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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,839 Views)
Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"Well, we aren't quite married yet, babe." Willow smiled wryly. "But you can still call me your wife. Mrs. Wilma Keenan has kind of a nice ring to it."

Talking to Brandon was making her feel good. Well, perhaps good was stretching it a little bit -- she felt better than she had before.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"Yeah it does." Brandon agreed with a smile.

He put his arm around her with a sore but contented groan. His mind went back to the vision he had of them both somewhere far away from all this, no more rotters or bandits or psychotic cults. No more killing. Just the two of them a child and all the room anyone could hope for. The Keenan family carying on. There was another legacy involved though, Willow's own family. She was their only child, and he wanted to honor them too.

"What do you think about Mr. and Mrs. Keenan-Lowe?" he asked.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"Keenan-Lowe, huh?" Willow mused quietly.

Despite her problems with her family, she liked being able to keep that part of herself alive. She liked being able to keep that part of her family alive. And she was touched that Brandon stepped forward to honor that. Her lips curled into a thin smile.

"You know, Lowe-Keenan isn't so bad either. We could have a kid named Loki Lowe-Keenan." She joked lightheartedly. "Alliteration is the way of the future! And the best part is he'll never get made fun of at school."
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Strompy
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"Well we'd be keeping two traditions of terrible names alive, Rutherford." Brandon teased.

He needed this. Needed her. It felt like she was the only thing keeping him afloat. That scared him, but he was resolved not to let fear rule him. He planted one more long kiss on her cheek and stood up. He held his hands out for her and helped her to her feet.

"Let's try and get some sleep." he said.

"Time to get moving again. We're not stopping at all until we get to Elko. That's another two or three hours, so if you need to go do it now." he warned everyone before climbing into the back seat.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“Understood,” Annie said. “I’m good. I don’t want to leave Emmett.”

“I’m good too,” Connor said. “But I wish those a-holes weren’t just getting away with it.”

Annie frowned a little at that. Connor had relayed the story of what happened earlier in the day. She was just glad they were all okay, but Connor seemed to be holding a grudge.

“Honey, we’re not…”

“I know, I know,” Connor cut her off. “I’m just saying it sucks.”

* * *

“Looks like we’re about to leave,” Hank observed.

He was back behind the wheel of the convertible, now that Emily had returned it to them safe and sound – along with a trio of water bottles, which Riley had wordlessly accepted a little earlier.

Now, Riley took a long sip from one of those bottles.

“Good,” she said, and left it at that.
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Strompy
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Emily lead the convoy on. The drive was calm but she remained alert for any signs of human activity. Without the traffic there would have been before, sparse as it might have been anyway, she could afford to take her eyes off the road and scan the surroundings. Her passengers were no help as spotters, with Brandon sleeping like the dead and Willow cuddled up next to him flitting in and out. Emily didn't mind though, even if this place was practically a wasteland it was always nice to see new places.

They passed into Nevada and through a town called Jackpot which looked like anything but. The drive south toward the I-80 was long and dull, punctuated only occasionally by the odd creep here and there. How they managed to find them in apparently even the most remote areas was a small wonder. She amused herself slightly by speeding up as she spotted one walking on the road and opening her door slightly as they passed it, bumping into it and sending it sprawling. She let out a mean spirited chuckle at the creep's exspense.

It was a slightly different story when they hit the I-80. They passed through Wells, which seemed like it might be an okay place to look for some supplies, but Brandon had said no stops, so they left it behind too. From there on there were slightly more creeps, and a few abandoned cars here and there to maneuver around, but mostly people pulled their cars off to the side of the road when they ran out of gas, which was considerate.

The signs of civilisation where few but frequent enough that she didn't feel like she was on another planet. Eventually they found themselves on the outskirts of Elko. Emily pulled over and the others followed. She leaned back shook Brandon's knee.

"Hey." she said and he woke up with a start.

"We're here?" he asked groggily, shaking Willow gently by the shoulder.

"On the outskirts. Where are we meeting Eli?" she asked.

"Town hall." he answered and opened the door.

Outside the cars everyone stretched there legs and weapons were checked. Emily bent over and touched her toes and limbered up. She gave her machete a few swings and sheathed it again. Brandon collapsed the roof of their convertible and emily shot him a questioning look.

"Better field of vision, easy exit. We can shoot more freely." he explained and she nodded in agreement.

Brandon turned to look back at the others.

"Probably going to be a lot of rotters, but let's avoid gunfire if we can. We find Town Hall, clear the immediate area and then hide the bodies." he said before getting in the passenger seat.

