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| Dead Men Walking | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,919 Views) | |
| DoctorYerishi | Aug 11 2015, 05:50 AM Post #2356 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Eli stood nearby, his Supergrade drawn and ready – but not for target practice. With one eye, he watched Nolan get acquainted with his new weapon. With the other, he kept an eye on the surroundings, looking for any sign of trouble. From the bed of Antonio’s truck, Emmett was also keeping watch while cradling his MAC-10. Eli met his gaze and they exchanged nods. Jimmy, meanwhile, had gotten his hands on one of Connor’s handheld game systems and had apparently replaced the batteries. He was reclining in the passenger’s seat of his Ram Truck, his brow slightly furrowed by whatever challenge the game was posing. Connor himself was lined up with his Browning 1911-22 at the ready. His mom was lined up beside him with a pistol of her own. He looked excited to get started. She seemed a little less so. |
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| Strompy | Aug 11 2015, 07:25 AM Post #2357 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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"The .357 magnums are a higher pressure round. Much longer. It's actually the same calibre projectile. That's more grain behind the same calibre though. These are .38 ACP, same calibre but much shorter so lower pressure and velocity. I'd say it was small but I'd only be speaking relatively, I mean I consider a .45 to be big but generally anything over a .32 is considered a large calibre. I mean, people talk about the higher stopping power of the .357 mag but really having a small piece of metal punch a hole in you at about one-thousand feet per second is going to stop you if it hits somewhere important, and people have taken nastier pieces of metal at higher velocities and kept going." he briefly rambled. His hand went unconsciously to his abdomen and scratched at his healing wound. It reminded him of when he had been shot. The shock of it. More of a jolt at first and then agonizing pain only kept from being crippling by the over powering adrenaline rush he was having. It was incredible to him that he survived that. Then he thought about Willow and how three tiny pieces of copper had so very nearly killed her. "The license plates are pretty small targets to try and hit at this distance. If you want to try for them go ahead, nothing wrong with going for the deep end. For now though I think you guys should try for the targets on the fence." he suggested to everyone, gesturing to the thick wodden fence where several street signs they'd grabbed in anticipation were taped in place. "Anyway, getting me talking about guns and ammo is a serious investment of time so you've been warned now." he said, taking a seat on a boulder. He looked over at Jen and the others as they occupied themselves. He leaned in conspiratorially. "So you and Jen seem to be getting along." he observed quietly. His pillow talk with Willow had confirmed, with what little she would share about it, what was already fairly obvious. Jen had a thing for Nolan. Brandon considered it a no-brainer that Nolan should seize that ridiculously tempting opportunity. |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Aug 11 2015, 01:27 PM Post #2358 |
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Is that so?
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Not this again. Nolan was annoyed, but didn't let it show. After saying what he needed to say about it with Eli and getting it off his chest, he just wanted to put it in the back of his mind for a while. Now that Brandon brought it up again, his mind just flew back to earlier this morning with two naked people yelling at each other. Of course, Brandon didn't know any of that, so Nolan couldn't get mad at him for asking. Most people would be curious since Jen had all the subtlety of a freight train in her affections. In fact, Brandon might not have even meant it in that way; he could have just been making a completely innocent observation. But on the other hand he doubted it, Brandon struck him as kind of a horn dog who would run around and have sex with anything -- not choosy like Nolan had historically been. He knew from experience that those types rarely approached these conversations innocently. "Yeah, we are. She's pretty cool." Nolan explained to Brandon. BAM! BAM! Another pair of misses. Ever since his first hit, he hadn't managed to score another one. It was a little frustrating, but he kept telling himself this was to be expected when using your off hand. He lowered his weapon and took a few moments to think. "She's really into me and I honestly couldn't tell you why." He continued in a very matter-of-factly fashion. Hopefully he drops it now. BAM! Another miss. This was starting to look kind of sad. Kelsey was having an easier time of this than he was. His 10, almost 11, year old sister was hitting more targets than he was. But she was using her dominant hand, that made it alright. Or so he told himself. |
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| Strompy | Aug 11 2015, 10:14 PM Post #2359 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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"Hold up. Take aim again. Let me see what's going on here. Now fire." Brandon said as he took up position behind Nolan. Nolan fired again. And missed again. "You're jerking slightly to the left before you fire. Keep a really firm grip with your right hand and remember that you're trying to squeeze the trigger, you're using your whole hand to do that not just your index finger." Brandon suggested. "Jen's nice, and beautiful. I wouldn't waste energy trying to figure out why something good was happening to me if I were you." Brandon said. He paused for a moment and examined what he was saying and who he was saying it to. He didn't exactly have the same considerations Nolan did so he couldn't imagine what he was going through. He doubted he'd be eager to hear about new opportunities and how fortunate he was if he'd lost Willow. "You know what? Ah, I'm sorry it's really none of my business. Just forget I said anything, I'm talking shit. About the Jen stuff, I'm right about the gun stuff." he apologised and made his way over to the others to supervise them. He corrected Connor's stance a little, straightening his arms, setting his feet a little further apart and getting him to lean forward slightly. "That'll give you better control over recoil so you get your sight picture back faster, so you can shoot again sooner. I don;t need to tell you how to aim, there's four dead rotters can vouch for that." he explained, giving him a pat on the shoulder. Annie mimicked the adjustments so Brandon didn't even need to interact with her. That was for the best. "Don't poke your tongue out." he told Kelsey as he passed her. Emily was back at the van with the BAR leaning up against it beside her. He approached and picked up the Lee-Enfield. Once the others had gotten their practice in he and Emily, and Emily and her BAR would put a few rounds down range themselves. |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Aug 11 2015, 11:13 PM Post #2360 |
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Is that so?
