside himself and Andy remember his mom as fondly as they did. She was a remarkable woman, and it was no surprise that he liked her. It was maybe a bit surprising to find out that he cared enough for her that he would risk his life to retrieve her body from the hospital, especially with Patient Zero still lurking the halls. Andy was right. Hector absolutely had a thing for his mom. But that was okay. Owen could see why she would have liked him too. She always had a way of attracting people that needed her bright and loving energy.

Instinctively, Owen reached for the locket under his shirt. He didn’t need to open it to know that his and Andy’s baby pictures were inside. His thumb rubbed the same tarnished gold that she had rubbed so many times in worry. He was sure he had caused her to sit and fret more than his fair share.

“I’m sure the feeling was mutual doc,” Owen decided with a sad smile. “When I’m better, we will go get her together.”

Owen appeared to be deep in thought and brought the doctor some measure of discomfort to hear those words, though from where he was not sure. So, he figured honesty may help quell the boy's worry. "As I told Ms. Jordan, Niño. I'm not aware of any feeling myself. She claims it was affection. I can't say I have ever felt that emotion before. Not for friends, familial love, and especially not romantic affection. I've never known it. I just know I feel… discomfort at the idea of Ms. Mary being as she is."

“Then I think you’ve felt that emotion more than you realize,” the redhead stated with a smirk. He wasn’t sure how he, with all his faults somehow ended up being the most emotional adjusted person at the lodge but it was almost amusing.

“If you didn’t care about her, it wouldn’t cause you discomfort. Its uncomfortable for me too.”

"Hmm…" he grunted in response, "I've heard losing a loved one like that is more than discomfort. Its agony. Allegedly." Then the doctor shrugged his shoulders. If there was one thing you had to learn as a doctor, someone that everyone looks towards when it comes to life or death situations, it was knowing how to say the following answer with honesty, "I don't know…"

“You keep moving.” Owen shrugged. Losing his mom hurt daily, it was a weight in his chest that never seemed to go away. An ache that he could only be distracted from for a few moments before his thoughts traveled back to the feel of her body going limp in his arms. He sighed, locking eyes with the doctor, a smile still on his face despite the grim conversation.

“We all mourn differently. It’s not fair to yourself to discount it because it feels differently than you expected.” He gestured to the space that once held his sister. “She covers it up with anger and sarcasm. You are uncomfortable. Neither is wrong.”

"Perhaps." And he truly meant it. For all he knew when it comes to the matters of the heart, Owen was 100% in the right. Hector had no reason to believe otherwise. But nonetheless, the feeling persisted, "Still, I believe Andy is exaggerating somewhat."

Owen laughed.

Collab: shadowz1995
Mention: FireMaiden Brax

 

[Rumble Fish]

“Careful with that hammer... that sea monkey has my money…” The drunk Marine mumbled as she slipped in and out of a troubled sleep. Her mind had been flaring long-repressed memories, rendering Colt an insomniac and had only began to properly rest a couple of hours ago with the aid of several bottles of water and at least ten paracetamol pills. Her troubled slumber was interrupted by the slam of a door and voices.

“Ugh,n-no whammies… STOP! Wha?” the room span as she jumped upright in her bed, the headache thankfully being suppressed by the pills. Thank god for those things. Downstairs and outside, she could hear Luca, Andy and Leliana’s voices. Hopefully the nurse was explaining what had happened so she didn’t have to. Colt groaned as she attached her leg. She knew she had to go down and talk to them.

“Okay. Okay, it’s just Andy and Luca, it’ll be fine.” She released a long exhale as she threw on her cap, forgetting to straighten it or her jacket as she stumbled from the room, regaining her stride after a few troubled steps and making her way downstairs. Unsure of how to proceed without losing her nerve, she spotted the new-comers. While the paracetamol worked wonders for a migraine, they did nothing to settle jangled nerves, “Hm. New faces.” she coughed before approaching the red-head. Normally she’d be angered at the sight of more strays, but having brought one home herself, the veteran had little to stand on.

“Good t’see y’all r’in one piece.”

Andy had just been returning to supervise the lodge members work, when Colt bumped into her. Her hands were still damp from being washed upstairs only moments before. She turned to the military woman and offered a slight nod in the form of a greeting.

“You too,” she commented. Her eyes scanned the bodies in the yard and she shook her head in disbelief. “From the looks of things here, you guys had your hands full.” Andy crossed her arms, nose scrunching as the smell of smoke and burning flesh invaded her nostrils, coming from somewhere in the distance. It appeared that some of the bodies had already begun to burn.

“Leliana told me about Cletus. Is anyone else injured?”

“Eeyup. But, well, thanks t’Leliana’s quick thinkin’ they held on long enough for me t’git back. She did well.” The stench caused the woman’s chest to lurch in a threat to vomit and only sheer willpower held it back. At the mention of Cletus, Colt sighed, removing her flask from her pocket despite her constant shifting of the feet, threatening to give way if she stood still for too long.

“Hm… about that,” she took a sip, “Nobody else was hurt, but eh… Okay. Look, when we were at the truck, we got attacked. The woman who took the truck turned. N’body was hurt, thank Christ but, she was like… she spat at Tre’s feet and it was like some kinda, pfft, concrete, I dunno. And it could camouflage.” Colt knew what she was saying sounded like bullshit, it should have been!

Andy kept her eyes forward as she thought through this new information. It wasn’t the first time she had heard of one of the monsters with different abilities. Owen said that the thing in the hospital had been fast and even smart. Not to mention, when she and Luca had returned to the lodge from retrieving him, there had been stories of a zombie that climbed up the walls. It wasn’t something she had experienced it first hand, but there were now enough accounts that it couldn’t be ignored.

“Well that’s unfortunate.”

Luca said as he stepped in from the back porch. He had made his way into the kitchen by way of the door he and Aderyn had just put up. It was slightly less thick than the other one and an entirely different color all-together, but it would have to do for now. He looked back at his handiwork, slightly skeeved by how quickly he had tossed that piece of shit into place. However, functionally, it worked just as intended.

He walked up to the two girls, looking down at Colt during their pause in conversation. “We need to be more careful about how we split our assets. With you and Tre out there, no one was left here to effectively deal with the attack. We only lost one person. It could have been far worse. I’m sure Charlie, or whatever the fuck his name was tried his best to help out.” The man lifted a pinky to his ear, inserting it and swirling around. He was rather uninterested to hear someone useless had died in the attack, but heaving around dead weight wasn’t exactly on the top of the Italian’s to-do list either.

‘He was a moron,’ Andy thought, but she kept it to herself. No matter what her feelings were, her mother had taught her better than to speak ill of the dead. The redhead gave a shrug. They had work to do between repairing the lodge and the barricades, but she was more just relieved to find the place still standing upon her return.

“With the supplies you salvaged from the truck and what we picked up at the university, we should be okay for a while.” With Cletus gone, their one real chance of having someone with some molecule of farming knowledge was gone, but they would have to start setting it up eventually. The quicker they could start bunkering down and avoid having to scavenge for canned goods, the better off they would be.

“Who’s the new kid? Can you trust him?” Andy asked Colt.

A fist clenched as Luca spoke up. She didn’t need this right now, but despite her annoyance, she knew it was not worth challenging. What did he expect her to do? Go alone? Take Michael? What? She had no strength to argue, and she knew that Luca knew this too. The woman breathed through the nose and glanced away from him, her body turning back to Andy, eyes darting a little.

“They did what they could. It was enough for this.” she finally answered stoically, or as stoic as she could on the influence of four kinds of whiskey, her glazed and red eyes then turning to Andy as she questioned Aaron. “He’s legit. He’s a mechanic, and a corporal. So that’s two things innit? I seem t’ave him under my thumb since I outrank him. I doubt he'd be a problem.” she explained, her eyes looking back to Andy.

“Who’s the two ya both brought?”

A mechanic boded well, if he could in fact be trusted. Andy couldn’t give a shit about his military rank, but she knew that it meant something to him and Colt. Their rank meant nothing out here. She looked over to Vanessa, who seemed to be working alongside Micheal and rolled her eyes. Harriet, also seemed to be hard at work and introducing himself to the other members of the lodge.

“The blonde is Professor Hennigan. I used to be his teaching assistant. He’s harmless.” Although Andy wasn’t sure if that was a good thing anymore. “The girl is Valerie or something. I don’t know Luca picked her up. She has a sprained ankle I think, one of the doctors should take a look at her.” The last thing Andy needed was her to owe some ‘life debt’ to someone else because she couldn’t keep up.

“Hm. Well. If ya feel like they’re okay, so am I.” the veteran spoke, her tone lower with her eyes downcast, her mind still going over what happened today. “What about ya? Y’okay?”

“Fine,” the woman chirped. It was too early in the morning to be doing all this physical labor and conversation without a cup of coffee. “I need to go see a man about an ATV. Do you think you can make sure this gets finished up?” she asked Colt.

It was at this point that Luca walked away.

‘No.’ was what Colt wished she could say, but she had no more fight left. Besides, she was already up, and it was partly her fault this shit happened in the first place. The somewhat inebriated woman rolled her shoulders, feeling pops as she did so.

“Sho. Y’better git in and rest. I’d hate t’know what sleep-deprived Andy’s like.” the corner of her mouth twitched into a smirk accompanied with a snort through her nostrils, “Least I can keep my word.” she added, gesturing to the thankfully still standing Lodge.

“Yeah, yeah,” Andy rolled her eyes. She was sleep deprived now. “Good work.” The lodge was in fact still standing. However, Andy had more than a few words for whoever was stupid enough to knock the antlers off her Uncle’s prize buck in the living room. With that, the woman was gone, already focused on her new task.

Featuring: Maj (Andy) Brax (Luca)
Mentions: FireMaiden (Leliana) Togy (Harriet) TheMightyRedLemon (Vanessa) Brax again (Tre)

 

[shadowz1995]

That entire situation was more than the doc had expected it to become. Now, Owen seemed to be worrying about him. It was a very odd feeling to experience. Having someone genuinely worry about your well being. It wasn't even about his health. That the hispanic could understand. Owen worried about how he felt which was yet another concept that was alien to the foreigner.


Vanessa glanced up at the nurse who was now commanding her to go help Andy. Her left eye rolled in its socket before joining the right eye in focusing on the nurse. She held the stare for only a few seconds, apologising to Milly for not being able to go in just yet. She turned and grabbed her .32 revolver and Yuri's old zippo off of the hood of the car, grabbing her bag and placing the items loosely inside. Once her bag was hoisted onto her back, she hobbled over to the nearest mound of corpses and began attempting to drag them by their feet, trying her best not to stumble as her ankle threatened to no longer support her weight.


Something that was sadly not foreign was the becoming-all-too-familiar-scene of acquaintances clearing out bodies. A morbid sight to say the least but nothing betrayed that thought process. What did catch his attention was one of their newest members hobbling around on one of the worst makeshift splints Hector had ever laid eyes upon, trying to help move the cadavers to their final resting place. It seemed to be something of a theme within the residents of the lodge, old and new, to push themselves to the point that they are doing more harm to themselves than the infection ever could.


"Niña, what do believe you are doing?" The large man asked her with a cool expression.


Nessa looked up at the doctor, dropping the legs of a cadaver as she attempted to straighten her posture to look at the aging Hispanic man. "Init obvious?" She asked, slightly out of breath. Dark splotches of drying blood clung to various parts of her outfit, barely visible on the dar purple and black hues. "I'm draggin the Mortverts te… um…" she trailed off, not sure exactly where she was to drag them.


She cast a glance around the yard, spotting a growing pile of corpses by the treeline. "There! I'm takin them o'er there." She said, pointing to the mound. "Useless people get abandoned. I'm not useless." And with that she bent back over and grabbed the corpse by the ankles and continued in her efforts.


"Let go of the cadaver." He said with a healthy dose of authority in his accented voice. "Your ankle isn't badly injured but nonetheless, you shouldn't be doing any kind of heavy lifting until I make sure there is no damage."


