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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,935 Views)
DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Jen’s assured response sent renewed confidence through Eli. He could feel his excitement levelling off. He was getting back to being oddly cool and collected – where he needed to be.

“First off, get over here,” he said, then set up the motorcycle once again. As Jen approached, he continued. “Get to that parking garage before they do and find cover. And then watch. We need to know everything they do that’s not part of the agreement. And if they setup this Moe person – the one who shot Emmett – in a bird’s nest, we need to know where.”

He looked away from her and to Emmett. Annie was helping him onto the bed of the truck, now that it wasn’t taken up by the motorcycle. She probably intended to stitch him up again there.

“Emmett, your binoculars,” Eli ordered simply.

Annie turned and shot him a dirty look. Emmett just gulped and complied, digging into his pockets and then tossing the folded pair in Eli’s direction.

Eli caught them, then immediately held them out for Jen.

“Be observant, be quiet, and don’t get caught,” he summed up. “We’re relying on you.”

“Jen,” Annie interrupted, glancing back from her bag with a frown. “You don’t have to do this.”
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Connor. He'd gotten himself so worked up he completely forgot about him. Annie's outburst brought him right back down again. He didn't... couldn't meet her eyes. That was a nail in the coffin of her regard for him. He hated to disappoint her but perhaps she just couldn't understand why these people had to die in his eyes.

The moment Wendy insisted on her stipulations she confirmed that she valued herself and control over Tom's life. She confirmed his suspicion that she wanted them dead. That also confirmed that she would never take this chance again. She was going to start killing people fromnow on.

These people were no better than rotters. Worse even. They could save as many people as they pleased but so long as this other group lived they would be essentially allowing more to die. He wasn't going to sacrifice others so that he could claim to have a clean conscience, he'd get dirty if it meant actually doing some good. An ounce of prevention...

"What did you think it was going to be like, Annie? It's a mess out here. I know you just want us all to be safe but that isn't going to happen until we..." he almost let slip about the cure.

"Until we make it safe. I just wanted our stuff back, she's made it clear she won't give it to us. I just wanted them to leave us alone, but they didn't. They'll do this again and worse. They've continued to dig their graves deeper and deeper at every turn. I'll put them in those holes and I'll sleep soundly about it too." he admitted meeting her gaze unflinchingly.

His only real regret was that Connor had to be a witness to all this. But then he'd promised himself he wouldn't keep the truth from him. Hard lesson for a kid, but this was a hard world.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"I know I don't." Jen gave Annie a sympathetic smile as she accepted the binoculars from Eli. "But if nobody does it, then it's even more dangerous for us. And it doesn't look like we're backing out of the plan. I'll be fine though, I promise."

She was honestly kind of relieved. She didn't have any guns or weapons apart from a butterfly knife, so in a fight she would be pretty useless. With so little guns, there weren't any others to spare for her; even if there were, she was not a talented sharpshooter like Willow, a trained survivalist like Brandon, or a hardened fighter like Eli. Recon was a role that suited her just fine here.

She was not sure how she would get any information to them without a radio or any source of communication. But she imagined Eli had something in mind. She would just need to stay near the road where they would be able to find her.

"30 miles south at a big ass parking garage, right?" She had Eli confirm the location of this place for her one last time.

When she got the confirmation she wanted, she jumped on the bike, kicked the kickstand and revved the engine just as Emmett had done a few minutes prior. She hadn't ridden for almost a year, so her start was a little slower than Emmett's, but she didn't fall down like he had either. The bike handled well and she adjusted quickly -- it didn't take long for her to guide the bike down the street and around the corner, where she disappeared from sight but not sound.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie didn’t respond to Brandon. She held his gaze with a look of severe disapproval – disapproval bordering on disgust. She had a lot of judgment these last couple hours, Eli noticed.

Personally, Eli chose to ignore it. He was doing this for her and her son, whether she believed it or not. Brandon was too.

He watched Jen ride away instead. As she blinked away around a corner, he felt something approaching pride for her and her commitment.

“You know, I used to think my group was intense,” Gorski interrupted his thinking.

Eli turned to glare at him. So did Annie. It was at least one feeling they had in common today.

* * *

“If we’re going, shouldn’t we have gone already?” Annie asked the question bitterly.

It had been slightly over an hour since she last spoke. She was tired of this street corner, just like she had been tired of the strip club before they had ditched it. For her, neither location was a great place to be, nor were they great places to treat a patient. The strip club especially. They wiped the stage down before resting Emmett on it, but it was still a strip club.

Eli shook his head – the kind of non-verbal answer she might call ‘straightforward’ in better times, but which was infuriating now.

