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Dead Men Walking
Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (70,793 Views)
DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Hank nodded. Travis was absolutely correct – the hospital was the obvious choice, the one that checked all the boxes.

“Good,” he said. “So Brandon needs a car and an escort. And the rest of us need to assemble at this old Eagle Road.”

He looked around once again, taking in the motley crew. He wondered some more how helpful he and Annie were going to be, if Connor was ready for this, if Emmett was up for it in his condition. Then there was Brandon, the most battered among them – was he truly up for his role in the plot?

He looked to Travis. At least he seemed capable.

“It sounds like you’ll be with us,” Hank said – he was judging by all the ‘we’s Travis was dropping.
Edited by DoctorYerishi, Jul 3 2018, 05:25 PM.
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
"I've already checked most of the traps for today. Carol can handle the food preparation and anything else that comes up while I am gone."

Travis glanced toward Church, who had been uncharacteristically quiet. The two men locked eyes for a moment before Church broke contact and sighed.

"Just come back alive." The chief commanded the hunter. "This community would be starving if it wasn't for you and Carol. We can't afford to lose you, too."

"He'll be fine." Carol spoke assuredly of her husband.

"That goes for you two as well." Church turned his attention to Nancy and Brianna. "Since you two don't look like you're backing down."

"We both want to see Laurie returned safely." Brianna answered him. "And if Travis is going, then we couldn't be in safer hands."
Edited by Make-7-Up-Yours, Jul 3 2018, 05:41 PM.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Hank felt better knowing Travis would be with them. Nancy, too – he had seen her fight rotters in the hospital parking lot, he knew she could handle herself. Brianna he had just met, but if her people were any indication, she probably also knew what she was doing.

He took a deep breath, then clapped his hands once. He tried to project confidence he didn’t feel:

“Then we have a team, and we have a plan,” he said. “Let’s go get our people back.”
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"I gotta go explain this to Willow." Brandon excused himself.

Emily gave a simple nod and kept pace with him. once they were out of earshot of the others she tapped his shoulder to stop him.

"Why are you doing this?" Emily asked him making no attempt to disguise her displeasure.

"We need to find Antonio." he answered.

"Yeah we do, that's a bullshit answer though. We could have thought of something else. Are you actually trying to get yourself killed?" she demanded to know.

"I don't even know if I can. I mean of course I can but it's kind of starting to feel like... I'm not finished yet. Like there's more to come. It's not done with with me." Brandon struggled to explain.

"What are you talkin' about?" Emily asked, mystified.

Brandon looked away with a searching expression on his face, looking for the words to describe a feeling.

"Karma. I guess." he settled on.

"Is this about Andy again? Or is this some survivor's guilt or something, because of your family?" she pressed.

"It's everything. I killed somebody for the first time just a couple weeks ago. I felt nothing. You're supposed to feel something right? Then I killed more people, but that was okay because they started it, because they were after us. Then I actually murdered people. I felt ashamed, really really ashamed but I did it again anyway. I've slit people's throats, one of them was unconscious. I did it because I wanted to. Because I'm good at it, and it feels good to be good at it. I don't know if it's God or what but it's like I'm being punished and I'm just not learning my lesson." he unloaded, gesturing to his face and his arm, and generally to every bruise, scrape and wound he'd taken.

"Brandon, you're not a bad person. Shit is really fucked up right now and we're all facing stuff nobody could ever be ready for. Karma is bullshit, it's not after you, even if you believe in God he waits until you're dead to drop that shit on you. The only person punishing you right now is you. Before you go out there I want you to really consider that if you weren't the person you are, even the bad parts, we might be dead right now. You're my only god damn friend. You should be thinking more about what you owe the living." Emily said, her voice rising a little before she stopped herself and simply shook her head at Brandon.

"I owe Antonio too. And I owe myself. I feel like I'm going crazy out here. I need to prove I'm not becoming something... worse." Brandon said somberly.

Emily shook her head again.

"Well good luck explaining any of that shit to Willow. You gotta do what you gotta do. Just don't die or I'm going to be seriously pissed." Emily said before walking away still disgruntled.

