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| Dead Men Walking | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 28 2014, 02:20 AM (71,008 Views) | |
| DoctorYerishi | Apr 17 2015, 08:28 PM Post #1021 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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“I understand,” Annie said. Randall was complaining, but Annie had prompted him to. Until now, he’d been perfectly stoic. She wondered if anyone in Flint could handle losing a hand and the pain that went with it. Maybe Jimmy – but only because everything seemed to roll off his back, and he wouldn’t be honest about it even if he was in pain. “The bad news is you’ve got a large blister on the underside. I’m going to disinfect it, drain it, and then I’m going to apply some ointment – and some moisturizer and aloe vera to the rest of the burn,” she said, walking him through the plan. She had a towel nearby. She had brought it down for potential clean up afterwards, but it was clean now. She handed it to Randall. “I know you’ve had worse, but if the pain gets to be too much, feel free to bite down on that,” she instructed. She stood up and moved to retrieve a sewing needle from a nearby drawer. She hadn’t anticipated that she’d need that, so it wasn’t ready. When she found it, she decided to ask another question to keep him occupied. “So how’d the big meeting go?” |
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| Strompy | Apr 17 2015, 08:40 PM Post #1022 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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"Talk? How novel! Haven't done much of that. Sure." she said, a little taken aback more by the fact it hadn't occurred to her than anything. It didn't have to mean anything. So far they'd been fuck-buddies without so much of the buddy part. |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Apr 17 2015, 08:45 PM Post #1023 |
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Is that so?
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Randall braced himself for the pain. Between the painkillers and the constant throbbing, he had gotten used to the burning pain in his hand. His arm, rather. But now that it was exposed and about to be worked on, he was expecting it to come back full force. His heart was already starting to pound and he was mentally psyching himself up for what he knew was coming. But despite that, he found himself reflecting on Annie's question. "About as well as I could have hoped for. Guess I wasn't as mentally ready for something like that as I thought, lost my composure a couple of times. Eli needed to bail me out." Randall shook his head. "It was stupid too. Geraldine has been more than kind to us." A thought suddenly entered his head. Had he known about their history, he probably wouldn't have asked Annie right as she was preparing to take care of the blister. "Though that reminds me, one of her advisers seemed like a dick, for lack of a better word. His name was Ethan, if I reca- OOOH FUCK!" He couldn't see what she did, but it hurt. Even though she only had a needle, it felt like someone had stabbed him with a knife. Randall suppressed the urge to scream any further, stuffed the towel in his mouth as best he could with one hand and bit down on it. Hard. "Daddy, that's a bad word!" A shout came from the other room. I know, Kelsey! |
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| DoctorYerishi | Apr 18 2015, 01:42 AM Post #1024 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Annie gave him an apologetic smile, and the smile part was more about Kelsey. She liked seeing such a warm familial relationship. It proved that it was possible to be as hard as this world required, but still soft enough to retain your humanity. It was a tightrope she was intensely interested in. “That was probably…” She started to give some words of comfort, but then she saw something in the corner of her eye. She paused and looked, finding Connor standing by the door to the kitchen, looking shocked. She didn’t even hear the door open. Probably because Randall was screaming at the time. “Mom?” he asked, a strong hint of fear in his voice. “It’s okay honey,” she assured him quickly. “This is Randall, he just arrived in town. I’m helping him with an injury.” “I can… I can see that,” Connor said nervously. “Randall, this is my son Connor that I was telling you about,” Annie said, as she returned to work. She lightly dabbed a cloth on the blister, before moving on to the ointment. “Connor, this is Randall.” Connor was silent as he stared at the two of them with clear uncertainty – the mangled arm was probably unsettling him. “Say hi,” Annie prompted, giving her son a look. “Hi Randall,” he said, slowly raising his hand in a short wave. “Randall has a daughter, Kelsey, she’s a little younger than you,” Annie explained. “She’s playing games in the living room.” “My games?” Annie gave him another sidelong look. “Yes, sweetie, your games. I was hoping you could keep her company.” It took a second for Connor to slowly nod, and another second for him to drag his eyes away from Randall and