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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,921 Views)
Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Like an absolute cliché Brandon almost passed out afterward. He'd been exhausted since yesterday. His failed attempt at reconciliation with Annie had almost sapped the last of what he had. Willow could always re-energize him though and he put in everything he had. They lay there, each covered in the other's scent, marked as belonging to one another.

"I love you." he said breathlessly, wishing there were a stronger word for it.

It could have just been a post coitus high that banished his doubts about it, but now he had the courage to tell her.

"I want to marry you." he finally confessed.

He thought a long time about it, for what anyone would consider a long time lately. If he was going to die he wanted to know he had Willow completely and wanted to belong to her entirely. His mother had told him, when asked, that what made marriage worth it and what made it work were passion and patience. Passion was the foundation and patience was how you built on it, and how you got by in the times when passion was hard to find. Their marriage worked for almost thirty years so she knew a thing or two. Brandon and Willow had passion in spades.

People got married to people they just met all the time. Mostly it ended in divorce. Not always though. It was foolish to expect to be the exception but Brandon just didn't give a fuck. They coukd do it. More than what his parents told him, more than anything it was Willow that convinced him if that.

"I know there's more here than just two people in a crisis. I love you. I want to keep loving you for the rest of my life, and I know I can. I plan on that being a very long time. Marry me, Willow." he said, suddenly very still and collected.
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Is that so?
Willow had been laying on her back, breathing heavily as she struggled to regain her breath. And just when she thought her heart wouldn't stop pounding after the workout they just had, Brandon's words managed to make her heart stop inside her chest.

Marry him?

The very idea was ridiculous. Two months ago, she had been a lazy, college-dropout woman, living in her parent's basement so she could play games and smoke weed. She had shirked any sense of responsibility and adopted the lifestyle of a loser. She had no skills, no self-confidence, and no independence. Two weeks ago, she left Mount Kisco with all of that baggage still hanging over her, and she had changed. She had evolved. And one week ago, she almost died for a guy she had barely known for a week. They got together shortly after that -- she had barely been dating him for a week... and now that same guy was asking her to marry him!?

But on the other hand... he saw something in her that she hadn't seen in herself. Thanks to him, she was beginning to embrace that part of herself. The capable, tough woman that she was becoming. He had a hand in that. They looked out for each other. And yes, she could confidently say she loved him. There was certainly no shortage of passion between them; she had even pushed herself in the name of that passion in the same way she pushed herself to help everyone survive.

"Yes." She said immediately after making eye contact -- she got a little excited and kept going. "100% absolutely, every day of the fucking week. Yes... I will marry you."

She peeled herself off the bed and leaned over to kiss Brandon on the lips. Passionately. The kiss ultimately ended with her on top of him, practically smothering him with her lips before she finally pulled away with her breathing once again heavy.

"And just for the record... I love you, too." She added quietly.
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Strompy
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They were probably going to hurt themselves. The odds of them having their happy life together were slim. If they both survived this though Brandon was going to spend the rest of his life ensuring Willow never had any reason to regret saying yes. This was reckless but the thought of moderation was impossible. No brakes, ever, even if it meant crashing and burning.

"Go again? Give me like, ten, fifteen minutes first?" he suggested with a laugh.

There was a lot of laughter.

...

"Holy f-fucking shit it's cold out there. Nearly froze my damn tits off." Emily murmured to herself.

She'd only been out there a few minutes to answer the call of nature. The early morning air was frigid and damp, a thin veil of mist hung in the air. The sun was only just peaking out from beyondthe horizon and even so it would be a while before the mountains permitted it to shdd some warming light on them.

Emily parked herself in front of the stove. Brandon approached and retrieved the kettle off of it, taking it into the kitchen and pouring two cups of coffee. He was happy. Far too happy for this time of day. She shot him a questioning look which he responded too with a grin. She raised her eyebrow a little higher, his grin broadened in response. He disappeared around the corner and up the stairs. There had been a little noise from up there, thankfully they'd kept it to a minimum though. Lucky bastards. That had a big morale boost. Emily hadn't had a big morale boost in months.

With a groan she got to her feet. She slapped her hand a few times on the sofa mattress. Where two bodies were buried under their blankets.

"Morning's here people. Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey, not really though. Rise and shine whoever this is." she ordered, tapping the recliner which had another hidden sleeper lying on it.
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"I'm awake!" Antonio groaned from the recliner as Emily poked and chanted.

