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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,848 Views)
DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli nodded. The batteries were a good find. He had hoped for maybe a flashlight to go with them, but he figured they could do without. He turned around.

“So now you care about Willow again?” he asked. “Good.”

He headed for the living room, with the window overlooking the street. He pulled back the curtain just a little bit, enough to see that there was nothing outside. At least nothing yet.

“Get some rest,” he called out. “An’ that’s not a suggestion. We’re leaving at first light, and I want you at the top of your game.”

He left unsaid that he would keep watch. But he would. He took a seat on a couch overlooking the crack in the curtains. He put his newly acquired keys – as well as his new knife – on the table in front of him. He stared forward, trying to blink away his tiredness.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Reluctantly, Kelsey placed the book and the batteries on the nightstands. Then she curled onto the bed.

She could probably get at least a few hours of sleep. Maybe. As long as she didn't think about Nolan. Which was probably not going to happen.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli had every intention of staying awake. Not only was he determined to act as a sentinel against Leonora and her army of crazies, but he was as afraid as ever of what visions sleep might bring. Brandon wasn’t looking too hot last time Eli saw him. And Willow and Emmett were last seen heading towards that bitch’s office. In his fevered dreams, he worried he’d might see their faces, and remember his last word’s to them.

Emmett he feared in particular. Maybe I made a mistake, he said. The words haunted Eli, mostly because he thought they might be true.

He didn’t want any part of that, so he kept his eyelids open wide and kept the dark street in view. He listened for more engine sounds, but they never came.

He kept listening. He tried not to think of his aborted sleep in the jail cell, and how long it had been before that since he’d closed his eyes for more than 10 minutes at a time. He tried to think instead about his missing friends and his mission to reunite them with Kelsey. He tried to think about Randall and the promise he made and how he would do anything to see it fulfilled.

Eventually, the thoughts became muddled and formless. Exhaustion crept up on him. Without meaning to, he closed his eyes.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
The hours and miles flew by as the convoy carried on north. They had only the occassional glimpse of train tracks to let them know they were still going the right way. The other cars had two people who could rotate driving duty while the other slept. Brandon wasn't so fortunate. They stopped only briefly at a truck stop for a bathroom break and to scrounge up some food. Brandon helped himself to some caffeine pills. They helped but they weren't a solution.

As Connor slept in the passenger seat Brandon struggled to stay awake. Sometimes he would start thinking about Willow and his thoughts would turn into a jumble as he half-dreamed. He'd sometimes blink and end up keeping his eyes closed for a few seconds. Everytime he'd open them with a start and wonder how long he'd had them closed. The jolt of panic would keep him wide awake for a few minutes. If it weren't for the flat landscape and the straight roads he may have had an accident. Weak, tired, sore. It was a hell of a way to spend the night.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Somehow, Kelsey got some sleep. But it was far from the quiet and peaceful sleep she had hoped it would be. Every time her body lulled itself into dreamland, the only thing she was greeted with was the face of her older brother.

Sometimes they were younger. Kelsey was probably around 5 and Nolan 15. They were in their old house in Mount Kisco. Though they never spoke much, they did have the occasional moment. The sideways glance, the wayward smile, the subtle joke. The warm moments siblings shared without really even meaning to -- the warm moments that were impossible to explain to an only child. She remembered all of those. And she remembered them fondly. Sometimes they were recent. Their trip across country with their new friends, surviving in a hostile world. Her memories of a Nolan that was more cautious and reserved than the rowdy and energetic brother she had known before; the one who was just as likely to hurt himself doing something stupid. And then sometimes she saw her brother today. She saw him dead. Riddled with bullets and covered in blood. Trying to say something to her, but without any words coming out. She experienced the agony of seeing him gunned down and watching him die over and over again. Like an instant replay of today's events, seared violently into her memory. A memory that she had been trying her best to avoid by killing the one responsible for it.

It was still dark now. Kelsey was sitting up in the bed that she had claimed for herself, staring down at her feet blankly. She was drenched in a layer of sweat and the blankets had long since been kicked off the bed during the night. She didn't know how long exactly she had been asleep or if she had even slept at all. It could have been a few minutes since Eli left, it could have been a few hours. Either way, it was clear that she would not be able to sleep tonight. And she might never be able to sleep until this felt fair.