his arm. Finally, he headed into the living room. Annie was finally finished with the blister, and was able to move on to moisturizing the rest of the wound as well. As she did, she glanced up at Randall, flashing him another quick apologetic smile. “So you met Ethan,” she said. Her smile levelled out, and her tone of voice betrayed the fact that she wasn’t a fan. * * * As Connor entered the living room, he blinked, trying to get the image of that man’s stump out of his head. Something bad had happened to him. He wasn’t sure how or why, but the thought disturbed him. He didn’t like to think about bad things. He shrugged off his school backpack, heavy with the weight of a new book Millie had given all the kids to read a chapter of. That’s when he saw what must have been Kelsey, sitting on the couch with one of his games in her hand. He knitted his eyebrows – a few years ago, someone told him he looked just like his mom when he did that. “You’re just a kid,” he said with a frown. * * * Jeff gave her a genuine smile – he was stoked to see even an incremental improvement in her condition. “Solid,” he answered her question. “Turns out we can stay at the Four Season Flint long as it takes for you to get back on your feet. All we gotta do is help with the chores. I mean, you don’t, obviously, but the rest of us get day jobs. Me, I think I got a promising future in administration, just as soon as I figure out what that's supposed to be." * * * Eli looked Julie up and down, once again trying to gauge her mood and the appropriateness of this topic. Again, he figured there never would be an appropriate time. If he wanted to know, he’d just have to come right out and ask. “Okay…” he started, raising both hands in what he hoped was an assuring motion. “No pressure at all if you don’t wanna get into it, but I been wondering – what happened to Kevin?” |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Apr 18 2015, 02:19 AM Post #1025 |
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Is that so?
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Randall was barely able to give Connor more than a raise of the hand as a greeting before he was gone. Which, frankly, was more than enough. Randall didn't have much more he could give at this point. "Heeeeeeeeeeee." A sharp breath made its way out from Randall's lips. That was probably the most painful thing he had felt with that arm since it was removed. He had braced himself for something similar to when he bashed his arm into the ground before. But that... that exceeded what he had been prepared for. What he could have ever prepared for. And that with the pain meds in his system. It wasn't until that very moment that he truly understood why burn victims had to be so careful. "Yeah, unfortunately... I met him, too." He finally answered Annie's question after taking a small breather. He wanted to ask why he had gotten so weird when Annie was brought up, but Randall decided against asking about that. He didn't want to pry into her personal life too much. It felt rude after everything she had done for them. And was still doing. "He didn't talk much, but when he did it felt more like he was criticizing us than anything. Am I wrong about that, or...?" ********** Kelsey looked from the game she was playing and met Connor's gaze. She didn't really know what to make of the frown on his face. He was a little older than she was, she had spent so much time around adults that Connor calling her a kid seemed a little hypocritical. "Well, aren't you also a kid?" She asked innocently. ********** Glenda pulled up a seat beside Willow and sat down. She clasped Willow's hand with her own; something that everyone had been doing recently. "Take as long as you need to recover. We aren't too far away, but with our track record, getting to Chicago won't be easy. Even though you're the one in here, we all could use the rest." Glenda assured Willow in a manner that was uncharacteristic of her; she didn't tease her even a little bit. She must have been legitimately worried. Willow gave her a thankful smile, but quickly tilted her head back to Jeff; "I don't plan on being down too long. If I take too long, who's gonna save Jeff from all the big bad paperwork in administration? I'd be doing him a favor." It still hurt a little to talk. But it was hurting less. |
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| Strompy | Apr 18 2015, 02:30 AM Post #1026 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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Julie was silent for a moment as she marveled at the question for a moment. It was not a typical conversational subject. She exhaled deeply as she thought about it. "Wow, ah, you meant talk talk." she commented, pondering whether she was okay talking about it. She didn't even like to think about it. Poor Kevin. The loss was still pretty painful, even if she her feelings about him were... complicated, he was still so important to him. He was so good, what happened was outrageously undeserved. Julie balled her fists just thinking about it, she still had so much anger and grief over it. Maybe she