Sleep had not come easily to him last night and he could still feel the exhaustion in his body. As he tried to sleep, the only things he was able to see in his dreams were humans killing humans. Even with the minions of Satan abound, humans were finding ways to kill each other even still. In fact, they seemed less unified and more selfish than ever. He had thought and hoped that this group was different, but he was seeing something different than what he had expected. He had prayed to God and asked for guidance, but the preacher had gotten no relief, no comfort, and no answer from Him.

To that end, he was thankful that Emily had awoken him. He could stop thinking about it and focus on the day ahead of him. He tossed the sheets he had been hibernating under off to the side and pulled himself out of the recliner and unsteadily back to his feet. He took a few moments to rotate his shoulders and flex all of his stiffened joints. Gradually, he started to feel more awake and more flexible.

"I'll be right back..." He told nobody in particular.

The priest slipped on his shoes and shuffled toward the front door. He heard that going outside in below-freezing weather was a good way to wake someone up fully in the morning and put a little bit of pep in your step -- it was something he had been forced to do plenty of times in the past and could confirm that it worked. But perhaps more importantly than that, he really had to go to the bathroom.

* * * * *

Willow never knew how to dance. She had never learned. But that didn't stop her from practically dancing her way out of the master bedroom that morning. Brandon was already downstairs and she intended to go join her fiance down there this morning. Even just saying that word in her head brought a wide grin to her face and put a little extra spring in the step. Or at least she assumed it was that word. It could have been the drugs. Or the sex. Honestly, it was probably all of them. She didn't even care. She was in a damn good mood for someone who had to deal with walking dead people on a daily basis.

"Hey Willow..."

Kelsey's little voice spoke up to her as she entered the hallway. Willow was amused at the radical bedhead that the little girl had picked up last night -- though she adopted a more serious look on her face when she noticed the worry on Kelsey's.

"What's wrong, Kels?" Willow knelt down asked her quietly. "Everything okay?"

"I don't know where Nolan is... I... I need to ask him something..."

Willow furled her brow; "He's probably around here somewhere. Lots of places to sleep in this house. Maybe he's in the truck or something."

"Maybe you can help me instead then..." Kelsey looked back and forth then crept forward to Willow and whispered into her hear, "My vagina is bleeding."

All the joy Willow had felt suddenly plummeted into her gut like a rock and was replaced by concern. Willow knew exactly what Kelsey was going through right now. Every teenage woman knew what she was going through. And it was, frankly, a very scary and confusing time. And Willow had no idea how to explain it to her.

"Oh, Kelsey." Willow rubbed her head and played it off. "That's normal! It means you are becoming an adult!"

"What?" Kelsey's worry was replaced by a look of genuine confusion. "Why does bleeding make me an adult? That's stupid."

"It is... well, it means you are going to start becoming really interested in boys too. Not like the 'Oh, they're different' sort of interested, but the 'Oh, they're real different' sort of interested. You know what I'm saying, Kels?"

"I have no idea what you're saying right now." Kelsey blunted explained. "That doesn't explain anything. Where's Nolan?"

"You know what? How about this, some with me." Willow grasped the little girl's hand and led her into the bedroom she and Brandon had just shared; kicking a pair of used condoms underneath the bed as she did. "I'm not very good at this, but I think I can set you up with some... solutions..."

* * * * *

Five minutes later, Willow came downstairs alongside Kelsey. The little girl had perked up a little bit.

"Hey babe." She greeted Brandon warmly with a huge grin.

She then sniffed the air and perked to attention; "Is that coffee?"
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Strompy
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"My two favorite people. Don't tell the others." Brandin greeted them on his way back.

He offered up the other cup he'd made for Willow and kissed her.

"Mmmm, morning breath, my favorite." he commented as he turned back around the way he came.

He was supremely happy for reasons privy only to Willow and himself. She said she would marry him. The particulars of the arrangement were still up in the air. They already had access to a priest but he didn't fancy the chances of Antonio officiating. He'd like to have some kind of ceremony but Willow's promise in exchange for his was enough for him. In his heart Willow was already his wife.

...

Emily gave a little victorious cheer as she found what she was looking for in the pantry. A jar of peanut butter and a bag of rice. She had a carb loaded breakfast in mind for everyone.

"Anyone have a peanut alergy?" she sang out from the kitchen.
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DoctorYerishi
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Eli gave Brandon a distracted smile when he made his joke, then a nod when he left a minute or so later. When he was alone again, he took a few more sips of the beer – it was unappealing but comforting in its familiarity.

