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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,959 Views)
Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Well, this isn't a surprise.

Willow hated being right sometimes. She appreciated Brandon's attempt at optimism, but they had both seen this sort of thing before. She wanted to be optimistic too. Hell, if she wasn't so worried about Kelsey, she might be more willing to be vocal about it. She always had been a loyal follower of the old adage 'hope for the best but prepare for the worst'. Right now, Willow was preparing herself for the worst.

* * * * *

"Of course..." Antonio muttered quietly.

It was easier for him to say. He was removed from the situation. Antonio had been actively directing people toward this location under the assumption that it was a safe haven. If he had been leading people to their deaths, then that was nobody's fault but his own. He was not about to give into despair yet, but the cassock he was wearing was starting to feel a little warmer than it had a few minutes ago.

He followed the road until it passed by the football field. He turned immediately into the fairly decent sized parking lot. There were a handful of parked school buses and other civilian vehicles that had been parked around the exposed lot to form a sort of redneck barrier from outside threats. The only opening in the barrier for passage was the turn Antonio took inside. The despair he had been trying hard to resist overcame him at this point. More bodies in the parking lot. More than there were in the field, many of them lined up against the walls of the school building. There must be at least a hundred. And how many more inside? A few fallen stumbled among the lifeless corpses, but in nowhere near enough numbers to pose any significant threat. Antonio brought the truck to a stop in the middle of the closed off parking lot and sank into his seat.

"I led them to their deaths..."

The van carrying everyone else pulled up alongside the truck and pulled to a stop as well. But Antonio did not feel he had the strength or willpower to move from this spot right now.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"Okay. Let's break out those flashlights." Emily said as they came to a stop.

The sun was getting low. Unless they wanted to spend the night there they'd need to make this search as fast as possible. It'd be dark in some of the rooms inside and if the place was overrun there'd be plenty of creeps inside. Creeps loved the dark for some reason.

She made her way around the back of the van and opened the bag containing the flashlights. There were three of them as well as two batons. She took a flashlight and baton for herself and left thr bag open for the others to equip themselves. It was probably going to be her, Eli, Emmett and Brandon doing the majority of the creep busting again. Brandon had alrwady gotten to work on the creeps in the car park with a couple of the others.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli gripped the handle of his knife when he saw the rotters. As far as he was concerned, everything he said a minute ago still stood. Until Kelsey confirmed that one of the dead bodies was Nolan, hope was still alive and the mission would continue.

He pushed open the door on his side. He started to get out, but turned back to Antonio first.

“You coming?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Antonio closed his eyes and said a silent prayer to God.

O Lord, Jesus Christ, Redeemer and Saviour, forgive my sins, just as You forgave Peter's denial and those who crucified You. Count not my transgressions, but, rather, my tears of repentance. Remember not my iniquities, but, more especially, my sorrow for the offenses I have committed against You. I long to be true to Your Word, and pray that You will love me and come to make Your dwelling place within me. I promise to give You praise and glory in love and in service all the days of my life.

It was the prayer of forgiveness of sins. He was praying for forgiveness for those that he had led here. They might still be alive today had he allowed them to stay. Deep down he knew that it was foolish to blame himself -- there was no way he could have known -- but he did anyway.

"Yes." Antonio told Eli as he finished. "I can still atone for this mistake."

He grabbed his shotgun.

* * * * *

Willow was not about to be left out of the action this time. She was still pretty beaten, she doubted Brandon would even let her go inside with the others though. If nothing else, this was a perfect opportunity to get a little practice in with her kukri though.

SHLUNK!

The weapon made that squishy, sickening sound as it was driven into the skull of one of the rotters. She wasn't used to the feel of it yet, but she was getting more comfortable in close quarters with these things. The riot armor on her arm also gave her a little more confidence too; in case something went wrong she had a fallback plan. She wouldn't be caught off guard like Julie had been. Or Randall.