should let somebody know, though she didn't want to bring anybody down with her own problems. Eli was a friend though, and he was asking, so she let herself talk. "We were heading north, staying away from most population centres and definately staying clear of New York City. It was pretty rough, but Kevin was an outdoors kind of person so we got by in those early weeks." she began. Kevin kept them warm, kept them fed. He did practically everything. Julie suspected he loved it in a way, providing for and showing off to her. She knew he loved her, which just made her feel all the more ashamed. Without him, she'd have died. there was no doubt in her mind that she owed everything to him. "One night we found another traveller. middle aged guy, normal looking, personable. Said he came from NYC. He told us it was... said it was fucked up to all hell. People going crazy, looting, rioting. Said there were murders and rape and all kinds of awful shit happening. We shared our fire with him, gave him some food. As the night went on we kept talking, he started getting kind of weird. Asking some really innappropriate questions. Getting all dark around the eyes as he kept talking about how fucked everything was, started talking about how it was all coming to an end and there was no reason to live like tomorrow was going to come. Said God had abandoned us to hell and nothing we did mattered." she continued shifting uncomfortably in place. She didn't say anythig for a while as she mentally prepared herself to speak the words. Somehow saying them was just so difficult. Eli didn't prompt her to continue but waited patiently. She really appreciated that, she wanted to keep going, but it was hard still. "Kevin told the guy that he needed to be quiet or find somewhere else to camp. The guy kept talking and Kevin told him to leave. The guy didn't moved but just kept babbling on about hell. kevin went to force him away, and the guy pulled a knife, and stabbed him in the neck." she said, wrapping that part up as succinctly as possible. She didn't need to tell Eli about the look in Kevin's eyes, or the noises he made, or how he just kept bleeding and bleeding... |
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| DoctorYerishi | Apr 18 2015, 03:00 AM Post #1027 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Eli took in the story patiently, and tried to look sympathetic. The events recounted were about as horrible as he had good reason to expect. Now, though, he wasn’t sure now why he had to ask. Curiosity probably wasn’t a good enough reason. He just hoped that the telling would be cathartic in some way, and he hadn’t dredged up these painful memories for nothing. For him, letting Randall know about Evan and the truth about what happened with that soldier had been a weight off his shoulders. Maybe this was the same for her. He didn’t know what else to do. Hesitantly, he put one of his hands over hers. Hopefully that was comforting. “I’m sorry,” he said. It was such an obvious reply, but maybe the only appropriate one. “And did you…?” * * * Jeff smiled back at her, another wide and genuine one. “Hey, please take your time with that favour. I know I’m embarrassing in a room full of badasses, but I’ll admit paperwork’s just a little less scary to me than rotters or neo-nazi murderers.” * * * “My mom said you were almost my age,” Connor said. “You’re not. You’re, like, 8-years-old.” He glanced at the TV, where his game was projected. “You kind of suck at this game, you know? You should have, like, 50 more coins than that.” * * * “You’re not wrong,” Annie said pretty quickly. She finished applying the aloe vera – the process felt at least a little intimate, but she pushed through it professionally and without awkwardness. Finally, she moved to the gauze, ready to re-apply his bandage. “Ethan’s the kind of guy who thinks he knows best and that he’s right about everything,” she said. “He helped get this place up and running so quickly, which is good, but it didn’t do a lot for his humility. I’d imagine seeing a crew like yours is a little threatening to him. You fought and survived in the wilderness, and even saved some of our people, after all. He probably felt like he had to assert his authority right away.” She looked up at Randall as she started wrapping the gauze around his forearm. “I’m definitely not trying to make excuses for him, by the way.” She stressed that ‘definitely’ part. |