"What, you a fukin nurse or somethin? Aren't ya a bit old te be takin care o people?"


"Doctor." He corrected. "And no. I'm among the most successful medical scientists in the world and the youngest of them all currently. Maybe the only one left for all we know." He nodded to the girl's ankle again, "Drop the body and take a seat so I can take a better look."


Vanessa turned her head to meet the doctors gaze, left eye quivering slightly. The white of her eye had begun to show visible signs of irritation. She looked into the doctor's eye for a moment, considering his words for a moment. If she didn't comply with him, it may take longer for her to heal, causing her to potentially be more of a hindrance to her savior. With a heavy sigh, she dropped the corpse with a little more force than necessary. "Fine! Fine… not like I know what the fucks wrong with it anyway.." she said honestly. "Where d'ya want me te sit, then? In the snow?"


"Yes, it will only be for a moment. I'm fairly certain it's only a sprain. You wouldn't be speaking with such vigor if it was anything worse. Much less walking or trying to haul corpses anywhere." When she finally did comply, Hector hastily removed the splint with practiced, deft hands, muttering, "What idiot put a splint on a sprain…" before gently taking a hold of the young lady's foot and examining it. He looked it over carefully and compared the light swelling to the other foot. With a few light adjustments to the ankle's position and not much in the way of feedback from Vanessa, Hector nodded and stood from the snow, helping her up along the way. "It's a light sprain. Stay off the foot as much as you can for a few days. Ice it regularly. Wrap it tight but loose enough to not restrict circulation. After that, you can be a pack mule for corpses if you so desire."

Listening to his instructions, a worried expression overtook her features. "Um… I forgot te ask but… did we find any eyedrops back at the collage?" She knew it was most likely a no. If they had, then the eyedrops would most likely be in her possession already. Nervously, she glanced at the bandages covering his empty eye socket. She hadn't revealed her eye to anyone in years, but this man was a medical professional, and she never had her eye looked at after the incident that scared her face. Besides, he was missing an eye completely. Surely he wouldn't make fun of her appearance…


"I um…" she began, glancing down at the dead guy on the ground so as to break eye contact. "Me eye got hurt… long time ago… I wear a color contact te look normal but it irritates me eye if I don't keep putting eyedrops in regularly…" she admitted in a low, uncertain tone.


On that note, the doctor's attention shifted and he peered closely at the eye in question. Without asking, he briefly placed the ridge of his hand on Vanessa's brow to cast a darker shadow over the eye. Sure enough, seconds in and there was no question that the pupils did not react. Upon closer inspection, one could actually see the light blue coloring of the edge of the lens.


Hector backed away and observed the girl in her entirety now, a look of confusion clear on his face, "Why?" He quipped. "Why hide the fact?" While he asked this, he quickly reached into one of his bags and fished out one small bottle of eyedrops in question, handing it to her.


Quickly she grabbed the bottle of eyedrops as she answered. "A Harlequin without a Ringmaster is like a rose without thorns.... just pretty, nothing more." She stated in a tone that eluded to how many times she had been told that herself. "With a scar like mine… I'm not even that…."

"Unless I count Luca as me new boss…"


He squinted his eye in response and tried very hard to phrase his next words carefully, as in the brief time he had known the young lady, he could tell she wasn't the most stable individual. But some things needed to be said, "You… you worked in a circus… correct? Or in the amusement business?" He asked. Knowing full well the answer.


"Aye." She responded simply.


"So, you understand that the more outlandish and strange something seems, the more attention it will attract in the circus. Correct? Whatever your act was, if you added 'the one-eyed harlequin' in front, chances are it would fill more seats. As far as my understanding goes."


"Yuri always said he didn't want a mutilated face to be the first thing people saw…" she admitted with a slightly sad tone.


"Well, this…. Yuri… may not have been correct in that regard. A word of advice from an elder, Ms. Vanessasa. The same advice both Luca and I gave you the other night. You are not beholden to the whims of others. You are free to make your own choices and suffer or profit from those choices on your own."


With that, the doctor turned to leave, "Do as you please. But be aware that Yuri no longer seems to be here. Your choices are your own now and no one here is going to give you any grief for missing an eye. Trust me." He said, a hand rising and touching his own missing ocular organ for a moment before bidding the young lady farewell. It seemed that Ralph and Leliana were approaching him with some kind of news. Seemed urgent whatever it was.


"If only it were that simple." Vanessa muttered to herself. She had owed Yuri a life debt. He was gone, which would mean her freedom. And yet, Luca saved her life, so now she felt that she owed him a life debt now too. Shaking her head, Vanessa lightly clutched the eyedrop bottle in her hand as she started to make her way inside so as to heed the doctor's instructions to stay off her foot.

FireMaiden The Mad Queen TheMightyRedLemon

 

[Rumble Fish]

Vanessa hobbled up onto the porch and sad down against the wall, stretching her leg out and keeping her ankle as straight as she could. Pulling her bag in front of her, she places the eyedrops into the smallest compartment, alongside her makeup. She wanted to use them already, but her hands were bloody from dragging the corpses, and she couldn't quite take the contact out until she washed her hands. With a sigh, she leaned her head back. "Ya here that Yuri… he said you were wrong." At this, a short, hysterical chuckle escaped her lips.

“C’mon y’fat fuck…!” the veteran snarled through gritted teeth as she dragged a particularly heavy corpse to the fire. Why was the first one she pick this one? Then again, it was most likely better to get this over with. With a groan, she grabbed the body under its armpits and turned around to throw it a few inches into the fire. As soon as her eyes met the flames, the woman felt her heart-rate spike and her breath jump from her lungs. The dancing embers turned into a bright flash and there was a loud and screeching ring in her ear. Colt jumped away from the pile, head in hands.

“Fur fuck, ugh,” still panting, she took out her flask, taking a quick swig. This was going to be a long morning. As the drunk veteran reeled the corner, she spotted the new woman. How could she not? Her vivid purple attire could have be seen from miles away. She had a job to do though. Breathing out, she walked on, picking up a smaller body belonging to what she assumed was a teenage girl, somewhat like Milly. But she had seen just seen the youngster inside.

Looking up, Nessa noticed a woman dragging bodies who seemed to have a multitude of visible scars across what was visible of her skin. "Christ all lass, who put you in a fuckin blender?" She called out from the porch, giving a hearty laugh.

“Wha?!” She swung her head around to face the woman as she spoke up, her burr was evident. One of her privates was from Scotland and it was hitting closer to home than she’d like. So she understood what she said. “What the-? Did ya escape from Wonderland with that get-up?” she growled back before throwing that corpse (after mentally wrestling with herself on whether or not it was Milly before going back. This job was not going to be done soon.

A smile crept across the colorfully dressed women's face. "That's a good one." She said, standing slowly, giving her showy bow as she introduced herself. "Vanessa the acrobat, at yer service."

Colt had paused in lifting another carcass as the woman spoke up again. An acrobat? Where the hell did Andy find this woman? A thick, shaggy brow lifted at her bow. She hadn’t expected to ever meet an acrobat. Darting her eyes a little, she rolled her shoulders as she lifted the body, as she did, a finger dropped off with a squelch, causing the vet to gag.

“Hurgh…” she managed to suppress it trying to pull the neck of her t-shirt over her nose but it smelled just as bad, but she would rather smell her own body odour than burning flesh, “Y’can call meh Colt.” she finished before disappearing around the corner again. So called child “geniuses”, college professors and now an acrobat? What would be next? The fire had started to build and the bodies were burning harder. Both the stench and the sight caused her already jangled nerves to spike even higher.

Vanessa watched as the veteran disappeared around the corner of the building, leaning against the wall so she didnt have to put weight on her leg. "She looks more mutilated than I ever did… no, fuck YOU Yuri….. these people haven't been mean to me yet… well I'm not counting Andy, she's just a bitch I think.... I suppose, but that was more playful banter than anythin'!"

Colt has taken a break at the side of the lodge, allowing her rising panic to settle before going back to the fire. Why did she agree to this? It was when the woman then suddenly shouted and was speaking to herself that she stumbled back around the corner, her prosthetic being caught on a stone, but being titanium, she did not react. She had to get her work done. As she stooped down to inspect another body, taking out her silenced Colt.45 just in case, she kicked the prosthetic out for balance, checking the body over for a head wound.

"So…" Vanessa called out from the porch once more, her usual smile returning. "What bear mauled you up and spit ya out?"

Colt’s head whipped around, green and bloodshot eyes glaring daggers at the woman. She assumed she was alluding to her leg, but it could have been about anything. Why were people so damn nosey? First Nile, then Kypher and now this woman? Standing up, she took a long drink from her flask, but not before firing a “None of yer beeswax.” in her direction. She didn’t ask the woman about her appearance!

"Ooh, testy aren't we?" She chuckled. "No need ta be sour. Maybe we got off on the wrong… foot?" She said, doing her best to hold back a chuckle over the irony of her word choice. She hadn't even taken notice of Colt's prosthetic leg yet, as she was more referring to her own sprained ankle that was lifted slightly to avoid having weight on it.

Colt had lifted the body bridal style, holding the flask in her teeth as she stood up. Just as she did, she heard the woman’s comment, her head whipped around again. She couldn’t answer her question due to the flask so just grumbled a few profane words around it as she jogged back around the corner. Holding her breath, she tossed the body before running from the burning pile, not stopping until she was back at the porch. It was a controlled fire, she shouldn’t be getting so spooked! This was stupid! Spitting the flask out, she turned back to the woman.

“Great. Got meh a fuckin’ comedian!” she growled before going back to her business.

"Hey at least you can do somethin'! All I can do is joke with this bum foot 'o mine! A little humor never hurt anyone." Vanessa retorted as her eyes followed colt around. In truth, bugging this woman was a great source of entertainment for her, but she wasn't trying to offend anyone.

“I’ll give ya more than a bum foot ya little…” Colt grumbled too low under her breath as she dragged another carcass around before re-emerging a few seconds later. Even though it had been her foot she seemed to be joking about, it still stung her. Not to mention she hadn’t forgotten the blender and bear comment. “How’d y’manage t’do that anyway?”

"I should say none o’ yer beeswax… that's how ya put it right?" She said, her smile fading in an instant, but returning just as quickly as it had vanished. "But the truth is, I was stuck between two mortverts and had ta kick one in the chin while doin’ a back hand spring ta get away." She said, the recalling the events of the day she almost blew her brains out in the student apartments. Her tone had been serious in her response, unlike her typical whimsical manner of speech. Nessa continued to stare at the vet as she while she went about her business, wishing she could be doing anything but standing around. She wouldn't disobey the doctors orders though, unless Luca himself told her to do something. Hector had begun to earn her respect in the short time she had known him, after all.

“Y’all asked meh first.” The woman grumbled, looking at the woman with her less useable eye as she then explained anyway. Not that the explanation meant much to Colt. What the fuck was a mortvert? Was that Russian? Ivan had never said anything like that before. She went back and forth a couple of times carrying bodies, “Hm. Well, it’s good y’were found when y’were right?” she tried to settle the mood, as well as her own strain from yo-yoing to the fire and back. The smell, the flames and the pile of bodies brought back too many memories. Stretching her back muscles, she took another drink from her flask. Thankfully the pills were still doing their job and stopping the migraine that would surely be plaguing her. Her inebriation stopped her from staying still as she swayed on the spot, putting it away and turning back to the woman.

Nessa faltered again for a moment. "Yeah… I was about to starve t'death… I couldn't handle starving for a third time in me life… if Luca hadn't found me when he did I'd be a splatter on the wall right now. He fed me and helped me along… I owe him me life… even if he doesn't view it that way. In a sense… he saved me twice over… from me solitude… and from starvation…" Taking notice of Colt swaying drunkenly, she stepped down from the porch and slowly limped to the woman. "C'mon, I'll help ya te the porch. Ya look like ya can barely stand." As she approached the veteran, Vanessa finally took notice of the prosthetic leg. "Oh wow, me last joke was more ironic than I realized, wasn't it?"