She pushed the rotter off the kukri, but paused when she noticed something peculiar. She made sure no rotters were nearby and knelt down over it. It had been a young, college-aged woman. Judging from the state of decay, she'd been dead for at least a week or two. What drew her attention in were the bullet holes on her chest. her tattered shirt was soaked in blood and several puncture wounds were visible. This woman had been shot. She looked to a nearby corpse. Another young, college-aged man. He had been partially eaten, but there was a prominent bullet hole on his forehead as well. No matter which bodies she looked at, they were all shot.

This place wasn't overrun... Willow realized. They were murdered.

She wiped her kukri off on the dead rotter's shirt and pulled herself back up to her feet. She limped over to the truck where Eli and Antonio stood.

"Yo, boss." Willow gave Eli a little wave as she approached. "I don't think this was the work of rotters. All the bodies got bullet holes in them, whether they're walking or not."
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
As the last of the rotters in the parking lot went down Brandon spared a moment to clean his blade on one of their shirts. He now noted the bullet wounds and blood patterns on some as Willow had. He looked around for some sign of what transpired. He identified some of the casings nearby as 5.56 NATO which was the standardized munitions of the National Guard, so they may have been there. Of course, they also had the same rounds, so the casings didn't guarantee the National Guard were there. It also definitely didn't mean they were involved in this business. Still, he remembered that sign they put up and its grim warning.

"If you see any of the Guard lying around make sure to check them for ammo or anything useful. Military gear, big boon." Brandon said as he got back to his feet.

"You saw the bodies." Emily said quietly, not as a question.

Brandon nodded. It wasn't the first time people had turned on each other. The skinheads that hit Flint were packing police issued weaponry and ammo, it might be more marauders. Brandon unslung his C8. He wanted to keep things as quiet as possible but now it looked like they may be looking at another firefight. Emily wordlessly made her way back to the van and placed her rifle in the back and withdrew the M&P 15 and an additional mag.

The prospect of firing on another human being, or being fired upon made her incredibly nervous. She'd joined the ISP to try and save lives, not end them. Even if the ISP didn't exist anymore, that much had remained the same. Now more than ever it seemed like a time for people to keep each other alive, not kill the few people that were left. The scene before her was complete madness.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli kept a level head as Willow gave her report. Surprisingly, he was more unnerved by being called boss than by the bullet holes. Boss was what people flippantly called Randall. The title belonged to him.

He pushed past that particular neuroses and focused on the more pressing bad news.

“What he said,” Eli pointed to Brandon, frowning seriously. “And everyone suit up. There might be more to learn inside.”

He headed over to the trunk and retrieved some of the riot gear, and immediately set about strapping it on his shoulders and arms. He remembered how it saved his life several times over earlier today, when they had been swarmed in the underground lab. He wasn’t about to go into battle – or a potential battle – without it again, if he could help it.

Of course, now that he knew people were involved, he wished he had more. A military vest, for example. Something that could stop small-calibre rounds. Emily had her ballistic vest from her truck, but the rest of them were still out of luck.

“Willow, Jen, Annie, you stay with the kids, radio us if something doesn’t look right,” Eli said as he got ready. Emmett was the one to surrender his walkie-talkie this time. “Everyone else, with me. That means you too, padre.

Besides Kelsey, Antonio was the only one who had actually seen Nolan and could identify him. Eli had to consider that, as dark as the thought was.
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Strompy
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Brandon took one of the arm pads and gave it to Emily. She seemed to understand their application from the few dents rotter's teeth had made in them. She gave them an approving nod and strapped it on. The whole situation still seemed odd to her, even as she was preparing to go along with it.

All this just for confirmation that Nolan was dead? One look at the place said it all. The place was abandoned, in a rush too. Their chances of finding any sign of him whether it be his body or directions to where any survivors may have fled was miniscule. The chances of finding him alive after that were even smaller. They'd come all this way, and evidently lost people just to find this guy? This didn't add up even slightly.