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| Strompy | Apr 18 2015, 03:32 AM Post #1028 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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"Kill him? Yeah. After he stabbed Kevin he came at me. Hit me in the face." she said, poiting to the faint bruise on her cheek. "I went down hard and he was on top of me. I fought back so he started to choke me. I blacked out for a moment and when I came to a few seconds later he was pulling down my pants. I grabbed a rock and smashed him in the head. That dazed him. So I hit him again. And then a few more times. The I got his knife and made sure he wasn't getting back up. All that fucked up stuff he said people were doing, I think he was part of it." she confessed, a sense of pride in her voice as she talked about how she'd killed him. "I ended up running off when Kevin turned. That's how I found out that it wasn't just bites that turned people into deadites. I think Kevin would have started eating that guy. I like to think that bastard met a really horrific fate. He deserves to die again. I want to kill him again. I want to keep killing him forever. That fucking piece of shit!" Julie began shouting agrily. Her anger shifted to despair as it had no way to be useful. She was still so angry and she couldn't do anything with it, she had nowhere to put it. In what was turning out to be a very emotional morning for her she completely broke down into tears. "Kevin saved my life. He was a good person and he loved me. Really loved me. He deserved so much better than that and he deserved so much better than me! I didn't love him back! Not the way he loved me." she sobbed uncontrollably as she confessed her personal shame in all of it. |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Apr 18 2015, 03:40 AM Post #1029 |
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Is that so?
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This boy was... kind of annoying. He didn't even say hi or anything, he just walked in here and started insulting her. She was just a kid, or not good at this game. Did he ever say anything nice? After surviving people much worse than this, Kelsey was a little surprised that he was starting to grate her the wrong way. "I'm 10." Kelsey told him with a stressed sigh. "And I'm rusty, okay? This is the first time I've seen a working TV in over a month." * * * * * After that initial stab of pain from taking care of the blister, the aloe vera and bandaging process that followed seemed like a soothing burn by comparison. It was uncomfortable, but he was able to tolerate it with no more unexpected outbursts. "As long as everyone else has problems with him too, I won't feel so bad." Randall conceded to her. "But really..." He trailed off as Annie finished applying the bandage to his arm. He took a moment to look over clean bandages that were now wrapped around his arm. It looked a lot nicer than it had before, that was for sure. Felt better too. "Seriously, doctor... thanks." He finally told her. "We didn't have any sort of doctor out there. Only Maxwell, and he is a Biology professor. He could stop the bleeding, but preventative stuff like this is outside of his limitations. I guess his Biology PhD didn't go over stuff like that... still, I guess this is twice I owe you now." * * * * * Before she could respond, Willow doubled over to cough. The action itself caused another round of pain to shoot through her chest. While she covered her mouth with one hand, her other clutched at her chest in a futile effort to dull the stabbing pain. She secretly hoped that it was the chest tube causing the pain more than the fact that her lung had been cut apart. She felt Glenda put a hand on her shoulder and another on her back. She was comforting her. A notion that she did appreciate. Thankfully the coughing attack didn't last long, and she was able to lean back against her pillows on her own. "I'll get you some water." Glenda told her. "I don't feel like a badass right now." She smiled wryly at Jeff as Glenda took the empty cup off the side table and left to find a faucet. "But we both hang out with Glenda... that makes us honorary badasses by association, right?" |
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| DoctorYerishi | Apr 18 2015, 04:37 AM Post #1030 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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“Don’t worry about it,” Annie said. “It’s my job, even now. Especially now.” She leaned back in her chair, happy to be finished. It gave her time to consider what Randall just said. “Maxwell – which one is he? The one with the glasses?” She crossed her legs and adopted a thoughtful expression. “Your friend Eli mentioned something like that too. Do you know what field of biology Maxwell specialised in?” * * * Connor shrugged at Kelsey’s response. “That game kind of sucks, anyway,” he said. “Let’s play Mortal Kombat.” Without waiting for a response, he moved to the system, shutting it off and ejecting the game. He efficiently went about replacing it and plugging in a second controller. “You can have this one,” he said, holding the second controller out behind him. “I get player one.” * * * “It’s… okay,” Eli said. Again, it was the most cliché thing he could come up with. But he hoped it was cliché for a reason. He edged closer to Julie on the seat and he put his arm around her, drawing her in. The same thought process applied. It was the obvious, most instinctual move – hopefully because it was the right one. * * * “Sure,” Jeff said, leaning back against the wall. “From your lips to… you know, whoever or whatever’s up there. To his ears.” |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Apr 18 2015, 05:24 AM Post #1031 |
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Is that so?