Colt was busy inspecting the last body while Nessa explained how she got here. While she hadn’t asked for that much detail, it did paint a grim picture. She turned her attention back to the corpse. It was a middle aged man with a once silver beard, now coated in blood and bile. He looked like Brookes, but Colt knew it could not be. She knew her father enough to know he would still be alive. Still, just the thought of her father, the first man she had ever loved and looked up to as one of those Things caused a melancholy shadow to cast over the woman. However, her mood was shattered with the sudden, closer voice of Vanessa.

“Bwah-! Yer right there!” she leapt up, almost falling in the process, “Ya-wha-git back on that porch, I’m fine. Just need t’git this last one.” she said as she grabbed the Thing by the feet, dragging him around the corner for a final time. “Fuckin’ woman sneakin’ up on me like a fuckin’ weasle stalkin’ a chicken, lucky I didn’ fuckin’ blow her fuckin’ head off, fuckin’ givin’ me a fuckin’ heart-attack...” her fucking grumbles disappeared around the corner with her.

"Wow… at least she's got plenty o fucks te give." Vanessa muttered as she limped back onto the porch. Besides the doctor, fat man and the child, Vanessa didn't seem to be doing good at making new friends. As she leaned back against the wall, she picked up her bag, rifling through it until she found what she had been looking for. There wasn't much left in the bottle, but she figured no one would object to her drinking the whiskey she brought from the apartments. What else was there to do? Go inside? "Right… like that'll go well…" she understood she was a bit odd, and she definitely didn't want to be ostracized for it. "I'll just stay out 'ere as long as I can…" she muttered, taking a swig from the bottle of cheap spirits.

“Gah!” Colt swung her arms as she came to the porch, “Finally done.” she looked up, the sky was subtly lighter than it had been when she had woken up. Everyone needed a few more hours of sleep before getting up for the day. She was going to have an extreme hangover, but she was just going to accept it. That three-quarters of Jonnie Walker Blue was worth it. Her gaze looked to the woman as she took some herself.

“C’mon. It’s too fuckin’ early for any of this. Better find ya a bed.” she squeezed her fingers to her palm a couple of times, encouraging the woman to come. Colt herself wanted to go back to sleep, hopefully to wake up forgetting everything about the previous day.

Vanessa's right eye met with Colt's eyes, her left eye seemed to roll in a small circle for a moment, as if of its own accord before it too focused on the woman as well. "I suppose I'll follow you then?" She said, taking another sip of whiskey straight from the bottle before holding it out to Colt. "Ya seem like ya've been juicing already, but they say sharin is carrin or some shite like that, aye?"

Colt did look to the bottle, considering the woman’s offer. After a moment of thought, she shook her head in a swinging motion when the intention was a few simple sways, “Nah. ‘ppreciate the offer but, I want mah bed.” She rolled her shoulders again, “C’mon. Mah room’s got a bunk bed.”

Vanessa shrugged. "Beats sleepin' on the floor." She said, pushing herself off from the wall and grabbing her bag once more. "I'm right behind ya then."

Featuring: TheMightyRedLemon (Vanessa)
Mentions: Maj (Andy) shadowz1995 (Hector) Hyped_Taco (Michael)

 

[TheMightyRedLemon]

Vanessa's Revenge Part 1

Vanessa had followed the drunken veteran into the lodge and up the stairs in silence, leaving Vanessa to her thoughts as they ascended the steps.

Cold had offered her the bottom bunk within her room, explaining that it was recently vacant, though the one legged woman seemed a little sour when she mentioned the aforementioned vacancy, leading Vanessa to wonder at who had stayed in the room with her previously.

Sitting down on the bottom bunk, Vanessa waited untill she was sure Colt was asleep befor she pulled the eyedrops and makeup kit out of her bag. She stood slowly and exited the room, determined to find a bathroom in which to wash her her hands clean of the infected blood. Moving past the stairs that led downstairs, she saw a door that was slightly cracked open. She peered inside to find a small bathroom. Perfect, she thought. Swiftly she set to work cleaning her hands and, using a nearby wash cloth that she wet with warm water, began to clean her face off as well. Soon, her skin was clear enough for her to be satisfied. Even the makeup covering her scar came off. Soon she had removed her contact and leaned her head back, applying the eyedrops. When vanessa looked back in the mirror, she examined herself closely. Her hand moved up to her face, her fingers lightly trailing down the deep, angry looking scar that ran down her face.

"You still look like a freak, malen'kiy" Came a familiar disembodied voice.

"Leave me alone Yuri!" She hissed in a low, agitated voice.

"Without me you are nothing. You know this."

"Well I've made it this far, haven't I? "

"Barely, and only with the help of others." He spat back in her mind. "No supprise there, I suppose. You always were a burden."

A loud crashing noise sounded from the bathroom as the mirror shattered under her fist, a few shards cutting her fingers lightly. Angrily grabbing her belonging, she exited swiftly and made her way back I to Colt's room. She sat on the bottom bunk again, fuming angrily untill her fatigue from not getting proper rest the night prior caught up to her and, despite her seething rage, sleep overtook her, and soon her dreams were filled with memories she did not wish to revisit.

.....................................................................

Natasha and Sergi sat in the living room area of the student appartment they had commandeered as their current home. It had been about ten minutes since Yuri and Reznos had left on a supply run. Natasha was the first to break the silence that had settled since the others had left. "You know... I still feel bad about Vanessa..." she said. "Its not right, what we did..."

"Yuri has never steered us wrong, comrade." Came the overly deep voiced reply of Sergi. He ran a hand through his hair as he sat forward in his chair, wich seemed too small for the freakishly large man. "He made a hard choice, and as a result, we live. Do not complain about that." He said, ashing his cigar.

"I'm not complaining... it just... does not sit right with me." Tasha said in a meek voice. She wasnt looking to get lectured, she just wanted to talk to someone about it. She obviously couldn't talk to Yuri about it, and Reznos always hated Vanessa. If she couldn't voice her thoughts to the strongman, then to where could she turn? She let out a sad sigh.

Both heads snapped up and turned towards the door as a consistent set of four knocks, followed by two knocks, then five. It was the agreed upon secret knock to let them know to unlock the door. "They must've forgot something..." Natasha surmised, standing from her chair and moving to the door. She unlocked it and pulled it open. "What did you forg-"

The womans words were cut off as a horrifying scream of pain came forth from her throat as rotting hands grabbed her shoulders and a bloody maw clamped down on her shoulder. Sergi jumped up swiftly with a shout of panic, grabbing the hatchet beside him and in a matter of seconds he closed the space and had embedded the wedge like blade into the zombies skull.

The moment the body went limp, Tasha fell to the floor, clutching her shoulder and screaming in agony. Sergi pulled the axe from the now fully dead man's head, placing his foot on its gut to kick it off out of the door and asist with pulling the axe out. The hulk of a man turned to the screaming woman with a sad expression. "I'm sorry, Tasha... truly I am..." Sergi said with a low rumble befor he raised the hatchet above his head and swung down with all his might. After unwedging the small axe from Natasha's head as well, he carefully dragged her outside and leaned her up against the guard railing. As Sergi turned to close the door, something caught his eye. On the outside surface of the sturdy wood, 'I'm Back' was scrawled in blood, unsettling the large man. He knew it was unlikely Vanessa could have survived, but who else would have done such a thing.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Sergi closed the door, and immediately wished he had not. A chill went down his spine as he stared at the bloody writing on the inside surface of the door. The fresh blood still dripped slightly as the mound of muscle read over the crimson letters

'BOO'

Suddenly Sergi felt a thin cord catch his neck, just under the chin, tightening swiftly as he reached up to pull it off, cutting off his oxygen. Feet pressed against his back as the cord tightened more, causing Sergi to thrash about, but he could not shake off his attacker.

Vanessa began to laugh hysterically as she felt him struggle. "Awww, dont be Afraid Sergi... it's only death!" She said, giggling like a maniac. "Why, it's just as natural as your first breath!" Laughter and the sounds of garbled choaking filled the space as the circus strongman slowly lost the will to fight. His vision became blurry, turning to black as his struggling became weaker and weaker as his consciousness faded into oblivion. Soon, the man stopped struggling all together, crumpling to the ground, yet Vanessa persisted. She would make absolutely sure he was dead, holding the cord taught for another few minutes befor she relaxed her grip on it. A large, twisted smile crept across her face as she observed her handiwork, and she wasn't done here. Oh no. She was was on the warpath. Yuri had betrayed her and left her for dead. She would have her revenge if it killed her.

 

[RayPurchase]

Aaron Jones
Rear of the Lodge
Bloody Early O'Clock
​

"Come on now. You’re one hell of a stubborn SOB ain’t you?"

Aaron muttered under his breath, eyes narrowed and teeth bared. Bracing one foot against the Humvee he jerked once more and with a rapid twisting motion the decaying arm was wrenched free from the bullbars. With little ceremony he dumped it in the wheelbarrow which was already nearly full by this point of assorted body parts, some still recognisable, others very much less so. Grabbing the hose and a sponge from a bucket he went to work on the grill, it ran off black and red rivlets, soaking into the ground. With the worst of it washed off he went to work with the sponge, working up a lather of soap. He was an hour in now, and this was the last of it. Despite the dings and scrapes she was looking a whole lot better, not quite factory new, those undead freaks had made sure of that, but he'd be damned if he allowed standards to drop. She was his charge, his mission his purpose. For a few minutes he lost himself in the action of wrestling soaping up the grill of the Humvee. He really should have slept longer, but what sleep he had achieved had been restless and fitful, coming in stops and starts, he’d even passed up the offer of a bed, sticking with familiarity of the back seats for now. He had fully utilised the offer of a shower however, the first he’d had in… well for too long.

That was the thing about travelling solo, you tend to stop noticing certain things, like the smell. He’d washed his by now well worn combat jacket and trousers and they were currently drying in the lodge, and he’d grabbed a heavy woolen chequered shirt which was keeping out the worst of the cold morning air, combined with the dark green woolen beanie pulled over his head. Combined with the steadily growing out beard, he couldn’t help but feel that if his Drill Sergeant had wandered by, he would have ended up getting the bollocking of his life, letting standards slip and all that, even in combat there was always a grooming standard. With the muck washed off him, and fresh clothes, it felt like civilisation was that much closer. Whilst he was making the most of the amenities, the group was still still largely a set of unknowns, and given the circumstances of his arrival, he wasn’t exactly expecting them all to be in the most talkative or socialising of moods, losing one of their own like that. Another positive of isolation there, ain’t no need to mourn if you haven’t got anyone to lose. Dropping the sponge he walked round to the driver’s seat and turned the key, closing his eyes as he listed to the engine. The purr was strong and steady, but there was something… the smallest of beats skipped in the V8 baseline. Near imperceptible, but to his ear it was like a broken string. Was she drivable, yes. Was she near peak efficiency, well she was bloody close. Close wasn’t good enough though, not for him, right now they potentially had nothing more than a scratch, but left unchecked a scratch could fester and become infected, and before you know it you’re knocking on death’s door due to inaction weeks ago. It wouldn’t do.

He switched off the engine, and popped the hood, looking down into the heart of the beast. Best case scenario he’d have crates of various spare parts, a full workshop and the best part of a day going over her, but he was a long way away from a best case scenario. With the tool box balanced on the edge of the bonnet and a small torch in one hand he began looking over the engine, starting with the most basic problems and working his way up. Removing the dip stick he ran his finger along it, checking the high oil mark.

“Well you ain’t thirsty or leakin’ that’s for sure… what ails you girl?”

