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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,958 Views)
DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
When he was done looking at the photo, Eli accepted the piece of paper eagerly. He read it all the way through twice before he looked back at the others. Antonio was absolutely right that it was a ‘hit.’ Just like finding Antonio, it was another wave of good fortune in a sea of the opposite. Eli could only hope they still had a few more waves coming.

“It’s from Nolan. From the sound of it, it was soldiers that did this,” Eli reported out loud, gesturing at the bullet-riddled bodies that littered the room.

Eli had already guessed that was the case, and he assumed the others had as well. But no one had said it out loud until now.

“He says they were separating people, seems like they were keeping them under guard,” Eli added. “Nolan wanted out.”

He scanned the whole note a third time. It wasn’t a lot of text, but Eli wanted to make sure he internalized it. It was their best clue yet, after all.

Jon has family in Haskins, it's straight down Vine Avenue,” he read the last part out loud in a monotone. “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.

When he was done, Eli pocketed the piece of paper, then looked back to Brandon, Emily, Emmett and Antonio.

“After this, that tree’s our first stop,” he said. “Let’s go.”

He gripped his knife harder.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"Do you think they found anything in there?" Jen inquired.

"Well, we haven't heard any gunshots yet." Willow suggested. "As far as I'm concerned that can only be good news."

Jen peered around the parking lot again. A lot of dead bodies. But none of them moving. No movement at all as a matter of fact. It was pretty eerily quiet. It felt like a graveyard out here. Inside it must have felt like a tomb. Still, no gunshots. A good sign so far.

"Still." The pink-haired woman continued. "I seriously doubt our luck is that good."

* * * * *

"I agree with Brandon." Antonio chipped in. "They seem to be getting riled up. No point in letting it get out of ha-"

CRACK!

Another shower of dust sprinkled from the ceiling. This one was louder than the creaking from before. It sounded like wood splintering or cracking. Antonio shone is light to the ceiling; there were even bullet holes down there too. Had they been shooting through the roof... or had people on the second floor been shooting down? That the hell had happened here?

CRACK!

The roof distorted under the weight. Antonio's eyes grew wide. This whole building looked pretty old to being with, but he had never considered that it could be as structurally damaged as it had been. Before he could sound any sort of alarm, a final crack echoed through the room and a storm of dust and debris flooded down from the corner of the room near the door before spewing out in all directions and filling the room with a fine dust. Antonio lifted his hand to cover his mouth. At the same time, the familiar moaning of fallen echoed through the classroom.

They're falling through the ceiling!

Another loud crash confirmed Antonio's suspicion; this one just a few feet to his right and one of the fallen rolled into view beside him and immediately made a move for his leg. It wasn't Nolan. Antonio instinctively pointed the shotgun at its skull and ended it with a single deafening blast.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"It's out of hand now!" Brandon shouted.

He had ducked outinto the hall from his post at the door as the rotter came crashing down through the floor nearby. Emily was on the other side of the room. Evidently she felt the same wayabout the situation. A fight that wwasn't on their terms was best avoided. If rotters were coming through the ceiling than she didn't want to cross the room and potentially be pinned by one as it came down.

Using the butt of her rifle she smashed the closest window to her. That made two exits. She raised her weapon again ready to cover the others.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie sat in the centre of the middle seats of the van. She stared out past the windshield at the abandoned school and the bodies that surrounded it. She half-listened to Willow and Jen’s conversation, but mostly she reflected on the events of the day.

It had all happened so fast. Only hours after setting out after Nolan, they had rescued two people. One of them seemed nice, and came with the explicit backing of Brandon. The other also seemed nice, if a bit less down to earth. He came with a lead, though, which was just as good.

Or maybe it wasn’t. That lead had brought them here – as spooky and unsettling a place as Annie had come across since this all started.

“We went to a shelter like this, at the beginning,” she said aloud, changing the topic in the van. She gave Connor a comforting squeeze on the shoulder as she spoke. “Also a former high school. That’s where Spencer and some of his men found us. It didn’t look like…”

BANG!

The sound of Antonio’s shotgun was distant and muffled, but it immediately recalled the shots they had all heard in the lead-up to rescuing him.

Her hand immediately drifted to the handle of her gun. It was amazing how fast that instinct had developed.

“What do we…” she started to ask, a note of panic in her voice.

She cut herself off before she finished the question. She was the oldest in the van. She had spent her adult life being a figure of at least some authority. She was a doctor and she was a parent. She couldn’t let herself succumb to fear and rely upon the better graces of two young women, barely older than teenagers.

This was her life now, she reminded herself in an instant. These were the kinds of situations she needed to be able to face head on and without hesitation. She needed to live up to Randall’s example.

