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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,931 Views)
Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Willow frowned at the request.

"You realize I'm still not wearing a bra, right?" She informed her doctor. "I... didn't really have a chance to grab one before leaving Flint. Assuming I even could wear one with all the gunshot holes and incision wounds I'm sporting these days."

Willow glanced over each shoulder. The coast was clear for the time being, but with her luck, someone would come interrupting them the second she took her shirt off.

"Well, maybe. I think maybe I can..."

To make the process a little easier, she removed her jacket and sweater, stripping down to her shirt. She then lifted the shirt with her right hand, and once high enough pressed her right arm against her breasts to make sure nothing would slip out unintended in the front while holding the shirt in her armpit. It was a little awkward, but it kinda worked.

"Yeah, that should work. Just warn me if someone walks by, okay?"

* * * * *

"Oh man, that's cool!" Kelsey perked up a little bit.

She was glad to see everyone again. Connor among them. He had been kind of abrasive when they first met, but it seemed like he had opened up a little. She didn't know what had happened, but he was more friendly. It was nice to see.

"It's almost not fair that you're good at shooting and video games. I think Brandon was always just being nice to me when I tried shooting. I was not very good at it."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“Deal,” Annie said, as she leaned closer to get a good look.

There was no redness, swelling, bleeding or drainage. That was a positive sign. Despite her overexertion, she seemed to be healing okay. The only complication seemed to be the pain and her management of it, which wasn’t too surprising or unusual.

“Okay, that’s all I needed to see,” she said. “One second.”

She turned to find her bag, and then dug through it for the final bottle. She thought about removing one or two for Emmett, but he seemed determined to white-knuckle it. So she held it out for Willow to take.

“Here you are,” she said. “But you need to careful with these things. They can wreak havoc on your stomach, especially if not taken with food. It might be difficult, but try not to take them unless you have to.”

* * *

“I don’t know about that, Brandon’s a pretty good teacher,” Connor said. “While you were gone, he showed me how to make a cool stealthy fire.”

Connor wondered if Brandon would show him other cool stuff like that. Yesterday and this morning, he thought they were getting along pretty well. But he hadn’t seen much of him at all since his mom yelled at him, and then wouldn’t talk about it. She was especially silent during their most recent drive. Connor gathered something bad had happened – and he heard the gunshots – but he wasn’t sure what had been so upsetting.

Maybe Kelsey knew, he thought. She seemed to get back at about the same time.

“He seems like he’s in a bad mood now, though,” Connor broached the subject. “A lot of people are. Um, do you know what happened? Back at that parking garage place?”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
After pulling her shirt back down, Willow slipped her sweater and jacket back on and then placed the remnant of the pills back into her jacket. For safekeeping.

"Yeah, I think I've been feeling that recently. I was getting really anxious before the gunfight earlier." She left out the fact that shooting the other sniper had brought it on. "It made me so nauseous that I threw up. I got pretty close a few times in the past, but that was the first time it actually happened."

* * * * *

Kelsey shook her head.

"Nobody wanted to talk about it. When we got here earlier, all I saw was a couple of dead people on the ground and everyone was acting weird. I've never seen them so worked up before." She glanced back at Connor. "Do you know what happened?"
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Emily thought about the question. She knew why he was asking. Would she have felt the same if they had been kneeling in front of her? Would it have been easy then? Probably not.

"They didn't exactly make a great case for their life's worth. Idon't believe in capital punishment. I don't think anyone should be removed like that, out of principle. We can't afford to make exceptions." Emily said.

She found a nice smooth almost perfectly round stone. She was about to give it a solid flick but turned and offered it to Emmett.

"But that was before. This is now. There are no prisons and no police or courts. We can only deal with these things ourselves. Did they deserve to die? I don't know. Maybe they were lying about some of the awful shit they said. It doesn't matter if they deserved it. It's all a fight, everything. You're either on the side of the living, or you're out for yourselves. They chose to give up on the living, so they died." she explained reaching her own opinion as she spoke.

People have been killing each other since they could first be considered people. She knew for a fact her friends were good. They didn't look for trouble, they just didn't let trouble have its way. This patch of highway was now safer for others becayse of what they did. That was always important to her. She wasn't going to get torn up over a few dead bandits, even if they did die badly.

...

Brandon went over the contents of the van for the second time. No ammo. Maybe they should have hit Wendy's base while they were there. He couldn't say he regretting putting Lincoln behind them as soon as possible though. They had salvaged a little ammo from Wendy's people though. He had another a full mag for his HK now at least. The ammo situation would have to be dealt with soon.

Everything else seemed to be there. His sketch pad. Willow's knife. Everyone's things either in the van or on the people they searched. Wendy was keen on selling the lie that she was willing to let them go.

He sat down on the edge of the trunk and tried to think of something dlse to keep his mind busy. He was feeling a few too many things at the moment to settle on feeling anything. Outside he wastotally blank. Inside he was warring with himself. If he could just feel angry at them again it wwouldn't be a problem. The small glimpse of humanity he saw in them though was making that difficult. They weren't monsters. They were people. Bad people, but still people.