Brandon made his way to the house they had settled into knocked on the door. He wasn't sure why he knocked, seemed like he should be as polite as possible before the apologies he was probably going to have to make.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Annie did not like the plan, not even a little. She didn’t like that Brandon was putting himself in such danger, especially not in the state he was in. She didn’t like how much he would have to rely on everyone else, when everyone else wasn’t at their best. They’d have the help of some of Church’s people, but how much did they really care about Brandon’s wellbeing? Church, for his part, didn’t seem to care at all.

But it was like Hank had said – right now, there were no good options. She didn’t have to like the situation, but she had to accept it, as difficult as that was.

The group that had gathered around the clothesline with the drying meat was beginning to disperse. Brandon left to fill in Willow, Emily followed, Hank had his own family to talk to, and their new Native allies had arrangements to make.

While Travis was still around, however, Annie told her son to sit tight and made it a point to approach him. Something had been gnawing at her ever since Travis revealed he had come across that crashed plane weeks ago.

“Excuse me, Travis, right? I’m Annie,” she introduced herself. “Did Mr. Church say you were the first to find that military airplane that crashed outside of town?”
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Travis stood still and watched as Church excused himself, his eyes lingering on the man's back as he grew further and further away. He only snapped out of it when he was interrupted by one of the outsiders. She was asking about the crash.

"That's right, Annie." Travis nodded his head to the woman in a subtle greeting. "Technically everyone here heard it crash. it came down shortly after the wendigos appeared, but it quickly got swarmed by them. Made a hell of a commotion coming down, I tell you."

He tilted his head roughly in the direction of the plane.

"Took a few weeks for the wendigos to clear out enough for us to get a good look at what was inside."

* * * * *

A rough knocking at the door stirred Willow from her light slumber.

The last thing she remembered was coming into the bedroom to place some of her stuff and sitting on the bed. She was planning to go see how Brandon was doing and help him unpack, but then she must have laid down and conked out.

Her eyes snapped open, and she sluggishly picked herself up off the bed.

"Oh, Brandon." She groggily answered after opening the door to see him. "I'm sorry babe, I must have fallen asleep. How long was I out?"
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
“I see,” Annie said. “When we came across it, there was a message painted in big red letters near the cockpit. ‘HELP.’ Was that there when you first found it?"
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Make-7-Up-Yours
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Is that so?
Travis hummed.

"That didn't show up until a few days after the crash. We assumed that someone had survived the crash and was holed up in the upper layers the fuselage, but even if we had some way of confirming they were still alive, attempting to free them from that many wendigos was too dangerous. We weren't about to risk our limited resources on a risky rescue operation."

The hunter adjusted his winter coat. As he continued, his tone of voice remained neutral and difficult to read.

"It sounds harsh, but we value our own here. Our lives are worth more than someone else's. Especially when that someone else is surrounded by over a hundred flesh-eating monsters. When the horde of 'em finally moved on, we checked it out, but there was nothing alive in there. They either found a way out or joined the horde."
Edited by Make-7-Up-Yours, Jul 7 2018, 01:17 PM.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Travis’ answer made Annie sad. Of Travis’ two theories, the latter seemed much more likely – the survivor was probably dead now, and probably living dead more specifically. At least her curiosity had been sated. The mystery had been solved, at least sort of. Whoever wrote that message on the plane was long gone.

“I, um… I understand,” she said – and she did, basically, even if she would have pushed to help were the roles reversed. “I just hope he got away. Or she did, or they.”

Travis’ answer also made her worried, however. The part about ‘tribe lives being worth more than others,’ specifically. It wasn’t a terribly surprising sentiment, of course. Annie was sure many of the people in Flint felt similar, and they didn’t even have an already longstanding cultural reason to be suspicious and resentful of outsiders. It worried Annie, though, because they both had people missing. The idea was to rescue everybody, but what if they found Laurie first? Would that mean leaving Antonio and Brandon in the lurch?

Annie didn’t know what to do with her worry. She didn’t see anything productive coming from bringing it up. Right now, they were all in this together. She wanted them to stay that way.

“It seems like it’s too late to hope their weapons don’t end in the wrong hands,” she added. “Let’s just hope they don’t end up doing much damage.”
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Strompy
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More posts, more Busey.
"Not long. Minutes" Brandon said before walking inside.