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At least Brandon was done digging for information. Nolan was secretly thankful for that. Brandon hadn't been entirely wrong; Jen was a nice girl with whom he had a lot of similar interests. She was also pretty good looking for a black girl and she had a really rocking body -- any girl that could pull off a 4-pack like that was a catch. Despite all that, it was hard to look at her and not see shades of Monica only to then freak out at seeing them. As if the guilt of her passing wasn't weighing heavily enough on his mind already. Still, Brandon was a good guy and only trying to help in the only way he knew how. And he wasn't entirely wrong either. At the very least, it was something Nolan could think about during the day ahead of them. BAM! This time, the shot hit the license plate he had been aiming at. All he had done was pay more attention to the positioning of his hands and kept a firmer grip, as Brandon had suggested. Nolan rose an eyebrow curiously and tried firing another shot at the same time keeping the same considerations in mind. BAM! The shot was a little off, but he still managed to clip the edge of the plate for a second consecutive hit. It looked like Brandon did certainly know his guns and shooting though. But that much was to be expected. He was shooting better as a lefty than he had expected to after a day though. That was certainly something to be proud of, at least. * * * * * "So, why did you want to have this practice anyway?" Antonio had taken a seat nearby and Willow figured this was the perfect opportunity to ask the man about it. Antonio had always struck her a peaceful man. He was willing to kill rotters, but he had always shirked away from the possibility of killing people. But rotters were pretty easy. The shooting practice was really for people. "I know there are bad people out there." Antonio explained with a shrug. "Peace and negotiation are not always options, regrettable though it may be." "What about Wendy's group?" Willow asked. "They were not willing to negotiate. Not really, anyway." "Wendy's group..." Antonio visibly frowned as he recalled the events of two days ago. "I opposed because of the meaninglessness of the entire conflict. We had an opportunity to walk away without bloodshed and it was not taken. They robbed us, yes, and it was wrong. But they did not kill any of us -- if they were really heartless monsters, they would have simply taken our lives and our stuff when they had us disarmed. God knows they had the opportunity. But they chose instead to let us leave with our lives. That meant something to me. They only changed their minds after we killed several of them and forced them into a conflict using a hostage." Willow frowned. He still couldn't accept what had happened. Not that she expected anything different. She didn't really see the necessity of it herself until after it had all happened. She just wished she had been able to see it all in foresight. "Those men at Flint you told me about. And their leader, Cory." Antonio continued. "Those are people that you cannot negotiate with. They kill purely for the sake of killing. They are evil. And I am not blind enough to not acknowledge people like them as a danger. If a group like that is already stationed in or near Salt Lake City and waiting for us to show up... then I would rather we be prepared to face them." Willow was slightly taken aback. She hadn't expected to hear that kind of speech from a priest of all things. Willow never associated religious people as logical ones. But right now, Antonio was making a lot of sense. He must have been one of those priests that didn't always talk about God. Which was weird in and of itself. |
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| DoctorYerishi | Aug 11 2015, 11:57 PM Post #2361 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Connor accepted Brandon’s advice eagerly and fired off a few more shots. He missed once, and then smiled proudly when his next few dug holes into the faraway license plates. He looked over to his mom, who – with only the slightest bit of hesitation – smiled back at him in response. |
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| Strompy | Aug 12 2015, 01:37 AM Post #2362 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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Brandon didn't know what the story behind the gun was prior to its role in WWII but uncle Sean had proudly told him about what he knew. It was an MLE which ceased being issued to commonwealth forces in the twenties, however this specific gun was apparently still used during WWII by a Norwegian Resistance fighter which is where it picked up its notches. After the war it changed hands several times and eventually ended up with an antique firearms dealer who his uncle purchased it from. It wasn't all original, after close to one hundred years obviously some parts had had to be replaced. Brandon was feeling a little nervous about firing now. For him it was like drinking from the Holy Grail. This was what it was created to do though, it was a gun with a long history, possibly including service in WWI. He was honoring that history. Emily offered him the first shots at the hubcaps down range. Eagerly he took up a kneeling and chambered a round. The action was a little stiff, it could use another oiling