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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,825 Views)
Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
A headphone cord? Kelsey didn't think it would really work. But it was all that they had. And she was pretty sure she could fashion it into something useful. She saw Brandon do stuff like that all the time! All she had to do was just try to remember everything that he taught her and copy it. Easy, right?

"Yeah!" She announced more confidently than she actually thought. "That should work!"

She grabbed the headphones from him and started looking them over. No tears or anything, they looked pretty solid. And they were definitely long enough that she could fashion a snare from them. Her biggest worry was finding a way to lock bind the wires together so that they could catch something. But if she tied it tightly, maybe it could work.

"Okay, can you make a fire while I go set this up?" Kelsey looked back to Eli. "Like the little fire pit thing Brandon showed us to hide smoke?"

* * * * *

A house?

The first picture of the sketchbook was a simple house, being looked at from the front. There was a small, fenced-off porch in the center, not deep enough to hold even a rocking chair, that held only a door and window. The edge of the roof directly above the porch was raised into a short, upside down V. Between the ends of the porch and the ends of the house, each side of the humble abode was spared only a single window. There was a short and narrow cobblestone pathway leading to the house and a cheap looking driveway to the side that barely looked long enough to hold an actual car. There were a few rosebushes and plants lined up against the house that cut it off from the grass yard, but apart from that, it looked pretty plain. There couldn't have been more than 2 bedrooms in a house that size. But despite being a sketch, it was very well done. Willow felt like she had a strong sense of scale and feeling for what she was looking at.

Home.

In the same handwriting as the name on the front, that word was written in the bottom left hand corner of the page. The suggestions that elicited sent a pang of pain through Willow's heart. This was Jen's home. And yet in their conversations, she mentioned sisters. And a mother. How could that many people live in a house so... small?

She turned the page.

Family.

Obviously a family portrait. There were four individual drawings in a line, made to look like they were one drawing. It came across looking like Mount Rushmore. The first one on the left had a very strong resemblance to Jen; Willow might have even thought it was her if she hadn't had dreadlocks and a devilish smile. The next one over actually was Jen, right down to her lazy afro. The next woman over was clearly older than the other three. Her face was a little narrower than the first two and her nose a little sharper. Despite the fact her cheeks were starting to sag and wrinkle a little, she looked pretty good for someone who must have been pushing 50 at the very least. Or maybe Jen was just being generous since it was family, it was hard to really say. The last woman over looked like a younger version of the mother and had a gentle expression on her face that radiated warmth.

Heather. Me. Mom. Ashley.

From their facial expressions, Willow got the impression that Ashley was the calm and mature one of the family. A trait she likely got from her mother. Heather looked to be as big a troublemaker as Jen would have been. When Willow realized that everyone in this picture was probably dead, it made the end of the world feel personal again.

Again, Willow flipped the page.

Women's Baseball Team.

My New Car!

Elizabethtown High School.

More Family.

Friends.

Random Calico Cat.

The notebook turned out to be an extensive collection of Jen's drawings, spanning from well before the dead came back to life and well before Jen was even in Michigan for college. The sketches were all very well done, too. Willow could only wish she had this kind of artistic talent. Yet strangely, it was never something Jen had ever actually talked about. Willow had no idea that her friend could even draw. She knew Jen picked up a sketchbook back at the Walmart, but she kind of assumed that it was because there was nothing better to do. But flipping through the pages now, it was looked like it was becoming more and more clear that Jen had more likely started running out of paper. She kept flipping through pages filled with images of people, places, and things.

Matthew.

This page had a full body drawing of a black guy who was resting his hands on his hips with a cocky look on his face. This guy had appeared in a few pictures earlier, but he had clothes on in those pictures. In this one, he did not. That little fact alone gave Willow the idea that this guy was probably an old boyfriend of hers from back home. Strange that Jen had never mentioned him, though. Well, maybe not all that strange. It could have had a bad end. Or maybe she just didn't want to think about back home. She only mentioned her sisters in passing, and even then never said any names. The only person Jen ever said anything about at length was her mom. And that was when she talked about how she listened to her die over the phone. When Willow stopped and thought about the implications of that, it was kind of heartbreaking.