Emily unclipped her holster just in case and flexed her now armored arm as she fell in next to Brandon. She'd have to ask him what was really going on later. For now though, they had each other's backs. Just like old times. He gave her a smile that told her he felt the same way.

...

As much as Brandon wanted to hope they'd find Nolan here an overwhelming part of him knew this was always going to have a sad ending. Finding one specific person in all this chaos in just one day? It was a fool's errand. They had to try though. They always had to try for the living. It was why he'd voted to help Emily earlier. Why they'd helped Antonio. As much as it ended up hurting them it was why they had to help Max too. It wasn't their fault he turned out to be a psycho. They did the right thing.

Still, a nagging uncertainty was growing in him. The same one that made him question whether delivering the cure what they should be doing. Maybe trying to save everyone would just get them all killed. Nolan really was most likely dead, and they were about to risk their own lives just to find that out. How long could they keep this up? How much more would they have to pay for the sake of others?

Brandon looked back at Willow and felt that same urge to take her and Kelsey and run away. Let the others try and save the world, he'd found something he cared more about. He couldn't let his friends fight alone though, and the potential prize of delivering the cure would be their guaranteed safety. He looked forward again and exhaled sharply as he prepared himself to dive back into a fight. At least that was a simple matter.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Jen flopped down in the passenger seat of the van. Willow was sitting idly in the driver's seat, watching everyone else disappear into one of the side entrances to the school building.

"Disappointed, huh?" Jen asked.

"What, that I got stuck on guard duty again?" Willow groaned. "I'm injured but I'm not helpless. A few weeks ago I would loved this, but now I hate having to sit on my ass and wait for everyone else to get the job done. We're all beaten up, why go treating me differently!?"

"Because you nearly died a less than a week ago and still don't have enough stamina to be in a drawn out, close-quarters fight?"

Willow sighed, but didn't answer.

"Hey, look." Jen tried again while being a little less smarmy. "All I got is a hurt leg, but they're keeping me behind too. I don't necessarily like it, but Eli's not wrong either. Everyone that went in there has something in common -- in a worst case scenario they can move. Both of us got some bullets in the legs; moving is not something we can do real good now. I'm appreciating this rest right now because my calf feels like hell after being stuck in that lab earlier today. I think you should appreciate it too. The more you heal up, the faster you can be out there again."

Willow remained silent and looked forlornly at the school building. Her face was difficult to read. She leaned forward and placed her head on the steering wheel.

"I know you're right." She finally sighed. "But it still sucks ass."

"Yeah, well..." Jen shrugged. "Life."

* * * * *

The smell struck Antonio first. As they opened the doors, it wafted out from the enclosed environment like a time capsule, holding all the smell inside. The smell of dead bodies had, unfortunately, become common place, but this was an overpowering concentration. The light from the flashlights wasn't even necessary to reveal the source of the smell. More executed humans. Young men and women. Antonio held his shotgun ready, but none of them moved.

"They're... they're all civilians..." Antonio furled his brow as the light skimmed over the corpses that lay strewn about the hallway.

So far, Antonio had seen no bodies wearing any sort of military uniforms or equipment. Everyone that was dead was wearing civilian clothing. Antonio was having a creeping suspicion that this was not the work of bandits at all, but of the people he had trusted to look out for the survivors. The idea was absolutely sickening -- he felt ill to his stomach even considering that possibility.

Creeeaaaak.

Creeeaaaak.

Creeeaaaak.


Footsteps. Second floor.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli’s head was on a swivel. When he heard the footsteps, he rotated quickly, searching for their source. When he realized they were coming from above him, he settled down.

Beside him, Emmett went through the same journey – but he did it a second faster.

They weren’t in any immediate danger, so Eli allowed himself a small sigh as he glanced from the hall of bodies to Antonio’s horrified face. Truly, Eli shared his horror. A day or two ago, he would have had the same reaction as the priest. For all he knew, a day or two into the future and he would as well. For now, though, he was hollow. The events of the last 24 hours had done to him.