up. He breathed out slowly as he took aim. He pulled the trigger. CLICK "Dud round." Brandon declared with a note of panic before chambering another. CLICK Brandon opened it to look at the bolt assembly. He removed it completely and with a dismayed gasp realized that the firing pin had been filed down, specifically so that it couldn't be fired. "No! Uncle Sean you fucking heathen!" he growled. "What's wrong?" Emily asked with a sigh. "He... It won't fire. I'd have to track down a replacement part. Maybe the original is back in Estes Park but we can't go back just for that. If it can't fire then it's not a gun anymore it's just a glorified stick; it has no purpose. It's just... sad." he said looking down forlornly at the treasure in his hands. "Aw. You want to shoot a big loud machine gun?" Emily asked consolingly. "Yeah..." Brandon admitted sadly. The two of them happily blasted away at the hubcaps until nothing was left but a couple dangling pieces of string. Sufficiently assuaged Brandon packed up the MLE and BAR. Everyone had some valuable practice he and Emily had a little fun, it was turning out to be agood day so far. "Hey. I saw that back there. Hitting a target that small with a .22 at that distance isn't a little thing.That's legitimately impressive. You should be really proud of that." he said to Connor as everyone prepared to set off. |
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| DoctorYerishi | Aug 12 2015, 03:26 AM Post #2363 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Connor beamed with pride, and gave Brandon a genuine smile as he put away his gun. “Thanks,” he said. “At first I was pretty nervous with guns, but actually…” He trailed off. He wondered if it was in bad taste to call it fun. In the back of his mind, he still remembered all the lectures about guns and violence his mom had given him growing up. “I mean – I’m not scared anymore,” he said. “I can be useful now.” |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Aug 12 2015, 05:43 AM Post #2364 |
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Is that so?
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Nine. Nine rotters had wandered into the rest area while they the group was having their target practice; none of them had made it far since they then became Jennifer's personal target practice. Nevertheless, she was surprised there had been so little roamers -- even though they were in a rest area in some rural part of Colorado, she had expected a few more guests, especially considering all the gunfire they had let off. Emily and Brandon's 'big loud machine gun' alone lived up to the hype and made her ears ring. She bet that every rotter in a several mile radius was currently trying to make its way in their direction. Assuming they could navigate the mountainous terrain. She just hoped it was only rotters that had heard the ruckus. "So I think we're gonna head back north until we hit the 80 again. We'll go west from there until we hit Salt Lake City. Or at least as far as we can go." Jen was already straddled over her motorcycle. Or rather, the motorcycle that they had taken from Wendy's group. It was an olive green Victory Runner that had a surprisingly quiet engine. It looked like a pretty recent year too (though only the make and model were labelled on the side). She guessed that Wendy's crew had taken it brand new off a lot somewhere and possibly even modded it a little to reduce noise. Though maybe the engine was always quieter on this model, she didn't actually know. Jen's jacket was already zipped up, the riding gloves were on, and her helmet was securely fashioned to her head, though the visor was up and she looked at Willow attentively as she explained their route to her. "What I'm getting at is we're gonna pass by a lot of plateaus once we hit Wyoming." Willow continued. "I know your vision is a bit closed off in that helmet, but do you think you'd be able to keep an eye on top of them? Especially when they get close to us, you'll be the only one that has a view of the tops of them." "Easy." Jen waved it off as if it were nothing. "If I see something suspicious, do you just want me to shoot to get your attention?" "Only if you think there is some imminent danger. Otherwise, just... wave your arms or something..." Willow demonstrated by waving her right arm briefly. "I'd rather not whip everyone into a panic for nothing." "Roger that, commander." Jen added lightly. "Any other orders for me?" "Not really." Willow folded up her map and tucked it away. "Everything else we're gonna have to figure out as we go." Willow looked a little relieved at Jen's cooperation. Admittedly, Jen could understand her hesitation. They were getting near their next big destination and nobody knew if it was real or a trap. And nobody knew who was being drawn in by promises of a land of survivors. There was a lot that could go right, but a lot that could go wrong as well. And most of it was outside of their control. For what it was worth, Willow was trying really hard to make sure they got there in one piece. And Jen was okay with the more managerial role that she was trying to fill -- it meant Willow would be exerting herself less. And therefore less likely to abuse her painkillers to keep going. That was the theory anyway. Jen had to keep a close eye on her either way. Though Willow did look happier today. Jen wondered what had happened. But it probably involved her and Brandon having copious amounts of sex and Jen wasn't really sure she wanted to hear about that right now, so she didn't draw any attention to her observation. "I'll be right behind you guys then." Jen pulled down the visor on her helmet. |