He took a seat. Knowing he was about to go out there he hated just how much of a relief it was to sit down. He knew he was in no condition to be doing anything like this and a part of him desperately wanted to just stay put and rest. The plan was about as good as they could manage though. They needed Antonio back, they needed a win, more selfishly he needed Antonio back for the sake of his own soul, and he knew he couldn't be the one in charge again, he just wasn't constant like Antonio. No matter what the situstion Antonio never compromised his values, he always sought peace and Brandon was just too quick to violence. Brandon wanted peace but when the chips were down he lead with his fists.

"We were just talking about how to get our people back. We've got a plan. I'm going out there as bait since they seem to want to take people. Maybe they won't have any interest in somebody with one arm but we're staging a little roleplay to hopefully at least get their interest, then they might at least make a move on me to get some intel on our groups. The others are going to get into position while I make my way back to the hospital. When these other guys move on me, we're going to take them down or track them back to their camp depending on how it works out." he explained.
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DoctorYerishi
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
Hank tested the door to the orange house – the one Riley had claimed for her and the kids – and found it locked. He gave it a tentative rap with his fist.

“It’s me,” he announced.

After Brandon left to ’explain this to Willow’, Hank had left to do the same for his family. He wasn’t looking forward to the conversation, though he fortified himself with the knowledge that Brandon would be looking forward to his even less. If things went according to plan, Brandon was the one who would be marching defenseless into the grip of an unknown enemy. If he could do that, Hank could face his sister.

A moment later, that’s what he was doing – facing Riley, as she answered the door and moved aside to let him pass. He did and took a quick look around.

The home wasn’t much – Native American reservations weren’t known for their excellent housing – but it suited their needs for now. The main room was empty, so Hank assumed the kids were in the bedroom. He turned to Riley as she closed the door.

“We have a plan to find Antonio,” he jumped right into it. “We decided it’d be too dangerous and time consuming to go searching, so we’re going to try drawing out the people who took him.”

Riley crossed her arms. “How are you going to do that?”

“Brandon,” Hank said. “He offered himself up as bait.”

“Good.”

Hank frowned slightly at how fast she had responded. He considered offering up another half-hearted argument, as he had the last few times Brandon had come up between them, but Riley moved on before he could decide if it was worth it.

“So he’ll be alone, and the rest of you will be secretly monitoring him, waiting to see who shows up,” Riley surmised. “Who’ll be in charge?”

“We didn’t discuss it,” Hank said. “It’ll be a group effort.”

“But who will be giving the orders?”

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll figure it out together.”

“What if it comes down to Brandon or Antonio? Or the Indian woman that’s also missing? Who is the priority? Who do you save first?”

“I don’t...” Hank was at a loss. “How am I supposed to answer that?”

“I bet you know how Emily will answer it,” Riley said. “Or how Church’s people will. And I know you remember what Brandon chose, when it was Willow in danger.”

These last few days, it had always come back to that with her. To Andy.

Hank was frustrated, partly because Riley was pushing him, and partly because he thought she was at least a little bit right.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked.

“I think you know,” Riley answered. “We talked about this.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing out there,” he said.

“So what? Who does?” Riley challenged him. “You think Church and his people have lots of experience in… what, fishing for kidnappers? Or do you think Emily’s career giving speeding tickets translates? Nobody else will do it. You’re the only person out there I trust out there to make the right decisions when it matters.”

“Why is this so important to you?”

“Because everything I said about you being a leader is true.”

Hank gave her an exasperated sigh. “Honestly, Riley.”

Riley gave him an exasperated look right back. “Honestly? Right now, the fate of our family is in the hands of others, and that’s not acceptable to me. These people could drag us into danger for no good reason. They have before. Or they could cut us loose and leave us defenseless. You can’t tell me they haven’t considered it. We don’t matter to them. They don’t care about me, or Ruby, or CJ, and they barely care about you. We may need them for now, fine. For however long that lasts, I don’t want our family to be an afterthought.”

Riley finished speaking, and a short silence followed. Hank digested her words.

And because everything I said about you being a leader is true,” she added.

There was another short silence, until Hank nodded and turned away. He headed to the bedroom.

“I should go talk to the kids,” he said.
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