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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,862 Views)
Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Nolan took a seat on the first chair he found. A quick glance at himself in a nearby mirror served as a reminder to how rough the past few days had been -- both physically and emotionally. He ran a finger along the gash on his forehead as he pursed his lips in serious thought.

"I think I know exactly what you mean." Nolan confessed. "I don't want to be the one to say this, but... I would sometimes catch him -- Lowell, I mean -- giving Emily these creepy looks. But I either didn't think much of it or was too absorbed in my own little world to put the pieces together. I didn't think it would come down to something like this."

Nolan lowered his gaze to the floor.

"Sometimes I think I understand why Eli is so paranoid about people."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Hank sighed. He wished he had seen those looks. He wished he had any idea. Maybe he could have stopped it. Maybe he could have done something different.

“I feel terrible,” he admitted. “I’m the one that brought him here, after all. But then there’s the fact that without him, then I wouldn’t be here either. He’s pulled me out of a couple fires. Including one big one. I guess I’m just glad he didn’t get very far.”

He sighed. He didn’t know what else to say on the topic. So he decided to change it.

“How are you holding up, by the way?”
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Is that so?
Nolan thought about it for a second. He wished he had an answer to that question. But he didn't.

"I don't know." He finally admitted. "Ever since Jen -- my last girlfriend -- died a few days ago, it's just been a haze. I can't really make sense out of anything and it frustrates me. Like Lowell. Like Eli. Like... all of this. I look at it all and I process it... but the pieces never fit together and I never really get the whole picture."

It was the first time he had acknowledged Jen as a 'girlfriend' even inside his own head. It was strange, but he thought she would have liked that. She would have liked being called his girlfriend. In a way, it felt kind of right.

"And I have no idea if that made any sense at all. It's hard to put into words."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Hank knew Nolan’s group had lost someone the day Hank and his family arrived. He didn’t know it was Nolan’s girlfriend, though – or if he did, he didn’t remember. He gave him an empathetic look. He knew exactly what it was like to lose a loved one, and he knew exactly what it was like to fight off the malaise afterwards.

“Like I said – right there with you,” Hank said. “After I lost my wife, it was all I could do to see straight. If it wasn’t for my sister and my kids, I don’t know what I would have done.”

He decided to change the topic by giving him a compliment.

“I’ll tell you something, though, I should thank you,” he said. “For keeping your cool back there, in the hallway, when it was all going down. One wrong move, and it could have gone a lot worse. People could have died.”

Instead, he thought, only one person got shot. And she survived.

Then he thought about the shooter. The other guy Leonora and her people had locked up. Nolan had brought him up, and had even admitted to snapping at him not long ago, so Hank felt comfortable at least touching on the subject.

“And Eli? How’s he doing? I know he’s your friend, and it seems like he has…”

He struggled for a second to think of the right words.

…good intentions,” he decided. “But the way he’s been acting, that outcome seemed inevitable.”
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Is that so?
Nolan frowned. Despite that though, it felt good to be able to talk about it. It was like getting a weight off his chest -- one he couldn't talk to with the others. Hank had provided a rare opportunity; someone outside of the group he could talk to. And a damn good guy too. Dad probably would have hit it off with Hank real easily.

"Eli definitely has good intentions. But like you said with Lowell, he has a kind of intensity behind him." Nolan explained. "His heart is in the right place, I think. But he can also be extremely dangerous."

For a moment, he almost elaborated but decided not to. The last thing he needed now was to scare Hank any further by telling him more about Eli. Hank had enough on his plate as it was without hearing about the people Eli had murdered on the road before they met. Besides, he hadn't asked for Eli's life story, he just wanted to know how he was holding up.

"I think the whole incident has him on edge. He seems pretty convinced that these people are going to execute him for shooting Alma. He might even be more paranoid than usual."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Hank frowned a little at the thought. Eli – more paranoid than usual? It didn’t seem possible. And Leonora and her people being executioners also seemed unlikely. He was having his doubts about this place, and the fact that all their weapons had been reclaimed and more guards had been assigned to the hotel didn’t help. But summary execution? He couldn’t see that happening.