Kelsey peered out the window in her unofficial bedroom. It was dark outside. There were no streetlights or anything. Just the moon and the stars for light.

Nolan probably liked that. He loved astronomy. I think that's why he wanted to be a physicist so badly.

But it was enough. She could see the street. It looked clear. No rotters. No people. No nothing. The car that Eli had found was still parked out there. Completely undisturbed. If she could get in that car, she could use it to follow Lowell and Noah. She'd never driven before and was not tall enough, but she could make it work. Probably. She knew where Lowell and Noah were going still and there wasn't any traffic on the road to stop her. If she kept driving through the night, maybe she could even get lucky enough to cover their lost ground.

Nolan would probably not want me to do this.

It was a long shot, but it was something. She carefully jumped out of bed and scooped up the AR-15 she had gotten from the back of the truck Lowell stole. If she could grab a little food and a little water, then she was pretty sure she would be enough to make the trip. She glanced at the book she had gotten for Willow.

The book that Nolan would cringe at uncontrollably. I just know he would have hated it.

It was still on the nightstand. Right where she had left it. If she left it there, hopefully Eli would get the idea and take it back to her. Assuming he didn't do something stupid like try to chase after her again. He probably would though.

Nolan would. I know he would.

As Kelsey stepped from the bedroom and into the hallway, she was so preoccupied in her own mind and so tired from being unable to sleep that she tripped over her own foot and crashed loudly into the ground. Her AR-15 slid across the hardwood floor, bumping into every wall along the way. If Eli hadn't been awake before, he certainly was now.

Crap.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli’s head rolled from one shoulder to the other. He breathed in sharply.

But he didn’t wake up. Blood, bullet holes, broken promises – his mind stayed focused on those.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
For a few, long awkward seconds, Kelsey remained belly down on the ground. There was no Eli. No retaliation. No noise. Silence permeated through the household again. She was able to exhale again.

The young girl crawled back to her feet, picked up her rifle, and got to work shuffling through the house as quietly as a rat. From the kitchen she picked up two of the waters and shoved them into her coat, making sure to leave one for Eli when he woke up. Unfortunately, there wasn't much in the way of food. Nor was there much she could do about the lack of it. Then she crept into the family room, where Eli slept on the couch. Her target here rested on the table by where he slept -- the keys to the Toyota. And beside them a knife that he had taken from the kitchen. That could be useful too. Thankfully, after her fall from earlier, she knew Eli was out pretty hard. It wasn't hard to tiptoe into the room, snatch the car keys and the knife, and then slip out.

Now armed with everything she needed for the trip ahead, Kelsey carefully slipped out through the front door. The cold night air was not much different from inside the house. She trotted down the driveway and past the overgrown lawn. She did a visual sweep of the street and found it more or less in the clear; the few rotters in her sight didn't even look attentive right now. Like they were sleeping while they were standing or something. Like what horses did. She quickly found the Toyota Camry after a minute or two of looking for it in the dark and jumped in the driver's seat.

This might be harder than I thought. Kelsey mentally rued; her feet could barely reach the pedals and she could barely see over the dashboard. But it didn't matter. She would make it work. For Nolan. She placed the key in the ignition and turned it.

The car turned on.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
A familiar sound jolted Eli from his rest. Nightmares gave way darkness – the darkness of the room he was in.

Quickly, he darted to the window in front of him, desperate for a peek. That was a car engine, it was unmistakable this time. There was no way he was imagining it. No way Kelsey could say it didn’t happen.

Except…

He realized a moment later that the sound was coming from the parking lot.

“Kelsey?” he called out.

There was no immediate response. He turned around and looked at the table where his keys were. They were gone. So was the knife.

“Kelsey?!” he called out, louder, as a picture started to form in his head.

He darted next for the door to her bedroom, clearing the distance quickly. Like his keys and knife, she had disappeared.

Hijo de puta!” he cursed – at himself, not her. He was the one who had fallen asleep.

His rifle was leaning next to the couch. He scooped it up by the strap as he passed by, then charged right out the door.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Okay, this is weird.

Kelsey extended her spine and managed to barely see over the dashboard. And if she stretched her feet out, she could press on the pedals as well. It was an awkward arrangement at best, but it did mean that she could drive the car. It would just be difficult. She pulled the waters out of her coat and tossed them on the passenger seat. Then she tossed the knife and the AR-15 over there as well. She was just about ready to go. Then she looked down at her feet again.