“Willow,” she said, only missing a beat. “The radio.”

* * *

Eli turned and coughed as dust rose in a mist around him. He heard a rotter fall behind him before he turned around and saw it. He was already planting a kick in its direction by the time its snarling face revealed himself through the mist.

“No…” he sputtered in response to Brandon, the word getting swallowed up in a sudden cough. He took a moment to recover. “No shit!”

BANGBANGBANG!

Beside him, Emmett had drawn his own familiar weapon and added to the noise. He ended one of the rotters – the one that had first fallen through the ceiling.

Eli noted that, and then his eyes struggled to adjust as he looked from Emmett to Emily, who had smashed a nearby window. Then he saw Brandon by the door. Finally, he found Antonio – standing under another shower of dust, as another crack sounded out above him.

Eli had just enough time to sheathe his knife before reaching out and grabbing the priest by the back of his collar. He yanked him back as hard as he could, dragging him away just before the ceiling fell on top of him.

BANGBANGBANG!

The rotter that came with the ceiling was immediately perforated by Emmett. Eli blinked as he looked up at the big man, firing away. He waved him towards the door Brandon had ducked through. Emmett got the hint, turning and running.

Eli, meanwhile, grabbed Antonio with his other hand and helped him to his feet. He started dragging him to the other side of the room, where Emily had made another exit.
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Is that so?
"What?" Willow paused for an instant.

Annie was asking for the radio? Willow was hardly one to complain; she didn't know what Annie had planned but she sounded like she knew what she was doing. She handed the radio back to her.

* * * * *

Antonio had spent the past few weeks fighting the fallen on more traditional terms. He fired a shotgun before all this and he knew what they could do. It was a fairly straightforward process as long as he could keep a distance between them and himself. But this was different. This was a fight against the legions of Hell while inside of a collapsing building. Eli had already saved his life while he was trying to figure out what was going on. Even if he could talk with all this dust in the air, he would still be strained for words. Eli seemed to know what he was doing, he would follow his head.

"Where are Brandon and Emmett!?" Antonio called out as they approached the window.

Eli and Emily were there, but the other two were nowhere to be seen. As he heard a groaning behind him, he spun his body as one of the fallen stumbled out of the dust and into his very small field of vision. It's milky, glazed over eyes did not belong to someone he recognized. He pulled the trigger on his shotgun and redeemed it.
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Strompy
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"Move your asses!" Emily yelled over the commotion.

A creep staggered its way through a hole made by one of the others. Its leg got caught and tumbled, falling flat on its face. Without missing a beat it started to push itself back to its feet, before yet another came falling through. The second one landed ontop of it and lost its balance toppling over backwards. If they weren't all carrying a completely fatal virus it might have been funny to watch.

Emily squeezed off two shots, putting both of them down. There were already more following them though, and they'd begun using the other holes too.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie accepted the radio quickly – though she didn’t necessarily want it herself, she just wanted it used.

“Guys?” she said after pressing down the button. “What’s going on? Do you need help?”

* * *

“They’re fine!” Eli said, glancing back just in time to see the back of Emmett’s leather jacket as he disappeared into the dust. “Listen to the lady!”

He finished leading Antonio to the window, and gestured for him to get going. In between Emily’s gunshots, he heard Annie’s voice follow a beep on his radio. As Antonio made his exit, Eli responded.

“Negative,” he said. “Stay put. We’re on our way out.”

He clipped the radio back onto his belt, and followed Antonio out.

* * *

Emmett shut the door just as soon as he cleared it, blocking out the storm of dust and dulling the wail of the falling roamers. He turned to Brandon, frowning seriously.

“We should go,” he said, well aware that he was stating the obvious.
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Is that so?
Antonio coughed; they were now outside. The sun was hovering close to the horizon now, but the cool breeze was a welcome relief after what had just happened. He was literally caked with dust and the first thing he did was start trying to brush it all off his clothes and face. Thankfully the roof had collapsed while they were in the room; had they been in a hallway, it might have been disastrous. Who knew what could have happened in a case like that? Apart from the dust billowing out of the shattering window, the building looked almost normal from the outside.

"What happened in there...?" Antonio shook his head in dismay.

Now that they were outside again, he could contemplate that question a little more. All signs pointed to the National Guardsmen doing this. But they had seemed like such good people. They had cared about the welfare of these people. What had changed? What could have happened to send them over the edge like this? What could have taken hold of them that would possess them to mow down innocents? It was just another reason that Antonio hoped to find Nolan alive after all this. He was curious to know the exact story of this place. The tomb that had claimed so many lives, including that of his girlfriend, was one that held a morbid curiosity in the heart of Antonio at this moment.