"Shit." Willow groaned that word yet again and gently closed the sketchbook. "This is just getting depressing."

She tucked her reminder of Jen into her pack and closed it up. She didn't feel like reading it anymore. She felt like she was getting an intimate look into her life before this epidemic broke out, and it was weighing on her heart. She missed Jen. She missed Julie, too. And Nolan. And everyone else that hadn't made it this far. Now that her head wasn't clouded with pain medicine, the losses just felt so much more... real.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"That's disheartening news, I'm sorry. We'd like to get in contact with other communities in the future, maybe get a radio set up. For the immediate future we're looking to set up a farm on the southern side of town by the river. Hopefully we'll see more of Mark's ratatouille then." King said with a warm smile.

As he spoke a young man with black hair approached them with a serving tray. With practiced balance and dexterity he set a covered plate down in front of Annie and Saxon. Saxon leaned forward slightly in anticipation as the man removed the covers. He simply smiled at the dish in front of him for a moment while the young man poured he and Annie a glass of wine.

"Thank you Caleb. Please tell Mark he's a marvel." Saxon thanked the man.

"I didn't invite you here to talk your ear off about us, though. I wanted to know about you. You're a doctor, were you a specialist?" Saxon asked Annie as he prepared to eat.

...

Brandon knew that look. Helplessness. Willow was going through something of Jen's so that didn't leave much question what she was thinking about.

"I've been thinking about Randall myself." he announced from the doorway behind her.

"I know Andy was just burried and I should probably spare moe thought for him but I really wish Randall was here calling the shots."
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Willow didn't immediately answer. She let her eyes linger on her pack.

"Yeah." She finally answered him. "I wish they were here too. If I could do it all again, I'd..."

Her train of thought trailed off. What was she trying to say? Willow scraped the recesses of her mind, trying to find the right words. But trying to roll the mess of thoughts rolling through her head into a coherent thought was proving more difficult than she expected.

"I... I guess I'd... maybe... I would have tried to..."

The young woman could only bring herself to stutter a few worthless phrases. Until finally;

"I guess what I am trying to say is... do you ever stop think about what everyone did before all this? I know a lot about you, yeah, but... what about the others? Where did they grow up? What did they do for a living? Did they have anyone special? How did they get here? Who did they leave behind? I just wish..."

Willow paused again and shook her head slowly, not even looking back at Brandon.

"We don't talk about it because we don't want to remember. It's painful to think about. But at the the same time... I wish I had gotten to know some of them better. Before they... ya know... died. What did I really know about Glenda? About Randall? About Julie, Jen, or Nolan? I didn't know anything. Not really."
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"I know they had my back. I could trust them all with my life, or yours. Other than that, I didn't really need to know. Whatever came before didn't seem as important." Brandon explained.

It seemed like the only two criteria for a friend now was if they were alive, and if they didn't mean you harm. Meeting the first only meant you weren't shoot on sight, meeting the second basically made you family. Like Eli, he gathered he had a criminal past but that had never been a concern. There was a little pang of guilt about how they left things the day before, at the time it seemed like the right call but now it was struggling to remember why it happened at all. He'd only known the people around him for a short time but he was willing to put himself at risk for them. He hoped the people in this town could be trusted, there were so few people left.

"You know, I was a little jealous of Nolan. I feel kind of bad about that." he admitted.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"You? Jealous of Nolan?" Willow's lips curled into a rueful smile; despite her dour mood, she was glas she could still find herself amused by the idea. "Do tell."
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"He had Kelsey." Brandon said simply.

"Don't get me wrong, I was glad he was alive and I'm glad we found him. Having family around is... precious. I just miss my brother. If I had a sister I hope she'd be like Kelsey. Part of me was jealous of them both." he explained.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"I woulda loved a sister like Kelsey..."

Thinking of Kelsey was enough to sour Willow's mood again. She was still out there with Eli. Maybe they were alive. Maybe they weren't. It was impossible to know -- and more than anything else, it was the uncertainty that was the worst. If only cell phones still worked.