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Randall blinked in surprise. He was taken aback by the question. "I... I don't know, actually. He never actually specified, he just always said he got his PhD in Biology and English." He had never actually attended college, so his knowledge on the workings of higher education was admittedly quite poor. Speaking to a doctor like Annie, who had no doubt gone through YEARS of medical school, he felt a little out of his league in terms of intelligence and knowledge. "I guess it is possible he just didn't specialize in anything." He suggested, unsure if that was even a thing. And if it wasn't, it should be. * * * * * Kelsey rolled her eyes but played along with Connor's antics. She was getting annoyed at how self-entitled he was acting, but his mom was helping out her dad. She had to at least try to play nice. That is what dad would want her to do anyway. Mom would want her to punch him in the face; but that was mom's solution to everything and mom wasn't here anymore. Dad was. "Fine." She accepted the second controller and prepared herself to test her might in Mortal Kombat. * * * * * "I wouldn't know. I was raised agnostic." Willow rubbed her eyes with her fingers. She was beginning to feel a little woozy. Candice had warned her before she left to grab lunch that it may happen at some point. Between the blood loss and the painkillers, if she felt the need to take a nap, she should do the best that she could; preferably while sitting up if possible. And if there was one thing she had gotten good at the past few days, it was power napping in a car. A hospital bed was already step up from a car. "Here." Glenda handed Willow a glass of water, which she gratefully accepted. The cool liquid soothed her still aching throat and helped relax her a little bit. "It was good to see you guys. I'm really sorry I scared all of you." Willow gave Glenda and Jeff a smile as she placed the empty cup on the nightstand. "But I think I'm gonna get some rest." Willow suppressed a yawn. She turned her head to the side, took a long look at Brandon still sleeping nearby, and then closed her eyes and tried to let sleep take over. |
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| Strompy | Apr 18 2015, 08:25 AM Post #1032 |
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More posts, more Busey.
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"Ohhhh..." Julie sighed as she regained control. "I'm sorry if I'm freaking you out. Kind of freaking myself out honestly. I didn't think talking about it would set me off like that. I haven't told anybody about this stuff until now. Everything has just been so fucked up lately. I'm all emotionally backed up. I owe everything to Kevin and I just really wish he was here." Julie said sadly, but calmly, and gratefully leaning on Eli. She wiped the tears away from her face and rubbed her eyes. "Heh, glad you asked?" she asked ruefully. |
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| DoctorYerishi | Apr 18 2015, 02:45 PM Post #1033 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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“You’re not freaking me out,” Eli said, hugging her. “I know there’s not a lot of time these days to grieve but… you can talk to me. It’s okay.” As the hug continued, he stared past her, and his mind clicked into gear. Thoughts started tumbling out without his permission. “Only if you feel better,” he added, in answer to her question. Eli thought back to their first meeting – when he called her a crazy puta and told her to put her gun down. She had just come off this traumatic experience and had spent the interim hiding out in an attic. He regretted his attitude, and was retroactively impressed with how well she kept it together. He was also impressed that she had experienced that, but had trusted this group anyway, and had even put herself on the line for them. The show for it, she had been kidnapped and gotten her wrist busted up. All the while, she remained upbeat, and done what she could to keep the group upbeat as well. The truth was, Eli hadn’t thought about Julie much – hadn’t let himself. It was easier that way. Now that he was, though, he couldn’t stop. And the more he thought about it, the more impressed he was. Uh oh. A feeling hit him that he couldn’t instantly identify, and the thought that maybe he was more than just impressed froze him in place. She was still a lot younger than him, he reminded himself. And confession aside, he still barely knew her, and she knew him less. And their rendezvous – both of them – didn’t mean anything more now than they meant when they happened. Maybe I am sorry I asked, he realized. * * * James “Jimmy” Weston – and