The Walking Dead: Pack Mentality [IC]

(OOC Thread: http://roleplayerguild.com/showthrea...ity-OOC-Thread)

The rattle of the elderly engine, which had been buzzing constantly since they starting driving down the country roads, came to an abrupt stop, almost making Quinn jolt from her seat. The school bus, surrounded on all sides by dense woodland and the ramshakle road that stretched ahead, had stopped, dead. An eye brow raising into a curious expression, Quinn reached for her backpack and arose from her seat at the back of the bus, sliding down the middle of the seats that stretched along the inside of the bus, all mostly empty. The sun was barely breaking from beyond the hills in the distance, the night almost lifted; it couldn't have been any later then six in the morning, and most of the people in the bus were sound asleep. Upon reaching the front, she placed on hand on the head of the drivers seat, leaning forward and staring down the road ahead.

"Why did we stop?" She asked bluntly, her hands tensed and her eyes fixated straight ahead.

Carlisle, or Lyle as he liked to be called, sat in the drivers seat, his eyes also aimed straight ahead. "There's a town right ahead. We passed a few signs, I was hoping we could pass by it, but there hasn't been any side roads. Unless we drive straight through the woodland, our only choice is to drive through."

Quinn looked towards him now, her eyes squinting together. "Well? What's the problem?" She asked, confused.

"The signs back there said the town has a population of two hundred... two hundred. What if they're..." Lyle's sentence broke off, ending abruptly. He raised a very good point; so far, the group had avoided all towns and cities, scavenging what they can from gas stations and abandoned vehicles. For the past couple days, they had simply drove in what felt like circles, avoiding everything they could. They all knew that they couldn't do this forever, but that didn't stop them doing it anyway.

"What do you think we should do?" Quinn asked Lyle, looking back to the road. She could see the faint outline of the town in the distance; it couldn't be more then a few miles down the road, if that.

"Well, unless we turn around, which we don't have the fuel to do, we have to drive through." Lyle added, his tone troubled.

Two hundred possible Walkers? Quinn knew that it was unlikely; the people who lived in this small town would have fled, like everyone fled their homes. But still, where was there to go around here? How many would have stayed, and possibly turned, and still be in that town? Quinn didn't really want to know.

"Hey, what's the hold up?" Bob, or 'baldspot', had awoken from his sleep, and was now moving up towards the front of the bus with Quinn and Lyle. "Why have we stopped?"

"Town ahead, possible Walkers." Lyle filled him in, to which Bob gave a nod.

"So lets go around?" He asked, but seemingly answered his own question. "But I'm guessing that isn't an option."

Quinn moved from the front, raising her tone so that the few others in the bus, who had either been asleep, or caught in their own world, could hear. "Nora, John. Come in."

Nora, who had until now been sat in the middle of the bus, her head facing out the window, but her mind seemingly off somewhere entirely different, turned to face Quinn. She gave a curious, yet honest welcome smile, which Quinn had grew to admire in her; out of all of them, she was the most optimistic, and often lifted the spirits of the small group. As for John, Quinn wasn't quite sure what to make of him; while it was incredibly useful to have a medical professional aboard the bus, he seemed to choose to watch and observe, rather then talk. It didn't bother her, though; everyone coped in their own way. What did bother her was the racism, but he seemed to keep that to himself alot of the time. The two of them faced Quinn, Bob and Lyle, as they grouped together.

"Yeah?" John asked, his eyebrows cocked upwards, eyeing the rest of the group. Nora remained silent for the moment, cheerfully listening.

"We have a problem. There's a town ahead, and we need to drive through it," Quinn informed them, her hands resting on her hips.

"We don't know what's in the town, though. Could be Walkers, could be other survivors, who knows." Bob finished off her sentence, as he took a seat, slouched over.

"What do we do?" Nora asked, her thin frame barely noticeable behind the rows of chairs around them. Her voice was soft, and delicate, with a hint of concern.

"I'm not sure. We need to check out the town, scout it out before we move. Maybe there's some supplies we can scavenge? Food's wearing a little thin." Bob replied, rubbing his lower jaw.

