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| Dead Men Walking | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,819 Views) | |
| Make-7-Up-Yours | Dec 31 2016, 01:43 AM Post #3856 |
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Is that so?
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The third and final rotter was felled with a thrust of a sword. Antonio's sword, to be more precise. The priest had followed Brandon and Hank out of the car and wordlessly gone for the final rotter. he almost took a swing at it as it approached, but lopping the thing's head off would have been more of a mess than necessary. He settled for a thrust through the eye socket instead. He quickly grabbed the dead rotter by the underarms and started to drag it out of sight. These things are so easy to take down. Are we just that good... or were they never our real enemy? He let out a tired sigh at the thought. For once, he was too tired to think philosophically. He was too tired to try and take a moral stance or a religious perspective on what they were doing. They were holding two men hostage in an attempt to get two of their own back. Every fiber of Antonio's being loathed that idea. And yet he was going along with it. He was even agreeing with some of it. What did God think of him now? Had he the energy to actually contemplate that, he might find himself depressed at the answer he came to. He tossed the body into the overgrown brush next to the house. There was plenty of space and nobody would be able to see the body unless they actually decided to go wading through the lot. Which was not something anybody was terribly likely to do when there was a perfectly good walkway AND driveway they could use instead. "Gotta give them credit." Antonio mused mostly to himself. "They sure do keep this place pretty clean." * * * * * Kelsey turned her eyes away from Eli and towards the flickering flames of the fire pit. When her mom had died, she had tricked herself into believing that it was not true. She never saw mom die, so it was easy to simply deny the truth as it was. When her dad had died, she broke down and became barely responsive. Then, just as she was starting to recover and take the first steps back to normalcy, her brother had died. And she watch it happen with her own eyes. "They... they have to die..." Kelsey swallowed to fight back the tears she could feel welling up inside of her. "Because I... I don't know what else to do..." |
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| DoctorYerishi | Jan 3 2017, 05:35 PM Post #3857 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Eli let out a long sigh. Unfortunately, he could relate to that. He didn’t like how much he could relate to it. He refrained from telling her again what else she could do. Turn around, go back to Brandon and Willow… He’d beaten that drum enough. If she wasn’t going to choose that option on her own, then she wasn’t going to choose it. The only way through, he figured, was forward. Lowell had to die. “Okay,” he said, looking from the side of Kelsey’s face back to the meat cooking on the fire. His tone of voice became less intense. “Then we should probably eat, and then you should get some sleep. Maybe we can catch up to them tomorrow.” He stood up and reached around for the knife. “An’ hey, as long as I’m being honest,” he said. “When we’re done here, try that water bottle again. I spiked it with sleeping meds. I don’t know if it even worked, not like I’m a pharmacist, I just thought – damn, I don’t know, just wanted you to be aware.” |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Jan 5 2017, 04:42 PM Post #3858 |
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Is that so?
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Kelsey remained silent for a few lingering moments. She was holding the tears back. Forcing them back. When she was certain she was not going to cry, she weakly answered Eli's proposition: "Okay." The food was just about done cooking anyway. |
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| Strompy | Jan 12 2017, 06:05 AM Post #3859 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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"They've got a good routine here." Brandon agreed. "We'll have to leave the door open tonight, it's a risk but if they come by this way and see it closed they'll know we're here." he said as he considered the house. He gestured for Connor to take the lead on the sweep of the house. Just liked they'd done so many times before he waited and knocked at the door. After a few moments of silence they moved inside and cleared it room by room. There wasn't anything inside but they had a routine that worked. The sleeping arrangements were made, with the Kelly's taking the room with two beds. There was also a main bedroom, a guest bedroom, two very comfortable looking couches and a recliner. After thoroughly checking the bathroom for anything that could be used to help them escape or attack somebody, even going so far as to remove the cistern lid from the toilet, it was decided their captives would be staying there, with some pillows and blankets of course. They'd become very good at all this now. They had the weapons and knowledge to deal with the rotters, they could be predicted, mislead or killed with relative ease. It was people that they hadn't quite learnt to deal with yet, though they should have had enough practice by now. Brandon found himself considering all the routines they'd developed to keep them alive, and about the people at the casino too. They'd found a routine that let them scavenge a huge part of the town and destroy an incredible number of rotters. Routines became routines because they worked, they helped keep them alive. It also occurred to him that this wasn't the first time they'd found themselves in a situation like this. They let their guard down with the New Dawn and paid for it, so now they'd kept their guard up but they were still paying for it anyway. Before that they'd run into Wendy and her group, they went into a similar situation with their eyes open but even so it ended in bloodshed, just not their blood fortunately. Then of course there was what happened the last time they wanted to make a trade. More bloodshed, and almost all of it on his hands one way or another. Maybe this was a bad routine. This whole thing might be a mistake. Just shortly before he'd been certain that there was no choice. That they had Emily and Annie so there was no choice but to take some of theirs too. Maybe there was a another way. "Guys, I wanna talk you." Brandon informed his people before gesturing for them to follow him to the master bedroom. He closed the door once they had all joined him there and took a breath before speaking. "I know no matter what I choose you guys will back me and I'm not asking for a vote, right now I just want to hear your opinions. Are we doing the right thing?" he asked. |
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| DoctorYerishi | Jan 12 2017, 09:53 PM Post #3860 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Emmett shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “They took two of ours, so we took two of theirs – that makes sense.” At this point, he was no stranger to taking people. At one point, he had taken Kelsey and Julie. He was also part of the group when they took Gorski, a member of Wendy’s road gang, a man he later killed in cold blood. He felt varying levels of bad about both instances, even if they felt like the right thing at the time. “I think… I think it depends on what we do next.” |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Jan 16 2017, 01:30 AM Post #3861 |
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Is that so?