It was like he didn’t even care what she thought. He was going to push forward and do what he wanted to do, everyone else’s input be damned. Since what he wanted to do was fight an unnecessary battle, that attitude was becoming increasingly problematic.

“Weren’t you afraid they’re preparing for an ambush?” she asked, demanding more of an answer.

She wanted to be on the road, back on their way to California. Failing that, she at least didn’t want to be staying still.

“If they’re trying to set up a trap, we have to let them think they set up a trap,” he replied.

“Profound,” Gorski remarked sarcastically. “You guys got yourself a walking, talking fortune cookie over here.”

Annie wondered where they had left the ball gag.

* * *

Eli looked at his watch. It was about time to leave and meet up with Jen – at least, hopefully meet up with Jen. He tried not to let his mind wander and consider any dark outcomes of her solo ride to the meeting place.

“It’s almost time,” he announced, standing up from his spot on the curb. “Get ready.”

“We’ve been ready,” Gorski said.

He was sitting at the back of the van, rolling his head around his shoulders. Brandon was nearby keeping careful watch, making sure he didn’t try to run for it or commit to any of the other myriad stupid ideas likely running through his brain.

“Willow,” Eli nodded at her as he walked away from the scene, for just a moment. “Can I get a word before we go?”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"Yeah, sure." Willow quickly responded to Eli.

She was worried about Jen. And the tension in the air. And the fact they were about to walk into a potential gunfight. And everything, really. Being idle gave her a lot of time to run through potential scenarios in her mind, most of them ending poorly. She was glad Eli wanted to talk, if only as a distraction. She made a few large strides to catch up to him.

"What's up?"
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“This’ll just take a second,” Eli said, turning to face her when they were far enough away. “Remember what I said last night, about being how it's not gonna get easier?”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Willow had an idea that she knew where this conversation was going.

"I remember."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“Okay,” he said. “Good.”

He looked over Willow’s shoulder at the delivery van and truck in the background. The others were gearing up to get moving.

“You did well today with Gorski an’ the other bikers,” he added, staring past her at the bikes. “Real well. You saved my ass. But the day’s not over yet. You understand?”

He turned back to her, put a hand on her shoulder, and looked down at her in the eyes.

“I gotta know – if it comes time you need to pull the trigger again, and I give the order... are you gonna do it? I'm talking on a person, not a rotter. Even if they’re not shooting back, or escaping, or anything else. Are you going to pull the trigger?”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"Wait a second." Willow took a step back, out of Eli's reach, and raised one hand slightly in front of her. "I don't know what you're implying, but it sounds like you are asking me if I would shoot them in the back as they were leaving if you told me to."

She furled her brow.

"Is that what you are asking me to do, Eli?"
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli frowned right back. It wasn’t the reaction he was hoping for.

“No,” he said. “That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking for trust. I’m asking – can I trust you? Can you trust me?”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Willow let out a drawn out sigh. For a moment there, she got the idea that Eli might have never had any intention of letting them get away. It would make sense, given everything he was doing recently.

"Yeah. You don't need to worry about that." Willow finally agreed. "It bothered me at first, but now I can put a bullet in someone without a second thought if they're a threat to us. I'd pick us over them in a heartbeat. No contest."

Still, she was worried. If the trade went down seamlessly, would Eli tell her to shoot them as they were leaving anyway? What would she do? She didn't have an answer. All she could do was trust that Eli wouldn't put her in that situation.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli nodded. He was uneasy about her reluctance a moment ago, but he took the ‘yes’.

“That’s what I needed to hear,” he said. “Let’s get going.”

* * *

Eli was behind the wheel of the van now, and Willow was with Brandon in the back. They weren’t exactly getting any alone time, however, as they were back there with Gorski, who’s nerves about this upcoming trade hadn’t made him any more bearable to be around.

Emmett sat beside him, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling, likely trying to tune out the pain. He had refused to take more than the recommended allotment of painkillers, even after ripping his stitches open trying to get on that bike. Now he just had to suffer through it in stoic silence. It made for an awkward time to start a conversation, but Eli had to do it.

“Back at the club, you never said your opinion,” Eli said, looking over to his passenger. “About Annie’s idea – whether or not we should just let this go.”

Emmett looked to him without turning his head and was silent for an uncomfortably long moment. Eli looked back to the road. He was just about to accept that Emmett wasn’t in the mood, or otherwise didn’t have the inclination to get into it.

But then Emmett spoke. “I keep thinking about Sarnia,” he said.

“I remember,” Eli nodded. “You went in there like a commando, disabled the guards, an’ then radioed us to come on through. You didn’t even have to kill anyone.”