"Thats even if the bus gets that far, the engine's been rattling like hell since I took the wheel last night." Lyle told Bob, who raised his head.

Bob stood, stretching his back. "Let me take a look."


While Bob and Lyle popped the hood of the bus, examining the engine, Quinn stood atop the bus, his backpack resting at her feet. The sun was rising quickly, the light almost reaching the bus. Behind them, the long stretch of road, remained mostly empty, other than the tire marks from their bulking bus that seemed too heavy for these roads. She didn't like staying here for too long, they had to move.

"Hey, Lyle! I found the problem!" Bob called out, as Quinn walked to the front of the bus, standing over them. "We'll need a new fan-belt, this ones barely holding on. I can fix it, but I need the part."

"You think there's one in the town?" Lyle asked, waving his hand in front of his face to move the smoke from the engine.

"Yeah, maybe."

Quinn, looking forward to the town, added in to their conversation. "Bob, Quinn, why don't you two go ahead and scout out the town. I'll wait here and watch the bus. See what's down their, and get your fan-belt? Could help us get out of here a damn bit quicker?" Quinn suggested. She would offer to go with them, but she didn't like the idea of leaving the bus unprotected, nor did she like the idea of leaving Nora with John.

(OOC: Hope everyone was okay with how I had their characters act. I've suggested Bob and Lyle go scout out the town, because of their scavenging role in the CS, but feel free to turn it down if you have other ideas.)

Nora sighed as she looked out the window once more. It wasn't that she was afraid of going back out there, it was because she didn't want to end up staying out there. "This is so unreal..." She stammered out silently as she continued to gaze out of the window. She reach into her bag, and pulled out a textbook, labeled as Physics. She began to study it, and took notes of things that she felt may be important to the group further ahead in the future. "Maybe it's good to know that everything falls to Earth at a speed of 9.8 meters per second? Could create some crafty traps that involve gravity."

Lyle walked on to the bus and looked at Nora and shot her a smile. He then walked behind the driver seat and grabbed his back pack that held his basics. A bottle of water, His ciggerettes and a lighter, His metal pipe that mad a good bat and a better spear, His bag also contained a bottle of whiskey. He then pulled the bag up on his back and walked off the bus and looked around. He saw bob and he walked up behind him and patted his back. " Lets get this over and done with!"

Ivan sat in the remains of a house at the edge of town,boarded up the door and first floor windows.he had set up camp in the house for the night when a group of walkers caught wind of him and started after him,it was only a few hours ago that the moaning and scraping of hands on wood had stopped"Find some one else to eat you Pizdas"he had thought when they left.a wile ago he had heard the noise of an engine running and looked out the second floor window,to see a buss come to a stop,and then a few people step out"Real people?I thought i was the last"he commented while securing his gas mask to his face,planing on joining them if they came through town

Nora looked up as he entered the bus, and smiled back. She looked back down at the book, and continued to thumb through the pages, a somewhat happy look on her face. She would basically be the group's cheerleader, even though she herself was an emotional wreck.

Ivan had an idea as to how he could get there attention.he picked up a shard of broken glass off the ground and started using the glare from the morning sun off the shard to signal at them in morse code,using his hand over the shard to make breaks in the flashes and hoping someone at least saw the flashes and at most got the message.he signaled 'Help,stop.stuck in house,stop.zed at door,stop'he added that last one when he heard the beating at the door start agian

As Lyle and Bob prepared for their walk to the town, which would hopefully lead to them finding a few useful supplies and making sure that it was safe to travel through, Quinn finished surveying her surroundings from the top of the bus; no movement, in any direction. Relatively certain that the bus was safe from Walkers at the moment, she climbed down the ladder they had attatched to the side, dropping to the ground with a thud as her boots hit the ground. A gentle, chilly breeze blew through the road, making her shiver slightly; the sun wasn't doing much in the way of heat, today.