On their knees...

Seeing Kelsey and Emily there had been too much to take. They should be in Flint. They weren't supposed to have seen this. What if they did this again? Maybe this was something he should keep from Kelsey and Connor. He felt he could stand to lie about this.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Connor shook his head as well.

“No, I wasn’t there,” he said. “I’ve noticed the same thing. I think those bodies you’re talking about – I think they were the people who stole from us.”

Those bodies told a story, at least. Who else would they be? Connor wondered what was different about them and the attackers back in Flint. Nobody seemed as affected by eliminating those guys. Was it because the main robber was a girl? Could that be it?

* * *

Emmett nodded, considering Emily’s words. Everything she had said echoed what he was feeling. It was what he wanted to hear. It didn’t make him feel any better, however. He just didn’t feel worse. He hoped the key to feeling better would be time.

“Thank you,” he said softly, nodding a second time.

He started to open his mouth to say something else – ‘See you later’ or something along those lines – but found it too awkward. Instead, he just pivoted on his foot and started walking down the water. He still needed that time alone.

* * *

“Sorry to hear that,” Annie said. “Let me know if it happens again. Otherwise, just be careful.”

She was a little more concerned than she was letting on, but she didn’t push it. They were all doing the best they could out here, and like she thought before, it certainly couldn’t be worse. She was thankful Willow was doing as well as she was, at least when it came to her physical health.

Mentally – after what just happened with Wendy and her crew – it might be a different story. Annie couldn’t help her there, though. She was too busy struggling with it herself.

“Willow, Annie,” Eli’s voice called out.

The sound of him talking drew an ambivalent frown to Annie’s face. She turned to see him approach.

“Come here, you guys should hear this,” he said immediately. “An’ see if you could find Brandon. He should hear this too.”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"I wish I knew." Kelsey frowned.

She had been looking forward to seeing everyone again. It hadn't been long, but she regretted saying goodbye after a few hours on the road and thinking about how they may never come back. It felt strange to say, but after thinking it over, she would rather be out here with them than in Flint without them. But then when she got back, they were going through something pretty deep. Everyone felt like they were locking themselves away.

"They'll be back to normal in a couple of days." She added confidently. "What about you though? You're different now. In a good way, I think."

* * * * *

"We'll be right there." Willow called out to answer him.

She pulled herself up to her feet and took a moment to stretch her back out a little bit. It felt good to be able to walk around without lugging that Ruger around with her. Yet if they hadn't gotten their guns back, in particular the FNP she wore at her hips, she would be. She simply felt naked without a gun at her side these days. As injured as she was, even a lone rotter getting the jump on her while she was unarmed would be bad. It was a strong assurance to her to have a firearm.

Then she noticed the look Annie was wearing on her face. She remembered Jen saying that Annie had a tendency to bottle up her emotions. It wasn't much, but Willow saw an opportunity here.

"Hey, uh, before we go see what Eli wants, you know you can... ah... you know you can... talk to me about stuff, right? You know, in case you don't know who you can talk to."

The delivery was a little awkward, but the idea was there.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“I appreciate that,” Annie said, summoning an appreciative. “But don’t worry me, focus on yourself. You’ve got a ways to go until you’re 100 per cent, but I want to see you get there, okay?”

She paused for a second, let that sink in.

“You should probably get Brandon,” she said.

* * *

Connor smiled as he shrugged off the compliment, and thought back to why that might be true.

“I don’t know,” he repeated. “But I killed four rotters!”
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Is that so?
"You make it sound like I'm too injured to talk." Willow paused with a dry smile on her lips. "Tell Eli I need to grab Brandon real quick."

She placed her hands in the pockets of her sweater and started walking in the last direction she had seen Brandon, passing by Kelsey and Connor pretty quickly. She didn't interrupt their conversation.

After arriving at the Twin Lakes, everyone had split up and gone their own directions. They needed the time to be on their own and process what had happened earlier. The atmosphere in the cars had been practically suffocating and stopping was probably the best choice. But she had not seen much of Brandon or Jen since stopping. Both were people she had gotten close to, and now it felt weird to have a distance between them.

Thankfully, it didn't take long to track him down. He was sitting on the edge of the truck and looking out into the distance. He was pretty lost in thought, he didn't even notice Willow's approach until she was fairly close. She greeted him with a smile and a wave.

"Hey babe." Her voice was somber to match the mood. "I need to talk to you. Well, apologize, actually. But... Eli wants to talk to us now, too."
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Willow gave Brandon a start when she spoke. He'd been in his own world giving himself a headache. To say he was grateful she was speaking to him was an understatement. After what happened he didn't know if she'd want to even look at him for a while. With more than a little need to his manner he put his arms around he waist and held her gently. In his sitting position his head came up to her chest and he leaned against her, his ear pressed to her letting him hear her heartbeat clearly. He breathed deeply, enjoyed the smell of her and shook his head slightly.