 

[The Mad Queen]

The following is a collab between myself, FireMaiden and shadowz1995​

After doing a few rounds of the house, partly to test out the brace Ralph caught a glimpse of Hector. Outside of thanking him for saving his leg, he hadn't spoken to him at all since the raid. His gaze met the wound where Hector's eye had once been, and he quickly looked away just hoping that he hadn't been seen staring at it.
Such a wound didn't seem to be slowing him down though.
"Doctor Salaza." Fisher called, clearing his throat to get the older man's attention. "I believe it's time we talked. You, me and Leliana." He crossed his arms as his brown eyes pierced into him.

The doctor's expression was indicative of curiosity as to what Mr. Fisher could possibly want to talk about. His eye initially went to the man's leg, assuming it was a question on the status or condition of the joint. The emergency operation Hector was forced to perform just to save Ralph's leg was incredibly risky and Hector wasn't exactly in optimal condition at the time. The large man had never made a mistake before but given the situation, he could hardly blame himself if it was suboptimal. "Heat, numbness, foul stench, and fever are all signs of infection. Do you have any of those?" He asked quickly, his gaze moving back up meet Ralph's.

A question also lingered in the back of Salazar's mind. Why was the nurse needed in this exchange?

"He doesn't want to talk about his leg Hector," Leliana chimed in, stepping closer to the two men after hearing her name. The nurse knew Ralph wanted to talk to Hector, and well she wanted to as well, but Ralph could have done this on his own. She planned on talking to him after getting the yard cleared, but this was as good a time as any. "It's about the plague. And what you're doing with the lab your building."

"Plague?" Hector asked

"You know what she means." Fisher resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Hector's question "What's going on out there. The thing that brings back the dead and uses them to kill the living."
"The virus, disease, wrath from god, whatever you want to call it, plague seems like a good fit," Leliana huffed. Ralph backed her up, adding his own two sense in, essentially saying the same thing. "You're trying to cure it and we want to help. You can't do everything on your own."

"Especially if you're going to employ such reckless methods." He shook his head "We need subjects, a chance to study the thing. Of course we do. But just leaving one caught dangling in a poorly put-together snare trap like that is far too dangerous. Somebody could have been hurt, or worse!"
He rested his arms by his sides and took a step towards Hector "Your live subject nearly took my head clean off when I stumbled into it. What if that was Milly, or Shiona? You'd have blood on your hands, Salazar."

The doctor watched his two coworkers in medicine, needing to turn his head slightly to look them both full on. He remained silent as they spoke, taking in what they had to say respectfully and without interruption. As he had to do many times in the past across the world in the medical world. Once they were done, Hector folded his hands behind his back and answered each question one by one. In the order he hears them, "The first step in solving the problem is in properly classifying what it IS, young lady. So, it does matter what we call it. If you both want to help solve the problem, I expect things to be done properly. Otherwise, you will leave me no choice but to do this on my own."

His gray eye then turned to Ralph, "As a doctor in the C.D.C,"" Hector placed emphasis on each letter of the acronym, to remind Ralph exactly how strict the rules and regulations for his organization was, "you of all people should know the importance of the first step to combating the unseen weapon that is microbiology."

His gaze then relaxed somewhat and he continued speaking to Dr. Fisher, "Also the 'subject' that you speak of wasn't my doing. That was the boy's invention. Kypher. He was testing what kinds of traps would be the most effective defense against the infected while causing the least amount of damage. For experimentation afterwards. It was his attempt to aid in my research once he heard who I was."

The man's graying locks swayed gently as his head turned to now look at Leliana, "As for having blood on my hands," he said with a quick glance back to Ralph, "Every infected human being that you have exterminated, is a life that you have taken. Every soldier or 'hazzie' as you people call them you killed, is a human life that was snuffed out so that yours may go on. 'They aren't human anymore. It's us or them. I was just defending myself. Kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest.' Are all convenient excuses everyone has been telling themselves to cope with the horror. If you wish to talk about how much blood I have on my hands, I suggest you take a long, hard look at your own. Especially you, Dr. Fisher. You took the same oath I did. And yet, here we are. Do NOT presume you are in any position to patronize me."

"The infected are just that. Humans. Human beings who came upon an incredibly unfortunate set of circumstances and became infected. We are men and women of science. Do not come here spouting sci-fi nonsense like 'Walking dead', 'zombies', or 'monsters'. They are not monsters. They are infected human beings. No different than a human afflicted by a severe case of rabies, creutzfeldt-jakobs, or mania. It is a condition to be observed, studied, and if possible, treated. If neither of you can understand that, then neither of you can help me." If it was ever clear that there was no arguing with the large man, it was in that moment right there.

"Ralph that's not fair, if it was restrained it couldn't have hurt anyone if they stayed out of arms reach, " Leliana spoke softly, glancing at him briefly. "Milly and Shinoa know how to stay away from them." She then looked to Hector as he spoke, sighing softly. "I know, I know. But we don't know what it is yet, so what are we supposed to call it? It's airborne, and I know it's a safe bet to say it can spread through bodily fluids, but I didn't study diseases. Not in depth anyway." And even if she had, she still wouldn't know what to call it. Hector continued, critiquing them on their need to kill the infected, Leliana was at a lose for words. Yes, they had killed, nobody there wanted to die. But it wasn't like they took the task lightly. Leliana was fully aware of what her actions meant, every person that if a cure was possible was snuffed out for no reason. But at the same time, if they were killed because they decided to take pity, there wouldn't be a cure at all.

"I wasn't judging for any blood on your hands, Dr.Salazar." Leliana spoke lowly, her thumb and index finger rubbing together, a slight show of annoyance. "But we can't make a cure if we die, now can we? We can't spare every infected while they're trying to kill us, trying to kill the people we care about or have promised to watch their back. It's not something we take lightly."

"I'm not critiquing your willingness to take a life, Ms. Leliana. I have no doubt in my mind that I have taken more UNinfected lives than you have. Whether it was directly or indirectly. What I'm critiquing is that both of you seem to have the wrong idea about how we go about this. Which, for starters, is not to immediately make assumptions about what an individual did or did not do without any evidence of the fact. Not to mention the rest. If you are to help me, then we are to do this properly." The doctor took note of her irritation but ultimately dismissed it. She was still very young and no one liked getting chatised, "To do that, we need to be aware of every single detail that we observe. No stone can be left unturned. My work or our work can quite possibly be the deciding factor of the survival of the human race. I dont know about you, Ms. Leliana, but I cant risk that research being flawed by an incompetent team. As I said, we do this properly... or I do this alone."

Leliana took a small breath, realizing Hector didn't seem to be getting her point. Either that, or his goal was to make her second guess everything she had just said. Leliana knew what she meant. And furthermore, he seemed to be under the impression she didn't understand how this worked. "Did you look over my notes? From when I encountered Daisy, the bite victim, Ralph said he talked to you about them." She asked after a few moments of silence. There was no point in trying to continue a conversation with whatever topic there had been previously, Hector didn't seem to be listening. "According to Cletus, it had only been a few hours, a day at most since she had gotten bit. Her fever was well above 105, her heart was beating so fast I couldn't count it, and her eyes..." Leliana paired for a moment, a slight shiver running down her spine as Dasiy's face flashed through her mind. "She had already lost her vision, at least most of it, I don't think that poor woman even knew me and Andy were in the RV. She was dying, the bite had gone septic, it was like the disease was rewriting her right in front of our eyes."

"Yes, that is what it seems to do. Not necessarily rewriting it as opposed to... making it easier to take control of the basic motor functions. Subjects display symptoms similar to Rabies, H1N1, and Ebola. Time to reach coma seems to vary from person to person. Once the coma has taken place, the pathogen seems override basic motor functions. My external observations mirror yours." He confirmed. It was never up close, but when the outbreak began, Hector did watch more than his fair share of people turn from bites or scratches.

Ralph's eyes widened before his vision narrowed once more. Kypher? At the very least that would explain why the trap was so poorly put together and reckless. It was the work of a troubled child rather than a professional. "I'm not saying you have blood on your hands, but that you would. Or rather Kypher would I suppose had somebody else come across such the thing. It was too close to the ground on a string that could've snapped at any moment." He sighed heavily "But I suppose that clears that up. I apologise for thinking you to be so reckless with a plague this dangerous."

"As for the infected. They are not human. Likening this to mania or rabies is preposterous. They literally die, and return to spread the pathogen further. Similar to Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, if anything. That was something I and Leliana discussed. Of course, that isn't to stay that that's what is responsible. Our DNA is too different from the ants it infects for such a thing to cross the species barrier, and furthermore when I examined the brain of a deceased host there were no fungal growths on the brain."
He started to pace back and forth, hobbling slightly as pressure built up on his leg. "And how would you do it properly, exactly? This type of thing can't be second guessed and throwing aside the only other two people who can understand this thing is...Idiotic. To say the least." He finally stopped, standing directly in front of the older Doctor "I have my experience, and my brain but I'm slower than I used to be and I always worked better with a team. Just so long as we all were on the same page...So what page are you on?"

"Truly? They are 'dead' as you say and then just.... reanimate? Why do they bleed when they are introduced to trauma? Why do they react to stimulus? Why is there still, albeit minimal, brain activity? Why do some of them, Mr. Fisher, still exhibit signs of intelligence? Why is one of them specifically almost entirely identical to a normal human being? I can ask many more questions but your statement of the dead coming back to life sounds more far fetched than anything else that has been put forth." Hector was humoring the thought but there wasn't enough factual evidence to suggest that the infected truly "died." "There are too many unknown factors on how this pathogen works to make a blanket statement like that Fisher. Not to mention the chance that we are all already infected is incredibly high."

"And as I have stated before. This is neither a fungi, parasite, and it's highly unlikely to be a bacterium." Now it was Dr. Salazar's turn to sigh and rub his temple with one hand.

"The lab will be set up soon." He stated, his wound beginning to ache from the conversation. Normally, Hector would never have even entertained the conversation but they weren't entirely wrong on the difficulty of him doing this alone. Where they were wrong was assuming that he COULDNT do it alone. They wouldn't be the first ones either. Chances are they wouldn't be the last. "I will be running my tests primarily on Ms. Jordan, Luca, Owen, and myself. You are welcome to join and participate as a researcher or as a volunteer. Preferably both. But everything that is done in there must be run by me first along with any discoveries. That is the page I'm on."

"Because I was in the morgue of the hospital when things hit the fan!" Ralph snapped, stopping in his tracks. The doctor took a moment to compose himself, realising he'd lost his temper and rubbed his temple. "My team and I checked those bodies." He continued with a light sigh "They may not have been patient zero but they were deceased before rising once more with the intent of spreading this thing. It's not unheard of in nature for things to seemingly reanimate in order to spread their influence. The fungus I mentioned is one in hundreds, maybe more that could potentially do that. And the ones at the hospital weren't the only ones to get back up. I performed an autopsy on a woman called Rogue. She died in this very lodge of a brain aneurysm. No bites, no scratches, no contact with infected blood and yet this thing reanimated her body and used it to try and kill us so it could spread itself more."

He shrugged, placing his hands in his pockets "That's why my first thought was that of a fungus or parasite. My autopsy on the body of that young woman confirmed that the fungus theory was false and the rate of evolution and sheer spread of this thing throws the parasite theory out of the water... My working theory now is a TSE as Leliana and I discussed the idea of this being some sort of mix between Chronic Wasting Disease and some other prion, possibly cooked up in a lab. It would certainly explain how quick the CIA was to dispatch their Nazi Stormtroopers."
The pain in his knee only added to the anger he felt against the Hazmats. "CWD was on our watchlist anyway as it was able to be crossed with chimps in laboratory conditions. That's only a small skip on the species barrier before it can affect us. Although, CWD wouldn't explain the aggressive behaviour nor the reanimation aspect. So it's either a mix or something new altogether. It had to have been created or at the very least the CDC was kept completely in the dark somehow. Given how the government has acted neither would surprise me at this point..."

He paused, letting out a breath before continuing "Call it wild conspiracy theories if you want. I know some shady stuff went down and people I loved paid the price for it. I can't bring them back, but I can study this thing so that we can fight it."