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| Strompy | Aug 12 2015, 10:33 AM Post #2365 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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Emily cracked her neck and climbed into Jimmy's truck. She liked him. He had an ease about him she wished she could achieve. Her life had been full of stress, now that the world was basically gone why shouldn't stress go with it? It was hard though, she still had somebody she cared about, a couple somebody's now. Worry was pretty much an unavoidable result of that. "Oh shit, a gameboy." she remarked as she picked up the device. ... "That's good to hear, just promise you won't put yourself in harm's way. You look out for your mom, Kelsey, and yourself, the others and I will take care of ourselves, don't do anything dangerous unless you have to." Brandon reminded him. Connor was teenager and a boy. That potentially came with several very hazardous traits. Impulsiveness, eagerness, overconfidence and a need to prove himself. He hated giving Connor any kid treatment, and wondered if perhaps it would only further fuel any need he felt to prove himself, but he did have to say it all the same. He gave Connor an apologetic look and made his way inside the van where he settled in next to his future wife. He threaded his fingers between hers and nuzzled up against her. "We're gonna have to hit a jewelry store in the future, get ourselves some matching bling." he whispered in her ear. The engine came alive, and the convoy began the next leg of its journey. |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Aug 12 2015, 02:56 PM Post #2366 |
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Is that so?
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"You've been quiet, Nolan." Antonio mused as the convoy approached I-80. "Yeah! Talk to us!" Kelsey added. Nolan decided he would ride with Antonio during this leg of the journey. Kelsey had obviously decided to ride with them as well. She and Antonio had spent the first hour or so of their trip talking. It turned out that the father knew a surprising deal about video games and other kid stuff, so there was no shortage of stuff for the two of them to talk about, though Kelsey inevitably dominated the conversations with her more extensive knowledge. Though when he remembered that Antonio spent a lot of his life dealing with teenagers and young adults, it didn't seem all that surprising that he had a good grasp of that stuff. Nolan was just used to anyone past 30 not knowing much anything about video games. "Yeah, sorry. Just... a lot on my mind." Nolan introduced the idea. The truth was that Nolan had chosen to ride with Antonio for a very specific reason. He wanted to talk to him. But he didn't want to bring it up forwardly, he wanted Antonio to ask about it. That way it felt like Antonio was offering to hear him out rather than being asked to. It was weird, but it made Nolan feel a little better if it unfolded that way. "Oh? May I inquire?" He took the bait. Nolan sighed and thought about how he wanted to phrase his next words. "Well, the short version is that I'm realized I am afraid of getting too close to people." "What do you mean?" Antonio followed up. "I mean that... not even just in the romantic sense. Like any sense at all. Take Brandon for example. He's is pretty close to my age, I think. We have a few similar interests and we seem to get along pretty well. And we are united in our cause to get this cure to San Francisco and not die to rotters. Normally, that would be a good basis for calling someone a friend. But at the same time... I don't want to think of him that way. That makes it too personal." Antonio adopted a difficult expression and nodded his head. "I understand your concerns." Antonio told him somberly. * * * * * Willow found Wyoming to be a beautiful state. It was true that there was not much color to the landscape, only the golden and greens of the shrubs and weeds that graced the landscape, and occasionally batches of white snow nestled inside the grooves of the hills. Rolling tracts of land stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see, giving the them a sense of isolation unlike anything else Willow had experienced. And that was to be expected; despite its size, Wyoming had the smallest population out of every state in the Union. Stretched across this land, there lived a population that was only a fraction the size of Chicago. And as they drove down its streets, they passed nary a city or town. And most of the towns could barely be called even that. During three hours skirting along the lower section of the state, they had only passed two cities; Laramie and Rawlins. Both of them had been extremely uneventful. If Willow had not been trying to stop this plague of undeath, then she might have considered settling down somewhere in rural Wyoming to escape it. The rest of the world seemed so far from here that even the highway was empty of cars and rotters. It really felt like it was just them and the road -- the only sign that anyone