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"No, I don't." Antonio stated with an edge of passive-aggressive anger in his voice. "Emily shouldn't have even been there in the first place. If we had trusted them a little bit more, we wouldn't even be in this mess right now." The middle-aged former priest (and former gang member) crossed his arms and exhaled. He had kept relatively silent about his thoughts on it until now but, since Brandon was asking, he figured he would tell the young man exactly what he thought. "Saxon is a good man. We could have amicably discussed this and found a better way. Even if this works out with nobody getting killed -- and there is no guarantee that it will -- we've all but burned down any bridges between us and removed the possibility of getting any more help from them. Maybe even made this area more dangerous for future survivors. Like Eli. Or Kelsey." He inhaled deeply and then slowly exhaled. "Not much we can do about it now though." |
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| Strompy | Jan 16 2017, 03:50 AM Post #3862 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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Emily had been invited by one of them, Brandon didn't want her to go but he couldn't deny her either. They took advantage of the situation to learn more about who they were dealing with, if it wasn't for the wrong doing of one of the people already inside they wouldn't be in this situation now. They'd been watched from the start, disarmed and held at gun point, and there was a traitor in the other camp, to Brandon it seemed like not trusting them was actually wise. But he wasn't interested in debating what was already done. "Yeah there is." Brandon said after a moment. Brandon didn't know if Saxon was a good man or if things had just been going his way so far. He didn't know if Saxon cared about what was right or if his ego was just hurt. Whatever it was, bridges could be rebuilt, and they could appeal to both possibilities. "We can just give their people back. Give Saxon the trust he's after." Brandon proposed. |
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| DoctorYerishi | Jan 16 2017, 04:43 AM Post #3863 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Emmett wasn’t sure how to react to the proposal, and he wasn’t much for outward reactions anyway. His face was unmoving, right up until he opened his mouth. “We’d lose our leverage,” he said. “And if Saxon isn’t a good man….” He trailed off. The implication was clear. Still, he saw the upside too. One show of good faith could very well lead to another. A battle could be averted. It was a tough call. If only it was my own life at stake, Emmett lamented. If it was, he could just act. He could make a decision and live with the consequences. But since it was Annie and Emily’s… “Whatever you decide,” he nodded to Brandon. “I support you.” “What!? No way!” Connor spoke up, his voice animated. “They kidnapped my mom! And Emily! Why would we trust them!? |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Jan 16 2017, 05:16 AM Post #3864 |
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Is that so?