"But I dunno. I was just thinking about it, you know? I never really thought twice about what most people did before all this. But I got 24 years of history behind me... if I died, I'd like to be more than just a name and a face that didn't make it to those that remembered me. And maybe the sentence 'At least she wasn't a total fuck-up."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie also smiled at the server when she was poured a glass of wine, then found herself excited when she grasped the glass and got a sense of the smell. It had been a real long time since she had sat down to dinner like this. Not even her experience in Flint compared.

The idea of more meals like this, once they got a farm set up, even made her a little envious – though the part about the radio and the contact with other communities offset that envy. It seemed to her that chances were high they would accidentally make contact with the New Dawn, or with a community like Green River where a man like Cory was in charge. But then again, what was the alternative? Isolation forever? That didn’t seem like much of a future.

She stopped thinking about it and turned her attention to her food and drink, and to Saxon’s question.

“Paediatrician, believe it or not,” she answered. “A far cry from what I’ve been doing since the rotters appeared.”

* * *

Eli sat cross-legged on the ground, frowning and grunting as he bent over and dug into the cold earth with the dull windshield wiper – the same one they had used to dig up Alma’s body. He was already finished with the initial pit, and had moved on to the air tunnel about a foot away. He was trying to dig it at the same angle he had seen Brandon do it, trying to reach back into his memory for the mental picture to mimic.

He sighed – his arm was aching, he needed to take a break. He tossed the wiper to the ground and looked up at Kelsey, who was also hard at work nearby.

“How’s that snare you promised coming along?”
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"Well you've got that. I don't think you're a total fuck-up." Brandon teased.

Brandon took a seat next to her and put one arm around her. The weight of days and days of anxiety pressing down on him slipped off his shoulders. He let himself be in that moment with nobody to think about except himself and Willow.

"There are worse things than being just a face and a name. There are thousands of people outside that nobody remembers as anything. I'd say we've got it pretty good."

...

Saxon chuckled a little at Annie's response.

"I can only imagine so." he said with a laugh.

Saxon cut himself a piece of venison with a generous amount of sauce. He contained his eagerness as he brought it up to his mouth but couldn't help but give a contented noise as he tasted it. After savouring it as long as he dared he gave a pleased little laugh.

"If I were still paying that man I'd give him a raise."
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Willow let herself be pulled into Brandon and leaned against him.

"And it's kinda sad when you think about it like that. More sad than normal, I mean. But doesn't that mean we should do our best to remember what we can about who we can?"

Willow exhaled sharply. She took a second to clear to mind.

"Sorry, it's just... for the first time since Flint, my head's clearing up. I didn't really realize how clouded everything had been with all those drugs in my system. Everything feels real again. And the entire time I knew Jen and Nolan, I was just... a fucking, drug-addled mess. An embarrassment. And I don't know how I feel about that. As far as they were both concerned, I was a total fuck-up. The last time I talked to Jen, I was barely coherent enough to defend myself. Not like I would have been able to anyway."

* * * * *

"It's coming." Kelsey shouted back.

The cords that Eli had provided were not the same material she had worked with before, but they were definitely usable. Back at the ranch where they had buried Jen, Brandon had showed her and Connor a little bit about making snares and traps for wild animals -- but they were so complicated. Especially without a spring. To the best of her ability, Kelsey found herself trying to recreate one of the basic snares Brandon had showed her. But the 'basic' part was a bit of a stretch.

She had cut the wire in two; one half she tied to a sturdy sapling on one end and a forked twig on the other. Then she pulled the sapling down and hooked the twig onto a smaller sapling to prevent it from snapping upward. On that smaller twig, she had the second cord tied in a loop on the opposite end. That loop rested open and was propped up by a stick she had rammed in the ground. The idea was that a small rodent, if they went through the looped cord, would disturb the forked twig that served as a trigger; which would snap the cord upward as the sapling jutted upright. At least in theory. Brandon made it look really easy, but Kelsey couldn't help but doubt the structural integrity of her own.

"I think it's ready." Kelsey announced. "Wait!"