people better call him Jimmy, because he hated the name James – rolled up to the west gate with a smile on his face. He pressed his elbow down on the horn to signal his arrival, letting it bleat out for five full seconds before leaning away. He chuckled a little, indifferent to the annoyed scowl he was getting from his passenger. “Don’t you think that’s gonna make every deadhead in 10 miles come running?” That passenger – Travis, a guy with a bandana and a patchy beard he sucked at growing – asked. “Come walking,” Jimmy corrected Travis, then turned his smile at him. “And you know what – I sure do. I also know we don’t want our guards getting rusty. Plus, the ones we don’t kill here we have to kill out there. So I say…” He pressed his elbow down on the horn again, and then rested his cheek on his palm as he kept looking at Travis. “…bring ‘em on.” Travis looked away, shaking his head slightly. “Dick,” he muttered. Jimmy let the horn go. “Oh Travis, you wound me,” he said with mocked melodrama. “And just when I thought we were finally becoming friends.” Travis kept staring forward as he raised his middle finger. Jimmy’s smile widened in response, but he let up verbally for now. He looked straight ahead himself – just as the gates finally opened. “Honey, I’m home,” Jimmy declared to the guards behind it, then started inching his truck forward. He drove a recent-model Ram Truck, pimped out for his purpose especially. The chassis was reinforced and the bumper was fitted out with what was essentially a deadhead battering ram – thick metal bars that shrugged the miserable shambling creatures away with ease. The truck also featured tinted windows that could make the things forget people were inside. Chrome rims, too, but mostly just because they looked cool. Jimmy had gotten some of the handiest people on the construction crew to do the modifications for him, in exchange for a few specialty items he had gone out of his way to procure them on his runs. He liked to think of himself as the guy in prison that could bring in contraband from the outside. Since there weren’t a lot of alternatives, there wasn’t much he couldn’t ask for in return. It’d be different if he wasn’t the best – that much, he knew. But he was the best. No one could find things like he could, and all of his partners had come home safe. As long as those facts remained true, he was always going to be pretty much untouchable. He could annoy Travis with the car horn as much as he wanted, and Travis would still volunteer to work with him. And as long as he was carrying the kind of haul he had now, Flint would always let him in. * * * Jeff kept leaning back against the wall of the exam room, even as Willow drifted off to sleep in short order, and then as a car horn started blaring in the distance. His gaze drifted to Glenda, though, who seemed a little more antsy. “You know, I’m gonna stick around a little while longer,” Jeff offered, in case the thought of having no one to watch over Willow what was what was holding Glenda back. * * * Annie lightly grabbed Randall’s arm at the sound of the horn – which distracted them from their conversation, and seemed to set Randall on edge. She understood why. The sudden loud noise was startling and potentially worrisome. She would have felt the same way if she didn’t recognise the sound. “Don’t worry,” she said. “That’s just Jimmy, he’s one of our runners. He… does that sometimes.” Her annoyance was obvious from her tone, and from the roll of her eyes. Jimmy was a little like Ethan in that he liked to flaunt his position and push boundaries. Admittedly, though, that plus ‘male adult’ was where the similarities ended, and they both would hate being compared. Now that she was finished with the check-up, though, she wanted to get back to the other reason she brought Randall here. “There’s something I’d like to show you upstairs,” she said. “Do you mind?” * * * Eli broke the embrace after a solid few minutes. The horns outside had set him on edge. He couldn’t help but suspect that maybe they were a warning of some kind. Was something coming? Rotters, maybe? Or worse – people? “I’ll go check it out,” he said, standing out. He tried to play it off like he was being protective. Really, though, he was already looking for an excuse to excise himself from the room. He felt shitty about it, but there it was. He needed to get out of there to clear his head. His Supergrade was still on the nightstand of the room he and Julie shared last night, in the other house. He resolved to retrieve it quickly, then investigate the gate. |
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| Make-7-Up-Yours | Apr 18 2015, 03:13 PM Post #1034 |
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Is that so?