At the moment, all Eli could see was his mission – protect his people, protect the cure, and find Nolan. Everything else only mattered insofar as it impacted those goals.

“You’re keeping an eye out for Nolan, right?” Eli whispered, glancing at Antonio. “You’ll know if you see him?”
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"Why would anyone do this?" Emily quietly asked in distress.

No soldiers among the dead. It wasn't enough to convince her they were responsible yet. A lot of them had families. More than likely they abandoned this place to find them. Would have strained those who stayed behind, eventually they may have decided to move on and maybe regroup with other forces. That would have left this place defenseless. It was easier to swallow than the idea that people who were supposed to protect others suddenly turned on them. It was a more understandable series of events.

Still. It was enough to plant a seed of suspicion.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Antonio did his best to calm himself down. He knew that God was watching over him, but this massacre before him was more intense than he had been expecting. He had seen plenty of bodies through all of this, but nothing quite at this scale. This was a slaughter of innocent lives by other living humans on a scale he had not yet experienced. Maybe if the fallen had done this, it could be blamed on Satan. But this was people mowing down other people. There was no other explanation for this.

"I am." Antonio recovered.

This meeting had happened for a reason. To help these people reunite a pair of siblings. It also served to show him the error of his ways. But why show him this? Why allow so much life to be lost? What was God trying to tell him or show him through all this? There were so many questions bubbling through the priest's head, but he didn't allow himself to dwell on them right now. All would be revealed in time. All he could do now was put all his strength, both physical and emotional, into this effort.

He accepted one of the flashlights and began shining it over the faces of the deceased. As he walked down the highway and deeper into the school, he slowly examined each and every face that they came across. He recognized a handful of them. Alicia. John. Stanton. Taylor. Jonathan. Patricia. All of them laying on the ground among the deceased. Of course, not all of the bodies on the ground were truly dead; a few of them had revived, but were too badly decayed, damaged, or weighed down to be of much threat. They were swiftly put out of their misery by someone. Bullet holes and blood splatter painted the walls of the hallway as they continued deeper in. Cracks were laced along the walls and ceiling, hinting at some structural damage from all this.

"I recognize some of these faces." Antonio frowned and shook his head. "I do not see Nolan among them."

Above them, the footsteps continued. More like a shuffling, to be exact. Whatever was above them was no longer human, Antonio could tell that much alone. Still, they were no threat right now. He would wish to see them redeemed in the eyes of God and given a proper rest, but they could get to them in time. He pushed open the doors of each classroom and peered inside, looking for any sign of the young man that they sought. But they had no luck finding the boy or any clues.

This changed with the fourth classroom. Huddled in the far corner of the room was a woman who looked vaguely familiar wearing a worn, but distinctive, purple jacket. As he stared at the corpse, it slowly raised its head and looked back at Antonio. The fallen gnashed its teeth, growled and tried futilely to climb back to its feet. Antonio motioned for everyone to follow him inside.

"That... that is Monica." Antonio shook his head and pointed to the struggling fallen in the corner; a few other bodies were face down on the ground are her. "That is the woman that I always saw with him."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
The girlfriend. Shit.

The discovery was almost enough to put a serious dent in Eli’s determination. It was almost enough to cut through the callous around his heart and let self-doubt and despair seep in once again. Almost.

Eli grunted as he leaned over, pinning Monica’s shoulder against the wall with one hand and stabbing his knife down into her forehead with the other. She instantly stopped struggling. Her mouth hung open, a trail of black drool running down her chin.

Eli grunted again as he pulled the knife out. It took him two hard pulls. He had really planted it in there.

“It’s bad news,” he admitted, turning back to face the others. “But we’re still not done here.”
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"Let's finish sweeping this floor quickly and get started upstairs. That rotted up there is starting to annoy me." Brandon said with slight impatience.