He was about to tell Nolan that when where was a knock on the door. Hank held up a finger – one second, he indicated – before he went to answer it.

It was Annie on the other side. She gave him a small smile, which he returned.

“Hey,” he greeted. “You here to collect Connor and Kelsey?”

“Actually,” she said. “Could you keep watching them for a little while longer? I need to borrow Nolan.”

Instinctively, he looked back at Nolan and the kids. They seemed at peace. He turned back to Annie.

“Of course,” he said – then repeated his question from earlier. “Is everything okay?”

She gave him another small smile – he saw some sadness in it.

“It will be,” she said. “We’ll get there.”

* * *

The whole adult group – including Nolan – was once again assembled. This time, it was in the privacy of Annie and Connor’s room. Everyone was waiting to hear what Annie had called them together for. She didn’t waste their time.

“We need a new leader,” she said.

She didn’t bother to beat around the bush. They needed to be direct and transparent about this kind of thing from now on.

“After Randall, the lack of clarity, it… it helped put Eli in that position,” she explained. “Maybe it made him think he had to be in that position. And as I was saying earlier, we can’t keep repeating the same mistakes. We need to learn. We need to grow. That’s the way forward.”

She cleared her throat. She was a little uncomfortable with her current role as orator. She felt like she was giving a school presentation – albeit a necessary one.

“I don’t think any of you will disagree with me when I say we should be democratic,” she continued. “We should all get a say. Not just now, but in the future. All our input should be valued. But even democracies have leaders. They have people they elect and trust to make the right decisions at the end of the day. And I have a nomination.”

She looked around – her audience seemed pretty rapt. She looked to each of them, making sure they were all on board.

“I have a nomination,” she said. “Someone who knows what he’s doing. Someone with the skills and the knowledge to survive out there. Someone with fortitude and mettle, but also compassion. Someone I’ve seen grow a lot in the short time I’ve known him.”

Her gaze settled on the person she was talking about. She smiled bitter-sweetly.

“I nominate Brandon,” she concluded.
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Strompy
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Brandon nodded along with what Annie was saying until she began to talk about her nomination and an anxiety began growing in him quickly. He kept up a solid poker face as Annie gave her nomination and nodded his acknowledgment of her decision while inside he was shaking his head furiously. He was too young. He didn't have the experience to...

Sounds like Eli. it occurred to him.

If he really believed a word he said to Eli before about not needing him to lead then he had to believe he could do it. This whole time though he thought it would be Annie taking the wheel and she probably still would be. She was his nomination. She was intelligent, patient and level headed, he and others certainly looked up to her. She could hardly nominate herself though so of course she had to name somebody else. It meant an enormous amount that she would nominate him though and a surge of pride overcame the brief bout of panic. He smiled appreciatively at the gesture.

"Brandon's got the stuff. I vote Brandon." Emily cast her vote, arresting the waning of his panic.

That was two votes now. That wasn't a token number. Still five to go, even if Willow also nominated him, and she wad the most likely to do so of those who hadn't yet, than that was still only three. The remaining votes would likely go to Annie.

"Before we go any further, I don't think it's right to exclude Connor and Kelsey. I know they're only kids but they still have something to contribute to the group. I also gave Connor my word that I'd talk to you about him taking on some more responsibilities. If we can't even trust them with a simple vote... I think it'd be good for them. All we need to tell them about why we're voting is that Eli has decided not to come with us, which is true. What do you think?" Brandon suggested.

There was a double agenda in doing so. Kelsey would nominate her brother and Connor would nominate his mom, most likely. The other reason was that Connor needed some acknowledgment or he might continue to seek it in all the wrong ways, and Kelsey might not be far behind him.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“You’re right,” Annie conceded. “They deserve to be here.”

Not bad for a first decision, she thought.

Brandon was still young. He was still immature in some ways and occasionally prone to naivety – but that wasn’t always a bad thing. And when it was, she intended to be there to guide him. Unlike with Eli, she had faith he would be willing to listen and consider her point of view. He had come around on the Wendy matter, after all. He had proven he had room to learn and evolve.

“I’ll get them,” she volunteered.

She made the short trek to Hank’s room once again, shooting a quick glance down the hall at one of Leonora’s men who was stationed by the stairwell.

