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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,826 Views)
Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Annie didn’t have to do it. Brandon didn’t really want her to. There were limits to how defensive they could be while still appearing respectful and forthright. It was a personal invitation to Annie alone, turning it down would be understandable but might make relations between the two groups a little frostier than they already were. There was a fine line between reserved and standoffish. More importantly, it was an opportunity to learn more about these people, and the pragmatism of that won out over his defensiveness.

“Take note of everything you see there. If something doesn’t seem right give us three beeps with this thing, don’t let them take it away from you. Tell them it’s in case of a medical emergency back here. King saw what shape we were in so it’ll sell.” he said as he handed her one of their radios.

“Come on, Doc. I’m your ride.” Emily said, gesturing to the door.

She and Brandon exchanged a knowing look before she left, and Brandon returned to staring into the fire pit.



Emily brought the bullet hole ridden convertible up to the front of the casino. As she drove in she noticed a wisp of smoke coming from the roof, small white smoke, from a cigarette or maybe a joint. They had a shooter up top but they weren’t expecting trouble. Sans the little ladies with big guns from before it was the same as she saw earlier as the guards came out to meet them.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Hank thought about the ocean. He remembered the feeling of sand under his toes, and pictured the deep blue water, disappearing into the sunset. It made him feel calm, but it also made him feel guilty. It was just like most mornings, when he woke up after a night dreaming of the water and not Julianne. That time should be spent remembering her, he often chastised himself. And this time should be spent remembering Andy.

He closed his eyes and opened them again, letting his vision of the Atlantic fade away, allowing it to be replaced by what was actually in front of him – a hole.

Hank had dug it himself, mostly. He had used one of the shovels Brandon had scrounged up after they arrived in Elko. He had started after he had gotten back from the biter disposal mission, and had paused only briefly to collect his share of the food once it had been delivered. He didn’t ask for help until he was done, and it was time to move the body from the trunk of the car. Then he tracked down Antonio and gathered his family.

“He deserved better,” Riley said, when they eventually got his body in the hole.

Her tone was bitter and petulant, but she was right. Andy was the best of them. They couldn’t have come this far if not for his help – help that he almost always offered without complaint, and without asking for anything in return. And now he was gone. Killed. Violently. Murdered by the New Dawn, but put out of his misery by Hank.

Hank’s mind returned again to the moment he pulled the trigger. That’s why he was thinking about the ocean, as guilty as it made him feel. It was that, or it was that moment, and he could only live in that moment for so long.

He forced himself to live in it for a while longer. He fought through his tiredness and said a few words, and got Riley to say a few more. Ruby stood nearby, hanging her head and remaining silent as tears streamed down her cheeks. Charles Jr stood next to her. Before they started, Hank had gently tried explaining what was going on. He understood enough to be crying as well.

Antonio was the only one outside not named Kelly. Hank had already told him that they didn’t want a full-on requiem Mass – Julianne was the one devoutly Catholic member of the family – but that Andy was baptized, and that his soul deserved to rest in peace.

“I was hoping you could say a prayer… or something,” was how Hank had put it exactly.

It was time for that prayer. Hank looked to the priest and gave him a solemn nod.

* * *

BANG!

Eli opened his eyes wide and physically shook his head. It was dark out, and he had been driving through the Arizona desert for hours, no civilization in sight. He had tried to stay sharp, but the monotony was wearing on him and exhaustion was catching up. He might have been close to falling asleep at the wheel, if not for that sound.

BANG!

There it was again. That all-too-familiar pop. Hearing it twice like that sent a chill down his back, - a chill cold enough to shock him back into alertness.

“Fuck,” he cursed out loud, and moved his foot from one pedal to the other. “That sounded too close.”

As the Camry started slowing down, Eli turned the wheel, taking it off-road. The desert was even enough to make that possible, and Eli intended to keep driving until that possibility was gone. At the very least, he didn’t want them to be visible to any other vehicles, coming or going in either direction

“We’re done for the night,” he announced. “We’ll pick this up when the sun comes back.”

* * *

Annie anxiously felt around the radio in her pocket, remembering Brandon’s instructions. Three beeps if something doesn’t seem right. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that. As the guard’s approached, she waited in the passenger’s seat of the convertible. She tried to suppress her nerves as her eyes moved from them, to the smoke on the roof, to Emily, then back to the guards.

“Good evening,” she said, greeting them with a polite smile.
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Is that so?
Situations like this had always been the hardest for Antonio. Death was a topic with which he had become intimately familiar with even before the world went to hell -- and because of his familiarity with it, he knew better than anyone that nothing he could say would truly ease the hearts of the mourning. The guilt and the pain that came with the death of someone close was incomparable to anything else. The only thing he could do was be strong. Be the rock that they needed him to be right now as they were allowed to go through the mourning process.