She grabbed a few more small sticks and rammed them into the tough ground nearby. A sort of artificial pathway to help guide a small animal into the trap the right way. Hopefully.

"Okay!"
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie offered Saxon a small smile in return for his laugh. Then, when she tasted the venison after him, her smile grew.

“I’d say he deserves one,” she said, after savouring her initial piece nearly just as much. “Thank you for the invitation, if I haven’t said that already.”

She grasped her glass of wine again, then hesitated a moment before raising it.

“To the good people left in this world,” she toasted.

* * *

Eli regarded Kelsey’s contraption with intense scepticism that he didn’t bother to disguise.

Okay,” he said. “How about you start looking around for some dandelions, just in case?”

He picked up the wiper again to finish digging the pit. His stomach growled.
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"They didn't think you were a fuck-up either, I promise you. I like that you're not taking those things anymore though. That's one good thing to come out of this." Brandon reassured her.

"As for knowing about everyone let's think. First person we lost on the road was Mac. Didn't know him more than a day really. I know he had balls though, I know he honestly wanted to help too. I think he liked you, understandably. And I know he was like us; alone. He deserved to survive this. When this is all done we'll make sure people know his name." he mused.

...

"To the good people, and to good company." Saxon concurred, raising his glass.

After that there were sparse words as the both of them were absorbed in the experience of real food. Saxon still managed to be the more talkative due to his tendency to maunder. He talked in a boastful manner and at length about the many skilled people they had with them. Byron's wife who was an engineer. Mark, their chef, who he was proud to say he stole from another restaurant. Easter's husband who was a contractor and responsible for their fortifications, and their son who was a landscaper and responsible for the farm. Dwight who was an army ranger back in the day.

"Some of the ladies here, who used to be our housekeepers, used to be nurses. We've got a lot of skillsets here." he informed her with pride.

For a moment he seemed hesitant but decided to go ahead.

"Something we don't have, is a doctor. If you wanted there's a place for you here." he declared.
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Is that so?
"He was always really helpful back at Mount Kisco. Roland and some of the other officers liked him because he was an extra set of willing arms."

Willow added what little she knew of Mac. Even though the two of them shared the same roof at the country club, they never really interacted much. Then again, Willow didn't interact with a lot of people back then.

"He would sometimes volunteer to help Randall on his supply runs, but Randall was hesitant to take more people outside the walls than he needed. He always wanted to prove himself to everyone. I think that's why he ultimately decided to come with us. Well, that and because I went. Maybe."
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie tried not to outwardly react when Saxon finally made his offer, just like Brandon knew he would. She took a moment before answering, chewed on one of her last pieces of food longer than she had to.

“That’s a… tempting offer,” she said.

She remembered what Brandon advised her. String him along, basically. It didn’t feel exactly right but Brandon’s logic was unassailable. If Saxon was desperate for a doctor, and she made it clear he wasn’t getting one, he might react adversely.

“You’ve built a community to be proud of. I can see myself here. I just… I need some time to think about it, is all.”

She hoped she hadn’t laid that on too thick.
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More posts, more Busey.
"He proved himself to me." Brandon declared.

He thought about the next person they lost. That one was particulaarly painful for Willow and he wondered if he should even continue. Willow never really had a chance to say goodbye or mourn properly. Glenda had been burnt without ceremony along with everyone else that died that night, with the exception of their attackers and their collaborator who were dumped outside the wall.

"Then we lost Glenda, or she was was taken from us like Mac, really. I didn't know anything about her life before this but I know she was tough and always cool headed. We worked pretty well together I think, didn't have to explain anything to each other, I think we thought very similarly. I know she thought the best way to protect people was to teach them, the same way I think. She showed you how to shoot and you turned out to be a natural. She saw what I see in you."

...

"I'd be concerned if you didn't. Your people could all stay here too. It'd put more stress on our supplies but they seem very capable and the extra hands could help us get self sufficient sooner. As it is we're going to need to go further afield for supplies, so they'd be an immense help. Please talk it over with Antonio though, don't want him to think I'm stealing his people." Saxon explained.
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