With his arms now crossed and quietly watching, Hector turned and looked at Leliana now, "And you? What's your personal theory on this?"

"Well, we can't rule out anything can we?" Leliana stated, "The soldiers, they knew about the disease prior to arriving, which means that this could have happened before, or maybe it's some government experiment. A biological attack, some mutated strand of something that already existed." She paused for a moment, going over what she said mental before nodding slightly. "It's highly suspicious, and the soldiers play a much bigger role than just some gunmen."

The doctor scoffed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He took a deep gulp of frigid, winter air. Rare was the day that insanity could turn into hilarity but here Dr. Hector Salazar stood. "Alone it is then." He muttered, just loud enough to be picked up. "I appreciate your points of view and reasoning and will take them into consideration." He said at a normal volume and neutral tone. As he once did with employees or colleagues that were expressing strange concerns.

With a measure of difficulty, the large man hoisted the heavy bags of lab equipment and supplies up onto his shoulders and gave the two before him a light nod. "I wish you both luck in your research."

Hector didnt want to waste any more time and so, headed straight for the recently built laboratory to begin setting up the equipment. A quick button press on the radio made sure his message was heard to anyone within earshot of a receiver, "Ms. Jordan. I'm setting up the lab and will be working through the night. I'm going to need electricity wired to the location as soon as possible to start preliminary testing. As to anyone else hearing this, I am taking volunteers. Blood, saliva, tissue samples, urine, fecal matter. Anything you are willing to offer, I will take."

The radio flicked off for a moment before flicking back on as the man added, "Also leave one or two of the infected corpses aside. The least damaged ones if possible. I will need to take samples from them as well. Thank you."

With that, Dr. Salazar disappeared inside the soon-to-be-laboratory.

Ralph wanted to berate Hector for being such a stubborn fool, completely unwilling to listen to anyone aside from himself but what would be the point? He'd met people like him before, but was surprised to see it from such a well-regarded professional. Normally that stubbornness was from less intelligent people, those he'd gotten into hot water for calling out.
"Only hope now is that he lets us borrow some lab equipment." He shook his head, tutting "I doubt Luca would risk another run to set up a different laboratory."

He shook his head once more, his brown eyes heavy once more "Thank you for your help, Leliana. But I don't think there was any way of getting through to him."

Leliana wasn't that surprised, it wasn't the first time her help had been rejected. "Of course he'd decide to do it alone, " The nurse murmured. "He's a narcissist, no wonder he wasn't held in high respect as a person." Her professors, many of the nurses and doctors she met, and hell, her fellow students, never seemed to be that impressed by him on a personal note. He tolerated Kypher because that kid knew so much, but look at where that go him. In any case, she turned to Ralph. "I'm gonna go and finish with the clean up outside. I hope you didn't give him my notes, we'll need them." With that, Leliana turned and left, heading back outside, an air of disappointment hanging over her.

Ralph smiled "I made dozens of copies of both yours and mine. He only has one copy of what you gave me." His eyes a little brighter, he turned to her "Though I doubt he'll read it. He's got his head so far up there he physically can't."
An idea sparked in Ralph's brain when the cleanup was mentioned. If Hector was going to be busy setting up his lab the two had an opportunity to get ahead of the man. They'd need to, given that they both understood the infection more.

"Once that's done, meet me outside by the edge of the forest. I have some tests I'd like to run on the body Kypher grabbed and I'll need your help. Both in cutting it down and I'll need your intuition too."
Leliana looked back just for a moment after hearing Ralph speak, and gave him a thumbs-up as she grabbed her gloves. "No problem, just come find me when you're ready."

Mentioned: Maj (Andy), Brax (Luca)

 

[Brax]

Tre's Payback
​

After successfully (Or not) having carried out the task that Leliana had ordered him to do earlier in the day, explained to that Scottish sounding girl what Twitch was for some reason and having gone out of his RV at all had left Michael almost completely exhausted; all in all, he would say this had been a pretty active day for him, which made him feel a bit proud on the fact he had been useful around here for once.

He finally returned to his RV and locked the door behind him, he usually would not have blocked it due to having a roommate, but now that he was finally gone the Neckbeard could do whatever he pleased inside of the vehicle.

Michael checked through the windows to try and see if there was anybody nearby, but after seeing no one at all he closed the curtains, and after that he slowly but surely pulled out of his backpack a smallish book, one that he had been working on for a month before the apocalypse had begun and that been left unopened for nearly 3 weeks by now. He quickly opened it, revealing several mediocre-looking hentai pictures of a red-haired girl getting… screwed over; for some reason, she weirdly seemed to resemble someone from the lodge, yet Michael could not remember whom it might have been exactly.

The Manga for some unknown reason felt soggy, it could have probably been due to having been left in that backpack for so long… or maybe it could be due to some other unknown causes, but the reason why it felt weird was left unknown even to Michael himself.

In the dead of night, Luca quietly exited the bedroom that he and Andy shared holding a bundle of rope. There had been a time allotted and the man was well-known for his prompt behavior. He was sure to grab a wooden chair from the kitchen before he made his way out front. There, he met Tre, who had been sitting on the top step keeping watch over the lodge as he normally did. Upon hearing the door open the dread-head turned back. Luca saw his eyes light up at the prospect that they really were about to do this.

“Hey.” He looked down at the boy who stood up and began pacing the porch.

“I’ma fuckin’ get that fat FUCK, Luca. I’ma skin him! I’ma skin his ass and wear his fuckin’ fat like a coat! I swear to GOD we gotta do this shit!”

“Calm down.” The Italian grumbled, lighting a cigarette as he pointed a finger at the boy. “We’re not killing him. This is just to teach him a lesson.” Tre leaned his head back and sighed.

“I know man, you ain’t lettin’ no one have fun, huh?” He remarked. The bridge of Luca’s nose twitched slightly.

“You walk in from the front. I’ll stay out toward the side in case his dumb ass thinks he can get away.” The Italian mentioned before walking down the steps of the porch. “Word.” Tre followed closely behind. The two continued until they reached the RV. Without saying a word, the man looked down at the surrogate and nodded toward the camper. He didn’t need to be told twice. Tre slowly crept up to the door, eventually attempting to turn the handle before finding it was locked. This mattered very little. Tre had a tool for this in the bag on his back, one that he promptly removed before using it as entry into the lock.

Michael carefully continued to work on the outlines of his work; this was his magnum opus, his own personal masterpiece which he had worked upon for the last 2 months made from his sweat and blood, all his effort pouring itself on this fine delicacy of a manga. The neckbeard didn't even know for how long he had stayed on that chair, but it was finally done, his masterpiece was finally finished.

But mere moments after finishing his work, Michael heard the doorknob of the entrance to the RV being turned, yet ultimately failing due to it being locked. He grabbed his Hentai with his left hand and with the right one he unfolded one of the RV´s windows; he saw the way in which Tre tried to forcefully open the door with quite an angry-looking gaze on his face, it seemed almost like… hatred.

Welp, time to abandon ship. Michael said to himself, with the full intention of Opening one of the windows in the back and making a run for it; but at the exact moment he opened the curtain in the back of the RV he saw another man, a scarier looking Mediterranean dude with a death stare that could see right into his soul. Michael quickly closed the curtain in fear and began trying to see any other option which he had.

He had left his katana inside so that was a no go, plus on orders of the nurse, he had given his gun to Owen so any method to protect himself was now gone. The neckbeard then tried looking for the keys of the vehicle but he was unable to find them anywhere.

With no options left anymore, he knew he was now finished. The sound of Tre´s impatience to open the intensified, and knowing that the lock on the door would not last much longer. Finally, something clicked in Michael´s head, not a way to escape but the person whom the character in his manga was resembling; it was that girl with a cold stare at the lodge that had throat punched him earlier, and from what he had seen she was really close to Luca… maybe too close.

If this manga was found then he was a dead man, he just knew that, so even with all the sadness now in his heart, Michael had to destroy the evidence.

He rushed towards his ¨Survival¨ backpack as if there was no tomorrow… since there was a probability there wouldn´t be and grabbed probably the most unused item in his possession- an axe spray deodorant. Meanwhile, Tre made his way into the RV, cracking his knuckles as he intimidatingly walked toward the fat man. When he got close enough he grabbed him by his shirt, slamming a fist into his stomach with force. Then he stuck a leg out and pulled forward so that Michael would trip over it. Now facing the door to the RV, Tre shoved the fat man forward until he walked out. However, on his way down, Michael missed the last step and ended up doing the fattest version of a somersault the kid had ever seen.

Michael then proceeded to spray the shit out of it on his own creation, and after grabbing a lighter that possibly his roommate had left behind, he lit the book on fire, not before saying his final words.¨I am so sorry¨. A tear rolled down his left eye.

“What the hell is that?” Luca asked, unenthused as he watched the flaming book drop to the dirt below Michael’s feet. “He draws cartoons.” Tre mentioned in reply as he walked out of the RV, a bit more sarcastic in his wording than he had originally intended. The two began to advance, walking toward Michael at the same pace. In hysterics, Michael looked down at the flaming hentai he had drawn with sadness. As tears rolled down his eyes he turned to run from the two, who watched as his rolls flapped in the wind behind him. It was probably the slowest attempt at running Luca had ever seen.

Michael found the nearest window leading into the kitchen. He tried his best to open it but it was locked, so this forced him to shove his entire fist through it. With ease he was able to flick the lock so that it was able to be moved and then he slid it open. He tried his best to squiggle his way in, the top half of his body ultimately getting stuck in the window. Using his hands he grasped at anything that was in front of him in hopes to get leverage, but the folds of his fat provided far too much for the frame of the window. His sides and stomach hurt immensely, but eventually he was able to squeeze through. Michael’s body crumpled over the sink before he tumbled down and hit the ground with a large thud. Even though it may have hurt, the oversized bag of marshmallows made it in one piece! Well, at least he thought so. As he got to his feet he noticed both Luca and Tre standing before him with their arms closed, having accessed the kitchen by way of the back doors.

The man attempted to flee again but Luca’s hand grasped a handful of hair while Tre pointed a machete at his neck. Michael’s hands reached up in attempts to get Luca to remove his hand from his head but his attempts were futile. Together, the two walked Michael out of the kitchen and back out through the front door. Luca sat Michael down on the chair that had previously been placed on the porch. Then he stood there in silence with his arms crossed as Tre went inside.

“Don’t move, Stay Puft.” The Italian warned as he stared down the big man.

The man looked between Luca and Tre with terror in his eyes as he began pleading for them to spare his life. Standing in silence, the Italian reached out a hand to grab the collar of Michael’s shirt. He pulled back quickly while holding the fabric, completely ripping it straight down the center and exposing the man’s chewy, gooey center. With it ripped open he was able to remove the rest with ease, causing the man to hunch over in order for his arms to properly slide out. He was built much like a mountain of ice cream sitting atop a waffle cone.

Tre began wrapping the rope around the man’s torso so that it was nice and tight. The excess slack was cut with one of his machetes and applied to the man’s feet, which were bound together with both front legs of the chair. The dread head then smirked before the man as Luca spoke.

“Be quiet. Your gluttonous demeanor is unacceptable. Due to your brainless actions you offer nothing to the citizens of the lodge but detriment. For this, you will suffer for the next twenty four hours. When we release you, if you do not make attempts to change with your actions, you will have to find a new place to live.” The man reached his hand forward, grabbing a chunk of Michael’s cheek with his index and thumb fingers. He pulled it out to the side until he was sure it was hurt before his face moved closer to the man’s own.

“Do you understand me?” Michael nodded as he stared up at the Italian in pain, his cheek red.

Together, Tre and Luca heaved the abnormally large man up with very much difficulty. Every few steps they would have to place him back down and take a moment to catch their breath before starting again. What should have been a two-minute escort mission to the bathroom on the ground floor of the lodge became a ten-minute event. However, eventually, the two made it to the bathtub and had placed Michael inside so that his head lied right underneath the showerhead.