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For the first time since this debate had started, Willow spoke up. Her voice was quiet and shaken and she only said one thing: "I don't know what we should do." Antonio exhaled quietly. Unfortunately, her words didn't add much to the debate at hand. The young woman was clearly stressed about all of this. Pile on the mental and physical symptoms of her drug withdrawal and it was clear that she was not going to be a big player for the next few days at least. He cleared his throat loudly and then continued. "If Saxon and his people wanted us dead, we would know by now. They have more people, more supplies, and the home field advantage. Yet he willingly put the lives of his people in our hands when he brought them here for Annie to treat them. We invited them into our home and we were invited into theirs. We helped them clean up the city and they even gave us precious food and supplies. They have had every opportunity to put a bullet in our heads and not once have they taken it. There is a murderer among Saxon's people but, due to circumstances beyond our control, it looks like one of our own is the murderer instead. And everything we are doing now only serves to incriminate them further." |
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| Strompy | Jan 16 2017, 08:10 AM Post #3865 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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Brandon listened to the others. They were as split as he was on the idea. Going ahead with the trade seemed like the obvious choice, they'd come to depend on force to solve their problems and so far more or less it worked. His mind kept returning to Andy though and he couldn't help but wonder if their approach to people was fundamentally flawed. "The New Dawn were accommodating too because they didn't want us dead, but they laid the honey on thick. These people have been more distant, maybe that's a tick in their favor. I don't know if they can be trusted, if they can than I think this could avoid more killing. If they can't be, then they would have screwed us over at the trade anyway, and they have the numbers and guns to do it. Thing is, we've been here before and so far it's only ended with blood, maybe the problem is the situation itself. Maybe we should defuse it instead, try something different." Brandon said. These people felt they were in charge around here, they wouldn't be cowed by a smaller group even if it would have been smarter to. They'd be more likely to try a show of force to assert themselves, with tempers running high that was a recipe for violence. If they submitted to their authority though instead of putting them on the defensive maybe they could still work out another solution. If they were going to try diplomacy again though, it couldn't be Brandon who did it. "If we do try to rebuild bridges though, it can't be me that does it. I've pretty firmly cemented their opinion of me. Which is fine, they need to know we're ready to fight, but if this seems like it comes from me it'll look like a ploy. Antonio, you seem to have rapport, it'd have to be you to do it, they'll have to think it's your idea and you've convinced me." Brandon elaborated. |
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| DoctorYerishi | Jan 16 2017, 04:18 PM Post #3866 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Emmett gave a silent nod to Brandon’s suggestion. He sympathized with his explanation, and believed he might be right. It wasn’t insane to think that doing things differently could lead to different results. Maybe better results. He wasn’t sure, however. Tactically, it seemed wrong to surrender their only leverage and risk getting nothing back in return. But it wasn’t his decision to make. He wasn’t the leader, and didn’t want to be. He meant what he said. He would support Brandon. Connor, meanwhile, pouted for a few moments. Emmett looked at him and braced for another objection. Once the kid opened his mouth, though, he seemed to change his mind. He closed it and let another second pass. “They better not hurt my mom,” the kid finally said. |
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| Strompy | Jan 16 2017, 06:26 PM Post #3867 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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"No. They better not." Brandon concurred. Brandon was willing to give peace a chance but he was good at the alternative. |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Jan 16 2017, 09:45 PM Post #3868 |
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Is that so?
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Secretly, the former priest was heartened when he heard Brandon choose to consider his plan. His lips curled into a subtle smile. "They won't." Antonio assured them both. The others didn't seem so sure that this was the right idea. Antonio himself wasn't even sure. He wanted to believe that it was the right choice more than anything else. He wanted to believe that humanity had the same potential for good it had always had and that these last few months were the exception to that. Giving up their only leverage was a risk, but continuing to demand a prisoner trade was just as risky. Antonio always believed it wiser to follow in the footsteps of Jesus when possible. |
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| Strompy | Jan 26 2017, 05:37 PM Post #3869 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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Brandon rolled his head around on his shoulders and was surprised at how much his head swam from the simple motion. His limbs were heavy and slack and his brain wasn't much more than fuzz. He rubbed his good eye vigorously and yawned deeply. Now was not the time for him to make any big decisions, he could barely keep a thought in his head, which is probably why he was even able to get the notion to release their captives. If he were thinking "straight", he'd probably only be thinking about one thing. Too tired to even wince Brandon moved his left shoulder, the wound from the day before reminding him it was still there, not that he had had a chance to forget. "I'm sore, I've lost a lot of blood, I'm still hungry and I'm tired like I've never been tired before. I can't make a decision right now, I'll have to sleep on it. Connor, you take first watch if you're up to it, Antonio or Willow can relieve you after that. We'll head out at um..." he said, struggling for the next word and snapping his fingers as he completely blanked. "At dawn. First light tomorrow morning, I'll decide what to do with them. Emmett, you should sleep in here, have a proper bed to rest up for the night." he finished, standing up from the bed. He yawned again as he opened the door and made his way toward the guest bedroom. With the double bed it barely left enough room either side to squeeze in. The bed was so soft and welcoming that he only just managed to kick his shoes off before he immediately fell asleep. His dreams at least were simple nonsense, and offered him no trouble. |
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| DoctorYerishi | Jan 26 2017, 05:57 PM Post #3870 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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“Got it,” Connor said, gripping the weapon at his side and nodding grimly. “I won’t let you down.” Emmett, too, was accepting of Brandon’s orders. He had been tired since he had woken up from his long, hypovolemic nap. If he was feeling just a little bit better, he would volunteer for the first shift himself, and give up the bed to one of the women or kids. But he needed to be effective for tomorrow. And if he wanted to be effective, he needed rest. “Wake me up if something feels wrong,” he said to Connor before leaving. “I’ll be okay,” Connor said. Emmett frowned, uncomfortable. He thought Connor’s stubbornness could be dangerous, but he didn’t know how to deal with kids. He settled on repeating himself: “Okay. But if something feels wrong…” With that, he took his leave for the night. |
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7:27 PM Jul 10