Standing by the hole in which Andy's body now lay, the former priest glanced into the tearful eyes of everyone around him, and then back into the hole before he spoke.

"O God, by Your mercy rest is given to the souls of the faithful, be please to bless this grave. Appoint Your holy angels to guard it and set free from all the chains of sin and the soul of him whose body is buried here, so that with all Thy saints he may rejoice in Thee for ever. Through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Antonio carried on for another five minutes or so, making sure to keep the ceremony somewhat short. He would recite a passage in Latin before immediately repeating it in English for the Kelly family themselves. Much of what he said were chants that he simply adapted into a ceremony. But the themes worked with a funeral; the verses cited told of Andy's rebirth and new life with God now that he has escaped the sinful life of Earth. It was all he could do to improvise without any holy water, incense, or a chorus to chant with him -- this was a truly bare bones sort of ceremony for the departed. But given the circumstances, it was the best he could do. And he was sure that God, if He even existed, would approve of it too. And even if He didn't, it would afford a small measure of peace to the Kelly family.

"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, even if he dies, shall live; and all who live and believe in me, shall never die."

That should be enough verses. Antonio thought to himself. He could see in their eyes that they were all tired. The Kelly family deserved some rest.

"Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord." Antonio bowed his head and recited the final verse, making the Sign of the Cross over his chest repeatedly as he did. "And let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen."

As he finished, Antonio exhaled lightly and rose his head again to face the Kelly family. It was a short ceremony and prayer, but he hoped it was enough for them.

* * * * *

The motion of the car going off-road was what stirred Kelsey up from her half-asleep state. She had been trying to rest during the long and boring car ride, but she could never fully sleep. She would always wake up at the slightest bump or noise just before she was about to doze off. She understood clearly what Eli had been feeling all this time.

"Okay." Kelsey mumbled in response to Eli. "Are you tired too?"

The question seemed kinda stupid. It was dark outside and he had been driving all day. Kelsey was tired and she hadn't even been doing anything except eyeing the horizon for any signs of movement, only to consistently come up with nothing.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
"Not tired."

Eli muttered his response, not caring how full of shit he sounded. He was too busy listening to the crunch of the dirt under the Camry's tires as he drove it further and further off road. If there was another gunshot, he wanted to make sure he heard it. His gaze kept cautiously shifting from one window to the next.

"Just... can't risk gettin' any closer to whoever's popping off those shots."

* * *

"Amen," Hank said.

"Amen," Riley and Ruby echoed.

Hank gave Antonio another solemn nod. It was all the thanks he could muster at the moment, with his throat feeling so tight and his eyes so watery.
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Is that so?
Shots?

Kelsey groaned in exhaustion. She should be happy that there was gunfire. It meant they might be close to Noah and Lowell. And she could finally get revenge on them for what they did. But there was a bit of an issue with what Eli had said.

"I was kinda awake now and I didn't hear any gunshots." She said to Eli. "Were they far away or something?"

* * * * *

Antonio answered Hank's solemn nod with one of his own.

On his way back inside, he stopped to give Hank a strong hand on the shoulder for just a brief moment. Then he folded his hands in front of himself and returned inside, giving the Kelly family the space they needed right now.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Emily kept both hands on the wheel as the guards approached. They kept their weapons slung but she knew not to give them any reason for suspicion. A middle aged man she'd seen earlier reached the car.

"Evening. You must be Annie. Everyone's talking about you and your friends." he greeted them.

He opened the passenger side door for her and stepped aside for her to exit. Once she stepped out he closed it gently behind her. Emily nodded her way one more time before putting the car in gear and driving away.

"I'm sorry, but we'll need to search you before you come in." he informed her.

"That won't be necessary, Pat. She's my guest, afterall." Saxon declared from the open doorway.

"If you say so, Mr. King." Pat excused himself and returned to his position.

King gestured for Annie to come through with a pleased look on his face.

"I'd like to apologize for sending my man over earlier. He told me he wasn't welcome. Seems I can't help but put my foot in it with young Brandon." he said with a rueful shake of his head.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Eli gave Kelsey a quick look of disapproval.

“You gotta pay attention,” he scolded her.

The car continued slowly off-road, eventually making its way down a hill and out of sight from the road. Eli kept going for another mile, until he could look around and only see ranges of hills, with the only sign of civilization being a cell tower in the distance.

He turned the ignition off and focused back on his small passenger.

“We can’t afford to walk into anything blind,” he said. “So like I said – we wait until there’s some light and we can see what the hell we’re doing.”