The convoy turned into the town on a street near the Red Lion Hotel and Casino. Gambling seemed a lot less fun now that money was worthless. That sucked. Emily wondered why they couldn't just stay there, she doubted Town Hall had comfortable bedding. Or any bedding, and if Eli and kelsey headed the opposite directionf rom them... they could be here for a while. Emily hoped they were okay. This group had lost too many people.

Emily was uneasy as they drove through town at a modest pace. The problem wasn't the threat of creeps. It was the opposite. The streets were almost empty. It reminded her of Salt Lake City too much for her liking. After about fifteen minutes of driving around they finally found Town Hall. It was a building they had already passed but not taken note of. It was underwhelming, very easyily missed. The lawn probably would have been a well watered, healthy green, but weeks of dry desert air and sun left it a sad light brown. The whole town was so... dead. Not even the creeps made a big appearance. There seemed to be a total of only four in the immediate vicinity. That should have been good news but it only made Emily uneasy, she looked over to see Brandon scratching his scruffy face contemplatively, his eyes darting all over. He didn't like it either.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
A couple of times over the course of the trip, Emmett grumbled, and his eyes threatened to open. Each time, they ultimately failed to make good on the threat, however. Annie was worried. She comforted herself with a reminder that he still hadn’t been out all that long, and his breathing hadn’t grown any more ragged since this morning. If anything, it had become steadier. At least, she liked to think so.

“Is this… what’s it called again? Elko, right?” Connor asked.

He was up front with Antonio. He looked at him, then over his shoulder at his mom, and back to the priest again.

Annie looked around to confirm that it was indeed. She had been so caught up in monitoring Emmett that she hadn’t even noticed their arrival. Now it appeared they were near city hall, their planned meeting spot with Eli and Kelsey.

“It looks like it is,” she answered.

“It’s quiet,” Connor said.

Annie kept looking, and she realized he was right. There were hardly any rotters. It was unnerving. At least there weren’t rotter bodies. That would have been even more unnerving.

“I guess it is,” she said.

“That’s good, right?” Connor asked.

Again, he looked from her to Antonio and back.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
In truth, Antonio was a little unnerved by the silence as well. But despite his doubts, he tried to approach the situation with an open mind. There wasn't another city anywhere near this size for over a hundred miles -- and Elko was barely even a city. The population on the sign coming in was barely over 18,000. And there should be more than four rotters here in any case, but maybe there had been some sort of evacuation order. Maybe the population went somewhere more sustainable for long term habitation. Like somewhere with water, for example. There were other explanations.

"Yeah, it's good." Antonio answered Connor from behind the steering wheel. "But just in case, you better keep an eye open for anything weird. You never know for sure these days."

* * * * *

"Wuh?" Willow groaned as she was shaken awake.

After her conversation with Brandon earlier, she was hit with another wave of exhaustion. Thankfully, she could still sleep. She wasn't sure if that was good or not; the face of Nolan had joined the chorus of those that haunted her whenever she closed her eyes. But beyond the profound sadness it elicited from her, it did not affect her much. She had grown used to it.

"Where'd all the rotters go?" She asked the obvious question that came to mind when she realized they were in the middle of the city with but four rotters to their name.
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Strompy
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"Maybe a horde came through and a bunch of them got swept up in it." Brandon pondered out loud.

He got out of the car slowly. There wasn't much reason to hustle with only four rotters nearby. Antonio, Emily and himself were probably the most experienced or able bodied with himself being the least of them. As much as the idea still burred him he also couldn't ignore that Connor had been handling himself well. There was also Hank but, he didn't seem up to much of anything since what happened earlier. Brandon wouldn't call on him.

That was one rotter a piece. Antonio and Emily already knew their jobs and Connor would probably jump at it, better to channel that energy than let it go unchecked. Brandon spied two rotters near each other. One was a portly little woman and the other was an elderly looking thing with barely a muscle on her. A safer bet and within reach.

"I've got Melissa McCarthy if you've got Betty White." he said to Connor as he readied his knife.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Connor got out of the car when Brandon approached. He still wasn’t enthused about fighting in close quarters like that, but he nodded at Brandon’s order anyway.

“I got it,” he said, and went to retrieve his ditch blade.

When he returned with it, he set his sights on the old lady rotter and advanced.
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Strompy
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Brandon wondered if he'd ever feel comfortable with Connor doing this. He knew that if the cure turned out to be a bust this was something he'd need to be able to do. It's why his mom brought him along in the first place. Brandon wondered how many times he'd done this now. It was only a couple weeks ago he killed his first with a screwdriver. Now he felt so practiced at it it was like he'd been doing it his whole life.