“Man, it woulda been big brain moves to just tie this dude’s fat ass up right here in the shower, huh Luca?” The kid asked with a wide grin on his face as he stared up at the man.

“Shut the fuck up, Tre.” Luca growled as he uncapped the honey and poured it all over Michael’s bare torso alongside the rope. Tre cut a big slit down the middle of the pillow and began hitting the fat man’s torso as hard as he could, causing feathers to stick to him with each hit. At the same time this was happening, Luca turned the shower nozzle a few centimeters to force a slow drip of water to start. Every few seconds a drop would hit Michael on the top of his head while he sat there for twenty four hours straight. Pleased with their work, Luca and Tre looked down at the man covered in feathers and beginning the chinese water torture.

“If you make excessive noise, your sentence grows in length by another twenty four hours. The same will happen if you make an attempt to escape. Sit there and think about your actions. If you don’t change, you will pay the price.” And with that, both men left the bathroom. Luca was sure to shut off the lights before closing the door. To put the cherry on top, Tre slapped a big ‘ol paper sign with tape on it, having applied verbiage with a black marker.

Out of Order


Featuring: Hyped_Taco

 

[TheMightyRedLemon]

​

Luca hadn’t slept in over twenty four hours.

Instead, he spent his time up in Andy’s perch unable to bring himself off to bed. As everyone else found rest the man spent his time reading a book that he had found in the master bedroom of the lodge almost a month ago. He hadn’t had much time to himself since he moved to the lodge from his apartment in Aurora. Nights tended to be extremely quiet. Tre kept watch out front every night and there were never any issues. If Luca wanted time to himself, he had to sacrifice sleep at night in exchange for it. Aside from any lights kept on in the lodge the only thing left to illuminate the backyard was one small one emanating from the man’s hiding place.

Vanessa crept down the stairs as best she could with her sprained ankle. Her dreams had persisted as she attempted to sleep, continuously rousing her. Since rest seemed impossible at this point, she wanted to step outside to clear her head of the many thoughts flashing through it. Exiting out by way of the back door, Vanessa took a deep breath, letting the cold air pass through her respiratory system. She loved cold weather in truth. It always brought a calmness over her. Despite what Hector told her, she felt compelled to take a stroll (limp) around the yard. As she walked out into the back yard, Vanessa's attention was caught by a light that was not given off by the lodge behind her. Curious, she hobbled towards it as casually as she was able to, given the state of her ankle.

Bloodshot eyes turned from the text within his hands to the near-depleted bottle of alcohol. After a certain point, it seemed as though the man hit a plateau. No matter how much he drank the effects weren’t changing, whether that be greater than intended or less. In his previous life the man did not abuse alcohol as much as he did now. It was largely due to how unavailable the drugs he used to abuse were at this point. There were barely any left. Even though Luca didn’t like it as much as he did pills or stimulants, it was highly likely that he was going to adapt a tongue that was even more wet. When the man first came to the lodge he couldn’t go an hour without blowing a line of oxycontin. Now, he could go almost an entire day.

The Italian removed a small plastic bag from the depths of his pocket. There must have been a little less than half a gram of the olive green powder at this point. To conserve it he would do bumps every once in a while - but once this bag was empty, that would be the end of Luca’s habit and he was well aware of this. Without a doubt he was going to be sick as a result but there was an abnormally large chance he’d be able to pass it off as illness to others when that time came. In reality, the man knew there was one person he’d have to turn to and be honest with. Especially if he didn’t want his withdrawals to take his life. It was highly unlikely that the man had Suboxone to help him with the horrible sickness that would undoubtedly come his way but if anyone had a chance to keep him alive, it was Hector.

Folding one of the pages to hold his spot, Luca traversed to the back of the book. He ripped a small corner out from one of the ‘notes’ pages that filled the book up from the end of the text to its back cover. Then he rolled it into a cylinder; a makeshift straw at its finest. The man then stood up to approach the perch’s built-in wooden table. He removed a small amount of the smashed-up powder from the bag by opening it up and tapping it a few times. Then Luca used the sharp end, or bottom side of that very same bag to shape it into a thin line. Before long he was slightly hunched over, pressing the opposite end of the paper straw into his nostrils as he moved his head to inhale the entire line.

The man sniffed a few times, straightening out his posture and hanging his head back. He let out a soft moan as he pressed the opposite index and middle fingers into his left nostril, effectively closing it. When he sniffed again, the excess powder that had been stuck around the inside of his right nostril would find its way up his nasal passage and into his bloodstream. Eating one of these pills provided a long-lasting effect, an extended release that was marketed to last for twelve hours. As the chemical cousin of heroin, it did not. That was rarely the case. Instead of a weaker high for a longer period of time, inhaling the smashed-up contents of the pill provided for a full-strength immediate effect to be taken on the brain akin to a shotgun blast.

He felt his saliva alongside the drug drip down past his throat. In between small sniffles he was swallowing. The man merely stood there for a moment with his eyes closed and his head hung back. Though, within a minute or two he was digging out a cigarette from his pack and lighting it up with a satisfied sigh. He took a seat on his foldable chair, picking the book up off of the crate and opening it back up to his folded page. The man unfolded it and continued reading for a few minutes. That is, until a drop of red liquid hit the page he was reading. Luca’s light hues redirected to it as another one fell. This prompted him to lift a sleeve up to his nose and hold it momentarily before removing it to see if the blood was his own. Sure enough, his sleeve was damp and stained red.

It had taken Vanessa some time to move across the yard in her endeavor to investigate the source of the light that had caught her attention from the door. Finally, she found herself faced with a ladder that leading up to a small house like structure. The light seemed to have been emitted from up there, so to quell her burning curiosity, she mounted the ladder and began to ascend the rungs slowly. The climb was strenuous, bringing swaths of pain each time she placed weight on her bad ankle. Nevertheless, she finally reached the top rung, peeking her head inside. "H..hello?" She called out in a low voice, her eyes scanning the area inside the perch.

The man’s head had been hung slightly, as he had passed out while sitting on that chair. When he heard Vanessa talk, half-open eyes peered over at the source of the voice, before fixing on girl. Luca lifted his head up a bit, using the same bloody sleeve to wipe the saliva that had been dripping down his chin before picking the half-smoked cigarette off of the ground. It must have slipped out of his mouth. Luckily, he had plenty of experiences with nodding off while smoking. Far before he started smoking, a chemical was introduced to cigarettes that allowed them to naturally go out instead of causing a fire. There were many times he banked on it being effective.

“What is it?” He asked in a low tone akin to a mumble.

Seeing who it was, Vanessa pulled herself the rest of the way up the ladder. "I couldn't seem te sleep… so I went for a walk…. Or a limp I guess ya could say. Saw the light here and I got curious…. " She admitted meekly. She shifted her weight uncomfortably as she stood by the ladder, not sure if she should move further in case she was told to leave.

The man took a deep breath, placing the cigarette in his mouth and lighting it. He cocked his head back once more so it was resting against the back of the chair. “You not here to stand around and tell me you were curious. I guess now I know why you were asking me for help finding contact solution yesterday. You’ve been wearing a mask.” His fingers fumbled to lazily grasp at the bottle on the crate beside him, though he accidentally knocked it over before picking it back up to replace the cap.

“I’ve had many sleepless nights but not one of them gave me the urge to go exploring. You can come in or you could keep moving.”

A look of shock and worry played across her face as her hand swiftly moved up to cover her face. She didn't realize that she had forgotten to reapply her disguise in her anger at Yuri. After a moment, she uncovered her eye and moved to sit in front of Luca. There was no point in hiding her face from him, after all.

"The cold air helps clear my head." She said. "It reminds me of…." She trailed off, looking down with a distant expression for a moment before her eyes trailed back up to the Italian's face. "Well.. that's not important I guess."

 

[Brax]

“You’re lonely?” He asked, the cherry at the end of his cigarette illuminating as he took a drag from its filter. The man was almost entirely silent as he waited for her response.

"I was, for a while…" she said truthfully. "When… all this happened… my ringmaster…. Yuri…. He gathered some of us and we held up in the apartment… they… they are all gone now. Have been for a while."

“Here.” Luca said, leaning forward slightly so that he could pass the bottle of alcohol to the girl. There was still plenty left. “It comes back to Darwanism. This has always been the case, apocalypse or not. Whether it be by the hands of others or the reanimated is completely irrelevant. In the end, we’re all headed to the same place. A lot of us will get there sooner than others…” His voice trailed off briefly as he flicked the ash from his cigarette into a makeshift glass tray.

The acrobat reached out with a grateful smile, grabbing the bottle as it was offered to her. Opening it, she took a few long sips as she continued to listen to the man that saved her life.

“You’ve made it this far. Found a lodge of people who care for one another in a way that is not natural. Is it a hard-to-swallow pill coming to the realization that you’ve been told multiple times that your life is your own? Judging by the wounds on your face that you tried so desperately to hide, I'm willing to bet there’s more underneath. This usually tends to be the case with survivors.”

Her gaze dropped at his question. She was silent for a moment, considering his words and how best to reply. After a few seconds of deliberation, Vanessa decided that the best course was to be fully honest with him. He had already seen her face for what it was. At least for him, her facade was over.

"I.. I've never actually been… free… I guess you could say. I came to be with the circus when I was eight…. I had just escaped.." she trailed off for a moment as the memories of the orphanage flashed through her mind yet again. "... a very bad place." She finished.

"I was starved… and I found a circus that had set up outside me home town of Perth. After stealing some bread one of the men there tried to kill me…. That's how I got this.." she said, trailing her fingers lightly down her scar. "Yuri… he stopped the man, and saved me life. Took me in and raised me as his own… in a manner of speakin…. I owed him me life, I did, and because o that I worked for him until recently… " she finished, taking another long swig from the bottle before looking back up to the man. "Now I will work for you."

“Okay.” Was Luca’s response to the woman’s story, the same neutral expression refusing to leave his face. It was highly unlikely that he was going to divulge information regarding his own personal life, even though he was practically nodding out throughout the woman’s dialogue. There was no reason to talk about himself or where he came from because it wasn’t relatable to this conversation. His life was of his own creation. Vanessa was very much a victim and that was clear.

“Where do you think that will get you?”

Shrugging she offered the bottle back to him. "What does it matter? I've never had a life of me own. I don't know what that's like. Ya can't miss what ya never had"

“If you can’t find value in yourself, then you can’t expect me to possibly find it in you either.” The man replied, still continuing to stare at the woman. “I’ve got nothing to lose. I wouldn’t trust this version of me sitting in your seat. You have very limited insight as to the person I am. If you can’t make taking care of yourself a priority, then you’ll never prioritize protecting the people in this lodge. That’s what I need the most. People who will act in the name of themselves and others.” He paused, gauging the girl’s reaction by way of studying her facial expression.

Vanessa looked at the man, clearly quite invested in his words. She sat quietly, despite her wish to protest his statement of her not valuing herself. She knew she had some value, having quite a vast skillset from her time at the circus, but she kept her thoughts to herself. Instead she listened closer as he continued.

“I won’t be in charge forever. Someone else will eventually step up to take my place. In that case, it won’t make sense to stick at my side as you seem to want to do now.” This had been information he shared with no one else that he offered to the girl truthfully. The two had spent a bit of time together up at this point, but it seemed like the person he was sitting with now was slightly different from the one he found in the apartments across from Aurora’s university. The man drank from the bottle that Vanessa had passed back.

“In a way, at least you got time to understand the type of person Yuri was. I didn’t know him but it is very apparent that we are two completely different people. How you describe it tells the tale. The devil you know may be better than the devil you don’t, but you have the opportunity to truly be free here.”

"Free…?" She had said the work with a questioning tone, but she hadn't actually meant it as one. She shook her head slightly. "I'm my own person now… I know that. You have told me this and so has the doctor… " She said, a hind of uncertainty in her tone. "You didn't have to save me the other day… you may have had your own reasons for it, but you saved me nonetheless. Even if you don't think so… I owe you my life. Maybe you won't be in charge, maybe you will. Maybe I shouldn't trust you as you say, but I think it doesn't matter. Not to me anyway." She said, her tone becoming more certain towards the end.