* * *

Annie refrained from saying anything to the man who turned out to be Pat, and was relieved when Saxon stepped in. She didn’t want to have to explain the radio in her pocket, and she didn’t want Pat’s hands on her besides.

As she came through the doorway, summoned another smile, trying to mirror Saxon’s.

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “Brandon was just being cautious. And he wanted me to thank you for coming through with those supplies earlier. We all want to thank you, I mean.”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"Fine." Kelsey agreed.

She was upset that they needed to stop and wait for more daylight. It gave Noah and Lowell more time to put distance between them, especially if they were taking turns between driving and sleeping. But as much as it all annoyed her, if there really had been gunshots, she understood why they needed to stop.

"What now then?" The young girl glanced at the isolated landscape surrounding them, not sure where they even were. "Doesn't it get cold in deserts at night?"
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“I…”

Eli started to respond and stopped. He realized that he hadn’t considered that. Then he gulped, and realized there was a lot he hadn’t considered. Food, for example. The hours since their last meal were adding up, and now they were looking at a whole other night going hungry.

“Maybe,” he said.

He looked around some more, suddenly distracted.

“I don’t – do you see any dandelions or anything? I read somewhere those were edible.”

At the moment, he was regretting not reading more. Both before the rotter apocalypse and even after. Sure, he had been busy, but he probably should have made it a priority. Failing to bone up on his survivalist trivia was starting to seem like a pretty big mistake.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"Fair is fair. You help us, we help you. World needed more of that even before all this happened. Please, come in." Saxon said, turning his chair on the sport and going inside.

Past the front door the interior gate stood open for them. The interior was lit only by a few ceiling lights, enough to see where they were going but still fairly dim for a hotel lobby. Little of that light spilt outside, and the boarded windows and heavy curtains contained it so as not to advertise their pressense to the outside. The guard standing on duty on a raised platform by the gate gave Annie and Saxon a nod as they passed.

"I apologise for the state of the place, we try to conserve as much power as possible with the refrigerator and freezer being such a draw already. During the day we suppliment our usage with solar panels. We got started very early on and we've gotten to a point now where we're living fairly comfortably, relatively speaking." he said with obvious pride.

He lead the way further inside to the restaurant area which still served its purpose. The tables were still arranged as if for guests. A table was set up for two, with two tall candles already lit and an open bottle of white wine. Byron stood nearby and pulled out a chair for Annie.

"Mark was thrilled when I told him he could make something from his menu tonight. It's as much a treat for him as ourselves. I think he's prepared the venison as a starter and chickpea panisse with ratatoille and red pepper coulis for the main dish. I'm sorry if you're a vegetarian, I didn't think to ask and Mark was so eager he went right ahead and decided for us." King explained as he took his place.

...

Emily drove far enough away from the hotel to give the impression she was going back. She pulled into a street about halfway back and parked the car around the side of one of the houses. The sun was all the way down and the stars were out. The streets were so much quieter here than other places that it was almost peaceful.

Despite that Emily kept alert as she walked back toward the Lion, trusting quiet too much was a good way to get taken by surprise. The few rotters around weren't a threat at that distance, losing sight of her soon and then losing interest altogether. She arrived around the back of the casino and kept an eye on the few vantages a guard might spot her from. Quietly she approached a set of double doors at the loading area and gently rapped her fingers against it.

There were a few clicking and metallic noises in response and door was opened by Iris who gave her a a guilty smile. Emily slipped in an Iris closed the door behind her, locking the door and bolting it shut once again. Emily noted that some of the security measures had the look of recent work, they clearly had somebody who knew a thing or two about metal work. Iris turned around to look at her and after a brief moment of uncertainty surged forward, pressing her lips against hers. For a few moments they stood there desperately touching each other before Iris urgently took her hand and lead her up the stairwell.
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Is that so?
"You want to eat flowers?"

Kelsey unconsciously furled her brow as she looked at Eli. For a second, she had thought he was just kidding, but the lost expression on his face seemed to highlight the fact he was clearly not joking. If she didn't say anything now, she was worried he might actually go looking for flowers to eat.

"If you have some string or wire, I can set up some snares." She offered an alternative solution. "Brandon taught me how to do it. I'm pretty sure I can."

* * * * *

The sun was long gone and the skies were hovering in its place overhead. Willow wasn't about to go outside and enjoy them though; even if the threat of being attacked by rotters was low, it was still cold. The brisk night air of later autumn was distinctly different from the one she remembered in New York, but no less uncomfortable.

"Ugh." Willow tossed her pack onto the ground and slumped onto a cheap couch tucked away in the back of the old city hall building.