Night was approaching.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Once again, Antonio found himself outlining the sign of the cross on his torso. He found himself performing the action almost subconsciously now when he was feeling a little overwhelmed. He didn't even know what he was asking God for anymore when he did it. It just made him feel better. He was brought back to the situation at hand as a creak sounded through the room and a light sprinkle of dust from the ceiling fell through the beams of their flashlights.

"No we are not..." Antonio slid forward to do some further identification.

One by one, he flipped the dead bodies onto their backs with the barrel of his shotgun. All of them had clean wounds in the head -- all of them were very dead. And none of them were Nolan either. He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but it felt wrong to be happy over the fact that people were dead. That people had left this world in such violence. He was glad that none of the victims were the man they were looking for, but he was sad that there were victims at all. With these bodies, it became clear that her boyfriend was not among the deceased in this room.

"Maybe we can find something in her possessions."

Antonio hesitantly reached into her purse, which laid on the ground directly beside her body. Even though she was dead, he could not deny that it felt wrong to be digging through her possessions to freely. But if there anybody in here that would have any leads on their man, it would be this woman. It took him a moment, but he quickly located her wallet among the various other possessions. He pulled it into the light and flipped it open. He gutted the wallet, pulling it apart in his search for something specific. And he found it. He withdrew a small, personal photo that had been tucked in one of the flaps. It was slightly worn at the edges, but it was a photo of a young man with bright blue eyes, broad and angular features, high cheekbones, and a shaggy head of light brown hair. He was shooting a smile that showed off a row of white teeth and wearing an obviously fake tuxedo. A high school graduation photo. He certainly looked the part of a popular high school athlete.

On the back of the photo was a handwritten message framed with a heart: Nolan.

Antonio held the picture up for everyone to see.

"This is him." He told everyone and handed it off for everyone to look at. "A few years old, but he looks almost the same. Notice the scar that cuts through the outer edge of his left eyebrow. It might be a good thing to look for if you're unsure."

The footsteps above them seemed to be growing more active. The sounds they were making sounded like they were stirring up some sort of hive up there. It made Antonio a little nervous; the walls and ceiling were starting to creak eerily from their increased movements. As he prepared to leave the room, something caught his eye. A small piece of folded paper that must have fallen out of the woman's wallet while he was digging through it. He wasn't sure why, but something told him to look at it. Perhaps it was the voice of God leading him to a clue; perhaps it was his own paranoia over not wanting to miss a potential detail. Either way, he knelt down and scooped up the piece of paper. As he unfolded it, it became clear he was looking at a handwritten letter.

Monica,

Things have only gotten worse since they separated us. I don't know what's up with this weird tension, but I think it's bad. Really bad. The soldiers are looking more paranoid by the day and I think it's only a matter of time before they snap and something even more fucked up happens than the Ashley incident. I think we should get out of here before then. Jon has family in Haskins, it's straight down Vine Avenue. Meet us by the big tree on the south end of the campus tomorrow night at midnight and we'll get out of here. Make sure nobody sees you leave.

Love Always,

-N


"Eli... I think we got a hit here." Antonio held out the piece of paper. "It is far from a guarantee, but if we don't find him here, it gives us another place to check."
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Brandon inspected the photo of Nolan. Despite the situation a laugh escaped him. Nolan looked like Randall in some ways, but he obviously took after his mother in the looks department. Still for a moment he could see Randall in his features. It reinvigorated his drive to find him. For the sake of the man who'd given his life for him, and for the girl he'd been entrusted with.

Antonio mentioned another possible location where they may find Nolan. That was good news, provided they didn't find him in the school first. Nolan could be one of the rotters shuffling around upstairs right now. They were starting to get agitated and it was going to come to a fight. They'd find their way to the stairs before too long. May as well deal with it now.

"We should take care of that before it becomes a fight we don't control." Brandon said in reference to the noise from upstairs.
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