"If you say I am free to be my own person, then I accept that reality." She said simply. "Your the boss now. Not Yuri. You’re right… the two of you aren't the same, and I think that's a good thing. You are perhaps a better person then you let yourself believe and thats… my personal…. Thought on the matter."

"The people here... I've not met all of them but so far everyone seems nice enough. It almost seems like a family…" Vanessa said, trailing off with a wistful tone. "They mean a lot to you, don't they?" At this, she looked into his eyes, trying to gauge his expression in an attempt to understand him better.

“No.” Luca mentioned honestly, peering back at the female who had asked him. “They don’t mean much to me. There’s only one reason I stick around the lodge. When push comes to shove there is power in numbers and that was what I told myself when I first got here. However, I'm not sticking around because of that. My reason is far more selfish.” He found his eyelids were beginning to feel rather heavy. Luca’s extreme inebriation came from mixing alcohol alongside his pill habit but it made staying conscious extremely difficult. The man had the intention to continue speaking. However, once his head dropped and he shut his eyes for just a moment, he had passed out once again.

Nessa watched as the man across from her nodded off. It was clear to her that he needed the rest, but she didn't want to leave him out here in the cold. Despite this, she couldn't bring herself to rouse him. The alcohol had dulled the pain in her ankle to an uncomfortable tingle, and Vanessa made full use of this as she descended the ladder, quickly crossing the yard and moving into the lodge. The last thing she would want is for the man that saved her life to catch cold. A few minutes later she was ascending the ladder once more, the covers from her new bed in tow. Gently, she draped it around the ex capo, careful not to wake him. Once her task had been complete, she moved back into the lodge once more, intending to reapply her makeup and contact. No need to let the others know too, right?

 

[Maj]

​

November 12, 2018
7:12 AM
The Lodge


Andy watched him for a while before approaching Aaron. That was her way. The redhead spent much of her spare time observing, not only for the sake of an artist’s eye but because she learned more about a person by their actions than she did by their words. Her forbearance for conversation made it easy enough to sit back and watch. After she had seen enough to know that her instincts had been correct, the redhead made her way across the yard.

Boots padded through the muddy ground, she was still splattered with dirt and grime from her time out in the city, and likely a fair amount of zombie blood. Her hair was pulled into a messy braid, thick, crimson hair threatening to escape from it’s bounds. She knew very little about cars, but it did appear that this man knew what he was doing. The ATV should be no hardship on him.

“Do you make a habit of conversing with all inanimate objects?” Andy asked instead of greeting him. “Or is this one special?”

Aaron's head popped up from the bonnet of the vehicle, a few oil stains streaking across his face, he leant back against the car his hands braced against it. He gave a half hearted shrug of his shoulders, a cocksure grin tugging at the left hand corner of his mouth.

"Special doesn't even cover this one here. I may talk to a lot of object but she's the only one who speaks back,"

He gave the Humvee a pat, the aluminium body reverberating back. Hell all mechanics eventually started speaking to the machines in their care, ironically it generally stopped you from going insane, sticking a personality and a name on a 12 ton 6 wheeler.

"So you here to gawp or are you here to muck in and give me a hand? Always willin' to take on an apprentice, show you the tricks of the trade and what way up a spanner goes,"

“What?” Andy asked dumbly. She had not expected him to invite her to tinker with the vehicle, especially one that he seemed to have some sort of weird intimate relationship with. This was not something she wanted to get in the middle of. Although, she had always been interested in learning, her Uncle was always fighting with a car, a broken walkie, any number of broken or discarded items. She had spent much of her childhood sitting beside his toolbox and handing him various overly worn wrenches, but she never managed to pick up anything useful.

“No.” She confirmed, breaking from her thoughts. It was better to just get to the point. “I have an ATV that hasn’t worked in ages.” She gestured behind her to the shed where the hunk of junk was currently being held. It was great for hauling back game and would have served them well for dragging bodies across the yard as well. Having it back in service would only be of use to the lodge.

“I’m not sure what is wrong with it, but if you can fix it you are welcome to any of the tools in the shed.”

Aaron nodded his head, wiping his hands on his trousers.

"ATV huh? That would hella useful, these country roads are goin' to shit out there, gonna need all the 4x4s we can get out there."

He pushed himself up off the Humvee. Clearly she wasn't much for pleases and thank yous. But the offer of tools was one he couldn't pass up. The chance to replenish his dwindling supplies without having to risk life and limb? He'd be a fool.

"Well this old girl is going to take a bit more proddin' and pokin', could probably spend a few hours on her. Show me the way and I'll take a look at your ATV sized problem now. Caught me in a generous mood."

He gave this hands one more rub on his trousers, seemingly just moving the stains as opposed to clearing any of them.

"Lead on Red, 'fraid I haven't quite caught the lay of the land yet, goin' to need a guide for now. Didn't catch your name, unless you're happy with Red of course?"

“I am absolutely not okay with red,” the girl retorted. “Andy is fine.” She decided to forgo the lecture that he was staying on her property and maybe she was the one in a generous mood. After all, he had agreed to do what she asked and that was the whole intention of this conversation to begin with. She didn’t ask for his name, Colt had already given it to her after all.

Andy turned and walked the short distance to the shed that lived beside her house. It needed some TLC, but she hadn’t had the heart to remodel it. Her uncle had basically lived out here when he wasn’t on the hunt. After his passing, she had kept much of his items as preserved as possible. The aluminum siding shook slightly in the wind, but it kept most of the rain and dirt out. The red head lifted up on the door, as was necessary to get it to move. It was made out of the same sheet metal and had been hung crooked to begin with. Age had made it sag more and without pulling up it caught on the concrete flooring of the work space.

It took some maneuvering and a few grunts from her slim body weight, but she finally convinced it open, scraping along the floor with a rather irritating sound. She nodded to Aaron to follow her inside and pulled on the chain that hung from the ceiling, illuminating a large lightbulb without casing. The worktable that Andy used most often to service her archery equipment was clean, but the rest was littered with boxes of storage and junk. Old baby items and tools all hidden in various tubs, boxes and drawers with no real organizational method to the madness. The ATV was along the far wall, and as Andy pulled the plastic tarp off of it, large dust particles were flung into the air. It was apparent that it hadn’t been moved in over a year.

“I can help you move it outside if that is easier,” Andy offered.

Aaron let out a low whistle, which quickly turned into a series of suppressed coughs as the air rapidly filled with dust. He took off his cap, giving it a brief wave to clear the air.

"That would be mightily appreciated, always easier in a bit of natural light. Any idea of what's wrong with it? Or just want me to delve in and see what I can find, give her a full service,"

Checking that the brake was off he crouched down, his hands clamped against the back of the ATV as he began to give it a push, the wheels seemingly resisting after such a long period of disuse, after a few grunts and getting a bit more purchase on the concrete floor, the ATV began to steadily move along.

"If you could just give the handlebars a steer, make sure we don't go crashin' into anythin' on the way out. So all of this is yours I'm guessin'. Given the fact this clearly hasn't been ridden recently, not since all 'this'll went down anyways,"

“This is my family’s hunting lodge,” Andy explained. If he had been inside he had likely seen pictures of her and her brother on the walls. She did as Aaron requested and used the handlebars to ensure that he didn’t knock into the already unstable walls. “The ATV died on us about a year ago, maybe more.” The floor sloped slightly at the door and made it easy enough to transition the vehicle from the shed to yard. It was a tight fit to get Andy and the four-wheeler out of the door at the same time, but with a quick inhale, and some careful maneuvering she was able to clear the sheet metal frame.

It jarred slightly as it transitioned to the muddy grass below, but the pair had been successful. Andy grunted as her gripp on the handlebars caused her to lurch forward with the machine. The woman stood, dusting her hands on her blood stained jeans, hands brown from the tarp.

“I don’t know what is wrong with it, or I wouldn’t have had to ask you for your help.” She shrugged at him. “The lights used to come on, but that was a year ago, so the battery is likely dead now. Your guess is better than mine.”

Rolling up his sleeves he got down on his knees pulling the flashlight from his belt and shining it over the exposed engine parts of the SUV. The battery was probably on the way out, but having had a look over the electrical wiring there wasn’t anything untowards there.

“In that case then we’ll count this as payment for allowin’ me to park up and stay. Name’s Aaron by the way. If Colt hasn’t told you already,”

He continued checking the fuel pipes running from the tank to the rather simple 4-stroke engine. It was basic, and nearly all exposed, which not only made it easy to track any problems, but also limited what could really go wrong. He took out a small spanner and held the torch behind it.

“Mind grabbin’ that for me. A lot easier with another pair of hands. Just keep it trained on the engine here.” Andy obliged, taking it from him and doing her best to follow his instructions and not get burned.

With a couple of twists the screws keeping the seat in place over the main body of the engine was gone, revealing the lot. His focus flicked to the spark plugs, the next step after the fuel and battery that could be the cause of the malfunction, and began working it loose.

“So how long you had this little retreat for? Reminds me a bit of my Pa’s place. Bit colder and a lot more trees mind you. But still beats bein’ stuck in the middle of the city. Even more so in times like this,”

“My uncle built it before I was born. I took it over a few months ago.” Aaron seemed alright, but she didn’t feel the need to go into the specifics of her uncle’s death with a perfect stranger. “It’s remote and off the grid. It has power and running water, even if it is a bit cramped.”

“You obviously aren’t from here. Bad luck to get stuck in Aurora now.” She commented. “Where are you from?”

Aaron let out a bark of laughter and shook his head.

"Tell me about it, I should have just kept on drivin' to the next base along my route. But nope, I'm a sucker for the prospect of a night spent underneath the stars,"

Another hour's drive, that's all the difference it would have taken. A fork in the path that would have lead to a clearer conscience and less questions, just business as usual. He finally popped the spark plug out of its housing.

"Greatest state of them all, the Lone Star State itself, the great State of Texas. Which puts me half a world from home right now. But I haven't been back for the best part of a year now, was travelling from my post in Virginia, motor pool just outside of Richmond, sort of blink and you miss it kind of place. Bit of a shithole if I'm bein' honest, but the boys there were good bunch. Probably wonderin' where the hell I've disappeared to, will think I've gone AWOL or somethin'. Parents have probably been alerted, lord knows what they think, probably worried sick…"

He went silent for a moment busying himself with his work. Wasn't much point in worrying about such things. Suck it in, push it down and deal with the inevitable emotional consequences a few years down the line. Army basic training 101. He held up the spark plug, the easy going grin slipping back into place, focusing on the simple joy of the task before him.

"Here's your problem. Unravelled wire in the spark plug, simple wear and tear. Luckily the plug itself is fine, just need to thread some fresh copper wire through and that should do you at least a few more months. No spark plug no ignition of the fuel. Explains why the lights were workin' and nothin' else. Get me a good 6 inches and I'll do it right here. Then all you've got to do is change the battery,"

“Hmm.” The girl cocked her head as she tried to think through the situation. She didn't have copper or a battery here that she knew of, but those items could be obtained rather easily. The group was doing pretty well on supplies, it was possible she and one other person could quickly get in and out of town before much danger hit.

"Could you write down the kind of battery I would need. Dumbed down enough anyone could be sure to get the right kind?" Sadly it looked like her ATV would have to wait a while longer, but at least it was on the mend.

"Course, shouldn't be that hard to find, even a scooter or bike battery would do with a little bit of cajolin',"

"Good work," Andy complimented, offering the male a rare smirk. "You've earned your keep."

Aaron beamed happily at the praise, even as he was unaware of the rarity of such a thing.

"Music to my ears, was beginnin' to get a little tired of my own company. Started runnin' out of topics of conversation."