Between the numerous interactions with Saxon's group and her recovery leaving her sluggish and exhausted, Willow had been fortunate enough to not end up thinking about what she had lost. Who she had lost. Jen and Nolan were both dead -- taken so swiftly and among such chaos that she never really felt she had time to mourn. And that was best case scenario; Kelsey and Eli could also be dead. There was no guarantee that they were ever going to return.

Shit. She mentally cursed as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. This is all so stupid. Why? Just... why?

Of course, she didn't have an answer for that. Nobody had an answer for that. Even if they delivered the cure to San Francisco, she doubted they would ever learn why this happened. Of course, even if she did, it hardly even mattered anymore. If they delivered the cure, it wouldn't bring back the people that died. There was no more future for Randall, Glenda, Nolan, Jen, Julie, and the billions that were already dead. And there was no way that humanity could return to how it was before. Not in her lifetime, at least. Willow was a murderer now. How many people had she killed? She didn't know how many she killed across their multiple gunfights. But that sniper from Wendy's group, Mo. Willow remembered vividly how her head almost popped like a grape from the high caliber round she never saw coming. How she executed her in cold blood. There was no going back for her anymore. No going back for anybody.

"I wish I had a fucking drink right now. Or a joint. Anything." The pink-haired woman groaned quietly to herself. "Even my Game Boy. I don't care."

She carefully leaned forward and opened her bag. She shuffled through the books and various items she had amassed over the course of her trip, finally finding her old Game Boy stuffed away in the bottom. It was devoid of batteries.

"Shit."

She tossed the Game Boy back into the bag and made a mental note to look for some AA batteries to secretly stash away later. Before she closed her bag though, Willow's hazel eyes were drawn to a simple blue sketchbook she had almost forgotten she grabbed. Jen's sketchbook, to be exact. It was the only thing she had left of her late friend. Before she had time to question herself, she already had it out of her bag and in her hands. The name 'Jennifer R. West' was beautifully inscribed in the center of the front cover. Unconsciously, she ran her fingers across the cover.

"Shit." She repeated.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie nervously smiled her thanks to Byron as she took a seat. When Saxon proceeded to talk about the menu, she couldn’t hide her astonishment.

“No, I’m not a vegetarian,” she said. “I’m just surprised at how good that sounds. In my old community, we were comfortable – we had a lemon tree, some gardens, enough food to go around – but we didn’t have ratatouille. That’s – thank you.

* * *

Eli furled his brow right back at Kelsey.

“Look around you, niñita,” he said. “Think about where we are and what we’re doin’. Is eating flowers really what you find ridiculous about all this? What d’ya think asparagus is?”

He shook his head as he considered her alternative. Snares. The idea sounded good, and he’d heard some coyotes screeching periodically over the last few hours of driving. They had to be at least halfway-edible. Of course, cooking it would be another matter.

“And you’re supposed to be a regular huntswoman now, huh?” he added disbelievingly.

He climbed out of his seat anyway. He set about searching for something they could use as wire.

“Guess it don’t hurt to look.”
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
Saxon took obvious pleasure in Annie's response.

"This is almost the last of our produce, refrigeration has extended its life but we have to use it now before it goes to waste. Some of it has been frozen so again apologies if it's a little underwhelming, Mark is a gifted chef but he's working with less than ideal ingredients. Still I hope it beats canned food." he said with a smile.

Byron excused himself with a pleased expression. Saxon thanked him and watched him as he left.

"Michigan? What was it that made you decide to leave?" he asked.
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Is that so?
"But asparagus isn't a flower..."

It was the only protest Kelsey had in response to Eli. Sure, perhaps eating flowers wasn't the most ridiculous thing in the world right now, and maybe she was a regular huntswoman. But asparagus? A flower? It didn't even look like a flower. And if it was a flower, then that was all the more reason not to eat flowers right now.

"Is it?"
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie nodded slowly at the mention of Michigan, mostly to buy time. For a moment there, she forgot that she hadn’t already given him a story to satisfy that question. All she had said during his visit was where they were all from and that they had experience with bad people.

“The community was attacked,” she said, perhaps after a few too many beats of silence. “The attackers started a fire. We had to leave.”

If she sounded even a little convincing, it was because it was the truth. Kind of. The attack and the fire happened. She just didn’t get in to why she had to leave, or at least felt like she had to. She didn’t want to explain that it wasn’t because the community burned down.

* * *

“Yes, it is” Eli answered.

His whole body was leaning over into the backseat now, as he tried to pull out the retractable armrest in the middle.

“I mean, I think so,” he said. “I don’t know – I was a thief, not a botanist.”

He grunted from the exertion, but finally he pried the armrest loose. He found a coiled up pair of in-ear headphones, the kind you’d use on an MP3 player. He grabbed them and returned to his seat.

“Think these’ll work, miss huntress?”
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