Maybe I will need to approach this topic carefully if we do find him. Many of these people may have been his friends.

"If it's any consolation, none of those fallen looked like Nolan." Antonio huffed after he recovered a little. "But what do we do now? I don't know how safe it is to be inside this building anymore."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli turned to help Emily through the window before answering. When she was on the other side, he backed away and started brushing dust off himself, like Antonio had done.

“Now we meet back up with the others,” he finally responded.

That wouldn’t be too hard, since they were parked just around the corner. Hopefully, Emmett and Brandon would be with them or at least be re-joining them soon.

“Then we check out that tree, like I said,” he added. “Could be they left something behind. We have to see. After that…”

He trailed off. He observed the setting sun and frowned.

“I’m not sure,” he said, after a few seconds of silence. “Note said they were going to Jon’s place in Haskins, down Vine Avenue. Is Jon another one of yours?”
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Is that so?
"He could be." Antonio responded uncertainly. "One of those I saw in the hallway was named Jonathan, but I know at least four Jons from the University. And I don't know if any of them had any sort of friendship with Nolan."

He shrugged.

"Sorry, I don't have much help I can offer on this one."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“What about…”

Gragh! A rotter appeared in the window, cutting him off with its moan. It started to haul itself up and over.

BANG!

In a flash, Eli drew his Supergrade and spent a round. Blood sprayed from the back of the rotters skull as it collapsed backwards and out of view.

“…Vine Avenue?” Eli picked up where he left off. “Or Haskins? You’re a local, those words gotta mean something to you.”

He holstered his pistol and started walking as more moans sounded out. He headed back for the parking lot.

“Tell me on the way.”
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Is that so?
Antonio got back to his feet and fell in line beside Eli. He hoped that the other two were okay, but Eli said they were so he would take his word on it. They likely got separated and had to go out through another way. Thankfully the hallway was clear and if they moved quickly then they should be able to get out of there without another incident. Hopefully.

"Vine Avenue runs parallel to the 27 so if it isn't the street on the other side of the school, then it is pretty close. And although I am not familiar with Haskins, there are a lot of small communities in the area; my guess is that one of them goes by that name." Antonio shook his head. "Problem is that a lot of these communities aren't named or aren't clearly labelled. Even if we found one, we might not know if it is Haskins or not."
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Emily shook her head sharply, shaking off a cloud of dust from her hair. She spat to get rid of the dust that has gotten in her mouth, then a few more times for good measure.

"What the fuck?" she managed after a moment of silent disbelief at what they had seen.

She'd heard of bandits. In the early days there was looting and violence in the major metropolitan areas, but the National Guard? How could they do that? It was inhuman. Disgusting didn't come anywhere near describing what she saw. It was an afront to everything she believed in. She wanted to make somebody pay for this.

...

Brandon opened the door they'd entered through and waved placatingly to the others in the van. Before anyone could ask why Emmett was covered in dust or what the noise was about, Brandon spoke up.

"Somebody went insane in there. Shot the place all to hell. Goddamn waste of ammo. Put so many bullets into one room where a bunch of people must have been holed up that they actually weakened the structure. Rotters fell through the ceiling, so we had to bail. Nolan's not here, but we know where he might be." Brandon summarized as he approached.
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Is that so?
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Willow held her arms out as Brandon and Emmett approached.

She was certainly happy to see him, and the others must be okay since he didn't seem too distressed over everything that had happened. But he just casually went over a lot of information.

"What? Did you say rotters fell through the ceiling on you guys!?" She hopped out of the van and started patting down Brandon, brushing off the dust and checking for wounds. "Where are the others, is everyone okay? Are you okay?"

"Did you find any good leads on our man?" Jen's question was more to the point; but she directed it more towards Emmett.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli, Emily and Antonio regrouped with the others just as soon as Brandon finished his summation. Before Emmett could answer Jen's question, Eli interrupted.

“You gotta be kidding me,” he said, still in mid-conversation with Antonio. “Fuck, I guess we’ll have to figure it out.”

Like Brandon and Emmett, Eli was caked with dust, and his clothes were decorated with some new splotches of rotter blood. He was unfazed, though. After everything they had seen in there – and the brief but intense situation they had just survived – the mission was still the only thing that made sense to him at the moment. So he was focusing on that.

“You guys okay?” he asked, nodding to Brandon and Emmett.

“Mmm,” Emmett grunted back in the affirmative.

“Are you? Brandon told us…” Annie started to ask.

Eli cut her off. “We’re fine, all of us. An’ we got a couple leads. A tree, first off. It's supposed to be nearby.” He turned back to Antonio. “You know where that is, at least?”
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