Collab: RayPurchase

 

[Hyped_Taco]

Michael´s Restroom Diary​

Well, Michael had now been left alone in the cold tub of the restroom with no apparent way of escaping his current predicament due to how tight both the Italian and his sidekick had made the knots holding him down; but even if the neckbeard could free himself from the tight ropes around his body, then what other things could he possibly do? If he attempted to get out of the restroom then he would just be sentenced to 24 hours more in the place, getting him right back into square one.

Michael attempted to think of any way to get out of here, yet every single choice he could think of either sent him back here with a prolonged punishment or just got him kicked out of here. With no options left, the neckbeard finally accepted his fate of being restrained in the restroom for a full day.

Hour: 1​

With no way to move his body and not even being able to speak loudly unless he wanted to add more hours to his torture, Michael had gotten bored really, Really quickly. His only entertainment for now being the fact that he had been counting the time till now, to at least the amount of time left he had to serve here… this had now officially become the slowest ticking hour of his life.

Hour: 2​

Michael decided to start humming to himself any anime opening that decided to come through his mind; at least during this time the neckbeard had learned that counting and humming at the same time was harder than it looked...or well, sounded.

But at the very least two hours had gone by, this had not ended up being as bad as he thought it would be since they apparently were trying to bore him to death or something.

Hour: 3​

Dear god this was actually worse than he thought it was; Michael had finally noticed the small drops of water reaching his head every few seconds, disrupting whatever thoughts he may have at the moment due to how annoying that had become.

Well, at least he knew their plan now, to bored and annoy him to death while in a bathtub…. great; at the very least things could not possibly go even worse from now on.

Hour: 5​

¨Me and my big fucking mouth¨ Michael silently said to himself, in the last hour he had gotten a gigantic urge to have a leek, and finally, get rid of all the liquid he had been holding on till now. Michael tried to stand up, but was unable to do so due to being literally surrounded by rope. The neckbeard knew his time was now limited, so he decided to use the only option he had left… ask for help ¨Yo guys, I need to use the toilet!!¨

Hour: 6​

No one had come to his rescue, and now he had peed his own pants… Fuck.

Hour:… 8?​

Michael had forgotten to keep track of the time for a while, so he was mostly guessing the hour now. He had been attempting to sleep for a while by now, but the constant drops of water on his head kept him awake… God, he wanted this to be over.

Hour: ???​

By now Michael had completely given up on counting, sleeping or even try to entertain himself by now; all attempts at any of those things had proven to be futile by now, so why not just give up for now and accept that he would be bored, annoyed and exhausted for the next… 12-16 hours??. ¨… I wonder what everyone else is doing right now¨ the neckbeard asked himself; they were probably all interacting with one another, getting emotional between themselves or hell they could even be doing beneficial stuff for the group while he lied there partially covered in piss.

Interacted: No one but myself
Mentioned: Luca Brax Luca´s sidekick Brax Purshottama Brax Aderyn´s Cousin Brax Andy´s boyfriend Brax The mafia dude Brax The Italian guy Brax

 

[The Mad Queen]

The church's interior had become a familiar sight, and as Maria awakened, tossing off the blanket that was covering her the woman searched for anything out of place. Her blue eyes erupted at the sight of something moving behind one of the pews, and she jumped to her feet. Dashing towards it she noticed a mouse make it's way through a small crack in the floor as it scurried away to avoid her. A welcomed visitor, given it wasn't a rat or anything worse. Neither of them had seen a living thing in days. How long had it been? She'd lost track of time herself, but it wasn't like she'd ever been that great at it to begin with.

​

She made her way to the barricade next. The pews were either thrown against the door, or had been stripped apart and used to nail it shut. Her new home was holding together, as best as it could. The temple to a God Maria was familiar with (given the woman was from Derry) was a makeshift fortress from the raving bands of lunatics, a military that seemed to be shooting everything in sight and of course the dead that roamed the streets.
With the morning checks out of the way, her reward came when the woman searched through the cardboard boxes sitting across two long tables. The pickings, left by good samaritans for those less fortunate had been enough to keep her warm and fed. A smile crept across her face as she noticed something near the bottom.

A large can of chocolate pudding awaited her, and her blue eyes glistened at the sight. With the can in hand, she ascended the stairs to the top floor of the bell tower. Maria took a seat, overlooking the streets of suburban Aurora below her. With the can sliced open with a knife, she dug in with a spoon. Her eyes closed as she let the taste linger. A few scoops later, cared little about the chocolate caked across her lips.

Glancing across the top of the tower, her eyes met a small urn that she raised the spoon towards in a toast before digging in once more. She took her time to enjoy it, and paid little attention to the half a dozen corpses that waited outside the church doors. When she was finished she stood to her feet and kicked the can down, striking one of the undead directly on their temple.

They didn't even look up.
Scoffing, Maria made her way back down the stairs with the urn under one arm. She stopped in her tracks at the sound of something outside and peaked down from the tower.
A pickup had pulled up next to the church, with one man in the back armed with a rifle. He started to pick off the infected one by one as they shuffled towards the truck. As they drew a little close for comfort, the driver backed up. The dead were quickly dispatched but Maria knew that this was only the beginning. From her position she watched as the dead made their way towards the shooting. Seeing the approaching threat, the truck started to pull away but it jerked too quickly and and shooter was thrown out of the back. He yelled, first in pain and then at his companion to return but the truck was long done and the dead were piling in.

Within seconds, Maria was down the stairs and dashed towards the back entrance. Moving the barricades aside, she sprinted outside at full speed and made her way towards the shooter. She got a better look at him, he was a tall, bearded man with broad shoulders who was staving off the cold with a bomber jacket. At first, he aimed her rifle at her but knocking an infected back with a strong kick was the only sign he needed that she was on his side.

However, he got distracted at the sight of the woman and didn't notice as an infected grabbed him, biting down into his left shoulder. Maria had been too busy knocking back infected herself with strong kicks and pushes to notice until it was too late, her only indication being the man screaming in pain. She knocked it back with a strong push and grabbed the shooter by the arm, leading him towards the back entrance as the dead followed.

She shoved him inside first and leapt through the door herself, closing it tight and moving the barricades back into place. He slumped against one of the walls, resting a hand on his wound and groaning in pain.
"Thanks..."
"Shooting attracts 'em. You'd have been better just running the feckers over in your truck."
"I'll keep that in mind." He sighed "I'm Jack."
"Caoimhe." She nodded "Alright, take off your shirt."

He raised and eyebrow
"I need to make sure that thing didn't bite you."

 

[TheMightyRedLemon]

Grabbing her contact and makeup kit, Vanessa descended the stairs again. She knew she had to move quickly if she intended to not be noticed by anyone before she had a chance to cover her scar and eye again. She wouldn't go back to the bathroom she had found upstairs after she broke the mirror. Returning to the scene of the crime didn't seem to be a smart idea.


Vanessa had never been in a house of this size before, but she reasoned that it would only make sense if there was a bathroom downstairs as well. After a few minutes of frantic searching in her attempt to not be seen, she came across a door with a note on it. Vanessa squinted at the bold lettering that said 'Out Of Order' but couldn't make sense of it. She cursed under her breath. The writing was in English! Of course it was.


Though english was her first spoken language, her parents had died before she was able to attend her first year of school, so she only knew what schooling Yuri had decided to teach her. In other words, she could read and write, but only in Russian. With a shrug, Vanessa turned the knob. If she just peeked inside to check it out, she could determine if it was someone's room or a bathroom. She hopped greatly that it wasn't someone else's room. Pushing the door open a crack, she spotted a small porcelain toilet. With a sigh of relief she pushed the door open and turned on the light.


As soon as the room was illuminated, a very odd sight greeted her heterochromic eyes. The creepy fat man from earlier was bound to a chair in the shower, shirtless and covered in a sticky substance, causing feathers from a nearby ripped pillow to stick to the man. Vanessa froze, not quite sure how to react to such a sight. Should she laugh? It certainly would have been ridiculous enough if she hadn't spotted the steady slow drop of water on the man's head from the showerhead above him.


"Nope!" She exclaimed, quickly shutting off the lights and exiting, closing the door behind her. Even after taking a moment to process what she had seen, she still couldn't make sense of it. "Apparently the sign said 'sex dungeon' or some shite…." Vanessa said with a disgusted shudder.


So the broken mirror bathroom would have to suffice, it seemed. A shard of a mirror would be more than enough to do her makeup anyway. Limping back up the stairs, Vanessa entered the bathroom she had been in the night before and grabbed one of the larger shards of broken mirror carefully and went back to Colts room. She propped the mirror piece up against the wall and floor and sat in front of it, applying her makeup with a swift, practiced hand, then popped the contact back into her eye. She blinked a few times to let her eye readjust to the lense of the contact.


With a slight groan of pain, the former trapeze artist stood and walked to the bottom bunk. Quickly stowing away her makeup within her bag once more, she lay down on the bed. With what little sleep she got last, Vanessa felt today was going to be a long day, but she couldn't help but wonder what it would bring.

Mentions: Michael Hyped_Taco

 

[TheTreForce]

With hands plunged deep into the warmth that filled the pockets on the face of his jacket, Warren continued his hike through the scattered wood. White mist poured from his mouth in steady repetition, nearly synchronizing with the tempo of his feet that left deep indentations in the pale earth below. Though his boots fell deep, his steps would soon enough be filled again as if nothing had tread the path at all. The man came to an abrupt stop and took a deep breath, letting the chilled air fill every part of his lungs as he took a moment to look around. The lodge was still within sight behind him and nothing moved but the constant rain of snow. He continued on in a relatively straight direction, slowing the strides of his legs in a more relaxed manner. Warren was getting restless. Cooped up in the cabin hadn't been as bad as he'd feared, but he needed to get about. Not to mention the void supply of cigars and diminishing amount of alcohol.

He came upon a darker area of the forest. The trees were scorched; easily noticed by the contrast of white that enveloped the scenery. "Damn." The affected zone was quite large and the tall man could pretty well guess that this must be the area that the dumbass Michael and the other guy napalmed. The air still smelled of charcoal around the torched trunks, which just reinforced his craving for a savory cigar. The damage to the land itself was concealed at this point. "Where the hell did they get that shit anyways?.." It didn't take but the first encounter with both of the idiots to convince Warren to have no business with them if he could help it. They're the kind of people to drag others down with them when they meet their inevitable death. A leach of other's goods and works. If Warren were in any place of authority here, they would have been gone a long time ago. He did not care to have that kind of position though. Not anymore. It was better he had his freedom from that responsibility and tie to the clan.

The man found a dry and slightly raised area of dirt beneath a tree. It was riddled with many branches that caught and redirected the snow above, leaving the pleasant spot for rest. And Warren did just that as he slid his back down the trunk and plopped himself at the base. His thoughts soon turned to visions and then dreams while he sat with knees pulled up to his chest in a position of warmth.

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Warren stood, huffing. His hand shook with rage and malice. The steel in his grip now felt wet and sticky. There was no next step now. The door slammed open, splintering the wood that held it shut.

"Put your fuckin' hands in the air!"

Warren's crowbar dropped to the floor as his arms slowly went up, begrudgingly. "Shoot me you piece of shit pig."

The officer smirked as two more came up behind the hulk of a man and attached handcuffs, squeezing them to the farthest notch they could go around his thick wrists. "Search the place for any others. And get the fuckin' cleanup crew in here to take care of this mess." The Chief motioned to the bodies that littered the floor. He took a glance around and then back to Warren, who stood with a cold stare. "Get this Goddamn monster out of my sight."

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He awoke from his nap to the sun going down and the temperature starting to get to him. The march back to the new expansion of the lodge was just as quiet and calm, and by the time he arrived, he felt the sleep trying to come upon him once again. Warren wasn't sure of the time, but it mattered little. His body ached just enough from the previous day and was ready to rest into the next. He found the small bed more comfortable than usual and laid down, letting it take him away once more.

Mentions: Hyped_Taco Togy