She knocked, Hank quickly answered.

“Turns out we need Connor and Kelsey as well,” she said. “Thank you for keeping an eye on them.”

“It was nothing,” Hank said. “They’re good kids.”

“Yeah, they are, aren’t they?” Annie smiled.

Hank let her inside, and she headed over to them. She explained they were having a meeting and they should part of it, and then led them back to her room, where everyone was waiting. She broke down the situation much like Brandon suggested they should.

“I think it should be Brandon,” she concluded her explanation.

“But what about…” Connor started to say.

You, he was probably going to say. Annie didn’t stop him, but he trailed off when he saw the reticence on her face.

She didn’t want the spot. She would take it, if she had to, but she didn’t think she was the best equipped. She knew medicine. She liked to think she knew right from wrong – which was not a small thing these days. But she didn’t know tactics. She didn’t know combat. She was still learning along with the kids.

“…okay,” Connor said instead. “I vote Brandon too.”
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"I also vote for Brandon." Willow was quick to throw her support in for her boyfriend.

Antonio was not exactly surprised by that, but he hummed regardless. He already knew who he was going to vote for.

Annie was a fantastic moral compass and doctor. But she was not a leader among men, nor did he think she desired that role for herself. Brandon had a lot of knowledge, but he had seen shades of inconsistency in the man that made him doubt whether he would be the most stable leader. Willow he thought would make a fantastic leader with a little more confidence, but he could not vote for the woman in confidence with her current drug problems.

That left two real choices. Emily was definitely level-headed and confident. From what little Antonio knew of her, she seemed like she would be a solid leader. But that was just the problem; Antonio did not know a lot about her and had not seen her in any sort of leadership role. That left only one person.

"I nominate Nolan." Antonio annouced.

"I vote for Nolan, too!" Kelsey quickly agreed and looked toward her big brother.

"Whoa, wait? What?" Nolan looked genuinely confused. "I have zero qualifications for this. I think Brandon is a much better choice."

"Nonsense." Antonio disputed him. "You led the team fine when Brandon and Eli were both gone. I admit that your survival skills are a bit lacking, but you are passionate enough to take the reins when its needed and clever enough to know what to do with them. Furthermore, your heart is always in the right place and you are a good team player."

"Wow." Nolan was a bit taken aback by the sudden rush of praise. "I don't really know what to say to that."
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Strompy
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Brandon nodded in agreement with Antonio. It might just be sentiment speaking but Randall's soon couldn't lead them too far wrong if he was anything like his dad. He didn't want the job, clearly, but then neither did Randall, and Eli probably didn't either. Anyone who took the helm would have to watch out that they didn't become too comfortable with it.

"It's true. I think a lot of us can be depended on. I trust everyone in this room but I think it's Annie we need most. So I vote for her." Brandon said.

He had to honest, Annie was smarter and wiser, and unlike himself she hadn't veered from her principles. They could use that reliability now. With four votes for him though, and Nolan unlikely to vote for himself Brandon may have just made himself "boss". The only way it wasn't a foregone conclusion would be if both Nolan and Emmett voted for Nolan, and they would have to cast another vote to break the tie.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie gave Brandon a smile in acknowledgement of his vote. She didn’t want the job – and was unlikely to get it – but his compliment was still welcome.

She still turned to Nolan next, since he was the runner up. Honestly, she hadn’t really considered him. He was about the same age as Brandon and had similar foibles – neither of them could stay on task at Eli’s intervention, for example. They had both fallen down a rabbit hole of petty arguing, but Brandon at least didn’t have to leave the room over it. He had remained more measured.

Nolan had potential, though, Annie could admit that. If it came down to it, she thought there was a good chance he could step up, like Antonio said. He was Randall’s son, after all.

“You can vote for yourself,” she told him.
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Is that so?
Nolan looked at Annie, then back at Brandon. He appreciated the freedom to vote for himself, but his choice was already made. Nolan acknowledged that Antonio had some points and that he might be a good leader. In fact, after how everyone spoke so well of his father, a part of him wanted to live up to that legacy. But in his own mind, he was not the best choice. Brandon's current capacity for survival and his experience dealing with rotters far surpassed his own.