That was also when Maxwell got word to the bandits there about Flint, which culminated in some very unfortunate events. Eli left that part out. Emmett’s actions had nothing to do with that. Maxwell would have found some way to sabotage them eventually, fraught border crossing or no.

“The men I captured… I saw them again,” Emmett said lowly. “In Flint. They killed people before we could stop them.”

Eli glanced over to him again. He remembered that was the case. Emmett had brutalized one of those men – broken his arms and legs and left him there for Brandon to mercy-kill. Eli had been wondering how that memory was playing for him.

“I’ve thought about it a lot,” Emmett added. “I won’t let that happen again.”

Eli could stop wondering. He had his answer.

* * *

It wasn’t much later that the many layers of the expansive parking garage were visible down the street. Across from it was an even taller office building. Eli headed for the shadow cast by the offices, and then brought the van to a stop.

He exhaled, readying himself for whatever might be coming next. He just hoped that Jen had noticed their approach, but Wendy’s crew hadn’t.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Brandon remembered Sarnia. After the events in Flint he also remembered having a discussion with Emmett about it. He told Emmett not to blame himself for that man's actions, that he was a good person and it wasn't his fault. Now he was in the same position as Emmett and he couldn't help but feel the weight of their next actions. It was true, to leave without killing them would mean giving them the chance to do the right thing, but that would be gambling on the safety of others. He didn't like the odds. Now he finally understood how Emmett felt.

He couldn't help but wonder if killing them was a good thing or a bad thing. It was probably somewhere in the middle. Do a little bad to do a lot of good. Isn't that always how the worst people in history justified themselves?

Brandon reached over a threaded his fingers between Willow's. It wasn't nerves that ate at him this time, going into a fight. It was a greater sense of doubt than he'd ever felt. He could do this though. He could do anything. So long as he had her.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Willow clasped onto Brandon's big hand with her own and smiled. She raised his hand to her lips and kissed the back of it gently.

Everything was crazy and she didn't know what the right thing to do was. She had been steeling herself for the possibility of shooting the first shot if Eli had ordered it. And she decided that she would go through with it. Jen's compliance reminded Willow that this was a team effort and if they didn't work together and act like a team, then they wouldn't make it through this. If she had problems with how it went down, she would make sure Eli heard about them, but only after this unnecessary situation was behind them.

But it was always Brandon that gave her the resolve to see these things through. She had really changed since they started dating; while she still felt dependent on the strength that he gave her, it was still more strength than she'd ever had in the past. She would move mountains for him. God, she really loved this guy.

* * * * *

It had been a long couple of hours, but Jen had stayed alert through all of them. She had holed up in one of the office buildings across the street, near where she suspected Eli and the others would drive by. She took the motorcycle inside the building with her in the event that Wendy or any of her goons would recognize it sitting out in the open, just to be on the safe side. It took a little bit of time for Wendy's goons to show up, but when they did, they were packing some firepower. Maybe they were just taking precautions, but it still made Jen feel uneasy. But at least she did know where their sniper was camped out. Worst case scenario, Willow would be able to pick him off and they would have the sniper advantage.

After about two hours, the rest of the group showed up in their newly acquired windowless white van. Right down the road that Jen had hoped for. And to make the deal sweeter, they even drove the van right next to the office building. It only took her about a minute to slip outside and meet up with the rest of them.

"Hey guys." She greeted them with a subtle wave of her arm.

"Jen!" Willow caught a glimpse of her as she exited the back of the van. "What did you find?"

"They came in on two cars. Wendy and her pockmarked friend are on the 4th floor of the garage while their sniper is above them on the roof." Jen quickly explained without making any hand motions -- if they were looking at them now, she didn't want them to get any hints that they knew their locations. "The second car drove off in another direction and hasn't come back since. It had at least four people in it though."
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"Sorry Tom, ball's gotta go back in, can't take the chance you'll get a warning out to them. Hands too." he said before placing the gag back in Tom's mouth and binding his hands in front of him with duct tape.

The guy must have been terrified. He'd run his mouth a little on the way but Brandon knew from his own experience earlier that it was defense mechanism. Brandon had been promising to kill him all day and he was about to be marched into a trap he probably wouldn't survive. As much as Brandon had every right to hate him he couldn't help but feel a small pang of compassion for him.

"Tom. What I said about killing you if things went bad. I didn't mean that. I'm going to try to see you through tjis alive. Just don't cross us or I won't have a choice." Brandon said as he slipped a pistol down the back of Tom's pants and covered it up with his shirt.

Wendy said come unarmed and he would, Tom would be the one with the gun. As per their agreement he could even keep it afterward.
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