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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,858 Views)
DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Patrick clapped his hands in mock appreciation of Antonio’s nerve. He looked at Antonio’s body – slumped against the wall, not getting up – with satisfaction. Patrick had just owned him. And despite Antonio’s trash talk, he knew it too. That made Patrick happy.

“Because we’re building a better world, of course!” he said, smiling wide. “Forging the way into a new dawn, and so on and so forth. And we can’t do it alone. We were hoping you could be a part of it. But I guess it’s true what they say about old dogs and new tricks, right?”

He made an exaggerated shrugging gesture as he paced a little. He kept an eye on Antonio. He wasn’t getting back up again.

“So there was your one thing,” he said. “Now let’s get to the part where you finish making a fool of me.”

Patrick approached him, readying his now-sore fist for a final shot to the jaw.

* * *

A splash of blood landed on Eli’s forehead. He blinked from shock as he wiped it off, looking up to see… Brandon?

Harsh words from their last encounter echoed faintly in Eli’s head, but he forced them away. It didn’t matter how they left it. Brandon had saved his life. He was too grateful to care about anything else. And when he thought about it a second longer, he was also too worried about Kelsey.

Eli's exhaustion from the run caught up to him, and he was still dizzy from the tackle. He didn’t get back to his feet right away. Instead, he crawled over to the guard he had just killed and retrieved his pistol. Then he struggled back feet over the protestations of his rapidly beating heart. Finally, he panted heavily through his answer.

“She… she’s in the truck,” he said, bending over and gripping his knees. “Lowell killed Nolan…”

Those words still sounded unreal to him, but he managed to push on. There was no time to dwell on that. He remembered that with every passing second, the truck was getting father and farther away.

“She… she got in the back of their truck… they didn’t notice,” he kept going. “They’re getting… getting away.”

He turned his back on Brandon, long enough to tuck the pistol into his pants, then stumble over to one of the bodies he had felled. He turned that body over and retrieved the empty assault rifle from under it. He was dimly aware of how they were set to turn, he didn’t know how soon.

“I… I gotta stop them,” he said.

He flipped the guard over again. He looked only briefly at the hole in his neck, which he had bled out from in seconds. Then he felt around his belt for a spare magazine, and took it when he found it. He made the replacement.

There was a groan from nearby. From the guard Eli had hit twice – the one he had crippled but didn’t kill.

BANG!

With his new assault rifle, he fixed that mistake. He was finally starting to gain some control over his breathing by the time he aimed again at the forehead of the one he had just looted.

BANG!

He stood up straight and put the strap of the rifle over his shoulder. He turned to Brandon. He noticed for the first time that his friend – if he even could still call him that, after the argument they last had – had added a few new injuries to his collection.

Eli was suddenly confused. His bones chilled all over again, and he had a question of his own.

“Where’s everyone else?”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Antonio noticed the smug face Patrick had on as he approached. He thought he had just won. In a way, it was kind of cute.

"Gladly."

In one motion, Antonio revealed the metal flashlight in his hand. He aimed it at Patrick's head and swung it with every ounce of strength that he had.

CLUNK!
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Shit, Patrick thought, when Antonio made his move.

His smile had just enough time to turn into a frown. He did not see that coming.

He fell to the floor, unconscious.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Emily went door to door. The Kellys were missing. Annie was missing.

"Shit." she cursed.

She came to Antonio's room next in time to see Patrick hit the floor. She looked from Antonio who looked like he'd just been tossed around the room back to the unconcious man.

"Shit." she said approvingly as she withdrew her handcuffs.

...

"Emmett and Willow went to see Leonora about getting you released. I haven't heard anything from that direction so either they're fine or..." he said but fell short of finishing the statement.

"Everyone else should be back at the hotel." he said as he picked up a rifle one of the guards wouldn't miss anymore.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
As Patrick his the ground, Antonio dropped the flashlight from his hand and spat a blood covered tooth out of his mouth and onto his assailant. By the feel of it, it had been one of his upper molars; knocked loose by the first punch that connected and knocked out entirely by the second. As far as he was concerned, Patrick could keep it.

Thank God he went down in one hit.

"Hard to keep up with the kids these days." He groaned as he rubbed his jaw. "Is everyone else okay?"
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Strompy
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"There is no everyone else. They're not here." Emily said, her face a picture of despair.
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Is that so?
They were all gone?

Antonio could chastise himself mentally for days because of this. He knew these people were trouble, he simply did not voice his concerns loudly enough. If only he had, then maybe this could have been avoided. He should have been more adamant -- God had given him clarity in this and it was gift that he had thrown away. Any blood that was spilled by these people was blood that he had helped spill. It was a burden he would have to carry. But only if they made it through all of this.

"Then we need to find them." Antonio said resolutely. "And the first step to that is getting our guns back."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli gave Brandon another hard look. There was obviously more to the story. He had been attacked, clearly, and he also had reason to believe that Emmett and Willow weren’t fine. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left that sentence dangling.

There was a lot Eli wanted to say – not just about what was going on now, but about what happened before. Even if he could find the words, however, he knew there wasn’t time. Kelsey was slipping away.

He gave his next hard look to the motorcycle he had stopped one of the guards from driving away with. He was not an inexperienced rider, personally. His last few tries hadn’t gone well – and those were back when the world wasn’t infested with rotters, and there wasn’t a little girl’s life on the line.

Quickly, he realized there was no choice. Brandon was in no condition to take his place, and even if he was, there was the rest of the group to think about. They were all still in the middle of a hornet’s nest, and that nest had just taken a hell of a kicking.

Eli knew this place was trouble – something else he didn’t have time to say right now.

“Get them,” Eli said – more like pleaded, actually. “Get them and get out of here. I’ll get Kelsey.”