"Try not to be too long, Bob," Quinn called over to them, just as they had began their walk towards the town further down the road. "I don't like waiting here like this." Sher finished, to which he gave a distant nod of approval.

Satisfied that they would't be here for too long, Quinn turned to the bus, seeing Nora sat, looking through some books. She gave a look to John, who was wandering the outside of the bus, and told him to keep his eye open for Walkers. With that, she walked onto the bus, her boots clanging on the metal with each step.

"Hey, Nora," Quinn greeted, forcing a friendly smile and taking a seat near her on the bus. "How're you doing?"

"It's just so..." Her mind began to wander, looking back towards the window, before snapping back to Quinn. "Did you know objects fall to Earth at 9.8 meters per second?" She chirped, her Physics text-book firmly in her grip.

"I didn't, that's good to know." Quinn replied, a hint of laughter in her voice. She was amazed at just how well Nora had handled everything; better than Quinn had. "We shouldn't be here too long, I don't think. Bob and Lyle are gonna go check out the town, but they shouldn't be too long. Why don't we go for a walk, get some fresh air? You've been cooped up in this bus for hours." Quinn suggested. Nora looked slightly hesitant, but she agreed. The two stepped out of the bus, seeing Lyle and Bob now a decent distance from the bus. John stood vacantly, half leaning on the side of the yellow vehicle that they had all lived in for days now.

"Ladies." He smirked, nodding towards them, lifting from his leaned posture. "Going for a walk? I think I'll join you, can't have you wandering off alone in such a dangerous place now, can we?" Quinn couldn't tell if it was sarcasm, genuin concern, or bullshit. She assumed a mixture of all three.

"I think we'll be fine." Quinn replied harshly, to which John's expression turned to a scowl, and he returned to his lean. Quinn and Nora began to walk along the side of the road next to the bus, the tree line into the woodland only a few meters from them. "You be careful around him, Nora. I don't know what he's after, but it's something." Quinn warned, as the sunlight reached the touch, bringing a gentle warmth with it.

The two walked slowly, with Quinn keeping her wits about her the entire time; you can never be too careful.

She looked back at John, and smiled somewhat hesitantly. "What do you mean he's after something? I think he's just concerned." Nora wasn't the one to trust people, but she didn't feel like she couldn't trust John, since he hadn't done anything to break whatever trust she has already gave him. ""We gotta trust the people we've traveled with, don't we?

"We gotta trust the people we've travelled with, don't we?" Asked Nora, as the two walked. Quinn couldn't put her finger on what is was about John, but he wasn't someone she would of affiliated with before all of this. He had made a few racist comments towards Quinn in the short few days since they had been travelling together, and he always seemed to be standing around, listening and thinking; it was unnerving. But still, he was the only doctor they had.

"Yeah, we do," Quinn replied, "But there's something about him, I just can't put my finger on it."

The two came full circle around the bus, with still no sound or sign of any Walkers. It didn't much matter to Quinn either way; they had the bus, which she was sure would still get a few miles before its current fan-belt failed. Any sign of trouble, and they could all just jump in and be gone easily; she liked knowing her escape routes, no matter what the situation was. They breifly passed the open engine of the bus, which as far as Quinn was concerned, could have been either broken beyond repair or perfectly fine; she had absolutely no mechanical knowledge whatsoever. She thought that maybe Bob could give her some tips sometime, but they didn't have time for that right now.

She eventually found herself sitting at the side of the bus, the pavement hardly as comfortable as the rough seats inside the bus. Still, she had no intention of spending more time inside that bus then she needed to; they had spent more then enough time in their, and she was just glad of the fresh air, whilst they waited for Lyle and Bob to return.

Nora stood beside her, then went back inside the bus. She sat back down beside her bag, and hugged it tightly. "I just wanna go home..." She sighed out as she looked out of the window. "Then again, I don't have a home now, due to this..." She enjoyed the company she brought herself, and was fully set on being alone the rest of her life. She was with a group of adults for crying out loud. Her values are too strict to set herself into a relationship with someone twenty or older at only sixteen.