"What have you got to apologize for?" he asked guiltily.

She had no idea what the plan had been all along. Brandon had and he went along with it, he endorsed it. He knew what was coming and he hadn't warned her and compromised himself in front of her after letting her be an unwitting accomplice to it.
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Is that so?
Well, if he really wanted to talk about it now, Eli could stand to wait for a few minutes. Willow gently ran her hands along Brandon's thighs as she looked him in the eyes.

"For letting my emotions get the better of me back there. It was... shocking to see you guys go at it like that. And I thought it was terrible. Terrible that I had even helped too. But then I stewed it over on our way here and realized you guys were right." Willow's voice started to grow tense as she continued. "I've lived out here long enough to know how this works, if I had stopped and let myself just be rational for a second, then I think I might have seen it all sooner. If we had done it my way, we wouldn't have struck first. And some of us might have died in their obviously planned ambush."

Willow released a long and drawn out sigh and averted her eyes from Brandon's.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Brandon simply shook his head again.

"Don't be sorry for feeling things, Willow. Jesus, it's the the only thing separating us from people like them. It just means you still have a working conscience." Brandon said firmly.

Brandon got to his feet and drew Willow into his arms.

"I knew exactly what was going to happen and I didn't warn you. I don't know why I didn't tell you. I thought maybe if you didn't know what we were doing beforehand it'd be easier for you live with it. If all you were doing was trusting Eli and I, then your intentions were pure. I'm sorry, Willow. I'm so sorry." he confessed with a heavy sigh.

"I thought it'd be easy. I killed people before in a fight and it didn't bother me. I thought it'd be the same because I knew they planning to kill us. It wasn't the same."
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Is that so?
Willow curled into his arms and rested her head against his chest this time.

"It's not your fault. I knew all along." She confessed to him quietly. "I didn't want to accept it at the time. So I lied to myself and said that it wouldn't happen. I told myself that Eli had something different in mind. That is why I freaked out like I did. But when all the fear of losing your friends is gone and the finality of your actions can sink in... it's a lot easier to look back at it and see the situation for what it really was, you know?"

Brandon was hugging her pretty tight. It hurt. But it didn't hurt enough for her to ask him to stop. Quite the opposite, actually.

"I want you to know that you aren't the only person that killed someone preemptively. I still see their sniper standing guard on the roof of the garage. And I still see the shot I fired striking her in the side of the head. But it was my decision to pull that trigger. And I am gonna have to live with that. But what we did... is save lives, our own included. Or at least that's what we gotta tell ourselves."
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"We'll live with it." he concurred.

We'll live with it because we're alive. he reaffirmed to himself.

"We should go see what Eli wants, but I need to talk to you about something serious later, okay?" separating himself from her but keeping her hands in his.
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Is that so?
"Hmm?"

Willow hummed; her interest was piqued by Brandon's remark. The way he spoke and moved, she didn't think it was a bad thing that he had in mind. Still, there wasn't a lot of time to wonder about it. Eli was still waiting for them and Willow had spilled her apology earlier than expected, so they were already no doubt a little late. If asked, she could just say it took a few extra minutes to find him.

Yeah, that's a good excuse.

She clasped her hand inside of his and followed after him. Thankfully, he slowed his pace enough to accommodate her limp so she didn't have to force herself to keep up.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“There you two lovebirds are,” Jimmy said when the pair approached, literally hand-in-hand.

Everyone else had assembled in the middle of their very makeshift camp. Even the kids. Jimmy didn’t see any reason to exclude them. This was the great wide open they were in now, and anyone that couldn’t keep up or couldn’t be trusted had no business being there, whether they were 10 or 100.

About five minutes ago, Eli had travelled from person-to-person and told them to come. Jimmy and him had caught up briefly – on the practical stuff, at least – and he said he wanted everyone else in the loop as well.

“Go ahead,” Eli said, nodding to him.

Jimmy noticed the wary look he spared the approaching couple, but pushed on without comment. “So some of you know me – hey Doc, hey J – some of you I just met, and some of you I still haven’t met – but I'm looking forward to finding out why you decided to take on the deadhead apocalypse in costume.”

At that last part, Jimmy gave a facetious smile to the priest.

“But if you’re not Nolan or Emily, and I didn’t tell you all about it yesterday, you’re probably wondering how it is I found you fine folks,” he continued. “Short answer is I decided to come looking for you. To make that short answer slightly longer, I came across this hotel near where I knew you were supposed to be going.”

He pointed to a map he had unfurled on the ground nearby. In addition to a circle near Chicago, it was also marked with a planned route from there to San Fran. Near the top, it also read in capital letters – DELIVER CURE TO ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB.

Jimmy looked to Willow before continuing, as Eli had mentioned she was responsible for that particular breadcrumb. She was the pink haired girl that had come to Flint on her last legs. She looked a little different now. Her hair wasn’t as long or as pink, and her legs now seemed sturdy enough.

He gave her a smile – a more sincere, friendlier one than he had offered the guy in the cassock.
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