For a moment yesterday, Brandon had him worried. He had his back all day and he did what needed to be done with Wendy and her crew, but he had also broken down. He’d cried openly in front of the group. Eli was afraid that meant he couldn’t hack it – that like the others, he knew deep down what staying alive entailed, but that he wasn’t ready to accept it.

It turned out it was just a moment of weakness. With his actions since, Brandon has assuaged those worries. He was ready. He and Emmett. Willow too, he believed, even if she struggled and took a little longer to get there.

Annie, Antonio, however – well, it was like he told Brandon, and like he had been telling himself all along. It didn’t matter if they approved. All that mattered was they were alive, and Eli had kept them that way.

That’s all that matters, Eli affirmed to himself. The group’s safety and the cure. That’s it.

He put the beer down. Enough comfort. His muscles faintly ached from his exertion earlier today at Walmart. They had been aching ever since that night in Antonio’s church when he went all out. He knew the best way to get rid of the aching was to lean in. Keep working hard. Keep training. That was also the best way – the only way – he knew how to get a night’s sleep. He had to make himself too tired to do anything but.

He lowered himself to the floor and did a push-up. Then another. He didn’t plan on stopping any time soon.

* * *

When Annie woke up the next morning, her eyes were dry. She knew what that meant – she had too much to drink. The empty wine bottle on the nightstand confirmed it. She didn’t remember polishing it off, and she didn’t remember bringing it back to her room, but the proof was hard to dispute.

There was some activity outside the bedroom she and Connor had claimed. She could hear Willow and Kelsey’s voices, faintly, and if they were up it meant everyone else should be too.

“Hey Connor,” she nudged him. “Time to get up.”

It had been ages since he’d been okay with sleeping in the same bed as her, but last night he couldn’t say no to the prospect. All the sleeping in cars had got to him.

As Connor stirred, Annie followed her own advice, rising from the bed wearily. As she made her way to the door of her room, she tried to blink away her drowsiness as well as any other lingering symptoms of last night’s alcohol intake.

She also considered her to do-list – check-ups, mostly. On Emmett, Willow, and probably Nolan too. After restocking at that pharmacy, there was no need to be stingy with the dressings.

She opened the door. As soon as she popped her head out, she could see Jimmy, already dressed for the day in one of his coats with the stiff, high collars. He gave her an annoyingly bright smile.

“Morning, doc,” he said, his voice as cheerful as the look on his face.

Of course the wine had no effect on him, Annie thought, as she rolled her eyes. Of course.

* * *

“No allergies,” Emmett grunted, as he appeared in the kitchen.

He was trying not to limp or bend over, but the pain in his stomach made it hard to stand up straight. That sniper – a young girl named Moe, he had since learned – had really put a dent into him. Annie had said the shot only grazed his ribs, and that was probably true, but the pain was undeniable. He had a new respect for Willow and everyone else who had gotten shot over the course of the journey so far.

The smell of peanut butter, though – that was a pleasant distraction. He really loved peanut butter.

“None here, either,” Eli’s voice chimed in, causing Emmett to turn to see him approach from the living room.

He looked haggard. Almost as bad as Emmett felt. If he had gotten a good night’s sleep, it hadn’t done him as good as the others.

After what we did… how should he look? Emmett found himself thinking.

Personally, Emmett had decided to make peace with it as best he could, and as tough as that might be. His talk with Emily had helped. His memories of Flint burning had helped even more. Maybe Eli was having an even harder time of it. Or maybe he was still haunted by the same thoughts that almost sent him scurrying out of that hotel in Chicago. Or maybe it was everything compounded.

“Good morning,” Emmett tried to give him a friendly nod. His way of trying to reach out.

“Mornin’, Emmett,” Eli nodded back. Then he looked around. “Everyone up?”
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Antonio was relaxing with a cup of coffee in his hands as everyone filtered into the living room with sleep in their eyes. The soothing taste of coffee was one he had almost long since forgotten. It made the fatigue in his system wither away and filled his belly with a hearty warmth on this brisk evening. It wasn't until Eli asked if everyone was up and Antonio glanced around the room that he remembered something from last night.

"Actually..." He spoke up. "Jen and Nolan left and didn't come back in last night."

He remembered seeing Jen leading Nolan by the hand outside last night. Antonio assumed they were going to do something that young kids do, but there wouldn't have been anywhere outside to do that. He had waited for a while for them to return, but eventually ended up drifting off to sleep in the recliner. And still, neither one of them was in the room. He found himself gripped by a subtle fear; what if something had happened to them? He had completely forgotten about it until just now.