He drove his knife into its head with ease and let it fall backwards with a little push. He turned to observe Connor deal with his target.

...

Emily lopped the head off the willowy rotter in front of her. She wasn't expecting a crisis when they got there but this was a little too calm. She put her foot on the side of the rotter's head and stabbed it with a firm pressure. They were done. Easy. She turned to Antonio and shrugged ambivalently. Was this something to worry about?

She began dragging the rotter's body by the arms and rolled its head along with her foot.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Dealing with one rotter at a time – especially a frail rotter like this one – hadn’t grown any more challenging since earlier in the day. Connor easily knocked it over with one swing of his long blade, then felled it for good with the next one.

When he turned around, he saw his mom had emerged from the back of the sedan. In the midday light, he could clearly see how tired she looked.

“Nice work,” she said, looking at the rotter he killed.

“Brandon’s been teaching me,” he said.

She gave him a small smile. “Good,” she said, then looked around. “Any sign of Eli and Kelsey?”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"No sign of anybody that I can tell."

Antonio was kneeling over the corpse of his own rotter. He was wiping the blood off the blade and onto the shirt of the now decapitated rotter. Its motionless head rested a few feet away. Unlike some of the other ones, this one had died after its head came off, for which Antonio was thankful.

"Odds are we might be here for a while. But we won't know for sure until we look around." He noted the relative lack of rotters once again. "Carefully."
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Strompy
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The clearing team was the same as they made their way inside. As was procedure Brandon knocked loudly as they stood in the open doorway. There wasn't a sound from inside. He lead the way with the AR15 and its flashlight attachment. The place looked like it had been picked over before them. Desk drawers were out, cupboards were hanging open. The break room inside had been cleaned out of anything useful. If there was somebody in this town and they were the ones who cleared the place out at least they wouldn't have any reason to come looking around there. No rotters but nothing useful, could be a lot worse.

"Let's get Emmett inside and get him as comfortable as possible." Brandon said as they headed outside.

He waved to Annie and Willow to signal it was safe. He frowned as he considered how they would move Emmett. Even between Emily, Annie and Antonio... Emmett was a big guy, and his condition was sensitive. He didn't like to but he approached the Kellys.

"Hank, could we get your help with Emmett? I can't do much with my shoulder." he asked, gesturing to his wounded shoulder.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Riley crossed her arms when Brandon approached. Hank looked from her to Brandon, and then nodded. Emmett was a good man, and Hank wanted to see him better. There would be no excuse for denying such a reasonable request.

“Yeah, okay,” he said. “I’m coming.”

* * *

Another day, another state border, Eli thought when he passed into Arizona.

He tried to remember how many states he had been in over the past couple weeks, but his brain was too fried to come up with a number. He chose to concentrate on driving instead. He had Kelsey’s map on his lap, and sticking to that was mentally taxing enough by itself.

He had been driving south down the I-15 for a while and had gotten used to the site of dirt and desert. For a long time, it was all he could see in either direction. When the monotony was broken up by a shambling rotter or two, or three, he took notice. When it was broken up by corpses, he blinked, shook his head, and pumped the brakes, bringing the Camry to a screeching stop.

On his second look, Eli realized the dead bodies weren’t the only thing that stood out on the road. When he was pulled over, he was able to confirm it – there were skid marks and tire tracks leading off the highway. Distinctive tire tracks, too. Eli wasn’t an expert, and didn’t have an eidetic memory, but he would have sworn on a bible they were the same tracks he saw after escaping Salt Lake City. They belonged to the large all-terrain wheels of the truck Noah, Lowell and Alma had taken off in.

He kept blinking as he exited the car, trying to will away his tiredness and erase the doubt that existed in the back of his mind. He was reasonably successful. A long, closer look at the ground seemed to confirm what was in his memory – Lowell had been here, or at least his truck had. Kelsey’s map was right.

He turned his attention to the corpses next. There were three of them, all rotters, none of them Eli recognized. Trails of dry blood led Eli’s eyes to the stab wounds in their skulls, but also to other places – their chests, necks, and faces, for example. One of the rotters lay dead on its back, and it looked like its face had been kicked in. It looked like Brandon did after Cory had roughed him up, or like Maxwell did, before Eli put him out of his misery.

In his tired state, Eli had trouble puzzling out the reason for the excessive violence. Then his eyes kept scanning the area, and he saw a pile of dirt and sand, with two sticks tied into the shape of a cross planted behind it. A picture started to form through the haze.

He walked back to the Camry, and rapped his knuckles on the window on Kelsey’s side. She was still out cold from the medicine he slipped her, but she needed to see this.

“Kels,” he said. “Time to wake up.”
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