He headed for the bike, his breath still levelling out as he moved. He grunted as he hauled it back upright, his muscles straining from the effort.

“I’ll meet you in Elko, Nevada, like we talked about,” he said. “At the town hall. I’ll bring her back, I promise.”

The town name popped into his head, retained from the last strategy meeting. It was close but not too close. It would have to do. As for the town hall part, they needed a meeting place, and since he didn’t know the city, it was all he could come up with.

He gave Brandon another hard look. He bit back the confusing wave of grief and regret and anger and confusion that threatened to bubble up inside him.

“And Brandon, I…”

So much to say, he thought again. And so little time.

“Good luck,” was all he could settle on.
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Strompy
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"You too." he said before turning and limping away from the scene.

Eli would do it. He'd bring her back. Eli might have made a lot of mystifying decisions before, but Brandon knew that no matter what, Kelsey's safety would come first. Brandon hoped Eli would be able to do that and get justice for Nolan.

It was like Max all over again. There was no ambiguity about it. Not like Evan. Not like Darren or even Wendy. Not some needless risk like going after Cory, as much as he truly deserved it. Lowell had to die, but only after Kelsey was safe. Eli would know that.

Brandon had far more people to think about now. People who had put their trust in him. And Willow, she needed him. It was hard not to be overwhelmed but somehow he managed to stay focused on just one thought. To get back to the hotel.

...

"I think I heard an idea that sounded good. Guess we'll be winging it more than we hoped. If we can get those guns we can get Leonora. If we can get Leonora, we can get our people. Now we have somebidy who can tell us how to get them." Emily said looking down at the restrained and unconscious Patrick.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Antonio knelt down and stuffed his flashlight back into his duffle bag. Seeing as they might not have a chance to come back, he also stuffed Kelsey's little backpack into his bag as well -- he had enough room for it and it didn't weight much at all. Then he slung both his and Nolan's bag over his shoulders. Thankfully they were both light packers and he hardly noticed the difference.

"He's dedicated to Leonora." The swelling in his mouth and the missing tooth made talking feel weird, he was sure that it was slurring his voice a little too. "We don't have time right now to risk on that chance."

For a second, Antonio had wanted to kill Patrick. Right then and there. But he was better than that; Patrick was unconscious and retrained. He had already won. Killing him now would be akin to an execution. And for as evil a man as Patrick was, there was still a chance he could turn it around and become a good man again. It was a low chance, but it was not Antonio's place to take that choice away from him.

"I know where they have our guns. If they think their assassins did us in, then we already have the element of surprise on them."
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Strompy
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"What do with do with him though? His buddies are going to come looking for him and he'll be coming to soon." Emily asked.

Something on the bed caught her eye. Another syringe. More sedatives. If they were sedatives that is. She took that one too.
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Is that so?
Antonio peered out the door. He looked to the right. Then to the left. It was clear in both directions.

"Leave him."

Antonio was already on his way out the door. It was clear what was happening; they were dividing and conquering. The window they had open to them now was small -- when Patrick didn't come back, his friends would come looking for him. They could not be here when that happened.

He made his way toward the stairs. And then down them and toward the lobby. But he stopped just short of entering.

"Damn." Antonio cursed for the second time today.

There were two guards on the lobby, both of them armed with assault rifles. And their weapons were being held in the office behind the receptionist's desk. They didn't have a choice, they had to get through them to get their weapons back. Somehow Emily had gotten her hands on a shotgun, but he was completely unarmed.

"Any ideas?" He whispered to Emily.
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Strompy
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Emily looked at the shotgun in her hands apprehensively.

"Only one." she confessed with a note of dread.
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Is that so?
Antonio rested his hand on the bag. More specifically, on the bag that held the cure inside it. Now he understood the burden of what Eli had carried with him this whole time. Holding it yourself was an entirely different feeling. This was about more than the survival of his friends -- if he fell here, maybe the entire world would never recover from this. But in order to survive, they needed their weapons back.

So the choice was simple. If he wanted to protect the cure and have a chance at helping everyone else, then they needed to get past those guards. Which meant they needed to kill them.

"We have no choice." Antonio said quietly. "I will ask for forgiveness later."

With those words, he gave Emily permission to do what needed to be done.
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Strompy
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Emily weighed it all up in her head. She was hoping in a way that Antonio would tell her not to do it, she just killed one man she wasn't prepared to kill two more. She thought maybe if she came out and demanded they surrender she could avoid it, but that seemed like a risk they couldn't afford to take. They had the cure protect and people to find.

Ruby and CJ. she reminded herself to keep thinking of those two kids.

Slowly and quietly she pulled the pump back and then forward again, loading a round. This wasn't like when they were attacked on the road and she had shot back. It wasn't even like before when she cut that guys throat, this wasn't self defense. As necessary as it might be, and it only might be, this was still murder. She let out a shuddering breath and stepped out with her shotgun raised.

Boom

The first round of buckshot tore through the man's face sending him to the floor and spkattering hus friend in his blood.

Clack-clack

Boom

Clack-clack

Boom

She turned the gun slightly to the right at the next guard before he could even realize what just happenef. The first shot got him in the upper right of his torso, near the shoulder and she followed that up witb a more decisive shot to his centre. Once he fell she advanced on them with her gun at the ready and pointed at them. She kicked their dropped weapons away and checked them. They were dead, or at least dying. They weren't a threat. She gasped for air as she realized she hadn't taken a breath and then pumped another round into the chamber. The spent shell hit the floor and rattled around hollowly in the stark silence that followed the action.

"They're dead." she said as she reached a shaking hand into her pocket and began loading replacement rounds into the tube.
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