"Looking for Nolan?" Jen walked in through the front door at that very moment.

It seemed that Antonio's fears had been unfounded. She was safe. But there was an undeniable edge to her voice that he had never heard from Jen before. He had heard it many times before from students -- it was anger. It was subtle, clear to Antonio that she was trying to hide it. But it was there. She was mad about something.

"He's on the back patio of the house next door." She curtly answered Eli's question.

She then made her way into the kitchen and started helping herself to any available food she could find. Antonio didn't know what was going on, and frankly he wasn't sure he should even get involved right now. Not without being approached, at least. And right now, she was clearly approaching nobody.
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli’s eyes fixated on Kelsey, like they tended to do recently. When Jen entered, Eli briefly looked at her – and noted her demeanor – but looked back to Kelsey right away. He didn’t see her, though. He saw something else. The images of Randall he didn’t let himself dream of last night came unexpectedly and unwantedly flooding back in the day.

He wasn’t sure how long he ended up staring at her intensely before he caught himself and looked away.

“I’ll go get him,” he offered, regarding Nolan.

He headed for the front door that Jen had just entered. The cold air stung his exposed skin as he opened it. He pushed on anyway, and headed to the patio Jen had mentioned.

“Nolan?” he called out.
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Nolan had been passing the time by leaning against the crude wooden gate that surrounded the back patio, looking out into the lightly wooded area behind the house. Thankfully the heavy coat and new clothes he had picked up yesterday were really helping keep him warm, even in this cold weather. The beanie in particular was a great idea. Unfortunately, no matter how warm his clothes were, they couldn't warm up his mood. He didn't think everything would work out to be so complicated. This was exactly the kind of situation he had been trying to avoid, and it went and found him anyway. And now he felt like the fucking bad guy. All he wanted was a little space to collect his thoughts for a while.

And then he heard someone call his name.

"Hey, Eli." He gave the man that had come to visit him a somewhat lackluster greeting. "What's up? We getting ready to move out?"
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli shook his head, and studied Nolan's countenance as he approached.

"Not just yet," he answered. Given the way Jen was acting too, Eli felt like he had to follow up, even if he didn’t want to particularly. “How about with you? Everything okay?”
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Nolan cringed a little at the mention of it. He wasn't sure he should tell Eli -- the man had enough on his mind already. But on the other hand, he kind of wanted to get it off his chest. Maybe Eli had some sage advice as a man that was struggling with this shit more than anyone else.

"Jen and I... got blazed as fuck last night with Emily." He told Eli without looking directly at him. "Piggy backing off the high, we had the great idea of breaking into the house behind me and... getting 'intimate'."

He hesitated visibly at this next part.

"I guess at the time, it seemed like a good idea. A way to relieve stress. But when I woke up this morning in the arms of a naked woman, I just flipped. I freaked out. I got mad at her." Again, he sighed and watched as his breath condensed in the cold morning air before him. "It's not even that I just met her. I mean, it was partly because of that... but also..."

He paused again and glanced in Eli's direction. The man maintained his neutral expression -- it looked to Nolan like he didn't really care or had nothing to say. Of course he didn't care, he had bigger things to worry about. Nolan's mental intimacy issues were of no concern to him or the group. He was better off keeping these things to himself. Especially for the time being. They had a long day ahead of them and it was best to focus on that. He would apologize to Jen tonight, after having some more time to organize his thoughts.

"It's not important." Nolan suddenly waved it all off; "I'll figure it out. I get the feeling you didn't come here to ask me about how my night went."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli let out a deep breath as he considered Nolan’s words. The truth was, he understood Nolan’s story perfectly. If it was what he thought, he probably understood better than anybody else in the group. Consciously, he softened his demeanour.

“Didn’t come out here to ask you anything in particular, truthfully,” he said. “And what you were saying – you don’t need to tell me, or tell yourself, that it’s not important. It’s important.”

There was a lawn chair nearby. Eli took a seat and looked up at him.

“I mean, there’s Monica, right? Your girlfriend?” he asked, looking up at him. “That’s probably one thing. An' I bet you’re also freaking out because you think you might actually like her. Jen, I mean. That's gotta scare you, right?”
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Nolan didn't respond. Eli had always been cold and removed. This was one of the rare moments he had seen Eli soften. Maybe his read on the man had been right after all. Maybe he was one of the few guys that could relate to what he felt. Though he had only known him for a few days, word was that Eli had been a good friend of his dad. Someone that he trusted. He slowly turned around to face Eli, leaning his back against the railing.