The long pedal is for go and the wide one is for stop, right? Or was it the other way around?

She pressed down on the long one. The engine roared to life louder than before. But didn't move.

Oh right, I need to pull the thingie and put it in drive.

Her eyes fell to the lever between the driver and passenger seats. There was a row of letters next to it. Right now it was on 'P'. That probably meant park. She needed it to be on 'D'. Cause that one was drive, right? It was probably drive. She just knew that 'N' was the wrong one. And she had no idea what any of the others meant. She reached over and pulled the lever down to drive. The engine started making a different sound. It was probably okay to go now!

This time, Kelsey pushed down on the gas and the car felt like it was trying to go forward. But it didn't.

Wait, did I do something wrong? Kelsey frowned at her obvious car operation failure. What did I do wrong? How do I make it go?
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli cringed at the noise Kelsey was making by revving the engine. All his concerns about quiet were going right out the window. She was going to alert every rotter and every human in a five mile radius.

He slung his rifle over his shoulder as he moved. His muscles were sore after their brief cool down, but he ignored the pain as he cleared the distance to the parking lot in a panic.

“Kelsey!” he whispered so harshly that it was basically a shout. “Stop!”

He ran around the car and made it to the window on her side. He gave it an aggressive tap.

“Get out! Now!
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
The frown on Kelsey's face grew even deeper at the appearance of her 'travelling companion'. He was at her window and seemed to be in a pretty dour mood. Which, frankly, was pretty normal for him.

So much for not waking up Eli. She sighed mentally more than she did physically.

She rolled down the window just enough to talk to him.

"Can you please just let me do this!?" Kelsey half begged and half yelled at him.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli narrowed his eyes incredulously and leaned on the car with both palms. He looked left and right for threats before looking back to the angry Kelsey.

“What?! No!” he said. “Get out of the car!”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Oh! That's right! The parking break!

Kelsey suddenly remembered the step she had been forgetting this whole time. That lever right next to the other one. She pressed the button at the top of it and pushed it down. The parking break disengaged.

Suddenly, the car was moving forward on its own -- she wasn't even pressing on the gas pedal and it was moving! Was that supposed to happen? Did cars always do this? It wasn't going fast though, so she pushed down on the gas pedal anyway to make it go faster. Apparently she pressed down too hard as the car lurched forward faster than she was expecting. Kelsey was thrown back into her seat and couldn't see over the dashboard anymore.

The car veered swiftly to the left and came to a stop after running into a tree.

Or at least Kelsey assumed it was a tree. The airbag blew up in her face and made it impossible to see what she had actually hit.

That didn't work.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Mierda!” Eli cursed again – and that time it was at Kelsey.

He had to jump back as the car started rolling or risk it crushing his toes. When it surged forward, he took off behind it, following it right into a tree in the yard.

He made it back beside the front window again, his frustration at a peak. If any of Leonora’s men were nearby, they definitely heard that. He snaked his arm through the crack Kelsey had created in the window, and pushed aside the deflating airbag to access the ignition. He pulled the keys right out.

“What are you thinking?!” he didn’t bother to modulate his volume anymore.

He looked left and right. There was a rotter far down the street – he didn’t know where it came from. It was now ambling their way.

He gripped the keys in his fist and raised them to his head. He spun around, biting his tongue before he could say anything harsher. When he finished his rotation, Kelsey had disentangled herself from the airbag and he looked her in her defiant eyes. He opened his mouth to chastise her some more.

He stopped. He recognised something in her – something familiar, something he didn’t want to see but could no longer deny. He exhaled loudly. He closed his own eyes.

Damnit,” he said softly.

He inhaled then his eyes opened his eyes up again. Once again, he settled them on Kelsey.

“You’re not going to stop, are you?”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"I told you that already." Kelsey simply said to Eli while looking up at him through the open window.

Thankfully the crash was more mentally painful to her than physically. The airbag was the worst part of it, and that was just more annoying than anything. It didn't seem as dangerous as everyone had made it out to be.

"I don't care if I live or I die anymore." Her tone was grounded now, less emotional and more serious. "As long as Lowell pays for what he did."
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