"Thanks." He told Annie. "But I am still voting for Brandon."
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It was decided then. Brandon knew a moment of dread as Nolan gave him his vote. In reality it was only a handful of people, but it was a handful of people he cared about and who were carrying the last hope for their country, maybe even the world. It was a lot of weight. Unlike Eli though, he recognized he didn't need to carry it alone.

Although it couldn't change the outcome there was still one vote that hadn't been tallied. Brandon turned to him. He had a voice though he chose not to use it, it carried the same weight as everyone elses.

"Emmett?" he prompted.
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Nolan’s vote clinched it, but Annie looked to Emmett anyway.

“Brandon,” he said with a short nod. “It’s a good choice.”

Annie nodded herself. She liked that they were all mostly in agreement. She also liked having the chance to feel good about something for once – especially after how bad she felt about everything that happened with Eli.

She turned to Brandon. “I’ll help you,” she promised. “We all will.”

* * *

Eli was alone. Truly alone. The people he thought were his family had all turned their back on him. Literally. They had all turned and walked out of the room, leaving him caged like an animal.

He wasn’t looking forward to the next time he slept. More importantly, he wasn’t looking forward to the next time he woke up. Until now, he could ignore the ghosts that haunted him, he could tell himself they were obstacles he needed to overcome in the pursuit of a greater mission.

But that mission had been stolen from him. Now the ghosts were just ghosts. He had sacrificed everything for nothing.

He curled up on the floor, by the bench. He tried to get a head start on forgetting about all the people who betrayed him. He wasn’t having any luck. His mind never co-operated before, after all, why should it start now?

They’re doomed, he thought, over and over. They’re doomed and they don’t even know it.

He thought about what he couldn’t bring up out loud, even at his most furious state. He knew how it would sound. He couldn’t admit it to anyone but himself, even if it was the truth.

The truth that he was invincible. He couldn’t die. Unlike everyone else.

He had thought about it a lot, even before now, as he tossed and turned those nights that he was unable or unwilling to sleep. It was the only thing that made sense.

Sure, he had scraped up his arm crawling over broken glass. The cuts had healed. He sprained his ankle fleeing Old Fort Erie. He was back to normal in just a couple days. Lowell had put a hole in his foot. It didn’t stop him from walking on it. After everything he had put himself through – it was nothing.

Meanwhile, Willow had been riddled with bullets. Emmett had almost bled out. Brandon had an eyepatch and a cane. Nolan had bullet holes and bruises to spare. Randall was dead. So was Glenda, Julie, Jen. Even Annie had been beaten up, and that was in the safety of her home back in Flint. The only reason Emily and Antonio had fared so well is because they hadn’t been with them long enough.

Eli, though – he had emerged from an endless stream of gunfights, brawls, and desperate close quarters encounters with rotters with barely a bump on the head. That meant something. That had to mean something.

Right? Eli asked – though he wasn’t sure to whom he was asking. That means something. Right? Right?!

Minutes passed. He didn’t get an answer.

Fuck it, he thought, when he couldn’t take the sudden silence in his mind a second longer.

He closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.

* * *

Noah was crushed. Emotionally, he felt like he’d been pulverized into pieces too small and deformed to fit back together.

That’s what it feels like when your future falls out from under you, he realized. It feels like you’ve been crushed.

He knew he couldn’t stay with the Kelly’s now. His best friend had crossed an unforgivable line and had caused a scene that put them all under great scrutiny, maybe even danger. Hank wouldn’t let him anywhere near his daughter any more. And Leonora most likely wouldn’t let him stay even if he applied.

Noah didn’t blame her, or anyone besides himself, really. He didn’t think he deserved to stay either. After the part he played in all that chaos, there was no room for him here. He had betrayed Lowell and broken Alma’s heart and the consequences were instant. He was arrogant to think he could avoid them. A part of him – a large part – was racked with guilt. He figured he had partially brought this on.

Alma must have agreed. She had been cold to him ever since she had returned from getting medical attention, her arm now nursed in a sling. She had let him stay with her, though, which he considered a very tentative start.