"She just... reminds me a lot of her. Jen, I mean... reminds me of Monica. Their personalities are so similar that they probably would have been two peas in a pod." Nolan finally told Eli. "I dunno though, I think I like her, but it could also be my head fucking with me by looking for Monica in a woman that just isn't her. And when I am reminded that she isn't Monica, then all I can think about is how Monica is dead. And not just her either... but everyone I knew."

His voice felt flat. In the past, he might have broken down at uttering those words. But they were true. He knew they were. As far as he was concerned, he was simply stating things how they were.

"You're right, Eli. Getting close to someone else knowing I will probably lose them too... it doesn't just scare me. It fucking terrifies me."
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Annie arrived in the kitchen, where it seemed like the others were naturally congregating. Jimmy had arrived there moments earlier, and taken a seat at a kitchen table. He was the first to greet her, even though he had wished her a good morning only a minute ago.

“Hey doc, looks like we’re getting breakfast prepared for us,” he said. “I don’t know about you, but it’s been a while for me. Feels kind of nice.”

Annie gave him a tired smile.

He ignored it – he either didn’t notice how tired she was, or he didn’t care. Annie figured it was more the latter than the former.

“Come on, doc, sounds like the munchkin’s already sleeping,” Jimmy said. “Keep me company? Look what I found. Look how expensive it looks.”

He held the bottle of wine in one hand, and made a Vanna White-like gesture with the other. It had a French name Annie had never heard of. It could have been expensive or it could have been worth ten dollars, she had no idea.

“B’s aunt or uncle had it squirreled away,” Jimmy added. “It’d be a crime to let it go to waste. Remember how we used to stay up late drinking back in Michigan?”

“We did that one night,” Annie said.

“You’re forgetting that other night in the clinic,” Jimmy said. “Remember, when you were monitoring Travis while he was sleeping?”

“Fine,” she said. “Two nights. And now I need to get some sleep.”

“One drink,” Jimmy insisted, then cocked his head. “Please?”

Annie sighed, and then glanced back at Connor. “You’re that desperate for company?”

“Oh yeah,” Jimmy answered with a grin. “You know me. Desperate.”


* * *

Eli listened to Nolan pour his heart out, and understood every part of it, especially the last part. It made him remember Julie and how her loss had hit him. He had fought so hard to avoid getting to that place. That close place. Like Nolan, he had lost that fight. And for him, the consequences were dire.

“You should be scared,” he said, looking right at the younger man. “’Cause if there’s one thing that’s constant out here, it’s loss.”

He looked away. The statement brought him down as much as it could have Nolan.

“Worst part is – you can know that, but that doesn’t mean you can help it,” he added. “Doesn’t mean you can change the way you feel.”

Nolan reminded Eli so much of his dad at that moment. Not only did he have his dad’s chin, his eyes, and his inherited facial expressions – he had his good heart. That heart didn’t belong in the cold.

“You shouldn’t have come back, you know,” Eli said with a sigh. “I know you don’t want to hear that. And I know you didn’t have much of a choice. You were attacked, Jimmy picked you up, he was going the other direction… But you should have found a way.”
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Nolan slowly let the air escape from his lungs. Eli's words hit him a little harder than he thought; he broke eye contact with him for a few moments while he collected his thoughts. He shouldn't have come back. If he had just gone ahead and continued heading to Flint, he wouldn't have gotten tangled up in all this. It was his chance to leave and help Kelsey live a safe life.

"Yeah, I know. But we could have kept going toward Flint if we wanted. There were cars we could have used. But I came back because Kelsey had already connected with all you guys and it was becoming increasingly obvious the farther we got. All she did as we drove was talk about you guys. It's all she wanted to talk about."

Again, Nolan sighed. He found himself doing it a lot today. Despite that, his lips curled into a smirk and he found himself laughing at how differently things had worked out.

"I thought I could bring her back here and let her be happy, then maintain my distance so I could do damage control when the worst inevitably happened. I thought it would be pretty easy to keep my distance, but I didn't even last a day before opening up to all you guys and even sleeping with one of you. I guess I was more desperate for camaraderie than I thought. Desperate for it and terrified of it at the same time. Like you said... we can't help it."
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