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Who the hell blares a car horn? Willow is trying to sleep! Glenda was not quite sure what she was more upset at; the fact someone would be honking their horn so reckless and draw in the rotters, or the fact that it could wake up Willow. Although somehow she still seemed to be out. Or if she wasn't, she made no indication otherwise. But maybe it wasn't someone from the community. The thought dawned on her that they could actually be looking at a threat. It sounded like the horn of a big truck, which was what the guys at the border had been using. They couldn't have? No, they couldn't have found this place. "Thanks, Jeff." Glenda gave the young man a smile and an appreciative nod. "If things don't feel right, wake up Brandon." Maybe she was worrying too much. But it was better to be safe than sorry. That was something life out there had taught her more than anything. As she headed for the front door of the clinic, she double checked to make sure her Taurus was still tucked in the waist of her jeans. It was. * * * * * The horn had caught Randall off guard and his body jolted to alertness fairly quickly; something that Annie had been quick to notice. It was hard not to be a little skittish around that sound. Out there, the sound of a horn was the sound of someone usually trying to kill you. Survival instincts like that were hard to shed after less than a day of safety. And while he was relieved to hear that it was someone from the community, that also meant the community was perhaps not as unified as Geraldine had tried to convince them it was - Ethan and Jimmy, huh? "Yeah, sure." Randall turned his attention back to Annie once again. He didn't know why, but he found himself filled with a sense of foreboding. * * * * * In one of the more wooded and isolated areas of the makeshift fort, near the eastern wall, Maxwell heard the obnoxious honking of the truck's horn as he scribbled a few extra notes in his notebook. He paused for a just a moment to glance in the direction the sound had come from. "Children these days..." He tilted his head towards the skies. Or at least as much of the skies as he could see over this wall and through the trees. He frowned. Still clear. |
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| DoctorYerishi | Apr 18 2015, 03:39 PM Post #1035 |
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Dude, wake up! We've got a world to save.
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Jeff nodded at Glenda as she left to investigate, then his eyes shifted to Brandon. He would have thought the horn probably would have caused him to stir anyway. “Hey blondie,” Jeff said, testing the waters. “You awake?” * * * Annie gave him a small smile. “Follow me,” she said. She stood up and went to the sink first, quickly rinsing off her hands. Then she poked her head into the other room, finding the two children staring at the television screen with video game controllers in their hands. Onscreen, two grim looking avatars wailed at each other and sprayed blood. Once upon a time, Annie might have objected to that kind of violent content. These days, it seemed the least of her worries. “You two alright in here?” she asked. “We’re fine,” Connor said without looking back. He concentrated on mashing the buttons. * * * When the truck was inside, Jimmy put it in park and opened the door. It was a bit of a drop down to the pavement, but he landed gracefully. It was someone else’s job to park and unload the supplies now. He had done his part in getting them here. In the distance, his well-trained ear picked up some distinctly deadhead-style groans – which was to be expected, given his actions. He had sounded sarcastic when he said it, but he truly did believe they were better off mowing them down here than navigating them on the road. By they he meant someone not him, though. He was done for the day. As the usual delegation arrived at the gates to greet and probably berate him, he turned around and retrieved some items from under the front seat of his truck. He also slid out his spear, which he always kept behind the seats as he drove. It was homemade – the pole was from a hoe, and the blade was a well-maintained cold steel knife screwed in and further secured by duct tape. The strap was homemade too. Millie had designed it for him in return for a box of dark chocolate. Currently, the knife was wearing a leather holster to prevent any accidents. “Gooooooooood morning,” he drawled cheerfully, recognizing Geraldine and Ethan among his greeters. |
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7:30 PM Jul 10