The room was silent for a long time at first.

“I’m…”

“Don’t even say it,” she interrupted him

It was silent for a long time after. At one point, it was interrupted long enough for her to turn Ruby away at the door, and then it was silent again.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, finally.

He nodded. “Okay.”

“Whatever happened, you are… and he is…” she frowned deeply as she cut herself off, then mustered the resolve to try again. “Whatever happened, he’s still our friend. Our only friend. He’s saved our lives more times than we can count.”

He nodded again. “I know.”

“They’re going to take him away,” she said. “That’s what they’re saying. We can’t let that happen. We can’t leave him here.”

Noah was still. He knew what she was suggesting. He didn’t like it. But she was right. About everything.

“We have to break him out of here,” she said. “Whatever it takes. And we need to do it soon.”

He sighed. He felt his last tiny shred of hope of a better, safer life slip away into nothing.

“I know.”

* * *

“So you wanted a plan,” Annie said. “For getting Eli out, if worse comes to worst.”

It was past time, she thought, that they moved onto their next piece of business while they were all still assembled. She didn’t necessarily agree that it was a good idea to start plotting against their hosts, but a simple contingency seemed harmless enough.

“So what are you thinking?” she asked.
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Strompy
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"Hey!" she yelled over the din of the club "The guy at the door says you make awesome White Russians." she explained herself.

Brandon grinned. He didn't make awesome White Russians, he was crap at cocktails, it was his and Kyle's code. Kyle was sending her and her friend to him so he could invite them to a party they were having after work. He and Kyle were finishing once the rush was over and things calmed down a little here, and then heading over to Steve's place for a get-together he was having with his closest fifty friends and pretty much anyone else who found out about it.

"I'm gonna need to see some ID." he told them.

They were cute. The one talking to him was generally hotter, but her friend had nicer tits and might even be more yielding to suggestion if she had some inferiority thing with her friend. She was probably his best bet of the two. They presented their IDs and he raised an eyebrow playfully.

"Twenty-six? You don't look a day over nineteen." he complimented her.

"Thank you." she said delightedly, playing along.

She was nineteen, they were fakes. The IDs might have come from a guy called Lenny, that's where he got his. That guy was creepy. Brandon got them their drinks and slipped them a napkin with Steve's address and his knock off time written on it.

...

That was the most responsible job Brandon had ever held and he used it to get underage girls drunk and get laid. That was less than two years ago but it felt like another life completely. They had just put their faith in him to lead them, to find the way forward for all of them. He reached out and took Willow's hand in his and gave it a nervous squeeze. Outwardly he kept calm. He smiled. The others couldn't feel the heat rising inside him, or the paradoxical chill going down his spine, or see the way his hand trembled slightly as he gripped Willow's like he would a railing on a high balcony, desperate for something reassuringly solid to remind him he wouldn't fall.

The chose him, they put their faith and support behind him. It occurred to him what that really meant when Annie spoke to him. They did support him. He could depend on them as much as they did him. If he were making the wrong choice and couldn't see it, there were another eight pairs of eyes to help him see. He shouldn't be feeling nervous, he should be more proud than anything because a group of incredible and gifted people believed in him.

Thinking too much. Don't think, just do. his brother's voice rang in his head.

"This is only if, and that's a big if, they don't leave us an acceptable option. Until then this is all theory. We can't make a plan based on the little information we have so far. We're familiar with the layout of this place a little now so that's pretty helpful. But our weapons, we'd need those. So we have to know where they are exactly and what kind of security they have on them." Brandon laid out the first key issue.

"More critical is what we would do with them. A loud breakout can't happen because there's way too many of them, and sneaking into those offices and then all the way back out the gate to our getaway is a tall order even for the Batman." Brandon said gesturing to Emmett on the last remark.

"I think our best bet would be a hostage. We take one of theirs and give them back after we get ours. I don't think they'd be so bent on dealing with one disturber of the peace that they'd let one of theirs die, but they might take a slight against them that seriously, so whoever we grabbed have to be important. Really important. We need to know where they'll be when it's time and how we can get to them." Brandon expanded, letting the obvious candidate he had in mind hang in the air unspoken.
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