had been here apart from them was the occasional billboard that said Alive in Salt Lake City. Maybe that is why Willow thought it was beautiful. They had been on the road for about four or five hours now. Willow didn't have a watch with her, but she guessed it was about mid-afternoon at this point. Eli, Emmett, Brandon, Connor, and Annie were in the van with her; the latter two in the very back seats and the former in the driver and passenger sears respectively, while Brandon was with her in the middle. Willow had passed the time by reading Grapes of Wrath and keeping an eye on landmarks so she could always be sure of their location. Of course by landmarks she meant signs. Rock Springs NEXT 4 EXITS The small sign was posted at the base of a large plateau that the road curved to circumnavigate it before the road went alongside yet another plateau to make it feel like one was driving down a canyon. This eventually opened up into the city of Rock Springs, which was nestled within a small grouping of plateaus. That led Willow to believe it had probably been a mining town a long time ago before expanding into what it was today. Which wasn't necessarily a difficult guess, as Wyoming was mostly mining towns anyway. The city was far too small to have received the bombings they found in major cities though, and it looked almost undisturbed when they drove by it. Save for a few rotters they could see roaming around on the streets below them. "Shit." The word escaped Willow's lips as the convoy came to a halt. Just after passing by the first exit into the city, they were stopped as a section of the highway that passed over a street below them had been completely destroyed. It was reminiscent of the explosion damage they had seen on the highways in Chicago. |
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| Strompy | Aug 12 2015, 05:40 PM Post #2367 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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Brandon had his carbine in hand straight away, the same way he did every time they came to an unexpected stop. Normally it was just traffic or debris that needed to be moved or circumnavigated. Stopping always made him a little anxious. This on the other hand made him syspicious. The damage they saw in Chicago could be explained, it had been bombed. This made no sense. The only explaination he could think of for this section of road being out was that it was intentionally destroyed to force them to stop. Maybe this was a one-time bandit setup, maybe the people who blew it were dead or had moved on. He could only hope. He really didn't want to go through this again. "Back up. This smells like bandits." he said to Eli as he readied his weapon. |
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| DoctorYerishi | Aug 13 2015, 01:46 AM Post #2368 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Eli didn’t need Brandon to tell him to back up. He was already doing it, staring backwards and waving his arm outside the window, indicating for the rest of the convoy to do the same. A concerned Annie and Connor were leaning out of the way so he could get a good look. The last few hours, the scenery had been beautiful and the air peaceful, but Eli hadn’t let his guard down even for a second. By now, he knew peace was not to be trusted. Of course. sooner or later they would arrive at the site of an explosion where there was no reason to be one. “Fuck Rock Springs,” he announced. “We’ll find another way around. We’ll off-road it if we have to. I don’t even want to find out why the highway’s blown to shit.” When he stopped indicating to the trucks behind him, his free hand rested on his holster. If, despite his best efforts, they were going to find out, he was going to be ready. And he wasn’t going to hesitate. |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Aug 13 2015, 02:26 AM Post #2369 |
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Is that so?
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"I doubt we could off-road in this terrain with anything short of a hummer. And even they can't scale these basins." Willow sighed in response to Eli. "At least I don't think they can." While the bridge was hardly indicative of anyone being here now, Willow agreed with everyone that the most likely cause of it was people. And people were bad news. If possible, she wanted to avoid the city entirely now, just to be safe. She glanced down at the map to see if there were any routes that would work for them. Her lips immediately curled into a frown. "If we want to keep the cars intact, we either need to go through Rock Springs or we could backtrack to one of the smaller, southbound freeways, but then we'd be adding a minimum of 200 miles to our trip." Willow reported to Eli. "And that is assuming we don't run into any roadblocks." |
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| DoctorYerishi | Aug 13 2015, 02:35 AM Post #2370 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Eli frowned at Willow’s words, then looked around in all directions. She was right about the off-roading at least. The surrounding area was so uneven, they might as well be driving on the moon. Adding that much distance and time to their trip wasn’t an appealing option either, however. He kept backing up as he thought about it. |
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